The issue of the Printer and Bookmaker for December 1899 contains an interesting article entitled “The Lay of the Case.”¹ The author writes: “The printers’ type-case bears evidence that the original cases of the early typographers were arranged with the boxes in alphabetical order, and as this would be the natural method of a man familiar with the alphabet it may be safely assumed that Gutenberg . . . and others adopted the plan, perhaps with some modifications. As the art progressed it became convenient to make some boxes larger than others in order to accommodate a quantity of type within a small radius, and as a consequence the alphabetical order had to be sacrificed. The desirability of keeping the letters most used near the hand was recognized in these changes, and as a result the type-case of Moxon, in 1683, presented the leading characteristics of the case as used to-day.”

1. Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, p. 12. Published by Howard Lockwood & Co., New York. The author is named as Chas. H. Cochrane.

There follows a discussion of a few of the arrangements of the typecase that have been suggested over the years. Preparing to conclude his article, the author states: “The history of the type-case is one of conservatism and prejudice. The trade has always shown an indisposition to make any changes, no matter how much proof has been advanced to show the superiority of new arrangements. The first common-sense improvement suggested in the case that attracted any attention was that of Lord Stanhope, about 1800.” After a brief discussion of the Stanhope case the next paragraph begins: “The next notable improvement offered the trade and rejected was the California case of 1867.” This statement is interesting in two respects. It gives the year 1867 as the date of the introduction of the California case and gratuitously says it has been rejected. The century of acceptance by the trade—almost seventy years since the foregoing statement was made, can hardly be considered rejection. Since there apparently is no published material on the history of the California typecase, it seemed appropriate to make this brief study in the centennial year of its origin. The earliest published reference to the California case found is in a four-page publication issued by Ellis Read’s Printers’ Furnishings Warehouse and Scotch Type Agency, No. 310 Clay Street, San Francisco, entitled Type and Graver. A copy of Volume I, Number I, dated January 1876, is in the William E. Loy Collection, in the Kemble Collections. This copy is apparently unique as no other of that or any other issue has been located.

Ellis Read, of whom very little is known, was operating in 1874 in San Francisco as an importing and commission merchant.² Sometime in the following year he took into partnership James W.E. Rand. The new partnership obtained the agency of the famous old Edinburgh typefoundry of Miller & Richard and set itself up as a printers’ supply house.³ As it planned to offer a wide line of printers’ materials, it employed as a salesman Octavius A. Dearing, who was working as a compositor with Wm. H. Cubery & Co., a well-established and highly regarded printing office of the period.⁴

2. Langley’s San Francisco Directory, 1874.
3. Ibid., 1875.
4. Ibid., 1874.

In the Type and Graver an article describing the line of printing-office specialties offered the trade by the new agency takes up almost two full columns. Entitled “Our Specialities,” it begins ” It is to the perfection and completeness of the various articles of office furniture, even more than the skill of the workman, that the employing printer is indebted for the economical and profitable administration of his business. Order and system in the arrangement of material, and the employment of every known and tried device for the saving of labor, are requisites of the greatest importance. In this particular the printers of California stand far in advance of others; and it is principally to the ‘specialties’ of our establishment, to the articles designed and sold only by our House, that this preeminence is for the most part due. . . . This department is under the management of Mr. O.A. Dearing, whose long experience as a job printer, and as foreman of one of the largest job offices in the State, renders him particularly competent to advise and assist printers in the selection of their outfits and the arrangement of their offices.”

The following paragraphs from this article describe: “Dearing’s Patent Lead Rack . . . invented and patented by Mr. Dearing . . . in use over ten years; Rule Rack . . . originated by our Mr. Dearing, and first introduced in the office of A. L. Bancroft & Co., in this city . . . Wood Furniture and Rack . . . ; Our New Job Stand . . . The most complete job stand ever made . . . ; The Dearing Case—The only really practical two-thirds case ever made . . . Invented by our Mr. Dearing, and manufactured by Simons & Co. The decidedly antiquated and fossil method of arrangement still pursued by manufacturers on this coast has been avoided. Over three-quarters of the case is devoted to the letters, while the general appearance of the case is unchanged from the usual style of upper case—the fourteen useless boxes having been discarded and the remaining boxes enlarged. It is, in fact, the only two-thirds case made that will hold an ordinary font of job letter larger than pica, without overrunning the boxes. We have sold several hundreds of this style case, and the demand is still increasing. Price, $1.25 each.” This is followed by enthusiastic descriptions of other specialties.

The identity of the originator of the California Job Case has thus been established as O.A. Dearing. Was he, possibly, the first “efficiency production engineer” to work with Pacific Coast printers.’

