The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-13
TELLS OF THE PRESS
IN PIONEER DAYS

Continued From Second Page.
to three times their natural size, and
nearly every step they made was stained
with blood. The depresst1Es OF the trail
were everywhere drifted full, and where
we could not get around them, they had
to be shoveled through. The extreme Sc
verify of the winter and spring made re-
lief impossible until May IL. In the mean
time nine of our ten oxen had starved to
death, there being nothing a"a:iable Tor
them after the first week of February but
elm browse. Before the close Of February,
our own supplies mad become so exhausted
that we had to eat the attenuated hams of
our starved to death cattle. From April
IS until May IL, a little Englishman we
called Billy and 1 held down town site
opposite Graham's Point, near where
Georgetown now is. We found patches OF
woods along the river down there, where
We shot squirrels, prairie chickens and
rabbits now and then, and when that sup,
ply failed u.s. we alternated with Boiled
cat fish and tea,- without salt or other
condiments. o.
Returns to Newspaper Work
I returned to ST Anthony in June and
went back to newspaper editing thor
oughly cured of my town site fever, and,
though more than forty-siX years have
passed, 1 have not seen rod OF that
country since. The quarter share of lots
coming to me in the three town sites we
plated that winter, went for taxes many
years ago, and all now are farms.
In Minnesota to show the almost lunatfc
wildness here in the fifties. The rush for
the new lands and business of the North
west quite equaled the stampede to the
gold fields of California in 1849. Sixteen
or eighteen steamboats, often lay at the st.
Paul landings at one, time, discharging
passengers and freight May T. 1857,
twenty -four steamboats, were here One
boat, the War Eagle, brought up S14 peo-
pie on a single trip.
Of course the newspaper business
doomed in those times, with everything
else. Nine new weekly newspapers were
added in 1855 to the fourteen already es-
tablished in Minnesota. In 1856 seventeen
more came. To these were added twenty
eight more in 1857 One daily, the Falls
Evening News, was also started. Eighteen
hundred and fifty-seven began, therefore,
with total of forty weelzlies and five
dailies, and closed with sixty eight week
lies and six dailies. OF course. not nearly
all of these were living at the close of
1857. But think of this thin newspaper
spread over the then SparSely populated
territory of Minnesota. Looking back over
the disasters that followed the bursting of
this great mid-ffty boom, l am reminded
of the story of the Irish bod carrier who
fell off the roof of house. Said he: II
the divil was to pay when sthruck.
Some of the Early Journals.
But let US go back to early journalism.
The forty-first weekly newspaper eStab-
lished in Minnesota was the Lake City
The Pioneer and Democrat of January
Is, 1857, says: THE first number of the
Lake City Tribune, published and edited
come" The St. Paul Advertiser of jan
nary IL also announces the arrival of the
first number. The Advertiser quotes it as
cation was Lake City, Wabasha county,
and 1t probably was the first newspaper
published there. From G. M. Dwelle, son
OF one of the proprietorS of the paper, /
learn that he has number one of volume
one of the Tribune. and that it is dated
January 3. 1857; 1t is treasured as an
paper, was A. A. Norwood. Mr.. Dwelle
says he also has copy of the date of
sept: IL, 1855, where the name of D. G.
Story and A. A. Norwood appear as edi-
tors, and copy dated May s. 1860, in
which the name of Elijah Porter appears
as editor and publisher. Only three copies
editorial changes in three years. This is
al have beer, able to find Of the Lake
City Tribune. How soon we are forgot
when We are dead"
Minnesota Advertiser.
The forty-second newspaper, in regular
order, was the Minnesota Advertiser
George F, Brott, one of the proprietors of
Bois Des Sioux City and other towns sur
veyed on our expedition to the Red River
of the North in 1857 and one of the chief
promoters of st. Cloud, Stearns county, in
It's early days, and of many other town site
advertiser. 1t was the first newspaper
started In st. Cloud. Its editor was my
on Irlend, Henry w. CowleS. a talented
young attorney, now deceased. who came
from one of the Southern states and To-
Gated first at st. Anthony and afterwards
a at St. Cloud e: w. West was its pub
Usher. 1t was Independent in politics
AS the first number of the paper in the
Historical society is number seven of VOL
ume one, dated Feb 26, 1857, number one
in regular course would be dated Jan. Is
Inc history of StearnS county, however
claims that the paper began Jan. l. 1857
and that James Mowatt was the publisher
Ia h9 1.afir hnfo IT, Or
1887, as that issue has the name of West
at the head of its columns. AS MoWatt
was a good practical printer it is prob
able that really he was foreman Of the
paper Cowles soon resigned and was sue
ceeded by James G. Shepley, another at
torney. In the fall of 1857 Brott discon
tinued the Advertiser. 1t was run chiefly
as town site promoter
Brott was about the best sample of the
produced. His town assets were scat
tered promiscuously over Northern Min
nesota 1t used to be said that no mat
ter where Brott decided to plant a town.
all he had to do was to step out into the
surrounding hazel brush to find tools to do
1t with. Debts troubled him no more than
worry him? He always had town lots to
pay them with, until the crash of 1857
crippled him, when he drifted south, trad
ing IA as ne went After the war, he settled
IN washington, and few months ago he
died. Hustling, jovial, joking, impuisive
George F. Brott. Like Henry McKenty.
nc was d pTOQucC OF the Wild, free pioneer
Northwest The last of such men went
with the buffalo and the mould in which
they We're cast was long since broken and
swept away by the advancing tide of i'm
migration.
"Hyrorum Rapids"
Most of the newspapers of territorial
times In Minnesota were started to help
Sell lots In the young towns where thev
were located. They seldom had enough
SUBSCRIPTION and advertising backing to
pay their running expenses. and the liv-
1ngs or their editors. They were import
ant helpers, however, in getting new towns
on their feet, and when one editor starved
out or stepped higher politically, profess
slonally or in business ways some new
pr1ehess lawyer, or other bright, monevless
young man was willing to take his place
and try for a lift in turn So ii came
that early Journalistic duties were per
formed mainly by lot Of peripatetic ed
1tors, many of them forceful brilliant fell
lows, who afterwards made high marks in
business and the professions Some of the
advertisements, circulars and editorials
that exploited towns, used adiectives
freely and misused truth shamefi1IIv
burlesque of the hifalutin descrintions
usually employed was printed in the Cedar
rails Banner and republished in the 81
Paul Advertiser in 1857 1t purported ~
give q start to town called Gvroruno
Rapids. "Hyrorium," 1t said dis Situated
In lovely dell, on all sides of which pic