From "The Minteers As I Have Known Them" by Josephine Minteer Dickinson (1961 limited-edition private printing of 200 copies), youngest and last surviving of William Minteer and Mary Nicholson's 85 grandchildren:
"Married Ruby Weber. Jim went into the building trade in Pittsburgh at an early age. He and my brother, Fin, were great friends, so during a depression in both the building and drilling trades, they came home and spent most of one winter in Worthington with my mother. What a gay time that was! It must have been about 1892. I was in school. Nora, my sister, played the organ, and as both boys were taking dancing lessons, I was happy to have them teach me. Mother sat and watched and commented that she was sorry she had never learned to dance. We also played poker with corn or candy. Ah! The Gay Nineties in the country! This was when Jim became a very near and dear cousin."
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From James' great-grandson Rob Minteer:
My uncle had a picture labeled "James M Minteer when he first came to Pittsburgh." But strictly speaking both he and Josephine were incorrect, because Jim, his sister Cora, and their little brother Harry all settled in the city of Allegheny. Not until 1907 was Allegheny's forcible annexation by Pittsburgh upheld in court. By then Jim had moved to Avalon. Cora lived out her life in what is now known as Pittsburgh's North Side. Harry stayed there through the late 1920s, then moved out to White Oak, south of McKeesport.
From old City Directories I was able to find most of the addresses where Jim and his growing family lived over a 15 year period before finally buying the house out in Avalon:
1889--13 W Pearl
1891--93 W Diamond
1893--279 Manhattan--he and his brother Harry lived there
1897--162 Juniata
1898--288 Federal
1899--19 Sweeney
1901--19 Sweeney
I discovered early on in my investigations that street names had changed several times, but with the help of a reprint of the 1911 Pittsburgh City Atlas was able to determine the current street names. What I wasn't aware of for some time was that most house numbers on streets running north and south have also changed. By comparisons made with other old maps I was able to locate the correct blocks, at least, for all those addresses. The only house still in existence for sure is the one at 162 Juniata, where my grandfather's sister, Ruth, was born.
Having seen first his father, then his sister Cora, then his wife having to be institutionalized at the ends of their lives, and the mental and physical deterioration that made it necessary, he was determined to die at home, and with the help of his daughter Ruth, mostly, he was able to do so. The next two generations were not so fortunate, although each succeeding generation has developed kinder, gentler institutions in which to die--first Nursing Homes and now Assisted Living facilities.
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Sometime in the early 1890s he met Flo Beck. He kept a picture of her all his life, and his daughter Ruth labeled that picture as "Pop's first love."
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other sibling:
William Ellsworth McNabb (1863-1900)
"Married Ruby Weber. Jim went into the building trade in Pittsburgh at an early age. He and my brother, Fin, were great friends, so during a depression in both the building and drilling trades, they came home and spent most of one winter in Worthington with my mother. What a gay time that was! It must have been about 1892. I was in school. Nora, my sister, played the organ, and as both boys were taking dancing lessons, I was happy to have them teach me. Mother sat and watched and commented that she was sorry she had never learned to dance. We also played poker with corn or candy. Ah! The Gay Nineties in the country! This was when Jim became a very near and dear cousin."
--------------
From James' great-grandson Rob Minteer:
My uncle had a picture labeled "James M Minteer when he first came to Pittsburgh." But strictly speaking both he and Josephine were incorrect, because Jim, his sister Cora, and their little brother Harry all settled in the city of Allegheny. Not until 1907 was Allegheny's forcible annexation by Pittsburgh upheld in court. By then Jim had moved to Avalon. Cora lived out her life in what is now known as Pittsburgh's North Side. Harry stayed there through the late 1920s, then moved out to White Oak, south of McKeesport.
From old City Directories I was able to find most of the addresses where Jim and his growing family lived over a 15 year period before finally buying the house out in Avalon:
1889--13 W Pearl
1891--93 W Diamond
1893--279 Manhattan--he and his brother Harry lived there
1897--162 Juniata
1898--288 Federal
1899--19 Sweeney
1901--19 Sweeney
I discovered early on in my investigations that street names had changed several times, but with the help of a reprint of the 1911 Pittsburgh City Atlas was able to determine the current street names. What I wasn't aware of for some time was that most house numbers on streets running north and south have also changed. By comparisons made with other old maps I was able to locate the correct blocks, at least, for all those addresses. The only house still in existence for sure is the one at 162 Juniata, where my grandfather's sister, Ruth, was born.
Having seen first his father, then his sister Cora, then his wife having to be institutionalized at the ends of their lives, and the mental and physical deterioration that made it necessary, he was determined to die at home, and with the help of his daughter Ruth, mostly, he was able to do so. The next two generations were not so fortunate, although each succeeding generation has developed kinder, gentler institutions in which to die--first Nursing Homes and now Assisted Living facilities.
--------
Sometime in the early 1890s he met Flo Beck. He kept a picture of her all his life, and his daughter Ruth labeled that picture as "Pop's first love."
