Minnie R. Stairs

  General Notes:

6. Minnie Stairs Nicklow: According to the obituary, her parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Summy) Stairs. She spent her last years in a nursing home over in Markeysburg. Pat remembers her coming to the Nicklow Reunion. (from Donna)

MINNIE R. (STAIRS) NICKLOW
Aunt Minnie and her husband William Willis Nicklow remained near Kingwood in Upper Turkeyfoot Township. They raised five children, Clarence, Harry, Orion, Lula, and Lola. Most everyone remembers them living down in the hollow on the road below the Old Bethel Church. But their Grandson, Dale Nicklow, says they initially lived next to the church.
Several of the nephews and nieces can remember visits with the Nicklows. Uncle John can remember being invited for Sunday dinner. The parents of John's future wife, Mary Trimpey, lived not far away. Cora Scandrol has a letter written by Aunt Minnie to Sister Ethel that, besides complaining of her stomach problems, recalls how kind their Grandfather Summy was.
William died in 1952 and Minnie, 1970. They are buried side-by-side in the Old Bethel Church Cemetery.

ETHEL FERN (STAIRS) THOMAS
When her parents died of typhoid, Ethel Fern was cared for by her Grandfather Abraham Summy. A picture (not shown) shows her with Abraham and other members of the Summy family in 1904. According to her children, Ethel said her grandfather was a kind and soft-spoken man. The only time she could remember him raising his voice was one time when she showed unreasonable fear of a cow. On the other hand, Abraham's second wife, Rachel, was less amiable; she likely resented the attention shown to the grandchild of Abraham's first wife. However, it is said that this wife had some premonition of her last year on earth and she bought Ethel a teapot as a gift before she died. Ethel was named in Abraham Summy's will as a beneficiary to share equally with the surviving children of Abraham and Rachel. According to her family, Ethel never saw any of that inheritance.
Ethel Fern married Michael Thomas from Markleysburg, Pa. At one time, Michael?s family owned over 1000 acres of farm land It was about 350 acres when Ethel and Michael lived there.
In the early days, the Thomases had a grocery store in Dunbar. During World War II, the entire family moved to Baltimore and worked in the Bethlehem Steel Shipping Yards. After the war, they returned to work on the farm.
Ethel died in Baltimore in 1960 and was buried next to brother Edward in brother Harry's plot in the Jersey Cemetery.
Ethel and Michael had five children: Aubrey, Frances W., Effie May, Cora, and Blanche Roche. The three living children remember Ethel as a kind and loving mother and diligently maintain her grave. They have several good pictures and letters that attest to the closeness of the Stairs sisters and brothers of Ethel's generation. Two great treasures they have are two full size photographs, one each of George and Elizabeth Stairs that hung on the wall of the family home in Westmoreland County. Minnie had given them to Ethel for safe-keeping.

Minnie married William Willis Nicola, son of Freeman Nicola and Phebe Vought, in 1889. (William Willis Nicola was born in 1874, died in 1952 and was buried in Old Bethel Church, Upper Turkeyfoot, PA.)