298 AMERICAN POMOkOGICAI* SOCIETY 
Missouri where he again opened a law office but his love for rural life led 
him into farming and fruit-growing and to establish a paper— -Column's Rural 
World — devoted to these subjects. This paper he edited without inter- 
ruption until his death although he had assistance, especially in the later 
years. 
During the civil war he served in the Union army as Lieutenant Colonel 
of volunteers. In 1874 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Missouri. 
In 1885 President Cleveland appointed Mr. Colman as Commissioner of 
Agriculture and in this capacity he did his greatest service for agriculture 
and all its allied interests. His administration of that office was the first 
one of real progress. One of his first steps was the establishment of the 
Division of Pomology in the Department of Agriculture, thus giving the 
fruit industry proper recognition in the government service. Soon after he 
had been installed as head of the department he invited me to consult 
with him in regard to certain matters connected with the editing of liis 
paper and I made use of the opportunity to suggest the establishment of 
the division of pomology at Washington, which met with his most hearty 
approval and led to my appointment as its head. In his eagerness) to get 
the work begun he did not wait for the action of congress but appointed 
me a special agent of the Division of Statistics; “To investigate and report 
upon the pomological industry of the United States.’’ This placed the 
work on an official footing and led to an appropriation and the formal es- 
tablishment of the division on July 1, 1886. It is a matter of pride with me 
to know that I was instrumental in beginning the official pomological work 
of the government; to have conducted it for the first eight years and to wit- 
ness the wonderful development that has followed. 
The establishment of the state experiment stations was largely due to 
his efforts and he helped to draft the bill that was passed by Congress to 
this end. He also established the division of Vegetable Pathology and 
Ornithology and Mammalogy, now the Bureau of Biological Survey and 
greatly stimulated all the various divisions of the Department of Agriculture. 
It was largely due to his efforts that the department was elevated to the 
dignity of an executive one and for a short time at the close of his term 
as its head he was therefore, the first Secretary of Agriculture and a mem- 
ber of the President’s Cabinet. 
Mr. Colman was one of the oldest members of the American Pomolog- 
ical Society at the time of his death. He became a member in 1869 and 
attended many of its meetings. He was also personally interested in horti- 
culture and at one time made considerable plantings of fruits where now the 
city of St. Louis is solidly built and on his farm several miles in the country. 
He was a lover of animals as well as of trees, the horse being his favorite. 
He kept a large number of thoroughbred roadsters on his farm, where h© 
bred and trained them and then sold them to be used in practical life. 
Our last meeting was in March of the year he died, at the pecan orchard 
in Louisiana, in which we were both interested. After spending about 
ten days looking over the young trees and enjoying the pleasures of the farm 
he bid me a loving farewell on the train that took him north and with the 
tears streaming down his cheeks he said: “Good-bye Van, and May God 
bless you. I shall probably never see you again.” His many good deeds 
will bless the world for many years to come. H. E. VD. 
