In 1961 one of Irv Sorenson’s “Hi-Lites and Shadows” illustrated features had as its main theme the community of Armstrong.

Unlike some of the county’s villages of the past, Armstrong is a still viable part of Freeborn County life. At the present time this community, located on County Road 14 about five miles west of Albert Lea in Section 4 of Pickerel Lake Township, has eight residential units. One brick building served as a bank until the 1940s. A second brick building was once a general store. On the north side of Armstrong and across the Iowa Chicago and Eastern railroad tracks is a wooden building which was once a creamery. And dominating the skyline and present life of this community are the steel elevators and buildings of Pestorious Inc.

Prior to the early 1950s the District 124 school was located to the south of the creamery. This school ceased operations when the district decided to become a part of the Albert Lea system.

As Sorenson explained, Armstrong was created in 1877 at a location between Albert Lea and Alden and was named for a politician and banker. However, Sorenson didn’t clearly identify this member of a then prominent city family. His full name was Thomas Henry Armstrong.

Armstrong was born in Milan, Ohio, during 1829. He graduated from Western Reserve College in 1854, taught school for a year, and then became a lawyer.

In 1855, he went to La Crosse, Wis., and opened a law office. The following year Armstrong moved to the community of High Forest, located near the present site of the Rochester Airport, to be a lawyer and to run for political office.

He served as a representative from Olmsted County for two terms. During the second term (1864-65) he served as Speaker of the House in the Minnesota Legislature. He was elected as Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor and served in the state’s second highest office from 1866 to 1870. Then Armstrong dropped out of political life for a few years.

In 1874, Armstrong moved to Albert Lea and started the Freeborn County Bank. This was a private bank and typical of that era for small town financial institutions which preceded the state and federal regulated businesses.

Armstrong again became involved in political life. He served on the new city council as one of the original members and was later elected to serve as Freeborn County’s state senator for two terms.

He also became a grain merchant, specializing in wheat which was then a major crop in the area. He owed an elevator located next to the railroad tracks in Albert Lea. In 1878, Armstrong had a second elevator constructed next to a side track about five miles west of Albert Lea on what was then the Southern Minnesota Railroad. Jason T. Goward built a store near this elevator and that was the real start of the community of Armstrong. A depot was built in 1879, and a post office was established in 1882 to give this new community official status.

Thomas Henry Armstrong died at his home in Albert Lea on Dec. 29, 1891.