Chronology

August 15, 1820 – Francis Minor* is born Albemarle, Virginia.

March 4, 1822 – Francis’ father dies.

March 27, 1831, Francis’ grandmother, Ann Minor, dies, leaving a third of her land to Francis.

August 12, 1832 – Francis’ mother dies, leaving him a sizable inheritance.

1838 – Francis becomes a student at Princeton University.

September 29, 1841 – Francis graduates from Princeton University.

1842–1843 – Francis pursues advanced studies in law at University of Virginia Law School.

August 31, 1843 – Francis marries his second cousin, Virginia L. Minor.

1843 – 1845/1846 – Francis and Virginia live in Holly Springs, Mississippi, likely with his brother Dabney Minor III. Francis begins his law career.

Autumn 1845 or spring 1846 – Francis and Virginia move to St. Louis, Missouri.

1846 – Francis put his real estate investments, along with all his personal property current and future into a trust for Virginia

November 11, 1846 – Francis is officially registered in the court of common pleas in St. Louis, allowing him to practice law there.

November 13, 1846 – Francis is officially registered in the criminal court of St. Louis, allowing him to practice law there.

1848 – c. March 1852 – Francis practices law, possibly at the law firm of John M. Eager and Britton A. Hill.

May 17, 1849 – The Great Fire of St. Louis destroys Francis’ place of employment at 13 Chestnut.

February 5, 1852 – Francis and Virginia’s only child Francis Gilmer Minor is born.

March 1852- c. 1857 – Francis works at the office of the Surveyor General for Illinois and Missouri.

May 1, 1853 – the Minors sell their house on Morgan Street in downtown St. Louis and buy ten acres of farmland on the outskirts of St. Louis, land they call “Minoria.”

January 6, 1857 – Francis opens his own law firm, Minor & Sherrard, with John M. Sherrard.

On May 31, 1857 – Minor & Sherrard is dissolved. Francis continues practicing law, apparently in his own firm.

1859 – Francis practices law at 31 and 33 Pine, possibly at Woodson & Bates and/or William N. White & Co, U.S. Land Agents.

April 25, 1861 – Francis sponsors a Free Negro Bond for John Carter Brown.

May 17, 1861 – Francis sponsors a Free Negro Bond for William Gaseway.

December 21, 1861 – Francis was temporarily appointed Public Administrator by the Board of County Commissioners of St. Louis County

1862 – Francis serves as a judge of election.

November 1863 – Francis runs for Judge of the Law Commissioner’s Court, losing to Roderick E. Rombauer.

October 1864 – Francis runs for judge of the probate court, losing to John Grether.

January 1, 1864- February 12, 1864 – Francis serves as a War Claims Agent for the Western Sanitary Commission.

February 13, 1864-1877 – Francis serves as a state War Claims Agent for Missouri.

Nov. 7, 1865 – Francis serves as a judge of election.

May 15, 1866 – Francis Gilmer Minor dies in a gunshot accident.

1868 – Francis writes to Susan B. Anthony’s paper, The Revolution, stating plainly that if women pay taxes, they should have the right to vote.

October 1869 – At the National Woman Suffrage Association convention in St. Louis, Virginia announces the theory of the “New Departure,” the idea that the Fourteenth Amendment already gave women the right to vote because it used the gender neutral term “persons,” rather than “males.” She urges women to get out and try to register and under this theory.

August 30, 1869 and September 29, 1869, March 2, 1870 – Francis is appointed Provisional Judge of the Court of Correction.

December 1869 – Francis and Virginia form the Philo Literary Society at Loomis Hall in St. Louis.

January 22, 1870 – Francis writes to The Revolution asking for the Woman’s Suffrage Association of Missouri to be recorded as part of the national movement and addressing the readers in Missouri, explaining why he believes women’s desire to vote is “just and right.”

March 18, 1870 – Judge Primm rules in the wrongful appointment case against Francis. The ruling was that Francis was wrongfully appointed through no fault of his own.

January 1871 – Francis was elected a clerk of the Missouri Supreme Court

October 15, 1872 – Virginia attempts to register to vote but was turned away by the election registrar, Reese Happersett.

November 9, 1872 – The Minors file a lawsuit against Mr. Happersett for $10,000 in damages in the St. Louis County Circuit Court.

February 3, 1873 – The Minors’ trial is heard in writing by Judge Horatio M. Jones at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis without a trial or jury. The trial court rules against the Minors.

May 7, 1873 – The Missouri Supreme Court hears the Minor’s case and rules against them.

March 16, 1874 – Francis becomes a founding member of the Bar Association of St. Louis.

February 9, 1875 – Minor v. Happerset trial begins in the U.S. Supreme Court.

March 29, 1875 – The Supreme Court rules against the Minors, upholding the right of individual states to define who could vote within them, stating in a unanimous decision “that the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one,” rather that right belongs to the states.

Mid-May 1888 – Francis publishes the controversial “Address to Republicans,” in which he advocates for universal female suffrage.

February 19, 1892 – Francis Minor dies of “congestion of the lungs” after a brief illness.

February 22, 1892 – Francis Minor’s funeral is held and he is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

April 25, 1892 – Wyoming Republican Clarence Clark presents a federal suffrage bill Francis authored in the U.S. House of Representatives. It goes no where.

*Francis does not appear to have had a middle name. He is almost always listed with his Christian name and surname only. There are rare occasions when he is listed as “Francis N. Minor,” with the N commonly standing for “no middle name.”