Memorials EDMUND CHRISTIAN MINOR. On September 9, 1903, died Edmund Christian Minor, Judge of the Law and Equity Court of the city of Richmond. He was born in Henrico county on the 20th day of February, 1845, the son of Dr. George Gilmer Minor and Caroline Christian. He was at a private school in Albemarle county when the Civil War began, and, in the spring of 1862, only seventeen years of age, he joined the New Kent Cavalry, going at once into arduous service. A gallant soldier, daring almost to recklessness, his record was a conspicuous one. In 1863, while on a dangerous service with a small detail near Fredericksburg, he was captured and taken to the prison of Point Lookout, where he remained for eight months, until regularly exchanged. He immediately returned to his command. On September 22, 1864, on General Early's campaign in the Valley, at Milford, near Harrisonburg, his right arm was shattered near the shoulder by a minie ball, and had to be taken off. A noble-hearted lady of Harrisonburg took him to her home and nursed him back to health. This veteran of twenty years of age, wearing an empty sleeve as a badge of honor, then went to the University of Virginia to complete his interrupted education. Here, under his honored kinsman, Professor John B. Minor, he graduated in the profession of law, and entered upon its practice in the city of Richmond. Soon after, he was elected judge of the County Court of Henrico county, under the county court system then just established. The youngest judge in the State, he administered justice in this court with faithfulness and ability. With the exception of a short interval, consequent upon political changes, he held this office until 1894. At that time, the Law and Equity Court was created. The bar of the city were deeply interested in the filling of the new office. There were several candidates from among the worthiest of the members of the profession. At a meeting of all the lawyers of Richmond and Henrico county, Judge Minor was nominated for the position of judge of the new court. This court had a broader jurisdiction than any court in Richmond, and their signal tribute to Judge Minor's worth was a memorable one. The legislature promptly confirmed the choice of the bar. elected without opposition at the expiration of his first term, and it was in the middle of his second term that he was called upon to lay down his honorable and useful life. He was re Such was, briefly, the record of a remarkable life, when the story of a warrior's valor and gallantry merges into years of civic honor and usefulness. In the administration of his responsible office, he won golden opinions of the bench and the bar. His court was for most of the year in almost perpetual session. His recreation, enjoyed at long intervals, was that of a sane and wholesome mind, out-door sport with dog and gun, wherein he excelled. In court he gave the closest attention to arguments and evidence, and relied for the decisions of important questions before him upon basic principles rather than doubtful precedents and narrow distinctions. In his intercourse with those practicing before him, he was ever courteous and fair. The unlearned and the tyro received as much attention as the expert leader at the bar. Though bound to many members of the bar by ties of close friendship, he was without fear or favor-true to the great trust which was committed to his hands. He was patient, good humored and tolerant at all times, save when the business on hand seemed tinctured with fraud or injustice. Of all moral obliquity or crookedness, he was the stern censor and enemy. It is difficult for those who knew him intimately to speak of him in measured terms. In his family life, he was the happy source and focus of happiness. He was never happier than when his own, and, indeed, the children of others crowded around him, delighted with his rare powers of entertainment. So genial was his nature, so large his heart, that he was probably the most beloved man in his community. His was an instant and constant sympathy-impulsive, but earnest and lasting. His heart and hand were always open to those in trou ble. The weakness of childhood, of age, or of sickness, appealed to him eloquently. No man ever illustrated more fully the fact that "The bravest are the tenderest, Many who rode by his side into battle, many who loved him. in light-hearted college days, many who knew him later when experience and sorrows and sacred responsibilities had woven their light and dark strands in the tissue of his life, will testify of him that he was the truest, tenderest, knightliest man they ever knew and loved. Of him may be said as of the greatest of the peers of the round table: "Thou wert the courtliest knight that ever drew sword, and the faithfullest friend that ever bestrode horse. Thou wert the goodliest knight that ever man has seen and the truest lover that ever loved a woman." J. R. V. DANIEL. R. L. PARRISH. Robert Lewis Parrish, was born in Fredericksburg, Va., September 1, 1840. His father was the Rev. Jno. G. Parrish, a distinguished minister of the Christian church, and his mother was Elizabeth Bunbury, of English descent, whose ancestors had settled in the northern neck of Virginia, in the early history of the State. About the year 1844, Rev. Mr. Parrish moved from Fredericksburg to Bowling Green, in Caroline county, Va., at which place he died a few years after the Civil War. The subject of this sketch was prepared for college in Caroline county, under the tutelage of Matthew Campbell and others, and evinced in his early life as a student, those qualities which developed so finely in his maturer life, of industry, intense application and deep earnestness. In the fall of 1857, he entered Bethany College (West) Virginia, and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts July 4, 1860. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him in 1867 by the same college. He entered the Confederate army in April, 1861, as a private in the Bowling Green Guards, a company organized at the time of the John Brown raid. After three months of service he was promoted to a lieutenantcy in the Forty-seventh Virginia Infantry, and served with this regiment until the September of 1862, when he was forced to retire from active service on account of ill health. In the fall of 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Caroline Cavalry, one of the companies composing the Ninth Virginia Cavalry. He served in this company until the winter of 1863, was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to duty as adjutant of the Forty-sixth Battalion of Virginia Cavalry of Gen. Wm. L. Jackson's brigade. In the fall of 1864, he was again promoted and made adjutant of General Jackson's Cavalry Brigade, with rank of major. As a soldier, he never flinched from the discharge of duty, whether that duty involved the exactions of camp life or braving the storms of red-hot war in the face of the enemy. |