Bio-Strauch, John Jr

Home

John A. Logan Strauch
(1891-1926)

John A. Logan Strauch was born on April 18, 1891 near Dawson, Fayette County, PA, the son of John and Mary Hester (McKnight) Strauch. He was one of two brothers among many Minerd- Minard- Miner- Minor cousins to be killed in railroad and streetcar accidents.

John was married to Anna C. Moon (1890-1944). They had two sons, Paul "Logan" Strauch and Kenneth Strauch.

John was a laborer for the Pennsylvania Railroad, working in connection with shipments to and from the W.J. Rainey coke operations in the region. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen No. 461, an early union-type organization.

In 1918, the Strauchs lived in McKeesport, near Pittsburgh. By 1920, they had returned to Fayette County.

The 1920 federal census shows John, Anna and their two-year-old son Logan living in South Union Township, near Uniontown, on Braddock Avenue. His occupation was written as "brakeman - railroad." John's widowed sister Dora McKnight, who had lost her husband in World War I just two years earlier, also lived under their roof.

Later, in the 1920s, the family resided in their Braddock Avenue home while John worked away at Clarksville, Greene County, PA.

Tragedy struck suddenly on June 6, 1926, when John was instantly killed in a railroad accident. He was just age 25. The Uniontown Morning Herald of June 7, 1926 reported that John fell:

... between two railroad cars while working on the Monongahela Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Clarksville.... [He] had worked for the railroad for a number of years, at one time working out of the Rainey yards here, and was employed in the Brownsville section at the time of his death. The crew was shifting cars when the accident occurred.

John's news obituary and grave at Dickerson Run Union Cemetery

John was buried in the Strauch family plot at Dickerson Run Cemetery, near Vanderbilt, Fayette County.

More than four years later, on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 14, 1930, John's memory was honored at a memorial service held at the South Brownsville Methodist Episcopal Church on Second Street in South Brownsville. The service involved not only the Railway Trainmen but also the brotherhoods of Locomotive Engineers, Railroad Trainmen and Order of Railway Conductors, as well as the Ladies Auxiliary to the Railway Trainmen. In all, 56 deceased members were memorialized that evening, with their names printed in a special booklet.

A copy of that booklet today is preserved in the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives, and is seen here. (John's name is the very last one on the right-hand page.)

Anna lived for another 18 years, and passed away at her home in the Hazelwood section of Pittsburgh at the age of 54 on Jan. 16, 1944. Following the funeral at the Fisher and Owen Funeral Home in Hazelwood, her remains were returned to Fayette County for burial in the Dickerson Run Cemetery.

~ Son Paul "Logan" Strauch ~

Son Paul "Logan" Strauch (1918-1994) married Delilah Madison in about 1938. Their children were John Logan Strauch, Arthur Strauch and Nancy Micher.

They were married for 56 years. He was "a veteran of World War II and was a retired employee of the former Pennsylvania Railroad," said the Uniontown Herald-Standard. He is believed to have been Assistant to the President of the Pennsy, and to have attended a retirement dinner of a Monongahela Railway Company employee, and pictured in a related newspaper article.

Circa 1994, they lived in Allison Park, Allegheny County, PA.

He died at Macrina Nursing Home in Uniontown on Sept. 29, 1994, and was buried at Dickerson Run Cemetery.

Delilah survived her husband by 16 years. She passed away on March 13, 2000, at the age of 81. She rests with her husband in Dickerson Run.

Paul's and Delilah's grave markers at Dickerson Run