Mary
(Minerd) Whetzel
(1853-1926)
Mary
(Minerd) Whetzel was born on May 24, 1853 in Wharton Twp., Fayette County,
PA, the daughter of James and Sarah (Walters) Minerd
Sr. She and her sister married two Whetzel brothers.
Mary was married to John "Homer" Whetzel (1850-1900). Their children were William Whetzel, Elmer Maurice Whetzel and one other child who has not yet been identified.
The Minerd and Whetzel families were close. Mary's sister Mariah married Homer's brother, Delmar Whetzel. And Mary's widowed sister in law, Harriet (Marshall) Minerd, married Homer's brother Nelson.
Mary
and Homer lived at Dunbar, Leisenring
and Brownsville, Fayette County, where he worked as a blacksmith, likely in local coal
mines. Seen here is a rare photograph of the nearby Leisenring No. 2
Mine.
Homer and brother in law Isaac F. Minerd made news in 1889 when they lived in Dunbar. The Connellsville Keystone Courier reported that they:
...engaged in a lively fracas.... They had visited Connellsville during the day, and cheered their spirits with Hungarian whisky. They took a quantity with them to keep up their cheer on the way home. When they reached home a dispute arose over money and property. To settle it the men went to the street. Whetzel was in front. He turned suddenly and dealt Minard a blow over the head with a bottle of the whisky, knocking him senseless. Whetzel, thinking he had killed Minard, disappeared.
On Jan. 18, 1900, Homer died of pneumonia at age 49. He was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Tragedy struck in 1913-1914, when son and daughter in law Elmer and Hazel died within months of each other. Their passing left five young children alone, all under the age of eight. One of the orphans, Edith, was adopted by cousin Albert and Etta Inks, son of Mary's sister Minerva (Minerd) Inks, while Gertrude was adopted in 1917 by Percy D. and Laura H. Hagan of Uniontown, PA. The fates of the other children are unknown.
On Nov. 17, 1926, Mary died in South Brownsville. She was buried at nearby Redstone Cemetery. Her sister Mariah also is buried at Redstone, but the grave is unmarked.
William and Kathryn's grave at Redstone Cemetery
Son William (1887-1964) married Kathryn (1888-1969). They raised their orphaned nieces Hazel Elizabeth Whetzel and Bertha Mae Whetzel. At some point, after 1929, they moved to Fairmont, Marion County, WV, where William was employed by Fairmont Auto supplies owned by Wallace D. and Anna (Hagen) Craig. William apparently later purchased the store. William died in 1964, and Kathryn joined him in eternity in 1969. They are buried in Redstone Cemetery.
For more information on this line, contact Marilyn (Jenkins) Prinzing.
Copyright © 2000, 2002, 2007-2008 Mark A. Miner