{"id":1316,"date":"2018-01-14T12:04:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T12:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woodenpress.info\/census\/?page_id=1316"},"modified":"2018-02-10T18:13:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T18:13:35","slug":"missouri-historical-society","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.woodenpress.info\/census\/missouri-historical-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Historical Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missouri\u00a0Historical Society<\/a>: 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO, 65201.<\/p>\n

On Saturday November 28, 1903, the newspaper \u2018The Republic\u2019\u00a0published an article entitled \u201cFirst Newspaper west of St. Louis\u201d on page 6. William F. Switzler wrote a letter to the editor on November 17, 1903. He states: \u201cOn April 23, 1819 (not 1817), Nathanial Patten. Jr., and Benjamin Holliday issued in Franklin, Howard County, Missouri Territory, the first number of the Missouri Intelligencer<\/em> and Boon\u2019s Sick Advertiser<\/em>. It was a small four-page weekly about twelve by eighteen inches in size, in large type, and printed on a \u201cRamage\u201d hand press, manufactured mostly of wood. Many years ago, I presented the press to the Mercantile Library Association in St. Louis, and it can now be seenn at 1600 Locust street in a room of the Historical Society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newspaper \u2018Las Vegas Daily Optic\u2019 (March 23, 1911, page 5, column 5 & 6) writes: \u2018The press is now owned by the Mercantile Library of St. Louis. It was presented to the Mercantile Library in 1859 by Colonel William F. Ewitzler, of Columbia.\u2019<\/p>\n

Website<\/a> (April 22, 2014): \u201cCOLUMBIA \u2014 William Switzler, owner of the second printing press used west of the Mississippi River, offered to give it to the St. Louis Mercantile Library for display.<\/p>\n

The press, used to publish the Missouri Intelligencer<\/strong> beginning in 1819 at Franklin in Howard County, was in working order in storage in Columbia, Switzler wrote. He made the offer in response to an article in the St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican announcing it had begun printing its newspaper on a new eight-cylinder rotary press.<\/p>\n

The article also noted that the Republican traced its lineage to the Missouri Gazette, which in 1808 became the first newspaper published in the territory of Upper Louisiana. The press that published the Gazette no longer existed.<\/p>\n

The Intelligencer press was \u201ca small old wooden contrivance, with an iron \u2018bed\u2019 worked with a lever instead of the screw of the \u2018pioneer,\u2019 \u201d Switzler wrote. \u201cIt is a curiosity in its way, possesses great historical interest as the first printing press now extant ever west of the Mississippi River.\u201d<\/p>\n

Switzler wrote that he intended to offer the press to the Missouri Historical Society, \u201cbut as this institution has not for years past evidenced any signs of life\u201d he offered it to the library instead.<\/p>\n

The press today is in permanent storage in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society. The Mercantile Library owned it until 1902. It is not on display because of its condition and missing parts<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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