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During the campaign of 1860 the Wide Awakes and the Little Giants were the uniformed political organizations intended to attract the attention of voters. One dreary night one of the attaches of the Minnesotian office, and an active member of the Wide Awakes, met the Little Giants near Bridge Square as they were returning to their hall after a long march.
After being absent for about a week they proudly marched back to the city without ever firing a gun or seeing an enemy. The late J. Fletcher Williams was city editor of the Minnesotian, and he wrote an extended account of the expedition, and It was profusely illustrated with patent medicine cuts and inverted wood type and border, the only available material at that time that could be procured.
One year one of the proprietors of the Minnesotian thought he would surprise the other offices, and he procured the fastest livery team In the city and went down the river as far as Red Wing to intercept the mail coach, and expected to return to St. Paul three or four hours in advance of the regular mail, which would give him that much advantage over his competitors.
Moore, the business manager of the Minnesotian, went to New York and purchased a Hoe press, the first one ever brought to the state, and a large quantity of type; also a Hoe proof press, which is still in use in the Pioneer Press composing room.
Of course that was a very unpleasant state of affairs and for some time the Minnesotian and Times would wait until the Pioneer was out in the morning and would then set up the telegraph and circulate their papers. One of the editors connected with the Minnesotian had an old acquaintance in the pressroom of the Pioneer, and through him secured one of the first papers printed.
The Minnesotian carried at the head of its columns the words "Official Paper of the City," and it was feared that its malignant attacks upon the state officials, denouncing the issuance of the bonds as fraudulent and illegal, would be construed abroad as reflecting the sentiment of the majority of the people in the the community in which it was printed, and would have a bad effect in the East when the time came to negotiate the bonds.
The offices combined against the extortionate rates demanded by the telegraph company and made an agreement not to take the dispatches until the rates were lowered; but it was like an agreement of the railroad presidents of the present day, it was not adhered to. The Pioneer made a secret contract with the telegraph company and left the Minnesotian and the Times out in the cold.
The reverend gentleman was judge of probate of Ramsey county at the time, but his popularity suddenly diminished and when his term of office expired he found it to his advantage to locate in a more congenial atmosphere. The Minnesotian and Times, although both Republican papers, never cherished much love for each other.
He was employed on the Minnesotian. Francis P. McNamee occupied most all positions connected with the printing business printer, reporter, editor. He was a most estimable man, but of very delicate constitution, and he has long since gone to his reward. The genial, jovial face of George W. Benedict was for many years familiar to most old-time residents. At one time he was foreman of the old St.
Robert P. Slaughter and his brother, Thomas Slaughter, were both officers in the volunteer service and just previous to the rebellion were engaged in the real estate business. Edward Richards was foreman of the Pioneer and Minnesotian before the war and foreman of the old St. Paul Press after the war.
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