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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
BENJAMIN 
 FRANKLIN 
 
 3avmhn 
 
 The Remarkable Record 
 
 of a Philadelphia Institution 
 
 from 1728 to 1915 
 
 ® 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 FRANKLIN PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 I9I5 
 
Compiled by J. LIXTON EXGLE 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I9I5, FRANKLIN PRINTING CO. 
 
'2> 
 
 DEDICATION ^ 
 
 Dedicated by the Franklin Printing Company 
 
 to the memory of its illustrious founder, who, 
 
 in the midst of a most varied and useful 
 
 life, found his chief joy and pride 
 
 in his accomplishments 
 
 and associations 
 
 as a printer 
 
 LIBRARY 
 SCHOOL 
 
 ft435S9e5 
 
CHRONOLOGY OF THE 
 FRANKLIN PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 I'^28 Spring Benjamin Franklin, now entering upon his twenty- 
 second year, forms partnership with Hugh Mere- 
 dith. Commences business "near the market" at 
 51 High Street, now (1915) 135 Market Street. 
 Firm name B. Franklin and H. Meredith. 
 
 jp7joyi^/yj^^/j Partnership with Meredith dissolved. 
 
 ly^S January Franklin relinquishes active interest. David 
 Hall for four years in Franklin's employ, is made 
 active partner. Firm becomes Franklin and Hall, 
 Hall agreeing to pay Franklin iooo£ for 18 years, 
 (approximately $2660 a year.) 
 
 iy66 Partnership with Hall dissolved and annual pay- 
 
 February ist ment to Franklin ceases. 
 
 iy66 May David Hall forms partnership with William Sell- 
 ers. Firm name is now Hall and Sellers. 
 
 iyy2 David Hall dies. Firm continued as Hall and 
 
 December 2.ph^G^^e^s, the two sons of David Hall, — Wm. Hall 
 
 and David Hall, Jr., taking the place of their 
 
 father. 
 
 1804. Wm. Sellers dies at the age of 79. The business 
 
 February is now managed in the names of William and 
 
 David Hall, — later transferred toWm. Hall, Jr. {}) 
 
 180^ {about) Wm. Hall, Jr. forms partnership with Geo. W. 
 Pierie, as Hall and Pierie. 
 
 l8l£ or 1816 The firm of Hall and Pierie is dissolved. Hall 
 and Pierie are succeeded by Hall and Atkinson 
 (Samuel C. Atkinson.) 
 
l82I Samuel C. Atkinson takes into partnership 
 
 Charles Alexander, Firm is known as Atkinson 
 and Alexander. 
 
 1828 Atkinson becomes sole proprietor. 
 
 l8^Q Atkinson sells to John S. DuSolle and Geo. R. 
 
 Graham. DuSolle remains only a few months and 
 is succeeded by Chas. J. Peterson, the firm being 
 then Geo. R. Graham & Co. 
 
 18^^ Geo. R. Graham and Chas. J. Peterson sell to 
 
 Samuel D. Patterson & Co. 
 
 1848 March Samuel D. Patterson & Co. sell to Edmund 
 Deacon and Henry Peterson, each of whom had 
 previously held an interest. 
 
 l8y^ Partnership dissolved. Edmund Deacon is now 
 
 sole owner. 
 
 1877 Edmund Deacon dies. He is succeeded by his 
 
 stepson, E. Stanley Hart. Business is hence- 
 forth conducted as Franklin Printing House, 
 E. Stanley Hart, Proprietor. 
 
 1 88 Q January Incorporated as Franklin Printing Co., E. Stanley 
 Hart, President ; John Callahan, Treasurer and 
 General Manager. Mr. Callahan had been asso- 
 ciated with the business since February, 1852. 
 
 i8qi August E. Lawrence Fell and Wm. C. Sproul purchase a 
 controlling interest In the business, the former 
 being elected Treasurer, and the latter Vice-Presi- 
 dent and Secretary, E. Stanley Hart continued 
 as President until March, 1893, when Mr. Hart 
 retiring, E. Lawrence Fell was elected to that 
 office, which position he still occupies. Robert 
 N. Fell was elected Treasurer of the Franklin 
 Printing Company in 1903, and William W. Fell, 
 Secretary in 1910. 
 
 10 
 
Location of Business 
 
 1728 At 51 High Street, now 135 Market Street. 
 
 18 2y Moved to 112 Chestnut Street (old style number- 
 
 ing), between Third and Fourth Streets. 
 
 18 J^ Moved to 36 Carters Alley (the northern end of 
 
 Dr. Jayne Building, now occupies the site). 
 
 i8a.O Moved to the second floor of the old Ledger 
 
 Building, at the southwest corner of Third and 
 Chestnut Streets. 
 
 184.8 Moved to No. 66 (old style numbering), South 
 
 Third Street, over the North American Office, in 
 building adjoining Girard Bank on the south side. 
 From here they removed to 321 Chestnut Street. 
 
 i88q Moved to 514-520 Ludlow Street, in building now 
 
 known as the Fell Building, and owned by the 
 Franklin Printing Company. 
 
 II 
 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 Founder 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Day of Beginnings 
 
 ON a certain day In the Spring of 1728, — a day that 
 was to mark an epoch in the history of printing in 
 the American Colonies — there was unusual activ- 
 ity at 51 High Street, Philadelphia. The types and the 
 press ordered several months previous from a London 
 house by Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith had 
 arrived and were being duly installed in their new home. 
 
 Franklin, then 22 years old, and already a master 
 printer, was about to launch himself upon that career 
 which was destined to land him, when only forty-two, 
 at the port of affluence and to bring him, in his riper 
 years, to greater and greater distinction. 
 
 Philadelphia at this time was a town of perhaps 
 12,000 inhabitants. It was a population energetic, 
 thrifty, yet nevertheless giving but indifferent support 
 to the two printers who had the temerity to engage in 
 their chosen vocation. Printing in those days was not 
 classed as a profit-making industry, and the road to 
 better conditions was yet to be plotted out by Franklin 
 himself. 
 
 Nevertheless, nowhere in America, outside of 
 Boston, had printing reached so honorable and in- 
 fluential a position as it then occupied in Philadelphia. 
 Doubtless it was owing to the broad and tolerant policy 
 of William Penn that in a relative measure at least the 
 printing press had flourished in Philadelphia from the 
 earliest times. As late as 1733 the Governor of New 
 York felt obliged, for some offence real or imagined, to 
 stop the press then running in that city. In 171 8 the 
 Governor of Virginia, when advertising a reward for 
 pirates, was compelled to send to Philadelphia to have 
 
 13 
 
the handbills struck off. And yet on another occasion 
 he "Thanked God that they had no press." In 1686 
 Governor Randolph of Massachusetts had forbidden 
 anyone to print without his consent. Four years be- 
 fore that time the General Court of Massachusetts had 
 determined that there should be no press used except 
 one at Cambridge, and that only under the supervision 
 of two licensees. These restrictions were deemed 
 necessary to prevent abuse of the constituted authori- 
 ties. 
 
 Penn's colony, however, escaped such espionage, 
 and consequently there had been nothing to deter the 
 first Pennsylvania printer, Wm. Bradford, from setting 
 up his press in Philadelphia immediately upon the 
 founding of the colony. 
 
 Franklin, in his autobiography, says it was freely 
 predicted that the firm of Franklin & Meredith must 
 fail, as there were already too many printers in the city. 
 Yet there were but two — the one Andrew Bradford, son 
 of William Bradford, and the other Samuel Keimer. 
 
