An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The
Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893, pages 380-381
	
	JAMES M. ARMSTRONG, who is now nearing the close of his second term as Clerk
of Spokane county, Washington, has for a number of years been in public service,
and has ever faithfully and conscientiously discharged the duties intrusted to
him.
	Mr. Armstrong is a son of David H. and Letitia (Melville) Armstrong, and was
born in Pennsylvania in 1844. In 1856 he went to Iowa, and in that State
received a high-school education. At the age of seventeen he entered the army as
a member of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry; was in the campaigns of the West under
Grant and Sherman. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek he lost a leg. This was
July 21, 1864. In July of the following year he was honorably discharged and
went to Chicago, where he remained two years. In 1867 he went to Washington,
entered Columbia Law College in 1868, and graduated there in 1871.
	In July, 1872, Mr. Armstrong was appointed first-class clerk in the General
Land Office, where his marked ability and close attention to business soon won
him promotion. He passed through the various grades until he was Chief of the
Private Land Claim Department, and acted as Commissioner of the General Land
Office in 1878--'79 and the early part of 1880. In April, 1880, he was appointed
Register of the United States Land Office at Colfax, Washington, and remained in
charge of the same until August, 1885. Under instructions from the President in
September, 1883, he -- with his colleague, John L. Wilson, receiver -- moved the
office from Colfax to Spokane. In September of the following year he was
nominated by the Republican Convention, held at Seattle, as a delegate to
Congress. On account, however, of a disaffection in the party in. regard to
railroad lands and grants, he was defeated by a very small vote. In August,
1885, he was suspended from the land office by President Cleveland on account of
partisanship, he being the first Federal officer in the State to be sacrificed
on political grounds. He practiced before the United States Land Office from
1884 to 1889, and October 1, 1889, was elected County Clerk of Spokane county,
and, as stated in the beginning of this sketch, is nearing the close of his
second term. At the last Republican convention he was nominated by acclamation
for the office of County Auditor.
	
Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in September 2003 by Jeffrey L. Elmer
	
	
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