Frank
J. Minerd
(1885-1939)
Frank
J. Minerd was born on Oct. 18, 1885 at Lemont Furnace near Uniontown,
Fayette County, PA, the son of James C. and
Suvina (Yauger) Minerd Sr. A photograph of Frank standing with fellow coal
miners has become a symbol all the coal, coke and steel workers in our family.
The image, seen in full, below right, has appeared on one of our reunion booklet
covers and in the pages of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Uniontown
Herald-Standard.
On Jan. 27, 1909, Frank married Elizabeth (Shipley) Glover, the daughter of L.P. and Mary Shipley of Confluence, Somerset County, PA. They had one daughter, Dora Detweiler-Richter-Hall.
Frank
was a mechanic and a pumper in coal mines in and around Connellsville, Fayette
County. He worked at the Davidson Mine north of Connellsville until it closed in 1923.
A rare old postcard of the coal shaft of the Davidson Works is seen at right. Other distant cousins who labored there over the years were Henry Minerd and John Ross Miner, among others.
After the Davidson Works closed, Frank worked at the Pittsburgh Coal Company. He also was a pipe cutter in a machine shop at the Wick Haven mine.
In late July 1929, while shutting off an electric pump at the Pittsburgh Coal mine, some equipment malfunctioned, and his right arm was crushed from the fingers up to the elbow. He was rushed to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, with Elizabeth and daughter Dora at his side. The Connellsville Daily Courier reported that "The arm was badly mashed and infection developed... [He] underwent an operation for the amputation of his right arm this morning..."
Frank (third from left) with
co-workers at the Davidson Mine
Despite his disability, Frank liked to play
the harmonica and dance. His daughter said he was "happy go lucky." They resided
in a small house on Jefferson Street in Connellsville, a dwelling he had
purchased from his sister and brother in law, Etta
and Charles McDowell.
Frank died on May 25, 1939, at age 54. He was buried at Johnson's Chapel near Confluence.
After Frank's death, Elizabeth married a man named Rowe. She is buried beside Frank at Johnson's Chapel.
The photograph of Frank posing with Davidson
Mine co-workers was published on the cover of the Coal, Coke and Steel report
for our 1999 national reunion. It also was printed as an illustration in a related
guest column, "Charting a Family's Impact," in the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, authored by Minerd.com founder Mark A. Miner.
The Minerds' daughter Dora was married several times. Her first husband was Martin Detweiler. Married on Aug. 20, 1931, they divorced just two years later, on July 11, 1933, after she claimed he "kicked her out of bed," reported the Uniontown Morning Herald. the following year, on Dec. 19, 1934, she wed her second husband, Paul E. Richter. He joined the US Navy in 1927 and at the time was an electricians mate, second class, stationed on the USS Minneapolis. They were wed while he was home on a Christmas furlough. Her third husband, Russell Hall ( ? -1981) was a coal miner at Pittsburgh Coal Company's Fitzhenry Mine. Later in his career, he labored at the famed Homestead Works of U.S. Steel Corporation, commuting each day from Connellsville. The Homestead Works is seen at right in its heyday.
Copyright © 2001, 2005-2008 Mark A. Miner