 Neither of these two men had the grasp and 
 knowledge of his business then enjoyed by Franklin, a 
 mere boy just out of his teens. Keimer was slovenly in 
 his person and in his business, suspicious in his dealing 
 and, as Franklin says, something of a knave withal. 
 He was eventually forced, through the pressure of his 
 creditors, to sell his business, when he quit Philadelphia 
 for the Barbadoes. He was an odd character and over- 
 reaching, and, as will be shown later on in the story of 
 the founding of the Pennsylvania Gazette, entirely un- 
 able to utilize to advantage his own ideas. Andrew 
 Bradford appears to have been a man of fairly generous 
 qualities, though narrow in some respects, as Franklin 
 discovered, when as postmaster, Bradford refused to 
 carry any newspaper but his own, the American Weekly 
 Mercury. He seems to have succeeded, however, 
 better than might have been expected, and in the eyes 
 of the young Franklin became moderately wealthy, for 
 the latter says of him after Keimer and Keimer's suc- 
 
 14 
 
cesser had departed: "There remained now no com- 
 petitor with me at Philadelphia but the old one, Brad- 
 ford: who was rich and easy, did a little printing now 
 and then by straggling hands, but was not very anxious 
 about the business." 
 
 Franklin had arrived in Philadelphia one Sunday 
 morning in October in the year 1723. He was a lad 
 then of only sixteen years. His brother James, a 
 printer in Boston, had proved a hard taskmaster, and 
 an opportunity presenting itself, Benjamin broke the 
 indentures which bound him to his brother and fear- 
 lessly started to carve out his career elsewhere. Reach- 
 ing New York he found that the only printer in that 
 town, William Bradford, formerly of Philadelphia, 
 needed no help. Bradford, however, recommended that 
 he journey on to Philadelphia and apply at the shop of 
 his son Andrew Bradford who had just lost by death an 
 apprentice named Aquila Rose. 
 
 The journey from New York proved to be perilous 
 and difficult. Franklin traveled by boat in a fierce 
 storm to Amboy, thence afoot to Burlington and from 
 there again by boat to Philadelphia. His "whole stock 
 of cash", he says, "consisted of a Dutch dollar, and 
 about a shilling in copper." The first Sunday he spent 
 very quietly, recuperating from his rough and discourag- 
 ing journey. He slept in the morning, as he says, while 
 he sat v/ith the Friends in "the great meeting house near 
 the market," and then again continued his rest in the 
 afternoon and until the following morning at the 
 Crooked Billet Tavern in Water Street. 
 
 Monday morning he applied to Andrew Bradford 
 for work, only to find that the position he had hoped to 
 obtain had already been filled. However, William 
 Bradford, who had preceded Franklin from New York 
 on horseback, volunteered to introduce him to Samuel 
 Keimer, the other printer of the town, whose place of 
 business was near by. 
 
 The two found Keimer composing an elegy to the 
 memory of Aquila Rose, the late lamented apprentice of 
 
 15 
 
Bradford, using the only font of type In the plant. 
 There was no other job under way. Franklin therefore 
 left Keimer with the understanding that as soon as the 
 elegy should be in type he would return and run it off 
 press. For several days, Franklin was kindly per- 
 mitted by Andrew Bradford to lodge and eat with him, 
 doing occasional odd jobs in return. 
 
 A steady position was offered by Keimer on com- 
 pletion of the elegy. As Franklin says: "Keimer sent 
 for me to print off the elegy. And now he had got an- 
 other pair of cases, and a pamphlet to reprint, on which 
 he set me to work." Keimer, objecting to Franklin 
 lodging with his competitor, Bradford, secured com- 
 fortable accommodations for Franklin with a Mr. 
 Read. Then began the romance which was eventually 
 to join the daughter of the house, Deborah Read, in 
 matrimony with Franklin. 
 
 Franklin's work for Keimer was highly satisfactory. 
 His genial disposition, his marked ability, and easy 
 adaptability to people and circumstances soon brought 
 him to the notice of persons of prominence. Among 
 these was the Governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William 
 Keith, who discovering the unusual skill and versatility 
 of the young printer, strongly urged him to set up for 
 himself. Moved by the flattery of Keith, who later 
 proved to be absolutely irresponsible and a hollow 
 adviser, Franklin decided in April of 1724 to return to 
 Boston and, with a favorable letter from Keith, to en- 
 deavor to secure from the elder Franklin the financial 
 help necessary to equip in Philadelphia a small printing 
 plant. But when he reached Boston, Josiah Franklin 
 saw things in a different light. He appreciated the 
 pleasant things said of his boy by Governor Keith, but 
 all the while his judgment of Keith was at low ebb. As 
 Franklin says, his father declared that Keith "must be 
 of small discretion to think of setting a boy up in busi- 
 ness who wanted yet three years of being at man's 
 estate." The necessary help was refused. But the 
 father gave generously some wholesome advice, "telling 
 
 16 
 
me," as Franklin says, *'that by steady industry and a 
 prudent parsimony I might save enough by the time I 
 was one-and-twenty to set me up; and that if I came 
 near the matter he would help me out with the rest." 
 
 Returning to Philadelphia, after an absence of only 
 a few weeks, he continued in the employ of Samuel 
 Keimer until the latter part of the same year, when he 
 set sail in the ship Annis for London. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Franklin in London 
 
 FRANKLIN had embarked on this voyage at the 
 urgent solicitation of Keith who had told him, on his 
 return from visiting his father in Boston, " Since he 
 will not set you up I will do it myself." Says Franklin, 
 "I presented him with an inventory of a little printing 
 house, amounting, by my computation, to about lOO 
 pounds sterling. He liked it but asked me if my being 
 on the spot in England to choose the type, and see that 
 everything was good of the kind, might not be of some 
 advantage." Thus it was that the trip had been settled 
 upon. Governor Keith was supposed to have delivered 
 to the vessel on the day that Franklin sailed, letters of 
 credit, which would have enabled him to make the 
 necessary purchases when reaching London. The mail 
 bag was opened as the vessel sailed into the English 
 Channel, but what was Franklin's consternation to find 
 that it contained nothing from the governor for him. 
 Keith thus demonstrated his utter worthlessness as a 
 financial support to the young printer, and Franklin 
 was set down in London stranded, though far from 
 helpless. 
 
 The vessel landed December 24th, 1724. In con- 
 formity with his usual practice Franklin had made some 
 lastingandvaluablefriendships during the voyage across. 
 One of his fellow voyagers, Mr. Denham, a Quaker 
 merchant, advised him to apply himself to his trade for 
 a time in London. "Among the printers here," said he, 
 "you will improve yourself, and when you return to 
 America you will set up to greater advantage." As to 
 Keith, Denham told his young friend "that no one who 
 knew him, had the smallest dependence on him, and he 
 laughed at the notion of the governor's giving me a 
 letter of credit, having as he said no credit to give." 
 
 Franklin continues, "I immediately got into work 
 at Palmer's, then a famous printing house in Bartholo- 
 mew Close, and here I continued near a year." He 
 
 19 
 
says, "I was pretty diligent, but spent with Ralph (a 
 friend who accompanied him to England), a good deal 
 of my earnings in going to plays and other places of 
 amusement." His record at his trade throughout his 
 stay in London evidently was a good one. Toward the 
 end of a year at Palmer's he says "I now began to think 
 of getting a little money beforehand, and expecting 
 better work, I left Palmer's to work at Watts's near 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields, a still greater printing house. 
 Here I continued all the rest of my stay in London." 
 
 On the 23 rd of July 1726 he sailed from Gravesend, 
 in the company of his friend, Mr. Denham, who had 
 engaged him as clerk in a mercantile enterprise which 
 he was about to enter upon in Philadelphia. Franklin's 
 prospects as a merchant were very brilliant, and had 
 Mr. Denham lived, the printing craft would un- 
 doubtedly have missed one of its most brilliant lights. 
 But it was decreed otherwise. After a long illness, be- 
 ginning February, 1727, the merchant died. The busi- 
 ness was taken over by the executors, and Franklin's 
 employment thereby ended. 
 
 It was then that, as he says, "Keimer tempted me, 
 with an offer of large wages by the year, to come and 
 take the management of his printing house, that he 
 might better attend his stationer's shop." Unable to 
 get employment as a merchant's clerk Franklin re- 
 luctantly accepted Keimer's offer and once more en- 
 gaged in his trade as printer. 
 
 Keimer's real motive in employing Franklin was 
 to use him in the training of his other employees, in- 
 tending, when this should be accomplished, to discharge 
 him. Keimer himself was a wretched workman and 
 without either the knowledge or the ability to build up 
 an efficient working organization. He knew that 
 Franklin could do this. Franklin's life with Keimer at 
 this period was an active one. Keimer being some- 
 thing of a Seventh Day Adventist, all their work was 
 crowded into five days, both Saturday and Sunday 
 being holidays. 
 
