History of the Press of Maine edited by Joseph Griffin, 1872 Brunswick; Maine From the Press, Established A.D. MDCCCXIX (1819) Entered according to Act of Congress., in the year 1872, by Joseph Griffin, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington Brunswick: PRESS OF J. GRIFFIN . . . . CHARLES H. FULLER, printer AT the close of half a century's labor in Maine, the writer, un- der the impression that he had been established in business as a printer, publisher and bookseller for a longer period than any .other person in the State, thought it might be a pleasure, possibly a duty, to devote himself to the, business of gathering up (while they could be gathered) the fragments for a History of the Press in Maine. The thought was thrown out, half jestingly, in a letter to one of the editors of the Saco Independent (his faithful ap- prentice in early manhood), and quite to his surprise the sugges- tion was not only hailed as a good one, but a recommendation of the writer's fitness for the work was spread through the press, and so many offers of assistance, necessary to the undertaking, were -consequently made, that he took courage and forthwith sent out a prospectus of the intended work. In the following pages the reader will find the result. The time gained from his other employments has been occu- pied with collecting arranging and printing the matter of this History. Persons, one or more in each county, it will be seen, have given the fruits of their faithful labors, - to which they have, in most cases, consented that the editor should affix their signa- tures. In no other way could so complete and reliable a history be obtained. The editor has endeavored to exclude every thing that might ,appear partial. If any political or religious paper, or any book- PREFACE. publishing house, has not received due noticee, it is in cases where he has applied in vain to the editors and publishers for the necessary information. Some corrections, with additional matter of interest, will be found in the Appendix, to which the reader's attention is particularly called. For our frontispiece is given the portraits of the trio first en- gaged in printing. They are taken from a medallion, and are said to be faithful likenesses. For the loan of the cut we are in- debted to the publishers of " Gutenberg and the Art of Printing." It is with pleasure that we insert, at the close of the Introduc- tion, a fine portrait (copied from a painting by Badger) of the venerable Benjamin Titcomb, first printer and journalist of Maine, and for forty years pastor of the Baptist church in Brunswick. (See sketch of his life, p. 34, and also in Appendix) . A description of printing presses -specimen cuts of which are exhibited in this book -may be found on page 23. Success in obtaining portraits of early printers, editors, and publishers, has not met our expectations- The portrait Of Luther Severance, from a plate prepared for the History of Augusta, was counted upon; but, very unexpectedly, on search at the office of the lithographer it was not to be found. The editor, in closing, would express his thanks to all who have kindly favored him with their contributions. - The origin and gatherings of this book are largely due to the Editors and Publishers' Association of Maine. The editors' labors, bating the imperfections, he cheerfully dedicates as a token of love to the fraternity. INDEX OF COUNTIES. PAGE. PAGE. Aroostook Connty 209 Oxford County 118 Androscoggin County 203 Penobscot County 128 Cumberland County 33 Piscataquis County 201 Franklin County 196 Somerset County 179 Hancock County 112 Sagadahoc County 166 Kennebec County 87 Washington County 147 Knox County 191 Waldo County 158 Lincoln County 107 York County 124 INDEX OF PERIODICALS NOW PUBLISHED IN MAINE, WITH THEIR EDITORS. Nov. 1872. PAGE. Aroostook Pioneer, Houlton 209 Wm. S. Gilman. Aroostook Times, Houlton 211 Theo. Cary. Bath Daily Times Weekly Sentinel 174 Elijah Upton. Bangor Democrat 137 Marcellus Emery. * Bangor Whig and Courier 132 C. A. Boutelle. * Bangor Commercial 145 Marcellus Emery. Brunswick Telegraph 84 A. G. Tenney, M. A. Bridgton News 86 R. A. Shorey. Belfast Advertiser 165 Brackett and Burgess. Burr's Fifty Cent Monthly, Bangor 144 Benjamin A. Burr. Camden Herald. See Appendix Danton Brothers. Christian Mirror 64 Charles A. Lord, M. A. Castine Gazette. See Appendix Geo. A. Wheeler, M. A., M. D. PAGE Calais Times. See APP. C. R. Whidden, Jr. Dexter Gazette 145 R. 0. Rollins. Eastern Argus, Portland 51 Charles Holden. Ellsworth American 115 N. K. Sawyer. Eastport Sentinel 147 N. B. Nutt. Fairfield Chronicle 189 George M. Colby. Farmington Chronicle 198 L. N. Prescott. (t) Gospel Banner, Augusta 98 G. W. Quinby. Gardiner Home Journal 102 H. K. Morrell. Journal of Education, Portland 69 A. P. Stone. Kennebec Journal, Augusta Sprague, Owen, and Nash. Kennebec Reporter, Gardiner 10 R. B. Caldwell. Leader, Portland. See App. Lewiston Journal (Dingley and Co.) 203 INDEX OF PERIODICALS. 7 PAGE. Lewiston Daily Eve. Journal 205 N. Dingley, M. A., F. Dingley, M. A. Lewiston Gazette 207 Wm. H. Waldron. Maine Farmer, Augusta 97 W. B. Lapham, M. D. S. L. Boardman. Republican Journal, Belfast 160 H. W. Simpson. Maine Standard, Augusta 99 L. B. Brown, H. M. Jordan Musical Monitor, Augusta 99 R. M. Mansell. Masonic Token, Portland 69 Maine Democrat, Biddeford 125 Geo. K. Shaw. Machias Union 155 Geo. W. Drisco. Machias Republican 156 C. 0. Furbush. Norway Advertiser. See App. Simeon Drake. North Star, Caribou 214 W. J. Sleeper. North East, Portland, See App. C. W. Hayes. Our Young Folks, Augusta 99 E. C. Allen, Mrs. E. S. Gatchell. Oxford Democrat. Paris 120 F. E. Shaw. Oxford Register, Paris 122 S. R. Carter. Orient, Bowd. Coll. 83 Portland Transcript 58 E. H. Elwell. PAGE. Portland Daily Press 63 Portland Advertiser 38 H. R. Richardson, M. A. People's Lit. Companion, Augusta 99 E. C. Allen, Mrs. E. S. Gatchell. Piscataquis Observer, Dover 202 Geo. V. Edes. Riverside Echo, Portland 63 B. P. Snow, M. A. Rockland Free Press 193 Edwin Sprague. Rockland Gazette 192 Z. Pope Vose. Seaside Oracle, Wiscasset 110 Jos. Wood. Somerset Reporter, Milburn 186 W. K. Moody. Sunrise, Presque Isle 212 Daniel Stickney. Star, Portland 69 State, Portland. See App. Union Advocate, N. Anson 188 Albert Moore. Union and Journal, Biddeford 126 J. E. Butler. Voice, Sherman's Mills. See App. L. H. Caldwell. Waterville Mail 106, E. Maxham, D. R. Wing. Zion's Advocate, Portland 67 Dr. Shailer, J. W. Colcord. York County Independent, Saco 126 Wm. Noyes and Son. Youth's Temp. Visitor, Rockland 194, Z. Pope Vose. * Daily and Weekly issue. Of secular papers there are sixty-eight, including seven dailies, (f) Religious papers, four. The main object of this work is to give