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The St. Paul Pioneer-Press, April 11, 1875, p. 4

THE PIONEER-PRESS

Brief History of the Consolidated Newspapers.

The consolidation of THE PIONEER and PRESS marks another era, as well as another stage in the development of Minnesota journalism. This union of the two leading political journals of the State - for more than fourteen years rivals in business, and representing the two great political parties of Minnesota - is a significant historic event and as their combined influence, circulation and business will give the new journal a rank in this respect far higher than any other newspaper in the northwest outside of Chicago, it is not improper to remember in this connection that the splendid endowment of the new concern represents the accumulated fruits of the toils, cares and struggles of many workmen for many years. THE PIONEER, as being the elder, is entitled to the precedence in these brief sketches of the two.

The first number of the THE PIONEER was issued on April 20, 1849, in a small frame building on Third, near the corner of Robert street. This was the birth-day and birth-place of the journal whose daily and weekly issues have since been a complete history of Minnesota, ushered into political existence so nearly simultaneously that a sort of time-brotherhood might be claimed for them.

In sketching the history of THE PIONEER it is appropriate to narrate the circumstances under which it was founded. Minnesota became a Territory by an act approved on March 3, 1849. During the pendancy of the bill before Congress, attention had been greatly attracted to this region through the speeches of Delegate H. H. Sibley and others, and many persons in other states were looking to it as their future home. Among these was James M. Goodhue, a gentleman every way fitted to be the pioneer editor of the new Territory. He was a bold, active, talented and enterprising young lawyer, who had settled in the lead region of Grant county, Wisconsin, and while temporarily in charge of The Wisconsin Herald, at Lancaster, found it a more fit and congenial field for his ability than the law, and soon chose it as his profession. When Minnesota Territory was finally organized, Mr. Goodhue at once purchased a printing press and material, and shipped them by steamer to St. Paul, issuing meantime a prospectus for a paper to be called "The Epistle of St. Paul," but which name he changed (at the advice of some friends who objected to its irreligious tone) before the first issue of his paper to THE MINNESOTA PIONEER. The press on which the first number of THE PIONEER was printed was [the] first one used north of the Missouri and west of the Mississippi.

THE PIONEER under Mr. Goodhue's able and vigorous management met with unexample success from the start. On his death in 1852, the office was purchased by Major Joseph R. Brown, who continued its publication till the spring of [1854], when Earle S. Goodrich, Esq., became its proprietor. On the first of May, of that year, the first number of THE DAILY PIONEER was issued, and ably and energetically conducted.

In the fall of 1855, The Daily Democrat, a paper established as a weekly, in 1850, by Col. D. A. Robertson, was consolidated with THE PIONEER, and for about six years subsequently the paper was called THE PIONEER AND DEMOCRAT, when the latter name was dropped.

In November, 1865, THE PIONEER establishment was sold by Mr. Goodrich to Messrs. Davidson & Hall in whose hands it remained for some months. In August, 1866, it was transferred to Henry I. Carver, Chas. W. Nash, and associates under the name of The Pioneer Printing Company. By this company it was conducted until its purchase, in February, 1873, by Col. F. E. Paulding by whom it was continued until his death when it passed into the hands of his administrators, the brothers Lamberton, to whom in the month of March, 1874, the last publisher of THE PIONEER, Mr. D. Blakely, succeeded.

The ST. PAUL PRESS was established on the first of January, 1861, by William R. Marshall and J. A. Wheelock, but its ancestry is nearly as venerable as that of THE PIONEER as it in fact absorbed and superceded the Minnesotian established in September, 1852. Col. John P. Owens, as a Whig paper and The Times established by T. M. Newson in May, 1851. In March, 1863, the Union established by F. Driscoll was consolidated with THE PRESS, Mr. Driscoll purchasing a half interest in the THE PRESS, then owned by Newton Bradley. About the same time Mr. Wheelock bought out Mr. Marshall's interest and since then these gentlemen have been the sole proprietors except a few small stockholders among the old attaches of the concern. THE PRESS was originally published for a short time in Marshall's stone building, now Merriam's, adjoining the Opera House, but soon found what were then regarded as more commodious quarters in the old brick building adjacent to the bridge where The Minnesotian and Times had built their nests. In November, 1869, THE PRESS moved into its present magnificent building, erected and owned by the proprietors and which, after a few preliminary preparations is to be the abode of THE PIONEER-PRESS - the final product of all the weary labors employed in building up so many rival newspapers at last consolidated into a great establishment. We might mention the names of many worthy men whose midnight toils have notably contributed to the success of these two enterprises, but the list would be too long for our crowded columns if each name were embalmed in the fitting tribute to which each is entitled.