Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/311

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

Minor, Thomas, born at '* Locust Gr^'e," Spotsylvania county, Virginia, in 1751, son of Captain Thomas Minor and Alice Thomas, his wife. He was in military serv- ice during the entire war of the revolution, holding commissions in turn as second and first lieutenant, adjutant, and as captain and aide-de-camp to Gen. Edward Stevens, at the siege and surrender of Yorktown. After the war he was colonel of militia, justice of the peace, and twice high sheriff. Twice he v.as called upon to do public honor to the Marquis de Lafayette — first in 1824, when that illustrious soldier and friend to Amer- ica was given a public reception. Col. Minor acting as master of ceremonies; and a de- cade later (July 11. 1834), when at a memo- rial service in honor of Lafayette, then ktely deceased, Col. Minor acted as chief pall-bearer, and though in his eighty-third year, marched on foot. The old veteran be- came overheated and took a cold which re- sulted in pneumonia, and ended in his death, on the 2 1 St of the same month. On the previous Fourth of July he had entertained a host of neighbors and friends with a bar- becue and out-of-door entertainments on a very liberal scale. He was fond of dogs and horses, and is mentioned in the "Vir- ginia Historical Magazine" as one of the principal improvers of the blooded horses or the state, by imputation and systematic breeding. He rode his favorite horse, his respects to Gen. Jackson, then just elect- ed to the presidency, and was received with distinguished friendship and appreciation. He married, in 1781, Elizabeth, daughter of Col. James Taylor, of "Midway," Caroline county, Virginia.
 * Gentle Kitty" to Washington City, to pay

Tatham, William, born in Hutton, Eng- land, in 1752. He came to America in 1769, and engaged in a mercantile business on the James river, \'irginia. He served as ad- jutant in the operations against the Indians, with whom he came into familiar contact, and from the knowledge of their history which he gained he wrote excellent bio- graphical accounts of Atakullakulla, Oconis- toto, Cornstalk and other distinguished chiefs. During the revolutionary war he was a colonel of \*irginia cavalry under Gen. Thomas Nelson, and was of the party that stormed the Yorktown redoubt. With Col. John Todd, in 1780, he compiled the first trustworthy account of the western country. After the revolutionary war. he studied law; in 1784 was admitted to the bar, and in 1786 removed to North Carolina, where he founded the settlement of Lum- berton, and was a member of the legislature in 1787. In 1796 he returned to England, and became superintendent of the London docks. He came back to Virginia in 1805. He was impoverished in his old age, and was made military storekeeper in the Rich- mond arsenal. While so engaged, on Feb- ruary 22. 1819, he committed suicide by springing in front of a cannon at the instant of its firing in a salute in honor of Wash- ington's birthday. He was one of the most remarkable men of his day, and in his many published works anticipated by more than a half century all others in calculating the agricultural and commercial possibilities of the new nation, and making suggestions for their development, as witness: "An Ana- lysis of the State of Virginia" (1790) ; **Two Tracts relating to the Canal between Nor- folk and North Carolina" (1797) ; "Remarks on Inland Canals" (1798) ; "Political Econ-

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