Bio-Minerd, Ralph C-Summy

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Ralph Charles Minerd Sr.
(1894-1984)

Ralph Charles Minerd was born in 1894 in Bridgeport, near Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, PA, the son of Charles Marion and Sabina (Pierce) Minerd. His and his family's lives was greatly influenced by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

At a young age, Ralph suffered a freak injury when he "had his face badly burned while lighting a firecracker," reported the Connellsville (PA) Daily Courier on July 9, 1906. The family lived at Bridgeport at the time.

On June 27, 1913, at the age of 19, Ralph married 19-year-old Violet May Summy (1894-1973), the daughter of Ezra Summy. They eloped to Cumberland, Allegany County, MD, where the wedding ceremony was performed.

The Minerds' seven children were Alice "Marie" Plannett-Price, Dorothy Mae Podraza, Pauline Minerd, Betty Irene Hutter, Charles Ralph Minerd Jr., Robert Ezra Minerd and James Allen Minerd. Sadly, daughter Pauline died in infancy in January, 1919, when the family lived in Garfield, near Pittsburgh, PA.

Ralph worked as a tipple man at coal mines at Buckeye (1914), Garfield (1919), Belltown (1927), Bolivar, Banning and Bobtown in Western Pennsylvania. They also lived at Jennerstown (1923, where he was a policeman), Jenners Cross Roads, Mt. Pleasant and Norvelt, PA.

At Belltown, Ralph played baseball for the company team, and was scouted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. His brothers William Mullen Minerd and Harry Oliver Minerd Sr. also were talented baseball players for local coal mine company teams.

Ralph, seated, center, with hands together, and fellow players on a coal mine baseball team, likely the Belltown club

At Mt. Pleasant, in the late 1920s, the Minerds' house was seriously damaged in a windstorm. In the 1930s, they were among the first 50 families to be accepted to live at "Westmoreland Homesteads," later named "Norvelt" in honor of the town's political sponsor, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The Minerd house is seen here. In this house, sons Robert and James were baptized by their uncle, Rev. William M. Minerd.

To see other early Norvelt photos, from the Library of Congress, click here.

The town was created and financed by the federal government, during the Depression, a pioneering effort to provide private home ownership for unemployed families. Violet was a member of the Norvelt Women's Club, which invited Mrs. Roosevelt to attend community fairs and building dedications.

On May 21, 1937, the First Lady indeed paid a call. She drove her own car, and later mentioned the visit in her popular coast-to-coast newspaper column, "My Day." The Connellsville Daily Courier said that "Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, wife of the Secretary of the Treasury, sat with Mrs. Roosevelt in the front seat of the sedan when the party went through..." Documents showing Mrs. Roosevelt's personal interest in Norvelt are in our family archive, provided by the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY.

Ralph and Violet celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on June 27, 1938 with a supper party at their home in Westmoreland Homesteads. Said the Daily Courier: "A large cake, topped with a bride and groom, formed the centerpiece on the table and the rooms were profusely decorated in garden flowers." Attending were Mr. and Mrs. James Ray and son Gaylord of Bellaire, Ohio, Rev. and Mrs. William Minerd and Mr. and Mrs. Gearhart of Somerset; Mrs. A. Fenton and daughters Mary and Ruth of Pleasant Unity; Mrs. and Mrs. Ezra Summy, James Summy, Francis Podraza and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Foust and son, Mount Pleasant, together with the six children of the Minerds."

The Minerds later moved to a home on Park Avenue in Mt. Pleasant, where they resided during their later years.

Violet died on March 5, 1973. She was 79 years of age.

Ralph outlived his wife by 11 years. He died in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, FL on Dec. 31, 1984. They are buried together at Mt. Joy Cemetery, Mount Pleasant.

The Minerds' well-tended grave at Mt. Joy Cemetery, Mount Pleasant

~ Daughter Alice Marie (Minerd) Planett Price ~

Daughter Alice "Marie" Minerd (1914- ? ) was born at Buckeye.

She married James Planett on Feb. 4, 1934, at Connellsville, Fayette County, PA. They had one daughter, Penny Planett.

Marie later married Robert Price, and resided in Cockneyville, near Baltimore, MD. Sadly, daughter Penny passed away at a young age in 1973.

~ Daughter Dorothy (Minerd) Podraza ~

Daughter Dorothy Minerd (1917-2006) married Francis Joseph Podraza (1914-1986), seen at right. Their wedding took place in Unity Twp., Westmoreland County, on Oct. 16, 1937. They first resided in Mt. Pleasant and Scottdale, Westmoreland County, where their three children were born - Eugene Francis Podraza, Rosemary Wadlinger and Arlene Stover.

When the vehicle she was driving was struck by a drunk driver, which caused her to be wheelchair bound, she refused to give in to the pain and inconvenience. The family moved to Levittown, Bucks County, PA, where Francis obtained employment at U.S. Steel Corporation's Fairless Works. (Dorothy's brother Jim also labored at the Fairless Works.) Upon arriving in Levittown in 1954, there were dirt roads and telephone party lines. The family attended Faith Reformed Church.

Francis was ill for many years, and passed away in 1986.

