Pittsburgh

by Charles W. Dahlinger

In the early years Cramer had no press of his own. A printing office being located at either end of the block in which he was established, he divided his work between them. The Almanacs were printed by John Israel, and the Navigators, by John Scull. Business increased and he deemed it advisable to do his own printing, and on August 14, 1805, announced that he had “received a press, and a very handsome assortment of new type, for the purpose of printing such literary and ecclesiastical works as may be most in demand.”[292] His publications now became more numerous and pretentious.

He was too active to limit his energies to his business. In 1803, he became Secretary of the Mechanical Society, and thenceforth devoted much attention to the office, which he held for several years. He was not an active politician, but was warmly attached to the Republican party, and moreover had the respect of the entire community. In 1811, when a division took place in the Republican party in Allegheny County, and two tickets were placed in the field, his standing was such, that he was named as a member of the committee selected to bring about harmony.[293] Like the modern successful business man, he had a desire for the free life and clear skies of the country, and he engaged in farming and sheep-raising. When he died he had on the plantation of his brother-in-law, Josiah Clark, in Washington County, a flock of one hundred and twenty-eight sheep.

In 1808, the partnership with John Spear began, and the firm became known as Cramer & Spear. The establishment, however, continued to be called “Zadok Cramer’s Bookstore”; sometimes it was advertised as “Zadok Cramer’s Classical, Literary, and Law Bookstore.” In 1810, William Eichbaum was taken into the firm. He had served a seven years’ apprenticeship in bookbinding with Cramer, and with Cramer & Spear, and was the son of William Eichbaum, the elder. It may be that young Eichbaum was the “active youth of good morals and respectable character, wanted to learn the bookbinding and stationery business,” for whom Cramer had advertised on November 6, 1802.[294] The firm was now Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, and continued as such until 1818, the year of the death of Elizabeth Cramer, the widow of Zadok Cramer, when Eichbaum withdrew and the firm was again changed to Cramer & Spear.

Cramer had traveled extensively, first in pursuit of information for his Navigators, and later in search of health. He went down the Ohio in 1806. In 1810, he was in Kentucky.[295] When the New Orleans, the first steamboat that ran on the Western rivers was being operated between Natchez and New Orleans, he descended the Mississippi River in it twice, from the former to the latter place. Much of the information in regard to the New Orleans, its structure, cost, earnings, and length of time required between river points, is to be found in the Navigators.[296]

It would be impossible at this late day to compile a complete list of Cramer’s publications, nor would it serve any useful purpose. He published many schoolbooks, particularly for children in the primary grades. His Pittsburgh and New England primers, and the United States Spelling Book, were famous in their day. Ecclesiastical books were in great demand, and Cramer met it. Catechisms were used as books of primary instruction and were printed in many forms; there were Larger Catechisms, Shorter Catechisms, the Mother’s Catechism, and the Child’s Catechism. For the Germans he published in German, The Shorter Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther. The religious books that came from his press would form an endless list. Among those having a bearing on the history of that time was, The Marks of a Work of the Spirit, together with Remarks Respecting the Present Astonishing Work of God, and Revival of Religion in the Western Country, by J. Hughes of West Liberty.[297] “J. Hughes,” was the Rev. James Hughes, pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Lower Buffalo in Washington County, and West Liberty in the adjoining county of Ohio in Virginia, and one of the trustees of the recently established Jefferson College, the pioneer college of the West.

Cramer lived and flourished in an age when many of the publications sent out in the name of religion contained the merest drivel, or were elaborations of theories in regard to matters infinite held by narrow-minded controversialists. The press was flooded with them. There were publications bearing such depressing titles as The Happy Voyage Completed, and The Sure Anchor Cast. Cramer realized that in publishing works of this character he might be misunderstood. This sentiment was evident in the advertisement of at least one of his publications. On that occasion he prefaced his notice by stating: “On the recommendation of some pious friends, we contemplate printing, A Token for children, Being an exact account of the Conversion, holy and exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of several young children!”[298]

The most pretentious of his works was religious in character, and was published in 1807. It was A Dictionary of the Holy Bible by the Rev. John Brown of Haddington, in Scotland, of which two editions were printed. It was a noteworthy achievement to be accomplished on the frontier, hundreds of miles from the center of civilization. Many difficulties had to be overcome, not the least of which was the delay occasioned by the difficulty in procuring a regular supply of paper.[299] The work was in two large octavo volumes, and was illustrated with engraved pictures and maps that are still desired by collectors. Heading the list of subscribers, was the name of President Jefferson, of whom Cramer appears to have been an ardent admirer. In 1810, the firm published the Select Remains of the Rev. John Brown, the author of the Dictionary.

Cramer’s publications covered a wide range. In 1808 The Lawyer, by George Watterson, appeared, which was imbued with the current prejudice against lawyers, and presented a sorry spectacle of the legal profession. The same year, a map of Pittsburgh was published, which, if in existence to-day, would be of great interest. One of his most valuable contributions to the literature of travel, was Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, by F. Cuming, published in 1810. It contained according to Reuben Gold Thwaites,[300] a “picture of American life in the West at the beginning of the nineteenth century that for clear-cut outlines and fidelity of presentation has the effect of a series of photographic representations.” Another work of value was Views of Louisiana, by Judge Henry M. Brackenridge, published in 1814. Cramer had met Brackenridge in New Orleans, in December, 1811, while on one of his visits to that city, and arranged with him there for the publication.[301] In 1813, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith were brought out.

One of the most important ventures of Cramer’s entire publishing experience, the fruition of which he did not live to see, was The Western Gleaner or Repository for Arts, Sciences, and Literature. It was a monthly magazine of sixty-four pages. The first number appeared in December, 1813, four months after Cramer’s death. Compared with magazines of the present time, it was not of the highest order of literary merit. In its day, however, it ranked with the best magazines published. The excellent literary taste of the editor also appears from an incident which occurred during the early life of the magazine. The Pittsburgh Gazette published a communication from a disappointed aspirant for literary fame, signing himself “Recluse,” whose poem in fourteen stanzas entitled “The Two Roses,” had been declined by the Western Gleaner. “Recluse” referred sarcastically to the “uncommonly profound and very discerning editor of the Western Gleaner.”

That the editor of the Western Gleaner was more “discerning” than the editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette, which published “Recluse’s” effort, along with his letter, is evident from a perusal of the poem. The first stanza, which is also the best, reads: