Part 7

The Law Library of the Library of Congress keeps in a small manila envelope a remarkable group of five very early examples of Utah printing, some of which must have been issued in 1850. The one that seems to be the earliest has the title _Ordinances, Passed by the Legislative Council of Great Salt Lake City, and Ordered to be Printed_. This piece--like the others without indication of place or date of printing--may be assigned to a press from Boston which reached Salt Lake City in August of 1849 and supplanted the original homemade press. Listed as number 3 in Douglas C. McMurtrie's _The Beginnings of Printing in Utah, with a Bibliography of the Issues of the Utah Press 1849-1860_ (Chicago, 1931), it is a four-page leaflet containing nine ordinances passed between February 24 and December 29, 1849. Among them are a "Penalty for Riding Horses Without Leave, Driving Cattle Off the Feeding Range, &c." and "An Ordinance Creating an Office for the Recording of 'Marks and Brands' on Horses, Mules, Cattle, and All Other Stock."

A 34-page pamphlet entitled _Constitution of the State of Deseret_ (not in McMurtrie; Sabin 98220) is obviously from the same press. Appended to the constitution, which was approved November 20, 1849, are several ordinances passed between March 9, 1849, and March 28, 1850. Another issue of this press (not in McMurtrie or Sabin) is a slightly mutilated three-page leaflet: _Rules and Regulations for the Governing of Both Houses of the General Asse{mbly} of the State of Deseret, When in Joint Session; and for Each Respective House, When in Separate Session. Adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives, December 2, 1850._ Of unspecified date is a single leaf, unrecorded and apparently unique, captioned _Standing Committees of the House_. Finally, there is among these imprints a copy of the 80-page _Ordinances. Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Deseret_, known as the "Compilation of 1851" and listed as number 8 by McMurtrie, who writes, "A copy of the 1851 volume in the library of the Church Historian's Office was used in 1919 for making a reprint, but the original has since disappeared.[111] A copy is said to be in private ownership in California." The latter is undoubtedly the one now in the Library of Congress.

The only one of these extremely rare imprints to show marks of previous ownership is the "Compilation of 1851." It was autographed by Phinehas Richards, who served both as representative and as senator in the provisional legislature of the state of Deseret. Whether the other four pieces also belonged to him is not clear; in any event all five came into the hands of his son, Franklin Dewey Richards (1821-99), who for half a century was an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, becoming president of the Apostles' Quorum, and who served as Church Historian for the last 10 years of his life.[112] A Library of Congress purchase order dated October 31, 1940, reveals that these imprints were contained in a bound volume labeled "Laws of Utah--F. D. Richards"; that by agreement the Library had them removed from the volume and subsequently returned it to Mr. Frank S. Richards, in care of the San Francisco bookseller John Howell; and that the price paid for the detached items was $1,600. Frank S. Richards, an attorney residing in Piedmont, Calif., is a great-grandson of Franklin Dewey Richards, most of whose books he has given to the Bancroft Library of the University of California.

[Footnote 110: Quoted from Wendell J. Ashton, _Voice in the West, Biography of a Pioneer Newspaper_ (New York, 1950), p. 367, note 17. This book is about Utah's first newspaper, the _Deseret News_, established June 15, 1850, of which the earliest original issue in the Library of Congress is dated May 31, 1851.]

[Footnote 111: It is now available again at the Church Historian's Office. Another copy is in the Harvard Law Library.]

[Footnote 112: See Franklin L. West, _Life of Franklin D. Richards_ (Salt Lake City [1924]).]

Minnesota

Minnesota's first printer was James Madison Goodhue of Hebron, N.H. An Amherst College graduate, he had abandoned a legal career to run a pioneer newspaper at Lancaster, Wis. Shortly after the establishment of the Minnesota Territory, he moved his printing equipment to St. Paul, and on April 28, 1849, he founded his weekly newspaper, _The Minnesota Pioneer_. It is reported that even though he brought along two printers, Goodhue himself worked both as compositor and pressman, and further that the printing press he used at Lancaster and St. Paul was the same on which Iowa's first printing had been performed.[113] The Library of Congress' scattered file of this first Minnesota newspaper contains just one 1849 issue, dated October 25.

Taking precedence as the Library's earliest example of Minnesota printing is the first issue, dated August 25, 1849, of another St. Paul paper, the _Minnesota Chronicle and Register_, which resulted from the merger of two early rivals of the _Pioneer_. In an introductory editorial the proprietors, James Hughes and John Phillips Owens, make certain claims on behalf of this paper:

Our union bases us upon a foundation which renders our permanent success beyond a contingency. The combining of the two offices places us in possession of probably the best and most complete printing establishment on the Mississippi, above St. Louis. These advantages, with our practical experience in the art, the aid of health and a free good will, and a moderate share of the other requisites, we hope will enable us to give the Chronicle and Register a place in the front rank of well executed, useful and instructive newspapers.... We have two new Washington Printing Presses, with all the recent improvements attached. We defy any establishment in the Union to produce superior pieces of machinery in the way of Hand Presses. Our assortment of book and job type is also of the newest and handsomest styles, and comprises larger quantities and greater varieties than can be found this side of St. Louis. And we are happy to announce we have more coming.

They also make an interesting statement of editorial policy:

The Chronicle and Register have each a reputatation [sic] at home and abroad, gained during the few months of their separate existence. The views of the respective editors in regard to general politics, and the relation they bear upon these matters to our present administrations, National and Territorial, has been a matter of no concealment on the part of either. And were it not for one reason, we would here let this subject rest. But the ground Minnesota at present occupies is neutral. We have no vote in the Legislative councils of the Nation, no vote for President. Why should we then divide and distract our people upon questions that they have no voice in determining? Why array each other in separate bands as Whigs and Democrats when such a course can only show the relative strength of the two parties, without adding one iota to the prosperity and welfare of either? The measures of one or the other of the great parties of the country will receive the sanction of the next Congress, and no thanks to Minnesota for her votes. We as citizens, and as whigs, are willing to leave it for the future to determine which of these parties are to sway the destinies of our Territory.

The Library has eight issues of the _Chronicle and Register_ from the year 1849, as well as later ones through February 17, 1851, all bearing its motto: "The greatest good for the greatest number." Many of the earlier issues are addressed to John M. Clayton, who was Secretary of State until July 1850, and some later issues are addressed to his successor, Daniel Webster. (The Library's file of _The Minnesota Pioneer_ also has a State Department provenance.)

In addition the Library of Congress owns three official publications printed by James Madison Goodhue in 1849: _Message from the Governor of Minnesota Territory to the Two Houses of the Legislative Assembly, at the Commencement of the First Session, September 4, 1849_; _Rules for the Government of the Council of Minnesota Territory, and Joint Rules of the Council and House, Adopted at a Session of the Legislature, Commenced September 3, 1849_; and _Message of the Governor, in Relation to a Memorial from Half-Breeds of Pembina_.[114] On September 5, the day after it authorized Goodhue to do its printing, the newly formed legislature ordered the first two of these titles printed in editions of 500 and 100 copies, respectively.[115] The Library copies of both pamphlets are unbound, without marks of personal ownership. The first is an older acquisition of undetermined origin; the second a 1940 purchase from the Rosenbach Company in New York, at $165. The third title was ordered printed in 300 copies on October 1, 1849, the day the Governor's message was delivered.[116] It is a four-page leaflet, one of 73 rare American imprints that the printing historian Douglas C. McMurtrie sold to the Library for $600 in 1935.

[Footnote 113: See M. W. Berthel, _Horns of Thunder, the Life and Times of James M. Goodhue, Including Selections from his Writings_ (St. Paul, 1948).]

[Footnote 114: These are nos. 18, 66, and 23 in Esther Jerabek's _A Bibliography of Minnesota Territorial Documents_ (St. Paul, 1936). Unrecorded in this bibliography are two early pamphlets printed by the _Chronicle and Register_: _Courts of Record in the Territory of Minnesota; Approved Nov. 1, 1849--Took Effect Dec. 1, 1849_ and _Law of the Territory of Minnesota; Relative to the Powers and Duties of Justices. Approved November First, 1849--Took Effect December First, 1849_. The Library's copies are inscribed to Elisha Whittlesey, comptroller, U. S. Treasury Department.]

[Footnote 115: See _Journal of the Council During the First Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Minnesota_ (St. Paul, 1850), p. 23.]

[Footnote 116: Ibid., p. 51.]

Washington

The earliest recorded example of Washington printing is the first number of _The Columbian_, published at Olympia on September 11, 1852. The founders of this newspaper were James W. Wiley and Thornton F. McElroy, who purchased a press on which the Portland _Oregonian_ had for a short time been printed and which before that saw service in California.[117]

In 1853 the Territory of Washington was created from the northern part of the Territory of Oregon, and on April 17, 1854, the new Territorial legislature elected James W. Wiley to be Washington's first official printer. The earliest specimen of Washington printing held by the Library of Congress appears to be the following example of his work, printed at Olympia in 1855: _Acts of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington, Passed at the Second Regular Session, Begun and Held at Olympia, December 4, 1854, in the Seventy-Ninth Year of American Independence_. It includes an act passed at the second session, on February 1, 1855, specifying the size and distribution of the original edition:

Sec. 1. _Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington_, That the Public Printer be, and is hereby required to print in pamphlet form, six hundred copies of the laws of the present session, and a like number of the laws of the last session of the Legislative Assembly....

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the territory to forward to each county auditor in the territory fifteen copies of the laws of each session for the use of the county officers, and two copies for each member of the Legislative Assembly, and to each officer of the Legislative Assembly, one copy of said laws.

The Library owns three copies of this 75-page official document, all acquired probably during the last quarter of the 19th century. They are in old Library bindings and bear no marks of prior ownership.

Among the Library's collections are five other Olympia imprints of the same year but from the press of the second official printer, George B. Goudy, who was elected on January 27, 1855. One of these, a work of more than 500 pages, the Library also holds in three copies: _Statutes of the Territory of Washington: Being the Code Passed by the Legislative Assembly, At Their First Session Begun and Held at Olympia, February 27th, 1854. Also, Containing the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Organic Act of Washington Territory, the Donation Laws, &C., &C._ The others are _Journal of the Council of the Territory of Washington: Together With the Memorials and Joint Resolutions of the First Session of {the} Legislative Assembly ..._; _Journal of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Washington: Together With the Memorials and Joint Resolutions of the First Session of the Legislative Assembly ..._; _Journal of the Council of the Territory of Washington, During the Second Session of the legislative Assembly ..._; and _Journal of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Washington: Being the Second Session of the Legislative Assembly ..._.

Most official printing in the Territories was paid for by the Federal Government, and copies of many publications were sent to Washington, D.C., to meet certain administrative requirements. In some copies now at the Library of Congress visible evidence to this effect remains, as in the above-mentioned Council and House journals for the second legislative session, both inscribed to "Library State Dept." Although the Department of State continued to exercise broad supervision over the Territories at this period, supervision of their official printing was assigned, as it had been since 1842, to the Treasury Department. The cover or halftitle now bound in at the end of the above-mentioned House journal for the first legislative session bears notations made in the office of the Treasury Department's first comptroller, who exercised this particular responsibility.[118] One is a barely legible record in pencil: "Recd Oct 14/56 in letter of Sec Mason of Augt 26/56"; and another is in ink: "Finding enclosed to Sec Mason March 31/57." These notations refer to correspondence between the comptroller and the secretary of the Territory of Washington about remuneration for printing. Part of the correspondence is still retained at the National Archives (in Record Group 217).

[Footnote 117: See Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles, 1956), p. 35-38.]

[Footnote 118: See W. A. Katz, "Tracing Western Territorial Imprints Through the National Archives," _The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America_, vol. 59 (1965), p. 1-11. Two Minnesota documents inscribed to the comptroller are cited in footnote no. 2 on page 69.]

Nebraska

Scholarly investigation has revealed that a supposed early instance of Nebraska printing--the Mormon _General Epistle_ "written at Winter Quarters, Omaha Nation, west bank of Missouri River, near Council Bluffs, North America, and signed December 23d, 1847"--actually issued from a St. Louis press.[119] The Library of Congress copy of this imprint is consequently disqualified for discussion here, as are also the Library's three issues of the _Omaha Arrow_, beginning with the initial number dated July 28, 1854, since these issues were printed in Iowa, at Council Bluffs, before Omaha acquired its own press.

Nebraska printing begins in fact with the 16th number of the _Nebraska Palladium_, issued at Bellevue on November 15, 1854. Previously issued at St. Mary's, Iowa, the paper takes pride in introducing printing to the newly formed Territory of Nebraska and identifies the men responsible:

The first printers in our office, and who have set up the present number, are natives of three different states--Ohio, Virginia, and Massachusetts, namely: Thomas Morton, foreman, Columbus, Ohio (but Mr. Morton was born in England); A. D. Long, compositor, Virginia; Henry M. Reed, apprentice, Massachusetts.[120]

The first Nebraska books were printed at Omaha by the Territorial printers Sherman & Strickland in 1855, and they are represented in the Library of Congress collections: _Laws, Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Regular Session of the First General Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska, Convened at Omaha City, on the 16th Day of January, Anno Domini, 1855. Together with the Constitution of the United States, the Organic Law, and the Proclamations Issued in the Organization of the Territorial Government; Journal of the Council at the First Regular Session of the General Assembly, of the Territory of Nebraska, Begun and Held at Omaha City, Commencing on Tuesday the Sixteenth Day January, A. D. 1855, and Ending on the Sixteenth Day of March, A. D. 1855_; and _Journal of the House of Representatives, of the First Regular Session of the General Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska ..._. These three official publications record quite fully the work of the first Nebraska Legislature, which consisted of a council of 13 and a house of 26 members. From later in the same year the Library owns still another Sherman & Strickland imprint: _Annual Message of Mark W. Izard, Governor of the Territory of Nebraska, Addressed to the Legislative Assembly, December 18, 1855_. The Governor delivered this address at the convening of the second legislature.

