Bio-Minerd, EmmaTrout

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Emma Jane (Minerd) Trout
(1853-1939)

Emma Jane (Minerd) Trout was born in September 1853, likely in Fayette County, PA, the eldest daughter of John V.S. and Elizabeth (Livingston) Minerd.

With her parents, she moved to Ironton, Lawrence County, OH as a young girl. After her father's discharge from the Civil War, the family moved back to Dunbar, Fayette County, for good.

In about 1870, Emma married Isaac F. Trout (1847-1911). They had five children -- John Minerd Trout, Dollie Missouri Trout, Earl C. Trout, Anna Belle Hower and one who died young.

When the federal census was enumerated in 1880, the Trouts resided in East Huntington Township, Westmoreland County, PA. Their home was east of the South West Rail Road (SWRR). Isaac's occupation was shown as a coal miner.

Emma is seen here later in life, seated in a favorite rocking chair.

The Trouts later relocated to Foxtown, Hempfield Township Westmoreland County, where Isaac and his sons kept a grocery shop in the first floor of their home.

The 1900 census shows the Trouts living in Hempfield, with Emma's aged parents also living under their roof. Isaac worked that year as a farmer.

After Emma's father died in 1907, her widowed mother came to live with them in their residence above the storeroom.

In November 1909, about one o'clock in the morning, fire broke out in the home, and the building was "totally destroyed by fire. The origin is unknown," said the Greensburg Daily Tribune. "Practically no insurance was carried." Emma's mother had a narrow escape and lost all her clothing and shoes, as well as her papers entitling her to receive her late husband's Civil War pension.

The census of 1910 shows the Trouts in Hempfield, with Emma's mother residing in their home, and Emma's sister and brother in law, Bertha and Samuel VanDyke, living next door. Isaac's occupation was "merchant" in his "grocery" while his brother in law Samuel VanDyke was a blacksmith for a coal company.

Sadly, Isaac died in 1911, just two years after the fire, at the age of 64. He was laid to rest in the Stone Church Cemetery near Foxtown.

Emma seated just to the right of center at a Trout reunion, date unknown.

Emma outlived Isaac by nearly three decades. Said the Connellsville Daily Courier, "She was a member of the Captain George Cribbs Circle of the G.A.R. of Greensburg."

She passed away at home at Foxtown at the age of 85 on March 15, 1939. The cause of her death is not known. At her passing, said the Courier, she was survived by 19 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

The Trouts are buried together with their daughter Dollie. Also resting nearby are Emma's parents, her sister and brother in law Bertha and Samuel VanDyke, as well as her brother Andrew Minerd, who was killed in a coal mine accident in 1919.

Emma and Isaac rest with their unmarried daughter Dollie in the Stone Church Cemetery near Foxtown, Westmoreland County