Orville
Baldwin Minerd
(1885-1943)
Orville
Baldwin Minerd was born on Aug. 5, 1885 at Moyer, Fayette County, PA, the
son of Azaniah "Melvin" and Harriet
(Baldwin) Minerd. As a
one-year-old, he left Western Pennsylvania and traveled with his parents and grandparents to Kansas,
becoming a pioneer settler of the town of Pittsburg.
Orville married Ethel Turley (1895-1972). They had three children -- Helen June Holcomb, Norma Lee Swope and Harriet Ruby Smith-Townsend-Jones.
The
Minerds are seen here, with Ethel holding baby
Helen, and Orville sporting a cast. How he broke his arm or wrist is unknown.
According to one of his granddaughters, Orville "was always the clown in a crowd. He loved to act silly to embarrass people."
Orville was employed in maintenance services for the Kansas Gas & Electric Company. In about 1930, he and Ethel moved to Mulberry, near Pittsburg.
The Pittsburg Sun once said that Orville was "well known [in Mulberry] and in Pittsburg."
Circa 1947, daughters Norma (left), Helen (center) and Ruby
On the back of the comedic photo seen
here, Orville himself jokingly wrote: "My name is Orville and I live on
Breezy Hill," a reference to a well-known gathering place for local
bootleggers and moonshiners. This photo is considered one of the family's
favorites.
In February 1943, at age 57, Orville showed symptoms of illness. Said his obituary in the Sun, "[He] had been in good health but had suffered several severe nosebleeds this past week…. He was in good spirits tonight and had been laughing and joking with his family just prior to his death." He suffered a heart attack at home, and died on Feb. 19, 1943.
His obituary, seen here, was carried in the Pittsburg Sun.
Ethel outlived Orville by nearly 30 years.
She later married a man named Ports. When she died in 1972, she was buried
beside Orville in the Mt. Olive Cemetery in Pittsburg.
For more information, contact granddaughter Melinda (Swope) Brooksher, who attended our 2002 national Minerd-Miner-Minor Reunion. In doing so, she was the first member of her branch in 116 years to return to Uniontown and Fayette County. On this historic visit, among other things, she visited the site of her great-great grandfather's hotel at the Fayette Springs resort, and saw the bright red stains where iron-filled spring waters still flow from the hillside. She also placed a flower on the grave of her infant great-great grand-uncle, Jonathan Smalley Minerd, who died in 1852, the oldest known Minerd-Miner-Minor family grave marker in Western Pennsylvania. (Click here to see a close-up view.) She brought a small vial of earth from the boy's grave back to Kansas and lovingly spread it on the grave of his mother, Rebecca (Smalley) Minerd.
Copyright © 2000, 2002 Mark A. Miner