Chapter IV: Part 4

The Library of Congress file of the _Arizonian_ starts with the issue of August 18, 1859, the earliest example of Arizona printing now held by the Library. The paper had removed from Tubac to Tucson shortly before that date under rather dramatic circumstances. Edward E. Cross, its first editor, vigorously opposed a movement in favor of separating Arizona from New Mexico and organizing it as an independent territory. In attacking population statistics put forward by Sylvester Mowry, the leader of that movement, Cross impugned Mowry's character, whereupon Mowry challenged him to a duel, which was fought with rifles on July 8 without injury to either party. Mowry subsequently purchased the printing press and moved it to Tucson. Under a new editor, J. Howard Wells, the _Arizonian_'s positions were completely reversed.[129]

The issue of August 18 supports the candidacy of Sylvester Mowry for delegate to Congress, in an election scheduled for September 1. In view of past events it was understandable that the paper should encourage a heavy vote, not only to demonstrate the unity of Arizonians desiring Territorial status, but also to indicate the extent of the population. The following short article relates to the recurrent topic of numbers:

A SLIGHT MISTAKE

We understand Col. Bonneville says he has taken the names
of all the Americans, between the Rio Grande and the Santa
Cruz, and they number only one hundred and eighty. Come and
pay us a longer visit, Colonel, and count again. There are
nearly that number in and around Tucson alone, and there
are a good many of us that dislike to be denationalized
in so summary a manner. The Overland Mail Company alone,
employs some seventy five Americans, between here and the
Rio Grande, and they justly think, they have a right to be
included, as well as the farmers living on the San Pedro
and the Miembres rivers, it is hardly fair to leave them
out. It is nearly as bad as cutting down the Americans on
the Gila and Colorado to twelve. When there are ten times
that number. Try it again Colonel, for evidently there is a
slight mistake, some where.

In the same issue is a notice illustrating the production difficulties characteristic of a frontier press:

We have to apologize to the readers of the Arizonian, for
the delay in issuing this our regular number; the detention
has been unavoidably caused, by the indisposition of our
printer. We hope it may not occur again, and will not as
far as lays in our power to prevent it.

When examined as recently as 1932, a Library of Congress binding contained 10 issues of the _Arizonian_ from the year 1859, beginning July 14; however, that early issue has been missing from the binding at least since 1948. One mark of provenance occurs among the remaining issues: an inscription on the issue of August 18, the upper half of which has been cut away but which unquestionably reads, "Gov Rencher." The recipient was Abraham Rencher (1798-1883), a distinguished North Carolinian who was serving as Governor of the Territory of New Mexico in 1859. By whatever route, these issues reached the Library early enough to be recorded in _A Check List of American Newspapers in the Library of Congress_ (1901).

[Footnote 128: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _The Beginnings of Printing in Arizona_ (Chicago, 1937), p. 31, note 9.]

[Footnote 129: See Estelle Lutrell, _Newspapers and Periodicals of Arizona 1859-1911_ (Tucson, 1950), p. 7-8, 63-64. For more on Cross and Mowry, see Jo Ann Schmitt, _Fighting Editors_ (San Antonio, 1958), p. 1-21.]

Colorado

The earliest examples of Colorado printing are the first numbers of two competing newspapers, which were issued at Denver on April 23, 1859, only about 20 minutes apart.[130] Taking precedence was the _Rocky Mountain News_, published by William N. Byers & Co. and printed with equipment purchased in Nebraska. Its printers were John L. Dailey of Ohio, a member of the company, and W. W. Whipple of Michigan.[131]