a History of the Press in Maine; but before entering upon this special field, it seems meet that we should take a look at the origin of the Press and the Craft. So much in regard to the general history of printing has been recently published, that only a mere outline of the begin- ning and progress of the art, especially in the, last half century, need here be given. While this work has been in press, an in- teresting book, entitled "Gutenberg and the Art of Printing," by Miss Emily C. Pearson, has been published at Boston by Noyes, Holmes,and Co. Another, the ,American Encyclopedia of Print- ing," published at Philadelphia by J. Luther Ringwalt,-a work of great labor and research, embracing every thing that has any bear- ing upon book-making, including biographies of inventors, eminent printers and publishers. In consequence of the interest awakened by the erection of the Gutenberg monument at Mentz in 1857, many interesting facts were brought to light, relating to Guten- berg and other pioneer printers, which the writers of these books have gathered up. A majority of authors on the History of Printing, down to Isaiah Thomas of Massachusetts in 1810, are disposed to give Lawrence Koster of Haerlem, Netherlands, the credit of being the inventor of the art of printing, in the year 1420. But sufficient evidence has not been brought to light to prove that Koster was engaged in any thing much in advance of the stamp and block printing art, which is traced back to an early period in the history 2 10 THE PRESS OF MAINE of the Assyrian and Chinese empires. If he conceived the., idea of movable types, it is clear that lie had not the skill and perseverance to perfect them to a practical use. The story that John Geins- fleisch, a servant of Kosters, stole his master's apparatus, during a festival, and absconded, communicating his knowledge to his younger brother (Gutenberg), seems unworthy of credit. An account of a lawsuit between Gutenberg and the heirs of his former partner, Dritzhn, in 1436, still upon court record, makes it quite clear that movable types were not then in use by any other person. The voluntary destruction of his apparatus, the hard work of years, that no one should be unjustly put in posses- sion of his discoveries, is strong evidence that Gutenberg was the inventor of the present art of printing. In these days of remarkable scientific discoveries, it seems, at first thought, strange that so simple an invention as that of mova- ble types should not have been made earlier. But we are no longer surprised when we observe the order of Providence.* Every thinly has its time. "Necessity (to human view) be- comes the mother of invention." While books were made by the slow process of writing, there were but few persons, who could read; consequently there could have been but little demand for books. The invention of printing seems to, have been withheld until the time when the civilized world was not only ready to throw off the errors of past ages, but to receive the oracles of divine truth with gladness.$ About the commencement of the fifteenth cen- tury there are indications in history that the darkness of the previous centuries was gradually losing, its intensity, -the day was dawning. The little opposition that the invention of the art of printing met with, is evidence that there was in the heart of Germany an increasing degree of civil and religious freedom. * History, says D'Aubigne, should live by that life which belongs to it, and that life is God. The history of the world should be set forth as the annals of the govemment of a Sovereign King. t it is remarkable how great a portion of the first labor of the Press was bestowed upon the Bible. INTRODUCTION. 11 It has been remarked that "if Mentz had not been a free city* 'Gutenberg might not have conceived or executed his invention; for despotism, like superstition, imposes silence. 'It was fitting that printing and liberty should be born of the same sun and the same air."' In this atmosphere of liberty, followed by increasin- light, came the desire for books ; first for elementary works, and then for the Bible, which some had begun to feel was the book of civil liberty, as well as of eternal life. A man was now raised up, and an ambition given him to print the sacred oracles, that pushed him forward through every obstacle until he had completed his work of initiating the art of printing. Gutenberg was by trade a lapidary, (polisher of stones, and maker of mirrors). " He had a passion for mechanical studies. 'Not content to follow the beaten track, his mind was fertile in ex- pedients for saving labor and perfecting his work. The great art 'Could only be reached by ascending patiently to it through many lower steps of toil and invention. I It seems (says one) that every advancement of humanity is purchased with tears, and that suffer- ing is the fatal law of all great beginnings."' -E. C. P. Gutenberg's first attempts at printing with blocks were proba- My made at Strasburg between the years 1435 and 1444; but no direct evidence of his labor as a printer with movable types is dis- covered until he is again found in Mentz about tile beginning of 1445. His first works were the Alphabet, the Poor Man's Bible (extracts from the Scriptures), the Catholicon, (a school-book) etc., all of which were done upon engraved blocks. Had the invention of movable types been stolen from Koster (of which act some have accused him), who died before 1440, would not the evidence have ,been apparent? Down to 1450, Gutenberg had been experimenting * Gutenberg was born at Mentz, a free and rich city on the Rhine, about the year 1400, and when yet a young man, fled on account of political dissensions, to Strasburg, sixty miles distant. Of his childhood, says Miss Pearson, little is known ; yet some German and other writers draw pleasing pictures of his youth. They represent him -as high-spirited, thoughtful and devout [ influenced by a desire that good books might be made common, and as having a foreseeing consciousness of the part he was to act in bringing it about. I He said to himself, from his earliest years,' says one of his biographers, I God suffers in the great multitudes whom his sacred Word cannot reach. I 12 THE PRESS OF MAINE. in type-cutting and casting assisted by the ingenious Schoeffer, and depending for subsistence upon his trade. At this date, John Fust* was received into partnership,-furnishing the needed capital, and receiving as security a mortgage on the stock and apparatus of Gutenberg. It is supposed that " Gutenberg had attempted to print an edition of the Vulgate before he solicited Fust for money necessa- ry to complete the undertaking; and that after their partnership was dissolved and Fust had taken possession