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Photo
of the Month Index |
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See all years 2000-2005 - 2006-2010 |
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2024 ~
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December 2024 - Ursina, the small mountain borough hard by Laurel Hill Creek in southern Somerset County, PA, founded by John Ream, whose second wife was our Catherine Minerd. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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November 2024 - Wyoming's Johnson County Cattle War of 1892 swept into its bloody maw our newlywed cousins Mike and Olive (Sisler) Shonsey in a storyline so epic, sprawling in detail and layered with meaning that it inspired a host of expressions in American film, television and book culture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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October 2024 - Deployed to Korea as a foreign correspondent during the Korean War, journalist Richard Kennedy Tucker poses with this humorous hand-lettered sign advertising the "Hamhung Bureau" of his employer, the Baltimore Sun, where he was a colleague and close friend of future bestselling author William Manchester. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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September 2024 - Despise him or admire him, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Eugene Ailes is widely credited with transforming American political television during an era when political discourse had never been at a higher pitch. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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August 2024 - Among the talented athletes of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s and '50s was cousin Jaynie Krick of Fort Wayne, who played in the league for five years with the South Bend Blue Sox, Battle Creek Belles, Peoria Redwings and Grand Rapids Chicks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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July 2024 - When Lawson and Lutitia (Steyer) Minerd decided to retire from active farming in 1926, they held an auction sale of their old family housewares. This rare poster lists the items for sale -- leading with three head of horses and three cows due to be "fresh" the following March. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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June 2024 - Attorney Paul Henry Rhoads established a law practice in the Pennsylvania state capitol city of Harrisburg and co-founded a law firm that became one of the largest and most influential in the state. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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May 2024 - The Hopwood (PA) toll gate of the National Turnpike -- the nation's first federally funded super highway, linking Cumberland, MD to Vandalia, IL -- maintained in the 1860s, '70s and '80s by Perry Greene White. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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April 2024 - The peaceful setting of Angeline Sue "Angie" (Potter) Kilgore reclining in a hammock pales in comparison to the horrific way she died in a Wyoming blizzard, one of more than 360 cousin-casualties of water, fire, shock, freezing and vehicle/ aircraft accidents who are remembered on our family website. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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March 2024 - Ethel (Stuart) Gaumer directs the famed Studebaker Male Chorus of the giant Indiana-based automobile manufacturer, a performance in the employee dining room and wearing work clothes, with her hands a blur of motion. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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February 2024 - A vintage movie poster from the landmark Cla-Zel Theatre in Bowling Green, OH, cleverly named for its owners, Clark Marion and Hazel (Keeler) Young, she the daughter of Gurdon and Edith Viola (Miner) Keeler. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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January 2024 - Brothers-in-law Reuben Leonard and George Perry Potter of the Harbaugh branch of the family are pictured in this image of an 1892 Civil War veterans reunion at the Ohiopyle House in Fayette County, PA. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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December 2023 - Based on his unique perspectives of patient care, grief and bereavement recovery over a 35-year career, and having co-founded the West Virginia Family Grief Center in Morgantown, Craig L. Falkenstine authored the 2021 book Efforts to Make a Difference: Reflections of a Hospice Chaplain. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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November 2023 - In recognition of a highly successful career as Penn State University's Athletic Director, including hiring Joe Paterno as head football coach, Ernest Browning "Ernie" McCoy is pictured on the cover of the Nittany Lions gameday football program on Nov. 15, 1969. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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October 2023 - Having spent her first 18 years in Perryopolis, PA, and always considering it her hometown, Leah Katherine (Thorpe) Page provided support for a Children's Museum wing in the Perryopolis History Museum named in her honor and opened in 2016. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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September 2023 - Ronald S. "Ron" Prevenslik stands at far right with driver Roger McCluskey and the pit crew at the 1977 Indianapolis 500 raceway. Car no. 11, made by the American Motors Corporation and owned by Lindsey Hopkins Jr., was a Lightning 77 LHL-4 model powered by an Offenhauser TC engine. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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August 2023 - David Leibensperger's 1874 church certificate, known as a "confirmation schein," is printed entirely in German and not only demonstrates our family’s Pennsylvania German heritage but also helps us understand their cultural shift into a more mainstream American life and language. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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July 2023 - In this haunting World War II image, bodies of American prisoners of war -- executed in cold blood by German Waffen-SS troops of the 6th Panzer Army during the Battle of the Bulge -- lay in the snow in Malmédy, Belgium, among them Oscar Robert Jordan of Hyndman, PA. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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June 2023 - Lula Loyetta "Lulu" Leydig, a native of Butler County, KS, selected from a group of popular young women as "Miss Newton" at the 1926 Harvey County Fall Festival in Kansas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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May 2023 - Coal miner Charles Thomas Minerd and friends pose for this photograph circa 1910 at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot in Smithfield, PA, an image later published in the 1996 book Yesteryear in Smithfield and Point Marion. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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April 2023 - The young Viola "Grace" McKnight of Braznell, PA poses for a simple but beautiful and somewhat mysterious photographic portrait circa 1900, made by a loving maternal uncle, William C. Nutt, who was a well-known commercial photographer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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March 2023 - Farrell Haliday "Rusty" Draper sold millions of records and earned five gold records in the 1950s and '60, with his early path crossing with a young, unknown Patti Page, who become the most popular woman singer of the 1950s, and up-and-coming Iowa sportscaster Ronald Reagan. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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February 2023 - Bearded Civil War veteran Henry "Foxy" McKnight of Dawson, PA, sits with his son, grandson and a great-grandson in this four-generation image, circa the 1910s. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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January 2023 - Oklahoma Teacher of the Year for 1981, Kathlyn Ann (Roberts) Reynolds, coaches her Singing Blue Angels group of 94 sixth graders from Wiley Post Elementary School of Putnam City in the rotunda of the Oklahoma state capitol. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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December 2022 - Continuing in a series promoting authors in the family, this month's image features Matthew Kenneth Minerd, Ph.D., professor of Moral Theology and Philosophy at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh. | |
