Thomas T. Minor

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.

Biography

Early life and ancestors

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.