Enoch
Miner Sr.
(1849-1926)
Enoch Miner Sr. was born on Sept. 8, 1849 near Humbert, Somerset County, PA, the son of Henry A. and Matilda (Rose) Miner. He worked in the bituminous coal and coke industry in Fayette County, PA for many years.
Enoch's first wife was Matilda Lyons ( ? -1892). Their children were Ella Moon, Matilda Elizabeth Lancaster, Roseann Miner, Mary E. 'Bessie' Miner, Noah Miner Sr., Martha Miner and John Henry Miner.
The Miners lived in Fayette County, including at Dawson circa 1882 and at Moyer circa 1890. Enoch was said to have been tall, strong-willed and "ruled the roost."
Enoch
worked for many years as a coal miner, stone mason and coke drawer at beehive
ovens of the H.C. Frick
Coke Company works near Connellsville, PA. He likely would have been in poses
such as the rare postcard image seen here -- loading and unloading tons
upon tons of coke from the hot, gassy ovens in preparation for their shipment to
the Carnegie Steel mills in Pittsburgh.
He retired from Frick and was an early pensioner of the company. He also was a member of the Church of God.
One of the Miners' teenage daughters made terrible news on Feb. 1, 1889 while living at Moyer. The Connellsville Keystone Courier reported that she was "seriously burned on last Monday. While her parents were absent her clothes caught fire in some manner from a grate and she was soon enveloped in flames. A lady living some distance away hearing the screams of the child rushed to her assistance, but before she could get the flames extinguished the child was so badly burned about the limbs and body that her recovery is doubtful."
On July 2, 1892, Enoch's wife Matilda died. A year later he sold his home at Moyer and moved next door to his parents on North Avenue in Connellsville.
Six years, later, on Aug. 16, 1898, Enoch married 43-year-old Sarah Phillippi, daughter of Phillip and Eliza Phillippi. They lived together in Connellsville for just a little over a year. Then, on Nov. 11, 1899, Sarah sold her cow, loaded a wagon and took the train back to her parents' home in Ursina, Somerset County. Enoch soon after filed for divorce. In the proceeding, Enoch's father testified that:
I was in their house quite frequently. He provided well for her. Everything she needed. Plenty to eat + to wear.
Enoch's mother Matilda testified that "I was backward and forward to their home two or three times a week...." Sister in law Rachel (Pritchard) Miner and brother in law John W. Stevenson also gave depositions in the case.
On March 30, 1902, Enoch married his third wife, Fannie B. Dublin, daughter of Charles W. and Rachel Dublin. At age 21, Fannie was more than three decades younger than her husband. They went on to have four sons -- Samuel Miner, Harry C. Minor, Henry Raymond 'Curnel' Minor and Enoch 'Peen' Minor Jr. Samuel is believed to have died young, but this is not proven.
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Dirty, dangerous, backbreaking ovens of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. at Continental No. 1 near Uniontown |
The
Miners moved frequently, to Swaugertown Road,
Continental No. 1 and Dunlap in Fayette County. Seen at left is a rare
old postcard photograph showing the buildings and coal tipple at Continental No.
1 near Uniontown, owned by the H.C. Frick Coke Co.
In April 1912, after a rocky decade of marriage, Enoch and Fannie separated. On the day she left, he said that "I went out to draw coke in the morning and when I came home in the evening she had locked up the house and given the key to one of the boys to give to me." Enoch later went to Broadford, where he resided in a Frick company house and filed for divorce.
Fannie moved to Pittsburgh, where she married her husband's nephew, Elmer Ellsworth Miner. Tragically, she died at age 42 on Feb. 17, 1923 and is buried at Hill Grove Cemetery in Connellsville. At around that time Fannie's husband changed his name to Elmer "Moody," and that name is inscribed on her grave marker.
Enoch was a member of the Church of God. During
World War I, and to the end of his life, he lived at Coalbrook in Bullskin
Twp., Fayette
County.
On May 19, 1926, having "been ill for some time," Enoch died at age 76 in the early morning hours. His death made front-page news in the Connellsville Daily Courier. Rev. A.J. Mead of the South Connellsville Evangelical Church preached the funeral service at Enoch's home, with burial at Hill Grove Cemetery in Connellsville.
Daughter
Ella Miner (1882-1947) first married Elmer E. Moon (1882-1902), the son of William and Lydia
(Berkey) Moon. At the age of 20, Elmer made grisly headline news (seen at right)
on Aug. 19, 1902
when he was "ground to death" in a railroad accident at
Rockwood, Somerset County. His mangled remains were laid to rest at the Jersey Church Cemetery near
Ursina, Somerset County. She went on to marry John Bruce Moon (1882-1980), the son
of Franklin P. and Margaret (Hyatt) Moon. They had five children -- Arnetta Mae
Campbell, Iva Pearl Boyd, Mary Devan, John H. Moon and James E. Moon. The Moons resided at
Meadowbrook, Fayette County, where John likely worked as a coal miner. Ella passed away at age 65 on Jan. 27, 1947, and is
buried at Hill Grove Cemetery. John outlived her by 33 years. He died on May 29,
1980, at Little Brownfield. The late Olive Duff deeply researched the Moon
family history, and published a booklet, Moon Genealogy, which is
preserved in the Minerd- Minard- Miner- Minor Archives.
