Amos Miner 1776 - 1842

Only known drawing of Amos Miner's Spinning Wheel Head invention
(Source: http://www.spwhsl.com/ISS_29/DETAIL29.HTM)

Amos Miner (also spelled as Minor in certain records) is my 4th-great grandfather. According to genealogical records he was born on November 10, 1776, in Bethlehem, Litchfield Co., Conn. His father was John Miner IV, a Norfolk, Conn. physician, and his mother was Sarah Dutton. Amos was the 3rd-great grandson of Thomas Minor, an early settler of Massachusetts and Connecticut (I'll do a separate post on him later).

According to the family history, Thomas Minor--Descendants 1608-1981, Amos married Phebe (or Phoebe) Hamlin on December 21, 1796. Amos and Phebe moved to Skaneateles, N.Y. about 1800 , where Amos built a shop where he manufactured "accelerating wheel heads." This was a device he invented that attached to spinning wheels to make them more efficient. Here are links to information about the invention:

Amos' invention at Spinning Wheel Sleuth.

Text from A History of American Manufactures from 1608 - 1860 at Google Books

In 1805 Amos moved to Stafford, N.Y., where he founded a firm called Miner, Denning, and Sessions, and he built a factory to make the wheel heads and other items he invented. These items included "pails, half bushels, bowls, grooved window sash, and wooden pumps." The family history states that a few years later he sold his interest in the business and moved to another location where he built a grist mill and another factory. Amos was certainly a rolling stone because he apparently moved several more times before ending up in central Illinois in about 1830. He settled at Little York, a town that was about five miles north of Waverly, Ill.

Amos and Phebe had fifteen children, eight who survived to adulthood. One of these children was Amos Jr., who was born in 1817 in New York and died at age twenty-one in 1839 in Illinois. Amos Jr. had married Delilah Corey in 1837 and had one son, George Amos in 1839 (look for a future posting on him). I imagine it had to be very tough on both of them to have so many children die in infancy, but even harder to have a child die who had just recently been married and had a child.

Phebe died on October 28, 1838, but is not buried in the Waverly Cemetery along with Amos. According to the Illinois State Marriage Index, Amos apparently remarried an Abigail Corey on January 17, 1839. Amos lived until June 2, 1842, and Abigail lived until October 23, 1860. They are both buried in Waverly East Cemetery, Waverly, Ill. Here are photos of their gravestones.

Amos certainly led an eventful life. Born in the same year our great country was also born, he experienced the westward expansion from New England. He also participated in the Industrial Revolution as an inventor and entrepreneur. He died at the beginnings of the next great westward surge.