Typographical Beginnings in Baltimore

lish languages. Isaiah Thomas is responsible both for the statement that
he had in contemplation at the time of his death the printing of a German
Bible and for the preservation of the following anecdote which he says was
at one time current in Maryland. The story is that a Maryland missionary,
while addressing a congregation of Indians, held out his Bible and pro-
claimed that it was "the gospel—the truth—the work of God." "What!"
said one of his audience, "did the great all-powerful spirit make this book?"
"Yes," replied the missionary, "it is His work." The literal-minded Indian
answered indignantly, "I believe it to be a great lie! I go to Baltimore last
month where I see Dutchman make him. Great Spirit want no Dutchmen
to help him." Whether this anecdote meant that Hasselbach actually be-
gan the printing of a Bible, or whether the Indian in his scornful rejoinder
had reference to books in general as an article of German manufacture, Mr.
Thomas was unable to say, nor have later investigators been more fortu-
nate in determining the facts.

The single recorded Baltimore imprint bearing the name of Nicholas
Hasselbach is entitled, A Detection of the Conduct and Proceedings of Messrs.
Annan and Henderson ... at Oxford, [Pa] Meeting-House, April 18... 1764.
By John Redick.¹ It is the labored relation of a quarrel between certain
members of the Presbyterian Church of Marshes Creek, near Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, the matter of which does not concern this narrative. Its title-
page is without date, but the preface is dated from Tom's Creek, February
12, 1765. This little book of forty-seven pages is the earliest known exam-
ple of printing done in Baltimore and the only certainly known specimen
of Hasselbach's Baltimore press.

In the spring of 1768, while Hasselbach was still alive and presumably
active in the printing business in Baltimore,² the inhabitants of that city
and of the lower part of Baltimore County circulated a printed petition,
addressed to the Governor and Assembly of Maryland, begging that the
county seat be transferred from Joppa to Baltimore Town on the Patapsco.
The petition was printed in three distinct forms³ and in two languages, Eng-
lish and German. These sheets are without imprint and there are three pos-
sibilities to be taken account of in a consideration of their origin: they may
have been from the Green press of Annapolis, but they are dissimilar to the
work of that press in the Roman types employed, and it is not known that

¹ See bibliographical appendix. Only known copy in the library of Robert Garrett, Esq., of Baltimore.

² See John Clapham's letter in the Maryland Gazette for September 22, 1768, and Bennet Allen's letter in the
same place on September 29, 1768, in each of which are reprinted hand-bills issued by Allen in the summer of
1768 which, it is asserted in the letters, had been printed in Baltimore.

³ For full titles and descriptions of the three separate forms of this petition, see bibliographical appendix.

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