THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 31. SEPTEMBER, 1903. No. 9. 



I" ^IS 



eiTformiri. 



EX-PRES. W. \V. PENDERGAST, HUTCHIX^X, MINX. 



Died July 17, 1903. Aged 70 years. 



\\ . W . Pendergast was a man of genuine worth. In reviewing 

 his Hfe, one is so impressed with the strength and beauty of his 

 character that it seems of little moment to inquire where he was 

 bom. where educated. It is enough to know that he lived, that he 

 accomplished great good in the world, and that his beneficent influ- 

 ence will long be felt. Yet it might interest the curious to trace the 

 rare combination of qualities his whole-souled nature presented, the 

 stem rectitude and grave dignity, graced with so many of the bright 

 and kindly virtues, to the mingling in his veins of Irish and Puritan 

 blood. 



In 1 71 5. Stephen Pendergast. recently of Wexford. Ireland, 

 built at Durham. Xew Hampshire, a typical blockhouse, for his 

 bride. Jane Cotton, of Salem. In this same "old garrison," on Janu- 

 ary 31st, 1833. William Wirt Pendergast was bom. The boy was 

 brought up in the good old way on farming and Latin, and loved 

 them both. He fitted for college at Phillips' Exeter Academy and 

 the Springfield High School, matriculating at Bowdoin in 1850. 

 Though he completed only three years of tlie course, the college 

 afterwards conferred upon Mr. Pendergast the degree of Master of 

 Arts. 



In 1855, after a year of teaching in Massachusetts, the young 

 man went west, fell in with the celebrated Hutchinson family, and 

 induced them to found a towm in the Hassan \ alley, sixty miles 

 west of St. Anthony. Having promised to render all the assistance 

 in his power, he returned to Xew England in 1857. bringing back 

 with him on his return to the west a colonv of thirtv voungf men. 



