Melvinna Grace "Met" Minnich ⁶⁴¹

  General Notes:

When she was 12 years old, Melvina "Met" moved to Union Township, Indiana (Delaware County) with her mother and father. Shortly after they arrived in Indiana, her mother gave birth to twin daughters in March 1887 from which she apparently never recovered. Before Met's marriage to Oliver K. Studebaker she worked as a live-in housekeeper for various farm families, particularly when new babies arrived in those households. Melvina was affectionately known as "Met." None of her nine grandchildren ever called her grandmother but always "Met." Without exception, all of her grandchildren loved her dearly. She was always cheerful, an excellent cook, a superb housekeeper, and well-liked by all her acquaintances and relatives. She never neglected having a gift for each of her grandchildren on birthdays and at Christmas. Her grandchildren were always ready to stay over night in her household.

Her niece, Margaret Minnich Birkhold, wrote as follows: "We kids from Ohio always felt very fortunate to be invited for a stay of a week or two in Indiana. It was a feeling of pride "to set a good table." Aunt Met and her daughter, Letha and Lucille, could come up with the grandest meals with recipes new to us. Maybe a chicken, dressed at-the-ready in the cellar, cured ham, canned meat of some kind-your choice; pie, just out of the oven; canned, dried, or fresh fruit; all kinds of vegetables, right out of the garden. It was not uncommon to have fresh home made bread! You can understand why we had great joy in visiting unexpectedly."

According to W. Keith Fisher, "After Oliver died on 9 May 1918 , she lived for a time with my family, Mr. and Mrs. Chester Fisher. In about 1920 she married Mr. James Almond Luzadder, with whom she became acquainted when she sold her farm to him. Mr. Luzadder's first wife had died a few years earlier. Grandpa Luzadder was born in 1854 near Grafton, West Virginia and came to Indiana when a young man. He was an extremely wise and outstanding person, also a very frugal and successful farmer. When he died in 1938, each one of his four children inherited from him one farm each.

After Grandpa Luzadder's death, Met moved to Eaton, Indiana where she lived until her death in 1942 of a heart attack. She had suffered from high blood pressure for several years. She had been sitting in a chair in her living room at the time of her death sometime during the night and so she was found in the morning." ⁶⁴¹

Melvinna married Oliver K. Studebaker on 21 Oct 1893. (Oliver K. Studebaker was born on 19 Jul 1873 in Delaware County, Indiana, USA ⁶⁴¹ and died on 9 May 1918 in Union Township, Delaware, Indiana, USA ⁶⁴¹.). The cause of his death was Suicide.

Melvinna next married James Alman Luzadder on 21 Oct 1921.