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The Goodhue volunteer (Red Wing, Minn.) 1861-1864 Browse the title

The Red Wing Goodhue Volunteer was a short-lived newspaper published in Red Wing, Minnesota, that continued the Red Wing Sentinel. The Goodhue Volunteer began sometime in 1861 and ran through August 31, 1864. The six-to-seven- column, four-page issues were released on Wednesdays. The paper covered news and events of Red Wing, a Mississippi River town noted for its steamboat traffic bringing newcomers to the region and for its barges shipping the wheat raised in the surrounding fertile land of Goodhue County. The paper’s coverage also extended to rural Wisconsin on the other side of the Mississippi River, near present day Hager City.

The Goodhue Volunteer is often described as a patriotic paper and shares its name with the Goodhue County Volunteers, a local militia company that would become part of the Minnesota regiments during the Civil War. While the paper did not seem to have any official connection to the Goodhue County Volunteers, it did follow the war closely, devoting a large percentage of its front page to domestic war correspondence and news. The Goodhue Volunteer proudly proclaimed its affiliation in its motto: "The Constitution and the Union, First, Last, and All the Time." Publishers include James Parker, William Allen, and former Red Wing Sentinel publisher Dan Meritt. As editor, Parker often leveled attacks in his second-page editorial section at the Red Wing Republican, a longstanding political rival. As a circumstance of its publication during the Civil War, many issues of the Goodhue Volunteer contain derogatory poetry and news about the culture, moral character, and mental prowess of citizens of the Southern states. Other subjects handled within its pages were telegraph reports, local and miscellaneous news, city council and county commissioners’ notes, and state legislature and market reports.

The Goodhue Volunteer continued until August 31, 1864, when it joined with the Red Wing Argus just prior to the end of war.

Sources

Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. History of Goodhue County, Minnesota. Chicago: H.C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1909.

Johnston, Daniel S.B. "Minnesota Journalism in the Territorial Period." Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. 10, Pt. 1. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1905.

Johnston, Daniel S.B. "Minnesota Journalism from 1858 to 1865." Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. 12. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1908.

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