Benjamin Blake Minor (October 21, 1818 – August 1, 1905) was an American writer, educator, legal scholar, and fourth President of the University of Missouri, from 1860 to 1862. [1] Today, he is most known as the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger . [2] He also compiled the second edition of the reports of the decisions of George Wythe, published in 1852. [3]
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Benjamin Blake Minor was born in Tappahannock, Virginia on October 21, 1818 to Dr. Hubbard Taylor Minor and Jane (Blake) Minor. He attended Bristol College, Pennsylvania, during the sessions of 1833-34, the University of Virginia, 1834–37, graduating in several of its schools, and subsequently entered the College of William and Mary, graduating in moral and political science and law in the class of 1839. He practiced law in Petersburg, Virginia, 1840–41 and then moved his practice to Richmond.
Minor married Virginia Maury Otey, daughter of James Hervey Otey, on May 26, 1842. They had five children: Hubbard Taylor Minor (b. Abt 1844), Benjamin Blake Minor (b. Abt 1846), Irving C. Minor (b. Abt 1847), Leonidas C. Minor (b. Abt 1848), and William P. Minor (b. Abt 1849).
From 1843 to 1847, he was owner and editor of the Southern Literary Messenger . He became principal of the Virginia Female Institute, Staunton, from 1847 to 1848, and founded the Home School for Young Ladies, Richmond, 1848. He originated the historical department of the Society of Alumni of the University of Virginia, in 1845; the same year, he was vice-president of the commercial convention at Memphis. in 1847 was a chief factor in the revival of the Historical Society of Virginia of which he was made a life member. He was made a corresponding member of the historical societies of New York and Wisconsin, and secretary of the African Colonization Society of Virginia and of the Virginia Bible Society, which antedates the American Bible Society.
He resumed the practice of law in Richmond in 1848 and the same year was the mover and author of the memorial to the Virginia legislature that led to the erection of the Washington Monument on Capitol Square; was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Nineteenth Virginia militia; was a warden, register and diocesan delegate of St. James' Church, and one of the founders of the Richmond Male Orphan Asylum.
On July 4, 1860, he was elected president of the State University of Missouri, and served until the curators suspended the work of the university during the American Civil War. He became principal of a female seminary in St. Louis, 1865–69; life insurance state agent and superintendent, also public lecturer, 1869–89, and in the latter named year rejoined his family in Richmond, Virginia, and engaged in literary work; he edited a complete edition of "Reports of Chancellor George Wythe, with a Memoir of the Author;" a new edition of Hening & Munford's Virginia Reports, and contributed to law journals in New York City; he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the State University of Missouri in 1894, and in 1896 was made secretary of the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Benjamin Blake Minor died in 1904.
George Wythe was an American academic, scholar, and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from Virginia, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and served on a committee that established the convention's rules and procedures. He left the convention before signing the United States Constitution to tend to his dying wife. He was elected to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and helped ensure that his home state ratified the Constitution. Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.
Matthew Fontaine Maury was an American oceanographer and naval officer, serving the United States and then joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
George Wythe Randolph was a Virginia lawyer, planter, politician and Confederate general. After representing the City of Richmond during the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861, during eight months in 1862 he was the Confederate States Secretary of War during the American Civil War, then served in the Virginia Senate representing the City of Richmond until the war's end.
The Southern Literary Messenger was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some variation thereof and included poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, and historical notes. It was founded by Thomas Willis White, who served as publisher and occasional editor until his death, in 1843.
James Hervey Otey was a Christian educator, author, and the first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee. He established the Anglican church in the state, including its first parish churches and what became the University of the South.
Alexander Parris was a prominent American architect-engineer. Beginning as a housewright, he evolved into an architect whose work transitioned from Federal style architecture to the later Greek Revival. Parris taught Ammi B. Young, and was among the group of architects influential in founding what would become the American Institute of Architects. He is also responsible for the designs of many lighthouses along the coastal Northeastern United States.
George Frederick Holmes, emigrated to the United States where he taught history and literature and became the first Chancellor of the University of Mississippi. From 1857 until his death, Holmes taught literature, history and political economy at the University of Virginia and became known for textbooks designed for use in schools in the southern United States.
John Stark Ravenscroft was the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and helped organize the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.
Thomas Roderick Dew was a professor and public intellectual, then president of The College of William & Mary (1836–1846). Although he first achieved national stature for opposing protective tariffs, today Dew may be best known for his pro-slavery advocacy.
John Minor Botts was a nineteenth-century politician, planter and lawyer from Virginia. He was a prominent Unionist in Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War.
This article lists all known poems by American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe, listed alphabetically with the date of their authorship in parentheses.
Robert Cooper Grier was an American jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Michael Rudolph (1758–1795) was an American military officer who served as acting Adjutant General and acting Inspector General of the U.S. Army in 1793.
Nathaniel Beverley Tucker was an American author, judge, legal scholar, and political essayist.
Lawrence Berry Washington was an American lawyer, military officer, author, Forty-niner, border ruffian, and a member of the Washington family. Washington was born on his family's Cedar Lawn plantation near Charles Town, Virginia and was the eldest of 13 children. He practiced law, then served as a second lieutenant in the Virginia Volunteers during the Mexican–American War. During his service in the war, Washington reportedly wore the sword of his great-granduncle George Washington.
The Mathews family is an American political family descended from John Mathews and Ann Archer, originating in colonial Virginia and active in Virginia and the American South in the 18th–20th centuries.
Hugh Alfred Garland was an American lawyer and politician. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1833. In 1838 to 1841 he served as clerk of the United States House of Representatives.
Conway Robinson was a Virginia lawyer, author, slaveholder and politician aligned with the Democratic Party who represented Richmond, Virginia during the 1852-1853 session of the Virginia House of Delegates. He also served many years on Richmond's City Council and like his brother Moncure Robinson headed the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Petersburg railroad.
Confederated Southern Memorial Association was a Neo-Confederate women's organization of unified memorial associations of the Southern United States. It was composed of 70 women's memorial associations, which had formed between 1861 and 1900. The CSMA was established at Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 1900. At that meeting, the women stated that they were unwilling to lose their identity as memorial associations, or to merge themselves into the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Instead, by this union of all Memorial Associations, it was believed that the women of the South would perpetuate more certainly the purposes for which each association had been individually laboring, and would more firmly cement the ties which already existed between them. An increase in membership and more intelligent knowledge of the history of the Confederate Cause would also be the natural result of annual meetings.
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