Minnie
(Younkin) Rhoads
(1871-1938)
Minnie
Elizabeth (Younkin) Rhoads was born on
June 22, 1871, in Casselman, Somerset County, PA, the daughter of Josiah and
Rachel (Phillippi) Younkin.
Her father died when Minnie was about five years old, and she grew up with stepfather John Wilkins and later a "significant other" step-father figure, Jack Hobson.
Minnie eloped to Cumberland, Allegany County, MD, to marry sweetheart James Rhoads (1867-1931). The couple is seen here in the wedding photo. James also was a native of Casselman, the son of Jonathan and Delilah (Weimer) Rhoads, with the family name also spelled "Rhodes."
The
Rhoadses had three children -- Lillian (Rhoads) Younkin and Alice (Rhoads) Eno and James Q. Rhoads.
Lillian and Alice are seen in the photograph at right.
Because her father had died at such a young age, Minnie likely did not speak of him often to her children. At Minnie's own death years later, when asked the names of her parents, one of Minnie's daughters did not know the father's name, but correctly cited the mother's name.
At some point in the late 1880s or early 1890s, James and Minnie made the decision to move west. Becoming pioneers of Nebraska , they settled near the town of Hardy, where their daughter Alice was born in September 1893.
But by 1898,
just a few years later, the family moved back to Somerset County. James
served on the Casselman School Board, along with Minnie's uncle, Charles
Younkin. His day job was as a sawmill laborer.
In 1910, the family moved to Yale, near Deerfield, Portage County, OH, where they stayed the remaining years of their lives.
James died at Yale on Dec. 2, 1931, at the age of 64. He had suffered an illness of five months leading up to this death, a newspaper reported.
Minnie outlived her husband by six years. She suffered a stroke at age 67 in Atwater, Portage County, and died two weeks later, on Dec. 29, 1938. She and James are buried at the Atwater Cemetery, as are their daughter Alice and her husband, Clarence Eno.
The railroad depot in Atwater
Daughter Lillian married a cousin, Alfred A. Younkin, son of Charles and Sarah (Artest) Younkin. Lillian and A.A. moved to North Dakota and later to Wenatchee, WA, where in 1914 they founded an apple sorting facility. An article in a 1972 issue of the Wenatchee World said that "In the nearly 60 years since, she's hardly missed a season of the fruit work. Only in the 1920s, when her three sons were small did she take a temporary recess."
Daughter
Alice ( ? -1965) married Clarence Eno (1894-1967), the foster child of John H. and Laura Grate. They
were farmers and attended the Atwater Methodist Church, said the Ravenna (OH)
Record-Courier, and resided in Atwater circa 1938. The Enos had three sons -- Harold Eno, Paul Eno and Charles
Franklin Eno. Later in life, they moved to Gainesville, Alachua County, FL.
Alice passed away at age 71 in Gainesville on March 1, 1965, "following
several months illness," said a newspaper. Clarence outlived Alice by two
years. He died in Gainesville on March 20, 1967, with burial at Atwater
Cemetery. Their son Harold Eno (1915-1959) also is buried in Atwater.
Grandson Charles F. Eno served as an officer in the 10th Mountain Division during World War II, and married Fern Imler, an Army nurse. After the war, Charles and Fern moved to Gainesville, FL, where he was a professor and later head of soil sciences at the University of Florida, until retirement in about 1989. For more information on the Eno branch, contact descendant Charles 'Billy' Eno.
One of Minnie's quilts is displayed by a great-granddaughter,
Diana Younkin Egan,
and Diana's cousin Merrill Younkin, at the 1998 Younkin Reunion-West
in Salem, OR. Click to view a
larger version of the image.
Grandson James 'Melvin' Younkin, a World War II veteran, took over the family orchard business in Wenatchee.
In 1998, Mel's daughter Diana (Younkin) Egan and family published a family booklet, Grandpa Younkin's Amazing Stories from World War II, a copy of which is in the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives. The memoir also has been published in four parts in our website, under the name, World War II Through a Porthole. Diana, interested in preserving the family's heritage, was the chief organizer of the Younkin Reunion-West in Turner, OR in 1996-97-98 and 2000.
Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2005-2006 Mark A. Miner