THE TORCH.

When Samuel Ludvigh assumed control of the Minnesota Staats Zeitung in May, 1858, he brought with him a German quarterly, called The Torch, which he had edited in Baltimore. He tried to transplant it in St. Paul, but it did not live long enough to get acclimated. As it was not a Minnesota product, I have not counted

it.

FOLKETS RÖST (PEOPLE'S VOICE).

This Democratic Norwegian paper, which I had difficulty in placing in my fifth paper of the Territorial series, because it seemed to have no editor. I have lately traced to Ole Nelson, a bright young Scandinavian. He ran it in the Pioneer Press rooms only a few months. He joined the First Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers, and was killed shortly afterward.

THE NORTHFIELD JOURNAL,

which slipped into the Territorial list without date, was started early in June, 1858. My authority for this is the Mantorville Express, which says under date of June 5th, 1858, "We have just received the first number of the Northfield Journal, Republican in politics, and edited by R. A. Hoag, recently of the Cannon Falls Bulletin." Lowell B. Hoag and his brother, R. A. Hoag, started the Bulletin, as stated in paper four of the Territorial series. The Northfield Journal was afterward begun by them in Northfield. and was run until early in the sixties. It was the seventy-sixth weekly started in Minnesota, and the first after the state was admitted to the Union.

LOWELL B. HOAG.

Lowell B. Hoag, who I think was editor of these papers, was born in Bristol, Vermont, January 19th, 1830. In the fall of 1857 he came to Cannon Falls, and, with his brother, R. A. Hoag, started a weekly paper called the Cannon Falls Bulletin. In April, 1858, he moved the plant to Northfield, and early in June began the Northfield Journal, as has been stated. In 1861 he discontinued the Journal, and the press and material went to Rochester, Minnesota, and was used to run the Rochester Republican. In August, 1862, Hoag enlisted, and three years after came out of the service a captain. In 1870 he moved to his farm near Northfield, and that is the last I know of him.

THE MINNESOTA STATESMAN.

The Minnesota Statesman, of St. Peter, Nicollet county, was the seventy-seventh newspaper established in Minnesota, and the second after Minnesota became a state. Its editor and proprietor was James J. Green, noticed in the fifth paper of this series as the editor of the Traverse des Sioux Reporter. The date of first issue was June 11, 1858, and the last that appears in the Historical Society library was dated December 23, 1859. The history of Nicollet county says, however, that it was not discontinued until some time in 1864.

THE CLEVELAND LEADER.

Thomas M. Perry, who lately died at St. Peter, was publisher of the St. Peter Courier until it was discontinued in July, 1858. Perry then took the plant to Cleveland, Le Sueur county, and established the Leader, which he ran until the Presidential campaign of 1860. He then closed the Leader office and returned to St. Peter, where he ran the Little Giant during the Lincoln-Douglas campaign. The Leader was the seventy-eighth Minnesota weekly newspaper.

THE ST. CLOUD DEMOCRAT.

The seventy-ninth newspaper, and the fourth after Minnesota became a state, was the St. Cloud Democrat. It was started with the material of the St. Cloud Visitor, whose record of disaster was described in the fifth paper of this series.

It was owned and edited by Jane G. Swisshelm, the former editor of the Visitor, and its name illustrates the curious contradictions of her character. A radical of the extreme type, she believed that her paper should be named the Democrat, as an exponent of true democracy, and that the Democratic party, as then constituted, had no right to the name.

The date of its first issue was August 5, 1858. It was a sixcolumn Republican sheet, and she conducted it until it was sold to W. B. Mitchell, June 11, 1863. November 26, 1863, Mitchell enlarged it to seven columns, and September 13, 1866, to nine columns. Its name was then changed to the St. Cloud Journal, and later to the St. Cloud Journal-Press, and under the latter name it is still running.

A STATE DINNER.

Mrs. Swisshelm once entertained Governor Ramsey, Lieutenant Governor Donnelly, and State Treasurer Scheffer, and, the plates running short, she placed squares of paper before her guests as substitutes. In return she was invited to dinner at the residence of Governor Ramsey in St. Paul. On her return to St. Cloud, she writes in the Democrat how pleased she was with the informally democratic way of serving dinner. She says:

Eureka! Dinner without sauce plates. Oh, my, but it was a relief to get our meat and all the vegetables and sauce to be eaten with it on a large plate, to be disposed of at leisure, and not be required to take charge of half a dozen plates, one of fowl and potato, one of oysters, one of cranberry, one of cabbage, one of tomato, etc., etc., and so on, according to the usual having company programme.

MEDFORD VALLEY ARGUS.

