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Henry
Minerd |
Henry Minerd was born
on Oct. 7, 1813 (or 1814) near Scio, Harrison County, OH , the son of John and Mary
Magdalena (Kohl) Minard Sr. He was a pioneer settler of western Ohio and
eastern Indiana, and at his death, an Indiana newspaper said he was "one of
the best known and most highly respected citizens of this part of Allen
county..." The newspaper added that "No better or purer
man ever lived in this section than 'Uncle Henry Miner,' and no word of reproach
was ever uttered against his character. He lived as he passed away. In life to
do good, to please and assist, especially in hours of sickness and distress,
[to] all man kind. In death to please his Maker and gain that reward for which
he sought and labored all these years."
Henry grew up on the family farm near Scio. On May 3, 1838, in Harrison County, Henry married his first wife, Catherine Bowers (1819-1881). The ceremony was performed by justice of the peace David Bowers, apparently one of Catherine's relatives. The Minerds had one child, Mary Ann Von Stronder, in addition to a foster daughter, Isabella "Bell" (Edwards) Kever, "who was received into his home as his own child."
The same year
he was married, Henry purchased a town
lot in Franklin, Harrison County, for the whopping sum of $55. Around that time,
he must have gotten the itch to move west to wilderness areas of western Ohio
being sold for development purposes by the federal government. Thus the year
after purchasing the lot in Franklin, he and Catherine sold it to Frances Sampson, with the deed seen here.
Henry was a farmer.
The year after their marriage, on Nov. 2, 1839, Henry purchased a
farm near the western border of Ohio in Dixon, Van Wert County. He and Catherine then
made preparations for travel to their new home. Assuming
their trip was anything like other Minerds ' who came west to the county line later, using "a good team of horses and a substantial
wagon," they traveled across the state, a "very
tedious and slow" journey.
Soon after the purchase, said the Monroeville (IN) Weekly Breeze:
He came to this country in the pioneer days and carved his way through the forest and settled on a tract of land ... and which farm he retained the ownership [of] up to the time of his death and upon which he lived and toiled until age caused him to abandon farm life, thus by his effort and toil he not only witnessed his own farm, but the whole country for miles and miles around emerge from the wild Indian forest to the beautiful farms, cities and homes of civilization.
Upon
arriving in Van Wert County, Henry joined the local Evangelical Lutheran Church
on April 6, 1839. His name appears in 1840 on a list of voters in an election
poll-book of Willshire Twp., Van Wert County, as published in the 1882 book, History
of Van Wert and Mercer Counties, Ohio.
Henry's farm was in Tully Twp., Van Wert County, and within one mile of the small town of Dixon, OH. He is thought to have helped build the Lutheran Church at Flat Rock, Allen County.
Henry also purchased an 80-acre farm across the state line in nearby Monroe Twp., Allen County, IN, on Nov. 2, 1839. This tract, purchased at the US Land Office in Fort Wayne, was in the southwest corner of Section 15, Township 29, Range 15 East. It was less than a mile away from where his brother John Minerd Jr. would settle the following year. It also was next to the farm of Catherine's relatives John Bower (purchased the same day) and close to the farm of Jacob Bower (marked in the records as being of Harrison County, Ohio, with the tract purchased just a few weeks later).
On Nov. 10, 1840, Henry received a certificate of ownership of his Monroe Twp. farm from the General Land Office, signed by President Martin Van Buren. To see a copy of his record, on the website of the US Bureau of Land Management, click here.
It's thought that Catherine's other relatives may have also settled in Tully Twp. The Bowers siblings, including Henry and Catherine, all signed a "quit claim" relinquishing their interests in two Tully Twp. tracts in April 1849, and agreeing that Levi Bower should have full title to one of the properties, and that Sarah Ann Bower should have title to the other. Others signing the document, all of whom were in Van Wert at the time, were William and Sarah Bower, Jacob and Eleanor "Ellen" Bower, John and Margaret Bower, Jesse and Elizabeth Foster, and Abraham and Lydia Ann Anthony.
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A tribute to Indiana pioneers as published in Ballou's Pictorial, Nov. 8, 1856 |
Henry served as a focal point for other family migration. In 1840, his brother John moved to the area, purchasing a farm on the Indiana-Ohio state line just few hundred yards from Henry's farm. Another brother, Burget Miner, moved to the town of Van Wert in about 1856, where he worked as a carpenter, building houses.
