MOSES KIMBALL ARMSTRONG.

In the meeting of the Executive Council, February 12, 1906, the following memorial sketch was presented by the Secretary:

Moses Kimball Armstrong, a life member of this Society, who died on January 11, is entitled to its grateful remembrance for his long and active interest in its work, and for his generous donation to it of the Armstrong Fund. As a territorial delegate in Congress, a prominent pioneer in Minnesota and Dakota, a banker, a newspaper editor, and an author of several books, his wide experience and multifold honors made him a most desirable and influential member in such a society as this, devoted to preservation of local history.

He was born in Milan, Ohio, September 19, 1832, and obtained his education at Huron Institute and Western Reserve College, Ohio. He took special high rank in mathematics. From eighteen to twenty years of age, he engaged in surveying in northern Iowa. In 1852 he came to Minnesota Territory, and was elected surveyor of Mower county in 1856. He was a delegate to the first Democratic state convention, which nominated Sibley for governor.

The Surveyor General of Minnesota appointed him one of his assistants, and in 1858 he surveyed the wild lands of Watonwan county. He surveyed many of the townsites in what is now Dakota, and, in 1861, when that territory was organized, he was a member of its first legislature. During the second term of the legislature he was speaker of the House.

In 1864 he was clerk of the Supreme Court of Dakota, and the following year was elected Territorial treasurer. In 1866 he prepared and published the early history of Dakota Territory, and for ten years he was secretary of the Dakota Historical Society.

He was a senator in the Territorial legislature of Dakota, 186667, and was elected delegate to Congress in 1870. The Dakota Herald, the first permanent Democratic newspaper in that territory,

which is still published, was founded by Mr. Armstrong; and he also established the first national bank in Dakota.

After serving two terms as delegate in Congress, 1871 to 1875, he refused a nomination for a third term, and again engaged in surveying, having charge of the survey of the Cuthead Sioux Indian Reservation, on the south side of Devil's lake.

In 1877 he removed to St. James, Minnesota, where he engaged in banking and many other business enterprises. For many years he was eminently successful in financial affairs; but during the latter part of his life the decrease in real estate values and the difficulty of attending to so many varied undertakings led to reverses that finally, about three years before his death, involved him in bankruptcy.

Before these misfortunes overtook him, he had donated to this Historical Society the entire proceeds to be derived from the sale of one of his books, "The Early Empire Builders of the Great West," published in 1901.

The sum thus realized exceeds $2,000, and has been invested by the officers of this Society in interest-bearing railroad bonds. This fund is expected to be preserved intact, in accordance with his wish when making this donation, until fitting occasion arises to use the whole amount for some appropriate and permanent purpose as a memorial of him.

Besides the book already mentioned, he published in 1903 a volume of light and rather humorous sketches, called "Vacation Travels from Northern Snows to Southern Seas;" and, many years earlier, in 1866, he wrote "History and Resources of Dakota, Montana, and Idaho." In 1876 he delivered an address at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, on Dakota Territory, which was printed and widely distributed.

His wife died in St. James, July 31, 1905, and later, on account of his feeble health, Mr. Armstrong was cared for at Albert Lea by a nephew residing there. At this home he died January 11, 1906. He was buried in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis.

Mr. Armstrong was elected to life membership in this Society November 10, 1890; and through the last fifteen years, since January 19, 1891, he had been a member of its Executive Council.

JACOB VRADENBERG BROWER.

The following biographic sketch was contributed by JOSIAH B. CHANEY to the Collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota (Volume I, 1906, pages 335-9).

Jacob Vradenberg Brower was born January 21, 1844, on a farm in the town of York, county of Washtenaw, Michigan, and died June 1, 1905, in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. He was the fourth son of Abraham Duryea and Mary (Stevens) Brower.

The ancestors of the Brower family in America emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam (now New York City) about the year 1642; they were people of some note in that colony soon after that date. The name was then spelled Brouwer, as shown in the old Dutch Record of that period.

The parents of J. V. Brower moved from New York state to Michigan, and engaged in farming. In the spring of 1860, the family came to Minnesota, and settled on a farm on Long Prairie, in what is now Todd county. This was their first place of residence in Minnesota.