In the Pacific Printer, Stationer and Lithographer for September 1884 is a brief article concerning lead racks. “Dearing Patent Lead Rack. Will be found the only practical lead rack in the world adapted to its purpose. This was invented eighteen years ago [1866?], and has come into general use throughout the United States. It was one of those inventions that was made just right the first time, as notwithstanding its long an extensive use, no improvement has ever been suggested that adds anything to its merit. It is just what every office of any size needs for its leads. It is cheap; it never wears out. The first one ever made in the United States, invented by the writer, at that time foreman of their office, and made under his supervision, has been in constant use by the original owners, Messrs. Smith & Porter, the leading job printers of Boston, Mass., who paid $30.00 for it, and always considered that they got it cheap.”

Why and precisely when Octavius A. Dearing came to San Francisco is not known. He is not listed in Langley’s San Francisco Directory for the year 1870 or for the years immediately preceding. The 1871 Directory lists him as “Compositor with A. L. Bancroft & Co.” In 1872, he is listed as “Foreman printer with A. L. Bancroft & Co.” For 1873, the listing is “Asst. Foreman, Printing Dept., A L. Bancroft & Co.”

For the year 1874, the San Francisco Directory lists Dearing as “Job Printer with Cubery & Co.” The reason for this change is not apparent. The following year, 1875, and again in 1876, he is listed as “Salesman, 312 Clay Street,” the address of the Ellis Read salesroom. This was the beginning of a connection that was to run for several years.

Sometime late in the year 1876, Ellis Read and his partner relinquished the San Francisco agency of the Miller & Richard Type Foundry, and it was assumed by John J. Palmer. The reason for this change is not at this date clear. Palmer, however, put new energy and perhaps new capital into the agency and its business grew rapidly; in all of which, Dearing participated.

Under the date of January 1877, Volume 1, Number 1, of a new trade periodical with the title Pacific Printer: Miller & Richard’s Trade Circular appeared. Its subtitle was “Devoted to the advancement of the Printing Interests of the Pacific Coast by the Introduction of Scotch Type.” Its masthead read: “Published at the Miller & Richard Printers’ Warehouse, Nos. 529 Commercial and 205 Leidesdorff Streets, by J. J. Palmer.”

This was followed by a paragraph: “Removal. We have again been compelled, by the necessities of our rapidly increasing business, to seek more commodious quarters, and have accordingly leased and fitted up the large and convenient stores, No. 529 Commercial Street, running through to 205 Leidesdorff Street, where we shall be pleased to receive our friends. Printers visiting this city are invited to make our office their headquarters during their stay.”

This, in turn, was followed by: “Ourselves. It is with a feeling of pride that we place our first number of the Pacific Printer in the hands of the printers of the Pacific Coast. It is now three years since our type was first introduced here, and such has been the demand for our material since that date, we have been obliged to fit up a regular type warehouse for the accommodation of the trade. Now we have the best selected and largest stock of type and material on this coast, and our customers are counted by the hundreds. We shall, by the aid of this journal, put our type into every office on this side of the continent, and though we may meet with much opposition in doing it, our customers may depend that we only supply one quality, and only act with our customers in one way, viz., on the square.”

There were at this date two typefoundries operation in San Francisco. These were Painter & Co., headed by Jerome B. Painter and the oldest, and the Pacific Type Foundry, a branch of Marder, Luse & Co., Chicago, managed by Nelson C. Hawks. Competition was to be keen and vigorous in the years immediately ahead.

Of the new trade periodical, O.A. Dearing was to serve as editor. The first issue, that for January 1877, does not name him as editor, nor do the subsequent issues. The first issue, however, gives a full page to “Our Specialties” and the Dearing innovations are given ample attention. The third issue, Vol. I, No. 3, June 1877, contains the first of a long series of articles entitled,“The Art of Printing Historically, Theoretically and Practically Considered. By the editor.” Fifteen subsequent chapters of this work run through Volumes I to V, inclusive, concluding in the issue for July 1880. These are well written and cover all phases of the equipping and operating of a printing office. Beginning with the fourth issue, all issues of the Pacific Printer carry at the foot of the first page: “Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year . . . by O.A. Dearing, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.”

In the issue of the Pacific Printer for June 1881 (Vol. V, No. 3), the following notice appeared on the first page: “Notice to the Printing Trade. After this date the Press Business heretofore carried on by us will be done by Messrs. Palmer & Rey at our old stand, No. 205 Leidesdorff Street, San Francisco, and our business will be confined to the sale of Scotch Type and Printing Material exclusively. Messrs. Palmer & Rey have bought out our stock of [presses and paper cutters]. Miller & Richard. May 4, 1881. San Francisco.” This was followed by a brief notice signed: “Palmer & Rey, J. J. Palmer V Rey.”

On page 4 of the same issue is a notice signed by Miller & Richard: “Special Notice. That we may give more fully our attention to our type business, we have transferred our entire paper department to Messrs. Bonestell, Allen & Co.”

