Founder and Publisher
of the First Newspaper in Minnesota
James Madison Goodhue
established the first Minnesota newspaper, the Pioneer Press.
Goodhue was known for his blunt and
explosive comments in the Pioneer Press regarding others in the community.
One of his comments
in particular got him into a lot of trouble.
Early Years
Life Transitions
Beyond An
Opinion
The
Final Year
James Madison Goodhue was born March 1, 1810 in Hebron, New Hampshire. Goodhue was the sixth of nine children. According to one of Goodhue's biographers, Mary Wheelhouse Berthel, all of the children were raised with "piety, sturdiness of character, and deep respect for education." (B1) Goodhue's mother, Betsey Page Goodhue, died when he was nine years of age. Goodhue's father, Stephen, remarried the year after Betsey's death.
Goodhue began to study law in 1828 at various schools located within Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He was noted more for his physical strength than his intellectual strength during his school days. John H. Stevens, another one of Goodhue's biographers, wrote in Recollections that "while at school no man could, from a dead stand, leap so high over a pole as he. He never worsted in an encounter with fists." (B1) Goodhue graduated close to the bottom of his class at Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1833.
Goodhue started practicing law in Platteville, Wisconsin in the fall of 1841. Only three years later, he decided to pack up and take his law practice twenty miles away to Lancaster, Wisconsin. In the eight years that Goodhue graduated from college and started his practice as a lawyer, it is rumored, "that he fought in the battle of Bad Axe in the Black Hawk War in August, 1832; and that he visited St. Louis in 1833." (B1)
Around the same time Goodhue was relocating his law practice,
a small-pox epidemic hit the town of Platteville.
Platteville had a population of about 500 and nearly half of the
residents, including Goodhue, contracted small pox.
Many of the cases were fatal.
The town's residents were
stricken with fear, so they held a town meeting to discuss the
ways that could stop this epidemic. The small pox epidemic turned
out to be a blessing in disguise for Goodhue:
"Whether or not Goodhue, before he was stricken or after his recovery, was a member of the committee [the small pox epidemic committee] has not been recorded; but according to Stevens, he gave assistance to one victim, at least, Henrietta Kneeland, a young woman who taught in the college school, and the result was their marriage on December 21, 1843." (B1)
Goodhue and Henrietta had three children. She proved to be an incredible helpmate and strong supporter who would aid him during his upcoming years of journalism.
Goodhue intended to continue his work as a lawyer in Lancaster, Wisconsin despite his dislike of the profession. He opened up a law office within a month of his arrival. Whether it was fate or not, "Lancaster was the home of the Grant County Herald, a weekly newspaper that had been established in 1843."(B1) Goodhue had a passion for writing and the Grant County Herald rekindled it. He soon decided to leave his legal practice and work for the Grant County Herald. When Goodhue joined, J.D. Spalding, the publisher, was having little success finding readers for the paper. It was July 6, 1844, that the reading community of this paper noticed a fresh breath of life added to the writing. During this time, Goodhue signed his articles with "G". From this time on, "G" attained a following of readers and in October of that year, his identity was disclosed.
Goodhue had tremendous success in attracting a crowd with his writing. He left Lancaster in the beginning of 1849 and traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota lugging a 300 pound printing press on the steamboat. It was March 3rd of the same year that Goodhue started the first newspaper in Minnesota. He called the new newspaper "The Pioneer Press."
Throughout 1849-51, many
people responded to "G's" inspiring wit, charm, and
way with words in his writing. In 1851, after a year and a half
of running the Pioneer Press, Goodhue's way with words got him
into a great deal of trouble. He stirred up the trouble by
insulting the Judge David Cooper with the following statement in one
of his articles:
"He is not only a miserable drunkard, who habitually gets so drunk as to feel upward for the ground, but he also spends days and nights and Sunday, playing cards in (saloons). He is lost to all sense of decency and respect. Off the Bench he is a beast, and on the Bench he is an ass, stuffed with arrogance, self conceit and ridiculous affectation of dignity." (B2)
One could only imagine all of the excitement and tension in
the air after Goodhue had published these words! This quote had
serious consequences for Goodhue. A couple of days after
the paper was distributed to the public, Goodhue and Judge David's
fuming brother, Joseph Cooper, met on a street St. Paul. Angry
words were exchanged first. Then Joseph came after Goodhue with
a gun and a Bowie knife. Joseph stabbed Goodhue two times with
his Bowie knife. Goodhue, apparantly aware of the possible outcomes
of this meeting, was armed with two pistols and shot Joseph once
before they could be broken up. Charges were never filed against
either man. Joseph Cooper's wounds were not fatal, and neither
were the wounds inflicted upon Goodhue...or were they?
James Madison Goodhue died at the early age of 42, due to infections from the confrontation with the judge's brother a year and a half earlier. Goodhue died in St. Paul on the evening of August 27, 1852. In the conclusion of the biography that Berthel wrote about Goodhue, she writes "It is evident from the newspapers and correspondence of the times that all Minnesota was profoundly moved by his death."(B2) Though it took Goodhue a year and a half to get the Pioneer Press up and running, it has expanded and flourished ever since.
Pioneer Press celebrated their 150th anniversary as a newspaper in 1999.
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Copyright 2000, Becca Griffith