PRINTING IN GAMBIER, OHIO, 1829-1884
by WYMAN
W. PARKER
University Librarian, University of
Cincinnati
Printing in Gambier, Ohio, extended for
a little more than fifty
years during the mid-nineteenth
century. Its history forms a neat
and fairly typical illustration of the
work of the ecclesiastical press
of that century. Projected as early as
1823 by Philander Chase, first
Protestant Episcopal bishop of Ohio,
the press began in 1830 to
issue the first Episcopal newspaper
west of the Alleghenies.
The new West was well accustomed to
locally printed materials
by this time. As early as 1824 Ohio
produced 48 of the 598 news-
papers published in the United States.
The first issue of an Ohio
newspaper, the Centinel of the
North-Western Territory, had been
printed in Cincinnati by William
Maxwell on November 9, 1793.
Two paper mills began operations in
1811 on the Little Miami
River near Cincinnati. With the opening
of John Foote's type
foundry in 1820, Cincinnati began its
role as the western pub-
lishing center. By 1858 nearly three
million books, chiefly for the
schools west of the Alleghenies, were
being published yearly in
Cincinnati.
Bishop Chase went to England in 1824 to
solicit funds to found
the theological seminary subsequently
called Kenyon College.
Always aware of channels of
communication, the bishop was not
one to forget the value of the printed
word as a means of furthering
his mission. In the Appeal in Behalf
of the Diocese of Ohio in the
Western Territory of the United
States (London, 1824) which was
most industriously circulated all over
England, a scheme is care-
fully spelled out for a press (p. 6):
"To accustom our Youth, the
future servants of a beneficent
Redeemer, to acts of substantial
charity, and as a means of
disseminating the principles of our
Holy Religion throughout our barren
region and especially among
the poor and ignorant, a Printing Press
and Types will be solicited;
and the Young Men, or some proper
proportion of them, will, at
convenient hours of the day, be
employed in printing Tracts and a
55
56
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Periodical Publication." The
letter of introduction that Bishop
Chase carried from Henry Clay to Lord
Gambier (both commis-
sioners to the conference that
concluded the Treaty of Ghent in
1814) proved effective, and the bishop
was shortly meeting in-
fluential church members who aided him
in the collection of $30,000
to establish the college.
When Bishop Chase visited Sir Thomas
and Lady Acland in
Devonshire in June 1824, they readily
took to the idea of a press.
Chase jubilantly reported to the
diocesan convention in 1826: "This
complete and ample set of type,
together with £100 sterling, to
purchase a printing press in this
country, is the avails of a most
munificent subscription separate from
that of the fund, which sub-
scription was originated and circulated
among the ladies of the
nobility of England by that most
excellent person, Lady Acland,
of Devonshire."1
From Worthington, Ohio, the temporary
quarters of the college,
Philander Chase wrote to Lord Kenyon on
the twelfth of October
1825 that "the Printing Press has
been purchased in Cincinatti
[sicl and is brought hither and when the types come we shall
com-
mence our printing."2 The
types arrived shortly thereafter from
England.
The bishop's first published plan to
allow students the use of
the press was one of many publicity
ideas used but for gleaning
funds. As far as can be determined the
students were never allowed
to use the press nor would the
domineering bishop even let Pro-
fessors William Sparrow and M. T. C.
Wing publish the periodical
they wished in Worthington. Chase
delayed setting up the press
because of the uncertainty of the
permanent location of the college.
The move to Gambier was accomplished in
1827, and the bishop
reported to the convention that a house
eighteen by twenty-two feet
intended for a printing establishment
would soon be completed.3
However, it was not until September
1829 that the bishop could
1 Journal of the Proceedings of the
Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in the Diocese of Ohio for
1826 (Columbus, 1826).
2 Bishop Chase to Lord Kenyon. Kenyon
College Library.
3 Journal of the . . . Convention . .
. of Ohio for 1827 (Chillicothe,
1827).
