James M. Goodhue

James Madison Goodhue (March 31, 1810 – August 27, 1852) was an American journalist and newspaper editor. Born in New Hampshire, he eventually moved to Wisconsin where he began working as a newspaper editor. Days after the establishment of the Minnesota Territory, he moved to Saint Paul and founded the Minnesota Pioneer, Minnesota's first newspaper, which eventually merged with the Saint Paul Dispatch to become the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He is the namesake of Goodhue County and Goodhue Township.

Early life

James Madison Goodhue was born on March 31, 1810, in Hebron, New Hampshire, to Stephen and Betsy Page Goodhue. After briefly studying geology under Edward Hitchcock, he graduated from Amherst College in 1832. He fought in the Black Hawk War and became a colonel His funeral was held on August 29, 1852, at First Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul. Reverend Edward Duffield Neill presided at the service. Exhumed and reinterred several times, he is currently buried in the city's Oakland Cemetery.

Personal life

Goodhue and his wife, Henrietta, had four children: twins James and Mary, Edward, and Eve. Edward died in October 1849, at 16 months old. Eve was born in 1851. Goodhue was a freemason and was a founding member of the first Masonic lodge in Minnesota, now known as St. Paul Lodge #3.