 20 
 
Of his work and the plant, Franklin says: "Our 
 printing house often wanted sorts, and there was no 
 letter founder* in America; I had seen types cast at 
 James's in London, but without much attention to the 
 manner; however, I now contrived a mould, made use 
 of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the matrices 
 in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all 
 deficiencies. I also engraved several things on oc- 
 casion; I made the ink; I was warehouseman, and every- 
 thing, and, in short, quite a factotum." 
 
 But so rapidly did Franklin improve the condition 
 of the plant and develop the skill of the employees that 
 when Keimer paid his second quarter's wage he let him 
 know that he considered it too heavy. He grew in- 
 creasingly uncivil to his foreman, sought opportunities 
 to reprimand him, and at last losing his temper, dis- 
 charged him. Franklin made no demur, although he 
 might have urged the fulfilment of his contract. 
 
 In the evening of the same day that he left Keimer, 
 this time as he thought for good, he was visited by his 
 friend, Hugh Meredith. Meredith was one of the hands 
 whom Franklin had found in Keimer's employ and 
 whom he had instructed, in the craft. He is described 
 in the Autobiography as "A Welsh Pennsylvanian, 
 thirty years of age, bred to country work; honest, 
 sensible, had a great deal of solid observation, was 
 something of a reader, but given to drink." 
 
 Long into the night they talked, discussing ways 
 and means and laying plans for a business of their own. 
 Franklin says of this occasion, speaking of Meredith, 
 "He had conceived a great regard for me, and was very 
 unwilling that I should leave the house while he re- 
 mained in it. He dissuaded me from returning to my 
 native country, which I began to think of; he reminded 
 me that Keimer was in debt for all he possessed; that 
 his creditors began to be uneasy; that he kept his shop 
 miserably, sold often without profit for ready money, 
 
 *The best type came from the celebrated foundry of Wm. Caslon in London. 
 Caslon lived from 1692 to 1766. 
 
 21 
 
and often trusted without keeping accounts; that he 
 must therefore fail which would make a vacancy I 
 might profit of. / objected on account of my want of 
 money. He then let me know that his father had a high 
 opinion of me, and from some discourse that had passed 
 between them, he was sure would advance money to set 
 us up, if I would enter into partnership with him. 'My 
 time,' says he, *will be out with Keimer in the Spring; 
 by that time we may have our press and types in from 
 London. I am sensible, I am no workman; if you like 
 it, your skill in the business shall be set against the 
 stock I furnish, and we will share the profits equally.'" 
 
 Meredith's father being in Philadelphia at the 
 time, the plan was promptly laid before him, and met 
 with approval and support. Franklin prepared an in- 
 ventory of what would be required for the new plant 
 and the list was handed a merchant who ordered the 
 stock from England. "The secret was to be kept," 
 says Franklin, "till the things should arrive and in the 
 meantime I was to get work if I could at the other 
 printing house." But as there proved to be no vacancy 
 at Bradford's, for several days Franklin enjoyed an 
 enforced idleness. 
 
 About this time Keimer foresaw a possible order to 
 print some paper money for New Jersey and this would 
 require certain engravings and types which only Frank- 
 lin could supply. Fearing that his competitor, Brad- 
 ford, might steal the march on him and engage Franklin 
 for the same purpose, he craftily sent for his late fore- 
 man, apologized and re-engaged him. 
 
 The New Jersey job was obtained. In order to 
 execute it Franklin contrived to make a copper plate 
 press, "The first that had been seen in the Country." 
 To complete this issue of money it required the presence 
 of Franklin and Keimer in Burlington for nearly three 
 months. 
 
 Shortly after returning to Philadelphia the material 
 for the new printing plant arrived from London. 
 Franklin continues "We settled with Keimer and left 
 
 22 
 
him before he heard of it. We found a house to hire 
 near the Market and took it." Thus it was that in the 
 Spring of 1728 Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith 
 commenced business at 51 High St. The sign which 
 they put over the door appears to have read Franklin 
 y Meredith to which they added, ^^The New Printing 
 Office." In his history of Printing in America, Isaiah 
 Thomas, who knew Franklin in his later years, says that 
 this sign, "The Newest Printing Office," remained on 
 the board over the door, until 18 14 and that it was 
 placed there by Franklin himself.* 
 
 The rent for the building was twenty-four pounds 
 a year. To reduce their burden, they took in Thomas 
 Godfrey, a glazier, and his family, "who were to pay a 
 considerable part of it to us; and we to board with 
 them." 
 
 *As the imprint on the Gazette from the first number published by Franklin 
 reads "The New Printing Office," and not "newest," Thomas is probably in error 
 as to the wording, to that extent only. 
 
 23 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The First Customer 
 
 ' "W "T" TE had scarce opened our letters," says Franklin, 
 \/\/ "and put our press in order, before George 
 ▼ ▼ House, an acquaintance of mine, brought a 
 countryman to us, whom he had met in the street in- 
 quiring for a printer. All our cash was now expended 
 in the variety of particulars we had been obliged to pro- 
 cure, and this countvyman^s five shillings, being our first 
 fruits, and coming so seasonably, gave me more pleasure 
 than any crown I have since earned; and the gratitude 
 I felt toward House has made me often more ready 
 than perhaps I should otherwise have been to assist 
 young beginners." 
 
 There was much hard w^ork in store for the new 
 firm, many long days, and nights. Yet from the first, 
 Franklin's methods assured success. On one occasion, 
 when at the merchant's Every-night club one of the 
 members predicted failure for Franklin & Meredith, 
 because there were already two printers before them in 
 Philadelphia, a Dr. Baird dissented most vigorously, 
 "for," said he, "the industry of that Franklin is superior 
 to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at 
 work when I go home from club, and he is at work again 
 before his neighbors are out of bed." 
 
 In the autumn of the preceding year Franklin had 
 formed his acquaintances into a club for mutual im- 
 provement, which was named the Junto. This club 
 contained some young and middle aged men of note, 
 several of whom proved to be true friends of the young 
 master printer. And here let it be noted that Franklin 
 seemed to possess the happy faculty of turning to ad- 
 vantage, sometimes consciously, but often uncon- 
 sciously, almost every act of his life. His friendships 
 were real friendships, and they generally lasted through 
 life. He was always ready to lend a hand and he ac- 
 cordingly seldom had to seek help himself. It was 
 offered him without the asking. 
 
 25 
 
Of the members of the Junto who assisted Franklin 
 particular mention is due Joseph Breintnal. Of him 
 Franklin speaks with rare kindliness. Through Breint- 
 nal was secured the first large order. This was "from 
 the Quakers for the printing forty sheets of their history, 
 the rest being done by Keimer; and upon this we worked 
 exceedingly hard, for the price was low. It was a folio, 
 propatria size, in pica, with long primer notes. I com- 
 posed of it a sheet a day, and Meredith worked it off 
 at press; It was often eleven at night, and sometimes 
 later, before I had finished my distribution for the next 
 day's work, for the little jobs sent in by our other friends 
 now and then put us back. But so determined I was to 
 continue doing a sheet a day of the folio that one night, 
 when having Imposed my forms, I thought my day's 
 work over, one of them by accident was broken, and 
 two pages reduced to pi. I immediately distributed 
 and composed it over again before I went to bed; and 
 this industry visible to our neighbors, began to give us 
 character and credit." 
 
 "The New Printing OfHce," had been opened but 
 a short time when George Webb, one of Keimer's em- 
 ployees, a bond servant late of Oxford University, but 
 of discreditable habits, who had just been enabled to 
 buy his time from his master, came to Franklin offering 
 himself as a journeyman. Says Franklin, "We could 
 not then employ him; but I foolishly let him know as a 
 secret that I soon Intended to begin a newspaper, and 
 might then have work for him. My hopes of success as I 
 told him were founded on this, that the then only news- 
 paper, printed by Bradford, was a paltry thing, wretch- 
 edly managed, no way entertaining, and yet was profit- 
 able to him. I therefore thought a good paper would 
 scarcely fail of good encouragement. I requested Webb 
 not to mention It; but he told It to Keimer, who Im- 
 mediately, to be beforehand with me, published pro- 
 posals for printing one himself, on which Webb was to 
 be employed." 
 26 
 
The paper published by Bradford to which Frank- 
 lin refers was the American Weekly Mercury, the first 
 number of which appeared Dec. 22, 1719. It was the 
 third paper to appear in the Colonies, being antedated 
 in birth by the Boston Gazette by one day only. 
 