Printing in Gambier 57
have the satisfaction of saying,
"Our Font of Types, most munifi-
cently given through the liberal
exertions of Sir Thomas and Lady
Acland has been brought into use."4
The Acland Press, named as were all
buildings and streets in
Gambier for the liberal English donors,
had in fact laboriously
produced two sizeable pamphlets: The
Journal of the Proceedings
of the Annual Convention of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in
the Diocese of Ohio for 1828 (44p., Gambier, 1829) and, typically
enough, Character and Claims of the
Protestant Episcopal Church
in Letters to a Friend (reprinted from the Episcopal Register)
(42p., Gambier, 1829).
The printing was done by George W.
Myers, "a good practical
printer and bookbinder,"5 whom
Bishop Chase had induced to come
from Alexandria, Virginia. Myers lived
in the bishop's former log
cabin while the press was set up in a
small two-story frame building
northeast of Old Kenyon.6 The
printing house cost $350 according
to Bishop Chase's Defense Against
the Slanders of the Rev. G. M.
West (p. 24). This Defense was urgently prepared and
printed, in
unconscious commentary on the abilities
and celerity of the Acland
Press, by Olmsted and Bailhache at
Columbus in 1831. By this
time the Gambier press was working
regularly on the weekly
newspaper, the Gambier Observer, as
well as the annual convention
journal and the Kenyon College catalog.
The Acland Press there-
after was called upon for the urgent
printing of statements by
both sides in a controversy between the
bishop and his faculty.
Bishop Chase had returned to residence
in Gambier after years
of travel in behalf of his diocese and
the college to enforce his
characteristically autocratic methods
in the administration of the
college. The professors had creditably
governed the institution in
the bishop's absence. They naturally
resented the curtailment of
their powers by an authority who
regarded the whole institution
as patriarchal, claiming his episcopal
powers pertained. This posi-
4 Journal of the ... Convention ...
of Ohio for 1829 (Zanesville, 1829).
5 A. Banning Norton, A History of
Knox County, Ohio (Columbus, 1862), 391.
6 Henry Caswall, America and the
American Church (London, 1839), 28; Bishop
Chase's Defense Against the Slanders
of the Rev. G. M. West (Columbus, 1831),
24; George F. Smythe, A History of the Diocese of Ohio (Cleveland, 1931), 550.
58
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
tion was publicly taken by Bishop Chase
in his Circular . . . Letter
.., dated July 14, 1831, a two-page
folder undoubtedly run off
by the Acland Press. The professors of
Kenyon College came back
hotly to state in their two-page
circular, A Letter Addressed to the
Rt. Rev. P. Cbase, D.D., dated July 25, 1831, that the powers he
claimed were injurious and
"contrary to the usage of colleges in
general, and to the spirit of our age
and country." The Acland
Press published the end of the dispute
in the Journal of the Pro-
ceedings of the Annual Convention
... held in Gambier, September
7, 8, and 9th, 1831, where account is given of the bishop's refusal
to mitigate his position and his speedy
resignation from both the
presidency of the college and his
bishopric.
Philander Chase, who visualized a
specific purpose for his press,
never realized sufficiently the returns
of having it at his service.
In fact, the preponderance of its
productions were supervised by his
opponents. It remained for his
successor, Bishop Charles P.
McIlvaine, to utilize this press fully
in his campaign against
Tractarianism.
The main purpose of the Acland Press
had been achieved, for
the weekly newspaper, the Gambler
Observer, appeared regularly
from August 30, 1830 (Vol. I, No. 2).
The first number was pub-
lished on May 28, 1830, an eight-page
paper of about fourteen by
ten inches with three columns to a
page. All communications were
to be addressed to Bishop Chase,
although the editorial style shows
that Professor Sparrow had at last been
given his desired oppor-
tunity. Sparrow continued as editor
throughout the first volume,
when M. T. C. Wing became editor from
1831 to 1835. Then
Sparrow was named editor-in-chief for
1835 to 1836, when the size
of the paper was increased to about
twenty by fifteen inches but
the pages reduced to four for each
issue. In 1837 the Rev. Joseph
Muenscher and Mr. Wing were editors
when Volume VIII was
issued as the Gambier Observer and
Western Church Journal. The
Rev. Chauncey Colton, a seminary
professor and local rector, became
editor in 1838 and greatly increased
its circulation. George Myers,
who for some time had been established
with the press in the
second story of the building just south
of the eastern corner of
Printing in Gambier 59
Chase Avenue and Brooklyn Street,7
completed the printing of
Volume IX. He then retired as printer
when Dr. Colton took the
paper to Cincinnati in 1840.
