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