Anson A. Armstrong attended Middleton College in Vermont from 1855 to 1857, but did not graduate. It appears that he accompanied his parents, Spencer and Clarinda and siblings on their journey westward to Minnesota but returned to Shoreham on at least one or two occasions. The following writeup states that he was a teacher at the Newton Academy in Shoreham in 1860, yet the 1860 census shows the 24-year old residing with his parents at Pilot Mound, Minnesota on August 13th of that year. It is probable that he returned to Shoreham for the beginning of the 1860 fall term and that he was there when he married in March 1861. The following is a narrative summary of this promising young family whose lives were cut so tragically short: Both Anson and his wife Marion were teachers at the Newton Academy in Shoreham, VT in 1860, where his brother-in-law (sister Ellen's husband), professor Edwin Thompson, was principal at the time. Previously, Anson had gone with his parents from Vermont to reside in Minnesota. In 1857, he had taken a homestead claim in that state, making good on it and teaching school there in weather frigidissimus as he stated in his interesting diary. Thither the young couple repaired and their children were born in Pilot Mound, Minnesota. In 1867, Marion Towner Armstrong and the baby, Pauline were stricken with typhoid fever, dying within 16 days of each other. Anson, the husband and father died 11 days later of a broken heart, it is claimed. The story of this young couple was one of rare devotion, a romance unusual for a scion of an austere, undemonstrative family. Author's Note: I originally thought that the author of the above summary was Karen Townsend, the ex-wife of Earl William Gardner and the mother of Bill Gardner. I subsequently learned from Bill that his mother received the above information some 30 or so years ago from a mysterious Armstrong descendant whose name she does not recall. Nor does she remember where this relative lived, but she recalls that this woman had a great deal of geneological information about the Armstrong lineage. The woman was very protective of her material and would not allow Karen to go through it on her own. What she did manage to copy was only accomplished under the visitor's watchful eye. I can only assume that this person must have been a descendant of one of Spencer Armstrong's other children. She never again had further contact with this individual. [DWA - 2 July 1996] Anson A. Armstrong was the fourth of ten children born to Spencer and Clarinda Armstrong.