The Library of Congress recently acquired its earliest example of Colorado printing, a broadside entitled _Laws and Regulations of the Miners of the Gregory Diggings District_, attributed to the Byers & Co. press. Printed sometime after July 16, 1859, it is one of but two located copies of the first extant Colorado imprint other than a newspaper or newspaper extra.[132] The laws, passed at miners' meetings on June 8 and July 16, apply to the district named for John Gregory, whose successful prospecting helped to stimulate the famous Pike's Peak gold rush. They were placed in historical context by Peter C. Schank, assistant chief of the American-British Law Division in the Library of Congress, in an article announcing this acquisition:

the laws themselves are intrinsically valuable because they
served as a model for much succeeding legislation, not only
for other mining districts, but for State and national
enactments as well. Despite the promulgation of California
district laws 10 years earlier, the Gregory laws, perhaps
because of the district's fame, the presence of prospectors
with previous experience in other mining areas, and the
imminent adoption of the first national mining statute, had
a unique influence on the development of mining law in this
country.[133]

The lower margin of the Library's copy is inscribed, "Favor of Stiles E Mills, July 20th 1863." Neither the identity of Mr. Mills nor the intervening provenance has been established. In recent years this copy belonged to Thomas W. Streeter (1883-1965) of Morristown, N. J., owner of the most important private library of Americana assembled during the 20th century. The Library of Congress paid $2,800 for the broadside at that portion of the Streeter sale held by Parke-Bernet Galleries on April 23-24, 1968.[134]

Previously the Library's first example of Colorado printing was the second issue of a small newspaper sheet, _The Western Mountaineer_, published at Golden City on December 14, 1859. This newspaper was printed on the same press, actually the first to reach Colorado, that under different ownership had lost the close race to print the first newspaper at Denver. Gold is a prominent topic in this particular issue, which includes an interesting account of the prospector, George Andrew Jackson, based on information he himself supplied. The Library's copy seems to have been detached from a bound volume, probably before its listing in _A Check List of American Newspapers in the Library of Congress_ (1901). Penciled on its front page are the name "Lewis Cass [Esquire?]" and what appears to be another name beginning with "Amos." Lewis Cass was Secretary of State at the time of publication.

[Footnote 130: See Douglas C. McMurtrie and Albert H. Allen, _Early Printing in Colorado_ (Denver, 1935).]

[Footnote 131: See _History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado_ (Chicago, 1880), p. 395 and 641.]

[Footnote 132: See no. 68 in Thomas W. Streeter's _Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952).]

[Footnote 133: U.S. Library of Congress, _The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress_, vol. 26 (1969), p. 229.]

[Footnote 134: It is described under no. 2119 in _The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter_ (New York, 1966-69), vol. 4.]

Wyoming

The oldest relics of Wyoming printing are June and July 1863 issues of the _Daily Telegraph_, published at Fort Bridger in what was then the Territory of Utah. The printer and publisher of this newspaper was Hiram Brundage, telegraph operator at the Fort, who had previously been associated with the Fort Kearney _Herald_ in the Territory of Nebraska.[135] No printing is known to have been performed in Wyoming between 1863 and 1867, with the possible exception of a disputed imprint dated 1866,[136] and the first permanent Wyoming press dates from the founding of the _Cheyenne Leader_ in September 1867.

The earliest example of Wyoming printing in the Library of Congress is a 24-page pamphlet printed at Green River by "Freeman & Bro., book and job printers" in 1868: _A Vocabulary of the Snake, or, Sho-Sho-Nay Dialect by Joseph A. Gebow, Interpreter. Second Edition, Revised and Improved, January 1st, 1864._ It was printed on the press of the _Frontier Index_, a migratory newspaper which commenced when the Freemans bought out the Fort Kearney _Herald_ in Nebraska. This press moved westward from place to place as the Union Pacific Railroad penetrated into southern Wyoming, and it stopped at Green River for about two months in 1868.[137]

The first edition of Gebow's _Vocabulary_ was printed at Salt Lake City in 1859, and the first printing of the second edition at Camp Douglas, Utah, in 1864. The vocabulary proper is prefaced only by the following statement:

Mr. Joseph A. Gebow, having been a resident in the
Mountains for nearly twenty years, has had ample
opportunity of acquiring the language of the several tribes
of Indians, and offers this sample of Indian Literature,
hoping it may beguile many a tedious hour to the trader,
the trapper, and to any one who feels an interest in the
language of the Aborigines of the Mountains.

