Oilman-to-be Pickens also showed zeal as a 12-year-old paperboy, quickly expanding his 28-house paper route to 156 by taking over the routes of his competitors.

The paper starts its editorial comment with a quote from an unnamed member of the House.

Even when he was nationally famous in the 1850s he resembled a clerk in a third-rate brokerage house, with slips of paper—marked-up proofs perhaps—hanging out of his pockets or stuck in his hat.