334 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Brimhall had platted his farm and garden of eighty acres, 

 near Macalester College, St. Paul, while our friend Quinn had 

 rented his place, north of Hamline, and they had come with their 

 families to make San Diego their future home. 



On our arrival here we found these two old neighbors building 

 houses on adjoining lots in a new addition to the city, but our friend 

 Smith, in spite of his years, had a longing for his old business, so 

 he bought an orange grove and fruit ranch some two miles from 

 the post office. 



For many years our four families were the center of a St. Paul 

 colony, where many old timers visited us. But alas, what a great 

 number have, with our own dear ones, joined the ranks of the ma- 

 jority! Among these I now sadly recall the names of D. D. Merrill, 

 E. F. Drake, Amherst Wilder, J. F. Williams and Ex-Gov. Marshall, 

 of St. Paul, while those who called on us from the Falls City, but 

 will never do so again, were Rev. W. A. James, Richard Chute, H. G. 

 Harrison and Mrs. Dr. A. E. Johnson. We send back now a sad 

 requiem for all these with whom we associated in the long ago, mid 

 scenes w^e loved so well. 



The angel of death had for years passed over our dwelling, 

 and we were having pleasant times in this goodly land. At length 

 the tall form of our once stalwart elder brother, William B. Ouinn, 

 was called to^Ieave us, and the first ties were broken. Next to obey 

 the dread summons was my dear companion of more than forty 

 years, who died August 4th, 1896. 



And now in less than twelve short months we have to record the 

 demise of another member of our fraternal colony, in the person of 

 our beloved W. E. Brimhall, whose fine likeness and auto-biograph- 

 ical sketch appeared in the magazine of July last. He died of heart 

 failure, June 29th, after several attacks of the same trouble, though 

 he had not been very well for some time. A telegram to our secre- 

 tary would have added an important and sad postscript to the sketch 

 of his very busy life which he had prepared only a few daj's before. 



Only a short time before his end came, he drove up to my nursery 

 looking almost as young as he did twenty years ago. He kindly 

 entreated me to spend one evening at his home to assist in prepar- 

 ing something for the secretary, as he was given up by the doctors. 

 I was too unwell to go and begged him to make no delay iu writing 

 out the main facts in regard to his life of three score years and ten. 

 By referring to the July number of the Horticulturist, our readers 

 will see how well his last work was done. 



Did space permit I would like to write many things in regard to 

 this one of our old pioneers. He had been very successful in a pe- 

 cuniary point of view, but what cheered him most in his last inter- 

 view with me, was the fact that the large family of boys and girls 

 that Mrs. Brimhall and he had reared and settled in life were an. 

 honor to their parents. L. M. Ford. 



San Diego, Cal., Aug. 18th, 1897. 



