THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 25. JULY, 1897. NO. 7. 



^^tobiograpt]y. 



WILLIAM E. BRIMHALL, 



SAN DIEGO, CAL. 



(By special request, Mr. Brimhall has kindly prepared the following sketch of 

 his life to accompany his portrait which appears as frontispiece in this number. 

 He is w^ell remembered by all the older members of the society as one of tlie 

 prominent pioneer horticulturists of Ramsey Co. — SECY.) 



I was born February 4th, 1825, at Hardwick, Worcester county 

 Mass. At six years of age, I learned to braid pahu leaf hats while not 

 at school. At ten years of age, I was put out on a farm to work for my 

 board and clothes with Thos. Gorham, of Barre, for one year, and 

 continued working at farming on the rocky farms of Barre and Hard- 

 wick until I was eighteen years of age. At that age, I went to the 

 city of Worcester and engaged to learn the plowmaker's trade for 

 three years with Ruggles, Nourse & Mason. After learning the 

 trade, I found that inside work and the dust from the machinery 

 were injuring my health; therefore, decided to change my occupa- 

 tion. Being in rather poor health, I went to clerking in a whole- 

 sale and retail grocery store, but it soon became too hard for me, 

 and I had to give it up. 



My older brother, Joseph, was at Springfield working at carpenter- 

 ing and offered me a chance to work with him, and later on we went 

 to South Hadle}'^ Falls and engaged work on a frame dam that 

 was to be constructed across the Connecticut river to the newly 

 laid out town of Holyoke. The first dam was a frame one and too 

 short on the bottom. After being completed, except closing the gates, 

 the day was set, and thousands of people came from abroad to wit- 

 ness the closing of the gates. A leak was discovered which soon 

 drove the people from seeing the curiosities in the rocks of the falls, 

 and I with other workmen was instructed to build rafts to sink to 



