ANTECEDENT EXPERIENCE OF WILLIAM
MAXWELL, OHIO'S FIRST PRINTER
BY DOUGLAS C. McMURTRIE
The facts regarding the first printing
in Ohio are
well known and clearly
established. William Maxwell
set up a printing office in Cincinnati
and published the
first issue of the Centinel of the
North-Western Terri-
tory on November 9, 1793.1 But where Maxwell came
from and what his previous experience
was are points
of information which have never been
dealt with in any
of the literature dealing with the beginnings
of the press
in Ohio.
Nor am I able to give much information
as to where
Maxwell originally came from, but I am
able to throw
light on his printing experience
immediately precedent
to the setting up of his press in
Cincinnati. According
to the usual story he crossed the
Alleghanies on his way
from his New Jersey home to Pittsburg,
and from there
he conveyed his press down the river
directly to Cincin-
nati.
Recent research for my forthcoming history of
early printing in Kentucky has revealed
the fact that
1 This story has been told in the
excellent article by C. B. Galbreath
in Newspapers and Periodicals in Ohio
State Library, Columbus, Ohio,
1902, p. 3. See also:
Reuben Gold Thwaites, "The Ohio
Valley Press before the War of
1812-1815," Proceedings of the
American Antiquarian Society, vol. XIX,
1908-1909, p. 309, and
Douglas C. McMurtrie, "The Westward
Migration of the Printing
Press in the United States,
1786-1836," Gutenberg Jahrbach, [Mainz, 1930],
p. 269-288.
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