The school education of young Brower began and ended in the district schools of his native town. He was an apt and industrious student, and made good use of the meager facilities afforded in a district school of that period. After coming to Minnesota, he continued his pursuit of knowledge under the supervision of his father, who was highly educated and hence competent to give his son a firm foundation upon which to build the thorough education which his published works show that he possessed. His education was of a practical and useful character; he was an able and accurate land surveyor, a topographer, geographer, and archaeologist. He was conscientious and painstaking in all he undertook to perform. He was not self-opinionated to an extent that detracted from the value of his work. He endeavored to find the facts, rather than to find seeming arguments in support of a pre-conceived opinion of his own. At the age of seventeen years he was a school teacher, after having passed a thorough examination.

On the 16th of October, 1862, Mr. Brower, then in his nineteenth year, enlisted in Company D of the First Regiment of Mounted Rangers, Minnesota Volunteers, a regiment authorized by

the war department, to assist in quelling the Sioux outbreak of that year. In that service he participated with his company in the battles of Big Mound, July 24, 1863; Dead Buffalo lake, July 26; Stony lake, July 28; and Apple creek (the Battle of the Missouri), July 29. He was mustered out of the service with his company, November 4, 1863.

Soon after his muster out of the army, he went to St. Louis, Mo., and entered government service as a civilian, and was sent to Duval's Bluff, Arkansas, to work on some government buildings being erected at that place.

While working at Duval's Bluff, he enlisted in the United States navy as a seaman, and was assigned to the ironclad steamer "Exchange," which was one of the "Mosquito Fleet," so called. This steamer was in service on White river and the lower Mississippi, until August, 1865, when it went out of commission, and the force was discharged. Upon his discharge from the navy, he returned to his home in Minnesota.

In 1867, he was married to Armina E. Shava. (She died December 22, 1904.) They left two children: Ripley B., Minnesota state senator, and Miss Josephine V., of the faculty of the State Normal School at Saint Cloud, Minnesota.

The estimation in which Mr. Brower was held by his fellow citizens is evidenced by the responsible public positions held by him. His first official position was that of auditor of Todd county, at its organization, January 1, 1867, when he was not quite twenty-three years old: This office he held for several years. In 1872 he was elected a representative in the Minnesota legislature from the 41st district, composed of the following counties: Otter Tail, Wilkin, Wadena, Todd, Beltrami, Polk, Clay, Becker, Traverse, and Pembina,—a very large district. He was also register of the United States land office, at Saint Cloud, for several years, and later was receiver of the same. He moved his family to Saint Cloud in 1873, and that city has been the home of the family since then.

In 1881, an adventurer, in search of material upon which to construct a work of fiction, hired a small party of men and proceeded to Lake Itasca, and after spending a few hours of daylight, left. In 1887 his book was published. In it he claimed to have

discovered Elk lake, and that it was the source of the Mississippi river. His book was so full of absurdities and plagiarisms that the Minnesota Historical Society took notice of it, and appointed a committee to investigate the man's claim of discovery. The committee, after thoroughly investigating said claim, made its report to the society repudiating the man and his pretended discoveries. The report was adopted February 8, 1887.

In October, 1888, Mr. Brower, with two other gentlemen, made a trip to Lake Itasca for the purpose of seeing for themselves how much ground there was for the claim of original discovery. Early in 1889, Mr. Brower asked the Minnesota Historical Society for authority to definitely examine and survey the source of the Mississippi river. His request was granted, and a commission, with the seal of the Society attached, was given to him. The resolution authorizing the issuance of the commission, expressly stipulated that the society assumed no financial obligation in the matter, and that he was to make his report to the society; he wanting simply some. official authority to give the result of his survey an official recognititon.. Volume VII of the society's Collections is his report. It contains elaborate hydrographical and topographical maps and charts, besides numerous photographic half-tones; and proves, conclusively, the falsity of the adventurer's claim to anything.

Mr. Brower's exhaustive report on the sources of the Missis sippi river made it evident that the Itasca basin would make an ideal state park; and also that, unless some legal steps were soon taken to put an end to the lumbering operations about the source of the river, the volume of water would inevitably soon be ruinously decreased. By his earnest work, cordially endorsed by the Minnesota Historical Society and a few influential friends of the proposition, the legislature, by legal enactment, created the Itasca State Park. For this happy result, Mr. Jacob V. Brower is entitled to most of the credit. Without his personal and persistent hard work, it would not have been accomplished. Very properly he was appointed its first commissioner.

About 1860, Mr. Brower became interested in archæology, and as opportunity offered, he collected specimens, especially implements and utensils made and used by the prehistoric races of people who once inhabited this continent in large numbers, and also