HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MINN. STATE HORT. SOCIETY. 415 



Lake City, was appointed secretary, which place he held two 

 and one-half years until his duties as superintendent of the 

 exhibit of the state at the New Orleans Exposition made it 

 impossible for him to continue longer in that office. During 

 most of this period Mr. John S. Harris was president, and the 

 meetings were held in Minneapolis at the College of Agriculture. 

 I think this must mean the State University, as I do not recall 

 attending at so early a day any meeting at what we now call 

 the Farm School. 



*Mr. Gibbs still survives in his Florida home, hopelessly 

 blind, above eighty-four years of age. On his retirement, S. D. 

 Hillman, who had been reporting for the society a number wf 

 years, was elected secretary and continued to hold that office for 

 five years. During most of this period Mr. Wyman Elliot was 

 president, having taken the office in 1886, the society being then 

 twenty years old. In that year the meeting was held in Har- 

 risons Hall, the third story of a building still standing on the 

 corner of Washington and Nicollet, in this city. I must have 

 been south that winter, as I have no recollection at all of the 

 meeting. 



The two succeeding years the meeting was held in Market 

 Hall, Minneapolis, a building long since demolished, on the 

 corner of First Street and Hennepin Avenue. The meetings these 

 two years, as also the preceding year, were joint sessions with 

 the Amber Cane Society, of which organization our Seth H. 

 Kenney, one of the few veterans of our society still alive*, was 

 the leading spirit. I recall one of these meetings at Market 

 Hall where Peter M. Gideon reading an essay entitled, 

 "Horticulture and the Fast Horse," was stopped in his reading 

 by Mr. Grimes. As what transpired then does not appear in 

 the records of the meeting I will speak as to my recollection of 

 it. Mr. Gideon having read something which offended the reli- 

 gious sentiments of some of the members, Mr. James T. Grimes 

 arose, saying, "I move you, Mr. President, that the further 

 reading of this paper be dispensed with, that it be turned over 

 to the secretary and boiled down ten parts to one and in that 

 form published." In the meantime Mr. Gideon was slowly fold- 

 ing up his manuscript, and as he did so remarked, "No one will 

 ever boil down any of my papers," and without further words 

 on his part or on the part of others present he put his manu- 

 script in his satchel, gathered up his coat and hat and left the 



*Mr. Gibbs passed away since the above was written. Mr. Kenney has 

 since passed away at the age of 81 years. 



