EARLY WISCONSIN WEEKLIES
The frontier printer occasionally started his paper before the arrival of other settlers. With intuitive foresight he seemed to know probable locations of settlements along rivers and at the junction of smaller streams. Typical of papers thus established was The Mirror of Newport, one of the pioneer papers of Wisconsin, but by no means the first. Its editor, Alanson Holly, very graphically mirrored the Westward movement of journalism in his salutatory greeting:—
We are doing what, perhaps, has never been done in the United States before—We are printing The Wisconsin Mirror in the woods. Not a dwelling, except our own, within half a mile of us, and only one within a mile. The forest oaks hang over our office and dwelling, the deer and rabbits shy around us, and the partridges and quails seek our acquaintance, by venturing nearer and nearer our doors. The noble Wisconsin is bearing onward its immense burdens of ice, majestically and silently, within sight of our windows; and the snow-capped hills, covered with scattering oaks and pines, peer up in the distance. There is romance and reality in all this, and we feel almost willing to publish a paper in such a location, just for the excitement of the thing. But most of the romance is soon to be spoiled. Already, several dwellings are in progress near us and before many weeks they are to be occupied by enterprising neighbors, and when spring and summer shall come, we expect such a chatter of axes and spades, and trowels, and saws, and hammers, that we shall hardly be able to write our editorials without introducing more or less confusion. The fact is, we expect a large village, yea, a city, to grow up rapidly around us; and that is why we are here—printing in the woods.
Mr. Holly was in error when he thought his paper was the first to be printed "in the woods." Other papers had been started under conditions even more primitive with the type set under the oaks themselves.
Not infrequently the paper was published to advertise the attractions of the settlement and to promote immigration. For these reasons D. H. Richards founded in July, 1836, The Milwaukee Advertiser, the first paper in the city and the third in the State. Incidentally, The Advertiser was also issued to advance the interest of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal. In March,
