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James Desmore
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biography
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DESMORE, James The eldest son of Joel Densmore,
who was a somewhat conspicuous mechanic of the county, was born February
3d, 1820, at Moscow, Livingstone County, N. Y., and came, with his
father’s family, into Woodcock township, on Woodcock Creek, near
Blooming Valley, on January 1st, 1836. From his seventh to his thirteenth
year he had the advantages of the common schools of the city of Rochester,
N. Y., such as they then were. During the winter of 1841-42, feeling the
need of better advantages of schooling, by advancing a portion of the
wages himself, he prevailed on the trustees of the so-called “Cowen
District” to employ Mr. John R. Donnelly, a
former tutor of Allegheny College, to teach the district school. It was an
event in that town ship. Scholars sought admission from the contiguous
districts. The result was a crowded and most successful school. The next
winter, the winter of 1842-43, he attended Allegheny College one session.
These constitute the school advantages he enjoyed. In 1844 he entered as a
student at law with Hiram L. Richmond, Esq.,
and was admitted to the bar of the county April 18th, 1848, but he never
practiced the profession. In October of that year he went to Wisconsin,
and there drifted into political writing as a profession, and for fourteen
years following was engaged in conducting several weekly political
newspapers. In 1862 he returned to Crawford County, and in 1864 took up
his residence in Meadville. Politically, he was
educated in the old so-called Democratic school, and voted with that party
for the first seven years of his voting life. But early in life he became
converted to the general doctrines of William Lloyd
Garrison, and in 1848 he inaugurated the Free Soil Party in
Crawford County. The county was then divided among Whigs and Democrats,
and so unpopular was political anti-slavery
that he
failed to get any names to a call for a county convention, and was
constrained to call it anonymously. But a small band was found to join
him, among whom were Dr. Sargeant, Thomas S. Minniss,
Henry C. Johnson, Ezek Jones, Benjamin David, Lewis Thickstun, and
a few others. This was the beginning of the party in that county now known
as the Republican. In July, 1854, at Madison, Wisconsin, he was a delegate
to the convention which form ally organized the Republican party in that
State. He has always been
somewhat prominent as an independent radical, both in politics and
religion. For the last dozen
years he has been connected with the enterprise of developing the type-writer—a
machine to write with types instead of the pen, and is now connected
therewith. Directory
of Crawford County, PA, 1879-80, pages 235-236.
Densmore, James, manufacturer, was born in Moscow, N.Y., Feb. 3, 1820; son of
Joel Densmore. He was educated at Allegheny college and in 1848 removed to Oshkosh, Wis., where he established the True Democrat, the first newspaper published in the northwest. In 1851 he removed to Hudson, Wis. where he published the Star. He was next associate editor of the Press, at St. Paul., Minn., and finally of the Free Democrat, at Milwaukee, Wis. In 1861 he removed to Meadville, Pa., and with his brother Amos engaged in the oil business until 1867, when he became interested in a writing machine, invented by
Christopher Latham Sholes, who had been associated with him in editing the Free Democrat. Mr. Densmore gave to this machine the name "typewriter," and in company with
George W. N. Yost devoted the remainder of his life to manufacturing typewriters, the Remington being the first machine put on the market by the firm of Densmore & Yost. He gave the name "caligraph" to an improved machine and a later improvement was named in his honor the Densmore typewriter. He was married in 1849 to Artelissa Finch of Crawford county, Pa., who died in 1854; and in 1864 to
Mrs. Della R. Barron. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 16, 1889. |
