194 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. . 



pressed himself upon this community or exerted so great an influ- 

 ence for the good of all. In a thousand ways has he served our 

 people so faithfully as to merit their recognition of him as our 

 most distinguished citizen. He has passed from the activities of 

 this life but his good deeds will live as a precious memory in the 

 hearts of a grateful and appreciative people." 



From the "Montevideo Commercial" I have taken the fol- 

 lowing brief outline of Mr. Moyer's useful life : 



"L. R. Moyer was born on a farm in Niagara County, New 

 York, October 29, 1848. His early education was at a district 

 school near his home. Later he entered a high grade school in 

 Lockport, N. Y., and so devoted was he to his studies that his 

 health thereby became impaired, and he came to Hudson, Wis., in 

 the fall of 1868. Taught school for one winter near Lakeland, 

 Minn. After spending one year at Duluth he came to the Minne- 

 sota Valley on foot, having walked all the way from Benson, 

 arriving here in August, 1870, when all there was to Montevideo 

 was a log hotel and a small dwelling on the site of Chippewa 

 County State Bank. His occupation at that time was that of a 

 civil engineer, which consisted mainly in land surveying. He 

 soon filed two choice tracts of land, one he took as a homestead 

 and the other as a promotion claim. The latter he owned at the 

 time of his death, near Camp Release Park. 



"He was admitted to the bar in 1875, and the same year the 

 firm of C. H. Budd and L. R. Moyer was formed, which for many 

 years was known as Budd & Moyer. In 1875 the firm did some 

 banking business and in 1877 with a third partner organized 

 Chippewa County Bank. In that small bank building the begin- 

 nings of the Montevideo Public Library were carried on with a 

 few magazines and a small collection of books. Mr. Moyer was 

 elected soon after to the office of County Surveyor, which office 

 he held for thirty years and was also for twenty years of this 

 period Judge of Probate. He served several years on the public 

 school board and has been for many years a trustee of Windom 

 College, formerly Windom Institute. He was a life member of 

 the Minnesota Historical Club and the State Horticultural So- 

 ciety. Was a member of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science and of the Torry Botanical Club. He de- 

 voted much time to the study of botany and has one of the finest 

 herbariums to be found anywhere. He was president of Chip- 

 pewa County State Bank at the time of his death, and was one of 

 the directors since its organization as a State Bank. He was a 

 member of Sunset Lodge No. 109, A. F. & A. M. and a charter 

 member of the Montevideo Fire Department and was president 

 of the City Council. 



"Lycurgus R. Moyer, lawyer, banker, naturalist and poet, son 

 of Amos F. and Cornelia Rose Moyer, married Anna Wightman, 



