March 27, 1824 – Virginia Louisa* Minor is born in Caroline County, Virginia.
March 27, 1830 – Virginia’s father, Dabney Minor, dies, leaving the family in dire financial straits.
c. 1838-1842 – Virginia spends “a short time at a Charlottesville female academy,” likely the Edgehill School, just outside of Charlottesville.
August 31, 1843 – Virginia marries her second cousin, Francis Minor.
1843 – 1845/1846 – Francis and Virginia live in Holly Springs, Mississippi, likely with his brother Dabney Minor III.
Autumn 1845 or spring 1846 – Francis and Virginia move to St. Louis, Missouri.
February 5, 1852 – Virginia’s only child Francis Gilmer Minor is born.
May 1, 1853, the Minors sell their house on Morgan Street in downtown St. Louis and move to ten acres of farmland on the outskirts of St. Louis, land they called “Minoria.”
July 26, 1861 – Virginia and six other women form the Ladies Union Aid Society of St. Louis to provide aid to the Union wounded in the Civil War, a role she would hold through 1865.
January 21, 1862 – The Fifth Street Hospital publicly acknowledged Virginia’s generosity with the goods from her estate in the Daily Missouri Democrat.
May 15, 1866 – Francis Gilmer Minor dies in a gunshot accident.
Early 1867 – Virginia writes to Senator B. Gratz Brown to thank him for his support of female suffrage.
May 8, 1867 – Virginia and and four other women found the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, the world’s first organization dedicated solely to women’s suffrage. Virginia is elected its first president.
October 6, 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.
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.
October 1873 – Virginia founds and serves as secretary of an interstate “association to promote the moral, intellectual, and physical well-being of women.”
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.
May 21, 1875 – Virginia, Phoebe Couzins, and two other women from St. Louis appear before the Committee on Elections in Jefferson City to discuss adding language to the new state constitution that would allow women to vote.
December 3, 1875 – Virginia writes a letter to Missouri Governor Charles H. Hardin him to spare the life of Anna Hallenscheid of Herman, Missouri, who was condemned to death for murder. Her sentence was commuted to life in prison.
June 8, 1876 – Virginia writes an open letter to the Board of Freeholders in St. Louis asking them to not tax women until they can vote for their representatives.
June 6, 1878 – Virginia speaks at the the Missouri State Convention of Prohibitionists in St. Louis, urging them to adopt a women’s suffrage plank.
May 13, 1879 – St. Louis branch of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association is formed with Virginia as its first president.
August 26, 1879 – Virginia writes to David Powers, President of the Board of Assessors in St. Louis, reiterating her reason for continuing to withhold her taxes.
1880 – Virginia is a vice president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, representing Missouri.
November 2, 1880 – Virginia’s name is put on the Election Day ballot without her consent, listing her on the Neal Dow Prohibition Ticket as running for governor.
1880-1882 – Virginia speaks to many temperance organizations, trying to get them to affiliate with the women’s suffrage movement.
February 1882 – Virginia presents a paper titled “The Effect of the Disenfranchisement of Taxation” at the NWSA conference in Washington D.C.
September 29-end of October 1882 – Virginia campaigns in Omaha, Nebraska, with Susan B. Anthony in favor of women’s suffrage. During that time, they speak at school houses, a female insane asylum and survive a tornado.
February 20, 1886 – Virginia addresses the House Judiciary committee on women’s suffrage and citizenship.
April 23, 1886 – Virginia defends herself against false accusations regarding her stance on female suffrage for Mormon women in Utah.
January 22, 1888 Virginia is one eight women who speak before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage.
February 1888 – Virginia, Phoebe Couzins, Rebecca Hazard and two other women are delegates to the International Council of Women in Washington D.C.
June 6, 1888 – Virginia and Elizabeth Meriwether speak at the Democratic National Convention on behalf of the International Council of Women.
July 3, 1888 – Virginia is “hissed and howled out of the hall,” when she tries to address the Republican National Convention in Sedalia, Missouri.
1889 – Virginia testifies before the United States Senate committee on woman’s suffrage.
February 18, 1890 – The NWSA and the AWSA join to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Virginia is elected president of the Missouri branch, a role she holds for two years.
February 1890 – Virginia attends the first convention of the NAWSA in Washington D.C.
February 19, 1892 – Francis Minor dies.
February 22, 1892 – Francis Minor’s funeral.
February 1892 – Virginia Hedges replaces Virginia Minor as the president of the Missouri State Suffrage Association.
March 1893 – Virginia attends the NASWA convention in Washington, D.C.
March-April 1893 – Virginia travels to Old Point Comfort in Virginia, perhaps to visit family, and then to New Orleans and Florida.
July 1893 – Virginia attends the World’s Fair in Chicago.
June 1894 – Virginia becomes ill with a liver abscess.
August 14, 1894 – Virginia dies at 12:15 p.m. at Baptist Sanitarium.
August 15, 1894 – Virginia is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery.
* Some sources give her middle name as Louise.
Virginia and Francis Minor Memorial Institute 