Lucian Minor was born on April 24, 1802, in Louisa County, Virginia. He was the son of Lancelot and Mary (Tompkins) Minor and the brother of John Barbee Minor. Plain Dutch ancestors, important and interesting Virginia family connections, and the simple atmosphere of a Piedmont farmer's home were his birthright.
Minor's earliest education was at the simple, rigorous school conducted by his father. Being poor in health as well as in purse the lad, for a while, drove the mail to Fredericksburg. Then he attended the Nelsons' classical school nearby and later taught school. A few months spent in studying law at the College of William and Mary enabled him to graduate in 1823.
After a year or two in Alabama, Minor settled as a lawyer in his home county. From 1828 to 1852, he was commonwealth's attorney for the county. The rough-and-tumble of law practice and of politics, however, did not appeal to him; he was modest, sternly moral, incapable of flattery or intrigue, and a poor judge of men; he liked to formulate his ideas independently and to state them with frankness in language suited to cultured ears. Accordingly in 1834, he toured New England on foot, making eager, keen, and unprejudiced observations and seeking the acquaintance of distinguished men, among whom Francis Wayland impressed him most favorably. In "Letters from New England" published in the Southern Literary Messenger he set down his observations with literary skill and taste. Many years later parts of the journal on which the letters were based were printed by Lowell in the Atlantic Monthly. Though he did not originate the Virginia prohibitory movement of the '40's and '50's, he prepared its legislative papers, served as chairman of its central committee, came nearest to effecting an organization of the counties behind it, and published in the Southern Literary Messenger of July 1850 "The Temperance Reformation in Virginia, " a brief history of the movement. This activity was grounded on considerations of humanity and statesmanship rather than on religion, for until his latest years the practices of professed Christians deterred him from any examination of their principles. In 1855, he became professor of law in the College of William and Mary. Though his distinguished younger brother, John Barbee Minor, believed him capable of rivaling Story and Tucker, his actual law writing was slight: an article on the civil duties of justices of the peace in John A. G. Davis' Treatise on Criminal Law (1838), a one-volume edition of Hening and Munford's Reports (1857), and an edition of the first three volumes of Call's Reports (1854).
In the extensive organization of the Sons of Temperance of the United States, Minor was an enthusiastic officer, lecturer, and editorial supervisor; for it he wrote Reasons for Abolishing the Liquor Traffic (1853), 30, 000 copies of which were distributed; and to him the order erected a monument in Williamsburg.
Minor was impressed by New England's superiority in public spirit, social and civic organization, and comforts of living. In 1835, appeared also his Address of Education before the Institute of Education at Hampden-Sidney College in which he frankly pointed out the pauperizing tendencies of the Virginia public school system. In 1830, he had spoken before a local temperance society to advocate wine and beer as substitutes for ardent spirits; in 1834 at the Charlottesville convention of temperance advocates he spoke out for total abstinence, having become convinced that this was the necessary basis of any broad temperance reform movement. Thereafter the movement interested him most.
Minor was married on May 4, 1846, to Lavinia Callis Price. They had four children.
