Minor Martin Elmore

b. 1858, d. 20 September 1883
  • Minor Martin Elmore was born in 1858 in Ocean Springs, Jackson County, Mississippi.
  • William Augustus Elmore appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1870 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, enumerated in the household of merchant Edward Pamele.. Other members of the household included Minor Martin Elmore, Florence Elmore.
  • William Augustus Elmore and Minor Martin Elmore appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, at 187 Camp Street boarding in the household of widow Mary Maguire.
  • He was a newspaper reporter, according to the 1880 census.
  • Minor Martin Elmore died on 20 September 1883 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana.
  • He was interred at Montgomery, Alabama.
  • The following appeared on 21 September 1883 in The Daily Picayune: The tidings of the death of Minor Elmore will carry sorrow to an unusually wide and devoted circle of friends. The mournful event is touched with a deeper pathos by the fact that he was called to die in the prime of his young manhood and while the near future was promising him a yet larger measure of happiness and useful activity.
         Born in Ocean Springs, Miss., in the year 1858, he had not quite completed his twenty-fifth year when he was laid low by his last illness. Bereft of his mother in his early infancy, his childhood was passed under the care of a pious and cultivated grandmother, under whose hospitable roof he was surrounded by all those gracious influences which shelter and nurture the early growth of beauty in human character. His boyhood and youth were more particularly under the direction of a father distinguished for the dignity and refinement of his manners, and for the breadth and practical sagacity of his intellect. Whether by this parent's choice, or merely by suggestion of circumstances, Minor Elmore received his academic training in the Dominion of Canada, and certainly the result was not unfortunate; for his subsequent career gave evidence that his education had been sound and thorough. From the first he seems to have had a decided predilection, as unquestionably he had a marked talent, for journalism. Before he had attained his majority he began his service in that profession as a member of the staff of the Picayune, and on this paper he earned at once the admiration and the love of his co-laborers.
         As a journalist, Minor Elmore was distinguished most of all for clear-headed common sense and a certain calomness of judgment which enabled him almost invariably to see and to seize hold of the importand and essential facts of a situation, and to discard those which were irrelevant or only incidental. The cast of mind was eminently judicial, and in the discharge of his duties he appeared firm and persistent rather than enthusiastic. After some years of useful employment on the Picayune he left it to connect himself with the New Orleans States, of which paper he became one of the proprietors, and of which he was city editor a the time of his death.
         Some weeks before he was prostrated by his last sickness Mr. Elmore seemed to be apprehensive of the approaching attack. His physicial system, somewhat exhausted by his professional labors, had become surcharged with malaria, and to these causes, aided by some internal complication, he finally succumbed at about 5 o'clock Thursday morning. He was attended during his illness by Dr. Joseph Jones, with whom Dr. Logan was called in consultation. If the resources of medical science and skill, combined with the assiduous care of loving nurses, could have availed to save his life, there would be no occasion now to mourn his loss, but from the first his case was hopeless. It is a supreme consolation to add that his end was peace.
         He died as a Christian, with the Christian's hope in glory, his head upon the bosom of his mother's sister, breathing prayer and sending messages of love to the last. He was conscious almost to the very moment of death.
         About two hours before he died he asked for his father--then on his way from a distant State to the bedside of his son--and said, "Tell him I am waiting for him; but I cannot wait long"
         Just a little before his spirit left his body, with the last remains of his strength, he held up his face to be kissed. Some hours before that--late the preceding evening--he received a telegram from Canada. It came from one who was to have shared his life, and who promised to meet and love him in the deathless Hereafter. It was to be their last love letter.
         Minor leaves a father, Judge William A. Elmore, a married sister and the faithful aunt who ministered comfort to his dying moments. Sorrow is still their portion; but his is infinite rest.
  • The following appeared on 22 September 1883 in The Daily Picayune: The funeral of the deceased journalist, Minor Elmore, took place Friday morning from the residence of Mrs. W. W. King, 28 South Rampart street. The ceremonies were very largely attended, and were of a most impressive character. Present in the room besides other relatives of the deceased, was his venerable father, Judge W. A. Elmore, who had arrived Thursday night, many hours too late to receive the farewell words of his son.
         The services were conducted by Rev. F. R. Hill, of the Carondelet Street Methodist Church, who supplemented the ordinary readings and prayers with some feeling and appropriate remarks on the life and death of the gifted young man lying dead before him. At the close of the ceremonial the relatives of the dead made their final adieux to the silent form, and then the friends and acquaintances of the deceased moved by in sad procession, taking a last glance at his familiar features. There were in this throng many members of the Commercial Club, with which the deceased was connected. [:CR;]      The remains were escorted to Metairie Cemetery, and there laid away temporarily in a vault, from which the body will be transferred to the family tomb in Alabama. [:CR;]      The pall-bearers were Messers. H. L. Dufour, Wm. A. King, W. C. H. Robinson, Homer Fort, of the Daily States; Richard Nixon, Times-Democrat, and R. B. Matthews, Picayune. [:CR;]      The floral offerings were beautiful and touching tributes of affection from loving friends.
  • Last Edited: 15 Sep 2015