Pvt Co H 61st Va Militia Regiment/ 4th Corporal, Mathews Light Artillery Battery C.S.A.

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The Mathews Journal (Mathews, Va.),

Thurs, 23 Oct 1924,

p1, c2

Elija T. Minter

Mr. E. T. Minter died Friday morning at the home of his daughter, Mrs. R. J. Campbell. Mr. Minter was 83 years of age and had been in declining health for some time. Funeral services were conducted at Bethel Church by Rev. Wilbur C. Diggs.

The pallbearers were Messrs O. R. Hudgins, W. K. Minter, J. D. Brownley, Herman Hudgins, A. L. Callis and R. J. Campbell.

Mr. Minter is survived by his widow, Mrs. Columbia Minter; two daughters, Mrs. R. J. Campbell and Mrs. A. L. Callis and three grandchildren, Mrs. Windfield Brooks, Mrs. Herman Hudgins and Mrs. Willie Campbell.

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The Mathews Journal (Mathews, Va.),

Thurs, 12 Dec 1924

In Memorium

The 17th of October marked the close of one of the serenest lives that has ever come under my observation, namely, that of my grandfather Elijah T. Minter.

Grandfather was born in the year 1841, being a member of a large and well known family. When only a boy he began serving a carpenter's trade in Norfolk. Just before completing his trade he left to enlist in the Confederate army and served there, well, as in every other undertaking of his career. Shortly after the close of the war he married and moved to his home near Laban and there with his family he spent most of his life.

Grandfather was a devout Christian, quiet, unassuming and unpretentious, which facts but emphasized the beautiful life he lived. All through life everyone who knew him loved him, as a soldier, as a citizen and as a member of the church.

Even though approaching his 84th birthday when human sensibilities are so often dulled, his every action spoke of gentle dignity.

The most precious legacy he bequeathed his decendants was the memory of a life, pure, noble and God-like an inspiration to all who knew him.

As I gazed on him in his last agonized hours, and again when death had left its seal, I was vividly impressed with the words of Caroline Southey:

Oh! change - oh, wondrous change!

Burst are the prison bars -

This moment there, so low,

So agonized - and now

Beyond the stars.

Oh! change, stupendous change!

There lies the souless clod;

The sun eternal breaks -

The new immortal wakes -

Wakes with his God.

~His granddaughter, Mrs. Herman W. Hudgins