Barbara
(Minerd) McKnight
( ? -1866)
Barbara
(Minerd) McKnight was
born in or near Wharton Township, Fayette County, PA the daughter of Henry and Hester
(Sisler) Minerd. Details of her relatively short life are sketchy.
On
Oct. 23, 1854, Barbara married Henry 'Foxy' McKnight (1829-1915), seen here,
the son of
Henry and Mary McKnight. The ceremony was held at the home of her parents
in Wharton Township, and was performed by J. Peters. The wedding was witnessed by
Barbara's brother, Daniel Minerd, and by her brother in law, William McKnight,
husband of Mahala Minerd.
The McKnights had five children -- Mary Hester Strauch, William McKnight, Ostman Theodore 'Todd' McKnight, Charles McKnight and John Henry McKnight. Sadly, son William, born in 1857, died in infancy.
The
McKnights lived at Uniontown and Dawson,
Fayette County,
where Henry was a coal miner and coke oven laborer. He
stood 5 ft. 8 1/2 inches tall, with a fair complexion, grey eyes and sandy-red hair.
During the Civil War, on Aug. 25, 1862, Henry enlisted in Co. E of the 140th PA Infantry. The photo seen here is thought, but not proven, to be him.
While serving at White Hall Station, MD, on Dec. 1, 1862, in his words, he "was thrown into a creek and caught a severe cold which brought on Rheumatism and Catarrh in [my] head." He was treated at hospitals in York, PA from Dec. 1862 to May 1863 and in Pittsburgh until July 1863, when he received an early discharge.
Sadly,
Barbara
died shortly after his return from the war, on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14,
1866. She died from the effects of childbirth with her son John. She was buried at the Cochran Cemetery at Dawson.
Their young, motherless son Charles was taken in by his uncle and aunt, Andrew and Mary (McKnight) Hiles of Dunbar, Fayette County. Another son, John Henry, was raised and adopted by Barbara's sister Mahala and her husband, William McKnight, who lived near New Salem, Fayette County.
Henry is seen at right, wearing his Civil War medals and ribbons, with a young lady who is not yet identified but may be a granddaughter.
Henry spent the remaining 50 years of his life as a widower. Despite constant arthritis ("rheumatism"), he enjoyed attending Civil War reunions and encampments.
Henry worked with his son in law, John H. Strauch, and Strauch later observed: "I have worked with him in the mines from the winter of 1873 at intervals to the Spring of 1884...," claiming that Henry was not "able to work more than half the time, sometimes not for from 2 to 4 weeks at a time" due to his wartime disabilities.
Justice of the peace William H. Cottom once wrote that
"since 1865 [Henry] worked at the Fayette Coke works off an on for over five
years and I was clerk and time keeper and I know that [Henry] was disabled from
work fully one fourth of his time..." Henry is seen here as
an elderly man, having lost much weight as he aged.
Henry was close with his grandchildren, especially the Strauchs. Writing from an Army camp in Delaware in 1906, grandson Walter S. Strauch wrote:
Dear Grandady, I will take the pleasure of writing you a few lines to let you know that I have not forgot you yet... Say dady, I will send this picture to you. And you can see how I look since I was at home. I have got fatten up a little more now then when I was at home the last.
Confined
to bed for the last years of his life, with no use of his lower limbs, Henry
died on Aug. 4, 1915, and was buried beside his wife. A portion of
Henry's black, cardboard-backed funeral card, with faded lettering, is seen
here.
Their final resting place is near the grave of Sarah B. Cochran, famed coke industry widow whose home, Linden Hall, is now a famous landmark. In the 1960s or '70s, some of their descendants replaced their crumbling grave markers with newer stones.
Seen below is a reunion of Foxy's Civil War regiment. It is not known whether he is in the picture, but there are many old men with long white beards and he could well be one of them.
Copyright © 2000-2001 Mark A. Miner