 The history of the Pennsylvania Gazette is so 
 closely interwoven over so long a period of years with 
 the printing business founded by Franklin, that a brief 
 account of its establishment and character will be in 
 order here. 
 
 Nervous with anxiety to forestall Franklin, Keimer 
 on the first of October, 1728, issued an announcement in 
 the form of a two page sheet, 7% x 11^ inches in size, 
 informing the public that he would shortly publish the 
 first number of a paper to be called "The Universal 
 Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania 
 Gazette." What news he could easily get he would 
 insert but the really ambitious feature of his project was 
 to reprint serially the entire edition of Chambers' En- 
 cyclopaedia. In his announcement he says: "As this 
 News Paper in a few weeks time after its first Publication, 
 will exceed all others that ever were in America, and 
 being always a whole sheet, it will contain at times, the 
 Theory of all Arts, both liberal and mechanical, and 
 the several sciences both humane and divine; with the 
 Figures, Kinds, Properties, Production, Preparations of 
 Things natural and Artificial; also the Rise, Progress 
 and State of things. Ecclesiastical, Civil, Military, and 
 Commercial, with the several Systems, Sects, Opinions 
 among Philosophers, Divines, Mathematicians, Anti- 
 quarians, etc., after an Alphabetical order, the whole 
 being the most complete body of History and Philos- 
 ophy ever yet published since the Creation; containing 
 among many thousand other things, such as the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 The first number of the Universal Instructor in all 
 Arts and Sciences was published Dec. 24th, 1728. In 
 this Keimer naively says: "We have little news of con- 
 sequence at present, the English Prints being generally 
 
 27 
 
stufft with robberies, cheats, fires, murders, bank- 
 ruptcies, promotions of some, and hanging of others; 
 nor can we expect much better until vessels arrive in 
 the Spring, when we hope to inform our readers what 
 has been doing in the Court and Cabinet, in the Parlia- 
 ment House as well as in the Sessions as Dr. Wild 
 wittily expressed it of the European, viz: 
 
 We are all seized with the Athenian Itch, 
 
 News and New Things do the Whole World bewitch. 
 
 In the meantime we hope our readers will be con- 
 tent for the present with what we can give 'em, which 
 if it does 'em no good, shall do 'em no hurt. Tis the 
 best we have, and so take it." 
 
 Such drivel alone it would seem would have been 
 sufficient to kill the enterprise. Add to this the fact 
 that Franklin, incensed at Keimer's piracy of his idea, 
 turned a very clever trick by editing a live and really 
 interesting department in Bradford's "Mercury." "By 
 this means the attention of the Publick was fixed on 
 that paper, and Keimer's proposals, which were bur- 
 lesqued and ridiculed, were disregarded." "He began 
 his paper, however," says Franklin, "and after carrying 
 it on three quarters of a year, with at most only ninety 
 subscribers, he offered it to me for a trifle; and I, having 
 been ready for some time to go on with it, took it in 
 hand directly; and it proved in a few years extremely 
 profitable to me." 
 
 The quaint language used by Keimer in announc- 
 ing the failure of his project is worth recording. He 
 says, in the thirty-ninth number on the twenty-fifth of 
 September, 1729, "It not quadrating with the circum- 
 stances of the printer hereof, S. K., to publish this 
 Gazette any longer, he gives notice that this paper con- 
 cludes his third quarter; and is the last that will be 
 printed by him. Yet that his generous subscribers may 
 not be baulked or disappointed, he had agreed with 
 B. Franklin and H. Meredith, at the new printing 
 office to continue it to the end of the year, and probably 
 if further encouragement appears it will be continued 
 28 
 
longer. The said S. K. designs to leave this province 
 early in the Spring or sooner, if possible he can justly 
 accommodate his affairs with everyone he stands in- 
 debted." 
 
 The next number of the paper, the fortieth, ap- 
 peared on the second of October, 1729, with a new dress 
 of type, and with the abbrievated title: The Pennsyl- 
 vania Gazette. Chambers' Encyclopaedia went into 
 the discard and its place was taken with real news of 
 the day and the delightful and entertaining discourses 
 and letters, etc., of Franklin himself. 
 
 As published by Franklin the Gazette is a well printed 
 sheet, being set in large clear type, and showing through- 
 out the touch of a master hand. Bound volumes in the 
 library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society are in an 
 excellent state of preservation, showing that the paper 
 used was of an enduring character. The early volumes 
 are four pages in size, the pages measuring y% x 11^ 
 inches. The imprint at the bottom of the fourth page 
 reads: "Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and H. 
 Meredith at the New Printing Office near the Market, 
 where advertisements are taken in and all persons may 
 be supplied, with this paper at Ten Shillings a year." 
 
 Early numbers of the Gazette printed by Franklin 
 contained such advertisements as the following: 
 
 French is taught at Mr. Cunningham's, a Barber, next door to 
 Mrs. Rogers in Market Street, by Daniel Duborn. 
 
 A likely negro woman to be sold: She can wash and iron very 
 well, and do house-work. 
 
 Nor does the printer neglect to advertise his own wares: 
 
 Good writing parchment sold by the printer hereof, very reasonable. 
 
 Likewise: 
 
 Good Live Geese Feathers, sold at the Printers' hereof. 
 
 Let it be noted in passing that Samuel Keimer 
 shortly after selling the Gazette carried out his purpose 
 to desert Philadelphia for the Barbadoes. His devious 
 ways had brought him low. As he himself described 
 his plight he had had the misfortune, "to be three times 
 
 29 
 
ruined as a master printer, to be nine times in prison, 
 and often reduced to the most wretched circum- 
 stances," besides being "hunted as a partridge on the 
 mountains." 
 
 The Pennsylvania Gazette proved an invaluable ac- 
 quisition to the "New Printing Office," and its editor 
 and chief publisher saw to it that its usefulness did not 
 slacken. 
 
 Speaking of the early numbers Franklin says, 
 "some spirited remarks of my writing, on the dispute 
 then going on between Governor Burnet and the 
 Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people, 
 occasioned the paper and the manager of it to be much 
 talked of, and in a few weeks brought them all to be our 
 subscribers. 
 
 "Their example was followed by many, and our 
 number went on growing continually. This was one of 
 the first good effects of my having learnt a little to 
 scribble; another was, that the leading men, seeing a 
 newspaper now in the hands of one who could also 
 handle a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and en- 
 courage me. Bradford still printed the votes and laws, 
 and other publick business. He had printed an address 
 of the House to the Governor, in a coarse blundering 
 manner; we reprinted it elegantly and correctly, and 
 sent one to every member. They were sensible of the 
 difference; it strengthened the hands of our friends in 
 the House, and they voted us their printer for the year 
 ensuing. 
 
 "But a serious difficulty now began to threaten. 
 Meredith's father who had agreed to finance the new 
 company, found himself, after paying one hundred 
 pounds currency, unable to advance the balance, a 
 matter of another hundred pounds. So the merchant 
 through whom the equipment for the plant had been 
 purchased, becoming impatient brought suit and sued 
 us all. We gave bail, but saw that, if the money could 
 not be raised in time the suit must soon come to a 
 judgment and execution, and our hopeful prospects 
 
 30 
 
must, with us, be ruined, as the press and letters must 
 be sold for payment, perhaps at half price," 
 
 Furthermore his partner Meredith was doing badly, 
 having gone back to those old habits from which Frank- 
 lin had once rescued him. He was becoming known as 
 a town character of ill repute and seldom sober. He 
 had failed to improve his skill as a workm.an, remaining 
 a poor penman besides being no compositor. Most of 
 the work and the entire management of their business 
 rested upon Franklin, who nevertheless out of gratitude 
 to the Merediths had continued to bear the double 
 burden cheerfullv. 
 
