Researching James Armstrong

Armstrong joined the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1809 and served on the sloop-of-war when it was seized by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812. Promoted to commodore and given command of the East India Squadron in 1855, Armstrong served aboard the squadron's flagship, during the Second Opium War. Following the battle of the Pearl Forts, Armstrong's health began to fail and he returned to the United States.

In 1860 Armstrong was given command of the Pensacola Navy Yard. On January 12, 1861, two days after Florida voted to secede from the Union he surrendered the facility to the secessionists.

Armstrong was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. He died in Salem, Massachusetts at the age of 74 and is buried in the Harmony Grove Cemetery.

Armstrong was born in Kingston, Nova Scotia, the son of James Armstrong and Elizabeth Pearce, both Baptists of loyalist descent. He was educated at the Pictou Academy, Acadia College, the Manitoba Medical College, and King's College Hospital in London, UK. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Acadia, and medical certification from the MMC. Armstrong worked as a physician and surgeon, and was also president and director of the Gladstone Telephone and Electric Light Company. He served as district health officer and was a member of the Manitoba Board of Health from 1897 to 1899. In 1897, Armstrong married Mary Campbell.

He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1907 provincial election, defeating Conservative incumbent David Wilson by 61 votes in the constituency of Gladstone. He was re-elected by an increased margin in the 1910 election, and again in the election of 1914.

The Conservative administration of Rodmond Roblin, which had governed Manitoba since 1900, was forced to resign from office in early 1915 as the result of a corruption scandal. Although the Liberals held a minority of seats in the legislature, they were called on by the province's Lieutenant Governor to form a new government. Armstrong was appointed to Premier Norris's first cabinet on May 12, 1915, as Provincial Secretary and Municipal Commissioner. Armstrong was then re-elected by a landslide in the 1915 provincial election, in which the Liberals won 40 seats out of 47. He was retained in his cabinet portfolios after the election.

The Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the 1920 provincial election. Armstrong defeated Farmer candidate Wesley Lobb by 180 votes, and was retained in office after the election. He chose not to run again in 1922.

Armstrong died in Winnipeg at the age of 68 after suffering a stroke.

In 1886, he was given the chairmanship of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Capital and Labor in Canada. It was in a hearing of that commission that Olivier-David Benoît was to make his case about the conditions faced by workers in the boot and shoe industry.

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1879 Birthday Honours.

Armstrong led Middlebury through the national political upheaval of the 1960s. On campus, student life for men and women was fully integrated for the first time. He created the month-long Winter Term which allows students to spend four weeks in January to enroll in one intensive course or pursue independent research or internships. Armstrong is credited with laying the groundwork for Middlebury's emergence as a nationally renowned institution, significantly growing the College's enrollment, endowment and physical plant.

During Armstrong's tenure, the campus saw new styles of architecture reflecting changing national taste, including several controversial buildings. These include the Christian A. Johnson Memorial Building, the Science Center (demolished in 2001), and what has become known as Freeman International Center; all departed from the campus' traditional Georgian Revival style by adopting Brutalist architectural forms and exposed concrete.

Armstrong died on December 16, 2013, aged 94.

Armstrong was born in West Nottingham, Maryland. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), living with the family of college president John Witherspoon. Armstrong graduated in 1773 with future notables such as Henry Lee, Morgan Lewis, and Aaron Ogden. A younger classmate was Aaron Burr.

After graduation, he continued to study theology under Dr. Witherspoon. He was preparing to enter the ministry in New Brunswick in 1776, but the arrival of the British Army in New Jersey disrupted those plans. Armstrong took up a musket and served as a private in the New Jersey militia, but he was soon thereafter ordained a minister and obtained a post as a regimental chaplain in the Continental Army. He was promoted to brigade chaplain of the Second Maryland Brigade in May 1777.

After the war, he served from 1782 to 1783 as pastor at the church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a position that had become vacant following the murder of the Rev. James Caldwell during the war. He was married to Susannah Livingston in August 1782, with the Rev. Witherspoon conducting the ceremony. He was minister of the First Presbyterian Church at Trenton for 30 years, from 1786 until his death.

Revered Armstrong was admitted as an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey in 1789 and served as Secretary of the New Jersey Society from 1790 to 1797. He was also a trustee of the College of New Jersey from 1790 until his death.