Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/418

 MINOR

MINOT

to Charlottesville and edited a paper there. He was professor of law at William and Mary, 1855- 58. He was an earnest advocate of temperance, a good classical scholar, and the friend and adviser of Mr. Thomas W. White, founder of the Southern Literary Messenger, to which he con- tributed extensively. He delivered before the alumni of the University of Virginia a eulogy of Prof. John A. G. Davis. Somewhat late in life he married Lavinia Price of Hanover county, by whom he had children. The Knights of St. Mathew erected in the cemetery at Williams- burg, Va., a monument to his memory. He is the author of a part of John A. G. Davis's •' Guide to Justices" (1838); added notes to Daniel Call's four volumes of Homing and Munford's reports into one, and wrote a tract on the " Reason for Abolishing the Liquor Traffic." His notes of travel on foot in New England were revised and published in the Southern Literary Messenger, 1834. He died in Williamsburg, Va., in 1858.
 * Virginia Reports "; revised and condensed the

MINOR, Robert Crannell, painter, was born in New York city, April 30, 1839; son of Israel and Charlotte (Crannell) Minor; grandson of Seth Minor and of Isaac Van Hook Crannell, and a descendant of Elder Brewster. After studying painting under H. Boulanger and Joseph Van Luppen in Belgium and under Diaz at Barbizon, France, he opened a studio in New York city He was vice-president of the Societe Artistique et Litteraire at Antwerp in 1874; was elected a member of the Society of American Artists; a National Academician in 1897, a member of the New York Sculpture society, the National Arts club, and the Lotus club; and president of the Salmagundi club of New York. He received various honors and medals for his work, and ex- hibited in New York, Brooklyn, and Chicago; in the Royal Academy and Grosvenor Gallery, Lon- don, and in the Salons of Paris and Antwerp. His paintings include: Evening (1874); Dawn (1874); Studio of Corot (1877); Under the Oaks (1880); The Wold of Kent, England (1884); TJie Cradle of the Hudson (1885); The Close of Day (1886); .4 Mountain Path (1887).

MINOR, Virginia Louisa, reformer, was born in Goocliland county, Va., March 27, 1824; daugh- ter of Warner Minor, and a descendant of Capt. Doodes Maindort, the immigrant, 1673, who adopted the name of Minor. She was a student at the Academy for Young Ladies, Charlottesville, Va. In 1843 she was married to her kinsman, Francis Minor, and after 1846 made her home in St. Louis, Mo. She rendered valuable assistance to the wounded soldiers during the civil war, and in 1866 was prominent in promoting the woman suffrage movement in Missouri, organizing the Woman Suffrage association in 1866. In 1872 she

brought the question before the federal courts, on the ground that suffrage was the right and not the mere privilege of women. The U.S. supreme court decided the case against her.

MINOR, William Thomas, governor of Con- necticut, was born in Stamford, Conn., Oct. 3, 1815; son of Simeon H. Minor, and a descendant of Thomas Minor, who came from England, 1646, and settled at Pequot, near Stonington, Conn. He was graduated from Yale in 1834; taught school at Stamford, 1834-41; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1841, and practised in Stamford, 1841- 68. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1846- 54, state senator, 1854-55, and was nominated for governor of the state on the Na- tive American ticket in 1856. As there was no pop- ular election he was chosen governor by the legis- lature and served 1856-58. He was U.S. consul- general at Havana, Cuba, 1864-67, and while there secured the detention of the Confederate ram StonewallJackson, Capt. T. J. Page, until he had communicated with his government. He was judge of the superior court of Connecticut, 1868-73. The honorary degree of LL.D. was con- ferred on him by Wesleyan university in 1855. He was married in 1849, to Mary C, daughter of John W. Leeds of Stamford, and his son Charles W. Minor was elected a representative in the Con- necticut legislature in 1882. Governor Minor died at Stamford, Conn., Oct. 13, 1889.

MINOT, Charles, pioneer railroad manager, was born in Haverhill, Mass., Aug. 30, 1810. He was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1828, A.M., 1831, and practised law in Boston, 1831-41. He was superintendent of the Boston and Maine rail- road, 1841; of the Erie, 1842-54; of the Micliigan Southern, 1854-59; of the Erie, 1859-64, and its consulting manager, 1864-66. He instructed the builders of the chief railroads of the United Stales. He died in Somerville, Mass., Dec. 10, 1866.

MINOT, Charles Sedgwick, biologist, was born in West Roxbury, Mass., Dec. 23, 1852; son of William and Katherine (Sedgwick) Minot; grandson of William Minot, and a descendant of George Minot, one of the founders of Dorchester, Mass. He was graduated in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B., 1872, and studied biology in Leipzig, Paris, Wiirzburg and at Harvard, where he took the degree of S.D. in 1878. He was lecturer on oral path- ology and surgery at Harvard Dental school, 1880-83; and was lecturer on embryology at the Harvard Medical school, 1880-83; instructor in histology and embryology, 1883-87; assistant professor, 1887-92, and professor from 1892. He was made a fellow of the Harvard Medical school