MINOR, John Barbee, 1813-1895
Professor of law, 1845-1895.
Professor John Barbee Minor, for fifty years a teacher of law in the University of Virginia, had for his students many who became eminent in professional public life, and whose delight it has been to refer to his career as an instructor in his profession, as not only the longest but the ablest known to Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, and one of the older of his pupils declared that "he has exerted, and still indirectly exerts, a wider influence for good upon society in the United States than any man who has lived in this generation."
He was born in Louisa county, Virginia, June 2, 1813, son of Launcelot and Elizabeth [sic] Minor. He was not robust, and, hoping for invigoration by outdoor pursuits, at the age of sixteen he began a long horseback journey through the State, acting in the capacity of a newspaper agent and collector, and then went afoot to Ohio, where he entered Kenyon College, and had for his classmates two young' men who were afterward famous — David Davis, who became United States Senator, United States Judge, and who administered upon the estate of President Lincoln; and Edwin M. Stanton, who became Secretary of War under President Lincoln. Young Minor afterward walked through Ohio and New York, for health and recreation, and, having reached home, entered the University of Virginia in January, 1831, where he was a student fur three sessions, graduating in several schools, and receiving the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1834, at the age of twenty-one. His law instructor had been Professor John A.G. Davis, in whose home he was a tutor while he was pursuing his own studies, and whose daughter he married at a later day. He had by this time overcome his physical weakness to such a degree that he entered upon a life of almost unlimited labor and endurance, and came to a commanding stature and impressive presence.
Professor Minor began law practice at Buchanan, in Botetourt county, and after six years removed to Charlottesville, where he formed a partnership with his brother Lucian, who was afterward Professor of Law in William and Mary College. In 1845, when thirty-two years old, Professor Minor was called to the Chair of Law in the University of Virginia, succeeding H. St. George Tucker, and was the sole teacher in that department until 1851. Upon the appointment of James P. Holcombe as Adjunct Professor of Constitutional and International Law, Mercantile Law and Equity, Professor Minor's subjects became Common and Statute Law, and in these branches he became distinguished as an author as well as a teacher. Out of his class work grew his monumental "Institutes of Common and Statute Law," of which Senator Daniel said: "It cannot he surpassed as a vade mecum of the law; it is like a statue, solid, compact, clean cut ; it contains more law in fewer words than any work with which I am acquainted." The first and second volumes of the work were published in 1875, and the fourth volume in 1878, while the third volume, which had long been used in pamphlet form by Professor Minor's pupils, was first published in its completeness, in two parts, in 1895. In 1870 Professor Minor began a summer course of law lectures, and his is believed to have been the first summer law school in the country. This became widely popular, drawing to the University in a single season upwards of a hundred students. As a teacher Professor Minor was regarded with peculiar affection. His personal interest in his pupils was fervent and sincere, and he made it his constant endeavor to develop their character as well as to impart instruction. His lectures were characterized by extraordinary clearness of statement and felicity of language and illustration, and he was peculiarly skillful in his questions to test accuracy of knowledge on the part of his auditors. He continued his work to the time of his death, July 29, 1895, having complete a valuable service of fifty years.
In addition to his "Institutes" before mentioned, Professor Minor published, in 1850, "The Virginia Reports, 1799-1800," and in 1894, an elaborate work, "Exposition of the Law of Crimes and Punishments," which is in general use in the United States. For the last forty-two years of his life he was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church and lived an ideal Christian life. As was said of him, his religion "was the master chord in his life, the source of that rare union of sweetness and dignity, of gentleness with firmness, that helped to make up his charming personality." For many years he was superintendent of a Sunday school of slaves, and for a long period he also taught a Sunday morning Bible class composed of students, whose last meetings were in their revered teacher's study, after he was unable to walk to the lecture room.
In recognition of Professor Minor's eminent attainments, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Washington and Lee University, and from Columbia University. On the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance upon his career as a teacher of the law, and shortly before his death, was presented to the University by the Law Alumni, a find life-size marble bust of the distinguished man, mounted upon a polished pedestal bearing these impressive words: "He taught the law and the reason thereof."
