Bio-Minerd, JamesSheehan

James Minerd was born on March 9, 1835 near Scio, Harrison County, OH, the son of John and Barbara (Shaeffer) Minerd Jr. He was a pioneer of western Ohio and eastern Indiana, and outlived his wife and most of their children. He was the second in a line of five generations of Minerds to own the family farm on the Indiana-Ohio border.

When James was age five, in 1840, he and his parents left Harrison County. Using "a good team of horses and a substantial wagon," a newspaper once said, they traveled across the state, a "very tedious and slow" journey. The family settled in Van Wert County, OH, and in 1845 moved to a farm along the Ohio state line in Allen County, IN.

Seen at right, the busy-haired and bearded James stands on the steps of a family home.

First arriving as a boy on the state line farm, James found one particular young tree that was so thin he could tie it in a knot. As an old man, he was photographed leaning on the tree, which had since grown to three times his width. It's said that as a boy, James spoke German at home until he was old enough to attend school with his English-speaking friends.

On Jan. 20, 1859, James married Martha Jane Sheehan (1839-1916). They had four children -- Emma Sedora Minerd, Louisa Jane Minerd, Daniel L. Miner and John Reuben Minerd.

In 1853, when his brother in law Elihu Tilbury died, James took the widowed Amy and her two young sons Mentzer and Corwin by horseback to the home farm, and they stayed with him for the next six years until the sister married again.

When the federal census was taken in 1870, James' 17-year-old nephew Corwin Tilbury was residing in their home and working on their farm. The 1880 federal census of Indiana shows an "Adopted" daughter, nine-year-old Catherine Miner, living in the family home. Catherine's fate is unknown.

Sadly, on May 12, 1870, daughter Louisa passed away at age five. The cause of her death at such a young age is not known. She was buried in what would become the family plot at Stephenson's graveyard (now known as Sugar Ridge Cemetery. Her stylish marker, spelled "Loiza," and seen at left, was still legible after more than 130 years when photographed in 2002.

Some 18 years later, on Jan. 25, 1888, the Minerds lost their 28-year-old daughter Emma Minerd, also of unknown causes. She was laid to rest in the family plot at Sugar Ridge. Her badly faded grave marker also was still barely legible circa 2002.

James' father lived to the ripe old age of 98. According to a newspaper article, James "tenderly and nobly took care and ministered to the wants of his aged father through all of his cares and afflictions in his declining years." When the father died in 1898, James and all but one of his living siblings attended the funeral. Under the terms of the father's will, James received the 73-acre state line farm, an important move to keep the valuable property in the family.

Close-up and faraway -- James Minerd leans against a cottonwood tree that was once a sapling he could tie into a knot when settling as pioneer boy on the Ohio-Indiana border in the 1840s.

Seen here, the family cat poses on the family mailbox, addressed "R.F.D. #1, Box 15." The road where this box stood marked the border between Allen County, IN and Van Wert County, OH.

Just after Christmas 1890, the Minerds lost yet another adult child, daughter in law Cora, wife of Daniel, to typhoid fever. Daniel and Cora's only daughter died just a few months later. Then, in 1893, the family suffered the grisly and tragic death of Daniel himself. After taking a horse and buggy out to another town to conduct business, Daniel went on a drinking binge. That night, as he drove home, Daniel slipped from the cart in an apparent stupor, and his head caught between the cart and the wheel. Said the Monroeville (IN) Weekly Breeze:

It was about midnight when his fate was discovered by his father, ... who was awakened from his sleep by the neighing of a horse, and upon getting up, and going to the door he observed the horse Daniel had always drove, hitched to the cart standing at the barnyard gate. He went out and as he came closer to the cart, a most horrible sight met his gaze. The lifeless body of his son was lying in the cart with his head still between the thill and the wheel, with blood and brains oozing from a horrible gash in the back of his head which had been rubbed in no doubt by the turning of the wheel.
After regaining somewhat from the horrible shock that met his gaze, the father tenderly picked up the lifeless form up in his arms and carried it into the house which certainly was a trying act for him to withstand.

James escaped death but suffered painfully in late August 1917 when the Minerds' house "burned to the ground with all contents," reported the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel. In a top-headline story, the Sentinel told readers that:

[James] Minerd is in a serious condition and may died as a result of burns received... Members of the family barely escaped with their lives by jumping from the upstairs windows. [He] was burned about the neck and together with the shock and his advanced age, he is reported in a very serious condition. Mrs. Minerd and two children escaped injury by jumping. Mr. Minerd had arisen early and built a fire in the kitchen range before going to the barn to do the chores and it is presumed a defective flue was the immediate cause, for in a short time the house was in flames and beyond control, although they succeeded in saving the surrounding buildings.

Fortunately, James survived his burns, and lived for another dozen years. Little, however, is known of their final years. James willed the farm to a third generation Minerd owner, his son John "Reuben" Minerd.

Martha died on May 30, 1916, at the age of 77. She was laid to rest in the Sugar Ridge Cemetery.

James outlived her by 13 years, and was cared for by son John and his children. Over the years, judging by old family photographs, James visited or was visited by his nephews James Wesley Pring, Mentzer Tilbury and Corwin Tilbury, and nieces of the Krick family.

James passed away on July 5, 1929. Nephew Corwin Tilbury, who had lived on their farm as a teenager, traveled with his wife from their home in Pittsburgh, PA to attend the funeral. Writing from Chicago, niece Leona L. Thorne sent Reuben a heartfelt letter, saying:

Uncle Jim lived to a marvelous old age, a happy and useful life, a devoted father, a loyal son, a good neighbor. I have a keen recollection of him when he was perhaps 45 or 50 years old, always genial, gracious and friendly. We have always held for him an enduring affection. I know that his declining years have been happy with you and Alice and the children...

Minerd farm in the 1940s or '50s. The road marks the Ohio-Indiana state line.

James and Martha are buried in the same cemetery as all four of their children -- the Sugar Ridge Cemetery -- carved out of a cornfield beside Old Route 30.