92 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. J. S. Harris then read the following sketch of the life of 

 Mr. A. W. Sias, to the time of his late removal from the state : 



Members and friends of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society: 



President Elliot has requested me to announce to you that our worthy 

 first vice president, A. W. Sias, of Rochester, has removed from our state 

 to the new state of Colorado, there to make his future home. I have 

 thought that it might be of interest to the younger members of our 

 society to give here a brief biographical sketch of the man who has been 

 so closely identified with the interests of horticulture in our state during 

 the last quarter of a century. 



Mr. Sias was born at Derby, Orleans county, Vermont, May 3d, 1838. 

 His youthful days were spent on his father's farm, the old homestead that 

 descended from his grandfather, which was located in the midst of some 

 of the finest views and most beautiful forest and mountain scenes in all 

 New England; and there is no doubt but this scenery and the surround- 

 ings of his earlier years, gave him that love for trees which has been a 

 characteristic of his after life, and of late years has been his ruling passion- 

 In the spring of 1851 he accompanied his parents to western New York, 

 where they located on a farm situated in the midst of the greatest nursery 

 district and the then best fruit region in the United States, near the city 

 of Rochester. For a few years he divided his time between assisting a corps 

 of engineers in surveying railroad lines from Rochester to Niagara Falls, 

 and later on the Toledo, Wabash and Western road; attending the Gene- 

 see Wesleyan Seminary, and as a traveling agent for the nursery firm of 

 Nelson & Barker, near Rochester. He came to Minnesota in 1859, and for 

 a time made his headquarters at St. Charles, in Winona county. Some 

 time in 1863 he removed to Rochester, Olmsted county, and immediately 

 started the College Hill Nurseries, making a specialty of apple trees and 

 evergreens. I first made his acquaintance at the state fair held at Roch- 

 ester in October, 1866,where he rendered me valuable assistance in arrang- 

 ing my show of fruits, flowers and vegetables, so that the display should 

 make the most favorable impression upon the many visitors on that occa- 

 sion. My first impressions of him were that he was a man possessed of 

 sterling integrity and good ability, and from that hour we became fast 

 friends. The objective points I found in his character was that he was 

 too modest and unassuming where only his own interests were concerned, 

 and that he would permit others and less worthy men to push him aside, 

 and step in ahead; and tou conscientiously honest to compete with that 

 class of unscrupulous tree venders who at that period were working the 

 tree business for all there was in it, selling unknown auction stocks of 

 trees at 50 cts., $1.00 and upwards each, while much of his carefully grown 

 stock remained on his hands unsold. I am glad to know that the young 

 man, after long association with me, has to a certain extent been able to 

 overcome this modesty, and is now aggressive and even pugnacious in de- 

 fending his rights, while his reputation for honesty remains untarnished. 

 On the morning of October 4th, 1866, when the venerable D. A. Robert- 

 son broached the question of organizing a "State Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion," our friend Sias was one of the first to second the proposition, and 

 with Wm. Somerville, R. S. Cotterell, I. W. Rollins, and several others, 



