322 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Not all his friends in the east, however, shared the young settler's 

 enthusiasm for Minnesota. In later years Mr. Pendergast used to 

 tell with amusement how, on the Sunday before his departure for 

 that territory, a solemn minister in Massachusetts preached a fiery 

 sermon at him from the text "and Lot pitched his tent toward 

 Sodom." 



On August 9th, 1857, Mr. Pendergast was married to Miss 

 Abigail Lowe Cogswell, who experienced with him all the delights 

 and hardships of frontier life, and is still living in the old home at 

 Hutchinson. 



The pioneer has ample opportunity to show what fibre he is made 

 of. Mr. Pendergast's dominant trait was generosity, in the broadest 

 sense. Sympathy, praise, time, money, service — he gave all freely, 

 and few men have been more beloved by their associates. So in- 

 dispensable did he seem to the little colony, that when at the begin- 

 ning of the Civil War he was eager to enlist, every citizen but one 

 signed a petition begging him not to leave. 



During the outbreak of '62 he was in command of the eighty 

 Home Guards that defeated three hundred Sioux at Hutchinson. 

 Although victorious, Mr. Pendergast found himself practically pen- 

 niless after the battle. The academy that he had built and equipped 

 at his own expense was in ashes ; so was his dwelling house, and 

 other of his property had been destroyed by the Indians. Though 

 his spirit remained in the west, there seemed no choice for him but 

 to return to New England for a time. As it proved, the three years 

 spent in the Amesbury High School were very useful and happy 

 ones, and the memory of the earnest young principal with the rare 

 gifts of a born teacher is still revered in Massachusetts. As he was 

 setting out again for Minnesota, the Poet Whittier took him by the 

 hand, saying "I am sorry to see thee go, Friend Pendergast, for I 

 think thee has done much good among us." 



Arriving once more in Hutchinson, he engaged in agriculture, a 

 pursuit which he never abandoned until a few months before his 

 death, whatever public offices he held. He was the efficient head of 

 the village school for more than twenty years, during eight of which 

 he acted also as superintendent of McLeod County. Unsuspected 

 by himself, his unusual attainments and ability were attracting at- 

 tention throughout the state. In 1882 he was surprised to find 

 himself appointed clerk in the Department of Public Instruction at 

 St. Paul. A few months later, he was made assistant state super- 

 intendent, continuing in that office until he resigned in 1888 to be- 

 come the head of the new School of Agriculture of the State Uni- 

 versity. 



