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Frederick
William Miner |
Frederick William Miner was born on June 29, 1893 (or 1894) in Thompson, Whiteside County, IL or in York Township, Carroll County, IL, the son of Daniel Lucas and Mary Elizabeth "Mattie" (Hodges) Minerd.
As a boy, he moved with his parents and siblings to Missouri and thence to Bagley, IA. He had an eighth grade education and grew up on his father's farm.
During World War I, Frederick joined the U.S. Army on July 23, 1918. He was assigned to the 163rd Depot Brigade and was discharged on Jan. 8, 1919.
On Sept. 27, 1919, at the age of 26, Frederick married his first wife, 19-year-old Helen Mavis Herring (March 13, 1903-1956). She was the daughter of John/Fred and Eliza (Dooly) Smith and originally from Logan, Harrison County, IA. Presiding over their nuptials, held in Charles City, IA, was Rev. G.A. Hess.
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| Rail station in Marshalltown, Iowa |
The couple did not reproduce. They resided in 1920 in Franklin Township, Greene County, IA, where he was employed as a farm manager.
The marriage was troubled and by the mid-1920s dissolved in divorce. Helen wed again on Aug. 18, 1926 to her widowed former brother-in-law John Sprague (1893-1959) and went on to bear two children, Jack Dale Sprague and Billie Dean Sprague. She died at the age of 53, on May 4, 1956, having spent 35 years as a resident of Charles City, IA. She is interred in Riverside Cemetery in Charles City.
On Sept. 27, 1934, in Marshalltown, Marshall County, IA, the 33-year-old Frederick married his second wife, 25-year-old Lola Della Esther "Dolly" Treadway (March 31, 1909-1977). She was a native of Tama County, IA and the daughter of Archibald and (?) (Anderson) Treadway. Rev. F.M. Wheeler officiated.
The Miners became the parents of three children -- Clyde Leroy Miner, an unidentified son and Shirley Jean Miner.
The family address in 1935 was 1008 South Sixth Avenue in Marshalltown. Sadly, son Clyde died from exhaustion and malnutrition at age four months on April 27, 1935. An examining physician wrote that the baby had been in "very poor living conditions." In 1938, at the birth of daughter Shirley, their dwelled at 403 South Center Street.
For reasons not yet known, except possibly destitute circumstances, their daughter Shirley was taken in by Frederick's married sister and brother-in-law, Mary Matilda and Clyde Henry Moore, and are shown together in Marshalltown in the 1940 U.S. Census.
At the time of the 1940 federal census enumeration, the pair dwelled in Marshalltown, with him working as a laborer with the Works Progress Administration. The WPA was one of the ways President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the federal government tried to overcome unemployment during the Great Depression. It is widely considered one of the Roosevelt's largest and most ambitious undertakings of his "New Deal" to get the nation back on sound economic footing. Over the years, the WPA hired millions of out-of-work individuals to build public works projects, such as roads, bridges, retaining walls and buildings.
By 1950, they had migrated to the nearby community of Ferguson. Frederick had no occupation that year, and their daughter was back in the household. As of 1961, his dwelling-place was in Perry, Dallas County, IA.
Frederick was diagnosed with severe Parkinson's Diseaase and was admitted to the Iowa Soldiers' Home Hospital in Marshalltown. He also was burdened with hardening of the arteries, kidney disease and bedsores over each hip. There, passed away at age 68 on June 15, 1961. His remains were lowered into eternal slumber in Iowa Veterans Home Cemetery. A standard-issue military marker stands at the grave.
Dolly outlived him by 16 years, and died in Marshalltown on Aug. 10, 1977. She sleeps for all time at the side of her husband at the Veterans Home Cemetery.
~ Daughter Shirley Jean Miner ~
Daughter Shirley Jean Miner (1938- ? ) was born on June 27, 1938 in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Marshalltown, IA. During the birth process, with Dr. W.P. Marble assisting in the caeserean section surgery, the baby was slightly asphyxiated.
For reasons not yet known, their daughter Shirley was taken in by Frederick's married sister and brother-in-law, Mary Matilda and Clyde Henry Moore, and are shown together in Marshalltown, Marshall County, IA in the 1940 U.S. Census.
In 1950, census records show her reunited with her parents in Ferguson, Marshall County.
Shirley Jean's story and fate appear to be lost to history despite a diligent search.
| Copyright © 2005, 2024 Mark A. Miner |
| Minerd.com extends its gratutide to Sharon Hodge-Spencer who graciously shared her research for this biography. |