t, and generally believed, that they both
died from the effects of these wounds.

The original _Minnesota Pioneer_ still lives in the _Pioneer Press_ of
to-day, which is published in St. Paul. It has been continued under
several names and edited by different men, but has never been
extinguished or lost its relation of lineal descendant from the original
_Pioneer_.

Nothing tends to show the phenomenal growth of Minnesota more than the
fact that this first newspaper, issued in 1849, has been followed by the
publication of 579 papers, which is the number now issued in the state
according to the last official list obtainable. They appear daily,
weekly and monthly, in nearly all written languages, English, French,
German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Bohemian, and one in Icelandic,
published in Lyon county.

BANKS.

With the first great increase in immigration business was necessarily
enlarged, and banking facilities became a necessity. Dr. Charles W.
Borup, a Danish gentleman, who was engaged in the fur trade at Lake
Superior as an agent for the American Fur Company, and Mr. Charles H.
Oakes, a native of Vermont, came to St. Paul, and established a bank in
1853. They were brothers-in-law, having married sisters. They did a
private banking business, under the name of Borup & Oakes, which adapted
itself to the needs of the community, including real estate, and almost
any other kind of venture that offered. The house of Borup & Oakes was
the first banking establishment in Minnesota, and weathered all the
financial storms that swept over the territory in its early history.

They were followed by Truman M. Smith, but he went down in the panic of
1857-58. Then came Bidwell's Exchange Bank, followed by C. H. Parker and
A. Vance Brown. Mackubin & Edgerton opened a bank in 1854, which was the
ancestor of the present Second National Bank, and always legitimate. I
think Erastus S. Edgerton may justly be said to have been the most
successful banker of all that were early engaged in the business. An
enumeration of the banks and bankers which succeeded each other in these
early times would be more appropriate in a narrative of the localities
where they operated than in a general history of the state. It is
sufficient to say that nearly all, if not all, of them succumbed to the
financial disasters in 1857-58, and there was no banking worthy of the
name until the passage of the banking law of July 26, 1858. But this act
was a