Page 292 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Thomas T. Minor: 1875-1876

Most Worshipful Brother 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,
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.

Upon relocating at New Haven, Thomas 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. He was then stationed for a short
time at a military post in Nebraska. While there he was appointed by the government to be a member of a
party of scientific men and explorers, to make a tour through Alaska in the interest of the Smithsonian
Institution. Returning from Alaska on a revenue cutter the party stopped at Port Townsend for supplies. It
was here where Minor met Dr. George Calhoun. The older doctor, who owned the Marine Hospital, then
the largest in the Northwest, invited the 24-year-old Minor to join in a partnership with him. Minor agreed,
settling in the town by the end of 1868.

Despite his youth, Dr. Minor quickly took an active role in Port Townsend civic affairs. He was an
accomplished orator and drew public attention when he gave a New Year's Eve address within weeks of
his arrival. By 1870, Minor had bought the Marine Hospital from Calhoun and was one of the leading
doctors on Puget Sound. In 1872, he organized the Puget Sound Telegraph Company to bring telegraph
service to Port Townsend. Six years later Minor set up the first telephone line in the city, operating between
his office and the hospital.

Our Brother would be brought to Masonic Light on January 24, 1869, in Port Townsend Lodge No. 6. His

P a ge | 291