When the federal census was taken in 1850, the Minerds lived next to Henry's brother, John, and also to Jonas and Margaretta Shaffer. Living in the house also were 11-year-old daughter Mary Ann and eight-year-old foster daughter Isabelle Edwards.
In 1856, when Henry’s father wrote a will, he directed that Henry receive $80 in cash payments within nine years of the father’s death. The father did not die until 1867, and it is not known if Henry or his heirs were alive to receive the inheritance.
The 1870 federal census enumeration of Indiana shows Henry, Catherine, 31-year-old daughter Mary Ann and 13-year old Henry Black residing in the household. The identity of Mr. Black is not otherwise known.
When the census again was taken in 1880, Henry and Catherine were counted as Indiana residents of Allen County. James R. Sites (or "Siles," a 26-year-old farm hand, boarded in their home. That year, marked the census-taker, Henry could not write, and suffered from a "hernia" which left him "maimed, crippled, bedridden or otherwise disabled."
Over the years, Henry worked hard to develop and cultivate his farm. The Van Wert Times Democrat once called it "large and well improved..." His last years with Catherine were quiet, although she was mentioned in a June 4, 1874 issue of the Monroeville (IN) Democrat, in a list of unclaimed letters remaining in the Monroeville Post Office.
On
Sept. 11, 1881, after 44 years of marriage, Catherine passed away. She was age
61 years, three months and six days in age (although her grave marker
erroneously gives the age as 51 years). The cause of
death is unknown. The Van Wert Times reported only that
"... the wife of Mr. Henry Miner died after an illness of two days; aged 62
years." The local Monroeville (IN) Breeze published a similarly
brief notice of her death. Catherine's remains were laid to rest in the back row
of the Flat Rock Cemetery. Also resting for eternity in Flat Rock are Henry and
Catherine's foster daughter and husband, Isabelle
and Jacob Kever, and also their nephew by marriage, Elihu
Tilbury.
A
tall, upright and impressive monument was erected at the gravesite, seen at
right. Photographed in May 2009, the writing on the face of the marker is
illegible when in shadow (seen at left), but likely may be read in direct
sunlight.
The inscription has been recorded and published in two different booklets on file today at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN. They include Madison-Monroe Township Cemeteries and A Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions of Allen Co., Indiana, collected by the Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Fort Wayne, and compiled by Alberta Minor Flint.
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CATHERINE |
Widowed for two years, the 70-year-old Henry then married Sarah J. Robinson of Monroeville on April 3, 1884. They were together for only three years, until she died in mid-1886. Her obituary in the "Dixon" section of the Van Wert newspaper was terse: "Mr. Henry Miner has buried his second wife."
Not desiring to be alone again, Henry married his third wife, Jane Rice (1834-1904), the widow of Samuel Rice. Jane was some 21 years younger than Henry. The wedding took place in Decatur, Dekalb County, IN, on Nov. 21, 1887, by the hand of Rev. Hotte. Jane was the mother of nine grown children, among them James Rice, Samuel rice, William Rice, Ellen Rice, Samantha Rice and Rachel Carrier, wife of farmer Presley Carrier of Monroe Township. One of the daughters married George Quidor of Dixon, and one wed John Carson of Monroe, IN.
Henry's daughter Mary Ann Von Stronder apparently did not like this new wife, as will be told later in this story.
Henry's years between 1887 and his death are except for a few instances where his name occasionally was published in the newspapers of Fort Wayne. In April 1883, he made news in the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel when he was selected as a juror which heard the case of the murder of Charles Shelner at Huntertown, allegedly committed by Commodore Wood. In late October 1897, the Sentinel reported that "a big family reunion was held at the country home of Henry Miner ... this week." And in late March 1899, he and his third wife "were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. George Quidore and C.M. Rico and family [and] returned home today," said the Sentinel.
A letter by Henry's step-daughter Rachel Carrier, published in the Monroeville Weekly Breeze, gives more insights into their later years.
[Henry and his wife] lived exemplary lives, always ready to share each others
sorrows. She being the youngest of the two cared for him in his declining years
until infirmity of old age laid hands on both, that one could not wait on the
other, when they abandoned their home and went to reside with James Rice and
wife of Ft. Wayne on Dec. 7, 1904. In the same year Mrs. Miner, my mother was
stricken with paralysis which caused her death, she being 70 years old.
