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242 arranged in the order of their establishment, were The Minnesotian, first published on September 17, 1851; The North Western Democrat, first published on July 13, 1853; The Minnesota Times, first published on May 15, 1854; The Minnesota Republican, first published on October 5, 1854; The St. Paul Financier and Real Estate Advertiser, first published on November 3, 1854. The papers just mentioned make the first eleven newspapers to be published in Minnesota. Of these, only The Minnesota Pioneer now survives and even that paper has undergone so many changes that it now bears the title of The Dispatch Pioneer Press.

When the Mormons were expelled from Nauvoo in 1846, they gathered on the banks of the Missouri River near a point where Council Bluffs now stands. From here various bands were dispatched to the Rocky Mountains; one of the earliest of these to leave had a wagon loaded with an old Ramage press, a supply of paper, and a few fonts of type. This outfit was hauled across the plains from the Missouri River to the Salt Lake Valley, a distance of over one thousand miles, by team. Upon its arrival at Salt Lake City, preparations were made for printing The Deseret News, to be the official organ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—familiarly known as the Mormon Church.

Brigham Young appointed William Richards as editor, Horace K. Whitney as typesetter, and his nephew, Brigham H. Young, as pressman. The first number appeared on June 15, 1850. Its motto was, "Truth and Liberty," and its price, fifteen cents per copy. Travelers and immigrants were charged twenty-five cents per copy, but this amount included the notice of their names, place of residence, and time of arrival and leaving. The setting-up of a newspaper plant in the wilds of the Rockies, nearly a thousand miles from civilization, before Denver, Omaha, or Kansas City was on the map, and when San Francisco was only a cluster of Mexican shanties, may be taken as a splendid illustration of that spirit which animated the early Mormon pioneers.