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Orville
Baldwin Minerd |
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, Crawford County.
Orville was tall, standing six feet, four inches high, and had a medium build. His eyes were grey, and his hair dark brown. He is listed at age 15 in the R.L. Polk's Pittsburg City Directory for 1910-1911, in his parents' household at 1011 North Fairview, and was employed at that time as a plumber.
Circa 1917, when at age 33 he registered for the military draft during World War I, Orville made his home with his parents at 730 East 7th Street in Pittsburg. At the time, he was employed as a laborer with Kansas Gas and Electric Company.
He
married Ethel Turley
(1895-1972). They had three
daughters -- 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.
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."
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Left to right: daughters Helen, Ruby and Norma |
Orville was employed in maintenance services
for many years for the Kansas Gas & Electric Company. It
would have been a steady position for a rapidly growing industry as these
utility services were delivered to a growing number of homes. His company ID
badge is seen here, bearing his photo and identification number --
14-133.
According
to a granddaughter, Orville "was always the clown in a crowd. He
loved to act silly to embarrass people."
On the back of the comedic photo seen at left, 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 serious illness. Said the Pittsburg 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."
Unfortunately, the bleeding was just prelude to a greater problem. He suffered a heart attack at home, and died on Feb. 19, 1943. His obituary 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,
at the age of 77, Ethel was buried
beside Orville in the Mt. Olive Cemetery in Pittsburg. Her obituary was
published in the Wichita Eagle Beacon.
~ Daughter Norma Lee (Minerd) Swope ~
Daughter Norma Lee
Minerd (1925-1993) was born on March 26, 1925 at Pittsburg.
On July 3, 1946, when she was age 21, she married Frank Junior Swope (1920-1991), the son of James Franklin "Frank" and Vera Brewer (Bolser) Swope. The ceremony took place at the home of Norma's mother by Rev. L. Wayne Sears, pastor of the Methodist church in Pittsburg.
Frank was a police officer in Pittsburg, with their residence in the nearby town of Frontenac. He is seen at left on a patrol motorcycle, with a portable telephone, a forerunner of today's cellular phones.
The Swopes had three daughters.
Frank passed away at the age of 70 on May 4, 1991.
Norma outlived her husband by two years. She died at the age of 68 on Oct. 31, 1993.
She was laid to rest in the Garden of Memories Cemetery.
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The Minerds' graves in Mt. Olive Cemetery, Pittsburg |
~ A Pennsylvania Homecoming ~
For more information, contact granddaughter Melinda (Swope) Brooksher, who attended our 2002 national 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. Be sure to see her moving memoir, "Come Back to Pennsylvania."
Copyright © 2000, 2002, 2010 Mark A. Miner