other year. March 11th, 1868, at Volume 12, No. 26, Van Vorhes sold Whitmore ran the Republican until October 4th, 1870, when he sold it to George K. Shaw of Minneapolis, who continued the Republican to Volume 3, No. 40, December 16th, 1870, when he changed the name back to the Stillwater Messenger, and sent it ahead on a jump to Volume 16, No. 15, as though the Stillwater Republican had never been. It has since been issued as the Stillwater Messenger, and is still going. I do not like to break the publication record of the Messenger; but I must print facts, or my history will be unreliable. The files conclusively show that the Stillwater Messenger, No. I, died, and that the Republican was started in its stead. That in turn died, and Stillwater Messenger, No. 2, followed it, the same as the Red Wing Sentinel, No.1, was followed by the Minnesota Gazette, and as that in turn was followed by Sentine! No. 2. Any other procedure would blot out the Republican and Gazette, which had as much right to be named as any of the seventeen newspapers which have gone into that omnivorous absorber, the Pioneer Press. ANDREW J. VAN VORHES. Andrew J. Van Vorhes was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, June 30th, 1824. He began to set type on his father's paper, the Hocking Valley Gazette in Ohio, at the age of thirteen. He worked there until 1844, when he and his brother Nelson bought the paper and changed its name to the Athens Messenger. In 1847 he was elected recorder of the county. He was also recording clerk in the Ohio Legislature one term. In 1855 he came to Stillwater, Minn., and in 1856 established the Stillwater Messenger and conducted it until 1868, when failing health compelled him to sell and retire from busi ness after twenty-seven years of active journalism. He was a member of the Minnesota Legislature in 1860, and was selected by the government as agent to aid in the Indian payment at Fort Ripley in 1862, when for nine days the fort was invested by the savages. He was also a quartermaster in the army from 1863 to 1865, and served as clerk of the Supreme Court of Minnesota one term. He died in Stillwater January 10th, 1873. He was an honest, active, painstaking journalist, and the pages of his paper were always clean. As a public officer he was faithful to his trust, and both socially and politically he made many very warm friends. REPUBLICAN ADVOCATE. The Republican Advocate was started at Shakopee, Scott county, September 27th, 1856, and was the thirty-third of Territorial papers. A. B. and H. Y. Russell were the publishers. It suspended temporarily in the fall of 1857, and went under permanently early in 1860. It left no files that I can find, and I have not been able to find anything further elsewhere of the Advocate. CHATFIELD DEMOCRAT, NO. I. I find in the files of the Pioneer and Democrat of May 15th, 1856, that the prospectus of the Chatfield Democrat had been received; and its issue of October 9th, 1856, says it has "received the first number of the paper." The Pioneer and Democrat also commends it for its support of Buchanan and Breckenridge for president and vice-president of the United States. The St. Paul Advertiser of December 27th, 1856, quotes the proceedings of a railroad meeting which was ordered published in the Carimona Telegraph, the Chatfield Democrat, and the Chatfield Republican. Hon. H. R. Wells of Preston, Fillmore county, is sure that a paper called the Chatfield Democrat was published in Chatfield in 1856, and that it was owned by John H. McKenny and others. connected with the United States Land Office, then located in Chatfield. Mrs. Wells, who is a daughter of Mr. McKenny, remembers the paper, but who ran it she cannot tell. General Bishop also mentions the Chatfield Democrat of 1856, in a small pamphlet which he wrote and had printed about that time. The date of the first issue of the Democrat must have been about October 1st, 1856, and it was probably discontinued early in 1857. It comes, therefore, into line as the thirty-fourth newspaper started in the Territory. THE RICE COUNTY HERALD. The Rice County Herald was the thirty-fifth newspaper in Minnesota. Its place of publication was Faribault, Rice county. F. W. Frink was its owner and editor. He began it October 22nd, 1856, printed six issues, and then sold the plant to J. L. Pond, who made R. A. Mott editor. Pond printed one more number, the December 3rd issue, when Mott bought the outfit and its publication ceased. THE CHATFIELD REPUBLICAN. The first issue of the Chatfield Republican appears to have been printed October 25th, 1856. It was a four-page, sevencolumn, Republican paper, printed in Chatfield, Fillmore county, and was the thirty-sixth in the Territory. The publishers were J. W. Twilford and Co., and the editor H. W. Holley. June 13th, 1857, Orville Brown became one of the editors. The paper was noted for its bitter opposition to the Five Million Dollar Railroad Loan bill, and its columns contained samples of vituperation equal to those of the St. Paul Pioneer under Goodhue. The parting kick at an editor of another paper who was about to retire is a gem of its kind. Here is the part that landed the hardest. I find it in the December 6th, 1859, issue of the Republican. Here now he stands, a man who professed to be an editor of a paper, but who was in reality a thing, edited himself by