 31 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Friends in Need 
 
 WITH the Impending financial crisis hovering 
 over Franklin we are to find once more his good 
 genius caring for him. 
 Of this time he says: "In this distress two true 
 friends, whose kindness I have never forgotten, nor ever 
 shall forget while I can remember anything, came to me 
 separately, unknown to each other, and without any ap- 
 plication from me, offering each of them to advance me 
 all the money that should be necessary to enable me to 
 take the whole business upon myself, if that should be 
 practicable; but they did not like my continuing the 
 partnership with Meredith, who, as they said, was often 
 seen drunk in the streets, and playing at low games in 
 alehouses, much to our discredit. These two friends were 
 William Coleman and Robert Grace (both were members 
 of the Junto). I told them I could not propose a separation 
 while any prospect remained of the Merediths fulfilling 
 their part of our agreement, because I thought myself 
 under great obligations to them for what they had done, 
 and would do If they could; but. If they finally failed in 
 their performance, and our partnership must be dis- 
 solved, I should then think myself at liberty to accept 
 the assistance of my friends. 
 
 "Thus the matter rested for some time, when I 
 said to my partner, 'Perhaps your father Is dissatisfied 
 at the part you have undertaken In this aft'air of ours, 
 and is unwilling to advance for you and me what he 
 would for you alone. If that is the case tell me, and I 
 will resign the whole to you, and go about my business.' 
 'No,' said he, 'my father has really been disappointed, 
 and is really unable, and I am unwilling to distress him 
 farther. I see this is a business I am not fit for. I was 
 bred a farmer, and it was a folly in me to come to town, 
 and put myself at thirty years of age, an apprentice to 
 learn a new trade. Many of our Welsh people are go- 
 ing to settle In North Carolina, where land Is cheap. I 
 
 33 
 
am inclined to go with them, and follow my old em- 
 ployment. You may find friends to assist you. If 
 you will take the debts of the Company upon you; re- 
 turn to my father the hundred pounds he has advanced, 
 pay my little personal debts, and give me thirty pounds 
 and a new saddle, I will relinquish the partnership, and 
 leave the whole in your hands.' I agreed to this pro- 
 posal; it was drawn up in writing, signed, and sealed 
 immediately. I gave him what he demanded, and he 
 Vv'ent soon after to Carolina, from whence he sent me 
 next year two long letters, containing the best account 
 that had been given of that Country, the climate, the 
 soil, husbandry, etc., for in those matters he was very 
 judicious. I printed them in the papers and they gave 
 great satisfaction to the publick. 
 
 "As soon as he was gone, I recurred to my two 
 friends, and because I would not give an unkind pref- 
 erence to either, I took half of what each had offered 
 and I wanted, of one, and half of the other; paid off the 
 company's debts, and went on with the business in my 
 own name, advertising that the partnership was dis- 
 solved." 
 
 The date of dissolution of this partnership between 
 Franklin and Meredith was July 14th, 1730. 
 
 From this time forward Franklin appears to have 
 prospered. His business grew, his friends increased in 
 number and the Gazette became more and more a power 
 in the Province; indeed in time it came to have the 
 largest circulation of any paper in all the Colonies. 
 Some difficulty Franklin did expereince in getting the 
 Gazette distributed outside of Philadelphia. The reason 
 for this was that Andrew Bradford of "The Sign of the 
 Bible," a publisher of the "Mercury" the rival sheet, 
 was also post-master and used his power to create a 
 monoply. His riders were strictly forbidden to carry 
 the Gazette when delivering the mails. Some few how- 
 ever Franklin did manage to get through surreptitiously. 
 Of Bradford's narrow policy in this instance Franklin 
 complained as follows: "I thought so meanly of him 
 
 34 
 
for It, that, when I afterward came Into his situation as 
 Post-master I took care never to Imitate It." 
 
 It should be noted that an attempt was made by 
 Franklin to pubHsh the Gazette twice a week. In fact a 
 few numbers were Issued semlweekly, but deliveries 
 were bad, and the plan generally proving Impractical, It 
 was discontinued. The Gazette was the first newspaper 
 in America to be published twice In the same week. 
 
 For his time the products of Franklin's press were 
 remarkably varied. Not a single avenue for new busi- 
 ness escaped him. His genial temperament, his facile 
 pen, his keen business sense, his foresight and Interest 
 in public men and aifairs, his love of books of science, 
 of wit and of everything worth while In the life of his 
 day, was turned to account to the building of such a bus- 
 iness of which anyone might well be proud. Branching 
 out into the realms of finance In the early days of his bus- 
 iness he wrote an anonymous pamphlet which he called 
 "The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency." This 
 he prepared, because as he says at that time there were 
 only 15,000 pounds in paper money in Pennsylvania. 
 This pamphlet "was well received by the common 
 people In general and the point was carried by a ma- 
 jority in the House. My friends there, who conceived 
 I had been of some service, thought fit to reward me by 
 employing me in printing the money; a very profitable 
 job and a great help to me. This was another advan- 
 tage gained by my being able to write." 
 
 This job gave him some fame for he says, "I soon 
 after obtained through my friend Hamilton, the print- 
 ing of the Newcastle paper money, another profitable 
 job as I then thought It; small things appearing great 
 to those In small circumstances; and these to me were 
 really great advantages, as they were great encourage- 
 ments. He procured for me, also, the printing of the 
 laws and votes of that government, which continued In 
 my hands as long as I follow'd the business." The 
 public printing of New Jersey also came to him in 
 similar manner. 
 
 35 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A Period of Expansion 
 
 T was about this time that Franklin added to his 
 printing business a stationer's shop, in which he kept 
 " blanks of all sorts, the correctest that ever appear'd 
 among us, being assisted in that by my friend Breintnal. 
 I had also paper, parchment, books, etc." His keen- 
 I ness to give the "publick" just what they wanted in his 
 stationer}/" shop is shown well combined with his sense 
 of humor in the following as recorded in Isaiah Thomas's 
 "History of Printing*." 
 
 Bills of lading formerly began with, "shipped by 
 the Grace of God," etc. Some people of Philadelphia 
 objected to this phraseology as making light of serious 
 things. Franklin therefore printed some without these 
 words and inserted in his paper the following advertise- 
 ment: "Bills of lading for sale at this office, with or 
 without the Grace of God." 
 
 Even with the stationery department his place of 
 business at the beginning was not crowded, for one side 
 of the shop he says was used by Godfrey for his glazier's 
 business. This was Godfrey who with his family had 
 been taken in to occupy the house and with whom 
 Franklin boarded. This arrangement lasted for some 
 time but was at last broken, through the inability of 
 Franklin and Mrs. Godfrey, who had constituted her- 
 self a matchmaker, to agree on certain terms of settle- 
 ment which Franklin proposed as his ultimatum for the 
 marriage which Mrs. Godfrey had hoped to see con- 
 summated with the daughter of one of her relatives. 
 Franklin's attitude being resented, the Godfreys re- 
 moved, leaving him the whole house. But this incident 
 turned his thoughts more seriously to marriage, with 
 
 *Isaiah Thomas, from whose History of Printing some of the facts in this 
 book are drawn, was another self-made printer. He was born in 1749 and died 
 in 183 1. With only six weeks' schooling, he made himself a notable figure in 
 printing and publishing circles of his time, and in the literary life of the nation. 
 Most of his life work was laid in Worcester, Mass. His "History of Printing," 
 published in 1 8 10, has always been recognized for its general accuracy by historians. 
 
 2>7 
 
the result that on the first of September, 1730, he 
 married his old fiame, Deborah Read. "She proved a 
 good and faithful helpmate, assisted me much attending 
 shop; we strove together, and have ever mutually en- 
 deavor'd to make each other happy." 
 
