Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/263



to anticipate what would soon be accomplished and give the location in Wisconsin Territory. In that remote frontier village beyond the reach of regular mails, it was found to be very difficult to issue a weekly newspaper and much more difficult to secure financial support. Consequently the paper experienced frequent changes of proprietors and names. In 1838 it became the Iowa News; in 1841 the Miners' Express; in 1855 the Express & Herald; and finally the Dubuque Daily Herald.

In 1842 the old hand-press was sold and moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, where it was used to print the Herald. In 1849 James M. Groodhue purchased the press and shipped it by steamboat to St. Paul, landing there April 18. Ten days later he issued the first number of the Minnesota Pioneer, the first newspaper established in that Territory. After service in various frontier towns in 1867 this press was purchased by Siminton Brothers, who used it to print the Sauk Centre Herald.

This pioneer press, which did service for twenty-six years in western frontier towns, was one of the important agents of civilization, and deserves a place in the history of the times. On this primitive machine were printed the first newspapers on the banks of the upper Mississippi, the first in western Wisconsin, in Iowa, and Minnesota. It was thus intimately associated with the early settlement and development of three States and Territories of the Northwest.

The first act regulating the sale of spirituous liquors in Iowa was passed at the session of 1836. It provided that the county supervisors might authorize any person to keep a grocery under such restrictions as a majority might deem expedient, with permission to sell spirituous liquors, provided he should pay into the county treasury nine dollars a month for one year. Any person selling such liquors without a license was liable to a fine of ten dollars for each offense. An act was also passed for the establishment of a territorial wagon road from Farmington, on the [Vol. 1]