of the apparatus, the still unfinished work was continued and finished by Fust and Schoeffer. Gutenberg is believed by some authorities to have accomplished his design of printing the Bible at a later period." The greater probability is, that the Bible finished by Fust and Schoeffer in 1455 to '57, was the one that posterity justly named after Gutenberg, who had commenced it. It is said that Fust, before he finished the Bible, repented of his treatment of Guten- berg, and tried to induce him to join the firm of Fust and Schoeffer. Gutenberg's energy, in spite of the severe blow inflicted upon him by Fust, was not lost. Under great trials and difficulties he continued to make progress in the art; and in 1460 we hear of him under new enterprises. By the aid of Dr. C. Hummery, he was again enabled to work on a satisfactory basis. In 1460 the Catholicon, in large folio, was issued from Gutenberg's press. On the 18th of January, 1465, Gutenberg was taken into the employ of the courtiers of the Elector, Adolph of Nassau, and re- moved to Ettville. He received an annual payment from the * The orthography of this name has been disputed, being written variously Faust, Faustus, and Fust, (pronounced Foost). but the latter is authoratative, as his name ap- pears in the colophons of his publications thus: - Made by Johannem Fust, citizen of Mentz. One of the events attending the introduction of printing that is positively as- certained is, that John Fast of Mentz in 1455 gained legal possession of the printing- material of John Gutenberg in a suit for the return of certain money advanced, and that Fust thereafter pursued the art in partnership with his son-in-law, Peter Schoeffer. It appears probable from a comparison of the various stories, that Gutenberg received assistance in money from John Fust, goldsmith of Mentz, but having spent at least five years in experiments without producing any return for the investment, was sued, and the property adjudged to Fust, who, with the help of Schoeffer, carried the work toiits conclusion, shown in their splendid Bible and the Psalter of 1467-Encyclopedia. IN T RO DU CTIO N. 13 Elector of a new suit of clothes, twenty bushels of corn, and two tons of wine. He did not, however, live long to enjoy his in- creased prosperity. It is known that he had departed previous to Feb., 1468; but the day of his death is not on record. The monument to Gutenberg, which adorns one of the public squares at Mentz, was executed by Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculp- tor. It was erected Aug. 14, 1857, the four hundred and first an- niversary of the invention of movable types. Fifteen hundred strangers assembled in Mentz to do honor to the memory of the great inventor. The dispersion from Mentz (at the time of the revolution, Oct., 1462) of the workmen already initiated into the mystery of printing, led to a wonderfully rapid extension of the art, which learned men of every nation were ready to welcome with delight. Before the completion of the first half century, printing had been established throughout almost the whole of civilized Europe. An idea of the rapidity with which books were multiplied even by the slow presses of that day, may be gathered by a glance at the famous Althorp library in England. There may be seen samples of twenty editions of the Latin Bible printed before 1480. Here are copies of nine editions of German Bibles printed before 1495; ten editions of Italian Bibles, fifteen of French, and four editions of the Spanish Bible, before 1481. Other works were also multiplied with surprising rapidity. The Althorp library contains editions of St. Augustine between 1467 and 1490 ; seven of St. Chrysostorm : thirteen of St. Jerome alleged to be previous to 1468 ; fourteen of Thomas Aquinas be- fore 1480. Here, too, are twenty editions of Cicero, printed before 1473; eight of Horace before 1480; Pliny on vellum from Rome, 1471 ; -while the superb works of the Aldus press, the Stephens press, and Boden's Parma press are spread all around. " Luther completed his German translation in 1534. From 1535 to 1574, the production of Luther's Bible was immense, engaging the services of printers in many cities. One office alone, within 14 THE PRESS OF MAINE. that period, printed one hundred thousand copies. In England the introduction of the Bible was less pacific, than in Germany. "Wickliffe's translation of the Vulgate in 1380, (seventy years before the first Bible was printed), opened a religious war in Eng- land and France which continued for two centuries. The story of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in both England and France, is but a succession of bloody and tyrannous legislation on the one hand, and of bitter steadfast resistance on the other, cen- tering upon the popular demand for the free use of the Bible in the vernacular; and in this struggle printing immediately played a conspicuous part, by providing the means for the diffusion of the Scriptures." THE ENGLISH BIBLE was baptised in blood. " Tyndale met his death on the scene of his work, ten years after its accomplishment. One of his assistants had preceded him from the fires of Spring- field; another was to follow by the same death in Portugal. John Rogers, his friend, survived to meet his death at the stake; while Coverdale, the last comrade, reserved for a happier fate, saw his own Bible offered freely in England by the same king, Henry VIII, who had doomed his comrade to death." THE BIBLE IN America. - During the reign of eight sove- reigns, after the landing of our Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, no English Bibles, but such as came from England were used in this country. Although a printing-press was established and books were printed here as early as 1639, yet no one could print the Bible on this side of the water without being subjected to a prosecution from those in England and Scotland, who held a patent from the Crown. In 1664 John Eliot had printed at Cambridge, Mass., the Bible in the language of the Natick Indians. In 1743 Christo- pher Sauer, or Sower, at Germantown, Pa., published the first NOTE. Quite a large portion of the information conveyed in this Introduction has been gathered from the American Encyclopedia of Printing. Our quotations are mostly from that work. Those,who wish toobfaina thorough knowledge of the sub- jects here touched upon,will do well to obtain a copy of the Encyclopedia. It is one royal 8vo. vol. Price $10. INTROD UCTION. 