Chapter III: Part 3

The Library of Congress also owns the only known copy of _Kikinawadendamoiwewin or almanac, wa aiongin obiboniman debeniminang iesos, 1834_, printed at Green Bay on the _Intelligencer_ press. Its 14 leaves, printed on one side only, are within an original paper cover bearing the manuscript title "Chippewa Almanac." A document held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin reveals that in 1834 the Catholic mission at Green Bay charged "the Menominee Nation of Indians" for "an Indian Almanac rendered by signs equally useful to those among the Natives who are unable to read their language, published at Green Bay, 150 copies, $18"; and that the bill went unpaid.[83] Since the almanac was intended for use in the year 1834, it was likely printed before the end of 1833; yet there is no evidence to suggest that it predates the _Intelligencer_. At the suggestion of Douglas C. McMurtrie, the Library purchased its unique copy from the Rosenbach Company for "$375.00 less usual discount" in 1931.

[Footnote 82: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _Early Printing in Wisconsin_ (Seattle, 1931).]

[Footnote 83: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _The First Known Wisconsin Imprint_ (Chicago, 1934).]

California

As early as 1830 Agustín V. Zamorano, executive secretary of the Mexican territory of Alta California, was using limited printing equipment to produce official letterheads. Zamorano later became proprietor of California's first regular printing press, which was shipped from Boston (via Hawaii) and set up at Monterey about July 1834. While he controlled this press--that is, until the uprising in November 1836--Zamorano appears to have employed two printers, whose names are unknown.[84]

Under the revolutionary government the same press continued in operation at Monterey and at Sonoma, and the earliest California printing in the Library of Congress is the first known Sonoma issue: _Ecspocision_ [sic] _que hace el comdanante_ [sic] _general interino de la Alta California al gobernador de la misma_. It is a small pamphlet having 21 pages of text, preceded by a leaf bearing a woodcut of an eagle. The text is dated from Sonoma, August 17, 1837, and signed by Mariano G. Vallejo, beneath whose printed name is a manuscript flourish.

Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807-90) held the highest military office of Alta California at the time of writing, his headquarters then being at Sonoma. In his communication to the Governor, he advocates certain commercial reforms summarized as follows in Hubert Howe Bancroft's _History of the Pacific States of North America_ (San Francisco, 1882-90):

His plan was to prohibit all coasting trade by foreign
vessels, and to transfer the custom-house from Monterey
to San Francisco. In defence of the first, he adduced the
well known practice on the part of traders of presenting
themselves at Monterey with a few cheap articles for
inspection, afterward taking on board from secure
hiding-places the valuable part of the cargo, to be sold
at other ports. Thus the revenue was grossly defrauded,
leaving the government without funds. By the change
proposed not only would smuggling cease and the revenues
be augmented, but Californians would be encouraged to
become owners of coasting vessels or to build up a system
of inland communication by mule-trains.... The transfer
of the custom-house was advocated on the ground of San
Francisco's natural advantages, the number and wealth of
the establishments tributary to the bay, and the importance
of building up the northern frontier as a matter of foreign
policy.[85]

General Vallejo was his own printer. In a manuscript "Historia de California" he says of his pamphlet, "I wrote the attached statement of which I sent the original to the governor of the State and which I printed immediately in the small printing office that I had in Sonoma and of which I was the only employee; I had the printed copies distributed throughout all parts of California and furthermore I gave some copies to the captains of merchant ships that were going to ports in the United States of America."[86]

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]

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.

A Library of Congress bound volume contains an incomplete but substantial run of _The Dakotian_ from April 1, 1862, to December 17, 1864, without any marks of provenance. In addition the Library owns a file of South Dakota's third newspaper, _The Dakota Republican_, beginning with volume 1, number 31, published at Vermillion on April 5, 1862. This newspaper has for its motto "Our Country If Right, If Wrong, God Forgive, But Our Country Still!" The Library's issue of April 12, 1862, is inscribed "Wm H James"--this would be William Hartford James of Dakota City, Nebr., who served as Acting Governor of Nebraska in 1871-1872--and some of its 1868 and 1869 issues are inscribed "Dept of State." All of these papers are accounted for in _A Check List of American Newspapers in the Library of Congress_ (1901).

