BIOGRAPHIES. 393 
BIOGRAPHIES. y 
EX-PRESIDENT A. W. McKINSTRY, FARIBAULT, MINN. 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
(See frontispiece in Report of 1891.) 
Archibald W. McKinstry was born in Chicopee, Hampden County, Mass., 
March 19, 1828. His ancestors on the paternal side were Scotch-Irish, and 
on the maternal, English. His grandfather, Daniel Williams, on the 
mother’s side, was a revolutionary soldier, who was wounded in the battle 
of Stillwater. Archibald W. attended the common school in winter and 
worked on the farm in summer till he was 16 years old, when he went to 
Fredonia, Chatauqua County,N. Y., and entered as an apprentice for four 
years in the office of the Fredonia Censor, published by his brother. Dur- 
ing the time he attended one term in the Fredonia Academy. At the end 
of his apprenticeship he worked as a )ournyman in the office of the Albany 
Evening Journal, and subsequently in book and job offices in Boston, Mass. 
In 1850 he returned to Fredonia and purchased an interest in the Fredo- 
nia Censor, which he conducted in connection with his brother till the 
fall of 1865, when he removed to Faribault, Minn., and purchased the 
Faribault Republican, which he has continued to conduct, as editor and 
publisher, to the present time. In 1857 he married Ellen EK. Putnam, in 
Fredonia, N. Y., by whom he had two children. He has ever manifested 
an active interest in agricultural and horticultural pursuits, and was 
elected the second president of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, 
October 4, 1867, and was recording secretary of the same society in 1872. 
He is also one of the original incorporators of the association. In 1876-7 
he served one term as a member of the Minnesota House of Representa- 
tives. He served many years as secretary and treasurer of the Faribault 
Gas Light Company,and is a director in the First National Bank of Fari- 
bault. 