15 German edition of the Bible, after having been three years in the press. But it was not until about one hundred and seventy years after the first English colony had been planted in America that the Bible was here printed in the English language. RELICS OF EARLY PRINTING. - The veneration for the Bible through the centuries has preserved to us a few copies of the earli- est editions, beginning with Gutenberg's, which, though without date, is supposed to have been finished in 1455, and to be the first book ever printed upon metalic type. It seems most likely that this Bible, which Gutenberg began to print and which was finished by Fust and Schoeffer, was the one (before referred to) which afterward bore the name of the Gutenberg, or Mazarin, -the latter name being given because a copy of it (very rare) wag found in the library of that prelate. Mr. James Lenox of New York is said to have a copy of this edition. -In the rare collection of biblical works of the late George Livermore of Cambridge is a single leaf of this Bible. This collection also contained a copy of the New Testament printed by Fust in 1462; supposed to be the first in which the date is given. Original specimens of block printing yet earlier than these, entitled -Biblia Pauperum, may here be seen. They are a series of wood cuts representing scrip- ture subjects, supposed to have been printed as early as from 1420, to 1440. Mr. J. D. T. of Boston has in his possession a copy of' the sermons of the monk Utino, which was published at Venice in 1473; and which is still rarer, a volume of the " Speculum " of the monk Vincent of Beauvais, the printing of which was commenced by Mentel at Strasburg in 1469, and completed in 1473. - Silas Ketchum of Bristol, N. H., has in his library a copy of' Orozin's History of Human Calamities, printed at Venice in 1483, - The public library of Boston contains many antique works; but the great library at Philadelphia is said to abound in ancient, books. Among private libraries we think there are few, if any, in our country where there are more rare works. of antiquity than in that 16 THE PRESS OF MAINE. of Dr. Talcott, of the Bangor Theological Seminary. Being re- cently favored with an opportunity to examine this library, we were led to solicit of the Doctor some information in regard to it, which he has kindly given us, and which we here insert: " The Latin Bible, or Vulgate, to which you refer (writes the Doctor to the editor) is not of so early a date as you stated. It is dated 1501, and its peculiar value arises from its being from the press of the celebrated printer of Nuremberg, Anthony Koberger, the father-in-law of Albert Durer. The book was a present from a friend, now deceased. It was purchased, if I am rightly informed, at the sale of the library of Hon. Thomas Ewbank, late Commissioner of Patents at Washington. This is the oldest book in my possession which has a title page. But even in this volume the date is not given on the title page, but, as usual before that time, in the colophon at the end of the volume. The type is black letter, with many contractions, yet fewer than those which occur in the works which I have, bearing date from twenty to twenty-nine years earlier. In this volume, as in the older ones, the large capitals at the beginning of books and chapters are inva, riably omitted, the spaces being left to be filled ornamentally by the pen or pencil. Of volumes, printed before the year 1500, 1 have sixteen, mostly black letter, and all in excellent preservation. The most remarkable of these is the work of Thomas Aquinas, en- titled I Quaestiones Disputatae (le Veritate,' a thick folio with clasps, printed at Lubeck by Koelhoef, 1472. Among others are the Treatise of Albertus Magius, I De Eucharistia,' in folio, printed at Ulm, 1472: the celebrated work of Jacobus de Voragine, entitled Historia Lombardica, a collection of legends of the saints, printed (place not given) 1482, and the Aurea Catena of Thomas Aquinas, a commentary on the Gospels, collected from the writing of the fathers, bearing date (place not given) 1476. This latter work is particularly noticeable for the beauty of the typograpby, the thick- ness and firmness of the paper, and the tastefulness with which the capital letters have been filled in with the pencil. "In addition to what I have said above as to the title page of Koberger's Vulgate being destitute of date, I may add that the IN T ROD U CT ION. 17 next oldest volume in my possession, printed with a title page, (the Epistles of Cicero, Turin, 1515) also exhibits the (late, Dot on the title page, but in'the colophon at the end. Tile oldest volume which I have with a dated title page is a work of Erasmus, in duodecimo, printed in Italic type by Froben at Basle, 1523. At a somewhat later period the date was sometimes given both on the title page and in the colophon. My copy of Manutius' Commentary on the Epistles of Cicero, purchased at the sale of Mr. Choate's library, printed by the " Aldi Filii," Venice, 1547, is thus dated." The foregoing interesting description gives a good idea of the style of the first printed books. NEWSPAPERS IN EuRoPE: - " The first European attempts to establish printed and regularly published newspapers were made nearly simultaneously, in the early part of the seventeenth century, in Germany, France, and England. The first German newspaper, in numbered sheets, was printed in 1612. The first French new- paper was established at Paris, 1632, by Renaudot, a physician, famous for his skill in collecting news to amuse his patients. The first Engish newspaper was established in London, by Nathaniel Butter, in 1622. It was a small quarto of eighteen pages, called the Certain News of the Present Week. "But the repression laws enacted after the Restoration of James 11. crushed out all tbese early efforts. More than two hundred years after Caxton had exercised the art of printing in England, her citizens had to rely upon letter writers for their supply of news. During the very century that English kingS crushed out daring journalism they were frequently baffled by printers of pamphlets containing violent and scurrilous attacks upon their doctrines or their dynasties ; and while James 11. had suppressed all newspa- pers save his government organ, his successor found it impossible to suppress the adverse ballads, pamphlets, and books of the Jaco- bites, which were issued in underground printing-offices, where precautions against detection and arrest were adopted similar to those used at the present day by those who print counterfeit 3 18 THE PRESS OF MAINE. money. - After newspapers had once gained a strong hold in public favor, however, as they did in England during the closing years of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth century ; after a gradual change in the British constitution prevented a resort to purely arbitrary methods of destroying them in England ; and after they had survived the stamp tax imposed by Queen Anne, a ]ong series of battles were waged