From the year 1862 the Library also possesses four books printed at Yankton all bearing the imprint of Josiah C. Trask, Public Printer: _Council Journal of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota, to which is Prefixed a List of the Members and Officers of the Council, With Their Residence, Post-Office Address, Occupation, Age, &c._; _House Journal of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota, to which is Prefixed a List of the Members and Officers of the House_ ...; _General Laws, and Memorials and Resolutions of the Territory of Dakota, Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly, Commenced at the Town of Yankton, March 17, and Concluded May 15, 1862. To Which are Prefixed a Brief Description of the Territory and its Government, the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, and the Act of Organizing the Territory_; and _Private Laws of the Territory of Dakota, Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly_....[125] Single copies of the Council and House journals were in the Library by 1877. The Library has four copies of the _General Laws_ and _Private Laws_, bound together as issued; two copies are probably 19th-century accessions, the third came from the Department of Interior in 1900, and the fourth was transferred from an unspecified Government agency in 1925.

[Footnote 124: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _The Beginnings of the Press in South Dakota_ (Iowa City, Iowa, 1933). On the disputed history of the Goodhue press, see M. W. Berthel, _Horns of Thunder_ (St. Paul, 1948), p. 26, note 3.]

[Footnote 125: These are nos. 7, 9, 4, and 5, respectively, in Albert H. Allen's _Dakota Imprints 1858-1889_ (New York, 1947).]

Nevada

Nevada owes its first printing to W. L. Jernegan, who in partnership with Alfred James established a weekly newspaper, the _Territorial Enterprise_, at Genoa, then in western Utah Territory, on December 18, 1858. Jernegan had transported his printing equipment across the Sierras from Yolo County, Calif.[126]

The earliest Nevada imprint in the Library of Congress dates from 1862, the year after Nevada's establishment as a separate Territory: _Second Annual Message of Governor James W. Nye, to the Legislature of Nevada Territory, November 13, 1862. Together with Reports of Territorial Auditor, Treasurer, and Superintendent of Public Instruction._ Printed at Carson City by J. T. Goodman & Co., Territorial printers, this publication has 48 pages, not including the title page printed on its yellow wrapper. Joseph T. Goodman was not only involved with official printing at this time, but he was also editing the _Territorial Enterprise_, which was then located at Virginia City and had become a daily paper. He is perhaps best remembered for launching Mark Twain on a literary career when he employed him as a reporter in August 1862.[127]

Governor Nye's _Second Annual Message_ covers an important period of national history. Strongly pro-Union, it gives an optimistic account of the year's events in the Civil War and bestows high praise on Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862: "As an engine of war, its formidability is a powerful warrant of early peace, and as a measure of humanity, the enlightened world receives it with acclamations of unbounded joy." Part of the message concerns expected consequences from a bill recently passed by Congress authorizing construction of a Pacific Railroad, which would profoundly affect life in Nevada:

No State nor Territory will derive such inestimable
advantage from the road as the Territory of Nevada.
Situated, as we are, in what, during a great portion of
the year, is an almost inaccessible isolation of wealth;
with mountains covered with perpetual snow frowning down
directly upon us at the west, and with a series of ranges,
difficult to cross, at the east of us, with a wilderness
fit only for the original inhabitants of the waste,
stretching away a thousand miles, and intervening between
us and the frontier of agricultural enterprise; and with no
means of receiving the common necessaries of life, except
through the expensive freightage of tediously traveling
trains of wagons; the value of the road to us will be
beyond calculation.

The inscription "Library Depr State" on the Library of Congress copy indicates it must have been submitted to the Department of State, which in 1862 was still in charge of the United States Territories. A date stamp on its wrapper suggests that it was transferred to the Library of Congress by December 1900, while a stamp on page 2 reveals that it was in custody of the Library's Division of Documents in September 1907.

[Footnote 126: See Richard E. Lingenfelter, _The Newspapers of Nevada_ (San Francisco, 1964), p. 47-49.]

[Footnote 127: See Ivan Benson, _Mark Twain's Western Years_ (Stanford University, Calif. [1938]), chapters 4-6.]

Arizona

Printing began in Arizona with the establishment of _The Weekly Arizonian_, at the mining town of Tubac, on March 3, 1859. The Santa Rita Mining Company, which owned this newspaper, had imported the first press from Cincinnati, and the first printers are said to have been employees of the company named Jack Sims and George Smithson.[128]