Minnie
(Enos) Kuhns
(1876-1932)
Minnie
Ann (Enos) Kuhns
was born on Oct. 22, 1876 near Normalville, Fayette County,
PA, the daughter of
Perry and
Joanna (Minerd) Enos.
Minnie was active at the Poplar Run Church near Normalville, and in May 1892, at age 16, was elected librarian of its Sunday School.
On Feb. 11, 1896, at age 19, Minnie married a distant cousin, 23-year-old Jacob Y. Kuhns (1872-1963) of Indian Head, Saltlick Township. He was born on Oct. 18, 1872 in Saltlick Twp., Fayette County, the son of Jacob and Susanna (Younkin) Kuhns, and the grandson of Jacob J. "Darky Jake" and Dorcas (Hartzell) Younkin. The image seen here is thought, but not proven, to be of Minnie and Jake.
They resided in Indian Head, and had two sons, Donald Kuhns and Charles Kuhns.
The Connellsville Daily Courier once said Jacob was “a lifelong resident of [Saltlick] township. He had been a blacksmith, timberman and farmer, and at one time had been employed by the Indian Creek Coal and Coke Co.” The Courier also said that the Indian Head Church of God had been “built on his home farm.”
|
|
|
A rare postcard view of Indian Head |
In
1895, Jacob and W.B. Kuhns and Clark S. Miller went to Pittsburgh “to take in
the sites of the exposition,” reported the Courier.
Jacob made news two days before the end of the 19th century. The Dec. 29, 1899 Courier said he “was down from Indian Head Saturday making the last purchases before Christmas. He also called at The Courier to extend his subscription for another year.”
When Minnie’s father died in 1909, Jacob received funds from the estate for furnishing molasses.
Minnie died at age 60 on Nov. 12, 1932 at home, from the lingering effects of heart disease. She was buried in the Lutheran Cemetery near Indian Head.
In
the mid-1930s, Jacob and his family were named in family history studies being
conducted by Otto Roosevelt Younkin of Masontown, PA. The research was in
connection with the National Younkin
Home-Coming Reunions being held in Kingwood, Somerset County, and which drew
more than 1,000 people a year during the heart of the Great Depression. Click
here to see the actual page of
Otto's meticulously typed notes mentioning Jacob and his siblings and
parents (spelled "Koontz"). Click here to learn more about the much-married
Younkin and Minerd families.
Jacob outlived Minnie by more than three decades, and is seen here cutting a birthday cake. He passed away on Dec. 30, 1963, and is buried in the Sparks Cemetery. While thought to have been age 91 at death, a family story says that he was actually 99, and had he lived just a few more months would have turned 100.
Son Donald “was a carpenter, employed by the Grove Ventures Co., a general construction company, of New Richmond, Ohio, and was a member of the Builders and Trade Carpenters’ Union.” On July 7, 1961, Donald tragically was killed in an automobile accident about 16 miles northeast of Cambridge, OH.
Copyright © 2000, 2006, 2008 Mark A. Miner