Miner was enumerated in the 1870 US Census with his parents and siblings in Woodland, Barry County, Michigan; in the 1880 census he was enumerated with the family of Henry Clever, in Maple Grove, Barry County, Michigan.
Miner M. Barnum was killed in an accident at a sawmill on 25 Feb. 1895. Mary, his widow, married the owner of the sawmill, Stephen Sprinkett, in 1897. Mary and Stephen had no children together and all three of her sons retained the Barnum surname.