LADIES OF THE SOCIETY. 435 



Ladies of the Society. 



MRS. JENNIE STAGER, SAUK RAPIDS. 



It was in 1886 that I came to Minnesota, and as green as 

 a New York City woman could be about making a garden or 

 raising fruit. I had a piece of ground broken up which had 

 never been cultivated before, and set out on it a thousand straw- 

 berry plants I had sent for. Of course I had no idea how many 

 were needed to furnish fruit for a small family. Well the next 

 spring I began to taste them in anticipation. On uncovering the 

 plants I noticed they looked sick, and I found the grub worms had 

 eaten the roots. My feast was in the discard. At that time very 

 little of any fruit could be bought here, and the strawberries of- 

 fered for sale were about as large as a gooseberry, and having 

 been used to fruit the year around I inquired around to see if 

 I could get the modus operandi of how to raise fruit. Someone 

 told me of a horticultural society which would meet in Min- 

 neapolis somewhere and at some time in the winter. Finding the 

 time and place I was on hand. The meeting was held in a room 

 over old City Market opposite the depot. At the farther end of 

 the room was a long table, behind which sat a number of very 

 intelligent looking men, and in the middle, looking a veritable 

 king amidst his adherents, was the president, Wyman Elliot. 

 Then I noticed at the left a very beautiful old lady, whom later 

 I found to be a Mrs. Van Cleve. Also I met at that time, Mrs. 

 F. G. Gould and Mrs. J. M. Underwood. In some mysterious 

 way I felt I had gone into a family meeting and was not among 

 strangers. 



The annual membership for that year I think was ninety- 

 nine and mostly men. I am supposed to talk of the ladies, 

 but how can I help speaking of those noble men, Elliot, Sias, 

 Harris, Dart, Underwood, Gould, Porter, Sargeant, Green, 

 Gideon, Grimes, Patten, Smith, Latham, and many others, as 

 Col. Stevens and Mr. Owen, who were doing so much, without 

 thought of money or reward to make Minnesota one of the fore- 

 most fruit growing states in the Union, and thereby blessing its 

 inhabitants against hard climatic conditions. I think you will 

 allow they have accomplished it. Witness our exhibits and 

 premiums at New Orleans, and we are still progressing. 



Many of those old members have crossed the Great Divide, 

 but we keep them in our memory and our hearts, and the feeling 

 of kinship and brotherhood that emanated from that meeting to 