The press by this time had passed
through several organizational
changes, reflected by its varying
imprints. "The Acland Press,"
"G. W. Myers, Printer," and
"Office of the Observer" were used
while the college bore the financial
risk from 1829 to 1834. Then
a stock company of members of the
seminary faculty and a few
others was formed to purchase a larger
press and new fonts of
type. This company, "The Western
Protestant Episcopal Press,"
published the Observer for two
years, while the press used this title
as an imprint. When the company failed,
the paper announced
that it had "passed ... into the
hands of a few individuals." The
newspaper became the Gambler
Observer and Western Church
Journal and the imprint, the "Western Church Press."
During the first ten years of the
Acland Press, the newspaper had
been its major concern. Several other
serial productions were ex-
pected of it annually, namely, the
convention journal and the
college catalog. Various one-page
programs, such as those for
commencement and the literary society
entertainments, also appear
to have been regular duties of the
press. It was inevitable that the
press should publish the college's
refutation of Bishop Chase's
charges8 by the acting
president, William Sparrow, A Reply to the
Charges and Accusations of the Rt.
Rev. Philander Chase, D.D.
(35p., Gambier, 1832).
For the first few years after Bishop
McIlvaine became president
of Kenyon the press published an
address of his yearly (1834,
1836-39) in addition to the diocesan
newspaper, which naturally
presented his views. The first of his
addresses the Gambler press
printed, A Charge to the Clergy . .
. on the Preaching of Christ
Crucified (22p., Gambler, 1834), was delivered before the
diocesan
convention in September and proved so
popular that a second
edition (15p., Gambler, 1834) was
necessary before the turn of
7 Smythe, History of the Diocese of
Ohio, 551.
8 Bishop Chase's Defense of Himself Against the Late
Conspiracy at Gambier,
Ohio, in a Series of Letters to His
Friends (Steubenville, 1832). Printed
as a supple-
ment to the Western Herald and Steubenville Gazette.
60
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
the year. The bishop as well had other
publishing sources in Ohio
and the East that were glad to
distribute his popular sentiments in
the battle against "Romish"
tendencies. One item, Justification by
Faith (156p., Columbus, 1840), published by a Columbus firm,
was printed at Gambier. This was his
charge to the clergy of Ohio,
at the annual convention, to fortify
their minds against attempts to
"unprotestantize" the church.
The congregation "listened to it in
breathless attention for an hour and a
half,"9 and the convention
promptly ordered two thousand copies
printed.
In 1835 an essay on the Greek verb
(56p., Gambler, 1835)10
was undertaken by the Western
Protestant Episcopal Press which
necessitated the use of a font of Greek
type. The author, William
Nast, was a professor at the time in
the college. Another difficult
assignment for Mr. Myers was the
printing of a seventy-six page
Catalogue of Books in the libraries of the several institutions at
Gambler in 1837. This was quite in
conformity with the custom
of the period and was particularly
pertinent for Kenyonites, as they
were inordinately proud of their book
collections. They were justi-
fied, for in this time when books were
hard to come by in the West,
Kenyon had the largest collection of
any college west of the
Alleghenies. Many of these books were
collected by Bishops Chase
and McIlvaine on their separate
journeys to England from various
lords and ladies and from scholars at
Cambridge and Oxford. Later
the press printed a library catalog of
one of the literary societies
which did so much to forward the
extracurricular development of
the undergraduates in forensic and
debate: Catalogue of the Library,
and Names of Members of the
Philomathesian Society of Kenyon
College, from Its Formation in 1827
to 1840 (44p., Gambler, 1840).
Myers gradually accepted more difficult
printing assignments,
such as The Greek Verb in 1835
and the library catalog in 1837.
Thereafter he undertook the printing of
an abridgment of Edward
9 Episcopal Recorder, XVII (1839), 117.
10 The Greek Verb Taught . . .
According to the Greek Tables of D. Friederich
Thiersch, is undoubtedly the Acland Press production mentioned so
casually as
"Tissue's Greek Forms, a very
valuable book, by one of the professors" on page 258
of Norton's History of Knox County. "Tissue"
could easily be Norton's phonetic
transcription of "Thiersch."
