Photo of the Month Index
Your Guide to Our Monthly Photo 
Feature Since May 2000

December 2007 - Each year, cousins Eugene Podraza and Minerd.com founder Mark Miner travel to conduct original, proprietary research about our family on a national scale. In October 2007, Podraza pauses to pay respect to the Central Illinois grave of Elizabeth (Houser) Dillow and her Civil War veteran husband William Baker Dillow.

November 2007 - Haunting image of a mournful woman adorns the top of the impressive grave marker in Addison, Somerset County, PA, erected by Howard Minard for his parents and infant brother. 

October 2007 - Harvey "Dean" Miner of Tontogany, Ohio, poses with a bust of himself crafted circa 1961 by a student in Nigeria, where he was temporarily living and working to develop school programs under the International Cooperation Administration. 

September 2007 - Portrait of William Taylor Davidson, of Lewistown, IL, who was one of the earliest journalists in our family, and whose coverage helped influence a critical presidential election which saved our nation during the Civil War. 

August 2007 - J.W. Miner's general store in Normalville, Fayette County, PA, owned for many years by John Walter Miner who was a champion of local economic development. 

July 2007 - Corwin D. Tilbury, born on the Indiana frontier of the 1870s, who later moved eastward and is the first known Pittsburgh City Councilman in our family, serving during the Steel City's 150th anniversary in 1908.

June 2007 - Extremely rare stoneware produced in Knoxville, TN, after the Civil War -- one of only two known surviving pieces -- by a company owned by brothers Samuel Dawson Miner and Robert Sanford Miner, and stamped, "Bowlus, Miner & French, Manufacturers, Knoxville, Tenn." 

May 2007 - Ohio farmer and teamster Jacob Minerd Jr. stands beside his wagon and team of horses sometime in the early 1900s near Guysville, Athens County, the son of a Pennsylvania German father and Native American mother. 

April 2007 - Baseball players with the Brave village team in the Waynesburg (PA) Athletic Club, was taken sometime in the mid-1910s. Among them players are two brothers -- Albert "Ross" Minor and William Thomas Minor. 

March 2007 - Left-handed fiddler Fred Younkin, of Ashville, Ohio, who entertained, among other engagements, at the National Younkin Home-Coming Reunions of the 1930s and early '40s, held in Kingwood, PA. 

February 2007 - In a remarkable recovery from a devastating World War II battle wound, Private First Class Walter Kenneth "Dick" Bedillion faced a lifetime of paralysis while serving as a law enforcement leader in his hometown of Washington, Washington County, PA.

January 2007 - Ralph Charles Minerd, one of three baseball-playing sons of Charles Marion and Sabina (Pierce) Minerd, Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, PA, sits with his Belltown coal company teammates circa 1915. 

December 2006 - Of the many reunions of various branches of our family, none was as large in size and scope as the Younkin National Home-Coming Reunion of the 1930s and early '40s. Held at the IOOF Picnic Grove in Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, these gatherings drew more than 1,000 people a year during the heart of the Great Depression. 

November 2006 - A faded image of an unknown infant, from in the late 1890s or early 1900s, recently rescued from oblivion, with a double Minerd connection -- found in the old family album of William Jacob Long, featuring a rare, crudely lettered imprint of the photographer, Charles H. Rose. 

October 2006 - John Fridley, making a hook shot for the University of Pittsburgh basketball team circa 1960, and who remains one of Pitt's all-time rebounding leaders. 

September 2006 - Pearl Harbor wreckage, from the Japanese military attack of Dec. 7, 1041, as photographed by cousin Harold S. Fawcett of Grafton, WV, an image published in Life Magazine and many history books of World War II. 

August 2006 - Civil War veteran and coke oven builder Henry A. Miner and his wife Matilda surrounded by two sets of married children and grandchildren, likely at their home on North Avenue in Connellsville, Fayette County, PA. 

July 2006 - Family matriarch Mary Magdalene (Whipkey) Harbaugh, nicknamed "Aunt Lany," the widow of Civil War veteran David Harbaugh, seated in a favorite rocking chair on her 94th birthday, the first of the annual Harbaugh Reunions which continue today. 

June 2006 - Seaman 2nd Class Earl Jack Peters, who was killed in Naval action in the South Pacific at the very end of World War II, in the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, a disaster which was made famous in the blockbuster movie Jaws. 

