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:

"Uncle John took the home farm and kept his mother and father. He also provided a home for any of the widows or orphans that needed it. He married Elizabeth Milligan or "Aunt Betsy" as we called her. There was iron ore and a rich vein of limestone on this farm. He sold and delivered these to Buffalo Furnace (now part of Worthington) and to Freeport, to be taken down the Allegheny River by barge to Pittsburgh. This looked like lasting prosperity in the early 1850s. He built quite an impressive home but left the old log house. When the Civil War started Uncle John joined with my father, Joseph, and six or more nephews. He was in the 14th Cavalry, Pennsylvania Volunteer Company L, as were most of them. Their record may be found in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorials in Oakland, Pittsburgh, at Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard. See war record of John and Joseph following this family. At the close of the war he returned to the farm and planted new orchards, vineyards and all kinds of fruit trees and berries. This farm was a paradise to growing children. Then he retired and spent the remainder of his life attending vendues or sales, buying things he never used. He loved visiting friends and talking politics, he being almost the only Democrat in a Republican family and Community. I believe he belonged to this political party to give him a topic to argue. Aunt Betsy had the patience of a saint, was always gentle and never seemed to question anything that came her way. Aunt Betty, who had lived with her, would say, 'But she thumped away at the thinking.'"

From Frank Dumm's Minteer Family History pages:

"The eleventh child of the William and Mary N. Minteer family was JOHN, known to all the connection as 'Uncle John Minteer.' He was sometimes nicknamed 'The Old Bear' because of his shaggy hair and beard in his older days. He had an old fur coat and a long beard. He was never a farmer, tho he lived on a farm--he would buy up land. But in other ways the name did not fit, for he was a jolly, good-natured man, who enjoyed telling a story or laughing at a joke, even if it was on himself. He was a stiff, old-line Democrat, and his brother James (Grandfather Minteer) was just as ardent a Republican. The men in Worthington used to plan to get these old men started to argue politics, when they happened to meet at the post-office, the grocery or the blacksmith shop. They had some great old debates, and neither would give an inch to the other. They generally parted muttering something about 'that fool, Jim' or 'that stubborn old John.'"
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In 1830 the Minteer farm where he lived with his parents and siblings was in Buffalo Township in Armstrong County, PA. By 1840 the population had increased sufficiently that that the northern part of Buffalo Township had become Franklin Township, so the farm had a new address.

In 1850 he and his wife and his younger brother Joseph lived with their parents on the old family farm where he and all his siblings grew up.

In 1860 he and his wife and their four children lived there on the farm. He owned real property worth $3000 and personal property worth $950.

In 1870 he and Elizabeth and their four surviving children lived there. By then Franklin Township had grown enough that it had split into East and West, which is where the farm was.

In 1880 he and his wife and their three youngest children still lived there. James worked on the farm and John worked as a carpenter.

In 1900 he and Elizabeth and their daughter Maggie lived there. Maggie worked as a school teacher.