2007 Reunion Rewrites
the Story of Our Earliest
German-American Ancestors
2008 Reunion Plans Announced - We'll
Help the
City of Pittsburgh Celebrate Its 250th Birthday
More
than 70 cousins and friends of the family attended our 2007 national reunion,
held the Father’s Day weekend of June 16-17 in Western Pennsylvania. The group
included 22 first-time guests and 49 repeat visitors. In all, cousins came from
24 Pennsylvania towns and six states.
At the
Saturday picnic, held at the Indian Creek Valley Community Center, cousin Barbara
(Boring) Bauer held the audience rapt with her research report on our
earliest German-American roots. It changed everything we thought we knew.
This was the first time that a member of Barbara’s branch has visited the Pittsburgh region for a family event for almost 200 years. In 1812, her great-great-great grandparents, Daniel and Mary Miner Sr., left the Fayette/Somerset County home to become pioneer settlers of Perry County, Ohio. (Daniel's portrait is seen at right.) This branch of the family has lived continuously in Ohio ever since. In fact, Barbara is one of the first of Daniel's descendants to attend our reunions.
On Sunday, a smaller group of cousins toured ancient family graves at the Normalville and Imel Cemeteries, with many fascinating stories told, and attended church together.
Over the past 15 years, reunion attendance has averaged 105 annually.
~ Saturday's Picnic - Indian Creek Valley Community Center ~
In
her well-documented talk, illustrated by overhead slides and assisted by her
daughter Karen (Bauer) Bocock, Barbara took us back almost 80 years and
three more family generations than what we knew before. She led us into Upstate
New York and thence to Germany, using the documentation she
has diligently researched. She has spent countless hours delving into the paper
trail found in the archives of the Palatines to
America Library in Columbus, OH.
We
learned that Friedrich Meinert Sr. of Oley Township, Berks County, PA, the
father of Western Pennsylvania pioneer and Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Minerd Sr.,
was not the first immigrant from Germany, as was previously thought. Friedrich actually was the great-grandson
of the actual immigrant. Barbara explained that Friedrich’s father was Burkhardt
"Burger" Meynderts, his grandfather was Meyndert Fredricksen,
and his great-grandfather was a man whose name was a version of Friedrich with
some completely different second name not yet learned. They came to America from
Jever in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany, in August 1656. She told how the old
Low German/Dutch naming system – where one’s last name was a version of his
or her father’s first name – was much different than the English system of
the time and thus was the cause of much difficulty in her research.
She also told us that upon arriving here, Meyndert Fredericksen had a blacksmith shop on the north corner of Broadway and Huston Streets in Kingston/Albany, Ulster County, New York, and provided armor for the fort located there.
Barbara described the strength of the German culture, and how the German-American families lived as neighbors in Kingston/Albany, and then moved together and settled as neighbors in Oley Township, Berks County, PA.
Barbara
and her daughter Karen are seen at right. Three very detailed articles
Barbara has authored for our website can be found at these links:
- The Immigrant Brothers: Meyndert and Carsten Fredericksen
- The Immigrants: Jacob and Anna Elisabethe Weber
- The Kochertal Party
Among the cousins traveling the furthest distance were Bill and Gloria (Moennig) Carey, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose Minerd ancestors left Western Pennsylvania in 1817 for Ohio and settled in 1844 in Indiana.
Cousins Sandra and Henry Theis of Dilliner, PA were the first-ever members of the family of Burket and Frances (Skinner) Minerd Sr. to come to our reunions. Burket, a War of 1812 veteran who moved to West Virginia about 1814, was a son of Revolutionary War veteran Jacob and Maria (Nein) Minerd Sr.
Another far-traveled group included members of the Harbaugh-Laughery branch, which left the region in the early 1900s and moved to Delaware – Clayton and Loretta (Laughery) Downes and Ronald and Peggy (Laughery) Case.
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Reunion
president Mark Miner announced that next year’s reunion will focus on
helping the City of Pittsburgh celebrate its 250th birthday. This might include
holding the reunion weekend events in the city at one or more of its top
attractions. The Allegheny
Conference on Community Development, which is leading the birthday planning,
including the "Return
and Reunite" initiative as part of its "Imagine
Pittsburgh" program, has approved the use of its “Pittsburgh 250”
logo by our reunion and website.
