In the year 1629, England was still embroiled in the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants that began during the Tudor Dynasty in the previous century. Though things had become more peaceful, tensions were still high, and many Protestants, especially of the Puritanical sects, were leaving for the New World in droves.
Thomas Minor, a young man of 21 years, from the small village of Chew Magna in Somerset, was looking toward the New World as an opportunity to practice his religion as he saw fit, and to escape the class system that was still prevalent in England at the time. He was about to embark on the greatest journey of his life. Sometime in the summer of 1629, he boarded a ship named The Lyon’s Whelp, built the previous year on the orders of the Duke of Buckingham, and set sail for the eastern coast of the United States.
Salem, Massachusetts was the destination. At that time, it was just a small settlement with a few timber frame houses, a church, and the seeds of what would become a huge shipping industry. Thomas would stay here for a brief period of time, moving on to Watertown and eventually Charlestown, Massachusetts after an outbreak of typhoid fever ravaged the region. It was in Charlestown that Thomas would meet his wife, Grace, the daughter of Walter Palmer, whom he married in 1634. Thomas and Grace would eventually have seven sons and three daughters.
In 1653, when his first-born son John was 18 years old, Thomas purchased a large tract of land, further down the coast in what eventually became the Colony, and later, State of Connecticut. The region was untouched. The Pequot Indians had small villages dotting the area around Stonington Harbor where Thomas purchased his land, and there were no European settlements any closer than Plymouth – nearly one hundred miles away. It was around this time that Thomas began keeping a diary that detailed his daily life, farm chores, dealings with the local natives and church, and local politics. This diary survived and was published in 1899, with later reprints throughout the next century. This diary is one of only a handful of accounts that provide a glimpse into what life was like in these very early times.
Thomas, along with Walter Palmer (his father-in-law), William Cheesebrough, George Denison and Thomas Stanton would found the town of Stonington, and Thomas, along with his son Ephraim, would help to found the first church.
Thomas Minor would stay in Stonington for the rest of his life and there he would die, on October 23, 1690. His wife Grace would pass that year also, but the Minor family was in Stonington to stay – for a while at least.
In 1706, just eight years after Thomas’ death, his great grandson Stephen was born. Stephen, much like his great grandfather, had a strong desire to explore the world and seek out new destinations. He left Stonington, where his family had lived for several generations, and headed south. Stephen found his way to Middlesex County, New Jersey, where he settled for a while, but he eventually headed for Winchester, Virginia. In Virginia, Stephen raised a family of at least six children with his wife Athalia (Updyke) Minor. Among those six children was a son John, born January 5, 1747.
John, like ancestors before him, was born to be a pioneer. Around the age of 17, John, along with his friend Jeremiah Glasgow, followed the woodland trails from their home in Winchester to Fort Redstone (now Brownsville, Pennsylvania) and explored the wilderness in the great wooded region west of the Monongahela River. It was 1764, and there wasn’t a single permanent settlement in what is now Greene County. The land was open and few natives were present; the last group of natives to permanently live in the area had disappeared around 1635, and now the Shawnees, Iroquois, Delaware and Mingos were using the land mainly for hunting.
John and Jeremiah would spend the season exploring the wilderness, scouting out territories to settle. John eventually staked out a claim for himself on a promising tract of land on Whitely Creek, as well as a tract nearby for his older brother William.
As summer turned into fall, John and Jeremiah would return to Virginia. They spent the winter preparing for their next journey north into the vast wooded lands and rolling hills of western Pennsylvania. This time would be different – they would bring their families, a few meager possessions and say their farewell to Winchester. John would become the first permanent settler in the area that became Greene County.
Over the course of the next decade, others would follow, and a community would develop along Whiteley Creek. In 1772, John built a flour mill, the first in the region, but there was great change brewing in the colonies during these years.
Trouble had been brewing since the close of the French and Indian War in 1763. In April of 1775, the “shot that rang round the world” brought with it the American Revolution. John was commissioned a Captain under Colonel Zachariah Morgan and was placed in command of Statler’s Fort, an important frontier fort on Dunkard Creek near present day Pentress, West Virginia, close to where he staked out land for his brother William in 1764.
John would go on in 1778 to orchestrate the construction of a flotilla of boats for General George Rogers Clark to be used to take settler families into the Illinois country to help in expelling the British.
In 1781, John would become a Justice of the Peace for Cumberland Township, and he was launched into local politics. At that time, this region was the southern portion of Washington County. With the Whiskey Rebellion in full swing and realizing the impracticality of residents near the southern border making the trip to Washington to conduct business, John began a campaign to separate the southern portion of Washington County into a new county. It took several years and after multiple attempts, on February 9, 1796, the southern portion of Washington county was detached forming Greene County, Pennsylvania.
Soon after, Thomas Slater would provide land to erect a county seat and Waynesburg was born, named for General Mad Anthony Wayne after his defeating the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
John remained a Justice of the Peace and stayed active in local politics for the remainder of his life. He would keep his farm on Whitely Creek, but when the town of Greensboro was established in the 1790s, John bought several lots, built a modest home, and spent his remaining years in comfort. In his last years, John would assist his fellow veterans of the Revolutionary War in completing their pension applications. John died December 5, 1833 at the age of 86 and is buried in the old cemetery on 3rd Street in Greensboro.
John, like his great great grandfather Thomas, left the comforts of the only world he knew. He left civilization behind and blazed a trail that others would follow. Both men left a legacy, and John went on to be known as the father of Greene County.