industry to carry them to a successful completion. He was not disheartened by unforeseen obstacles and discouragements, but, with a never failing confidence in the future, he tenaciously adhered to his course and ultimately won success. His mind was remarkably clear and logical, and his judgment sound. No man was more often applied to for advice by his friends and neighbors; and many citizens of St. Paul will bear testimony to the fact that his advice, freely given, was judicious and beneficial to those seeking it. Trained under stern religious influences, tinctured with the Puritan doctrines, he had however a broad and liberal mind, which neither favored nor supported fanaticism or bigotry. Though himself not a church member, he actively and liberally supported the Baptist Church, of which his second wife and their children were members. Like all positive men, he had strong prejudices founded upon his honest and sincere convictions. Yet he never allowed his prejudices to influence his reason, and no man was more open to conviction when in error. He was pre-eminently a man of affairs, and during his long life there were found no periods of idleness. Of a most sociable character, he was entirely free from personal vices, and was temperate in all his habits.

Mr. Drake was a very domestic man. He found his greatest happiness in his family circle, where perfect harmony prevailed, and where a devoted wife and loving children joined in giving to him what he most prized, a happy home.

For a year and a half prior to his death he was in failing health; and in November, 1891, with his wife and her sister, Miss McClurg (who had long been a devoted member of his family), he went to California in the hope that the change of climate might prove beneficial. In February he rapidly lost strength, and died peacefully on the 14th, his wife and her sister being at his bedside. The remains were brought to St. Paul and buried in the family lot in Oakland cemetery. The extent of the loss to the city, and the shock and grief in the community caused by his death, may be gathered from the extended notices in the press.

WILLIAM H. LIGHTNER.

HENRY MOWER RICE.

Death has taken from our membership since the last meeting* an honored associate, one of the most illustrious men in the history of Minnesota. Henry Mower Rice died at San Antonio, Texas, where he was sojourning for his health, January 15th, 1894, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

Mr. Rice was named in the act of October 20th, 1849, incorporating the Minnesota Historical Society, and he was its president three terms, for the years 1864 to 1866. He has been very helpful in upbuilding the Society during all its history.

For more than half a century Mr. Rice had been identified in active business enterprises, and in the most important public functions, in the Northwest and the Territory and State of Minnesota. He was the delegate of the Territory in Congress four years, 1853 to 1857, and the United States senator from the admission of the state in 1858 for five years. He was prominently connected with the most important treaties with the Indians by which their rights to the lands of Minnesota were extinguished. In Congress he secured the liberal land grants in aid of our magnificent system of railroads, by which they were secured almost in advance of settlements. No man in our history did more to lay broad the foundations of the state. His name will be cherished in all time as that of a benefactor of the millions who are to possess and enjoy this fair land as their heritage.

A man of remarkable forecast of mind, of great refinement and courtliness of manners, of fine bodily presence, he was a natural leader of men; yet he was modest and retiring. He sought little for himself. His ambition was in connection with the advancement of public interests and the prosperity and welfare of his fellow men. During the great struggle for na

This obituary sketch was read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, February 12, 1894.

tional life his loyalty to the Union, and his labors as a member of the military and other important committees of the United States government, were most honorable and most useful.

The Minnesota Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, soon after its organization, November 4th, 1885, honored itself and sought to honor him by electing him one of the first of the limited number who, by the constitution of the Order, may be members from civil life. In the language of the constitution of the Order, he was chosen from those who "in civil life during the Rebellion were especially distinguished for conspicuous and consistent loyalty to the national government, and who were active and eminent in maintaining the su-' premacy of the same." No language could more fittingly characterize Mr. Rice.

Henry Mower Rice was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, November 29th, 1817. He was of honorable ancestry, descended from Edmund Rice, who came from Bankhamstead, Hertfordshire, England, and settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1638 or 1639. Through a maternal ancestor he was descended from the family which produced Warren Hastings. His father died when he was but twelve years of age, the oldest of ten children.

At the age of eighteen he came west to Detroit, Mich., with the family of General Justus Burdick, a friend of his father, with whom young Rice had made his home after his father's death. In 1836, in his nineteenth year, he was engaged in the surveys for the government canal at Sault Ste. Marie, to make navigable the entrance to lake Superior. The following year he went with General Burdick's family to Kalamazoo, Mich., where he was engaged in trade in that new settlement for two years. In 1839 his adventurous spirit led him to go farther west. Two hundred miles of the journey through the wilder ness he made on foot, suffering much hardship. In his travels he reached St. Louis, where Kenneth McKenzie, connected with Indian trade and the sutler's store at Fort Snelling, engaged him to take care of McKenzie's business there. Mr. Rice wrote to his boyhood friend, Roswell P. Russell, then at Kalamazoo, to join him. After a journey of much hardship, having their Mackinaw boat frozen in at La Crosse, they reached Fort Snelling November 5th, 1839.