before juries, between successive English administrations and different newspaper proprietors, until finally, despite many unjust convictions, the freedom of fair news- paper comment on public question,-, has been finally established in England as the result of a series of parliamentary and legal contests lasting for more than two centuries." - _Encyc. Printing. THE PRESS iN AMERICA. - "A printing-press was in opera- tion in Mexico in less than a century after the new art became generally known in Europe, and for nearly a century before a printing-press was introduced into the present limits of the United States. The second American city in which a printing-office was established was Lima, Peru, where a work designed to assist the priests in the study of the language of the natives appeared in 1586." The first Book-press was established at Cambridge in January, 1639, by Stephen Day. Rev., Jesse Glover, who contributed largely to the purchase of this press, died on his passage to the New World. Nothing, could be printed upon it without the sanction of the President of Harvard College. The press was not enfranchised in Massachusetts until 1755. Day, evidently from pecuniary embarrassments, soon relinquished his stand and became foreman to his successor, Samuel Green. NEWSPAPERS.-Tbe first newspaper on this western conti- nent, of which there is any record, was printed in Boston, Mass., in 1692, by R. Pierce. The first number has been preserved in the State Paper Office, London. Whether any more than this number were printed is not known. - As it came out without IN TROD UCT ION. 19 license, the probability is that a continuance was forbidden by the General Court. The Boston News Letter, commenced in Boston Aug. 24,1704, was the first established newspaper in the United States: imprint, B. Green; proprietor, John Campbell, a Scotchman, a bookseller, and postmaster of Boston. The contents of the News Letter, during the whole of his proprietorship, are chiefly extracts from London papers. After issuing his small sheet, 12 X 8, for fifteen years, the editor makes the common complaint that his paper is not supported, and lie is not able, as he should be, to issue a whole sheet weekly in order to keep up with the foreign news, which was then, all beyond En-land, thirteen months in arrear! The News Letter was continued until the evacuation of Boston by the British in 1774. " A rival newspaper, called the Boston Gazette, was established in December, 1719, by a new postmaster, who represented Camp- bell; but it was only in the third newspaper of the United States, the New England Courant, established by James Franklin in 1721, that signs of live journalism in this country were developed. The Courant, under the inanagement of James Franklin, assisted by his immortal brother Benjamin, was the first American newspaper that gave any signs of vigor or energy, or that was anything more than a dry rehash of safe and staple news. The Franklins speedily became embroiled, not only with their newspaper prede- cessor, Campbell, but with the clergy and the civil authorities; and, James being, forbidden to continue his publication, it was published in the name of young Ben, then an apprentice in his teens, nominally on his own account, but really for his brother." ,THE PRINTING-OFFICE AS A SCHOOL. By reference to our Index of Periodicals it will be seen that there are only eight editors,* among fifty, who have received a col- lege diploma. The status was the same in Massachusetts as late as * Only seven in the Index have the titles annexed, -that of Marcellus Emery, M. A., having been accidentally omitted. The Bangor Democrat, once-edited by him, is not now published. 20 THE PRESS OF MAINE. 1820. Buckingham,in his, Renliniscences, gives but five or six edi- tors of liberal education,'among the host that preceded him in Mas- sachusetts. The Columbian Centinel, edited by Benjamin Russell from 1784 to 1828; the Boston Gazette, by John Russell from 1795 to 1823; the New England Galaxy, by J. T. Buckingham from 1817 to 1828, and the Boston Courier, 1828 to 1851, were among the most influential papers in the country. Each of these editors entered the printing-office at about fifteen years of age, with only the A B C education of the common schools of that day, and gained his high position by appreciating and diligently im- proving the advantages of the printing-office. Innumerable are the cases of this kind that have occurred. And riot only have able journalists thus been multiplied, but our halls of State and National legislation have been amply supplied with efficient la- borers from these nurseries of intellect.* Enrolled in the list will ever stand conspicuous one whom our fraternity will delight to honor-that printer journalist, statesman, diplomatist, philosopher, to whom was given wisdom to penetrate the secret chambers of the Almighty, and by his kite and hemp string to ascertain the nature of His thunderbolts, and with an iron rod conduct them harmlessly to the earth. Nor did his exalted mission end here. The conception of FRANKLIN was still farther developed in the mind of Prof. Henry, who next, by the aid of a magnet, rang a bell at the distant end of a wire-, - and from this feat, doubtless, was caught the idea by Prof Morse, which has given us the LIGHTNING PRINTING APPARATUS; one thread of which, encircling the globe, can send out more intelligence in a given time, than all the printing-presses or printing-machines in the world. Among those self-taught of the present generation, whose name stands out above all others as a journalist, is the lamented Horace Greeley.-The extreme poverty and hardships of early life through which B. Russell, Buckingham and Greeley passed, make up an interesting and valuable history for the young. * B. Russell and J. T. Buckingham both held office as Senator and Representa- tive in the Legislature of Massachusetts for several years. INTRODUCTION. 