This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Minard, Smith Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BUB.2ACI/5936 Message Board Post: W.S. Minard 1935 William S. MINARD was born Oct. 16, 1870 on the farm where he lived at the time of his death. His father was Geo. E. MINARD and his mother, Arabella SMITH. Both families were pioneers in this country. The MINARDS in the town of Hume, and the SMITHS in the town of Granger. Will's grandfather MINARD, coming from Vermont, settled in this town in 1831, less than three years after the Indian title to the land on which he settled, had been extinguished by treaty. He was all his life one of the principal men in the town, was supervisor for three terms and a leader in all civic affairs. The SMITHS came to Granger several years earlier from Otsego county, N.Y., and were equally distinguished in the development of that territory. They have always been a large family and have been always honorable and respected people. Will went from the district school to Pike Seminary which he attended for three years. He finished all the work for graduation in three years but did not graduate because he had no desire to do so, a characteristic action for him. Since that time, he has lived quietly at home, spending his leisure in reading and reflection. He was a great reader of books and I can confidently say that he never read an unworthy book. He had a large and fine library which he himself accumulated. There was very little fiction in it, but much of history, science and sociology. He had a remarkable memory and an accurate and clear thinking mind. Thus he became a man of great knowledge and of definite, well founded and high ideals on the many subjects which interested him. His life indeed was essentially the life of the mind rather than that of the body. Had he possessed ambition of the ordinary objects of man's ambitions, he might have achieved much. But his ideals were not those of ordinary ambition. I am sure that while he was entirely conscious of his own unusual powers, he lived as he did simply because that was the way in which he wanted to live. He was a peaceful man, had no enemies and was not critical of the faults of others. His life seems strangely devoid of incident to most people, but I am sure that with his temperament it was a most happy and satisfying life. Those who knew him best will always revere his character. obit written by Dr. A.H. LYMAN [Northern Allegany Observer obituary, transcribed by Louise Y. Mills, 2003, from Cora Lahr's scrapbooks, Fillmore, NY]