May 2006 - The old Preston County (WV) Alms House, which served as a residence for the poor and indigent, and was operated for four decades by two generations of the Fawcett branch of our clan. 

April 2006 - The 50th wedding anniversary of Oklahoma pioneers James R. and Lydia (Miner) Brown, who may well exemplify the "American Saga." 

March 2006 - The large family of John B. and Rachel Ruamy (Long) Pritts poses on the porch of their two-story frame home near Normalville, Fayette County, PA, built by Rachel's grandfather, Jacob Minerd, III, just after the Civil War. 

January 2006 - In 1957, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy rifle team meets then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon, including Cadet Jack Walter Lewis, in Nixon's office when the team visited Washington, DC to compete against other schools. 

December 2005 - Highly decorated barn-shed, covered with advertisements painted by the "Mountain Poet," Allen Edward Harbaugh, of Mill Run, Fayette County, PA. 

November 2005 - Photographer Ward C. Miner shows off his camera equipment, likely in his studio in Louisville, CO, near Denver. 

October 2005 - Longtime railroader Daniel Martin Younkin, his wife Susan and daughter Alice of Rockwood, Somerset County, PA at a workshed along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line near their home. 

September 2005 - Civil War veteran Nathan W. Minard and his wife stand guard at their Kansas home in the years after the "War of the Rebellion." 

August 2005 - Riveter Norton Miner Bedillion shows off his proud handiwork at the National Wrought Iron Annealing Box Company of Washington, PA. 

July 2005 - "Westmoreland Homestead," today the town of "Norvelt," PA, where the family of Ralph and Violet (Summy) Minerd was among the first to be accepted to live in a pioneering new type of federally built community, and sponsored politically by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the town's namesake. 

June 2005 - The Oriskany Strings hails from the mountain village of Oriskany, VA, performing and promoting old time country and bluegrass music, led by Jack and Carol ( Surber) Lewis. 

May 2005 - Making the first visit to a foreign country by a current U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt sits at the controls of a steam shovel excavating the new Panama Canal in 1906, with construction engineer Clyde E. Pring in view, an image published among other places in the World Book Encyclopedia. 

April 2005 - Postmaster Seth Reed Johnston of Brownsville and Glenford, OH, whose offspring were active and influential in their communities in Ohio in the late 1900s and early 1900s. 

March 2005 - A panoramic view of the mountain town of Philippi, WV, notable in our family's past for two reasons -- as the site of the first land battle of the Civil War, where Capt. Henry C. Miner saw action; and as the longtime home of a mixed-race community of the Minerd-Minard-Miner family we strongly suspect is part of our clan. 

February 2005 - The 100th birthday of Iowa pioneer Mary Rebecca (Knepple) Minard in 1966, surrounded by some of her 10 children. 

January 2005 - Portrait of William Nichols, whose sensational murder of Civil War veteran Alpheus Minerd in 1903 was front page news in every newspaper in Ohio, and who later was put to death in the electric chair at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. 

December 2004 - Turn of the century Victorian Christmas tree in the Chicago home of Amy (Minerd) Tilbury Thorne, one of the first known members of our family to have resided in the 'Windy City.' 

November 2004 - The flag draped casket and funeral of World War I soldier William C. McKnight reminds us that the current U.S. military involvement in Iraq -- a hot button issue impacting the presidential elections this month -- is a heartache not new to our country.

October 2004 - Descendants of two branches of the Minerd-McKnight families gather in July in 1925 for a reunion and marvelous group photo. Some still renew ties today at McKnight Reunions, the latest in June 2004 at Coopers Rock State Park near Morgantown, WV.

September 2004 - An old log barn probably built by John and Barbara (Shaeffer) Minerd, who migrated from near Scio, Harrison County, OH to a farm on the Ohio-Indiana border in the 1840s. 

August 2004 - Henry Yutzy, husband of Edith Minerd, was a semi-pro boxer of Garrett, PA and Cumberland, MD, and a newspaper once said that he was "remembered by boxing fans as 'the best slambang fighter' Cumberland ever had..." 

July 2004 - A group portrait of William Henry 'Squire' and Sara Jane (Basinger) Minerd and their 10 children -- of whom three had longtime careers working at Fallingwater, the internationally renowned house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 

June 2004 - Longtime Fallingwater maintenance manager Ralph Miner takes a brief rest at the guest house pool circa 1964. 

