Orville Spencer Armstrong

I am writing of my maternal grandfather, Orville Spencer Armstrong who I never saw. As a young boy he started a diary, and kept a weekly entry until 12 days before he died. From reading I have formed a very favorable impression of him. From reading I have formed a very favorable impression of him. His early writing recorded family events - quite a happy boyhood, content on the stony Vermont farm - one of a large family, very eager to learn. After completing 8 grades - of winter session only - his last teacher spoke to his parents about his continuing school which he seemed eager to do but money was scarce and he had to give up that dream. He taught school for several winter terms boarding a week with each family that sent a child to school. He married a school mate and close neighbor - Lucia Barnum, a practical girl who balanced his more impractical disposition well.

He liked to express himself on paper; she put her dreams into beautiful needlework and perfection in housekeeping. They moved West the year after their marriage - stopping several months in Freeport, IL but the climate was unfavorable to his health so they continued west to Chatfield (MN), where the chosen valley was in embryo state. He helped run a store there and in 1856 my mother Winnieshiek Alice was born to the young couple.

They had lived at the Medary House, an enterprising hotel until he had erected a small house on Main Street consisting of two large rooms, one on the first floor and one on the second - connected by a ladder. Another young couple by the name of Burnap moved into the loft room. They moved in while the plaster was still wet - a terrible storm and intense cold wave came on that night the plaster froze dry and never thawed out. The next day Lucia moved into the lower apartment.

The winter continued severe. They spread the homespun blue counterpane (a quilt or bedcover) woven from the marino sheep wool raised on the Vermont Barnum farm, spun, dyed and woven by Lucia's mother Mary. On the floor they sat in two chairs in front of the wood coolstove. Between them they stretched the walnut board used to roll out the biscuits as their first table. For 90 days the eves on the south side of the house never dripped. A crust formed on the snow that made travel most difficult.

He attended to his duties at the store, kept a huge supply of wood on hand for the stove and gradually accumulated their furniture - all made by the local cabinet maker, (and) hewn from the walnut logs sawed in the mill on Mill Creek in Chatfield. The hills were covered with virgin timber. The neighbors were close knit by necessity. The first doctors struggled with a small pox epidemic - fears of the disease was so prevalent that they buried the victims after dark. Orville helped in these sad duties.

In March two babies were born in this primitive home, during the same week. A young girl came to attend the mothers. The baby girl of the Burnap's died of pneumonia. My mother had it too but survived.

During these first years in Chatfield my grandfather was associated in business with Milo White in the first store and with Bemis of the Bemis Bay Co. later formed in Mpls.

Letters came and went to the Shoreham home. Spencer and Clarinda decided to move west. They preempted the farm later known as the Ruby Harrison farm at Pilot Mound and when arrangements were complete the whole family migrated west. Anson settled on an 80 adjoining his father's land. He and Marian also taught school in an academy in Chatfield until their untimely deaths.

Henry (Ransom Armstrong - Orville's brother) married Mr. Coffin's daughter (Harriet) and lived up the valley towards Allen Cody. Laura (Clarinda Armstrong - Orville's sister) and Stephen (Souther) were married in Vermont and after Anson's death, they moved onto Anson's farm, living there to raise their large family and Henry's baby girl Eleanor. After his wife died, Ruth went to live with Orville and family and Carrie, age 12 kept house for her father. She developed pneumonia and lost the use of one lung but grew into a gracious lovely person later to become John Chermak's wife. Sarah (Elizabeth Armstrong - Orville's sister) married Birney Cravath. They farmed near Henry's farm. Birney was killed saving the life of a school teacher who boarded with them. She attempted suicide and in working over her, Birney inhaled the poisonous fumes and died while the girl lived. Wallace and Laura (Birney and Sarah's children) were left without a father. Sarah later married Sidney Maynard at Troy and they continued to farm. Caroline was born to them. Uncle Sidney was the one usually asked to say grace at our Thanksgiving reunion. Also John McKeown's (Kate Souther's husband - the son-in-law of Stephen Souther and Laura Clarinda Armstrong) words of thanks to our Heavenly father still remains in my memory.

Talk of a railroad began to fill the papers. Several men were delegated to go to St. Paul (MN) to induce the RR company to route thru Chatfield, but the road was surveyed to run thru Eyota with a branch to be built to Chatfield and Painview. Orville became the first station agent and left Lucia and Winnie (their daughter Winnieshiek - Lois' mother) in Chatfield until a place was built for them.

Written by Lois May Early [21 May 1900 to 11 Feb 1987]

A handwritten note appears at the bottom of the original typewritten sheet which reads as follows:

He was, from his diaries, a thoughtful sensitive man who cherished family ties. He was a prudent, industrious man who loved to plant trees and flowers for the future and was most of all - a good Christian man and neighbor.

Orville S. Armstrong was the oldest of 10 children born to Spencer and Clarinda Armstrong.