Charles
Claudius Minor
(1868-1934)
Charles Claudius ‘Claude’ Minor was born on Aug.26, 1868 in Brownsville, Licking County, OH, the son of Daniel L. and Frances (Vreeland) Minor.
When he was 4, Claude and his parents moved to the coal and clay mining town of Shawnee, Perry County, OH. He worked there as a laborer.
On New Year’s Day 1895, Claude married Minnie Ashbrook, of Somerset, Perry County, by the hand of W.W. Trout. In her words, at the time she "was a person of delicate health, physically weak and frail of body…"
The
following year, in November 1896, Claude nearly killed his friend Henry
Worthington in a freak hunting accident. Said the Shawnee Advocate
(reprinted in the New Lexington Tribune):
[They] were engaged in duck hunting at Licking reservoir. They were approaching a flock and had previously decided in what manner they would fire. Worthington was rowing the boat and Miner was to have first shot. Miner was standing in the boat with his gun pointed, and as they had come very near to the flock, Worthington, believing that Miner had decided not to shoot, started to raise up in order to take aim himself, when Miner’s gun went off and his hat was filled with shot. Henry keeled over apparently dead enough, but fortunately, aside from being horribly frightened and slightly burned with powder, he escaped uninjured.
The marriage was rocky, and Minnie accused her husband of "idleness" and that he had "neglected to provide [her] with food and clothing and the common necessaries of life."
In
the winter of 1899-1900, the Minors resided at Zanesville, Muskingum County, OH.
The town's Main Street is seen at right in a rare old pen and ink sketch
of the era.
He often left her alone while he went out in the evenings. In March 1900, she alleged, Claude "compelled her to remove to Columbus, Ohio, and live in a disreputable part of the City, namely the corner of 4th, and Spring Streets where her friends refused to call on her…"
The following month, dismayed, she left and went to her father’s home in Somerset. She then sued him for divorce in the Probate Court of Perry County. After reviewing the evidence, the court found that Claude had been “guilty of extreme cruelty” and granted the divorce.
Claude’s second wife was Edith G. (?). Nothing is known of her, except that she was living at the time of Claude's death.
At age 64, Claude began suffering from prostate and bladder cancer. He battled for more than a year, until his death in Shawnee on Aug. 21, 1934. He was buried in Shawnee Cemetery.
Copyright © 2002, 2005 Mark A. Miner