Ernest
Earl Minerd
(1886-1961)
Ernest
Earl Minerd was born on March 28, 1886 at Nicolay near Mill Run, Fayette
County, PA, the son of Almira Melissa
Minerd.
Ernest was raised under his mother's maiden name. He resided with his grandparents, Charles and Adaline (Harbaugh) Minerd and also with several sets of his uncles and aunts, including Winfield S. and Josephine (Minerd) Hall and Lawson and Lutitia (Steyer) Minerd.
An
old tintype image of Ernest as an infant is seen here. In February 1893, when
he was
approaching his seventh birthday, his aunt Sadie
(Minerd) Luckey wrote the following to a cousin:
We are having plenty of snow this winter. There is good sleighing now and still snowing. If you was here you & Ernest could have fine times coasting on the hill side. Pa made Ernest a nice sled. He is out with it near all the time.
According to family stories, Earl did not enjoy going to school. Once, he climbed up on the roof of the barn. His grandmother Adaline put up a ladder and coaxed him down. When a teenager, he worked on local farms and at a relative's coal mine.
Ernest's mother resided at Willow Crossing,
between Greensburg and Youngwood, Westmoreland County, PA. Likely through his
mother, Ernest learned that jobs were available there on the Pennsylvania
Railroad. He then moved in with his mother, step-father and half-siblings and
obtained employment as a brakeman with the company. Seen here is a rare
old postcard photograph of the Pennsy station in Greensburg.
Ernest met his future wife, Edith Naoma
Erwin (1899-1984), when his brother Arnold
Overholt married Edith's sister Violet. Edith and Violet were natives of
Otelia, PA and the daughters of George B.M. and
Charlotte (Parsons) Erwin. Ernest would take Edith and her friends Nellie and
Sadie (surnames unknown) out for a ride after Sunday church services.
On Aug. 9, 1924, Ernest and Edith were married. They went on to have four children – Earl E. Minerd, Milton E. Minerd, Charlotte Dunham and Nellie Rae Minerd. Sadly, Nellie Rae died in infancy.
The Minerds resided at 301 North Sixth Street in Youngwood. It's said that Ernest "disliked eating chicken because that was all he ever ate growing up." They also bought their one and only automobile, a Maxwell.
Active in church, Ernest served as President of both Christian Endeavor and of the Friends’ Bible Class of the First Church of the United Brethren in Christ in Youngwood. He also was on the Executive Committee of the church’s Sunday School.
Edith was a director of the Carol Choir of the Christ United Methodist Church of Youngwood.
In 1928, when the Minerd Reunion was held at Confluence, Somerset County, PA, Ernest served as Treasurer and Edith was Secretary. He also was Secretary in August 1930 when the reunion was held at Shady Grove Park, near Uniontown, PA, the same year his half-brother Arnold was President.
Old postcard view of Shady Grove Park
Later, when Ernest could no longer work as a
brakeman for the PRR, he drove a shuttle taking workers over the 'hump' in the
railroad yard.
Ernest died on Sept. 7, 1961, at the age of 75. He is buried at Youngwood Cemetery.
Edith outlived him by 23 years, and passed away on Jan. 21, 1984 in State College, PA. She is buried with her husband and infant daughter.
Sons Earl and Milton are pictured in the
book, Our Town in Picture and Story: Youngwood, Pennsylvania, 1899-1974.
Earl served in the insurance industry for many years in the Greater Pittsburgh
area. Milt taught at Eastern Westmoreland (PA) Vocational Technical School,
Westmoreland Community College and Greensburg Technical Institute.
Daughter Charlotte taught music at Marysville, OH (1954-1956) and Columbus, OH (1956-1958) and later served on the State College (PA) School District Advisory Committee. She also was President of the Boards of Directors of the Music Academy and the State College Choral Society.
Son
in law Dr. Robert E. Dunham retired in 1998 as Senior Vice President of Pennsylvania State
University, where he had served as an educator and administrator for 38
years. In a press
release, Penn State President Graham
Spanier said, “It is simply impossible to list all of Bob’s
accomplishments. Bob has played a central role in virtually all of the important
changes that have brought about the evolution of Penn State into a university of
prominence.” Seen here, Robert (left) and President Spanier answer
questions from around the state during a 1996 teleconference about their strategic
plans.
Click here to read Eden, a touching and highly personal poem-memoir about Ernest, authored by his granddaughter Christine (Minerd) Smith. Christine also has written Getting Lost and Memory which are published on our website. Christine is a scholar of author William Faulkner, and in the summer of 2006 she and her husband sang all five verses of their original song, William Faulker Rides the Rock Island Line, at the Faulkner Fringe Festival in Oxford, MS. In 2007, they appeared at the festival to present "Faulkner from Denver."
Great-grandson
Evan Smith played the role of Deputy-Governor Danforth in his high school play, The
Crucible, staged in the Denver, CO area. Evan is seen here, facing
the camera with his hands clasped together, in a photograph taken during the
performance by family friend Al Treibitz. A 2007 graduate of Drew University, he
currently is a teacher with Teach for America and serves as a high school
physics instructor in Marvell, Ark.
Copyright © 2002-2004, 2006-2007 Mark A. Miner