Andrew
R. Minerd
(1869-1913)
Andrew
R. Minerd was born on Oct. 14, 1869 at Broadford, Fayette County, PA, the
youngest of 8 children of Andrew and Sarah
(Devan) Minerd. A blacksmith like his father, he suffered a tragic death in
a fall down a flight of stairs. The portrait seen here is strongly
believed, but not fully proven, to be him.
On July 4, 1889, at the age of 20, Andrew married Anna Rhodes (1873- ? ) at the home of her parents, David and Mary (Deems) Rhodes of Dunbar, Fayette County. Anna was a native of Centerville, Washington County, PA. The Connellsville Keystone Courier reported that he had "celebrated the Fourth by taking unto himself a wife in the person of Annie Rhodes."
The Minerds had 3 daughters – Birdie Ethel Thomas (born 1890), Olive L. Lashbrook (born 1892) and Gertrude Minerd (born 1894). They also may have had a daughter Lewella Minerd, who died at age 16 of whooping cough, in 1903.
In about 1903, they moved to Uniontown, Fayette County, where he worked as a blacksmith. Andrew also was active with the Dunbar Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, serving as an "inside guard."
This photo is labeled "Andrew Minerd, Charles Bryner, Mr.
[John] Hogan, Charles
McWilliams, Mr. [Ed] Wheeler - all from Dunbar, Fayette
County," presumably
standing left to right. While not proven, all clues
point to Andrew as our "Andrew
R. Minerd." Note the sledgehammer slung
over his shoulder, the blacksmith's
apron and the metal wheels lying about in
the yard of this workshop.
It’s thought that Andrew and Anna separated about 1907, when she and the girls moved to Pittsburgh to live with her mother at 814 Aiken Street.
Tragedy struck the family on June 9, 1913, when Andrew "fell down the steps of a local hotel [that] evening and died later at the Uniontown hospital," said the Uniontown Daily News Standard. The funeral was held at the home of sister Mary Belle Beggs at Hopwood. He was buried beside his parents at the Hopwood Cemetery.
Just 2 years after her his death, on March 22, 1915, Anna married again, to widower Alexander H. Heck. He was 9 years younger than she, and had 3 daughters from his previous marriage. He was an auditor in the accounting department of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, earning about $165 per month. They resided at the Norfolk Apartments on North Highland Avenue in Pittsburgh.
The marriage was rocky from the start, and by October of that year, he had moved out, and refused to pay her any support. He later paid her about $3 a week after she forced his hand via a court order. Supported largely by her mother, Anna later moved to 701 Filbert Street in Pittsburgh’s East End, and then to 6303 Bartlett Street in the Squirrel Hill community near Pittsburgh. In February 1922, she sued for divorce.
Their fates after that are unknown.
Copyright © 2000-2003 Mark A. Miner