Indiana’s first printing press: the beginnings of journalism in Knox County

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Journalism dates back to the days where mainly the only type of news people could get came from newspapers. The printing presses were the exact tools needed to make sure the papers were printed and distributed to the public. Vincennes was the first city in Indiana to have its own printing press. This printing press was specialized by Elihu Stout.

There was a group that founded the printing press building called the “Lincoln Press Association.” Their plan was to create a memorial of Abraham Lincoln and for Stout. When his family came to Vincennes, Lincoln witnessed how a printing press worked for the first time. Though, it’s unknown that if the printing press he saw was from Stout or not.

Stout was a New Jersey native who published the first newspaper in Indiana in 1804. Eventually, he was hired by William Henry Harrison to be the printer for the government. In 1807, the first building he was working at burned down and Stout lost almost everything, including the printing press. In that same year, he founded another building to start back up. The one that stands in Vincennes today is basically a reproduction of the second building that was used by Stout after the first one burned down.

During this time period, Stout was involved with the rivalry with the newspaper companies, the Western Sun and the Commercial. Before the Commercial was founded, it was referred to as the Indiana Gazette, which was the Republican newspaper company, and the Western Sun was the Democratic newspaper company. This rivalry continued until 1930 when the Commercial began to have economic problems and was then purchased by the Sun. These two companies would later on merge to become the Vincennes Sun-Commercial.

The reproduction building is part of the historical site tour for VU. This tour is for school groups who want to know more about the historic sites of Vincennes. They offered a 15 minute tour of each of the buildings to learn about the history of Indiana. They also talk about the importance of newspapers and journalism back then.

“We usually end up with somewhere over 20 to 25,000 total visitors to all of our properties here in town,” said David Weaver, the manager.

The people that work at these buildings for the tours today believe that newspapers are still as important today as they were back then.

“The basic principle that the people are informed is still an important thing for democracy,” said Richard Day, historian.

Day believes that there will still be a role for other local newspapers, but they are currently struggling to finance themselves. Day and Weaver also encourage people, especially students from VU, to take this tour to find out more about the city’s history.

“This would’ve been the Cadillac of printing presses back in the early 1800s,” said John Mays, the program developer.

To learn more about the history of the printing press, you can contact the Vincennes State Historic Sites at [email protected] or at 812-882-7422.