United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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ARMSTRONG, Moses Kimball

1832–1906

Office

Delegate

State/Territory

Dakota Territory

Party

Democrat

Congress(es)

42nd (1871–1873), 43rd (1873–1875)

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Biography

ARMSTRONG, Moses Kimball, a Delegate from the Territory of Dakota; born in Milan, Erie County, Ohio, September 19, 1832; attended Huron Institute and Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio; moved to the Territory of Minnesota in 1856; elected surveyor of Mower County, and assigned to survey the United States lands in 1858; moved to Yankton, then a small Indian village, in Dakota Territory, when Minnesota Territory was admitted as a State; was a member of the first Territorial house of representatives in 1861; reelected in 1862 and 1863, serving as speaker in 1863; edited the Dakota Union in 1864; appointed clerk of the supreme court in 1865; elected to the Territorial council in 1866 and in 1867 was chosen president; acted as secretary of the Indian peace commission in 1867; established the great meridian and standard lines for United States surveys in southern Dakota and in the northern Red River Valley; again elected to the Territorial council, in 1869; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses (March 4, 1871-March 3, 1875); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1874 to the Forty-fourth Congress; moved to St. James, Watonwan County, Minn., and engaged in banking and in the real estate business; died in Albert Lea, Minn., on January 11, 1906; interment in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minn.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Minnesota Historical Society

St. Paul, MN
Papers: 1856-1872. 1 box, including 4 volumes. Correspondence, diaries, and scrapbooks. Includes diaries of an oxen trip from Minnesota to Dakota and journeys with U.S. Indian Commission. Papers as a Delegate to Congress and as a surveyor.

The Newberry Library
Special Collections

Chicago, IL
Papers: Secretary's book: Dakota Historical Society, [Yankton, Dakota Territory], 1862-1871, 1 volume. A small volume kept by Moses Kimball Armstrong in which he recorded incorporation acts, constitutions, proceedings, annual reports, and other business of the Historical Society of Dakota and its precursors, 1862-1871. The volume contains newspaper clippings from the Dakotian and Dakota Union regarding Society affairs and texts of lectures by Armstrong on the early history of Dakota and Yankton County and by Prof. F.V. Hayden on the geology of the Black Hills region (synopsis only). Also includes a membership list and a transcription of U.S. Dept. of Interior correspondence regarding the shipment of state papers.

University of Michigan
Bentley Historical Library

Ann Arbor, MI
Papers: In the George D. Hill papers, 1843-1866 and 1870-1876, 2 linear feet and 1 volume. Correspondents include Moses K. Armstrong.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Armstrong, Moses K. Centennial Address on Dakota Territory, Giving Its History, Growth, Population, and Resources. Delivered at the U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, on September 28, 1876. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Company, 1876.

------. The early empire builders of the great West. Compiled and enlarged from the author's Early history of Dakota Territory in 1866. St. Paul, Minn.: E.W. Porter, 1901. Reprint, Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, [1972].

------. History and Resources of Dakota, Montana, and Idaho. Yankton, Dakota Territory: George W. Kingsbury, printer, 1866.

Fleetwood, Mary. "Moses K. Armstrong." North Dakota History 28 (Winter 1961): 13-22.

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