May 2004 - A portrait of Ohio-Indiana pioneer farmer James Minerd, standing against a favorite cottonwood tree on his farm, symbolizes our nation's extraordinary growth during his lifetime of 94 years. 

April 2004 - The petroleum industry of the late 1800s and early 1900s provided employment for many of our cousins in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, including entrepreneur Nathan C. Stoner in Sistersville, WV, who oversees a pipe-pulling operation at an oil well. 

March 2004 - Hugh Valentine Miner and a crew of laborers pave a dirt road near Tontogany, Wood County, OH, in the vicinity of the home of Emanuel and Maria (Ward) Custer, parents of General George Armstrong Custer. 

February 2004 - Carpenter, scholar and part-time preacher William A. Miner, seated in his study, who paid to have our family's genealogy researched in the early 1920s or '30s, though unfortunately the papers have been lost.

January 2004 - Andrew R. Minerd and co-workers at a blacksmith shop in Dunbar, Fayette County, PA, around the turn of the 20th century.

December 2003 - Presley Twining France stands on the bed of a railcar used for logging purposes in Michigan the vicinity of the town of Stanton circa 1900. 

November 2003 - Early Chicago resident Amy (Minerd) Tilbury-Thorne sits in her home decorated with Victorian furnishings, including a fancy chandelier, framed pictures hanging at angles, an ornate love seat and a bust in the corner.

October 2003 - The five handsome adult sons of Elias and Elizabeth (King) Minor in an old-fashioned studio photograph portrait in Waynesburg, Greene County, PA, circa 1910.

September 2003 - The Clenon C. Minard branch of our family in Knox and Richland Counties, Ohio, held the first known organized reunions in our family, sometime before the end of 1895. They clearly pre-date the first Minerd-Miner Reunion held in Western Pennsylvania in 1913. 

August 2003 - Amy (Minerd) Tilbury-Thorne stitching a large quilt in Indiana in the 1890s, featuring a "Pine Tree" pattern.

July 2003 - Sixth and last in a series - Photograph taken of the large group of cousins who attended the first annual Minerd Reunion at Ohiopyle, Fayette County, PA on Aug. 21, 1913, all descendants of Revolutionary War patriot Jacob Minerd Sr.

June 2003 - Fifth in a series - Newspaper coverage of the first annual Minerd Reunion of 1913 in the Connellsville (PA) Daily Courier and the Uniontown (PA) Morning Herald.

May 2003 - Fourth in a series - Famed 'Mountain Poet' Allen E. Harbaugh of Mill Run, Fayette County, was unofficial historian of the first annual Minerd Reunion in Western Pennsylvania, held in 1913. At that event, he prepared and read aloud a history of the Minerd-Miner family that today is vital to the understanding of our clan's origins.

April 2003 - Third in a series - Civil War veteran Martin Miner, of Normalville, Fayette County, PA, with his wife and children. He was vice president of the first annual Minerd Reunion in Western Pennsylvania, held in 1913.

March 2003 - Second in a series - Esther (Barnhouse) Freed, treasurer of the first annual Minerd Reunion in Western Pennsylvania, with her husband, Christian Stoner Freed, of near Dickerson Run, Fayette County, PA.

February 2003 - This year marks the 90th anniversary of the first annual Minerd Reunion in Western Pennsylvania, held in 1913. The father-son team of Isaac and Roy Minerd from Uniontown, Fayette County, among other cousins, helped organize that inaugural event.

January 2003 - A large family group at what is believed to be the 1907 funeral of John V.S. Minerd in Westmoreland County, PA. He was a Civil War veteran whose 1855 work at an iron furnace is the earliest documented specific industrial activity in our family.

December 2002 - Indiana pioneer farmer John Minerd Jr., when he died at age 97 in 1898, was called by a local newspaper as "probably the oldest man in Allen county, if not in the state."

November 2002 - The battered "J.E. Kelly" jewelers sign in the rubble of a devastating 1912 flood in Dunbar, PA is grim evidence that bad luck seemed to follow entrepreneurs James and Lizzie (Minerd) Kelly.

October 2002 - Annette Hanshaw, the first known singer to reach national fame in our family, who once was was named the "most popular woman singer" in the nation and who was praised by the New York Times as "one of the most prolific recording singers in the late 1920's and early 30's."

September 2002 - The one-room, log-hewn Excelsior Township Schoolhouse near Kingfisher, OK in 1894, just five years after one branch of our cousins settled in the Oklahoma Indian Territory.