 Previous to his marriage he had begun gradually 
 to pay off the debt he "was under for the printing 
 house." "In order to secure my credit and character 
 as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality in- 
 dustrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the 
 contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at no places of 
 idle diversion. I never went out a fishing or shooting; 
 a book, indeed, sometimes debauched me from my 
 work, but that was seldom, snug, and gave no scandal; 
 and to show that I was not above my business, I some- 
 times brought home a paper I purchas'd at the stores 
 thro' the streets on a wheelbarrow. Thus being es- 
 teem'd an industrious thriving young man, and paying 
 duly for what I bought, the merchants who imported 
 stationery solicited my custom; others proposed sup- 
 plying me with books, and I went on swimmingly." 
 
 Keimer in the meanwhile had gone to Barbadoes 
 and had been succeeded in Philadelphia by his appren- 
 tice David Harry: of the latter Franklin says "I was at 
 first apprehensive of a powerful rival — as his friends 
 were very able, and had a good deal of interest. I 
 therefore propos'd a partnership to him, which he, 
 fortunately for me, rejected with scorn." Harry's 
 pride, expensive habits, and neglect of business were 
 his undoing, and Franklin is soon able to announce 
 "There remained now no competitor with me at Phila- 
 delphia but the old one Bradford." 
 
 38 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 'Toor Richard" 
 
 UNDOUBTEDLY the most important and influ- 
 ential product of Franklin's press was his" Poor 
 Richard Almanack." In those days there were 
 no magazines, and in all the American Colonies only 
 three newspapers. A newspaper, too, was regarded as a 
 luxury, even though it came but once a week, and com- 
 paratively few of the colonists were subscribers. Yet 
 even in the remote hamlets, and on the farms farthest 
 back in the country an almanac could be found hanging 
 by almost every fireside throughout the year. There 
 were several of these Almanacs before Franklin's day, 
 serving their purpose as guides to the days of the week 
 and month, showing the eclipses, the new moon, the full 
 moon, etc., and predicting unblushingly all kinds of 
 weather, but more than all else giving their readers 
 mental nourishment and entertainment in short articles 
 and extracts, some original, and others culled from here 
 and there. In many households there was virtually no 
 other reading matter. 
 
 Realizing the profit that lay in this field and 
 probably knowing he could outdo the other almanac 
 makers of his period Franklin prepared and issued the 
 first number of his "Almanack" in 1732. This he made 
 to appear as having been written and compiled by a 
 Richard Saunders, but "printed and sold by B. Frank- 
 lin, at the New Printing Office near the Market." 
 
 The "Poor Richard Almanack" marked the high 
 tide in almanac making. It marked also an epoch in 
 American literature; it was the first bit of real literary 
 humor of any consequence to be published this side of 
 the Atlantic. It was continued by Franklin for twenty- 
 five years. He says "I endeavor'd to make it both en- 
 tertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in 
 such demand that I reap'd considerable profit from it, 
 vending annually near ten thousand." A glimpse at 
 the pages reproduced in this book will give one, even at 
 
 39 
 
this late day an early understanding of the popularity 
 enjoyed by "Poor Richard." 
 
 In the meantime Franklin's business grew apace. 
 With the advancing years his prosperity became more 
 and more marked. Before he was forty his was the 
 leading printing plant in the Colonies. He was more 
 widely patronized than any other printer in America. 
 Almost all the important printing in the middle Colonies 
 came to him, and indeed he had a large share of that in 
 the Southern Colonies also. 
 
 In the year 1744 there came to Philadelphia from 
 London, a young printer by the name of David Hall. 
 He had been highly recommended to Franklin by his 
 friend Wm. Strahan, a Londoner, and Franklin had 
 promised to befriend him to the best of his ability. 
 Accordingly as soon as he landed Hall was taken in 
 charge by Franklin and given employment in his shop. 
 That he was not disappointed is clearly shown in a 
 letter written by Franklin to Strahan February 12th, 
 1744. In this Franklin says: "I have no doubt but 
 Mr. Hall will succeed well in what he undertakes. He 
 is obliging, discreet, industrious, and honest, and when 
 those Qualities meet, things seldom go amiss. Nothing 
 in my power will be wanting to serve him." 
 
 So well indeed did Hall succeed that in four years 
 time he was admitted to partnership with Franklin, on a 
 basis that proved highly satisfactory to both. This was in 
 January of 1748. Franklin was then forty-two years old, 
 and had been in business for himself only twenty years. 
 
 By the terms of the agreement Hall was to pay to 
 Franklin each year for a period of eighteen years regu- 
 larly a sum of iooo£ (approximately ^2660. annually). 
 Franklin now relinquished all his active interest in the 
 concern and turned his attention henceforth chiefly to 
 science, statesmanship, and letters. Of Hall he records 
 that: "He took off my hands all care of the printing 
 office, paying me punctually my share of the profits. 
 This partnership continued eighteen years, successfully 
 for us both." 
 
 40 
 
It is a striking fact that the printing industry con- 
 tinued to lie very close to Franklin's heart throughout 
 a very long life, though he relinquished all personal 
 activity in this line at the early age of forty-two. 
 
 Isaiah Thomas in his "History of Printing," bears 
 this testimony: "The following will show that Franklin 
 retained a regard for the trade until the close of his life. 
 In 1788, about two years before his death, a number of 
 printers and booksellers met together in Philadelphia, 
 to form some regulations for the benefit of the trade.* 
 Bache, grandson of Franklin and myself were of the 
 number. After the first meeting, I conversed with Dr. 
 Franklin on the subject of our convention. He ap- 
 proved the measures proposed, and requested that the 
 next meeting might be at his house, as he was unable 
 himself to go abroad. The meeting was accordingly 
 holden there; and although he was much afflicted with 
 pain, he voluntarily took minutes of the proceedings 
 and appeared to be interested in them." 
 
 The following epitaph written by Franklin long 
 before his death has frequently been quoted as charac- 
 teristic of the man. It shows in a beautiful light his 
 love and reverence for the art which he had made his 
 own: — 
 
 THE BODY OF 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER. 
 
 (LIKE THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK; 
 
 ITS CONTENTS WORN OUT, 
 
 AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING AND GILDING) 
 
 LIES HERE, FOOD FOR WORMS. 
 
 YET THE WORK ITSELF SHALL NOT BE LOST, 
 
 FOR IT WILL, AS HE BELIEVED, APPEAR ONCE MORE 
 
 IN A NEW 
 
 AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION 
 
 C0RR::CTED AND AMENDED 
 
 BY ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 *Thomas adds, "several attempts have been made to establish rules and regu- 
 lations for the benefit of the trade, but they have generally not proved successful." 
 
 41 
 
When writing his will he begins with these impres- 
 sive words: "I, Benjamin Franklin, Printer, late Min- 
 ister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America 
 to the Court of France, and now President of the State 
 of Pennsylvania." 
 
 Years before he had relinquished all active associa- 
 tions in the printing business, but yet when in the 
 twilight of his life he comes to write his will he still 
 remains above all else "Benjamin Franklin, Printer^ 
 
 42 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Following the Founder 
 
 FRANKLIN undoubtedly shone as a bright light in 
 virtually every field of endeavor upon which he 
 entered. Yet in none was his success more marked 
 than in the field of printing. His achievements in the 
 craft have been a stimulus to many. Few have reached 
 the goal which he attained, but all who have followed 
 his example, his precepts and his practices have been 
 the better for it. Were every printer to read and study 
 the life of his patron and faithfully to put in practice 
 Franklin's miethods of foresight, industry, integrity, 
 geniality and interest in men and things of their time, 
 the craft would attain a level now only dreamed of. 
 
 Of Franklin's partner and immediate successor, 
 David Hall, Isaiah Thomas the historian says: "Had 
 he not been connected with Franklin he might have been 
 a formidable rival to him in the business of printing and 
 bookselling. Hall was well acquainted with the art of 
 printing and was an industrious workman, of first rate 
 abilities; a prudent and impartial conductor of the 
 Gazette, and a benevolent and worthy man." The 
 surmise indulged in by Thomas that Hall might have 
 been a formidable rival is wide of the mark, since it was 
 through the friendly offices of Franklin that Hall came 
 to America and was so promptly settled here in an ad- 
 vantageous position. 
 
