Part 6

The Library of Congress copy shows that the general left something to be desired as a printer, some pages being so poorly inked as to be scarcely legible. This copy--one of but four known to bibliographers--was previously in the possession of A. B. Thompson of San Francisco, and the Library purchased it from him in February 1904 for $15.

[Footnote 84: See George L. Harding, _Don Agustin V. Zamorano_ (Los Angeles, 1934), p. 178-210; Herbert Fahey, _Early Printing in California_ (San Francisco, 1956); H. P. Hoyt, "The Sandwich Island Story of California's First Printing Press," _California Historical Society Quarterly_, vol. 35 (1956), p. 193-204.]

[Footnote 85: Vol. 16 (1886), p. 87-88.]

[Footnote 86: Quoted from Herbert Fahey, _Early Printing in California_, p. 27.]

Kansas

By introducing printing at the Shawanoe mission station in the Indian Territory in March 1834, Jotham Meeker became the first printer of what is now Kansas. He had learned his trade at Cincinnati and for some years had served as a Baptist missionary and printer among various Indian tribes.

The Library of Congress' earliest example of Kansas printing is the first number of _The Annual Register of Indian Affairs Within the Indian (or Western) Territory. Published by Isaac M'Coy. Shawanoe Baptist Mission House, Ind. Ter. January 1, 1835_. Isaac McCoy (1784-1846), publisher of four numbers of the _Annual Register_ between 1835 and 1838, was a prominent Baptist missionary, who also served as an Indian agent and strongly advocated the colonization of western Indians in a separate state. In this work he gives an account of the several mission stations operated by various denominations in the Indian Territory.

The following passage from the first number of the _Annual Register_ deals with the printer:

At the Shawanoe station is a printing press in operation, under the management of Jotham Meeker, Missionary for the Ottawas.

Mr. Meeker has invented a plan of writing (not like that of Mr. Guess, the Cherokee), by which, Indians of any tribe may learn to read in their own language in a few days. The first experiment was made with a sprightly Chippewa boy, wholly ignorant of letters, and of the English language. He studied three hours each day for nine days; at the expiration of which time there was put into his hands a writing of about twenty lines, of the contents of which he had no knowledge. After looking over it a few minutes, without the aid of an instructer, the boy read off the writing, to the unspeakable satisfaction of the teacher.

Upon this plan elementary school books have been prepared, and printed, viz.--In Delaware, two; in Shawanoe, two; in Putawatomie, one; and two in Otoe, besides a considerable number of Hymns, &c. The design succeeds well.[87]

Jotham Meeker's surviving journal, from which extracts have been published,[88] affords an interesting view of his work from December 15, 1834, when McCoy brought him the manuscript, until January 17, 1835, when he wrote, "Finish Br. M'Coy's Ann. Reg. a work of 52 pages, including the Cover. 1000 copies."

Another source of information about the _Annual Register_ is Isaac McCoy's book, _History of Baptist Indian Missions_ (Washington, New York, and Utica, 1840), wherein he states,

I published it [the first number] at my own cost, and circulated it gratuitously. One was sent to each member of Congress, and to each principal man in the executive departments of Government.[89]

Under the circumstances it is not surprising that three copies have made their way into the Library of Congress collections. On their respective title pages they are addressed in manuscript to "Hon Nathaniel Silsbee U.S. Sen," "Hon Jno. Cramer H. Reprs. U S," and "Hon Lucius Lyon H.R.U.S."

[Footnote 87: P. 24.]

[Footnote 88: In Douglas C. McMurtrie and Albert H. Allen, _Jotham Meeker Pioneer Printer of Kansas_ (Chicago, 1930), p. 45-126.]

[Footnote 89: P. 481.]

New Mexico

The first press of New Mexico was imported overland from the United States in 1834 to print _El Crepúsculo de la libertad_, a short-lived newspaper supporting the election of its editor, Antonio Barreiro, to the Mexican congress. It was operating at Santa Fe by August 1834 with Ramón Abreu as proprietor and with Jesús María Baca as printer,[90] the latter having learned his trade in Durango, Mexico.[91]

A broadside in the Library of Congress collections appears to be a genuine copy of the earliest extant issue of this press. Entitled _Lista de los ciudadanos que deberan componer los jurados de imprenta, formada por el Ayuntamiento de este capital_, it lists, in accordance with Mexican law, 90 men qualified to be jurors in cases of what the law terms "denuncias de los escritos."[92] The broadside is dated August 14, 1834, signed by "Juan Gallego, precidente--Domingo Fernandez, secretario," and carries the Ramón Abreu imprint. This copy must be one of 48 discovered in 1942 in a parcel marked "Benjamin Read Papers" at the New Mexico Historical Society. Benjamin Read (1853-1927) was an attorney who served in the New Mexico Legislature and who published a number of works on the State's history.[93] Before the find in 1942 only a single copy of the broadside was located. The authenticity of these 48 copies has been questioned, but in the opinion of the late collector Thomas W. Streeter they are originals.[94] The Library obtained its copy by exchange from Edward Eberstadt & Sons in May 1951.