August 2002 - Five Younkin brothers each played a role in the political, economic, military and cultural aspects of his times in Western Pennsylvania, and in some instances on a national scale. Their lives serve as examples for us today.

July 2002 - The 1940s reunion of the offspring of Rev. David E. and Catherine (Williams) Minerd in Fayette County, PA, hosted by their public-spirited adult children.

June 2002 - The Old Bethel Church of God, a small country church near Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, is a symbol of a national religious renewal among German-Americans in the mid-1800s. Many of our cousins were directly touched by John Winebrenner's Church of God movement, beginning in the 1840s and continuing to today.

May 2002 - James C. and Eliza (Hess) Minerd Jr. enjoy a 1920s outing at Braddock's Grave near Uniontown, PA.  Some of our cousins played vital roles in maintaining and preserving the historic French & Indian War gravesite in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

April 2002 - Studio view of baseballer Albert 'Ross' Minor, who played for the Waynesburg "C" team and the Brave Village team in the Dunkard Valley League of near Waynesburg, Greene County, PA circa 1916.

March 2002 - The Minerd Funeral Home of Uniontown, perhaps the family's most visible symbol in Fayette County, PA -- the epicenter region of our clan's growth and development the past 210 years.

February 2002 - Civil War veteran David Harbaugh seated on a stack of lumber on a mountain logging railroad in Western Pennsylvania.

January 2002 - Aged Civil War veteran Norman Knight and his band of fellow musicians in Kansas.

December 2001 - Military policeman William Curtis McKnight of Brownsville, Fayette County, PA, who lost his life in France, serving his country in World War I.

November 2001 - Another Custer's Last Stand? The secret romance of General George Custer's younger brother Thomas with Rebecca Minerd, of Tontogany, Wood County, OH.

October 2001 - The Barnum Brothers general store of Kingfisher, Kingfisher County, OK.

September 2001 - Warren W. Miner and the Pennsylvania Railroad of Everson, Fayette County, PA.

August 2001 - Ill-fated pioneer Mahala (Minor) White, who died shortly after the family arrived in Isabel, Barber County, Kansas in 1886.

July 2001 - Younkin reunion of Rockwood, Somerset County, PA in the 1910s.

June 2001 - Pearl Harbor survivor Raymond A. Minor of Connellsville, Fayette County, PA.

May 2001 - The 1920 Minerd-Miner Reunion group on the steps of Ferncliff Hotel in Ohiopyle, Fayette County, PA.

April 2001 - Cleveland Farabee's coal mine of Dotysburg, near Waynesburg, Greene County, PA.

March 2001 - A Depression-era reunion of the Harry O. and Armena (Cain) Miner family at Schoenbrunn Village near New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas County, OH.

February 2001 - Alfred Mason Minerd and his dry goods store delivery horse and wagon of Wheeler and Uniontown, Fayette County, PA.

January 2001 - Bucolic scene of hay-harvesting on the farm of Lawson and Lutitia (Steyer) Minerd of near Mill Run, Fayette County, PA.

December 2000 - Pioneering TWA flight attendant Virginia (Riley) Snyder and a famous passenger -- nationally known comedian Jack Benny.

November 2000 - Marshall Rowan in the window of the telegraph office of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Bidwell, PA.

October 2000 - Ohio pioneer Rebecca (Miner) Bateson and family in front of their home at Buckeye Lake near Millersport, OH.

September 2000 - The oldest known family grave marker in Western Pennsylvania -- of three-year-old Jonathan Smalley Minerd -- dated 1852. His parents later were pioneer settlers of Pittsburg, Crawford County, Kansas.

August 2000 - Future Methodist preacher William Mullen Minerd and his teammates with the baseball club of the Brinkerton Works of the H.C. Frick Coke Company of near Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, PA.

July 2000 - Proud father Rev. David Ewing Minerd and his three military veteran sons in their World War I uniforms, all of Dunbar, Fayette County, PA.

June 2000 - The new home of Civil War veteran Ephraim Minerd and his wife Rosetta and children in the Hexebarger valley of near Kingwood, Somerset County, PA.

May 2000 - The Harbaugh Reunion of 1929, celebrating the 96th birthday of Mary Magdelene (Whipkey) Harbaugh, widow of Civil War veteran David Harbaugh, held at the Jersey Church in Somerset County, PA.