Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-09-17
GEN. CALLS In ST. PAUL.
INTERVIEWED BY A PIONEER PRESS
REPORTER
Herald Press Printed The First Pioneer
War Memories.

war HAeHhOFhess
The press was little hand affair
II often looked it over on the boat
coming up-and your first paper that
it printed. the Minnesota Pioneer, had
only four pages about as big as this
yes, two feet maybe, by twenty inch
es. Well, Well. can hardly believe
it. To think of that little sheet that
we used to say had 'all the news.
alongside of the big Pioneer Press. "a
pages, covered with splendid illustra-
tions. that you got out this morning.
| stopped in front of your immense
building this morning, and with a
Pioneer Press in my hand tried to
realize how helped Jim Goodhue un-
load from the boat at the foot of jack
SON street, nearly fifty years ago, the
wretched little press that printed the
first Pioneer. l wanted to climb down
into the basement and look at your
great perfecting press, but I'm so
lame from my wounds nov that
hated to attempt the Stairs
The speaker who had these inter-
esting local recollections, now become
so rare and soon to become impossible.
was visitor at the encampment.
Gen John B. Calls of Wisconsin. aged
sixty-eight, one of the heroes of the
Iron Brigade, late brigadier general of
volunteers and brevet major OF the
regular army, member of congress,
and early settler of st. Paul.
Tall, broad shouldered. clad in
black. with slender, forid face, thick
gray hair, blue eyes under gray brows
and aquiline nose. short gray mus
| tache, determined chin, short side
whiskers, standing collar. faring out
and encircled with black silk tie like
an old-fashioned stock-Gen. Calls.
true to his nativity, appears a South
ern gentleman of the old sehooln and
a soldier withal
Asked to relate some facts of his
life the general continuing the con-
versation said:
where was | born? In Fayette-
vile. n. c., in 1928. When a boy
we removed to Lancaster. in South
western Wisconsin. and when | was
twenty-one | there met James M.
Goodhue, who was publishing the
Grant County HERALD. He was 60
ing to St. Paul ana concluded tc
/ Join him. We took the little old
press, hauled it twelve miles to the
river and got on the same boat with
DIR. David Day, who was going to an
Indian agency up north as the agency
John Dewey. brother of Gov. Dewey
of Wisconsin. Day was one of the
handsomest young men | ever saw
and very particular about the al pear.
ance of his clothes Gocdhue. should
| Judge. was about thirty three year,
old. His paper had been running il
Lancaster for several years. Lancaster
was much bigger place than St. Pau
then. Now it has 1000 inhabitants.
But Goo dhue was always telling how
ST. Paul was sure to grow. When we
arrived, in the fall of AS, there was
only one house in town for strangers.
That was the Merchants hotel kept on
the present site by Landlord Bass. II
was two-story cheap affair of rough
slabs. Louis Robert had trading
post at the bank of the river. Above
on Bench street. was little log Cath
Ollie church. ID. l.. Fuller & Co. had
| a hardware store near the Merchants.
and DR.. Edward Neil, the only Prot
estant minister. had a church some
where near Seven Corners. Soon af-
terward the American house was
built by Judge Aaron Goodrich and
others at Seven Corners and kept By a
man named Parker. Yes. and OPP
posite near the American house was
another store run by James Elicit.
Commodore Kittson was trader here
then with the Ind ans, while Gen. III.
H. Sibley was ais an Indian trader
located down at Mendoza. Henry NJ.
Rice was prominent fur trader, be-
ing the secretary of the American Fur
Company. He was afterward sue
ceeded By pr. Borup. Indians were
,hick about here then. There was a
pig camp Of Sioux over below Mendo-
ia and the chief Was Little Crow and
the interpreter Paul Beaulieu. half