Flora
(Minerd) Mills
(1867-1943)
Flora
(Minerd) Mills was born in 1867 in Dunbar, Fayette County, PA, the daughter of Isaac
and Catherine (Smiley) Minerd.
In 1879-1880, when Flora was about 13, she faced great heartache when her father and sister Martha and one other close relative passed away in the span of a short time. The Uniontown American Standard reported that it was "the third death in this family in a little over a year."
On June 22, 1887, at the age of 20, Flora married 21-year-old Joseph Henry Mills Sr. (1866-1947), a native of England.
The Millses had nine children, of whom only five survived to adulthood -- Arthur
W. Mills, Joseph Henry Mills Jr., Helen
Beniston Cooper Emerson, Margaret McCluckey and
James Alfred Mills.
The other four Mills children died young -- Bessie May (age two), an unnamed infant, Margaret (six days) and Clarence (age 18 months).
Tragedy struck in 1913 when son Arthur (age 21) died at home in the mining patch town of Helen, Fayette County, apparently of a heart attack. He had worked there for six years for the Atlas Coal Company. Flora's brother Thomas also lived in Helen at that time.
More heartache came again in 1938, son Joseph H. Mills Jr., a World War I veteran, died at Republic, Fayette County, after a long illness, leaving a wife and two young sons. Joseph was the only one of the Mills children to have children of his own.
That same year, Flora was mentioned in the Buckhannon (WV) Record newspaper obituary for her brother Charles. The Millses were residing in Republic, Fayette County.
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| Republic's fan house and coal tipple (far right) |
Flora
died in 1943, at the age of 76. The specific date is not known.
Joseph Sr. outlived her by four years, and died at the age of 81 in 1947. They are buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Dunbar.
For more information on this line, contact great-granddaughter Penny Swope.
Copyright © 2000-2001, 2006-2008 Mark A. Miner