Pendergast, William Wirt, 1833-1903

William Wirt Pendergast was born in New England in 1833. After attending Bowdoin College in Maine, he joined with the Hutchinson brothers to plat a town in Minnesota Territory by the same name. Pendergast returned to Massachusetts sometime before the end of the Civil War where he married Abigail Cogswell. The couple had a son, Edward, in 1864 and two years later returned to Hutchinson, Minnesota where William began a career in education. William eventually became the first principal of the University of Minnesota's two year agriculture school and finished his career as the state Superintendent of Schools. He died in 1903.

From the guide to the William Wirt Pendergast Diary, 1895 June 17-1895 June 21, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)

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