Printing in Gambler 61
Bickersteth's The Christian Hearer (115p.,
Columbus, 1838) pub-
lished by Isaac N. Whiting, a Columbus
bookseller. Probably Myers
was urged to print this by the book's
editor, the Rev. Chauncey
Colton. Such an arrangement was
obviously found workable, for
the Gambler press produced four other
major items published under
the imprint of this enterprising
Columbus firm. All of these items
are in a sense concealed imprints, for
the printer's name occurs
only on the verso of the books' title
pages. Another title by
Bickersteth, A Help to the Study of
the Scriptures (139p., Columbus,
1839), likewise abridged and edited by
Dr. Colton and printed by
Myers, is apparently quite rare, as the
copy in the Yale University
Library is the only copy in the major
libraries of the United States.
The most ambitious Gambier production
is another concealed
imprint, Margaret Coxe's The Young
Lady's Companion (342p.,
Columbus, 1839). Miss Coxe, a
little-known author of religious
pamphlets for juveniles, was encouraged
in this venture by the
Ohio clergy. This book proved so
popular that the Gambler press
could only handle the printing of the
first edition. Whiting
farmed out four later editions to a
Boston firm, making a national
reputation for Miss Coxe as a leader of
the feminist movement.
The last two concealed Gambier imprints
were dated 1840 by
Thomas R. Raymond as Gambier printer.
Margaret Coxe's Life of
John W ycliffe (272p.,
Columbus, 1840) was obviously suggested by
the clergy, but as it lacked the
popular appeal of the lady's book, its
successor, a proposed life of Crammer,11
never appeared. Miss Coxe
thereafter turned back to the
all-fascinating topic of her sex,
writing for Whiting edifying and dull
books, such as Claims of the
Country on American Females (2 vols., Columbus, 1842) and
Woman: Her Station Providentially
Appointed (2 vols., Columbus,
1848).
The last concealed Gambler imprint was
McIlvaine's Justification
by Faith (156p., Columbus, 1840) already mentioned as a charge
to the clergy printed in an edition of
two thousand copies. This
book, although well distributed to
theologians, understandably
enough did not attain a national
popular circulation.
11 Gambier Observer, November 11, 1840.
62
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Thomas R. Raymond replaced Myers as
Gambler printer in 1840,
but his name appears only during this
one year. In 1841 William
C. French of the college staff was
listed as printer. Subsequently
editor of the Episcopal newspaper Standard
of the Cross, his chief
claim to printing fame was that in
Columbus he taught William
Dean Howells the art of typesetting.12
During the next seven years
the press produced only the essential
pamphlets: six issues of the
college catalog and four numbers of the
convention journals. Most
of these bore the imprint "Ackland
Press, G. W. Meyers," although
once in 1846 "Ackland Press, W. M.
Smallwood" appears. It is
hard to believe that Myers, who later
lived in the adjacent town,
Mount Vernon, was actively associated
with the press at this time.
For the first eleven years that the
press existed, he had been its
conscientious printer. Now suddenly he
could not be careless enough
to misspell both his own name and that
of the press and continue
to do so for nearly a decade.
There are other indications that the
press was in a period of
decline at this time. The weekly
newspaper, the Gambier Observer,
had been taken to Cincinnati by Dr.
Colton in 1840 to continue as
the Western Episcopal Observer. In
1843, M. T. C. Wing, then
one of the college administrators, at
his own financial risk began
to publish the Western Episcopalian in
Gambler. This continued
only until 1846, when the Rev. Joseph
Muenscher, as editor and
publisher, took it to Mount Vernon.
Only Volumes III and IV were
printed in this nearby town and Volume
V again appears from
Gambler, this time edited by clergymen
of the church for Bishop
McIlvaine. A new press able to print a
larger sheet was obtained
in 1848 by money subscribed by friends
in the diocese, while the
Rev. Norman Badger became the paper's
successful editor until 1859.
Gambler press items began to come out
under the name of R. M.
Edmonds in 1850. Edmonds, a small man,
crippled and asthmatic,
directed the press for nearly thirty
years. Under his management the
press became more vital and the
printing more skillful and more
artistic. Edmonds, born in Alexandria,
Virginia, December 28,
12 Kenyon Advance, III (1880),
193.
