Rev. William Barr Minton was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, October 21, 1849. His father, Robert B. Minton has been Professor of Mathematics in Blackburn University, Carbondale, Illinois, an institution which he took charge of when William was thirteen years of age, and where the latter graduated in 1870, being not quite twenty-one years old. In the fall of 1871, he was licensed to preach by the Alton Presbytery. In May, 1874, he graduated at the Auburn (N.Y.) Theological Seminary, being ordained in April, 1874, to the full functions of the ministry, by the Cairo Presbytery. His residence is at Anna, and he is exerting a large influence over a wide circle of churches in Southern Illinois – an able, zealous and practical preacher.
Contributed 2022 Apr 22 by Norma Hass, extracted from Atlas of the State of Illinois, published in 1876, page 242.