Page:The Southern Literary Messenger - Minor.djvu/271



Benjamin Blake Minor, fourth President of the State University of Missouri, was born in Tappahannock, Essex county, Va., October 21, 1818, son of Dr. Hubbard Taylor and Jane (Blake) Minor. He was named for his maternal grandfather, who was a successful merchant, and owned vessels which traded with the West Indies and along the Atlantic coast, and was also a Virginia planter. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Minor, of Spottsylvania county, was a planter, but had served his country through the whole of the Revolutionary War, as lieutenant, adjutant, captain, and aide-de-camp. His great-grandfather, James Taylor, of Caroline county, was a prominent patriot and public servant, a personal friend of Washington, and a kinsman of Presidents Madison and Taylor. He was a member of the House of Burgesses, of the conventions of 1775-'6, and of 1788, and of the State Senate. He was also chairman of the Committee of Safety of Caroline and lieutenant of that county.