324 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the expectation that the state would ultimately pay the bill. There 

 was no difficulty in securing the re-enactment of the society's print- 

 ing law, but the getting payment for work done without authority 

 was another matter. To this work the newly elected president ad- 

 dressed himself with zeal. Personal appeal on the part of one held 

 in so high esteem, re-enforced with the assistance of a most loyal 

 membership, carried the measure through successfully. This one act 

 may be taken as a type of the spirit that actuated this beloved ex- 

 president in all his relations to the society and its work, as much be- 

 fore hjs elevation to its presidency as after. In largeness of life and 

 purpose and activities and in the fruition of generous impulses 

 he set a most noble example, whose influence must ever be felt in the 

 promotion of our work. 



Mr. Pendergast was one of the more recent additions to the ranks 

 of the society, his name appearing first on our rolls in the year 1890, 

 but he more than made up by zeal and earnestness what he lacked 

 in length of years of membership. On the 19th of June, 1902, at 

 the summer meeting of the society, upon recommendation of the 

 executive board, he was by unanimous vote made an honorary life 

 member of the society, and by this act the society did most especially 

 honor itself. 



In January, 1903, the very month in which Mr. Pendergast com- 

 pleted his beautiful three score years and ten, began the wearisome 

 illness that was borne with the utmost patience until the end came 

 on the seventeenth of July. 



The Minneapolis Journal, commenting editorially upon the life of 

 Mr. Pendergast said, in part: 



"He had lived a simple, unostentatious life in a country town ; 

 neither great wealth nor sounding titles had been his ; yet it may be 

 doubted if any one of the hundreds who gathered about his bier 

 would have asked more as the fulfilment of his highest ambition than 

 to depart from earth so beloved, leaving behind him such a legacy 

 of faithful service, such riches in lives made sweeter and nobler 

 through his influence." 



A. W. LATHAM, 



Secretary. 



W. W. Pendergast : With what words can I fitly express the 

 feeling of loss and regret that our friend and comrade has left us ! 

 He was a stalwart man, commanding of presence, and always earn- 

 est and forcible in his presentation of his thoughts, but with it all 

 there was a gentleness that won us to his views, which were always 

 liberal and practical. As an educator he must have been thorough 

 in his methods, for in horticulture I learned from him one of the 

 most valuable lessons of my life, that of thorough cultivation. But 