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November 2022 - Offensive end John George Kovatch Jr. poses in a wide panorama photograph with teammates from the 1942 World Champion Washington club of the National Football League, including one of pro football's all-time greats, future Hall-of-Famer "Slingin's Sammy" Baugh | |
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October 2022 - Charles Henry Walker listens on the telephone circa 1949 in the U.S. Navy's Combat Information Center. | |
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September 2022 - Gary Wydman, of Corning, NY, the starting quarterback for the Penn State University Nittany Lions football team in 1964 during a a 6-win, 4-loss season. | |
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August 2022 - Original manuscript map of the Spanish-American War battlefield at Manila, the Philippine Islands, drawn and sent home during the war in 1898 by Charles T.J. Miner of Columbus, NE. | |
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July 2022 - Susanna (Minerd) Mayle Woody, one of two known cousins in the family to marry a freed slave. Having grown up in West Virginia, she migrated at about age 18 to Athens County, OH where she spent the balance of her long life. | |
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June 2022 - Silent film star Ethlyne Clair, third wife of Hollywood filmmaking executive Richard Lansdale "Dale" Hanshaw, plays the leading role in the serial picture Queen of the Northwoods in 1929. | |
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May 2022 - The almost ghostly face of an anonymous young man peers out from this small carte de visite image, forgotten by time. But what's equally fascinating is the back of the cardboard mounting, bearing the imprint of photographer Samuel Bookman of Ursina, PA. | |
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April 2022 - In her first season with the San Francisco Opera, in 1946, launching a career there spanning two decades, soprano Eloise Farrell stands with fellow bridesmaids in the Opera 's performance of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin. | |
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March 2022 - Mark Ware, an 8th-generation descendant of Somerset County pioneers of German origin, today serving as director of the Historical & Genealogical Society of Somerset County, in association with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. | |
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February 2022 - Head basketball coach Carl Blythe "Rube" Hoy with returning University of South Dakota lettermen in 1954. Courtesy Archives and Special Collection, University Libraries, University of South Dakota. | |
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January 2022 - Roscoe Edward "Ross" Shumaker, who grew up in Somerset County, PA and went on to a career as chief architect at North Carolina State University and as executive secretary with the North Carolina Architectural Registration Board. |
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~ 2021 ~
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December 2021 - A vintage tannery business ledger in Somerset County, PA dating to the 1840s, when the business was operated by Jehu McMillan and family, has been brought to light, digitized and made publicly available online at no charge. |
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November 2021 - Garry Robert Feniello was one of two known cousins in the extended family to suit up for a professional team in the National Football League. He signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1947 and in 1949 with the Cleveland Browns. |
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October 2021 - Born in Somerset County, PA, Josephine Whalen grew up in Iowa and at the age of 25, made an extended visit with her grandparents and many uncles and aunts in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Fortunately, she kept a diary of her experiences which has been republished on this website. |
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September 2021- Ruth (Van Horn) Snyder and daughters Sally and Carol enjoy the sunshine and wildlife during their two-year stay of residence in La Dorada in Colombia, South America, far from their traditional home in Pasadena, CA. |
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August 2021 - High up in
the Sierra Nevada mountains of Yosemite National Park in California, in 1931,
Osta (Cain) Miner rests along the Mist Trail at the top section of the
dramatic 317-foot Vernal Fall. Her husband wrote on the back of this image: "Vernal Falls over twice as high as Niagra. in Yosemite Valley. We climbed hundreds of tiresome steps to get to the top of them where a beautiful lake lay in the basin of solid rock." |
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July 2021 - Photographs have surfaced of Civil War veteran William "Frederick" Weller and his wife, Mary Coleman, of the family of Joseph and Sarah (Weyand) Coleman of Somerset, PA. |
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June 2021 - Upon the death of Dr. Charles Herbert LaWall in Philadelphia in 1937, his portrait was painted and presented by artist Leon A. Spielman (right) to the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, received by President Wilmer Krusen. |
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May 2021 - Newsboy Billy Rugh's life and death inspired the city of Gary, IN into mourning and -- unheard of -- shut down its steel mills for an entire day. His grave marker is inscribed with this verse of scripture from the Book of John: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." |
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April 2021 - One of the Founding Fathers portrayed in colonial costume in this color-tinted image was Rev. William Mullen Minerd. The June 1932 pageant in Rockwood, PA, honored the 200th birthday of our nation's first president George Washington, with Rev. Minerd portraying the character of Samuel Allyne Otis, inaugural Secretary of the Senate. |
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March 2021 - Rev. Okey Mayle, Sr. -- the great-grandson of the Native American/Pennsylvania German couple Jacob and Ruth Ann (Adams) Minerd -- was a well known preacher in and around Philippi, WV, and an early leader in the effort to recognize the native heritage on Chestnut Ridge. |
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February 2021 - Tim Freshley behind the wheel of the historic Crosley Hot Shot racing car which he restored and which won the very first Sebring endurance race in Florida on New Year's Eve 1950. |
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January 2021 - The late Ruth Helen (Braem) White Worden of San Diego is surounded by hand-crafted "Bears by Ruth" which she used as gifts for hospitalized University Christian Church members. She was well-known as the character "Miss Ruth" on the "House of Happiness" television show broadcast in San Diego in the 1960s and '70s. |
See all years 2000-2005 - 2006-2010 2011-2015 - 2016-2020 - 2021-present |
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2021-2023 Mark A. Miner |