Printing in Gambier 63
1824,13 was brought to Gambler in 1832
by Myers, likewise from
Alexandria, to become his apprentice.
Nearly Edmonds' whole life
was spent in Gambler at the printing
trade, where he was noted
for his ability to set type in Greek
and Hebrew. Although he re-
mained a Methodist all his life, he was
known and liked as a
prominent and valuable citizen of this
little village which was such
an Episcopalian stronghold.14 He
spent a few years in New York
and Columbus before the Rev. Norman
Badger brought him back
to Gambier in 1848 to publish the Western
Episcopalian. He re-
mained its foreman when the paper was
taken to Cincinnati in 1859
but returned with it when Bishop
Gregory T. Bedell brought it
back to Gambier the following year.
Edmonds published it until
1868, when the Rev. William C. French,
then of Oberlin, became
its editor and took it to Oberlin under
the name of the Standard
of the Cross.
Edmonds, who then elected to stay in
Gambier with his press,
took Daniel Hunt as a partner in 1871.
The firm of Edmonds &
Hunt did all of the Gambier printing
until Edmonds' death in 1878.
Newspaper publishing intrigued Edmonds
and in 1874 the firm
began a newspaper venture of its own,
the Gambier Weekly Argus,
"devoted to local and general
news, education, literature, the arts
and science." Thereafter the
business used the imprints "Argus
Book & Job Office" and
"Weekly Argus Print."
Before taking Hunt into the business,
Edmonds printed under
the imprints "R. M. Edmonds,
Printer," "Western Episcopalian
Press," and "Theological
Seminary Press." Alone he issued two
substantial books, both by Joseph
Muenscher, Manual of Biblical
Interpretation (318p., Gambier, 1865) and The Book of Proverbs
(265p., Gambier, 1866). These were both
in press at the same time
and constituted a major undertaking for
at least four years. A.
Banning Norton as early as 1862
mentions having seen proof sheets
of both.15 They are dull,
theological books, but they are monuments
of industry well-bound in clerical
black. In addition to these and the
13 Ibid., I (1878), 45.
14 Smythe, History of the Diocese of Ohio, 552.
15 Norton, History of Knox County, 258.
64
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
five concealed imprints done for
Whiting of Columbus from 1838
to 1840, only The Greek Verb (1835)
and three other books of the
Gambler press achieved the ultimate
dignity of hard covers.
Printed by Edmonds and Hunt together,
these were: Parker's Bible
Baptism Not Dipping, Plunging, or
Immersion ... (304p., Gambier,
1871), White's Mount Vernon
Directory, Volume 1 (160p., Gam-
bier, 1876), and Rust's Exercises in
. . . Greek Prose . . . (80p.,
Gambler, 1878).
Two monthly undergraduate magazines
were published over the
years. The Kenyon Collegian, 1856
to 1860, was an active literary
paper which is yet being published for
the college, having been
rejuvenated in 1887. The Kenyon
Advance began its seven-year
career at Edmonds & Hunt's press in
Gambier, but after ten issues
had been printed in 1877-78, it removed
to another city, where
competitive printing costs were more
agreeable to student finance.
The press was always at the service of
a ministry anxious to
disseminate the Word. Chief among its
functions was the publica-
tion of sermons, of which there were
many. Unique among this file
of published sermons is one by James
Kent Stone, Moderation and
Toleration in Theology (22p., Gambier, 1867). Although its author,
then a Kenyon professor, was to become
president of Kenyon that
year, within the next year he resigned
and shortly afterwards
entered the Roman Catholic Church,
where he became famous as
Father Fidelis of The Cross. The press
was on more solid ground
publishing the guides laid down by
Bishop Bedell, such as the
syllabus for the senior theological
class, Pastoral Theology (22p.,
Gambier, 1868), and his Ritual
Uniformity (12p., Gambier, 1874),
a pastoral letter to the clergy and
laity. McElhinney's Infant Baptism
(32p., Gambler, 1872) and Parker's Bible
Baptism (304p.,
Gambler, 1871) were also more
fundamentalist.
A basic function of the press was
printing the college catalogs.
