Daniel
Minor Jr.
(1813?-1868)
Daniel
Minor Jr. was born on June 18, 1813, or June 10, 1814,
in Perry County, OH, the son of Daniel
and Mary Minor Sr. He became a successful businessman in Columbus, OH, and
has the largest grave monument found to date in the clan.
His mother died when Daniel was an infant, and his father married Margaret "Peggy" Fluckey. In 1835, when Daniel was 22, his parents moved to Cardington, Morrow County, OH. He remained behind and migrated to Columbus, the capitol city of Ohio, likely around the same time.
On Christmas Eve 1835, Daniel married Harriet Jewett (1815-1842). Their only child, born in Columbus in 1838, was Lucy E. Wydman. After seven years of marriage, Harriet died, in 1842, at the age of 27. She was laid to rest in Columbus's prestigious Greenlawn Cemetery.
Daniel later married widow Jane Ann (Duff) Langdon (1821-1909), a native of Scotland who had come to America at about age four. Jane brought two children to the marriage -- Byron William Langdon and Matilda Ann Hayden.
Daniel and Jane went on to have six more children of their own -- Edward D. Minor, Florence Amelia Minor, Flora E. Miner, Daniel Minor III, Mary "Eva" Perry and Charles "Herbert" Minor. Sadly, three of their children died young -- Florence in 1840, Flora in 1851 and Daniel III (date unknown), and they are buried in the family plot in Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus.
The
Minors resided in Columbus, OH, where Daniel was a
carpenter, trunk and box manufacturer, and prominent carriage maker. He and his
brother-in-law, Ezra Booth, were business partners. A manuscript history of Ezra Booth
states that in
1841 the two men "established the BOOTH and MINOR Carriage Factory.
When Mr. MINOR retired, Ezra brought his brother Henry F. … into the
business as a partner" where they "employ forty men … and make all
varieties of buggies and light carriages, of first-class quality and style of
work." Research of city
directories shows that the factory was located on the corner of Gay and Third
Streets for at least 35 years. The
rare pen and ink sketch seen here shows "Buggy Factories" in
Columbus during that era. The manufacture of buggies was once the third largest
industry in the city, behind coal and iron.
Daniel and Booth are mentioned in the History of Franklin County
and in 1857 they served together as
trustees of the 150-member Wesley Chapel near Columbus. It's believed that Booth
and Daniel's brother Francis Miner were involved
in the construction of Wesley Chapel, according to the 1892 book, History
of the City of Columbus. A rare old postcard view of the chapel is seen
at right.
Daniel owned property at 38 North Broadway in Clinton Twp., Franklin County, OH. At some point Jane purchased a town lot in South Chicago, IL. The lot later was willed to daughter in law Elizabeth Minor, widow of Edward. Jane also owned shares of stock of the Hayden Stone Block Machine Company, possibly in connection with her son in law, Mr. Hayden.
On Christmas Eve 1868, Daniel passed away at the age of 55. The only clue to the cause of his
untimely death is an index card at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus -- it says he died from "Injury from limb." In
a brief obituary, the Columbus Daily Ohio State Journal noted that he was
"in the 56th year of his age. His funeral will take place from Wesley
Chapel on Sabbath morning, at 11 o'clock. Friends of the family invited to
attend."
He and his wives and several children and grandchildren are buried
underneath a tall, prominent marker in Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus, OH, seen
here today under the watchful eye of cousin and longtime family researcher Eugene
Podraza. (Note -- Booth and his wife and several
children are buried in the Minor lot -- he died of a stroke on Nov. 17, 1894.)
In her widowed years, Jane resided at the Great Southern Hotel in Columbus, with her daughter and son in law Eva and O.H. Perry. The hotel was widely advertised to be "Fire Proof."
On May 25, 1909,
Jane passed away at her residence in the hotel (seen at left, in
an old postcard image). Records show that among the
expenses in her final illness were Western Union telegrams to son Byron and
daughter Matilda, informing them of her condition.
In her will, she bequeathed not only property, stock and thousands of dollars in cash but also a writing desk, gold watch, "pansy" picture, garnet pin, "Autumn" landscape picture and a set of books titled Beacon Lights of History.
Stepson Byron Langdon became a lawyer, judge, Indiana congressman and delegate to the 1880 presidential convention, a man of many "firsts" in our family.
Son in law Oliver Hazard Perry was president of the Columbus Board of Trade (forerunner to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce) in 1909.
Copyright
© 2000-2002, 2005, 2007 Mark A. Miner.
Sketch of buggy factories originally appeared in Harper's
New Monthly Magazine (April 1888).