 David Hall was born in Scotland in the year 1714, 
 and was reared as a printer in Edinburgh. From 
 Edinburgh he went to London, where he obtained a 
 position in the same printing house in which was also 
 employed at that time as a journeyman, \Vm. Strahan, 
 a long time friend of Franklin, and in later years a 
 famous law printer to the King. The fact that Hall 
 attracted the attention and secured the friendship of 
 so able a man as Strahan in itself foretold for him a 
 brilliant future. Hall was thirty years of age when he 
 entered Franklin's employ in 1744. He was a mature 
 
 43 
 
man of thirty-four when in 1748 he took over the entire 
 charge of the business. 
 
 Isaiah Thomas says of this period: ''At that time 
 the Gazette had an extensive circulation in Pennsylvania 
 and in the neighboring Colonies, and the business of the 
 printing house was very lucrative." 
 
 Scarcely three months elapsed after the termina- 
 tion of the partnership of Benjamin Franklin and 
 David Hall when the latter formed a partnership with 
 William Sellers. This was effected in May of 1766, 
 and the firm became known as Hall and Sellers. 
 
 William Sellers had served his apprenticeship in 
 London and had come to America some years before. 
 Isaiah Thomas says of him, "He began business about 
 1764 and kept a book and stationery store in Arch 
 Street between Second and Third, — Sellers was a cor- 
 rect and experienced printer, a good citizen, well known 
 and as well respected." 
 
 The partnership of David Hall and William Sellers 
 continued until the death of Hall on the twenty-fourth 
 of December 1772, having lasted but six years. These 
 two men were admittedly masters of their craft. Their 
 business flourished and the Gazette maintained its 
 supremacy. 
 
 David Hall was succeeded by his two sons William 
 Hall and David Hall, Jr., the firm name remaining as 
 Hall and Sellers. William Sellers maintained his in- 
 terest actively until his death in February of 1804 at 
 the age of seventy-nine years. 
 
 Scharf & Westcott in their History of Philadelphia 
 note the fact that "The Pennsylvania Gazette con- 
 tinued its issues regularly under these proprietors until 
 a short time before the occupation of Philadelphia by 
 the British. The last number of this paper published 
 before the capture of the City was dated September 
 loth, 1777 and was numbered 2533. During the 
 occupancy and for some months afterward the pub- 
 lication of the paper was suspended. No. 2534 was 
 published at Philadelphia on January 5th, 1779, 
 
 44 
 
and from that time the publication went forward 
 regularly." 
 
 The business was still conducted at 51 High Street 
 (now 135 Market Street) in the same place where years 
 before Franklin and Meredith had joined forces. 
 
 With the growth of the city had come keener com- 
 petition until toward the end of the eighteenth century, 
 during the period of the partnership of William Sellers 
 with the two younger Halls, there were, according to 
 Scharf and Westcott, "in the city and suburbs of Phila- 
 delphia thirty-one printing presses, printing four daily 
 and two semi-weekly papers, one of them in the French 
 language, and two weekly journals one of them in the 
 German language." But the firm of Hall and Sellers 
 was built on a solid foundation and they easily held 
 their own, much of the best printing of the time emanat- 
 ing from their press. 
 
 After the death of William Sellers in 1804 the busi- 
 ness was managed in the names of William and David 
 Hall, but was later transferred to William Hall, Jr. 
 About the year 18 10 William Hall, Jr. formed a partner- 
 ship with Geo, W. Plerie and the firm became Hall and 
 Plerie. The printing industry in Philadelphia had 
 grown to such an extent that there were now in the city 
 hfty-one printing offices and a total of 153 presses. 
 There were also at this time about sixty engravers en- 
 gaged there, thus showing that the art of illustrating 
 was fast taking a recognized place in works of printing. 
 
 About the year 1815 or 1816 the firm of Hall and 
 Plerie was dissolved, Geo. W. Plerie dropping out and 
 giving place to Samuel C. Atkinson. The business was 
 thus conducted as Hall and Atkinson until the death of 
 Hall on the twenty-seventh of May, 1821. 
 
 In the same year that Hall died, 1821, Samuel C. 
 Atkinson took Into partnership Charles Alexander, and 
 the business was conducted as Atkinson & Alexander. 
 
 45 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A New Era in Journalism 
 
 THE year 1821 marked another era in American 
 journalism, for "Atkinson and Alexander at once 
 determined upon a revolution in the character of 
 the paper and the partners proceeded to build up a new 
 business on the venerable foundation of the Pennsylvania 
 Gazette. They at once issued proposals for the publica- 
 tion of a new weekly paper, to which they gave the 
 name of the Saturday Evening Post. The first number 
 was issued August 4, 1821. It was published at the 
 price of ^2.00 a year, payable half yearly in advance, or 
 $3.00 a year if not paid until the end of the year. The 
 proprietors were young men and were ambitious. 
 They endeavored to make their paper of interest to all 
 classes, encouraged rising genius, which hurried to see 
 itself in print in the 'Poets Corner,' or in the story col- 
 lumns, gave some attention to news, foreign, as well as 
 domestic, and eschewed all politics. It was a paper for 
 the family and although some particular attention was 
 paid to local matters, there was sufficient variety of 
 general intelligence to interest persons not resident in 
 Philadelphia. Thus by judicious attention to business 
 i the paper became popular, and gained a large circula- 
 tion, so that there was in time no part of the United 
 States into which the Post did not penetrate." In its 
 first days the editor of the Post was Thomas Cottrell 
 ] Clarke. 
 
 In 1827 the firm of Atkinson and Alexander moved 
 
 I their plant from Market St. (or High St.) to 112 Chest- 
 
 f nut Street between Third and Fourth. Thus for 
 
 I ninety-nine years the business founded by Benjamin 
 
 j Franklin had remained in one locality. It had grown 
 
 up with the city, had seen the population creep from 
 
 approximately 12,000 in 1728 to 80,458 in 1827, (census 
 
 of 1830) had kept in line with the growing industries of 
 
 the Country, had met the new requirements put upon it 
 
 from year to year, and finally with the shifting of centers 
 
 47 
 
of trade it was moved to a locality better suited to its 
 purposes in that advanced age. 
 
 Speaking of the plant in 1821, about the time of the 
 establishment of the Saturday Evening Post, Scharf & 
 Westcott say: "This paper even so late as 1821 was 
 worked off with the laborious manipulation of wrist 
 dislocating ink-balls, and a clumsy beating of forms 
 that can hardly be realized by the skillful pressman of 
 the present day, while the crude press of Patrick Lyon, 
 and even the improved Columbian and Washington, 
 taxed the Pressman's strength from Friday noon — 
 sometimes all night and far into the next day — to work 
 off what would now be a very moderate edition. While 
 the advent of the new paper required a supply of new 
 type, the old stock was not melted up, but what was 
 then looked upon as the Old Franklin type was care- 
 fully preserved. One use and perhaps the latest to 
 which it was put, was in the hands of a reverend com- 
 positor, who set up his own translation of the New 
 Testament, the proofs being taken on the old Franklin 
 Press. This was the reverend Dr. Abner Knelland, a 
 Universalist Theologian, an able and popular preacher 
 in that day." 
 
 In 1828 Samuel C. Atkinson became sole pro- 
 prietor. The business was now located at 112 Chest- 
 nut Street, In 1833 it was moved to 36 Carter's Alley, 
 where it remained until 1840 when it was again moved 
 to the second floor of the Old Ledger Building at the 
 southwest corner of Third and Chestnut Sts. Just 
 prior to this last removal, Samuel C. Atkinson had sold 
 the business in November of 1839 to John S. DuSoUe 
 and George R. Graham. DuSoUe remained, how- 
 ever, only a few months, and was succeeded by 
 Charles J. Peterson, the firm name being George R. 
 Graham & Co. In 1843 George R. Graham and 
 Charles J. Peterson sold the business to Samuel D. 
 Patterson & Co. Five years later, in March of 
 1848 Samuel D. Patterson & Co., disposed of the 
 establishment to Edmund Deacon and Henry Peterson, 
 48 
 
each of whom had previously held an Interest in the 
 business. 
 
