The George Thomas Miner family in 1914

George Thomas Miner and Margrete Norris Miner, with their two sons, Carlton Holmes Miner, born April 28, 1909, who became a North Tonawanda dentist, and George Norris Miner, born May 1, 1906, who became a medical doctor.   Photo courtesy of Marcia Miner Poleon, daughter of Dr. G. Norris Miner.

"Doctor's influence on NT" by Donna Zellner Neal with Marcia Miner Poleon

Carlton Holmes Miner, D.D.S.

Heinrich C. Leonhardt, M.D. & Family

"Dr. Miner closing out long medical career" by Tonawanda News

"Dr. Miner ex-NT health officer, dies" by Tonawanda News

"Homes, ready-made in North Tonawanda" by Donna Zellner Neal

131 Payne Avenue

137 Payne Avenue/147 Christiana Street

258 Christiana Street

Margarita Leonhardt lived in the house at 228 Goundry which was the subject of last week’s column until her marriage in 1936 when she and her new husband, Dr. George Norris Miner, moved to the home of Dr. Charles W. Clendenan at 147 Christiana Street, at the southeast corner of Payne Ave. That home is 137 Payne Avenue on the west side and 147 Christiana on the north side. Dr. Clendenan had died in 1934.

G. Norris Miner had served with the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Marietta, Ohio, from 1933 to 1935, when he opened his office on Payne Avenue. Dr. Miner rented the home until he was able to purchase it. Dr. Clendenan had built the home. There was a medical office in the home where Dr. Miner practiced until his new office building was completed next door at 131 Payne Avenue in 1940 - 1941. Marcia notes that, in her grandfather’s day and her father’s, it was a practice for a doctor to move into an existing doctor’s home and office, making it easier for patients to find the place or to take over existing office equipment.

Dr. Miner began his career on April Fool’s Day in 1935, having completed three years of post-graduate medical training in Cleveland, Ohio, after his 1932 graduation from the University of Buffalo Medical School. He interned at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland from 1932 to 1933. He had previously earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Buffalo in 1927. Before he returned for his medical training, he taught high school mathematics and coached football for a year in Avon.

His first month’s earnings in private practice totaled $27! Daily room rates at DeGraff Memorial Hospital at the time were $4 for a private room and $3 for a bed in a four-bed ward. At that time, the hospital employed thirteen people in addition to the medical staff. It had no laboratory or x-ray facilities.

Dr. Miner went into the service in 1942, serving till 1945, with a Naval Medical detachment at the Construction Training center in Davisville, R.I., re-opening his office at 131 Payne Avenue when he returned. He practiced there until he sold the building in 1975. He shared the office building with his brother, Dr. Carlton H. Miner, a dentist. In 1949, Norris was named to the National Football Hall of Fame Association for his record as an athlete and his support of the University of Buffalo ’s scholarship program.

The G. Norris Miners lived in the corner home until 1946, when the family moved to 115 Pine Woods Drive, with Mrs. Miner living there until it was sold in July 2005. Before the Miners moved there, the Pine Woods Drive home had belonged to Stanley and Winifred Vandervoort Rand. Stanley Rand, an insurance and real estate executive, was one of the sons of Benjamin Long Rand.

Dr. G. Norris Miner served as health officer for North Tonawanda from 1952 through 1965, when the Niagara County Health Department was established. In 1965, he was the first to give polio vaccinations in the Tonawandas. He organized a campaign in the North Tonawanda Schools between 1955 and 1956 wherein over 6,000 polio vaccinations were administered. He also served on the Board of Education. He practiced medicine for 40 years, retiring in June 1975. He died one year later at the age of 70.

Dr. Miner loved his practice and his patients. To his family, it seemed that he was always at the office or the hospital. Marcia says she doesn’t think he knew how to relax. She also never heard him complain. He never had time for hobbies. The phone rang frequently, even during their dinner hour. No matter what he was doing, he would leave to take care of someone. He never went to see a patient without being dressed in a clean shirt, tie, and coat. Marcia recalls seeing him with tears in his eyes, talking on the phone to someone who was very sick.

In 1972, her Uncle Carlton became deathly ill and Marcia remembers how hard that was on her father.

The father of G. Norris and Carlton Miner was born in Rose, New York, (east of Rochester ) and married Margrete Norris in 1902 north of Toronto. The family settled later in Buffalo, and then moved to North Tonawanda around 1936 to live at 258 Christiana Street. Their father died in 1938. Margrete Norris Miner moved to 147 Christiana and lived there until her own death in 1949. Carlton moved into the home at 258 Christiana Street. When World War II began, Carlton met Josephine Eccles, and they married in 1944. Carlton had also attended the University of Buffalo for his undergraduate and dental degrees. Carlton died in 1985.

Norris had four children, two sons and two daughters. Carlton had four daughters. Norris and Carlton ’s grandfather had had thirteen children. The family has traced the Miner family back to 1620 when Thomas Minor (differences in spelling were the norm in the past) settled in Stonington, Connecticut. Marcia Poleon is the 13 th generation from Thomas Minor.

There is a Thomas Minor Society which has reunions every other year, with one planned in Chew Magna, England, in 2008, the 400 th birthday of Thomas Minor. Marcia relates that some of the cousins she has discovered spell their name Miner and some use Minor. She has attended some of the past reunions.

Margrete Miner, their mother, lived next to the office until her death, and Marcia remembers that she also was always working. She is thought to have had a stroke and had a difficult time holding a rake. Marcia recalls that patients would come in to the medical office and ask why she was outside working. Dr. Miner tried to encourage her to stop—but she was quite determined.