Bio-Miner, Harry Orlan

Harry Orlan Miner was born on July 21, 1877 near rural Nineveh, Greene County, PA, the son of Andrew Jackson and Mary Louise (Johnston) Miner. A grandson and great-great grandson also share Harry's birth month and date.

As a boy, Harry resided with his parents and siblings near Hundred, Wetzel County, WV and Chartiers Twp., Washington County, PA. He loved to read his pocket New Testament, into which he once slipped a braided brown lock of hair of his sweetheart, Armena Viancy Cain (1882-1972), the daughter of James C. and Margaret Ellen (White) Cain.

(The Miners and the Cains were neighbors, and also close friends. Harry's brother Will later married Armena's sister Osta. Click here to see old color postcards of Hundred from the early 1900s.)

On Jan. 24, 1900, at the age of 23, Harry married 17-year-old Armena at her parents' log cabin at Rock Camp, near Hundred. (The old log house is seen here.) The ceremony was performed by Rev. W.W. Roberts of the Church of Christ. For many years, Armena kept Rev. Roberts' photograph in her family Bible, from an old Sunday School flyer in which he was pictured.

Among the wedding gifts given to the young couple was a glazed milk pitcher with blue highlights showing a kiss between a Dutch boy and girl, in front of a windmill, seen at left. The pitcher remained in the Miners' possession for decades, and was passed down in the family.

Shortly after marriage, Harry and Armena moved to the Meadowlands, near Washington, Washington County, PA. One of their sons later recalled that this first cottage was on Chestnut Street near where the Ross Independent Oil Company warehouse stood circa 1992. It was on the northeast side of the "Tucker homestead" otherwise known as the "Hays homestead."

In about 1903, the Miners bought a house at 242 Fayette Street in West Washington, which Harry later expanded in size. He bought property from his brother Ward, and rented it for income. He also cultivated a "Victory Garden" near Hays Avenue during World War I, where son Ed recalled going to get pumpkin blossoms.

They joined the West Washington Methodist Episcopal Church, where Harry sang in the choir with his sister Emma. Armena was an active member of the church, including the Orion Sunday School class, for more than 60 years. She also was a member emeritus of the official board of the church, and a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Harry worked in a glass factory before he obtained enough carpentry work to keep him busy full time. He belonged to the local union of carpenters. Circa 1919, he was employed by Peter Gasper, a prominent contractor who built fine homes and an office building for Jessop Steel Company, among other structures, in Washington. (In the federal census of 1910, Gasper was listed as a "Carpenter-House Contractor" and lived on East Maiden Street.)

During the year 1910, the City of Washington held its centennial anniversary with parades and special celebrations. The Miners and their young children assuredly must have witnessed and perhaps participated in these exciting events.

Penny postcard from Washington's centennial celebration in 1910

Harry doubled the size of their home circa 1914 by adding the entire left side. He also built the bannister of the stairway leading to the second floor, and added a corner cabinet in the kitchen. He once found young son Ed on his work bench in the basement of their home, holding a planing tool. He said "You've got the right tool, son, but it'd be better if you were on your feet."

Before going to work in the morning, Harry would often ask his brother Will, also a carpenter, to do small wood-working jobs around Harry's house. Will obliged, but his efforts were not up to Harry's standards. When Harry got home in the evening, he would tear out Will's work, and re-do it himself.

They kept a cow in a shed in the back yard of their house on Fayette Street. It once ate a piece of baling wire, and "didn't live long after that," a son recalled.

Harry registered for the military draft during World War I, and listed his occupation as carpenter for P.J. Gasper of Washington.

Harry was in poor health during the spring of 1919. One story says that he suffered sun stroke when replacing a roof in the hot sun on a very hot day. It affected his mind so much that he felt everybody was plotting against him. His weakened condition led to his final demise. Had he survived, Armena later told their children, he would have been difficult to live with.

After Harry was visibly sick following the first stroke, his brother Will began to pack to leave for California. "He didn't want to be stuck with his brother's children," a niece later recalled.

On July 24, 1919, while at a church Sunday School picnic at Washington Park, Harry collapsed to the ground with his second stroke in three months. Son Ed was present and watched him fall. Half-paralyzed, Harry was taken home on a streetcar, and carried to bed in their second-floor bedroom. Reported the Washington Observer:

Stricken with paralysis while attending the West Washington Methodist Episcopal church Sunday school picnic at the Washington park Thursday afternoon, Harry O. Miner, a well-known Washington carpenter, declined rapidly until his death at 10:20 Thursday night at his home, 242 Fayette street. Mr. Miner was 42 years old and had previously suffered a stroke. A resident of Washington for 19 years, Mr. Miner was well known as a citizen and carpenter.

Washington Park's pavilion, where Harry fell with his fatal stroke

The funeral was conducted by their pastor, Rev. T.H. Morris. Harry was laid to rest in the Washington Cemetery, in the family plot where his brother Ward had been buried five years earlier. Armena was thus suddenly rendered a widow and left with seven children, ranging in age from two to 18. At the funeral, Harry's brother Will announced that he was leaving for California within a few days.

The family's former pastor, Rev. Harley W. Hodge (seen here), was shocked by the news. He had known the Miners for two years, since 1917 when he was transferred to the West Washington church from St. John's River, and had "been most cordially received by his people," said the Pittsburgh Christian Advocate, a newspaper of the Pittsburgh, North-East Ohio and West Virginia Conferences of the Methodist Church. "He has won the confidence and good will of all." Hodge apparently was transferred again to Delta, OH, and from there wrote a very moving letter of condolence to the grieving Armena.

