William "Shedrick" Younkin
(1838-1923)
William
"Shedrick" Younkin
was born in 1838 near Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, the son of John M. and Laura (Minerd)
Younkin. His nickname was 'Shed' or 'Sheddy.'
Shed married Caroline Cupp (1840-1924), and they lived on a 122-acre farm in Black Township located south of Rockwood, Somerset County.
Their seven children were Missouri Wingerd, Levi "Grant" Younkin, Ella Hauger, Thomas Wilbert Younkin, Susan Edith Miller, Elizabeth Wable and an unnamed son.
Sadly, they lost son Thomas at age three in July 1873 and the infant son at some point in time.
A
paper "fraktur" listing of all of the family births and deaths, shown at
right,
in bright red and black inks, was created for the family. The date of its origin,
and name of its artist, are unknown.
The Younkins seem to have been very family-oriented. When a daughter gave birth out of wedlock, in 1879, Shed signed a legal agreement to keep and maintain the boy at his own expense. She and Caroline were in their early 40s at the time. In conversations with his children, Shed often referred to his grandfather as "Fred" even though the man's name was Jacob Younkin.
Later in life, Shed and Caroline suffered the deaths of two of their married daughters, Edith Miller and Elizabeth Wable.
Shed and Caroline, and granddaughter Olive (Hauger) Younkin, attended the first annual Minerd Reunion in 1913 at Ohiopyle. A rare group photograph taken that day has been found in the collection of a descendant. Click here to view the image in high resolution, with each face numbered for identification purposes.
Shed
and Caroline are seated in the back row of the photo seen here, presiding over their
large brood of children and grandchildren. The image is thought to have been
made circa 1910.
In
the waning days of summer of 1923, Shed suffered a stroke and died at home a week
later, on Aug. ?, 1923. A local newspaper
reported that he was "a son of John Younkin" and was "one of the
oldest citizens of Black township and had been "raised in Black township...
The funeral was held from the home on Tuesday afternoon, conducted by the Rev.
L.M. Bartlebaugh, pastor of the Rockwood Evangelical church. Interment was in
the Rhoads Cemetery." He was age 85 at the time of his passing.
Among the assets in Shed's estate were shares of stock of Economy Telephone Company.
Caroline only outlived her husband by one year. During that time, she moved into the home of her married daughter Ella Hauger in South Rockwood. She died in 1924, at the age of 83. In her obituary, the local newspaper said she and Shed had "spent practically their entire life" on the farm where her father, Thomas Cupp, had resided. "The funeral was held on Thursday afternoon from the Hauger home," said the article. "Services were conducted by the Rev. L.M. Bartlebaugh of Ellerslie, Md., former pastor of the local Evangelical church, assisted by the present pastor, Rev. C.W. Raley." She rests beside her husband at Rhoads Cemetery near Rockwood.
The Haugers operated a grocery store in Rockwood for many years near the
Western Maryland Railroad depot.
In October 1934, long after they had died, Shed
and Caroline were named in extensive genealogy manuscript records compiled by
distant cousins Otto
Roosevelt Younkin and Charles
Arthur Younkin. The researchers were gathering data in connection with the
Younkin clan's new national home-coming reunion. Click here to see Otto's handwritten
and typed notes about Shed, based on an interview conducted with his elderly brother, Daniel Martin Younkin.
Click here to see Otto's
notes from another interview thought to have been done with Shed and
Caroline's daughter Ella Hauger.
Great-grandson, 2nd Lt. Louis E. Younkin, was killed in World War II, and his name is etched on a war memorial in the Rockwood IOOF Cemetery.
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, published by Donna Younkin Logan.
Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2005-2007 Mark A. Miner