Pioneer Imprints from Fifty States · Roger J. Trienens
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 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.]
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. 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.
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]).] 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 112: See Franklin L. West, _Life of Franklin D. Richards_ (Salt Lake City [1924]).]
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. 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). 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. 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]
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).
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.