The press on which these four books were printed had been transported to Omaha from Ohio, and it was used to produce the initial number of the _Omaha Nebraskan_, January 17, 1855.[121] On March 13, with the approval of a joint resolution which may be read in the _Laws, Resolutions and Memorials_, John H. Sherman and Joseph B. Strickland became the official printers of the Territory; and "An Act to provide for Printing and Distributing the Laws of Nebraska Territory," also approved on March 13, stipulated that a thousand copies of the laws and resolutions of the first legislature be printed. Two of the thousand copies are listed as a "present" in _Additions Made to the Library of Congress, Since the First Day of November, 1855. November 1, 1856_ (Washington, 1856).[122] They are still on the Library shelves, along with a third copy received by transfer from another Government agency in 1911. The Library received its copy of the _Journal of the Council_ in 1867 and its copy of the _Journal of the House of Representatives_ probably not much later in the 19th century.[123] The Statute Law Book Company sold the Library Governor Izard's _Annual Message_ for $22 in October 1935.

[Footnote 119: See no. 65 in Thomas W. Streeter's _Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952). The Library of Congress possesses one copy, not two as here reported.]

[Footnote 120: Quoted from Douglas C. McMurtrie's "Pioneer Printing in Nebraska" in _National Printer Journalist_, vol. 50, no. 1 (January 1932), p. 20-21, 76-78.]

[Footnote 121: Ibid., p. 76.]

[Footnote 122: P. 99.]

[Footnote 123: The latter title is indicated as wanting in a collective entry for Council and House journals in the _Catalogue of Books Added to the Library of Congress, from December 1, 1866, to December 1, 1867_ (Washington, 1868), p. 282.]

South Dakota

In 1858 the Dakota Land Company sent out from St. Paul to Sioux Falls a newspaper editor named Samuel J. Albright, a printer named J. W. Barnes, and a printing press which Albright later insisted was the original Goodhue press (see above, p. 68), despite conflicting accounts of its history. If his testimony is correct, the same press introduced printing in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. It appears to have been first used at Sioux Falls to print a small election notice dated September 20, 1858; in the following summer, it was used to print South Dakota's first newspaper, _The Democrat_.[124]

Establishment of the Territory of Dakota in 1861 attracted a second Dakota press to the new Territorial capital at Yankton. The earliest Dakota, or South Dakota, printing in the Library of Congress is from the newspaper associated with that press, _The Dakotian_, first published on June 6, 1861, by Frank M. Ziebach and William Freney of Sioux City, Iowa. The Library's earliest holding is the 13th number, which is dated April 1, 1862, and exhibits the paper's motto: "'Let all the Ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, thy God's and Truth's.'--_Wolsey._" This number follows upon a transfer of the editorship and proprietorship to Josiah C. Trask of Kansas, who announces,

We have secured the interest which Mr. ZIEBACH, the former publisher of this paper, held in the office, and have made extensive additions for book work, &c.--We are now engaged in executing the incidental printing of the Legislative Assembly of this Territory under peculiar disadvantages; yet we believe it will compare favorably with the work of many older Territories. We are prepared to execute any style of printing to the satisfaction of patrons.

By using fine print, Trask was able to present much material in this four-page issue. Among its contents are the text of the Governor's message to the first Territorial legislature and several U.S. laws passed by the first session of the 37th Congress. The lead editorial, "What We Mean to Do," contains the following statement of policy regarding the Civil War:

At present, there is no room for disagreement in politics. So far as our knowledge extends, all parties join heartily in an indorsement of the truly patriotic and conservative course adopted by the President in the management of this war. He is not a patriot who will allow any slight disagreement te [sic] turn him from a straightforward opposition to the ambitious men who are now heading a Rebellion to destroy the fairest Government ever known. Until this war is ended by a suppression of the Rebellion, unless a change is forced upon us, we shall walk with men of ALL parties, in an earnest, honest purpose to do what we can to strengthen the arms of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, in whatever acts he may deem best for the people who have called him to his present proud position. In this determination we feel that all our patrons will sustain us.

The editorial concludes with an appeal to support the paper:

Few persons can know the expense and care requisite for a publication like this so far West. We feel that our Territory cannot support more than one or two papers. One of these must be at the Capital, and we shall endeavor to make this one worthy the support of all. We expect to receive pecuniary encouragement from men of all parties and all parts. After a few weeks, when we are better acquainted and our paper is better known, we shall ask for the assistance which will be due us from those whom we labor to benefit.