Oliver
Clyde Minerd
(1881-1971)
Oliver
Clyde Minerd was born in 1881 in Fayette County, PA, the son of Isaac
F. and Frances Caroline (Jordan) Minerd.
His mother died when he was 10. As a motherless boy, Oliver went with his father to Virginia, which he loved. Later, when he was about 14, they went to North Dakota, which he hated. Oliver recalled that their North Dakota home featured a rope along a walkway leading to the outhouse for nighttime use, and also a cellar in case of dust storms or tornadoes.
They went on to Montreal and Elmington, VA, returning to Dunbar for good in January 1908.
Oliver worked as a cold roller at a tin plate mill in Connellsville, PA in 1900.
In about 1910, Oliver moved to Aliquippa, Beaver County, to work at the Jones & Laughlin steel mill. He was the youngest man on his crew, and was nicknamed "Babe." Sickened by contaminated drinking water, he returned to Connellsville.
Circa November 1917, he is known to have worked as a butcher in South Connellsville. But that did not last long, and he found permanent employment with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
On June 19, 1912, Oliver married Ella Florence Dawson ( ? -1974) at Cumberland, Allegheny County, MD. He was age 31 at the time.
Their children were Eleanor Brooks, Mary Durst and Virginia Hart.
Oliver stayed with the B&O for many years, working as a water station foreman, and retired in 1947. He was a member of the B&O Veterans Association.
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| B&O yards at Connellsville, with the city as a backdrop, and the Youghiogheny River in the foreground |
Over the Labor Day holiday in 1937, Oliver and Florence and their daughters, along with Florence's brother Irvin Beeman, traveled to Buffalo, NY to visit with Florence's brother Elmer Beeman. They also visited Niagara Falls and drove into Canada. The trip was reported in the Connellsville Daily Courier.
Oliver died in 1971.
Florence died in 1974 in Economy, Beaver County, where daughter Eleanor and her husband Paul Brooks had moved in 1942 when he got a job at the American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel. Oliver and Florence are buried together at Green Ridge Memorial Park in Connellsville.
Copyright © 2000, 2008 Mark A. Miner