The Library also has the only known copy of New Mexico's first book, issued by the same press and dated 1834: _Cuaderno de ortografia. Dedicado a los niños de los señores Martines de Taos._ A metal cut on its title page, oddly depicting a moose, has been traced to a contemporary Boston specimen book, which also displays a pica type identical or very similar to that used in early New Mexican imprints.[95] Authorship of the book has been attributed to Antonio José Martínez (1793-1867), the parish priest in Taos, who arranged to have the press and the printer move there in 1835. From 1826 to 1856 Martínez taught reading, writing, and arithmetic in his parish,[96] and he undoubtedly had this work printed for the use of his own pupils. It is divided into three sections: "De las letras," "De los diptongos, uso de letras mayusculas, acentos y signos de institucion para las citas," and "De la puntuacion de la clausula."[97] The copy of this small book is soiled and worn from much thumbing. Penciled on an inner page in an early, childlike hand is the name "Jesus Maria Baldez." The Library purchased the book in 1931 from Aaron Flacks, a Chicago bookseller, for $350 on the same day that it purchased its earliest Wisconsin almanac (see p. 53, above) and likewise through the intervention of Douglas C. McMurtrie.

[Footnote 90: See Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles, 1956), p. 11-13.]

[Footnote 91: See his obituary in _The Daily New Mexican_ (Santa Fe), April 21, 1876.]

[Footnote 92: Quoted from _Coleccion de ordenes y decretos de la Soberana junta provisional y soberanos Congresos generales de la nacion mexicana_, vol. 4, 1829, p. 179.]

[Footnote 93: See obituary in _New Mexico Historical Review_, vol. 2, 1927, p. 394-397.]

[Footnote 94: See no. 61 in his _Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952).]

[Footnote 95: See _New Mexico Historical Review_, vol. 12, 1937, p. 13.]

[Footnote 96: Ibid., p. 5.]

[Footnote 97: It is reproduced in its entirety in Douglas C. McMurtrie's _The First Printing in New Mexico_ (Chicago, 1929).]

Oklahoma

When the Cherokee Nation migrated from Georgia to the newly formed Indian Territory, John Fisher Wheeler, who had been head printer of the Cherokee Press at New Echota, proceeded to the Union Mission Station on the Grand River, near the present location of Mazie, Okla. There the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions supplied him with a new press on which in August 1835 he did the first Oklahoma printing. Wheeler had served his apprenticeship at Huntsville, Ala.[98]

One of two or three extant copies of the third recorded issue of Oklahoma's first press is present in the Library of Congress collections: _Istutsi in naktsokv. Or The Child's Book. By Rev. John Fleming. Missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions._ Printed before October 31, 1835, in an edition of 500 copies, it is a 24-page primer with text in the Creek language rendered in the Pickering alphabet and with woodcut illustrations of animals and other subjects. A Creek Indian named James Perryman or Pvhos Haco ("Grass Crazy") assisted with the translation.[99] Fleming's work among the Indians has earned for him a notice in the _Dictionary of American Biography_, where his "chief claim to remembrance" is said to be "that he was the first to reduce to writing the Muskoki or Creek language, which was a task of peculiar difficulty on account of the numerous and puzzling combinations of consonants involved."

The Library of Congress obtained the rare copy of its earliest Oklahoma imprint through the Smithsonian Deposit (see p. 52, above) in 1878.

[Footnote 98: See Lester Hargrett, _Oklahoma Imprints 1835-1890_ (New York, 1951), p. ix-x, 1-2.]

[Footnote 99: Ibid., no. 3.]

Iowa

The initial issue of the weekly _Du Buque Visitor_, dated May 11, 1836, is the oldest example of Iowa printing. John King, the first proprietor of this four-page newssheet, acquired the press on which it was printed at Chillicothe, Ohio. He employed William Cary Jones of Chillicothe to "perform the duties of foreman in the printing office ... and likewise such other duties in superintending the publication of the newspaper as may be required,"[100] and he employed the Virginia-born printer Andrew Keesecker, lately of Galena, Ill., to be the principal typesetter.

The earliest Iowa printing represented in the Library of Congress is its partial file of the _Du Buque Visitor_, extending from January 18 to May 17, 1837.[101] On December 21, 1836, the proprietorship had passed to W. W. Chapman, an attorney, and with the issue of February 1, 1837, William H. Turner became the owner. The paper maintained a high standard throughout these changes, its issues justly displaying the motto: "Truth our guide, the public good our aim." A reduction in the size of certain issues furnishes evidence of the customary difficulty of operating a pioneer press. As the March 15 issue explains, "Within the last two months, so large an addition has been made to the subscription list of the Visitor, that our stock of paper of the usual size is exhausted, and we are constrained to issue, for a week or two, a smaller sheet. By the first boat from St. Louis we shall receive our spring and summer supply."