Even for those unfamiliar with the native dialect, the words and phrases in English can be beguiling. Among the phrases chosen for translation are "Go slow, friend, don't get mad" and "You done wrong."

The present Library of Congress copy is inscribed to the Smithsonian Institution, and to judge from a date stamp it was added to the Smithsonian Library by May 1870. Later it was transferred to the Library of Congress through the Smithsonian Deposit (see above, p. 52). It is in an old library binding with the original printed wrappers bound in.

[Footnote 135: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _Early Printing in Wyoming and the Black Hills_ (Hattiesburg, Miss., 1943), p. 9-10.]

[Footnote 136: Ibid., p. 10, note 1.]

[Footnote 137: Ibid., p. 39. On p. 48 McMurtrie argues that the pamphlet was printed in the month of October.]

Montana

Authorities do not agree on when or by whom Montana's first printing was undertaken. It was either at Bannack or Virginia City, both gold-mining towns, probably in October 1863.[138]

The earliest Montana imprints in the Library of Congress were printed at Virginia City in 1866 by John P. Bruce, who owned _The Montana Democrat_ and was designated Public Printer. Of these, the first may be an eight-page pamphlet, _Reports of the Auditor, Treasurer, and Indian Commissioner, of the Territory of Montana_. The latest document incorporated in the text is dated February 22, 1866, and the pamphlet was printed in the office of _The Montana Democrat_ probably not long after that date. Most likely the second Montana imprint in the Library is the _Message of Governor Thomas Francis Meagher, to the Legislature of Montana Territory, Delivered on the 6th Day of March, 1866_. Three thousand copies were ordered, according to a printed note on the eighth and final page of this work. Neither of these two imprints bears any mark of provenance, and both appear to have entered the Library before the turn of the century.

Another early example of Montana printing in the Library is the 22d number, dated April 12, 1866, of _The Montana Democrat_, a sizable four-page sheet displaying the paper's motto: "Be faithful in all accepted trusts." It is addressed in pencil to the State Department. From about the same time the Library can boast two copies of _Laws of the Teritory_ [sic] _of Montana, Passed at the Second Session of the Legislature, 1866. Beginning March 5, 1866, and Ending April 14, 1866_, a work of 54 pages. Although copy one is imperfect, lacking pages 49-54, it is of interest for the penciled inscription on its title page: "President Johnson."

The Library of Congress also owns three copies of a celebrated Montana book published at Virginia City in the same year by the proprietors of _The Montana Post_ press, S. W. Tilton & Co.: _The Vigilantes of Montana, or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains. Being a Correct and Impartial Narrative of the Chase, Trial, Capture and Execution of Henry Plummer's Road Agent Band, Together With Accounts of the Lives and Crimes of Many of the Robbers and Desperadoes, the Whole Being Interspersed With Sketches of Life in the Mining Camps of the "Far West;" Forming the Only Reliable Work on the Subject Ever Offered the Public._ The author, Prof. Thos. J. Dimsdale, was an Englishman who served Virginia City as a teacher and as editor of the _Post_, where his work originally appeared in installments. This first edition in book form contains 228 pages of text. The Library date-stamped copy one in 1874. Copy two was deposited for copyright in 1882, the year that D. W. Tilton put out a second edition. Copy three bears the signature of Henry Gannett (1846-1914), geographer of the U.S. Geological Survey and at the time of his death president of the National Geographic Society. It contains a "War Service Library" bookplate and an "American Library Association Camp Library" borrower's card (unused). The Library of Congress received the copy from an unknown source in 1925.[139]

[Footnote 138: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, _Pioneer Printing in Montana_ (Iowa City, Iowa, 1932); the Introduction to McMurtrie's _Montana Imprints 1864-1880_ (Chicago, 1937); and Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles, 1956), p. 49-51.]

