Stephen Minor
{{Short description|Natchez slave owner and banker (1760–1815)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Stephen Minor
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = February 8, 1760
| birth_place = Greene County, Pennsylvania
| death_date = November 29, 1815
| death_place = Natchez, Mississippi
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| occupation =Planter, banker
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| spouse = Martha (Ellis) Minor
Anna (Bingaman) Minor
Katherine (Lintot) Minor
| children =3, including William J. Minor
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}}
Stephen Minor (1760–1815) was an American plantation owner and banker in the antebellum South.
Early life
Stephen Minor was born on February 8, 1760, in Greene County, Pennsylvania.[http://mdah.state.ms.us/manuscripts/z1876.html MINOR FAMILY PAPERS: Stephen Minor Family], Mississippi Department of Archives and History[http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/findaid/0519.pdf Louisiana State University Libraries: MINOR (William J. and Family) PAPERS][http://www.offms.org/ancestors/minor_stephen.html The Order of the First Families of Mississippi: Stephen Minor] One of his grandsons, John Minor, went on to live at the Oakland Plantation in Natchez.[http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/m/Minor_Family.html UNC University Libraries: Collection Title: Minor Family Papers, 1763-1900 ]
Career
He moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1779 and served as Captain in the Spanish Army, participating in the Battle of Fort Charlotte.Mary Carol Miller, Lost Mansions of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1996, Volume 1, p. 4 [https://books.google.com/books?id=vLLp-xpdhlcC&pg=PA4] He then served as the Secretary to the Spanish Governor Manuel Gayoso de Lemos (1747–1799).Herman De Bachelle Seebold, Old Louisiana Plantation Homes And Family Trees, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 2004, p. 220 [https://books.google.com/books?id=QLgVo2LaPUkC&pg=PA220] In 1791, he received generous land grants from the Spanish government for his service.
He turned his land grants into nine plantations, including the Southdown Plantation in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, where he grew sugar cane. In 1797, his plantations produced twenty-five hundred bales of cotton. He became one of Natchez's richest residents in the 1810s and 1820s.
Additionally, he served as the first President of the Bank of Mississippi from 1797 to 1815.
In 1814, a letter from Sam Steer to John Minor reported "that the new road to Port Gibson (from Natchez) was to run through the best part of the Minor plantation, the making of 120,000 brick by the two brick makers on Minor plantation, the order for building materials ordered by Minor for use on the plantation, the construction of a Gin-house on Minor's plantation."{{Cite web |last=LSU Libraries |year=2007 |title=Inventory of the William KennerPapers (Mss. 1477, 1491) |url=https://lib.lsu.edu/sites/default/files/sc/findaid/1491.pdf |website=Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections |publication-place=Baton Rouge, Louisiana |page=9}}
There was a building in Port Gibson, Mississippi that was described in 1818 as "the tavern of Stephen Minor."{{Cite news |date=1818-10-06 |title=Admr. of John Turnbull decd. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-western-citizen-admr-of-john-turnbu/155761147/ |access-date=2024-09-22 |work=The Western Citizen |location=Paris, Kentucky |pages=2}}
Personal life
He resided in Natchez, Mississippi from 1780 to 1815. He purchased the Concord in Natchez, which burned down in 1901.[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40616F6385414728DDDAD0A94DB405B818CF1D3 THE BURNING OF "CONCORD."; Old Mansion at Natchez, Miss., Was Owned by a New Yorker.], The New York Times, March 24, 1901[http://misspreservation.com/2010/05/04/lost-mississippi-concord-natchez-1789-1901/ Lost Mississippi: Concord, Natchez (1789-1901)], Preservation in Mississippi, May 4, 2010[http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2011/01/19/early-natchez-concord/ Early Natchez: Concord] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503134124/http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2011/01/19/early-natchez-concord/ |date=2015-05-03 }}, Mississippi Department of Archives and History
He married three times. His first wife was Anna Bingaman Minor. His second wife was Martha Ellis Minor. His third wife was Katherine Lintot Minor, the daughter of Bernard Lintot, "a founding member of the United States Mississippi Territory."{{cite journal |last1=Fabel |first1=Robin |title=Bernard Lintot: A Connecticut Yankee on the Mississippi, 1775-1805 |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=July 1981 |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=88–102 |jstor=30148554 }} They had three children; Minor's daughter Mary married cotton broker and sugar planter William Kenner.{{Cite web |title=Dictionary of Louisiana Biography - K |url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-of-louisiana-biography-k/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=Louisiana Historical Association |language=en-US}}
Death
References
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Further reading
- Holmes, Jack D. L.. "Stephen Minor: Natchez Pioneer." Journal of Mississippi History. 42 (1980):17-26.
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Category:People from Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Category:People from Natchez, Mississippi
Category:Spanish army officers