We were greatly shocked and grieved to learn of your great bereavement. It is certainly dreadful to even think about, without the heartbreak of the experience. It is certainly too bad that a good man, and one who is needed so badly should be taken, while so many unworthy men should be spared... I am praying also that [God] may so constantly sustain you and help you that you may be able to keep your dear children together and raise them up in the "Fear of the Lord"...

The family is shown here a year later, on the front porch of their home. Armena is seated just to the left of the post, and, left to right: Grace, Jessie, Ed, Odger, Orlan, Ollie and future son in law John Plants. Relatives and friends fretted how Armena would keep together her family of younger children. Harry's brother Will, who was about to move to California, offered to take Jessie, the next to youngest daughter. But Armena refused. Almost every Sunday, she led her younger children in a walk to the cemetery to have a picnic on Harry's grave, a common practice of the time which seems morbid today.

To generate badly needed income, Armena got a job as a laundress and as custodian of the church, when it was located in the old building. She also handled sewing projects and was an expert quiltmaker. Eldest daughter Grace and eldest son Odger both quit school to get jobs to help support the family.

Armena coped with her loneliness by keeping in touch with her large family of sisters, some of whom lived in Washington, and others who resided in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. During at least two summers, she took her children to the home of her sister Josephine Darrow at Rosbys Rock, WV, where they spent two weeks of rest and relaxation. As her children grew up, got married and had children of their own, she loved to get together and visit with them when they could.

This article in the Washington Reporter is a testament to Armena's growing family, circa 1954

Armena especially enjoyed taking her children to the Cain-Jackson reunions in Mannington, WV. The events were organized by her cousin Enos Perry Jackson, son of John J. and Lydia (Cain) Jackson, and he served as president from 1925 to 1942. There always were questions as to whether the Jacksons were related to famed Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, but according to the book, The Jackson Family, published in 1961 by Jesse Calvin Cross, he wrote:

As long as [the author] can remember, it has been claimed that our family were of the same ancestry as "Stonewall" Jackson ... This belief was quickly dispelled after making a trip to Charleston, W.Va., to consult Dr. Roy Bird Coo, the foremost historian of "Stonewall" Jackson. An examination of his records disclosed that there were no connecting links between "Stonewall's" ancestry and our lineage.

Snapshots from the Cain-Jackson Reunion, 1930s -- left, Armena stands at center, between daughters Jessie and Anna, with Jackson cousins at both ends. Right: cousins of the Jackson and Sims family sit for photos, with "Hulda" and "Cindy" standing behind the bench

On Sept. 11, 1934, after 15 years as a widow, Armena married Benjamin Franklin Marshall, seen here, known as 'Grandpa Ben' to her grandchildren. They were said to have met when son Orlan coaxed his mother into making dinner for a friend of his at work. Ben at one time was a steelworker for the Waynesburg Tin Mill and the Washington Tin Plate Company.

The wedding took place at the home of Armena's eldest son Odger, in nearby Aliquippa, Beaver County, PA. Because Odger was ill in bed at the time, suffering from stomach ulcers, the ceremony was held right in his bedroom.

Ben died on June 4, 1950. He was laid to rest in the Miner family plot at Washington Cemetery. Many grandchildren gathered for the funeral, shown below right, with Armena seated at center.

In the 1940s, sons Odger and Ed installed a full bathroom in the second floor of Armena's house, giving her the luxury of indoor plumbing for the first time in her life.

In about 1955, Armena sold her house and all its belongings in an auction held on her front porch. Son Odger, son in law Jack Schultz and grandson Donald W. Miner were "runners" that day, bringing items to the porch one by one for bidding.

After the sale, she moved to California where she spent a year or so residing with son Orlan and his family, before moving back to Washington. During that time, in 1957, she gave her granddaughter Louise an old book of psalms which she had received as a teenager. It was inscribed: "Given to Viancy A. Cain on her 15th birthday, Sept. 6, 1897." It is small, with a soft black cover.

She then rented an apartment just up the street from her former home. Later in life, she moved into the home of her daughter Jessie.

In May 1965, when she was age 83, Armena visited the home of her son Odger in Hopewell Township, near Aliquippa, and posed for a four-generation photograph with Odger (60), grandson Wayne (35) and great-grandson Mark (4). The image is seen at left.

A remarkable conversation took place with Armena the day after Christmas 1971. It was the last Christmas she was alive. Her grandson Wayne Miner had purchased a cassette tape recorder for Christmas, brought it to her home, quietly placed it beside her rocking chair and began asking her questions. The dialogue planted the seeds for what evolved into the development of this website. Click to read a transcript.

Seen at right, daughter Jessie escorts Armena into the sanctuary at the West Washington Methodist Church in April 1967. It was a special morning for Armena, as she was honored for more than 65 years of membership in the congregation.

Armena outlived four of her adult children and on Sept. 6, 1972, celebrated her 90th birthday. Just three days later, she passed away at Washington Hospital. At the time, she was survived by 34 grandchildren, 77 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. She is buried with both husbands at Washington Cemetery.

A family tree chart, seen here, was prepared in the 1930s by Armena's adult children. The chart was displayed on the wall at one or more of the family's reunions at Washington Park. The chart has become lost over the years, and its whereabouts today are unknown. Can anyone help?