IN MEMORIAM, COL. JOHN H. STEVENS. 323 
He was never an office seeker, but always ready to champion and sup- 
port the best man for any position of honor or emolument. In the earlier 
times he was oiten called upon to serve the public in an official character. 
He was the first register of deeds in Hennepin county and served several 
terms in both branches of the legislature. During the Indian uprising he 
served as brigadier general in the militia and commanded the troops and 
volunteers sent to the front. 
It was as a member and zealous worker in the State Horticultural 
Society that we knew him the best. His name first appeared on the roll 
of members in 1868, but the writer knows that he espoused our cause and 
worked with us from the first and advocated that we ought to receive some 
aid from the state. At that time he was publishing the “Farmers’ Union” 
and made it the official organ of the society. To his personal efforts and 
his well known loyalty and hearty support of every movement that would 
advance the best interests of the state are we indebted more than to any 
other person for the act of incorporation and provision for the publication 
and distribution of our transactions, which became a law February 27, 1873. 
Under this law the first volume of transactions covering a history of the 
earliest efforts in horticulture, down to and including the winter meeting of 
1873, was published the same year. The work of editing and compiling 
this volume was chiefly done by Col. Stevens, and the result was a volume 
of great interest and inestimable value to every fruit grower in Minnesota. 
He was always present and took an active part at every meeting of the 
society whenever his health would permit. and no member was better known 
or more universally respected. 
No death that has occurred in our society since its organization is more 
deeply or widely lamented. The death of such a man is an irreparable loss 
to every interest for which they have expended the best energies of their 
lives, and all of us who knew him will always remember with pleasure, 
mingled with sadness, his sterling character, well tried integrity, uniform 
courtesy and great liberality. 
Col. Stevens’ family life was a particularly happy one and covered a 
full half century. He was married to Miss Frances Helen Miller, at West- 
moreland, N. Y., May 1, 1850, and immediately brought his bride to the 
house he had just completed down on the river bank. That was their home 
for nearly twenty years, and there their children were born. Six children 
were born to them. Mary Elizabeth, the first white child born in Minne- 
apolis, died in her seventeenth year. Catherine D., the second child, is the 
wife of P. B. Winston; the third daughter, Sarah, is not living. Gardner, 
the fourth child and only son, is a civil engineer, and Orma, the fifth, is 
now Mrs. William L. Peck, of Clearwater, Minn.; the sixth, Frances Helen, 
was married to Isaac H. Chase, of Rapid City, S. D. —J. S. Harris. 
Best Time to Work the Garden.—Cultivating and hoeing in the early 
morning when the dew is on the earth is far preferable to doing it in the 
heat of the day. Arise at 4 o'clock and breakfast at 6 in the summer season. 
In the meantime devote from one-half to two hours in the garden, hoeing, 
weeding, cultivating and gathering cool, crisp radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, 
peas, beans, squash, beets, etc., for the morning and noontime meals- 
Vegetables gathered when the dew is on them are of the finest quality. 
