THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 29. MARCH, B90I. No. 3. 



^ 



iograpl^y. 



EDSON GAYLORD, 



NORA SPRINGS, lA. 



Mr. Gaylord's origin is traced, without missing name or date, 

 to Wm. Gaillard, who came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, in the 

 ship Mary and John, and whose French Huguenot ancestors had 

 come to England in 1550, to escape persecution. This Wm. -Gail- 

 lard anglicized his name and became Wm. Gaylord. He was rep- 

 resentative to the general assembly for the town of Windsor, Conn., 

 forty successive sessions. One hundred and fifty graves in the ceme- 

 teries of Norfolk and Gaylordsville now bear this name. Mr. Gay- 

 lord says that "many by this name have undoubtedly deserved the 

 jail, the whipping post and the gallows, but that up to date all have 

 escaped." 



His great grandfather, Samuel, took his son, Ager, aged six- 

 teen, to the army at the breaking out of the French and Indian war. 

 Samuel died soon, but Ager served fourteen years, to the close. 

 While skirmishing, he saw two Frenchmen concealed behind trees. 

 He crept behind a stump, and soon a number of shots were ex- 

 changed between them. One Frenchman, getting out of powder, 

 stepped to and behind the other. Ager saw his opportunity and 

 quickly sent a ball through both at one shot, and took their valuables 

 into camp. At the close of the war he received for pay. a musket, 

 a knapsack and a roll of worthless money. 



His grandson, the subject of this skefch, was born in North- 

 ville, Litchfield county, Conn., in 1825. He took his first lessons 

 in horticulture when three years old, from a man employed to graft 



