Catherine
(Minerd) Zinn
(1894-1939)
Catherine (Minerd) Zinn was born on
Aug. 15, 1894 in Fayette County, PA, the daughter of James
C. and Suvina (Yauger) Minerd Sr. The murder of her teenage stepdaughter in
1935 unfortunately not only was horrific but thrust the family onto the pages of
local newspapers for weeks. All the illustrations and quotes used in this
biography come from the old Uniontown Morning Herald.
Catherine married Thomas B. "Burchie" Zinn ( ? -1958), a widower with nine children -- Clarence Zinn, Gay Zinn, Hazel Zinn, Ida Zinn, James Zinn, Norman Zinn, Clinton Zinn, Leona Zinn and Anna Zinn. Burchie had lost his first wife (Mary F. Campbell) sometime around 1930, and then married Catherine.
Catherine is said to have had two daughters prior to marriage -- Dora Colpetri (in about 1928) and Betty Mae Brown Beals.
The Zinns had one son of their own, Thomas Zinn. Tragically, the baby died the day he was born -- Dec. 12, 1934. His burial arrangements were handled by Vance Funeral Home in Smithfield, and he was laid to rest at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Geneva, PA.
The
Zinns resided in an old farmhouse in Bowood, near Smithfield, Fayette County, seen
here. Young Anna, age 15, was "an industrious girl," and helped her
stepmother "do the housework at home [and] she also cleaned up the one-room
school at Bowood and was listed as an eighth grade pupil..."
Tragedy and heartache rocked the family on
the night of Feb. 7, 1935. Anna had attended a dance at school. As she arrived
home, with her parents asleep inside their house, Anna was shot and killed in an
automobile parked just 150 feet away. The grisly killing made the top headline
of the next day's Morning Herald -- Young Bowood School Girl Is
Killed." A portrait of the unfortunate Anna is seen here.
Reporter Joe L. Dickson opened his news story with this vivid description:
Opening the door of a small coupe in which Anna Zinn ... was seated along a dark country road at the entrance to the lane leading to the home of her father ... late last night, a man held a revolver against the right side of her head and fired. She died instantly. Pointing the revolver at her escort, ... the slayer asked "Do you want some of it too?"
Said the Morning Herald, "News of the tragedy so shocked the community that school sessions at both Bowood and Twin Oaks were closed for the day." The newspaper also reported that:
Simple but solemnly impressive funeral services were conducted for the slain girl Sunday afternoon in Old Frame Presbyterian church which was filled to capacity by mourning and sympathetic neighbors while from 200 to 250 others, unable to gain admittance, stood outside in the cold winter weather... At the close of the service, ... the casket was opened to permit those who desired to view the bullet-torn body. There was not a semblance of this apparent, however. The blond, 15-year-old child whom so many in that district knew and loved, lay there peacefully in her last long rest, as though she were asleep.
Anna
was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery, near her half-brother Thomas.
As the details of the murder publicly unfolded, Burchie was quoted extensively in news stories, and he and the Zinn family were pictured prominently in the Morning Herald, seen here. From left to right are: Clinton, Norman, Gay, Thomas, Catherine and Dora.
The alleged killer, 45-year-old neighbor Jefferson Walters, was married and had children, but had taken a liking to the girl. He was suspected of having been jealous of Anna's male friends. Police officers found a German luger automatic pistol nearby, and "had succeeded in 'tracking' the fugitive by his footprints in the snow, across several fields to the Main highway at a point just South of the crossroads at Woodside..." Though authorities launched a massive manhunt, Walters remained at large for many years, and his fate is unknown.
On Christmas Eve 1939,
at age 46, only four years after the family tragedy, Catherine died at home.
Burchie outlived his wife by almost two decades. He maintained his residence in Smithfield, but as he aged, he traveled to Flint, MI, where his sons Clarence and Clinton and married daughter Leona Diamond lived. He died in the Diamond home on March 21, 1958, at the age of 84. His remains were returned to Smithfield, with burial at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Geneva.
Daughter Dora Minerd married (?) Colpetri and resided in Akron, OH circa 1958.
Daughter Betty Minerd married (?) Beals and
made her home in Uniontown in 1958.
Stepson Norman Zinn was a coal miner for four decades at the Robena Mine of U.S. Steel Corporation, considered to be the largest coal mine in the world circa 1947. Seen at right is one of the reversible trolleys used to haul 35 to 40 cars per trip in the mine's 10 miles of track. According to the Uniontown Herald-Standard, Norman also was "a grave digger for 32 years, and owner of Zinn's Garage in Smithfield. He was a member of the Oak Hill Baptist Church in Smithfield, the Fayette County Firemen's Association, Western Pennsylvania Fireman's Association, Southwestern Pa. Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs Association, and a 45-year member of the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department."
Copyright
© 2001-2002, 2008 Mark A. Miner.
Robena Mine photo courtesy of United States Steel Corporation.