Early Life
McMinn was born in West Marlborough Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and was one of ten children. He obtained only a limited rural education, and even in his later years would be described as a "rustic frontiersman." Though raised as a Quaker, he joined the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
In 1786, McMinn moved to Hawkins County, Tennessee, where he had purchased a farm. In 1792, Southwest Territory governor William Blount appointed McMinn justice of the peace for Hawkins County, and McMinn represented Hawkins County in the territorial legislature from 1794 to 1796. He also served as an officer in the territorial militia, eventually rising to the rank of brigade commander.
Read more about this topic: Joseph McMinn
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“We early arrive at the great discovery that there is one mind common to all individual men: that what is individual is less than what is universal ... that error, vice and disease have their seat in the superficial or individual nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)