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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
Minor, Thomas, born at '* Locust Gr^'e,"
Spotsylvania county, Virginia, in 1751, son
of Captain Thomas Minor and Alice
Thomas, his wife. He was in military serv-
ice during the entire war of the revolution,
holding commissions in turn as second and
first lieutenant, adjutant, and as captain and
aide-de-camp to Gen. Edward Stevens, at
the siege and surrender of Yorktown. After
the war he was colonel of militia, justice of
the peace, and twice high sheriff. Twice he
v.as called upon to do public honor to the
Marquis de Lafayette — first in 1824, when
that illustrious soldier and friend to Amer-
ica was given a public reception. Col. Minor
acting as master of ceremonies; and a de-
cade later (July 11. 1834), when at a memo-
rial service in honor of Lafayette, then
ktely deceased, Col. Minor acted as chief
pall-bearer, and though in his eighty-third
year, marched on foot. The old veteran be-
came overheated and took a cold which re-
sulted in pneumonia, and ended in his death,
on the 2 1 St of the same month. On the
previous Fourth of July he had entertained
a host of neighbors and friends with a bar-
becue and out-of-door entertainments on a
very liberal scale. He was fond of dogs
and horses, and is mentioned in the "Vir-
ginia Historical Magazine" as one of the
principal improvers of the blooded horses
or the state, by imputation and systematic
breeding. He rode his favorite horse,
- Gentle Kitty" to Washington City, to pay
his respects to Gen. Jackson, then just elect- ed to the presidency, and was received with distinguished friendship and appreciation. He married, in 1781, Elizabeth, daughter of Col. James Taylor, of "Midway," Caroline county, Virginia.
Tatham, William, born in Hutton, Eng-
land, in 1752. He came to America in 1769,
and engaged in a mercantile business on
the James river, \'irginia. He served as ad-
jutant in the operations against the Indians,
with whom he came into familiar contact,
and from the knowledge of their history
which he gained he wrote excellent bio-
graphical accounts of Atakullakulla, Oconis-
toto, Cornstalk and other distinguished
chiefs. During the revolutionary war he
was a colonel of \*irginia cavalry under
Gen. Thomas Nelson, and was of the party
that stormed the Yorktown redoubt. With
Col. John Todd, in 1780, he compiled the
first trustworthy account of the western
country. After the revolutionary war. he
studied law; in 1784 was admitted to the
bar, and in 1786 removed to North Carolina,
where he founded the settlement of Lum-
berton, and was a member of the legislature
in 1787. In 1796 he returned to England,
and became superintendent of the London
docks. He came back to Virginia in 1805.
He was impoverished in his old age, and
was made military storekeeper in the Rich-
mond arsenal. While so engaged, on Feb-
ruary 22. 1819, he committed suicide by
springing in front of a cannon at the instant
of its firing in a salute in honor of Wash-
ington's birthday. He was one of the most
remarkable men of his day, and in his many
published works anticipated by more than
a half century all others in calculating the
agricultural and commercial possibilities of
the new nation, and making suggestions for
their development, as witness: "An Ana-
lysis of the State of Virginia" (1790) ; **Two
Tracts relating to the Canal between Nor-
folk and North Carolina" (1797) ; "Remarks
on Inland Canals" (1798) ; "Political Econ-
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