A moment in local history: 230 Years of Printing in Keene

Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in The Sentinel on March 6, 2021. In the summer of 1787, James D. Griffith discontinued his newspaper, The Boston Continental Journal, loaded his printing press, type and other printing equipment on an ox cart, and began the long journey from Boston to Keene. He had been encouraged to come to the growing town of Keene by "95 public-spirited citizens" who felt that their community needed a newspaper of its own. Griffith's first issue of the New Hampshire Recorder and the Weekly Advertiser was published on Aug. 7, 1787. Griffith was Keene's first printer, and his newspaper was the first publication ever issued in southwest New Hampshire. A few months later, he complained that the 95 public-spirited customers had not paid for a single copy of the paper, and the newspaper soon ceased publication. Three other weekly papers followed in quick succession, none of them lasting longer than three years. In February of 1799, young John Prentiss traveled to Keene with the intention of opening yet another printing office here. He found that his predecessors had left behind an old broken set of type and a very old screw press. He also found that the previous printers had failed and had sued their customers for payment. Despite these discouraging circumstances, Prentiss was convinced that this village of 1,500 residents needed a printer to encourage the commercial, political and educational development of the town. He spent his 21st birthday, March 21, 1799, setting the type for the first issue of his newspaper, The New Hampshire Sentinel. Two days later, The Sentinel was distributed to its 70 subscribers at a subscription rate of $1.50 per year. Within six months, Prentiss had 250 subscribers, and after two years the number rose to 500. The New Hampshire Sentinel proved successful, and Prentiss soon began to print books as well. In 1830 he printed 10 books that ran to a total of more than 1,000 pages. Some of the school textbooks he published sold more than 100,000 copies annually, at a time when printing was still done by hand. The New Hampshire Sentinel name remained until 1957, when the paper was combined with the firm's daily edition to become the Keene Evening Sentinel. Today, The Sentinel is one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the United States. And it still runs a printing business. In the 222 years since John Prentiss printed his first edition, dozens of printers have done business in Keene, and dozens of newspapers have been published here. Today, several printers make use of modern technology to offer a wide variety of printing services in the city. Alan F. Rumrill is executive director of the Historical Society of Cheshire County, which has been collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the region since 1927. It's on Main Street. To learn more about its public programs and collections, visit hsccnh.org.