Jesse
Minerd
(1825-1860)
Jesse Minerd was born in 1825 in Fayette County, PA, one of 15 children of Henry and Hester (Sisler) Minerd. His life was cut short by a tragic accident.
Jesse married Sarah Smalley (1827- ? ), the daughter of Jonathan and Margaret (Shaffer) Smalley. (Jesse's brother, Samuel Minerd, married Sarah's sister, Rebecca Smalley.)
The Minerds lived at Farmington, Fayette County, where Jesse worked as a four miller. Their children were Hannah Maria Gaither, Sabina A. Minerd, Daniel Lucas Minerd, Mary Jane Miller and Margaret H. Minerd.
Tragically,
February 1860, Jesse was "killed accidentally." The nature of the
accident is unknown, other than it was "sudden," according to the 1860
Fayette County Mortality Schedule, seen here.
Jesse's burial site also is un-recorded, but he may rest in the Rush Cemetery which adjoined the Smalley farm. The reason for suspecting so is that his father in law, Jonathan Smalley, was buried there in 1863, just a few years later.
On the 1860 census, Sarah was listed as a "widow" at age 33.
On June 13, 1869, after nine years alone, Sarah married Frederick Nicolay (Nicklow), who was many years older. They lived on a 66-acre farm near Ohiopyle. They had two children, one of whom died in infancy, and the other was Ida E. Nicolay, born in 1870.
The fates of Sarah and Frederick are unknown. Much of this information was provided in the 1956 manuscript, Record of the Smalley Family, by J.C. Tate and Alverda St. Clair Kennedy, as retyped in 1961 by Dale R. Hall. A copy is in the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives.
Ida married Milton R. Spiker ( ? - ? ). The Spikers resided in Ohiopyle and had two children -- Fred Spiker and Gertrude Estella Speicher. Gertrude moved in with Ida's infirm half sisters Sabina and Margaret Minerd in the 1910s to help give care and assistance.
Circa 1917, Ida was married to her second husband, Charles C. Anderson (1881- ? ). She was 11 years older than her spouse. The Andersons resided in Rochester, Beaver County, PA. By 1920, they had moved across the Oho River to Monaca, Beaver County, making their home on Washington Avenue. That year, when the federal census was taken, Charles was employed as a teamster, performing "general hauling." Their son Fred, age 24, was a shipping clerk in an electrical manufacturing business in the Monaca area. The 1930 census shows Charles and Ida remaining on Washington Avenue in Monaca, with him employed as a driver for a coal dealer.
Copyright © 2000, 2002, 2008 Mark A. Miner