Dorothy outlived him by two decades. In 2000 and 2002, she attended the national Minerd-Miner-Minor Reunions at Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, a mile from where her great-grandfather, Eli Minerd, had been born in 1831. Dorothy passed away at age 89 on July 3, 2006. A memorial service was held two and a half months later, on Sept. 17, 2006, at the church where she had been a longtime member.

Grandson Eugene F. Podraza has been researching the extended Minerd-Miner-Minor family since 1989. He primarily has been responsible for exploring our German roots and identifying the pioneers' offspring who themselves were pioneers of Ohio, West Virginia and the Midwest. Click here to see his paper, Our German Connection. Since 1990, he and Minerd.com founder Mark A. Miner have traveled together on 16 annual late August research trips to Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Maryland and Western Pennsylvania, exploring distant branches of the extended Minerd-Miner-Minor clan. They also have done several joint research projects in the National Archives in Washington, DC.

~ Daughter Betty (Minerd) Hutter ~

Daughter Betty Minerd (1923-2009) married Edison J. Hutter on Aug. 2, 1941, in Winchester, Frederick County, VA. They had four children -- Edward Joseph "E.J." Hutter Jr., Timothy A. Hutter, David A. Hutter and Deborah Hutter.

Betty "worked at the Norvelt Clothing Factory," said the Connellsville Daily Courier, and "prior to retirement, she worked as a custodian for Greater Latrobe District." Edison was the second-generation owner of Hutter's Garage, founded in 1930 in Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County.

After Edison's untimely death in 1964, their son Edward "E.J." Hutter became owner, a service that he and his wife Janet continue today. The Latrobe (PA) Bulletin recently featured the business in a prominent article, seen here. In 2002, she attended a dedication of a new state historical marker at Norvelt, on Sept. 8, 2002.

Betty passed away at the age of 86 on June 22, 2009, at Select Specialty Hospital in Latrobe, Westmoreland County. She was laid to rest beside her husband in Mt. Joy Cemetery near Mt. Pleasant.

~ Son Charles Ralph Minerd Jr. ~

Son Charles Ralph Minerd Jr. (1925-1982) was married to Patricia Shuey. They had two children -- Charles E. Minerd and Joyce Minerd.

He worked at Robertshaw Controls in Youngwood. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy on the U.S.S. Mansfield, one of the first ships to arrive in Tokyo Bay. He was a member of American Legion Post 446 of Mount Pleasant.

Charles passed away at age 56, in Monsour Medical Center, Jeannette, Westmoreland County, on Sept. 21, 1982. He was buried near his parents in Mount Joy Cemetery.

Their son Charles "Chuck" Minerd, also nicknamed "Radar," was quoted in newspaper articles in the late 1990s when he was president of the Westmoreland County Chaptter of ABATE, A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education, a national organization of motorcycle riders protesting mandatory helmet laws.

Robertshaw Controls, where Robert and Charles Minerd labored

~ Son Robert Ezra Minerd Sr. ~

Son Robert Ezra Minerd Sr. (1927-1996) was born when the family resided in Somerset County, PA. During World War II, he was a private first class in the 18th Infantry in Germany. After the war's end, he married Almerta Gradler on May 27, 1948, in Winchester, VA.

The Minerds had four children -- Merti Jo Owens Hurley, Robert Ezra Minerd Jr., Diane Minerd and David Minerd.

Robert worked at Westinghouse Electric and at Robertshaw Controls in Youngwood, Westmoreland County, before moving to Florida, where he was employed by Eastern Airlines.

After Almerta's passing in 1987, Bob married again, to Carol Adele Hanson (a.k.a. Mundy), on Sept. 2, 1994, in Citrus County, FL. In the 1980s, Bob and Carol met and began a friendship with a second cousin, Penn and Jane (Sage) Minerd of Long Island, NY, who had a winter home in the same community in the Fort Lauderdale area.

At the age of 69, Bob died on Dec. 12, 1996, at home in Dunnellon. His obituary was published in his old hometown newspaper, the Greensburg (PA) Tribune Review.

Daughter Merti Jo Minerd married George Monroe Owens in September 1967 in Broward County, FL. On July 22, 1989, she married again, to David Bruce Hurley.

Son Robert Ezra Minerd Jr. married Jean Kay Foster in Broward County on Nov. 24, 1976.

~ Son James Minerd ~

Son James Minerd married Margaret Cowan on Aug. 11, 1950, in Cumberland, MD. During the Korean War, he spent three years in the 28th Division of the Pennsylvania National Guard and two years in the U.S. Army, 5th Division. The Minerds resided in the Philadelphia area, where he worked at the U.S. Steel Fairless Works. They had three daughters -- Janice Minerd, Cynthia Minerd and Connie Minerd.

James attended the 2005 National Minerd-Miner-Minor Reunion in Kingwood, PA. Grandson Philip Lepre, a U.S. Army veteran of the Gulf War, was pictured and quoted in a Bucks County Courier Times article in 1993, when he spoke with students at Walter Miller Elementary School about his wartime experiences. James passed away in Dunnellon, FL, on Dec. 9, 2006.

In 2006, great-grandson Jason Aungst served in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps.