The 100 block of Madison Street in Jefferson City was about the only inhabited place on the Missouri River cliff selected as the permanent seat of government when Calvin Gunn arrived with two hand presses in 1826.
The ambitious newspaperman had set up The Jeffersonian newspaper office in October 1825 in St. Charles to serve the legislature meeting there temporarily. He moved his shop months in advance of the first legislative meeting in Jefferson City.
The modest, brick statehouse sat where the Executive Mansion is today. So Gunn's offices opened in a one-story, two-room brick building, across Madison Street, about where the Cole County Historical Society museum is today. His only neighbor in 1826 was John C. Gordon's tavern and Rising Sun Hotel north of him, at the corner of Madison and State streets.
The newspaper's name changed to the Jeffersonian Republican in 1827. His content was focused on state government during the session and state, national and international news, otherwise. He initially was not interested in printing local happenings, giving the county's first murder only one paragraph.
His main enticement had been the state printing contracts and his bid into the wilderness paid off for more than two decades. For several years, the legislature noted it was his proximity, as much as his quality, that afforded him the bid over other printers. Gunn's first local competition, the Jefferson Enquirer, opened 12 years after he arrived.
Gunn and his wife, Elizabeth, first lived in a log home at the corner of Madison Street and Capitol Avenue, where their first son was born. Later, they lived in a double-log home built behind the original print shop, about where the Upschulte House is today.
In 1846, Gunn hired Reuben Garnett, a Kentucky brick mason, to build the three-story brick building still standing at 205 E. Capitol Ave., today the headquarters of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. After Gunn left the newspaper business for farm life in the 1850s, that property continued to house local newspapers, including the Daily Capital News.
Early in the town's life, Gunn had smartly purchased several lots in town and acreage just outside the city limits to the southeast. From the Gunn farm, east of Lafayette Street between the prison and the future Lincoln University, much of the earliest stone was quarried. The state quarried nearly all of its rock from the Gunn quarry from 1858-73.
Indentured as a printer in his native state of Massachusetts, he was about 24 when he arrived in St. Charles, where he met Kentucky-born Elizabeth. They had three sons, including a Mexican War veteran and another printer, and two daughters, one being Mary Hanson who later married future Gov. B. Gratz Brown.
Despite his scarce ink for early town news, Gunn became a leader in the small community. He was a member of the Cole County Young Democrats Club and was elected the city's fifth mayor in 1846.
The Federal-style row homes, designed by St. Louis architect John Ingham Barnett, at 109-111-113 Madison St. were built by the Gunn family, hoping to generate an income for the youngest daughter who was disabled. Instead, they were sold to pay a debt after the death of Calvin and Elizabeth. Barnett also designed the third and present Executive Mansion, in which his daughter Mary Brown was the first first lady to entertain in January 1872.
Calvin Gunn died in 1861 following years of paralysis. His name is preserved as printer on the early General Assembly journals, and he began a long legacy of keeping the printing of those state books in town. The Cole County Historical Society preserves many Gunn family items donated through their daughter, Mary Brown, including his wife's sewing chest.
Michelle Brooks is a former reporter for the Jefferson City News Tribune. She enjoys researching the earliest history of Jefferson City, as well as Lincoln University.