Daniel
Martin Younkin
(1853-1935)
Daniel Martin Younkin
was born in 1853 near Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, the son of John M. and Laura (Minerd)
Younkin. A longtime railroader, he was interested in family ties, and helped organize the 1918
Minerd-Miner Reunion at Rockwood, Somerset County.
Daniel left school at age 14 to work for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In about 1869, he relocated to Bridgeport, near Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, PA to construct boats, perhaps at the suggestion of his uncle Eli Minerd, who also had migrated there from Kingwood.
In 1880, Daniel resided in Mt. Pleasant just three doors away from his first cousin, Emma (Minerd) Thurston.
After
14 years in Mt. Pleasant, Daniel returned to Rockwood in about 1883, and rejoined the B&O, working as a car knocker and
track section foreman until retirement. In
the photo seen here, he and his second wife and daughter stand at his place of
work -- a small tool shed along the B&O tracks near Rockwood. Click to see
an enlarged version of this image, our "Photo of the Month" for October
2005.
Daniel's first wife was Elmira Miranda Zimmerman (1853-1908). Their seven children were Catherine L. Younkin, Sarah "Gertrude" Weaver, Mary Eliza Younkin, John William "Emery" Younkin, Mallzena Shaffer, Lulu Malinda Younkin and Georgia "Missouri" Shumaker.
Sadly,
three of the Younkins' daughters died very young --
Catherine (in 1876, age two), Mary Eliza (1880, age nine months) and Lulu (1892, age
five years).
Daniel faced further heartache in 1908 when Elmira passed away, on Oct. 15, at the young age of 53 years, 10 months. The cause of her death is not yet known. She is buried at the Rockwood IOOF Cemetery. Her badly faded grave marker is seen at left, as photographed in October 1991.
Daniel's second wife was Susan (Mongold) Swick (1871-1957), the daughter of John Swick, and a native of Keyser, Mineral County, WV. They were wed in early July 1909 in the Somerset County Courthouse by Orphans Court Clerk Frank Harrah. Said the Connellsville Daily Courier, "Mr. and Mrs. Younkin will reside in the old home on West Broadway."
Susan had been married once before. Susan brought several children to the marriage. She and Daniel had one child together, Alice Gary.
The 1889 book, History of Bedford, Somerset
and Fulton Counties, by Waterman & Watkins, gives this description of
the town of Rockwood (seen at right) in the late 1880s when the Younkins resided there:
Rockwood, situated at the junction of the Baltimore & Ohio and the Somerset & Cambria railroads, is one of the most enterprising, thrifty and fast growing villages in southern Pennsylvania. The place is still young, and its business interests are constantly increasing in extent and importance. Rockwood now contains four general stores, two groceries, four hotels, three blacksmithshops, one tannery, one gristmill, one planning-mill, one tinshop, one shoemakershop, two carpentershops, one tailor-shop, three churches and one graded school
Daniel was "highly respected in the community" and in 1906 was profiled in a chapter in the book, History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania, by E. Howard Blackburn and William H. Welfley, and edited by the Hon. William H. Koontz (Lewis Publishing Company). He also was mentioned in the 1957 booklet, Rockwood Centennial.
Daniel's profile in the 1906 Somerset County history book
Daniel
and Susan are seated with their combined family of children in the photo seen
here.
In 1913, Daniel and son Emery, daughter-in-law Mary and granddaughters Georgia and Gertrude attended the first annual Minerd-Miner Reunion at Ohiopyle. Daniel helped organize the 1918 reunion at Rockwood, and he and Susan and daughter Alice were at the 1920 reunion at Ohiopyle. In August 1923, Daniel attended the reunion held at Confluence, and was named in a Meyersdale Republican article as "the oldest of the clan present." He also was named to the "committee on reunion" with Joseph M. Luckey. In August 1924, he and daughter Alice went to the reunion, held at the Lincoln's Grove near the Western Maryland Railroad Station, although his name was misspelled as "David Younkin" in the newspaper. For the August 1925 reunion, he was named to the executive committee which also included Otis "Freed" Minerd, Ross Hyatt, Lloyd L. Mountain and Joseph M. Luckey,
Daniel retired in 1918, after 32 years of service with the B&O, and began receiving a pension which continued for 11 years. Said the Somerset County Leader, "Shortly after he was pensioned he also received a gold medal, from the railroad company, in acknowledgement of their appreciation for his many years of successful service."
Daniel's wife Susan suffered from epilepsy and grew progressively ill in the late 1910s. A photograph of her at the 1920 Minerd Reunion shows a prominent streak of grey in her otherwise dark head of hair. She later became a permanent invalid and resided in the Somerset County Hospital.
Rockwood's "picnic park," site of the 1918 Miner Reunion that Daniel
organized
Daniel
is seen at right,
sharing a tender moment with his young granddaughter Betty (Gary) Herchelroath, in
the back yard of his Broadway Street home in Rockwood, circa 1930.
In October 1934, just several months before his death, Daniel was interviewed during a Sunday visit by distant cousins Otto Roosevelt Younkin and Charles Arthur Younkin, who were gathering family history notes in connection with the Younkin clan's new national home-coming reunion. The discussion provided Otto with valuable genealogy insights that otherwise would have been lost. Daughter Alice is thought to have been present and listened as her father told stories of his parents, grandparents and extended kin, and when asked, she said the old family Bible was in possession of her sister Missouri Shumaker. Daniel also asked his guests if they knew or were closely related to "to the Younkins that used to butcher in the neighborhood of Scottdale [PA]," Charles later wrote. "I believe if I am not mistaken that he asked me if it was my father. If we are able to see this Daniel may may find out more about these folks." Daniel also told the researchers that one of his uncles was William Younkin, and that a first cousin, John X. Younkin, "married a sister of Charles Rose."
Otto
Younkin took extensive handwritten notes of the interview, and later
had them carefully retyped and organized, and a copy today is in
the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives. Click here to see these handwritten
and typed notes from the visit. In February 1935, Charles wrote to Otto:
"We should have a meeting point ... I believe by doing so we would be able
to draw much out of these old heads by our regular conversation than any other
way. As you remember we did this with Caldwell and Daniel on our visit with
them." In March 1937, Charles again wrote to Otto: "Since you were
here to see me have had more sad news, the death of ... Mr. Shaffer who was
married to Gertrude, daughter of our old now dead friend Daniel Younkin of
Rockwood, Pa." Click to see these letters dated Oct.
17, 1934; Feb. 10, 1935;
and March 7, 1937.
At the age of 77, Daniel died of a stroke in Somerset at the home of daughter Alice on Feb. 10, 1935. The funeral was held in Rockwood at the home of son Emery, with the service performed by cousin Rev. William Mullen Minerd. He was buried at the Rockwood IOOF Cemetery beside his first wife, Elmira.
Susan
outlived Daniel by 22 years. She passed away on Sept. 17, 1957 at the age of 86 and
was laid to rest beside her husband, but under her own marker.
This biography is adapted from one that originally appeared in the article, "Whispers of the Silence and the Slow Time," in the April, May, June 1996 edition of the Younkin Family News Bulletin.
Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2002-2007 Mark A. Miner