--------
other sibling:
William Ellsworth McNabb (1863-1900)
From "The Minteers As I Have Known Them" by Josephine Minteer Dickinson (1961 limited-edition private printing of 200 copies), youngest and last surviving of William Minteer and Mary Nicholson's 85 grandchildren:
"Married Ruby Weber. Jim went into the building trade in Pittsburgh at an early age. He and my brother, Fin, were great friends, so during a depression in both the building and drilling trades, they came home and spent most of one winter in Worthington with my mother. What a gay time that was! It must have been about 1892. I was in school. Nora, my sister, played the organ, and as both boys were taking dancing lessons, I was happy to have them teach me. Mother sat and watched and commented that she was sorry she had never learned to dance. We also played poker with corn or candy. Ah! The Gay Nineties in the country! This was when Jim became a very near and dear cousin."
--------------
From James' great-grandson Rob Minteer:
My uncle had a picture labeled "James M Minteer when he first came to Pittsburgh." But strictly speaking both he and Josephine were incorrect, because Jim, his sister Cora, and their little brother Harry all settled in the city of Allegheny. Not until 1907 was Allegheny's forcible annexation by Pittsburgh upheld in court. By then Jim had moved to Avalon. Cora lived out her life in what is now known as Pittsburgh's North Side. Harry stayed there through the late 1920s, then moved out to White Oak, south of McKeesport.
From old City Directories I was able to find most of the addresses where Jim and his growing family lived over a 15 year period before finally buying the house out in Avalon:
1889--13 W Pearl
1891--93 W Diamond
1893--279 Manhattan--he and his brother Harry lived there
1897--162 Juniata
1898--288 Federal
1899--19 Sweeney
1901--19 Sweeney
I discovered early on in my investigations that street names had changed several times, but with the help of a reprint of the 1911 Pittsburgh City Atlas was able to determine the current street names. What I wasn't aware of for some time was that most house numbers on streets running north and south have also changed. By comparisons made with other old maps I was able to locate the correct blocks, at least, for all those addresses. The only house still in existence for sure is the one at 162 Juniata, where my grandfather's sister, Ruth, was born.
Having seen first his father, then his sister Cora, then his wife having to be institutionalized at the ends of their lives, and the mental and physical deterioration that made it necessary, he was determined to die at home, and with the help of his daughter Ruth, mostly, he was able to do so. The next two generations were not so fortunate, although each succeeding generation has developed kinder, gentler institutions in which to die--first Nursing Homes and now Assisted Living facilities.
--------
Sometime in the early 1890s he met Flo Beck. He kept a picture of her all his life, and his daughter Ruth labeled that picture as "Pop's first love."
--------
other sibling:
William Ellsworth McNabb (1863-1900)
"Married Ruby Weber. Jim went into the building trade in Pittsburgh at an early age. He and my brother, Fin, were great friends, so during a depression in both the building and drilling trades, they came home and spent most of one winter in Worthington with my mother. What a gay time that was! It must have been about 1892. I was in school. Nora, my sister, played the organ, and as both boys were taking dancing lessons, I was happy to have them teach me. Mother sat and watched and commented that she was sorry she had never learned to dance. We also played poker with corn or candy. Ah! The Gay Nineties in the country! This was when Jim became a very near and dear cousin."
--------------
From James' great-grandson Rob Minteer:
My uncle had a picture labeled "James M Minteer when he first came to Pittsburgh." But strictly speaking both he and Josephine were incorrect, because Jim, his sister Cora, and their little brother Harry all settled in the city of Allegheny. Not until 1907 was Allegheny's forcible annexation by Pittsburgh upheld in court. By then Jim had moved to Avalon. Cora lived out her life in what is now known as Pittsburgh's North Side. Harry stayed there through the late 1920s, then moved out to White Oak, south of McKeesport.
From old City Directories I was able to find most of the addresses where Jim and his growing family lived over a 15 year period before finally buying the house out in Avalon:
1889--13 W Pearl
1891--93 W Diamond
1893--279 Manhattan--he and his brother Harry lived there
1897--162 Juniata
1898--288 Federal
1899--19 Sweeney
1901--19 Sweeney
I discovered early on in my investigations that street names had changed several times, but with the help of a reprint of the 1911 Pittsburgh City Atlas was able to determine the current street names. What I wasn't aware of for some time was that most house numbers on streets running north and south have also changed. By comparisons made with other old maps I was able to locate the correct blocks, at least, for all those addresses. The only house still in existence for sure is the one at 162 Juniata, where my grandfather's sister, Ruth, was born.
Having seen first his father, then his sister Cora, then his wife having to be institutionalized at the ends of their lives, and the mental and physical deterioration that made it necessary, he was determined to die at home, and with the help of his daughter Ruth, mostly, he was able to do so. The next two generations were not so fortunate, although each succeeding generation has developed kinder, gentler institutions in which to die--first Nursing Homes and now Assisted Living facilities.
--------
Sometime in the early 1890s he met Flo Beck. He kept a picture of her all his life, and his daughter Ruth labeled that picture as "Pop's first love."
--------
other sibling:
William Ellsworth McNabb (1863-1900)