The Library's file dates from the period when Iowa still belonged to the Wisconsin Territory. An editorial from the Library's earliest issue advocates independent status:

DIVISION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY

It gives us pleasure to see that Genl. Jones, our delegate in congress, has introduced into the house of representatives a resolution, "to inquire into the expediency of establishing a seperate [sic] territorial government for that section of the present territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi river," and the same resolution has been introduced into the senate of the United States by Dr. Linn of Missouri.

We sincerely hope that these resolutions will be acted upon, and sanctioned by congress--if sanctioned, they will have a most important bearing upon the future interest and prosperity of the people on this side of the Mississippi. Yes, we would rejoice that the 'Father of Waters' should be the boundary to a new territory. The present territory of Wisconsin, is much too large, and embraces too many conflicting interests--the people on the east side of the Mississippi are jealous of those on the west side, and the west, of those on the east. Why not, under these circumstances, give to the people on each side of the Mississippi separate territorial governments? We believe that such a measure would be highly satisfactory to the people throughout the whole of Wisconsin territory.

The reasons for dividing the present territory of Wisconsin are, in our opinion, well founded, for unless the people governed can be united--unless their representatives legislate for the good of the whole territory, there will not be satisfaction--there will not be harmony, & the government instituted to protect the rights of the people, will become an engine in the hands of one part to oppress the other.

It is, or should be, the policy of the United States, in the establishment of temporary governments over her territories, to adopt the best and most judicious means of guarding the happiness, liberty, and property of her foster children, so that when they enter the great family of the Union, that they may be worthy of that exalted station.

From later in 1837 the Library possesses _Iowa News_, which replaced the _Du Buque Visitor_ after its expiration in May, in an imperfect file extending from June 17 (the third number) to December 23. The Library also has the _Wisconsin Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser_, printed at Burlington, in another incomplete file from July 10 to December 2. The Library's three files of very early Iowa newspapers have a common provenance, as most issues of each file are addressed in manuscript to the Department of State, which was in charge of Territorial affairs until 1873. These newspapers were transferred to the Library of Congress sometime before the end of the 19th century.[102]

[Footnote 100: The full contract is quoted in Alexander Moffit's article, "Iowa Imprints Before 1861," in _The Iowa Journal of History and Politics_, vol. 36, 1938, p. 152-205. For a biography of Jones, see William Coyle, ed. _Ohio Authors and Their Books_ (Cleveland, 1962, p. 346).]

[Footnote 101: Vol. 1, nos. 37-52; no. 47 wanting. The May 10 and May 17 issues are both numbered 52.]

[Footnote 102: They are recorded in _A Check List of American Newspapers in the Library of Congress_ (1901).

In the Library's Broadside Collection (portfolio 19, no. 34) is a printed notice of the Des Moines Land Company, with text dated from Des Moines, September 4, 1837. This item cannot have been printed at Des Moines, since printing did not reach there until 1849. It is not listed in Alexander Moffit's "A Checklist of Iowa Imprints 1837-1860," in _The Iowa Journal of History and Politics_, vol. 36 1938, p. 3-95.]

Idaho

The first printing in Idaho--in fact, in the entire Pacific Northwest--was done in 1839 at the Lapwai mission station, by the Clearwater River, in what is now Nez Perce County. The printer was Edwin Oscar Hall, originally of New York, who on orders of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions brought to this wilderness site the same small press he had taken to the Hawaiian Islands in 1835.[103]

Henry Harmon Spalding (1804-74), the missionary who had requested this press, was the author of its first issue in Idaho, an eight-page primer of the native language with an English title: _Nez-Perces First Book: Designed for Children and New Beginners_. In May 1839 Hall printed 400 copies, of which no complete examples are known to survive. An alphabet of Roman letters that Spalding utilized to convey the Indian language proved to be impractical, and in August the original edition was replaced by a revised 20-page edition of 500 copies with the same title.

The Library of Congress acquired this edition, then thought to be the first Idaho book, in 1911. A few years later the bibliographer Wilberforce Eames discovered pages of the earlier edition used as reinforcements in the paper covers of the later one,[104] and on February 18, 1922, another interested bibliographer, Howard M. Ballou, wrote to the Librarian of Congress:

I have had your copy at the Library of Congress examined by a friend who reports that she can distinguish that pages 5 and 6 are pasted in the front cover.

If you will have the covers of the Nez Perces First Book soaked apart you will find you possess four pages of this original Oregon book.

