Coal, Coke and Steel
Honoring More than 400 Cousin Laborers Who
Shaped America's Coal, Coke and Steel Industries
See "Honor
Roll" of cousins who died in the workplace
See related article in the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
There
is no word in our language to describe what our national Minerd- Minard- Miner-
Minor Reunion is about -- exploring
the long-term, combined growth of a single family and its impact on society.
In 1999, our reunion tried to define the concept by honoring hundreds of
coal, coke and steelworkers among our cousins over the past 150 years, and
measuring their individual and collective accomplishments. With
the help of this website since then, we have dug deeper.
On a larger scale, the clan serves as a symbol for many families who together helped build our nation.
The 1999 reunion may have been the first of its kind and scale. Unlike prior reunions, which focused on our clan's roles in education and military service, it delved deeper into a subject which defines the identity, mindset and heritage of Western Pennsylvanians.
Since
1791, when pioneers Jacob and Maria (Nein)
Minerd Sr. settled on the border of Fayette and Somerset Counties, their descendants have exploded in
population, and now number 12,300
(including spouses), with thousands more waiting to be discovered.
In the process, more than 330 known cousins (known as of 1999)
have worked in coal, coke and steel. This
growth spurt took place amid the building of vast industrial empires by Andrew
Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick at the end of the 19th century. It also mirrors the transformation of the region into one of the
world's leading steel producers. Together,
our cousins have worked thousands of man-years, mined and coked millions of tons
of coal and produced many millions more tons of steel. The steel was used to build some of the nation's great landmarks -- the
Empire State Building, the Panama Canal and Navy ships that won both world wars,
among many others.
We asked relatives to supply data with the names and
careers of laborers in their branch. The
response was overwhelming. A study
of the results shows what coal, coke and steel have meant to members of our
family:
-
Provided a long-term if inconsistent living for a significant number of people (too lengthy to list), many for at least a quarter century.
-
Provided work for some branches over three to five generations:
- John V.S. Minerd was a miner in OH and PA, the first of five generations. His son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great grandson have worked in coal and steel.
- Henry A. Miner helped build coke ovens in Connellsville, PA. He was the first of five generations in the industry. His grandson, great-grandson and great-great- grandson worked at U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Works.
- Thomas Michael Minerd, who started working in Uniontown-area mines at age 15, was a third generation miner.
- Francis Yelaine Crosby was a 35-year miner whose father and grandfather labored at coal works near Mount Pleasant, PA. -
Provided opportunities for industry and management leadership:
- Harry O. Millward was a Chief Mine Inspector for the H.C. Frick Coke Company, a division of U.S. Steel.
- David B. Millward was a PA State Mine Inspector and President of several mining institutes and trade associations
- Thomas Hunt was active in coal leasing in Uniontown, PA.
- Wilbert Regis "Patsy" Minerd was active in union organizing efforts in Republic, near Uniontown, and later was a Pennsylvania State Mine Inspector.
- Nelson G. Kern was Superintendent of a Frick farm near Uniontown where company horses were stabled -
Provided an environment in which descendants could pursue alternative careers:
- Albert P. McCabe, grandson of a mine stable boss, became a top guidance systems engineer in NASA's Apollo rocket program in 1965.
- The grandson of tipple man William Mullen Minerd received numerous U.S. patents for his inventions for Xerox Corporation.
- Alma L. Kern, granddaughter of H.C. Frick Coal Co. farm superintendent Nelson G. Kern, served as a special nurse for Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State.
- The grandson of coal miner John Andrew Miner was Chief of Police in Woodbury, NJ for 25 years and served as President of President Reagan's National Law Enforcement Council in 1982.
- The great-great-granddaughter of coker Harrison Barnhouse was a lieutenant colonel, a NASA splashdown recovery nurse and played a role pioneering open heart surgery in the Army. -
Provided opportunities to export talents:
- Samuel Minerd and sons Levi, John, Melvin and Robert migrated as pioneers from Uniontown, PA to Pittsburg, KS in 1886. They mined the first coal using a slope mine in what is now Pittsburg's Lincoln Park. Levi invented a mine gate that opened and closed to allow loaded coal cars to pass.
- Leonidas "Lon" McGirk Sr. was a miner in Alaska and Russia. In 1918, en route to Siberia, he was shipwrecked for two weeks and lived with Eskimos before being rescued.
- Lewis Mortimer Culp was among the first men in Eastern Ohio to be trained to use electric coal digging technology. -
Provided training for young men who later pursued other meaningful careers:
- William Mullen Minerd, a former tipple man, became a minister in the Church of the Brethren for 35 years.
- Brothers-in-law Odger Wayne Miner and Gordon Sykes Jones, of the Odger Miner family, worked during college summers at a steel mill in Aliquippa, PA. Wayne became a civil engineer and managed the design of major highways during Pittsburgh's renaissance, while Gordon became a banker and managed the Aliquippa Branch of Mellon Bank. -
Claimed at least 23 lives of cousins in work-related accidents, and at least three young people who were killed in accidents at mine-related facilities near their homes.
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Henry Clay Frick (left) and Andrew Carnegie created coal, coke and steel empires in Western Pennsylvania that provided employment for hundreds of our cousins. |
Occupational data used in this study was drawn from hundreds of news articles, census records and county marriage licenses, as well as in cousins' personal papers. Important data was found in the multi-year volume, Report of the Department of Mines of Pennsylvania, at the research library of the Senator Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. We chose not to include railroaders who handled coal, preferring to explore that industry in its entirety some future year.
We have only scratched the surface. We hope this booklet will create awareness, stimulate interest and encourage the magic of discovery. Thank you to all who shared career information and precious photos. You honor those who came before us.
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Copyright © 1999-2000-2002, 2007-2008 Mark A. Miner