Preceded by William H. Shoudy Role Physician Political party Republican | Spouse(s) Sarah Montgomery Party Republican Party Name Thomas Minor Succeeded by Robert Moran | |
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Born February 20, 1844
Manipay, British Ceylon ( 1844-02-20 ) Children Elizabeth Montgomery Minor
Judith Strong Minor Alma mater Yale School of Medicine Occupation Physician, Mayor of Seattle, Washington and Port Townsend, Washington and founder of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad. Died December 2, 1889, Camano Island Parents Judith Manchester Taylor, Eastman Strong Minor | ||
Education Yale School of Medicine | ||
Thomas T. Minor, (February 20, 1844 – December 2, 1889) was a physician, businessman, civic and political leader who founded the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway and served as mayor of Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington.
Contents
- Early life and ancestors
- Education and war years
- Marriage and family
- Politics
- Death
- Descendants
- Honors
- References
Early life and ancestors
Thomas Taylor Minor was born on February 20, 1844, in Manepy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) an island country in South Asia, located about 31 kilometres (19.3 mi) off the southern coast of India. He was a son of Eastman Strong Minor, who was descended from an old and esteemed Connecticut family. Eastman Minor was a successful printer. He closed his printing business and left Boston, Massachusetts, with his first wife, Lucy Bailey, in October 1833 as Congregational missionaries to Ceylon, to spread the gospel of Christianity from India through Singapore and up to Bangkok. He returned to the United States in July 1851 and settled in New Haven, Connecticut.
His mother, Judith Manchester Taylor, was born in Madison, Madison County, New York in 1814 and died in New York in 1900. She was an orphan and the daughter of Isaac and Judith Taylor. She ran the local school in Ceylon, learned Singhalese, and taught it to her 2 stepchildren as well as her own six children.
He was a direct descendant of Thomas Miner who came originally from Chew Magna in North East Somerset, England, and sailed on the Lyon's Whelp and was a founder of New London, Connecticut, and later of Stonington, Connecticut. He married Grace Palmer in 1634. She was the daughter of Walter Palmer (Puritan). Minor was also an early New England diarist. He was also a descendant, through Jonathan Brewster, of Elder William Brewster (c. 1567 – April 10, 1644), the Pilgrim leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony and a passenger on the Mayflower.
His half brother was Dr. William Chester Minor (June 1834 – March 26, 1920). Also known as W. C. Minors, he was an American surgeon who made many scholarly contributions to the Oxford English Dictionary. It was while living at Lambeth that Minor murdered George Merrett, for which he was found criminally insane and confined for the rest of his life at Broadmoor Hospital. His life was chronicled in The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester (published in the United States as "The Professor and the Madman").
Education and war years
He returned to the United States when he was seven years old, locating at New Haven, Connecticut and attended the local school. In 1861, when he was 17, he enlisted in the Union Army as a private in Company G, 7th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. He rose to the rank of captain and served as hospital steward and then surgeon. After the war, he entered Yale School of Medicine graduating in 1867.
Marriage and family
Minor married Sarah Montgomery on August 20, 1872, in Oregon. Sarah (born May 21, 1840, in Pennsylvania; died June 11, 1931, in Seattle) was the daughter of William Montgomery and Eliza Moorhead. Thomas and Sarah were the parents of two daughters:
Politics
In 1868, Minor moved from Nebraska to Port Townsend, where he was an owner and partner in the Marine Hospital. In 1880, he was elected mayor of Port Townsend; he was reelected the following year.
In 1883, he moved to Seattle and joined the Chamber of Commerce. On July 11, 1887 he was elected mayor of Seattle by a substantial majority.
He was active in the territorial and national Republican Party.
Death
He died, along with his friend George Morris Haller, and Haller’s brother-in-law Lewis Cox, on or about December 2, 1889, apparently when their canoe overturned in Saratoga Passage near Camano Island. Minor's body was never recovered. The city of Seattle held a memorial service and a procession on Sunday, December 15, 1899.
Descendants
Honors
The names of Seattle’s Minor Avenue and T. T. Minor Elementary School both honor Thomas Minor.