Lunch
featured a delicious buffet lunch brought by many cousins -- meat dishes,
vegetable and side dishes, and devilish desserts. Cold soda pop and bottled
water were plentiful.
A number of cousins brought and displayed old heirlooms, including:
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Cynthia (Minerd) Moringiello of the Dr. Roy Sheppard Minerd line;
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Jay and Frankie Cramer of the Margaret ( Thurston) Cramer line;
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Gloria (Moennig) Carey of the John Reuben Minerd line;
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Loretta (Laughery) Downes of the Martha Jane ( Harbaugh) Laughery line; and
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Theresa (Minerd) Charnovich of the Thomas Michael Minerd line
In anticipation of her 100th birthday in February 2008,
the group serenaded Margaret (Isiminger) Moninger, of Greene County, PA a friend of the
family, seen at left. We also sang happy birthday to cousin Tammy
(Miller) Smith.
A drawing was done for special prizes – including quilts made by cousin Doris (Sands) Hawker and Christmas tree skirts created by cousin Bernetha (Ullery) Pritts, as well as other gifts.
Following lunch, cousin Sid Miller took a photograph of our group for the 11th year. Sid’s work was highlighted for the group in the periodic cleanup of the Lynn Point Cemetery, and at the monuments to the 107th Pennsylvania Infantry at Gettysburg National Battle Park. Sid always is looking for new recruits to assist him and his family in this valuable work.
~ Sunday Cemetery Tours and Church Service ~
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On a
picture-perfect morning, with blue skies and no clouds in sight, a small reunion
group of 10 cousins toured ancient family graves at the Normalville Cemetery.
The earliest, from 1865, was the unmarked grave of Sarah (Ansell) Minerd,
known only to us by a hand-drawn map made by her granddaughter, Agnes (Miner)
Miller, more than a century later. Tour guide Mark Miner described how the
strong German-American culture was illustrated through the lives of many of the
cousins buried there, including cousin-marriages, outspokenness and a fear of
formal education.
Among
the graves visited were Elijah and Hannah (Minerd) Murray, Perry
Murray, Jacob and Rachel (Ansell) Minerd III, Elizabeth (Minerd)
Long Gallentine, wounded Civil War veteran Andrew Jackson
Rose, John N.
Rose, local photographer Charles H. and Alcestia (Ritenour)
Rose, Charles
J. and Margaret (Lancaster) Rose, Charles D. and Frances (Rose) Minor, George
and Ida (Kooser) Murray, Civil War veteran and original Minerd Reunion
co-founder Martin and Amanda (Williams) Miner,
Charlie A. Miner, longtime justice of the peace William Henry
"Squire" and Sara (Basinger) Miner, Fallingwater laborer Frank and
Bertha (Basinger) Miner, Jane (Hiles) Miner, and Pearl Harbor survivor Raymond
A. Minor.
Following the tour, the group attended Father’s Day services at the Normalville United Methodist Church, where we were made to feel very welcome. Pastor Mark Sholtis greeted the "Miner and Minerd family and everyone in between." His sermon, based on the scripture Galatians 2: 15-21, was entitled, "We Who Are … By Birth." Among the hymns sung during the service were "Faith of Our Fathers," so appropriate to the reunion weekend.
Following
lunch, the group of Laughrey descendants drove to the Imel Cemetery to pay
respects to the graves of ancestors of their immediate branch. These included Civil War veteran David and Mary Magdalene
(Whipkey) Harbaugh, and three of their their adult children Robert Bacom
and Elizabeth (Long) Harbaugh Sr., Charles "Evans" Harbaugh,
and William "Dayton" and Lucinda (Harbaugh) Younkin. At least
five generations of Harbaugh descendants rest for eternity at this remote,
sloping country graveyard.
Seen at left, sisters Loretta (Laughery) Downes and Peggy (Laughery) Case of Delaware at the Imel Cemetery grave of their great-grandparents, David and Mary Magdalene (Whipkey) Harbaugh.
Plans for next year’s reunion, focusing on Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday, will be announced on this page soon. Check back for details.
Your Reunion Committee:
President:
Mark A.
Miner, Beaver, PA
Vice President: Peg (Grimm)
Mansberry, Normalville, PA
Treasurer: Doris
(Sands) Hawker, Morgantown, WV
Secretary: Rosella
(Resh) Miner, Grantsville, MD
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Copyright © 2007 Mark A. Miner