Thomas T. Minor

Thomas Taylor Minor
17th Mayor of Seattle
In office 1887–1888
Preceded by	William H. Shoudy
Succeeded by	Robert Moran
Personal details
Born	February 20, 1844(1844-02-20) Manipay, British Ceylon
Died	December 2, 1889(1889-12-02) (aged 45) Camano Island, Washington United States
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Sarah Montgomery
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.

Thomas T. Minor, (1844–1899) was a physician, businessman, civic and political leader and the only person to have been elected as mayor of Seattle, Washington and Port Townsend, Washington and founder of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and ancestors 1.2 Education and war years 1.3 Marriage and family 1.4 Politics 1.5 Death 1.6 Descendants 1.7 Honors 2 Notes 3 References

Biography

Early life and ancestors

Thomas Taylor Minor^[1] 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.^[2][3] He 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).^[4] Minor was also an early New England diarist. He was also a descendant of Elder William Brewster (pilgrim), (c. 1567 - April 10, 1644), the Pilgrim leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony and a passenger on the Mayflower, through his son Jonathan Brewster.^[5][6][7]

His half brother was Dr. William Chester Minor, also known as W. C. Minors (June 1834 – March 26, 1920). 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 crime 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.^[8] 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. She was born on May 21. 1840 in Pennsylvania and died on June 11, 1931 at Seattle, King County, Washington. She was the daughter of William Montgomery and Eliza Moorhead, They were the parents two daughters --

• Elizabeth Montgomery Minor, born on May 14, 1874 at Port Townsend, Washington and died on November 34, 1958 at Seattle, Washington. She married on January 2, 1900 at Trinity Episcopal Parish Church (Seattle), on First Hill in Seattle, Washington, Bernard Pelly, the British vice-Consul and then Consul to Seattle. He was born on June 5, 1860 at Little Hallingbury, England and died on August 10, 1938 at Seattle, Washington. He was the son of Justinian Pelly and Fanny Ingleby and the great nephew of Sir John Pelly, 1st Baronet.

• Judith Strong Minor, December 2, 1876 in Port Townsend, Washington and died on July 19, 1959 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On April 15, 1909 she married at Seattle, Washington, Lyman Roswell Colt. He was born on January 5, 1868 at Orange, New Jersey and died on January 9, 1927 at Winter Haven, Florida. He was the son of Morgan Gibbs Colt and Mary Beekman Borrows. Morgan Colt was the first cousin of Samuel Colt (July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) an American inventor, industrialist and inventor of the revolving pistol.^[9] Lyman Colt had spent time living in Alaska and the Yukon and was one of Jack Londons acquaintances in Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush. He subsequently owned a small ranch at Chelan in Washington State where he raised cattle.

Politics

In 1868, he removed from Nebraska and settled in Port Townsend. He was an owner and partner in the Marine Hospital there. In 1880 and again in 1881, he was elected Major of Port Townsend. 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 also actively involved in both the territorial and national Republican Party.

Death

He died, along with his friend George Morris Haller,^[10] and Haller’s brother-in-law Lewis Cox, on or about December 2, 1889 when their canoe apparently overturned in Saratoga Passage near Camano Island. The body of Dr Thomas Taylor Minor was never recovered. The city of Seattle held a memorial service and a procession on Sunday, December 15, 1899 in honor of Minor and Haller.

Descendants

• Thomas Pelly^[11][12]
• Charles Moriarty, Jr. (1928–1999), Washington State Representative 1957-1959, Washington State Senator 1959-1966.^[13] Son of Charles P. Moriarty, U.S. Attorney in Washington 1953-1961. They are members of the Moriartys and Pellys political families in the United States.

Honors

The names of Seattle’s Minor Avenue and T. T. Minor Elementary School both honor Thomas Minor.

Notes

References

• Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, HarperPerennial, New York, 1998, hardback and trade paperback, ISBN 0-06-017596-6. OCLC 38425992 (Original British edition has the title The Surgeon of Crowthorne, ISBN 0-14-027128-7. OCLC 42083202)

Political offices
Preceded by William H. Shoudy	Mayor of Seattle 1887–1888	Succeeded by Robert Moran

Mayors of Seattle, Washington Atkins Jordan Stone Jordan Maddocks Collins Yesler Gatzert Weed B. Brown Jacobs L. Smith Struve Leary Yesler Shoudy Minor Moran White Hall Ronald Phelps Black Wood Ballinger Moore J. Miller Gill Dilling Cotterill Gill Hanson Fitzgerald Caldwell E. Brown Landes Edwards Harlin Dore C. Smith Dore Langlie Carroll Millikin Devin Pomeroy Clinton Braman F. Miller Uhlman Royer Rice Schell Nickels McGinn

Persondata
Name	Minor, Thomas T.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 20, 1844
Place of birth	Manepy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
Date of death	December 2, 1889
Place of death	Camano Island, Washington