Daughter Matilda Miner (1880- ? ) was first married to Frank Grim (1876- ? ), the son of William and Bell Grim. They were wed on Oct. 17, 1899, by Rev. J.W. Stevenson in a ceremony at the Connellsville home of her grandparents, Henry A. and Matilda (Rose) Miner. Frank was a 23-year-old laborer at the time, and Matilda a 19-year-old housekeeper. The marriage only lasted for nine years, and the couple divorced on Sept. 26, 1908. After seven years alone, Matilda married her second husband, railroad brakeman Samuel B. Lancaster (1885-1953) , on Dec. 28, 1914. Samuel was the son of Samuel B. and Margaret (Craig) Lancaster Sr., and was born in Smithton, Westmoreland County, PA, but at the time of marriage lived in Jacobs Creek, PA. The couple resided at 219 East South Street in Connellsville, and announced their marriage some nine months after it occurred. The story appeared in the Sept. 24, 1915 edition of the Courier. The Lancasters had at least one daughter, Margaret (1917-1954). Tragically, Samuel was involved in an automobile accident in December 1926 that claimed the lives of two citizens of Connellsville. He was charged with murder, but was found not guilty by a grand jury in June 1927. In September 1928, young daughter Margaret came down with the first case of infantile paralysis that year in Connellsville, and the family home was quarantined. Margaret recovered and later married Charles J. Rose (1909-1989), the son of Charles H. and Alcestia (Ritenour) Rose of Normalville, Fayette County. After Matilda's death (year unknown), Samuel married Ossie Forsythe and moved to West Newton, Westmoreland County, PA. He died of a heart attack at the age of 67 on on May 26, 1953. Burial was in West Newton Cemetery.
Son Henry "Colonel" Minor ( ? -1978) married Fanny Care ( ? -1956). He was a house painter, but after suffering a major injury in a fall, changed jobs and later worked as a crane operator in a steel mill. They resided on Lilac Street in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. While on vacation in Birmingham, AL in 1956, they were caught in a freak tornado at their motel, and tragically, Fanny was among many people who were killed. The Pittsburgh Press printed a United Press report, seen below right, saying that "Rescue squads combed the tangled wreckage of more than 150 homes today for more victims of a tornado-like windstorm that killed at least 22 persons and injured more than 100, four of them critically." Henry was listed in critical condition in a hospital in Hamilton, AL, but recovered. He passed away on July 23, 1978. They are buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
Henry and Fanny (Care) Minor
Circa 1923, son Samuel Miner lived in Poplar Grove, PA, but apparently died by 1926.
Son Enoch
Minor Jr.
(1905-1963) resided in St. Louis, MO in 1926. By the following year, he had
returned to Pittsburgh, and was working as a brakeman on the railroad. On Oct.
24, 1927, he married 17-year-old Bessie Dewese (1910- ? ), a native of Roanoke,
VA. They were listed in the 1930 Pittsburgh City Directory as residing at
35 Lacock, at which time he was laboring as a painter, possibly with his brother
Henry. Enoch served in World War II, as a private in Company L of the 338th
Infantry. Later, he married Alberta Oberdacker ( ? - ? ). His five children were
James Minor, Jo Ann Czolba, Mary Minor, Christine Leacock and Corrine Nelson. He
passed away on March 28, 1963, with his obituary published in the Pittsburgh
Press. He was laid to rest in the veterans' section of Highwood Cemetery
near Pittsburgh's North Side. His bronze memorial marker is seen at left.
Daughter Martha Miner (1891-1984) never married. When the federal census of 1930 was taken, she is believed to have been living in Connellsville, and employed as a maid in a private home. Living just two doors away was her cousin, Bruce Miner Sr. (son of Silas Miner). She resided in Brownfield, Fayette County, where she was a member of the Free Methodist Church. She died in 1984.
Son Harry Minor ( ? -1969) married Hazel (?). They resided on Pittsburgh's North Side, where he worked as a barber circa 1922. Harry passed away on Sept. 15, 1969, and his obituary was printed in the Pittsburgh Press.
Son
Noah Miner (1890-1963) is seen here, and married Olive (Harrison) Farris
(1906-1974), the daughter of William and Cora (Richter) Harrison. He was
a pall bearer at the funeral of his uncle John
Ross Miner in 1935. They
had at least three children. He served in the US Army during World War I.
Enlisting on Feb. 12, 1918, he underwent basic training at Camp Lee, VA, and
then was attached to Company F of the 319th Regiment. He was wounded in action,
but specifics are not known. He remained in the Army at least until June 1919.
He is pictured in the book, Uniontown's Part in the World War. Noah
"was a retired employe of the Auburn Rubber Co. at Connellsville,"
said the Daily Courier. Tragically, in 1940, their son Noah Emery Minor was killed at Coalbrook when he was
"struck by a car as he stepped from behind a truck into the road near his
home..." Their other children were Margaret E. Minor and Joy Ann Costabile.
After Noah Sr.'s death in 1963, Olive remained in Connellsville for many years,
where she was a member of the Christian Missionary and Alliance Church, the
Auxiliary Post 21 to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Fraternal Order of Eagles
Auxiliary 493 City of Hope, and Dames of Malta. She passed away at age 68 on
Oct. 15, 1974.
Copyright © 2000-2006, 2008 Mark A. Miner