Most of the commencement programs were
produced locally, as
well as the myriad programs of the
various college societies. The
academic work of the college was
carried by printing endless
examination questions, and a financial
scheme is recognized by the
issue of scholarship script in 1856
when funds were more difficult
Printing in Gambier 65
than usual to acquire. Other activities
of the college are touched
upon by the printed Abstract and
Argument of Henry B. Curtis . . .
(8p., Gambier, 1837), a court defense
of the tax-exempt housing
always supplied to the faculty by the
college. A faculty specialist's
interest in fresh-water mussels was
encouraged by the printing of
Bossard's Catalogue of the Unios,
Alasmodontas, and Anodontas
of the Ohio River (21p., Gambier, 1854), the annual Fourth of July
celebration was dignified by the
publication of student Joash R.
Taylor's Ode . . . (8p.,
Gambler, 1839), and the production of the
two library catalogs (1837 and 1840)
probably satisfied the
chauvinistic pride of both faculty and
students.
While most of the productions of the
Gambier press disregard
a world not primarily concerned with
theology and the necessity
for preparing men for the ministry, a
few publications do recognize
that outside events were occurring. The
Memorial of President
Andrews (4p., Gambler, 1861) is a tribute to a Kenyon
president
who went to war leading many of his
former students. A program
of the Celebration at Kenyon College
over the Capture of Jeff Davis
(1p., Gambier, 1865) mentioning the
burning of an effigy signalized
the end of the bloody conflict where so
many classmates faced one
another over a wall of fire. That the
North retained control of
Kenyon is obvious from a "Roll of
Honor" in the Kenyon College
Triennial Catalogue ... 1825 to
1872, which lists only the Union
men of the many Kenyon men known to
have served on both sides
in the Civil War. A happier note is
sounded by the publication of
the Prospectus of the Neff Petroleum
Company (46p., Gambier,
1866), which heralded the discovery of
oil in Ohio and instigated
the fine series of geological reports
on Ohio published by the legis-
lature. This first report by several of
the Kenyon professors was
prompted by the vision of a
Kenyon-trained clergyman, Peter Neff,
who was forced to give up preaching
because of a throat ailment.
Daniel Hunt carried on alone for a year
at the press after
Edmonds' death on March 18, 1878,16
while the Argus appeared
somewhat irregularly. Then the press
was sold to a young man,
W. Fant, who published a continuation
of the Argus as the Gambler
16 Norman N. Hill, History of Knox County, Ohio (Mount
Vernon, 1881), 451.
66 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Herald. This too expired when the press stopped functioning in
1884. Gradually the main supports of
the press had drifted away,
its last convention journal being
issued in 1850 and its last college
catalog appearing in 1877. The diocesan
newspaper had been re-
moved in 1868 and was only replaced by
a general local paper,
the Argus, which lacked the
wider circulation that the religious
organ commanded. The press became
outmoded as its audience
dwindled. The village was too small to
warrant a publishing house
that did not receive outside support.
Competition was increasing as
the theological audience fell away.
When the college began to take
its business elsewhere the press was
doomed.
In the fifty years of activity of the
press, two printers carried most
of the burden: G. W. Myers and R. M.
Edmonds. Their work is
testimony to their industry and
devotion. The press primarily pub-
licized the aims and purposes of the
college and the religious faith
it represented. When the press was
first established, it truly was a
voice in the wilderness. As printing
became more widespread in the
Midwest, the church expanded, carrying
vital missions further west.
New interests and causes within the
church made more demands
upon its public, and such support
became diffused.
This press established the first
Episcopalian newspaper west of
the Alleghenies. This was its major
function and design. During
most of its existence it published the
diocesan newspaper under one
name or another. It published most of
the convention journals for
over thirty years and for over forty
years it printed the college
catalogs. It served the college well,
printing its everyday business
concerns and publishing the outstanding
lectures and sermons de-
livered at the college. In addition,
this small press, by what must
have been almost superhuman effort,
managed to print eleven re-
spectable books. Five of these were
commercial ventures published by
a Columbus firm. The other six were
substantial books published
by the press itself. Surely this small
and specialized press made a
creditable contribution to the printing
history of the early Midwest.17
17 Copies of a check list of Gambier imprints may be secured from the
author.