21 Among numerous testimonials in honor of our profession, we may be permitted to present the following, being new. -In a let- ter recently received from the venerable Dr. WITHINGTON, Of Newbury, Mass., (now in his 85th year), with whom the editor had the pleasure of acquaintance in early days, he remarks, in closing - "I think printing is a noble employment, and brings as much literature before the mind that appreciates as - shall I say - a college? Yes; at least I have many profitable recollections; though some printers, like their proof-sheets, only receive transient impressions." Leonard Withington served an apprenticeship with J. T. Buckingham, ending in 1808 ; after which he went to college -then to the Theological Seminary at Andover. His career since, as a clergyman, scholar, and author, is well known. Pres. SMITH of Dartmouth College acknowledges his indebt- edness to the printin-office in these words - "I am far from be- ing satisfied with my labors in my present position; but, imperfect as they seem to me, I cannot help thinking that I am a little better President for having been a printer." The printer, combining intellectual with mechanical employ- ment, -composing typographically, and at the same time, men- tally,- elaborating or criticisms the written ideas of others in the copy before him,- often putting his own thoughts, without copy, directly into form,-must have a dull, heedless head if he does not gain the tact of a ready and good writer. -His hard expe- rience also in business life, with his unrequited labors, quickens his moral sensibilities,- he leans naturally to the side of the oppress- ed, and becomes the strenuous advocate of liberty and equal rights. Consequently, under monarchical and despotic governments, the members of no profession have ever been exposed to such martyr- dom as this. History, since the commencement of printing, is fall of accounts of the slaughter of printers, publishers, and journal- ists, who combated "wickedness in high places." Interesting volumes might be written on this subject. The examples of self-made editors (so to speak) are given for the encouragement of the young printer, who goes out with his 22 THE PRESS OF MAINE. scanty means into the new, rough settlements of our country, to establish his press where no one can subsist but by performing the arduous work of editor, printer, and publisher; a discipline, well improved, calculated to make him an able and a useful journalist-Where the discipline of the College (or its equiva- lent) and that of the printer are combined, there, other things being equal, may we look for the best editor, the best teacher, the best legislator.* It cannot however be disguised, that the poor boy possessed of stamina, who starts in the world with a pittance, ,earns his first farthing in a useful calling and pursues that call- ing steadily, gaining knowledge and tact through severe trials and ,deprivations, is the one who most surely arrives at eminence.t *Though the employment of a printer may be more directly connected with in- tellectual development than are other mechanical trades, still every exercise of skill in manual labor tends to increase the mental faculties. He is but half a man, and she but half a woman who has not learned a useful trade. Prussia owes her strength at this day, as a means, mainly to her system of instruction, - requiring in connection with her obligatory common school discipline, that every person, male and female, even to the royal household, shall learn some trade. The growing and permanent strength of every nation depends on her obedience to this natural law,- the union of manual and intellectual labor; the first indispensable, and to be held as honorable as the latter.- God only knows how long the invention of printing might have been delayed bad not Gutenberg been a lapidary ; by which trade he was not only perfect- ed in skill, but gained his living while engaged in the great invention. It is self-evi- dent that there can be no great discovery,- no great advance in science or religion aside from this union. Among the many instances of a similar kind that any intelli. gent person may recall from sacred or profane history, we will name one that has a special interest in this vicinity. The great change that has taken place within thirty years in the moral and religious condition of Turkey is well known ; but it is not generally known that the great apostle to that nation. Dr. Hamlin, attributes his success, under God, to the cultivation of his mechanical faculties while a student at Bowdoin College. There are several other graduates of Bowdoin within our know- ledge, now standing high as professional men (some have departed), who by trades worked their passage through College; more than one, in part, by sawing wood for fellow students, whom we should like to have now compared with their employers. Would not mechanic's shops, connected with our schools of learning, be of more ser- vice to the world than the gymnasium, or military drill (t) The autobiography of Robert Chambers and brother, recently published, is an additional and very interesting instance in illustration of the truth of this theory. The editors and publishers of the many useful works under their signature, circulated in Europe and in this country, began in Edinburgh with as poor an outfit in knowledge and in printing materials, as did our Harpswell hero, an account of whom is given in this book, beginning on page 196. IN TROD UC TIO N. 23 It may be expected of the editor that he should give, in this. introduction, some of his observations upon men and things in Maine, - some reminiscences of the two generations of editors,, printers, and publishers that have passed before him. We can give no better account than that which may be obtained by a perusal of the Newspaper and Biographical departments of this. book. There may be seen a sketch of the editorial fraternity, past and present, political and religious, -of the men that have figured as politicians, and of those that have been engaged in pre- paring and publishing moral, religious, and scientific intelligence; there, too, may be seen the vast numbers that have made attempts at journalism, and from various causes have failed of success. More than 200 periodicals have been started in this State, -bad their brief day, and then disappeared. Many of these performed a useful part in the field of their mission; and their conductors, though not pecuniarily rewarded, probably had the consciousness and satisfaction of -having done something for the public good. No literary or scientific magazine has yet obtained a perma- nent footing in this State, unless the one now published (Journal of Education) proves an exception. "Too far down east," is the cry. Thedifficulty is-notthelackofablewriters,buttbewant of readers. Our State is young; the bone and muscle, as well as. the mental forces, are required in subduing the land, establishing, manufactories, and in supplying a good portion of the world with, lumber. Our literary and scientific men, with a few exceptions,, have been drawn to more central and lucrative sections in other- States of the Union. Our invigorating climate, however, will continue to produce strong, intellectual men; and when the west, shall have been supplied, and our people find, as they should, more time for mental culture, our ablest literary men will be retained in Maine. Light ever begins in the east and passes westward. In our Bibliographical department it will also be seen how many of the best preachers and writers of our country are natives of Maine. Here and there one, we are glad to see, comes back to, spend his last days amidst the pleasant scenery of his boyhood. 