 Under the firm name of Deacon & Peterson the 
 business flourished. The Saturday Evening Post be- 
 came an extremely profitable enterprise, and the job 
 and book printing departments were by no means neg- 
 lected. 
 
 The plant was moved in 1848 to No. 66 South 
 Third St. (old style numbering) into the building adjoin- 
 ing the Girard Bank on the South side. The office and 
 plant of Deacon & Peterson were located on the second 
 floor directly over the North American office. 
 
 John Callahan, now in his seventy-seventh year is 
 probably the veteran of employing printers in Phila- 
 delphia. Today, Manager of the Franklin Printing 
 Company, his business career covers a continuous 
 service with the same house extending over a period 
 3f sixty-three years. In 1852, then a boy of fourteen, 
 be entered the employ of Deacon and Peterson. Out- 
 side the door he had seen a sign "Boy wanted," and 
 though having had previously only a year's experience 
 with, another printing concern he felt qualified to meet 
 the requirements of Deacon & Peterson. He was 
 Dromptly given employment, and immediately went to 
 fcVork in the ware-room, at the very bottom of the 
 adder. In those days the equipment consisted of 
 :hree Adams presses, and three job presses. The 
 3lant managed as Mr. Callahan says, "to turn out an 
 mmense amount of work." The business end of the 
 organization mainly devolved upon Edmund Deacon, 
 tienry Peterson edited the Saturday Evening Post. 
 
 It has been noted above that at the outset the 
 * Saturday Evening Post" eschewed all politics. This 
 Droved, as a circulation getter, a most successful policy, 
 especially for those turbulent ante-bellum days Fully 
 )ne hundred thousand copies of the Post were dis- 
 :ributed every week throughout the Union, many of 
 :hem going into the Southern States. But there was 
 :rouble in store for the "Post." Henry Peterson was 
 
 49 
 
an ardent abolitionist. With such a mighty engine of 
 publicity, the Post, in his hands, the temptation proved 
 too strong to resist. He broke away from the settled 
 policy of the past, and wrote and published a violent ; 1 . 
 anti-slavery article. The result was effective and in- , ^ 
 stantaneous. Hardly had the papers reached their ] 
 destination before indignant subscribers hastened to 
 hurl them back at the publishers. As Mr. Callahan f 
 expresses it they came into the ofhce, often unopened | 
 "by baskets full and barrels full." The subscribers, | 
 particularly those in the South, would have none of | 
 Peterson's Politics and that anti-slavery editorial | 
 sounded the doom of the Post for many years. The ij 
 heyday of its prosperity was a thing of the past. \ 
 
 Nevertheless its publication was continued and 
 with what was left of the Post, combined with the job 
 printing department. Deacon & Peterson were fairly 
 successful. The Post later went into other hands. *In 
 the early '70's Henry Peterson dropped out of the firm 
 leaving Edmund Deacon sole owner of the business. Mr. 
 Deacon died February 4th, 1877, and was succeeded 
 by his stepson E. Stanley Hart. The firm name became 
 the Franklin Printing House, E. Stanley Hart & Co., 
 Proprietors, and was known by that title until the 
 incorporation, January 31st, 1889, of the present com- 
 pany. The Franklin Printing Company was incor- 
 porated under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania to 
 take over the printing and binding business which has ^ 
 been conducted under the name of the Franklin Print- | 
 ing House. 
 
 E. Stanley Hart was elected president of the corpo- 
 ration, and continued to fill that office until 1893, so that 
 the business had remained in the same family for forty- 
 five years. On August 17th, 1891, E. Lawrence Fell 
 and Senator William C. Sproul bought a controlling inter- 
 est in the Franklin Printing Company, the former being 
 elected Treasurer and the latter Secretary. In 1893 
 
 *In 1898 The Saturday Evening Post was bought by the Curtis Publishing 
 Co. It has since become the greatest publication of its kind in the world. 
 
 50 
 
Mr. Fell succeeded Mr. Hart as President of the com- 
 pany, and has continued in that office until the present 
 time. Robert N. Fell was elected Treasurer February 
 i6th, 1903, and William W. Fell was elected Secretary 
 November 21st, 1910. John Callahan has continued 
 since the incorporation of the company as General 
 Manager. 
 
 The Franklin Printing Company occupies today 
 an assured position among the printers of Philadelphia. 
 Though surrounded by many other printing establish- 
 ments, where Franklin at the beginning had only 
 two competitors, they nevertheless rejoice in the 
 progress of the industry and the improvement of the 
 trade. 
 
 The present plant is thoroughly modern, as was 
 Franklin's in his day. Machinery of the highest 
 type, ample for all requirements with workmen skilled 
 to render the true Franklin service, are at the command 
 of all with whom the company do business. 
 
 Though a seven days' wonder in its time, Franklin's 
 shop could not produce in a whole year the output of the 
 Franklin Printing Company for a single day in the year 
 
 1915. 
 
 Hall's Letter to Franklin in Reference to 
 
 their Partnership Accounts in the 
 
 Printing Business 
 
 302 HALL, DAVID. Partner of Benjamin Franklin 
 in the printing business. Autograph letter, signed. 
 Folio. Philadelphia, February 3, 1772. With 
 Address. 
 
 This interesting letter was written to Franklin dur- 
 ing his residence in London and gives a full account of 
 the profits of the business as well as the meagre earnings 
 of the Pennsylvania Gazette. The letter reads as 
 follows : 
 
 51 
 
"Philada., February 3, 1772 
 ''Dear Sir: 
 
 "Your last kind Letter to me, was dated June 
 nth, 1770, in answer to mine of the 17th of March 
 preceeding. What money I have since received on 
 our Company Account, is as follows, viz, 
 
 "For the Gazette from Feby 
 17, 1770 to January 28, 1772 . . . £358,13 
 
 "By Cash received for Work] 
 done, as credited in the Ledger, in > 
 the above mentioned Time . . . . j 181,17,10^ 
 
 £540,io,io>^ 
 
 "and I have paid on your Account to Mrs. Franklin 
 the following Monies, as by her Receipts and 
 Orders will appear. 
 
 1771 
 
 "Jany 25 For purchasing a 
 Bill of Exchange for £30-Sterl. . . £50 
 
 "Aug 1st 16 By Cash paid 
 Ballance of an Account from the 
 Estate of the late Mr William 
 Branson against you by Order . . 7)i9?7/^ 
 
 "By my Part of Eleven Years 
 and Three Quarters Gazette, dis- 
 counted in Mr Branson's Account 
 against you 2,18,9 
 
 "Oct 18, By Cash pd Mrs 
 Franklin 24 
 
 29, Ditto paid Robert Erwin 
 by Mrs Franklin's Order 7,12 
 
 "Nov. 29 By Ditto paid Mrs 
 Franklin for the purchasing a Lot 
 of Ground for you of Mrs Parker . 100 
 
 "By Sundries had in the shop . 6,13,2 
 
 52 
 
"I should be glad of the Pleasure of a Letter 
 from you soon, and to know whether you can now 
 fix the Time of your setting out for Philadelphia. 
 I should be glad it was quickly, as Mrs Parker is 
 now no more and I want much to have our Part- 
 nership settled, as far as it can be done, and to 
 endeavour to fall upon some Method, in order to 
 get in the outstanding Debts, which must amount 
 to a great Deal, if it was possible to get them any- 
 thing like collected. It is an aifair, I think worthy 
 of your looking after, and taking some Pains to 
 accomplish. 
 
 "My Family, at present, all in very good 
 health — My Wife as well as can be expected, I 
 did not think she would get over the Loss of our 
 only and much loved Daughter, but it has pleased 
 God Wonderfully to support her under that heavy 
 affliction; and I really think she is better in her 
 health now than she had been for some years past — 
 Mrs Franklin, Mrs Bache, and Child are all well, 
 I suppose you will hear from them by this Packet. 
 My Compliments to Mr Bache. I am glad to know 
 by those who have seen you lately, that you enjoy 
 a good state of Health, the Continuance of which 
 shall be always my most sincere Wish. You may 
 believe me to be, 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 "Yours most affectionately, 
 
 "David Hall." 
 
 53 
 
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