This was the beginning of the period of great growth and expansion the firm of Palmer & Rey was to experience. It became the largest printers’ supply house and typefoundry on the Pacific Coast and continued until the business was sold to the American Type Founders Comany in 1891. The listing of the firm in Langley’s San Francisco Directory for 1882 reads: “PALMER & KEY (John J. Palmer and Valentine Rey, Chicago and San Francisco) machinists, dealers in Scotch type, presses, printers’ machinery, and electrotypers and stereotypers. 529 Commercial and 205 Leidesdorff sts.” Dearing, Octavius A. is listed as “Salesman, Palmer & Rey.”

With the year 1883, the Pacific Printer (Vol. VIII) appeared in a new format with a new title.The page size of 8¾ by 11½ inches was reduced to 6% by 10 inches. The number of pages was increased and a good deal of advertising by others serving the printing trade was included. The new title was The Pacific Printer, Stationer and Lithographer. O.A. Dearing continued as editor.

In Vol. III, for the year 1884, and Vol. IX, for the year 1885, a serial entitled “Order in the Printing Office” was begun in the August 1884 issue. These eleven installments were written by Dearing, and all but the first two are signed “D” or “Dearing.” In large part these were revisions of pieces covering the “specialties” it was Dearing’s function to promote and many of which he had originated. Late in the year 1885, this series, with some rearrangement and revisions, was issued by Palmer & Rey as a thirty-six page pamphlet with a raw umber paper cover. The title pages reads: Printing for Profit/Illustrating the/“Dearing” Specialties/in/Printing Office Furniture/[small dash]/ San Francisco/Palmer & Rey, Publishers/1885.

The San Francisco Directory for the year 1887, lists “Dearing, O.A., secretary, Pacific Type Foundry, 526 Sacramento.” The reason for this change is not known. The Pacific Type Foundry had been started, early in the 1870s, by Nelson C. Hawks, as an agency of Marder, Luse & Co., Chicago. The last available issue [possibly the last issue] of The Pacific Specimen, the trade circular of that branch foundry, dated “Fourth Quarter 1881,” carries a notice, dated April 1, 1882, that Mr. N. C. Hawks has retired rom the firm of Marder, Luse & Co., and that Mr. Hugh Wallace is admitted as a member of the firm on the same date. A following notice, signed by Hawks, states he plans “to engage in the business of auxiliary newspaper publishing, here in San Francisco.” This may have been with Palmer & Rey, as a short time later Hawks was in the employ of that firm.

The American Art Printer, published in New York, in its issue for July–August 1887 [Vol. I, No. 4], p. 14, has the following item: “Mr. O.A. Dearing, Secretary of the Pacific Type Foundry Co., of San Francisco, and editor of the Pacific Printer, is on here from the Slope. He reports that Palmer & Rey’s Type Foundry, San Francisco, was burned on July 24th last. Damage $50,000. Type machines and a large number of matrices and new faces were destroyed, besides 20 moulds and all the workmen’s tools. About 70 hands were thrown out of employment. Mr. Dearing is here pushing some of his ingenious labor and money-saving inventions, chiefly his ‘all-brass’ galley—the best galley yet offered to the craft.”

Perhaps Dearing’s employment with the Pacific Type Foundry was temporary. He is not listed m the San Francisco Directory in the years 1888, 1889, and 1890. For the year 1891 he is listed as “Dearing, O.A., manager, Pacific Printer, 405 Sansome,” and also listed is “Pacific Printer (monthly) Palmer & Rey, publishers, 405–407 Sansome.” In the San Francisco Directory for 1892, Dearing is listed as “bookkeeper, r. Commercial Hotel.” In the following year, 1893, the listings are: “Dearing, Octavius A., with Palmer & Rey Type Foundry” and “Pacific Printer (monthly) Palmer & Rey, publishers, 405–407 Sansome.” The Directory for 1894 apparently closes the the scene—the Pacific Printer is not listed and “Dearing, Octavius A., is manager, specimen dept., Palmer & Rey Type Foundry.”

The Palmer & Rey business was sold to the newly formed American Type Founders Company in 1891 but was continued in operation under its original name by its new owners for a few years. Nothing has been learned of O.A. Dearing’s subsequent life. His name is not found in issues of the San Francisco Directory after that for 1894.

As for John J. Palmer, he came to San Francisco from Canada. There is a possibility he had been employed by the Toronto agency of Miller & Richard. After the sale of the Palmer & Rey firm, he returned to Toronto, where he joined the Toronto Type Foundry and took an active part in its affairs.

The complete document is available to download here as a screen-optimized pdf. (532 KB)

Further Reading
“Biographical Sketch of Octavius A. Dearing” from The Kemble Occasional, No. 4, January 1968.
“Origin of the California Job Case” by Fred Williams, Type & Press, Fall 1992.
“The Uncertain Background of Type Cases” by Alexander S. Lawson, Printing Impressions, May 1974.