Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/372

336 ized by his writings. He drew up and introduced into congress the iirst resolutions on the culture of silk and wrote the report tiuxt was introduced by Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer as chairman of the committee on agriculture. He returned to the Wyoming valley in 1882. Mr. Miner published a " History of Wyoming," in which the account of the Wyoming massacre was detailed from the tes- timony of eye-witnesses (Philadelphia, 1845) : " Es- says from the Desk of Poor Robert the Scribe," which was first contributed to the " Gleaner " ; and the ballad of " James Bird."

MINER, Myrtilla, philanthropist, b. in Brook- field, Madison co., N. Y., 4 March, 1815; d. in Washington, D. C, 17 Dec, 1864. She began teaching when fifteen years of age, and was after- ward employed in a school for the education of planters' daughters in Whitesville, Wilkinson co.. Miss. She remained there two years, became fa- miliar with the evils of slavery, and determined to devote her life to the elevation of the negro race. She decided to found a normal school for free col- ored girls in Washington, although she had but $100 with which to meet expenses. On 3 Dec, 1851, the school was opened in a small apartment with six pupils. During the second month the number of pupils increased to forty, and in 1853 a permanent location for the school with increased accommodation was purchased for $4,300, Harriet Beecher Stowe contributing $1,000 from the pro- ceeds of the sale of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Thence- forth the school was a great success. In 1860 in- dications of approaching civil war led to the tem- porary abandonment of the school, and in 1861 Miss Miner went to California for the benefit of her health, but met with an accident there and re- turned to die in Washington. While she was ab- sent in California in 1863, congress passed an act for the incorporation of her normal school. She had suffered severe persecution in consequence of her efforts to elevate the colored people.

MINER, Thomas, physician, b. in Middletown, Conn., 15 Oct.. 1777; d. in Worcester, Mass., 23 April, 1841. He was graduated at Yale in 1796, taught in Goshen, N. Y., and studied law, which in 1803 he abandoned for medicine. In the spring of 1807 he began practice at Middletown, and in the autumn of 1808 settled at Lynn, Mass. In 1809 a malignant epidemic called spotted fever prevailed in the Connecticut valley, and in com- bating it he adopted a new method of treatment, which was the cause of much discussion. His in- firm state of health prevented his engaging in the active pursuit of his profession otherwise than in a desultory manner. He was a founder of Yale medical school and of the Connecticut retreat for the insane, and was president of the Connecticut medical society in 1834-'7. Dr. Miner contributed to periodicals "biographical sketches of Connecticut physicians, medical essays, and translations from French medical works. With Dr. William Tully he published " Essays upon Fevers and other Medi- cal Subjects " (Middletown, 1823) and " Account of Typhus Syncopalis " (1825).

MINES, Flavel Scott, clergyman, b. in Lees- bui-g, Va., 31 Dec, 1811 ; d. in San Francisco, Cal., in 1852. He was the son of John Mines, D. D., a Presbyterian clergyman of Virginia, and was grad- uated at Princeton theological seminary in 1830. He was pastor of Laight street Presbyterian church, New York city, but resigned his charge in 1841, and in 1842 took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church. In 1849 he organized at San Francisco, Cal., the first Protestant Episcopal congregation on the Pacific coast, and built Trinity church, under the chancel of which he was buried. He was the author of "A Presbyterian Clergyman looking for the Church" (New'York, 1850).— His son, John Flavel, author, b. in Paris, France, 27 Jan., 1835 ; d. in New York, 5 Nov., 1891, was graduated at Trinity in 1854. and at Berkeley. He entered the army as chaplain in 3Iay, 1861, but later retired from the ministry, was given a commission, and was mustered out in May, 1865, as a lieutenant- colonel. He was a contributor to various New York newspapers, and published "The Heroes of the Last Lustre," a poem (New York, 1858), and " A Tour around New York by Mr. Felix Oldboy " (1888). — Another son, Flavel Scott, clergvman,"b. in St. Croix, W. I., 24 July, 1843 ; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 14 Sept., 1878, was educated at Trinity, and graduated at the General theological seminary. New York, in 1855. He early espoused what is known as the catholic school of thought in the Episcopal church, and was for several years one of its most active advocates in the city of New York. He held pastorates in Cherry Valley, N. Y., East- port, Me., before being called to New York, and left that city in 1874 to take charge of a church in Peoria, 111., whence he was called in 1876 to Trinity church, Mason, Tenn. When " The Church Month- ly " was developed into '• The Church Weekly Newspaper," he Isecame one of its editors.

MINIFIE, William, author, b. in Devonshire, 14 Aug., 1805 ; d. in Baltimore, 24 Oct., 1880. He came to the United States in 1828 and established himself as an architect and bookseller in Baltimore. Mr. Minifie was curator of the Maryland academy of sciences, and professor of drawing at the Mary- land institute schools of art. He was the author of " Text-Book of Mechanical Drawing " (Baltimore,. 1849) ; " Text-Book of Geometrical Drawing : Per- spective and Shadows " (1853) ; " Essay on the The- ory and Application of Color " (1854) ; and " Popu- lar Lectures on Drawing and Design " (1854).

MINOR, Lucian, writer, b. in Louisa county, Va., in 1802; d. in Williamsburg, Va., in 1858, He was graduated in law at William and Mary in 1823, and was commonwealth attorney for Louisa, county, Va., from 1828 till 1852. In" 1855 he was elected professor of law in William and Mary, which chair he filled till his death. He was a. strong advocate of temperance, and published many addresses and contributed to periodicals. He is the author of part of John A. G. Davis's " Guide to Justices " (1838), and added notes to Daniel Call's " Virginia Reports." He also con- densed the four volumes of Hening and Mum- ford's " Reports " into one. adding subsequent de- cisions and enactments, and wrote a tract, " Rea- sons for Abolishing the Liquor Traffic," which had a sale of 30,000. His interesting notes of travel in New England were published under the- supervision of James Russell Lowell in the '" At- lantic Monthly" after his death. — His brother, John Barbee, b. in Louisa county, 2 June, 1813 ;, d. in Charlottesville, 28 July, 1895, was educated at Kenyon, and at the University of Virginia, where he was graduated in law. He was professor of law in the University of Virginia for ten years, and then, upon the introduction of another pro- fessor into the department, assumed the chair of common and statute law, which he continued to hold. He was the author of •' The Virginia Report of 1799-1800" (Richmond, 1850); "Synopsis of the Law of Crimes and Punishments " (1869j ; and " Institutes of Common and Statute Law " (1875).

MINOR, Robert Crannell, artist, b. in New York city, 30 April, 1840. He studied six years in Belgium, France, and Italy, and in 1874 was