Morris
Minerd
(1861-1886)
Morris
Minerd was born in 1861 in Wharton Twp., Fayette County, PA, the son of James
and Sarah (Walters) Minerd Sr.
Morris married Harriet Marshall (1866-1951), a native of Virginia, in February 1882. The ceremony was performed by Rev. R..C. Morgan, with the news apparently published in the Connellsville Keystone Courier.
The Minerds had at least one daughter, Mary Susan Russell, and possibly another daughter, Nevada Rice, plus an infant who died young.
In June 1883, Morris acquired an 88-acre tract in Bullskin Twp., Fayette County. Just two years later, he and Harriet sold the tract to George H. Swearingen.
The Minerds then resided in Dunbar, where Morris was a member of the Fayette Assembly, No. 7,450, of the K. of L. of Dunbar, Fayette County.
Tragedy struck the young family when Morris died on Nov. 22, 1886, at the age of 25 years, six months and 25 days. He is buried at the Hopwood Cemetery near Uniontown, PA. His grave marker, seen here, is still barely legible.
Morris's lodge brothers, led by Fred G. Smith, Joseph Wilson and William Goff, mourned their "devoted member and Brother," by publishing a Memoriam in the Dec. 9, 1886 Uniontown Genius of Liberty. It stated that "although we mourn the death of a Brother, yet we own and acknowledge the sovereign hand of a righteous God in the dispensation of His providence, who has a right to do as he will with his own. Therefore we sorrow not as those who have no hope, but believe that though clinging to life, to be with Christ is far better. Therefore we commend the bereaved friends, wife and children, to the love and compassion of a tender and sympathizing Savior, who heareth even the ravens when they cry."
Harriet was thus widowed at age 22. She moved to
Brownsville, Fayette County, where two years later she married Nelson A. Whetzel
(1855-1927), seen here. Nelson, born on March 3, 1855, was the son of
Stephen and Jane Whetsel. The Minerds and Whetzels were especially closely knit.
Nelson's brothers Homer Whetzel and Delmar Whetzel had married Morris' sisters Mary
Minerd
and Mariah Minerd, respectively.
Harriet and Nelson went on to have six children -- Ada Newcomer, John Whetzel, Nelson A. Whetzel, Bella Walsh and Howard Whetzel. Harriet was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Brownsville.
They suffered the death of married daughter Nevada Rice died in 1910.
Nelson died at home at 424 Cross Street in Brownsville on Oct. 12, 1927. Harriet died there also on June 21, 1951. They are buried at the Redstone Cemetery.
The marriage of Morris and Harriet was remembered in a "Looking Back" column in the Connellsville Daily Courier on Feb. 13, 1932.
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Mill Street in snowy New Salem in the early 1900s |
Daughter Mary Susan Minerd (1885-1977?), from the first marriage, married George Murtaugh Russell (1875-1955), the son of Joseph T. and Mary Catherine (Spellman) Russell. She was age 27, and he 37, at the time of marriage. George was a bookkeeper of New Salem, near Uniontown. They apparently had no children. The Russells lived on Wood Street in Uniontown in 1920 when the federal census was taken. That year, George worked as a bookkeeper for a building supply company, and Mary as a merchant in a millinery store. Cora Baskins and Carry Stronko boarded in their residence in 1920. They resided in McKeesport, near Pittsburgh in 1927 and in Uniontown in 1951. When the federal census was taken in 1930, the Russells made their home on First Street in Duquesne, near Pittsburgh, where George was employed as a bookkeeper in a plumbing shop, and Mary was a bookkeeper at a fuel company. That year, brush salesman Neal B. Cook was a lodger in their home. Mary and George lived at New Salem in their later years. George passed away at the age of 80 at Uniontown Hospital on June 7, 1955, with his obituary published in the Connellsville Daily Courier. Mary is thought to have died in December 1977, but this needs to be confirmed.
Copyright © 2000, 2008 Mark A. Miner