(By Oregon, of course, he meant the Oregon country at large rather than the present State.) The Library did soak apart the covers and found that it had two copies of the original leaf paged 5 and 6. One of them, released for exchange in October 1948, subsequently joined two other original leaves to form an almost complete copy in the Coe Collection at Yale University.[105]

The Library made its fortunate acquisition with a bid of $7.50 at a Philadelphia auction sale conducted by Stan V. Henkels on May 23-24, 1911. The item[106] was among a group of books from the library of Horatio E. Hale (1817-96), who served as philologist with the famed Wilkes Expedition of 1838-42. He probably obtained his copy about 1841, the year the expedition reached Oregon.

[Footnote 103: See Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles, 1956), p. 23-26.]

[Footnote 104: See _The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society_, vol. 23, 1922, p. 45-46.]

[Footnote 105: See no. 73 (note) in Thomas W. Streeter's _Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952).]

[Footnote 106: No. 588 in the sale catalog.]

Oregon

Medare G. Foisy performed the first Oregon printing in 1845 with type owned by the Catholic mission at St. Paul. Apparently without the benefit of a permanent press, he printed at least two official forms, and there is evidence that he produced tickets for an election held on June 3, 1845. Foisy was a French Canadian who had worked at the Lapwai mission press for Henry Harmon Spalding (see p. 63, above) during the fall and winter of 1844-45.[107]

Later certain forward-looking settlers organized the Oregon Printing Association, obtained a printing press, hired a printer named John Fleming, who had migrated to Oregon from Ohio,[108] and founded the _Oregon Spectator_ at Oregon City on February 5, 1846. This was the earliest English-language newspaper in North America west of the Missouri River.[109] The earliest Oregon printing in the Library of Congress is the ninth semimonthly number of the _Oregon Spectator_, dated May 28, 1846. It is a small four-page sheet presently bound with 15 other numbers of the _Spectator_ through May 13, 1847. All bear the newspaper's motto: "Westward the Star of Empire takes its way." When this ninth number was printed, the Oregon Country was still jointly occupied by the United States and Great Britain. Shortly after, on June 15, 1846, the U.S. Senate ratified the Oregon Treaty, whereby the Oregon Country was divided at the 49th parallel. News of the ratification as reported in the New York _Gazette and Times_ of June 19 reached Honolulu in time to be printed in the _Polynesian_ of August 29, and the information was reprinted from that paper in the November 12 issue of the _Spectator_, which is included in the Library's file.

The issue of May 28 has a decidedly political emphasis because of impending local elections, and among its articles is an amusing account of a meeting at which several inexperienced candidates proved embarrassingly "backward about speaking." The difficulty of obtaining information for the paper is illustrated by a section headed "Foreign News," consisting of a letter from Peter Ogden, Governor of Fort Vancouver, in which he gives a brief account of the political upheaval in Britain over the Corn Law question. He cites as the source of his information a letter he received via "an express ... from [Fort] Nesqually." He concludes, "In three or four days hence we shall receive newspapers, and I trust further particulars." The last page of this issue is given entirely to the printing of an installment of "An Act to establish Courts, and prescribe their powers and duties," which had been passed by the provisional legislature.

In addition to its small volume of issues from 1846 and 1847, the Library of Congress has an incomplete volume of _Spectator_ issues from September 12, 1850, to January 27, 1852, when the paper had a larger format and appeared weekly. Evidence for the provenance of the earlier volume is the inscription, "J. B. McClurg & C.," on the issue of December 24, 1846, designating a Honolulu firm which carried this advertisement in the same _Spectator_:

J. B. McClurg & Co. SHIP CHANDLERS, GENERAL AND COMMISSION MERCHANTS.

JAMES B. McCLURG, } ALEXANDER G. ABELL, } HONOLULU, OAHU, HENRY CHEVER. } SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Several issues in the later volume are addressed either to the "State Department" or to "Hon. Daniel Webster," who was Secretary of State at the time. The Library's _A Check List of American Newspapers_, published in 1901, records holdings only for December 12, 1850, to February 27, 1851, but all of the _Spectator_ issues look as if they have been in the Library from an early date.

[Footnote 107: See nos. 1-2 in George N. Belknap's _Oregon Imprints 1845-1870_ (Eugene, Ore. [1968]).]

[Footnote 108: See _The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society_, vol. 3, 1902, p. 343.]

[Footnote 109: See Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles, 1956), p. 27-30.]

Utah

Brigham Young's nephew Brigham Hamilton Young was the first printer within the present boundaries of Utah. A manuscript "Journal History" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints records that on January 22, 1849, "Brigham H. Young and Thomas Bullock were engaged in setting type for the fifty cent bills, paper currency. This was the first typesetting in the [Salt Lake] Valley. The bills were to be printed on the press made by Truman O. Angell."[110]