24 THE PRESS OF MAINE. Let us pause here in regard to the advance of printing,, and note the IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTING PRESSES. With the rude, clumsy presses of the first century of printing, there must have been an immense number of operatives to do the great amount of work that appears to have been done, as only two or three hundred sheets per day were struck off on a single press. The first presses were nearly in the form of the wine presses of the day. A specimen cut of a press used in 1560 shows some advance in construction; but it was not until 1620-'25 -two hundred years after the invention of printing -that W. J. Blaeu, a German, made the first considerable improvement in the press, inventing one that still bears his name. Benjamin Franklin, one hundred years after its introduction, worked in London upon one of these presses. [See illustrative cut at close of this Intro- duction]. It differs not materially from the press afterward made in this country (about 1790) by Ramage, which was in gen- eral use until 1825. Each of these presses required two pulls of the bar on each side of a demy sheet, the platen covering but half of the form. . The next improvement embraced the toggle, or knee-joint power, inclosed in an iron frame. This press, with various im- proved attachments to the levers, is still the best hand-press in use. [See specimen cut at the close of the book]. Upon a press of the latter power this work has been printed at the rate of not over two hundred impressions, of eight pages, an hour. In 1790 we find the first mention of a cylinder printing-machine (or press, as we prefer to call it), as patented by,Wm. Nicholson, an Englishman. He failed, however, to bring it into use. The first cylinder press that appears to have succeeded, was patented in 1813 by Bacon and Donkin, Englishmen. The London Times was first printed upon this in 1814, at the rate of 1100 impressions an hour, which was then thought to be a wonderful achievement. Ten years later such improvements were made that 2000 sheets an hour were struck off There are now a hundred kinds of printing-presses in use in I IN TR O DU C T1 ON. 25 the United States, of various degrees of speed. The whole num- ber of all kinds in operation is about 25,000. The machine of the greatest power yet invented is by R. Hoe and Co., New York, called the Type-Revolving Printing Machine, the principle of which was patented in 1840. A specimen cut of one with eight impression cylinders may be seen at the close of this book. The form of type is placed upon the central cylinder -which is about four and a half feet in diameter - and covers a segment of only one-fourth of the surface; the remainder being occupied as an ink-distributing surface. The impression cylinders may be in- creased from two to ten or twelve. The ten cylinder prints at the rate of 25,000 large newspaper sheets upon one side per hour. There is a press, invented by Wm. Bullock, a native of Green- ville, N. Y., on the planetary or type-revolving principle, which feeds itself from a continuous roll of paper, and prints both sides of the largest news sheet at the same time it passes around the impression cylinders. The sheets are cut to any exact measure- ment, after being printed, and are laid off in a pile by the opera- tion of the machine. The manufacturing company claim that they can make a press capable of printing 20,000 perfected sheets per hour; or, by a duplication of forms, 40,000. TYPE-SETTING AND DISTRIBUTING. Until within a very few years it has been considered impos- sible that types could be either set or distributed in any other way than by passing them one by one through the fingers. Now it is among the probabilities that a revolution in the compositor's department is at hand. We have seen at Boston a type-distribu- ting machine, invented by 0. L. Brown, operated by steam, which feeds itself from the page of matter to be distributed. The mat- ter is taken up line by line by the machine; the letters are seized one by one by automatic fingers and passed into a rotating ring about ten inches in diameter. The machine must be seen in or- der to gain a clear understanding of its operations; but a printer will get some idea of the distributor if he is informed that the body of each letter has a groove or nick, differing in place from 4 26 THE PRESS OF MAlNE. every other, and. that automatic feelers (so to speak) are thrown out as the types pass around the ring each type continuing to move until the match is made, when it drops in an upright posi- tion upon a galley, ready, when the galley is sufficiently filled, to be placed upon the type-setting stand. This distributing machine, with a boy to watch its movements, will do the work of two or three men by the usual method. A girl in a few hours practice upon the type-setter (which we will not attempt to describe) will do the work of two experienced hands in the old way. It is thought that these machines will succeed. Type-setting machines have been invented of more rapid movement, but we believe there are yet some improvements needed to insure success. MANUFACTURE OF PAPER. Tbe facilities for manufacturing paper have kept pace with the demands of the press. Fifty-five years ago paper was made only by hand in the following manner. - [A manner similar to that practised by the Chinese at a very early period.] - Across a hard- wood, frame of the size of the sheet to be manufactured, were drawn very close parallel wires, with cross supporting wires at in- tervals, which gave what we call water-lines. Another similar frame, called the deckle, was placed over this to form together a shallow sieve. This mould was dipped into the vat of pulp, a portion of which was taken up, shaken, drained for two or three seconds, and then turned over upon a sheet of felt, the layer of pulp and the sheets alternating until the pile was sufficient to fill a press, which was then screwed down. After pressure, the sheets were arranged in an worder, and again pressed. After this, they were "sized " by dipping in a solution of gelatine or glue, and again dried and pressed; the sheets were passed under the manipu- lations of female operatives to clean off any I picks' that could. be removed by a knife. Only about two or three sheet& a minute could be passed through the mould. The first attempt made to improve by Machinery upon this slow process was made in 1799 by Robert, in France. But it was not until a few years later that IN T ROD U CTIO N. 27 the Fourdriniers in England, with the Donkins, by a great sacri- fice of time and money, succeeded in bringing the