graduated from Harvard College with the class of 1836 and received a law degree from the Howard Dane Law School of Harvard. He practiced law in Massachusetts for several years before moving to California. After the Gold Rush caused the collapse of his law practice and Minns lost all of his savings, he became a teacher at the Union Grammar School, the first California high school, and became principal of the Normal School the following year. He was an American teacher, notable for running the Minns Evening Normal School, which was established in San Francisco, California, in 1857 in order to train teachers for the city's public school system.