After mother died, Grandpa Miner, as we always called
him, he being my step-father came to the conclusion that he wanted to make his
home with us and as he was considered as one of our family as he and mother
lived very happy together for 17 years we accepted him in our home and did all
we could to make life pleasant for him for a year and a half when he suggested
that he wanted to go and spend the remainder of his days with his daughter, Mrs.
O. Van Stronder of Van Wert, thinking it would be right and let her realize that
he was a great care on account of his affections. So we insisted then on his
going and took him to his daughters home where he remained until the Good
Shepherd called him to that home where sickness, death and sorrow shall never
enter, but where all is joy and all is one.
By 1891, the nearby village of Dixon, on the state line, was called "thriving and enterprising." A boosterism publication called the General Business Review of Van Wert County, Ohio for 1891 said that "Years ago [Dixon] was surrounded by a dense growth of forest and timber land, and by the clearing out of the trees and selling the lumber many have acquired fortunes at this place. There is here found a most excellent quality of clay for the manufacture of brick and tile which is becoming known and being brought into great demand."
The census of 1900 shows Henry, Jane and stepdaughter Samantha (age 39) residing in Monroe Township. The census-taker recorded Henry's age as 10 years younger than it actually was, and his occupation as "land lord."
Henry suffered from "dropsy of the abdomen" and his health declined during the first few years of the 20th century. The Fort Wayne News reported in May 1900 that he was "critically ill at present. His ailment is due to old age." By 1903, his condition had declined so much that his son in law W.O. Von Stronder sued to have Henry declared insane.
Jane's
health also slipped badly at around this time. She moved in to the home of her
son James Rice in Fort Wayne, and died there on April 2, 1904, at the age of 70.
The immediate cause was "pneumonia and infirmities of age," said the Fort
Wayne News. The funeral was held in Monroeville.
Bringing a long, honorable life to a close, Henry died of dropsy at age 92 on Feb. 8, 1906, at the Von Stronder home in Van Wert's First Ward. The newspaper said "He died as a christian dies, trusting in the Lord." The Weekly Breeze reported that:
The body was brought to Dixon Sunday morning at 10:30 over the interurbin line
and taken to the Flatrock Lutheran church one mile south of Dixon, where
services were conducted in the presence of the largest assembly of people that
has ever been witnessed in that section on a similar occasion indicating plainly
that the departed was held in the highest esteem by all who ever knew him.
At the close of the services the remains were interred
in the quiet city of the dead near the church, which cemetery the deceased, if
the writers memory serves us right, was one of the founders and in which the
first death in Monroe township was buried incased in a coffin hewn from a walnut
log by the hands of the subject of this sketch.
The funeral was preached by Rev. Rauch, with a reading of Henry's obituary that had been published in the Van Wert newspaper, and with music by the Dixon choir. Today, there is no grave marker for Henry at the Flat Rock Cemetery, though foster daughter Bell rests there, as do many of Henry's first set of in-laws, the Bowers family.
For
one reason or another, at the funeral, Henry's two wives were mentioned in the
obituary reading, but not the third. This incensed Rachel (Mrs.
Press) Carrier, the daughter of the third wife. She fired off a hot letter to the editor of the Weekly Breeze,
defending her late mother's honor:
I would like to make mention of a circumstance that occurred at the Flat Rock
Church at the funeral of Henry Miner, Sunday. As we are the most popular people
of our community, deem it a disgrace to our community that the way the Van
Stronder family wrote up the obituary which was read of the deceased. They never
made mention of my mother, Mrs. Henry Miner, his last wife... It looked as
though she wasn't worthy of being spoken of...
I can also say there is people living near Monroeville,
Grandma Bell, Mrs. Sam Isenbergers mother, an only aunt of my mothers that is
living; John Fry, John Goiley, brotherinlaws [sic] of hers and others have known
her from child-hood up and will say mother has been always considered a lady in
every respect... I consider it right and just for the living to speak for the
dead when it is necessary.
The reaction of Mrs. Von
Stronder, Henry's daughter, to this allegation is unknown. Judging from a study of the Weekly Breeze
published in the following weeks, she chose not to respond, at
least in print.
In 1990, Henry was mentioned twice in the book by Floyd O'Daffer, History of Van Wert County.
Henry's
grave apparently is not marked today. A search of Flat Rock Cemetery in August 2002,
by cousins Karen Wagonrod and Eugene Podraza (seen here), and again in
May 2009 by cousins Bill and Gloria Carey and Mark Miner, proved
fruitless.
Copyright © 2001-2002, 2007, 2009 Mark A. Miner