Minerva Teichert was born on August 28, 1888 in Ogden, Utah Territory. She was the second of ten children born to Frederick John Kohlhepp, a railroad worker and rancher, and Mary Ella Hickman, a suffragette and pamphleteer. Teichert grew up on a ranch in Idaho, taking advantage of her upbringing by sketching horses and ranch life from a young age. Her mother gave her her first set of watercolors when she was just four years old. For entertainment, she acted out plays and helped her father work on the farm. She enjoyed riding her horse, exploring and sketching scenes from nature. Both of her parents supported her creativity and imagination. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Minerva Wade Hickman, who was one of the wives of frontier lawman and express rider "Wild Bill" Hickman, and also a descendant of Colonial Governor Thomas Roberts of New Hampshire.