The history of Steele county says that the Medford Valley Argus was begun in Medford, Steele county, about the middle of August, 1858. Francis and Sully were the publishers, and the material of the defunct Owatonna Register was used. The paper was a failure and the material was soon shipped back to Owatonna, and with it H. M. Sheetz, the former editor of the Register began the Owatonna Journal. It was Republican in politics. Mr. Sheetz died in Owatonna, October 16, 1859, and it is further stated that his widow tried to run the paper, but after a short time had to give it up. This would place the beginning of the Journal at some date prior to October, 1859, whereas from the copies of the Owatonna Journal in the Historical Society Library that paper dates back only to April, 1863. Sheetz probably started the paper as stated, it was suspended by Mrs. Sheetz, and afterward was started again under a new administration. If the history of Steele county is correct, it is another case of Journal No. 1 and No. 2. The Argus was the eightieth newspaper started in Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL, NO. 1.

Although the Minneapolis Journal, which I have named the eighty-first Minnesota newspaper, was started some time in September, 1858, while I was running the St. Anthony Express, I do not remember its exact date of beginning nor how long it lasted.

Nor can I get this information from history, biography, or any other source. There are no files in the library or elsewhere that I can find. It was Republican in politics. C. H. Pettit was the owner, Minneapolis its place of issue, and John G. Williams, a well known newspaper man of early days, its editor.

THE FREEBORN COUNTY EAGLE,

of which Volume I, No. 1, is in the Historical Library, was published in Albert Lea, Freeborn county, and was started September 18, 1858. It was run with the material of the Southern Minnesota Star, which started in July, 1857, ran about eight months, and died from lack of support. The material of the Star lay idle a few months and was then sold under foreclosure by George S. Ruble, and went to Alfred P. Swineford, one of the former proprietors of the Star. Swineford then started the Freeborn County Eagle, as above stated. It was a six-column paper, and Democratic like its predecessor, the Star. Swineford made a lively paper of it until February 26, 1859, when it went into the hands of Isaac Botsford, who changed its politics to Republican. May 19, 1860, the Eagle died, and the material went back to George S. Ruble, who held the larger interests in its stock and fixtures. It was the eighty-second paper started in Minnesota, and the seventh after Minnesota became a state.

EARLY JOURNALISTIC POETRY.

The following take-off on a female fashion of early journalistic days I have found in one of the country newspapers of those times. It is a parody on "The Old Sexton," and it is unnecessary to add that it belongs to the hoop-skirt period of our national history.

"Nigh to a church that was newly made

Stood a lady fair, and thus she said:

"Too bad! too bad! I here must wait,

While they measure the breadth of this open gate.

Alas, it is only nine by six, I see;

Too narrow, too narrow, alas, for me!'

And she sighed, from her quivering lips so thin,

"I cannot get in, I cannot get in.""

A correspondent of the Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, said that the ladies of Mantorville, Dodge county, seldom bought shoes smaller than sevens. To this a local poet replied in the Mantor

ville Express, as follows:

May he who thus has dared

To write this wicked slander,

Be doomed to pass through life unpaired,

A hissing, squawking, gooseless gander.

THE MOWER COUNTY MIRROR.

Volume I, No. 1, of the Mower County Mirror was dated September 30, 1858. It was printed in Austin, Mower county, and was the eighty-third paper in Minnesota. Its publisher was Rufus K. Crum, and David Blakeley, its editor. It was a seven-column Republican sheet. January 6, 1859, Blakeley sold to Crum, and, there being but one paper in the county, Crum made the paper independent, with the proviso that should a Democratic paper be started the Mirror was again to become Republican.

August 4, 1859, the paper again became Republican, with Alexander Ramsey for governor at the head of its editorial columns, and September 1, 1859, Blakeley went back as its editor. September 22, Crum retired, and Blakeley Brothers, consisting of David and C. H. Blakeley, became its owners, and the name was changed to the Minnesota Mirror. It ran until the latter part of 1859, when it was discontinued, the material being removed to Rochester; and on November 5, 1859, the Rochester City Post began. The Chatfield Democrat of October 29, 1859, makes the announcement of this change, which is the nearest I can come to the date of final issue of the Mirror.

The biographical sketch of David Blakeley appeared in the fifth paper of the Territorial series.

NEWS LETTER, NO. 1.

Concerning the first News Letter, I have only the testimony of J. Fletcher Williams, who early in 1859 was local editor of the St. Paul Minnesotian. He says, under date of January 8th, 1859, that the News Letter of Owatonna, Steele county, had died January 1st, 1859, aged five weeks. That would make its beginning December 4th, 1858, and that is all I can find about it. It was old