[Footnote 139: Three Virginia City imprints dated 1866 are excluded from the present account. One of them (McMurtrie 19) cannot have been issued before January 10, 1867. The others (McMurtrie 130 and 131) were actually printed in Maine according to McMurtrie's bibliography. None of the Library of Congress copies of these imprints has a notable provenance.]

North Dakota

As early as 1853 a printing press is said to have been at the St. Joseph mission station, site of the present town of Walhalla, but there is no evidence that the press was actually used there. The first confirmed North Dakota printing was done on a press which Company I of the 30th Wisconsin Volunteers brought to Fort Union in June 1864. In July of that year a small newspaper, the _Frontier Scout_, made its appearance at the fort, and extant issues name the Company as "proprietors" and identify (Robert) Winegar and (Ira F.) Goodwin, both from Eau Claire but otherwise unknown, as publishers.[140] Possibly antedating the _Frontier Scout_ is a rare broadside notice which either issued from the same press (not before June 17) or else could be the first extant Montana imprint.[141]

With its early North Dakota newspapers the Library of Congress has a facsimile reprint of the _Frontier Scout_, volume 1, number 2 (the first extant issue), dated July 14, 1864. The Library's earliest original specimen of North Dakota printing is a copy of the _Frontier Scout_, volume 1, number 9 in a new series of issues at the paper's second location, Fort Rice. Dated August 10, 1865, this issue names Capt. E. G. Adams as editor and Lt. C. H. Champney as publisher. The Library's copy is printed on a four-page sheet of blue-ruled notebook paper.

The contents of the August 10 issue are almost entirely from the pen of Captain Adams, who saw fit to run the statement: "Every article in the paper is original and sees the light for the first time." A long poem about Columbus, which he entitled "San Salvador," occupies most of the front page. More interesting is a second-page editorial headed "Indian Impolicy," rebuking the authorities in Washington for not allowing General Sully a free hand in his current operations against the Indians (whom the editor calls "these miserable land-pirates"). From this issue one gains an impression that Fort Rice must have been a dreary post. The following is under date of August 6 in a section captioned "Local Items":

By the Big Horn and Spray [vessels] the Q. M. Dept. at Fort
Rice receive 4500 sacks of corn. The Mail arrives. The
wolves are howling on all sides tonight; we can see them,
some of them are as large as year old calves. The first cat
arrives at Fort Rice. There are so many rats and mice here
it is a great field for feline missionaries.

The Library of Congress obtained its copy of this issue of the _Frontier Scout_ through an exchange with the South Dakota Historical Society in November 1939.

[Footnote 140: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, "Pioneer Printing in North Dakota," _North Dakota Historical Quarterly_, vol. 6, 1931-32, p. 221-230.]

[Footnote 141: See no. 2036 in _The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter_ (New York, 1966-69), vol. 4.]

Alaska

Printing is not known to have been undertaken by the Russians in Alaska,[142] nor can a broadside notice of 1854 printed by an English searching party aboard H.M.S. _Plover_ at Point Barrow[143] be properly considered as Alaskan printing. The first printing in Alaska evidently followed its transfer to United States rule on October 18, 1867.

Despite the absence of a bibliography or trustworthy history of early Alaskan printing, it seems safe to say that the earliest imprints were the orders issued by the Military District of Alaska beginning with General Orders No. 1, dated October 29, 1867.[144] The District headquarters were at Sitka. There is no statement on the orders about place of printing, but it is difficult to imagine how they could have been printed elsewhere than Alaska and still have served their immediate purpose.

The earliest Alaskan printing in the Library of Congress is a series of general orders dating from April 11, 1868, to July 1, 1870. These orders, printed as small sheets and leaflets, are mostly of a routine character, the majority reporting courts-martial held at Sitka. In the General Orders No. 1, of April 11, 1868, Jefferson C. Davis announces his assumption of command of the Department of Alaska, which superseded the Military District of Alaska on March 18, 1868, and he names the members of his departmental staff. The orders are printed on different kinds of paper, including blue-ruled, and many of them carry official signatures in manuscript. General Orders No. 13, of December 31, 1868, is stamped: "Received Adjutant Gen'ls Office Apr 6 1870." The whole series is bound into a volume, now destitute of both covers, which was weeded from the Army War College Library sometime after World War II. The National War College transferred it to the Library of Congress in or about 1953.

