Wilbert Regis
"Patsy" Minerd
(1896-1974)
Wilbert
Regis "Patsy" Minerd was born on Nov. 7, 1896 in Uniontown, Fayette County, PA, the son of James
L. and Catherine (Whalen) Minerd. He was an influential labor union
organizer in the coal industry in the 1930s who went on to a career in law
enforcement and school board leadership in the Uniontown area.
Patsy married Kathryn "Cash" Kelly (1900-1988), the daughter of Jack and Mary E. (Davin) Kelly. They had five children -- John M. Minerd, Joanna Mulqueen, Gail Kelton, Joyce Verbanic and Regis J. Minerd.
The family resided in Republic, a coal mine patch town near Uniontown, Fayette County, where he was a laborer in the local coal mines of Republic Steel Corporation. They were members of the Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church of Republic.
He registered for the military draft during World War I, and listed his occupation as Republic Iron and Steel Company.
Circa 1933, Patsy was elected president of the local coal miners union at Republic during a wildcat strike that resulted from the passage of the National Recovery Act with its "codes of fair competition" and use of teargas by deputies of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. He is said to have been "one of the principal insurgent union leaders of the strike" and part of a delegation of union officials who met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House on Nov. 3, 1933, to discuss an FDR-brokered settlement of the dispute.
Republic's fan house and coal tipple
Patsy was named assistant
county detective of Fayette County, PA in 1936, with his office in the jail of
the County Courthouse in Uniontown. The stately stone jail building, covered with
ivy, is seen at right. At the time of the appointment, his cousin, Dr.
Harold Daniel Minerd, was serving as County Treasurer, with offices in the
same complex of buildings. This era was the high point of political influence
for the family at large in Western Pennsylvania.
He was promoted to chief county detective on March 6, 1939, as District Attorney James A. Reilly "appealed for a concerned county-wide war on crime," said the Connellsville Daily Courier. Later, he served as a state mine inspector (1960s) and a justice of the peace for Redstone Township.
With
a longtime commitment to public education, Patsy served as a school board director of
Redstone Township Schools in the mid-1940s. The Redstone High School yearbook
cover for 1946 is seen here. He also was a member of the Lions Club.
Kathryn, nicknamed "Cash," was a longtime school teacher in Redstone Township schools, and taught for 32 years. She is known to have taken classes at California University of Pennsylvania in 1923-1926. She also was postmaster at the Republic Post Office for two years. She was a member of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, National Education Association, Catholic Daughters of America and Ancient Order of Hibernians.
Patsy died in Pittsburgh's Mercy Hospital at the age of 78 on May 20, 1974. He was laid to rest in Lafayette Memorial Park near Uniontown. At the time, he was survived by 17 grandchildren.
Cash died at the age of 87 in Brownsville General Hospital on Oct. 30, 1988. By that time, the number of their descendants had grown to 19 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Copyright © 2007-2008 Mark A. Miner