OBITUARIES. 3889 
for his years of toil. But it was not to be. Over exertion, Sept. 27th last, 
in lifting a mired cow from a marsh, proiuced an internal injury—before 
the midnight hour he had passed into the great unknown, and we trust 
to an eternal rest. Mr. Gordon was a man who always had the courage of 
his convictions. An indefatigable worker in the cause of temperance, he 
neglected no proper occasion to deal a blow at all enemies of humanity. 
Untiring and outspoken for the right,as given to him to see the right, his 
life was shaped by his early training amid the society of Friends. It was 
remarked at his grave that he had no enemies. 
Truly a good man has gone from our midst. 
“They died—Ay! they died; and we things that are now, 
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
Who make in their dwellings a transient abode, 
Meet the changes they met on their pilgrimage road. 
Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain; 
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 
Still follow each other like surge upon surge, 
’Tis the wink of an eye, ’tis the draught of a breath, 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
From the guilded saloon to the bier and the shroud, 
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?” 
O. F. BRAND. 
EX-SECRETARY JAMES W. HARKNESS, 
DIED AT FARIBAULT, MINNESOTA, MARCH 24, 1871. 
(See frontispiece. ) 
The subjeet of this sketch was one of the original little band who organ- 
ized this society at Rochester on the evening of October 4, 1866. At 
the first regular meeting of the society at the same place, October 4, 
1867, Mr. Harkness acted as secretary, pro tem, and was at that meeting 
duly elected corresponding secretary. In this position, the largest and 
most laborious work of the young society devolved upon him. It was 
largely owing to his energy and zeal for the cause he loved that our soci- 
ety soon became known among those of our sister states as the peer of 
any. 
The following tribute to his memory appeared in the Faribault Repub- 
lican, shortly after his death: 
“James W. Harkness, was born in Peoria County, Ill.,Oct. 6th, 1839. 
When a lad he removed with his parents to Wisconsin, and with them to 
Minnesota in 1856. He was a man of emphatic western type. When he 
came to our town four years ago without acquaintances, money, credié or 
name, without a foot of land upon which to plant his first tree, he an- 
nounced his purpose to establish here the dream of his boyhood, a pioneer 
nursery. which should be an honor to its founder and a credit to the place. 
To us wise ones who knew his want of means, the scheme seemed chimer- 
ical, and we hav~ never ceased since to wonder at the tireless and resist- 
less energy with which he threw the whole weight of his being into his 
enterprise. Renting in the choicest location the highest priced land, tra- 