machine into effective Ilse. "The general plan of the Fourdrinier machine is to substitute for the single wire moulds and felts of the handmade paper, con- tinuous, or rather endless, wire webs and felts; while they are do- ing their duty on the upper surface, they turn on leaving, the paper and return below, being kept extended by ingenious mechanical contrivances. It is in this way that the operation is made con- tinuous, and that from the pull) at one end of the machine the fin- ished paper rolls out at the other end, in almost as many minutes as the old process had required weeks." The quantity of white paper of all kinds made yearly in the United States is estimated at about 225,000 tons, and the quantity of brown and wrapping paper at about as much more, and that about one-tenth of the white paper is made of straw. This coun- try uses and wastes more paper than any other. Its paper pro- duction is greater than that of France and England together. BOOK-BINDING. Cutting-machines, folding-machines, embossing and lettering- machines have increased the facilities in book-binding nearly in proportion to those of the other departments. It would be the realization of no strange dream, if in a few years we should find in some central locality a large building, or contiguous buildings, in which there will be the paper-making machine, the type-setting machine, the printing machine, with the folding, sewing and bind- ing apparatus, all brought to such perfection that an author may engage his paper for a good sized volume in the morning, and sit- ting down near the printing-press, by aid of a sufficient number of proof readers, have his book bound and ready for delivery on the eve of the same (lay. In view of this giant march of improvement, it becomes our brethren of' the news, as well as the book-press, in isolated section,, of the country and of moderate means, to consider what is to be the next phase in their horizon. Is the business of news- 28 THE PRESS OF MAINE. paper printing, bookmaking, etc., aided by powerful and expen- sive machinery, destined eventually to pass into the exclusive bands of great capitalists, by whom not only labor but mind may be controlled? The Editors and Publishers' Association was instituted for the purpose of mutual edification, literary culture, and the advance- ment of Journalism to its highest standard. The newspaper, as well as the book interests of Maine, need encouragement. It is a day that calls for union in the work. RETROSPECTIVE. In looking at the history of the world, it will be seen that civi- lization advanced by almost imperceptible degrees until the age of printing; and that the rapidity, with which it afterward spread, was in proportion to the increase of printing power. The cylinder- press in Europe and America came into operation but little over half a century ago; since which period-the press in the mean time increasing its speed twenty fold -there has been a greater advance in the mechanic arts and sciences useful to man, than during the previous two thousand years! Within the age of the press, this New World (which science now shows to be older than Europe) has been discovered and oc- cupied. The true theory of the Solar system has been made known, - opening to us the sublime revelations of astronomy. The wonder-working powers of Electricity, Light, and Steam have all been brought into use. Geology, Mineralogy, and Chem- istry have also unfolded their treasures!* Man (says Dr. Loring, in a late address at the Andover Female Seminary) is now busy in exploring every theory, in investigating every problem, in applying every science that can vitalize that wonderful agregation of human forces, known as society. In mechanics and physics there are constant efforts and progress. Science and medicine have been brought to the highest standard. The earth trembles and the waters are vexed with the application * The increasing light of science, it is self-evident, has a reflex influence and de- mand upon the advance of printing. IN TROD U CT ION. 29 of all those forms which science has presented for the perfection and power over the material world. The scientific period has ar- rived, and science is placed at last in the divine regions of human genius, once occupied by the poets and historians and orators and philosophers and divines, who long enjoyed undisputed sway as masters of human thought. It has also become familiar to us all, and has filled the highways and byways of society with its life-growing influences. We cannot close this part of our work in language more appropriate than that of the song by William R. Wallace, so characteristic of this age. SONG OF OUR AGE. WILL is ironed on my forehead, not a muscle is at rest ; Billows of determination roll within my ocean breast, - "Evermore to do" their shouting; and, as they're firmly hurled Upon opposing forces, -man is matter of the world. Steam inventions, adaptations, manufacturing, mining true, Tunnelling mountains, bridging rivers, edening where marshes grew; Terrible Arctic ice realms conquered, deepest Afric jungles trod, Even lightning every moment borrowed from the hand of God. All are trophies of my marching, and vast platforms are enshrined For the great but sacred boldness of the longing Human Mind ; So Earth opens up her history, so orbed skies their secrets show, And the Heart is daily swelling with a more adoring glow- More adoring, so all neighbors, and all nations even, feel, With that worship, as God's music, larger love for one another through their inmost being steal. Oh, what rapture is my labor! oh, too grand it is for rest! Not subjective, but objective, is the passion in my breast; So with each heave of my muscles will material blessings grow; So will Mind with larger stature on the vast Thought Mountains glow; So Humanity's Heart Rivers deeper, sweeter, holier flow; So the Central Star of Bethlehem fix and bless all eyes below. NOTE. -The whole number or authors recorded In the following pages is 472. Number of books and pamphlets, 1,340. If the fraternity will continue to send us information regarding the 'history of the press, we will file it and keep it ode for the next historian. We may print a sumpplement, if there should be found in this work any omissions of important matter. *********************************************** Source for the above: "The Press of Maine" by Joseph Griffin 1872 Brunswick, Maine *********************************************** Courtesy of the New England Old Newspaper Index Project of Maine (R) and the Androscoggin Historical Society ] PO Box 152 Danville, Maine 04223 ************************************************* * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. 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