Since the facts surrounding the Army press have yet to be documented, it may be well to consider the civilian printing of Alaska also. This apparently began with the initial issue of _The Alaskan Times_, dated April 23, 1869, and printed on a press obtained from San Francisco.[145] The _Times_ ceased publication in 1870. Apart from the general orders of 1868-70, the earliest Alaskan printing in the Library is its file of _The Sitka Post_ beginning with the second issue, dated November 5, 1876. The _Post_, published in a small six-page format on the 5th and 20th of each month, was the second newspaper to be printed in Alaska. Neither the _Times_ nor the _Post_ identifies its printer.

Featured in the November 5 issue is "The Cavalry Fight at Brandy Station," an extract from L. P. Brockett's _The Camp, the Battle Field, and the Hospital_ (Philadelphia, 1866). Following this is a forceful editorial on "The Indian Campaign," which advocates committing a greater number of U.S. troops to the war against the Sioux. Certain advertisements in this issue are noteworthy because they relate to the paper itself. One is on the fourth page:

We wish to call the Attention of all BUSINESS MEN who
intend to Trade in Alaska to the fact that The Sitka Post
is the Only Newspaper PUBLISHED in the TERRITORY. It is
devoted entirely to the Interests of ALASKA; will never
be made the organ of any party [o]r ring, political,
commercial, or otherwise; and will make it its object to
give the news of the TERRITORY. ALL ENTERPRISING MEN who
wish to bring their BUSINESS before the Public of Alaska
Territory cannot do better than by ADVERTISING in The Sitka
Post.

Another appears on the last page:

MEN OF ENTERPRISE! TAKE NOTICE! The SITKA POST Is the
only Paper printed in Alaska. It is the best medium of
Advertising. It circulates in Sitka, Wrangel, Stikeen,
Kodiak; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, Cal; Baltimore,
Md, and Washington, D. C. Send your Advertisements to J. J.
Daly Editor, Sitka Post, Sitka, A.

And there is a brief appeal at the end of the last page:

Wanted--More subscribers and contributors to this paper.

The Library of Congress file of the _Post_ is in an old Library binding and extends from number 2 without break to the 14th and final number, dated June 5, 1877. The first page in the volume bears a Library date stamp of 1877. Also on the first page is the signature "M. Baker," preceded by the words "Purchased by" in a different hand. Thus the file was apparently assembled by Marcus Baker (1849-1903), a noted cartographer and writer on Alaska who was employed from 1873 to 1886 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Some issues are addressed in pencil to individual subscribers, three of whom can be positively identified from company muster rolls at the National Archives as members of the 4th Artillery, U.S. Army, stationed at Sitka. They are "Ord[nance] Serg[ean]t [George] Go[l]kell"; "H[enry] Train," a corporal in Company G; and "W[illiam] J. Welch," a bugler in Company G.

[Footnote 142: See Valerian Lada-Mocarski, "Earliest Russian Printing in the United States," in _Homage to a Bookman; Essays ... Written for Hans P. Kraus_ (Berlin, 1967), p. 231-233.]

[Footnote 143: See no. 3525 in _The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter_ (New York, 1966-69), vol. 6.]

[Footnote 144: See ibid., no. 3531.]

[Footnote 145: Photostat copy in the Library of Congress examined.]

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

The images have not been cleaned up in order to keep the worn look of the old documents. The texts within the images have not been transcribed with the exception of some titles. Image descriptions, added for convenience, are within parentheses below the images. Captions found in the original book are not enclosed in parentheses.

All [sic] notes were from the original book.

Retained spelling variations found in the original book.