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John Minor was born in 1806, probably at Maple Summit near the border of Fayette/Somerset County, PA, the son of Frederick and Elizabeth (Sechman) Miner Sr. His life tragically was cut short by an accidental death during the Civil War years in rural Ohio.

As a boy, at about the age of six or seven, John moved with his parents to Sego, Perry County, OH, where he would have grown to manhood.

At the age of 23, on Aug. 17, 1829, John married 18-year-old Lucretia Morris (1811-1863). She was a native of Ohio, but the identity of her parents is not known.

The Minors together went on to produce a brood of four known children -- John "Henry" Minor, Eliza J. Swearingen, Matilda J. Culp and Diantha E. Roberts.

The family resided for many years in Pickaway County, OH. During their married life, they lived on farms on extremely flat land near Leistville along Scippo Creek (also known as Camp Charlotte) , and at Pikehole Prairie in Pickaway Township, Pickaway County.

In addition to farming, John was a carpenter who built many of the brick homes still standing and in use today in Pickaway County.

When the federal census was taken in 1850, the family lived in Pickaway Township. That year, the census-taker misspelled the family name as "Myers." The 1858 Atlas of Pickaway Township shows his 30-acre farm and identifies his near neighbors as R.P. Pontius, Austin Jones and G. Holderman.

John's farm location, 1858 Atlas of Pickaway County, Ohio

The 1860 federal census enumeration cites the Minors residing near the post office of Camp Charlotte, Pickaway Township, with three of their four children having left the household, except for Diantha. 

Camp Charlotte had been named after the Queen of England at the site of a famed treaty. It was signed in October 1774 between Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia and Chief Cornstalk of the Shawnees and Allied Tribes. 

A local landmark the Minors would have well-known was the Logan Elm tree. Sited five miles south of Circleville, it was widely considered to mark the site of a heartfelt speech by Shawnee Chief Logan in 1774, protesting how his family was being treated by white settlers and expressing a desire for peace. It eventually reached a neight of 65 feet, with the circumference of its trunk 24 feet and foliage spread of 180 feet. Damaged by blight and storms, the tree died in 1964 and was removed.

Circleville Union, 1866

Sadly, Lucretia died, most likely in Pickaway, at the age 51 years, 10 months and 11 days, on Sept. 22, 1863. The cause of her death is unknown, and no obituary has been found in local newspapers of the era. Her body was laid to rest in the Salem United Methodist Church in Pickaway County. A white pylon marker eventually was placed at the gravesite.

The widowed John only outlived his bride by three years. On the fateful day of Aug. 17, 1866, at the age of about 60, he tragically was killed in a fall. The Circleville Union reported that he "accidentally fell into an ice house, at Camp Charlotte, and was so injured that he died a short time afterward.  He was a highly respectable old gentleman, and much beloved by his neighbors." His broken remains were placed into repose beside his wife's at Salem. The jolting news of his death was reprinted in the Daily Ohio Statesman of Columbus.

Son John "Henry" Minor was chosen to administer the estate, and among the debts paid were to Stephen Defenbaugh "for Coffin" and to Rev. Brice "for preaching funeral.