The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-20

territory. Nearly every issue Of his pa
per had crisp editorials on the advantages
possessed by Minnesota. He published
| two stories of the harvest of 1854 that are
| worth preserving. Major Furber of Cot
| tage Grove threshed 1853 bushels of wheat
raised on twenty-five acres Of sod plow-
| ing, and had a market on his farm at $1.30
bushel. This first crop from wild land
paid him s45 an acre. T. M. Fullerton
planted a squash seed that year which
grew vine until Oct. 4th, before the
| frost killed it. It bore six squashes. They
weighed 226 pounds. The largest branch
Of the vine was thirty nine feet and all
| the branches aggregated 762 feet in
| length. The Union went under some time
in 1856. The exact date have rot been
able to And
The winona Argus.
The fourteenth newspaper started in tho
state and the eighteenth, if we include
the four st. Paul dailies. was the Winona
lArgus. The first number of the Argus
was printed Dec. II, 1854. 1t was a four
page six-column sheet published by Ash
| ley Jones G. Co., and edited by Ashley
| Jones and Sam Whiting. It was demo-
cratic in politics. June 4, 1857, Whiting
retired and H. B. Cozzens took his place.
July I'd, Cozzens G Waldo took the lead,
! with Cozzens editor. Sept. Sd, 1857, Is
the last of it in the Historical Society.
Probably it died about that time.
Captain Sam Whiting. ;
! Captain Sam Whiting was a restless
| erratic character. He was in the Arctic
expedition in search Of DR.. Kane, also a
captain of one Of the famous passenger
steamers between New York and Liver
pool. In 1854 he became one Of the first
editors of the Winona Argus. He was
the first editor of the Winona Repub-
lican in 1855 and in 1858 was one OF the
editors Of the Times, also published at
Winona. Afterwards he was captain OF
the Steamer Marion, which was seized
by the southern Confederacy before Fort
Sumter was captured. Steaming out or
Charlestown, he dipped his colors to the
Stars and Stripes when opposite Fort
Sumter. The Charlestown authorities
took him to task for it. Sam replied, L
was born under the stars and stripes, have
always sailed under them and by the
blessing Of God 1 will die under them. y
Dying under them proved true, but in
way that Captain Sam little thought at
that time. When he became too old for
further wandering, he entered the Sailors
Snug Harbor at New Brighton and July
80, 1882 he was found dead in bed, having
committed suicide by cutting his throat
from to ear.
1 Conclusion.
I have given in this paper the names OF
fourteen weekly and four daily papers,
all I have been able to find that were
started in Minnesota prior to 1855. Or
these the Pioneer, Chronicle and Register,
three in number, appeared In 1919 me
Dakota Friend and Minnesota Democrats
appeared in 1850, the Watab Reveille, The
St. Anthony Express and Minnesotian
came in 1851, and the Northwestern
Democrat in 1853, no paper having been
started in 1852. In 1854 the Republican
of St. Anthony; the st. Paul Times, st.
Paul Advertiser st. Croix Union, and Wi
mona Argus, and the four dailies OF the
Pioneer. the Minnesotian, the Democrat
and the Times appeared, being a total in
1854 alone Of nine papers counting the
dailies. H.
Only the Pioneer Press. begun as the
Minnesota Pioneer, survives. Neither the
parties nor population of those times
called for any such lavish waste of edi-
torial talent. The struggle OF rival candi-
dates for office, the boom building of
new territory and the hustle of bright men
to get ahead were the cause OF 1t. ALI the
fierce intensities OF personal journalism
of course resulted. In other border towns
of those early days, some of our editors
would have been shot too full of holes for
decent interment. Here, however, save
the attack of Cooper on Goodhue, and
Dodd on Owens, there were no brutal
personal ARRAYS. There was reason for
this. Our editors a rule, were we'll
educated, some of them college graduates.
I Such men are not OF the wild beast type.
of which criminals are made. The highest
and best of life, set in rough environ
, ment, the gathering of clans around their
, chieftains, the devotion of men to their
, leaders, the bond that holds friend to
, friend and beyond all the desire to make
this the noble state it has since become.
, now shine like links Of gold through tho
!, | Of fftl6S,
The editors Of those years who are yet
alive are Wheelock, the old time but still
virile chief editor Of the Pioneer Presas
whose keen lash has often proved him the
worthy successor Of Goodhue; Goodrich,
!, who could barb an editorial arrow. and
send it home fatally and yet so clean
shafted that the wound in his adversary
would not bleed; Yale-cultured Atwater,
able alike in the editorial chair and forum
the pyrotechnc Charles G. Ames, to whom
politics meant principle; and the patriotic
! Major Hotchkiss supporting Fremont foA
: the presidency and placating his sfdenoA
cratic republican" conscience by flying
r Thoroughly Jeffersonian'' at his mast
head.
Those who have passed over the Great
Divide are Goodhue, the fearless hatex
and exposer of shams; Joseph r. Browns
, his successors. born with wildness in his
blood but SO superbly gifted that whethet
, in wigwam or legislative hall he was ala
ways the leader of mon. His political
3 opponents called him by no harsher term
than 'Joe the Juggler," while he way
t only plain, familiar ''Joe Brown to those
, who knew him best Many a man still
< living remembers the hearty grasp OF
hand and fervent God bless you," with
3 which he greeted those who met and
parted with him.
I'll Then there was the rollicking- gated,
3 jovial, John P. Owens. the trough and
ready" of the editorial fraternity of the
ffties, and his associate. the sedate and
self-balanced Mclean, and Colonel D. A,
Robertson. the hero OF many rough and
! tumble political struggle. There were
3 also David Olmstead, the talented first
mayor Of St. Paul, quiet, determined. and
? holding his friends with hooks Of steel !:
T. M. Newson, the natty, good natured
editor of the Times and author of PEN
Pictures of "O1d Timers and the cratic
5 Sam Whiting, gifted but closing his life
. so sadly by suicide.
Y None of these early editors became rioh
5 from journalistic gains. They found the
' country new, privations many, difficulties
everywhere hedging them about, and yet
no land in Its pioneer days was ever
blessed with a more loyal OF royal set 81
In mao fhA hea6 of ia nAwsDaners