a clique. A man who for a long series of months was a mouthpiece for the utterances of Billingsgate, whose authors were ashamed to acknowledge its paternity; a man who was set on like a barking pup to do the dirty work of a few press owners; a man who wore a collar of the mind slave, weakly, submissively, obediently cringing and fawning at the feet of those who fed him, until, worn out in their service, they gave him what such labors sooner or later always bring, ungrateful return for such services rendered, by telling him to go forth, the world was all before him where to choose and Providence his guide. The Historical Library files of this paper are not complete. The last that I find is Volume 5, No. 49, October 15th, 1861. The press and material was sold shortly after that date, how wi ever, and were moved to Preston and used to start the Preston Republican. According to my records, the Fillmore County Pioneer of Carimona, first noticed in this paper, was the first newspaper published in Fillmore county, and the Chatfield Republican was the third. HON. HENRY W. HOLLEY. Henry W. Holley was born in Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson county, N. Y., May 5th, 1828. He was graduated from Norwich University, Vermont, a college for engineers, in 1849, and worked as a civil engineer on railroads seven years in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin. In 1856 he came to Minnesota, and joined Twilford and Company in establishing the Chatfield Republican. In 1857 he was a member of the Minnesota Constitutional Convention. In 1861 he was appointed receiver of the Winnebago Land Office, and served in that capacity eight years. He was serving a term in the Minnesota Senate when he received this apointment. During part of the time he was receiver he acted as chief engineer of the Southern Minnesota railroad, of which he was one of the original incorporators. He was connected with that road until 1874, the last four years acting as its superintendent and general manager. As Holley was absent a large share of his time, Orville Brown was the chief writer for the columns of the papers with which he and Brown were connected. Holley, however, was a writer of much more than ordinary ability, and a well equipped man in every sense. He moved farther west some years since, and died near Everett, Washington, four or five years ago. ORVILLE BROWN. Orville Brown used to be called "Awful Brown" by some of the newspapers of his time. He was probably the author of the editorial of which I have quoted a portion in my notice of the Chatfield Republican. He was born in Ellisburg, Jefferson county, N. Y,. November 10th, 1810. He worked at railroading in portions of the west from 1851 to 1856 when he came to Minnesota, locating at Chatfield in 1857, where he became, as I have stated, one of the editors of the Chatfield Republican. In 1859 the Republican was sued for libel by C. C. Hemphill, the editor and proprietor of the Chatfield Democrat, for one of the bitter articles of the former paper, a sample of which I have given. A verdict of one hundred dollars was rendered in favor of Hemphill, which was set aside by the judge of the district court, and that, I believe, was the end of the suit. After selling the plant of the Republican, Holley and Brown bought the press and material of the Faribault Herald, which was established by R. A. Mott, December 10th, 1856, after he had bought and extinguished the Rice County Herald. Holley and Brown put out the light of the Faribault Herald, in turn, and began the Central Republican on June 23d, 1858, Orville Brown being editor, which still runs. as the Faribault Republican. Holley and Brown ran the Central Republican, Brown still remaining editor, until November 20th, 1861, when Holley retired. Brown continued alone until December 20th, 1865, when he sold to A. W. McKinstry. In January, 1869, Mr. Brown purchased the Mankato Record of John C. Wise. Griswold, of the Mankato Union, once said that the Record was Democratic by profession, but not any too much so by practice. Brown turned it into a Republican paper and published it until he retired from the newspaper business, October 25th, 1879. Mr. Brown was appointed postmaster at Mankato in 1873, and held the office until 1884. He was a man of exemplary character, but strong in his likes and dislikes, and in his newspaper days kept things in a stir wherever he went. He died in St. Paul, January 5th, 1901, in the ninety-first year of his age. THE NORTHERN HERALD. The Northern Herald, published first at Watab, Benton county, and afterward at Little Falls, Morrison county, was the thirty-seventh newspaper started in Minnesota. No copies seem to be in existence. I find the first notices of it in the Minnesotian of November 18th, 1856, and the Pioneer and Democrat of November 20th, 1856. The latter paper says that the material for the Herald was purchased from the Pioneer and Democrat. The Herald must have started about Nevember 15th, 1856. It was owned by Parker H. French. It is mentioned in the issues of the Minnesotian of November 18th and 22nd, as located at Watab; and the statement is made that "new papers are multiplying so fast that it is difficult to keep track of them." It was published by E. C. Church. French moved the paper to Little Falls shortly after its start at Watab, ran it a few months |