Cramer’s business prospered. His was the only establishment in Pittsburgh where the sale of books was the predominant feature. He had long called it the “Pittsburgh Bookstore.”285 Oliver Ormsby, whose store was in the brick house on Water Street, at the westerly side of Chancery Lane, sold “Dilworth’s and Webster’s Spelling books, testaments, and Bibles in Dutch and English, primers, toy books, and a variety of histories, novels, etc.”286 William Christy287 and John Wrenshall288 kept a few books, a special feature of the latter’s business being the sale of Dr. Jonathan Edwards’s Sermons, but compared with Cramer’s stock, the supply of books in other hands was insignificant. Cramer was also practically the only publisher of books in the borough. After he had been publishing for a few years, others began the business, but their books were few in number and generally unimportant in character. Cramer’s advertisements were sometimes amusing. He sold his goods for money, or in trade, and in making the announcement employed the axiomatic language of “Poor Richard.” This was one of his naïve notices: “I hope the ladies and all good girls and boys will not forget to fetch me all the clean linen and cotton rags they possibly can. Save the smallest pieces and put them in a rag bag; save them from the fire and the ash heap. It is both honorable and profitable to save rags, for our country wants them.”289

He added new lines to his business. Articles which tended to elevate and refine the standard of living were introduced. Wall papers had been in use in the East to a limited extent since 1769, and were no longer rare in good homes. In the West they were scarcely known until Cramer advertised his “large stock of hanging or wall papers.”290 He sold stationery, writing paper, Italian and hot-pressed letter paper, wafers, quills, camel-hair pencils, inkstands, sealing wax, red and black ink powders. Card playing was one of the leading social diversions and he had the best English and American playing cards. Patent medicines were largely used and Cramer found it profitable to supply the demand. He had books of instructions for the flute, the violin, the piano-forte, and books of songs. His stock of English dictionaries included those of Nathan Bailey, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Thomas Sheridan, and John Walker. For the German population he had books in the German language, which he often designated as “Dutch” books. He sold German almanacs, German Bibles and testaments. Many of the German churches, both in Pittsburgh and in the surrounding settlements, had schools attached to their churches, where the German language was taught in connection with English studies. For these schools Cramer supplied the books. Ever since the cession of Louisiana to the United States there had been a great increase in the students of the French language among Americans, who intended either to engage in commerce with the people of that territory, or expected to settle there. The liberally advertised easy methods of learning French291 induced many persons to engage in its study. For these Cramer kept French books. He also sold Greek and Latin schoolbooks, Greek and Latin dictionaries, and Spanish grammars.

In the early years Cramer had no press of his own. A printing office being located at either end of the block in which he was established, he divided his work between them. The Almanacs were printed by John Israel, and the Navigators, by John Scull. Business increased and he deemed it advisable to do his own printing, and on August 14, 1805, announced that he had “received a press, and a very handsome assortment of new type, for the purpose of printing such literary and ecclesiastical works as may be most in demand.”292 His publications now became more numerous and pretentious.

He was too active to limit his energies to his business. In 1803, he became Secretary of the Mechanical Society, and thenceforth devoted much attention to the office, which he held for several years. He was not an active politician, but was warmly attached to the Republican party, and moreover had the respect of the entire community. In 1811, when a division took place in the Republican party in Allegheny County, and two tickets were placed in the field, his standing was such, that he was named as a member of the committee selected to bring about harmony.293 Like the modern successful business man, he had a desire for the free life and clear skies of the country, and he engaged in farming and sheep-raising. When he died he had on the plantation of his brother-in-law, Josiah Clark, in Washington County, a flock of one hundred and twenty-eight sheep.

In 1808, the partnership with John Spear began, and the firm became known as Cramer & Spear. The establishment, however, continued to be called “Zadok Cramer’s Bookstore”; sometimes it was advertised as “Zadok Cramer’s Classical, Literary, and Law Bookstore.” In 1810, William Eichbaum was taken into the firm. He had served a seven years’ apprenticeship in bookbinding with Cramer, and with Cramer & Spear, and was the son of William Eichbaum, the elder. It may be that young Eichbaum was the “active youth of good morals and respectable character, wanted to learn the bookbinding and stationery business,” for whom Cramer had advertised on November 6, 1802.294 The firm was now Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, and continued as such until 1818, the year of the death of Elizabeth Cramer, the widow of Zadok Cramer, when Eichbaum withdrew and the firm was again changed to Cramer & Spear.

Cramer had traveled extensively, first in pursuit of information for his Navigators, and later in search of health. He went down the Ohio in 1806. In 1810, he was in Kentucky.295 When the New Orleans, the first steamboat that ran on the Western rivers was being operated between Natchez and New Orleans, he descended the Mississippi River in it twice, from the former to the latter place. Much of the information in regard to the New Orleans, its structure, cost, earnings, and length of time required between river points, is to be found in the Navigators.296

It would be impossible at this late day to compile a complete list of Cramer’s publications, nor would it serve any useful purpose. He published many schoolbooks, particularly for children in the primary grades. His Pittsburgh and New England primers, and the United States Spelling Book, were famous in their day. Ecclesiastical books were in great demand, and Cramer met it. Catechisms were used as books of primary instruction and were printed in many forms; there were Larger Catechisms, Shorter Catechisms, the Mother’s Catechism, and the Child’s Catechism. For the Germans he published in German, The Shorter Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther. The religious books that came from his press would form an endless list. Among those having a bearing on the history of that time was, The Marks of a Work of the Spirit, together with Remarks Respecting the Present Astonishing Work of God, and Revival of Religion in the Western Country, by J. Hughes of West Liberty.297 “J. Hughes,” was the Rev. James Hughes, pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Lower Buffalo in Washington County, and West Liberty in the adjoining county of Ohio in Virginia, and one of the trustees of the recently established Jefferson College, the pioneer college of the West.

Cramer lived and flourished in an age when many of the publications sent out in the name of religion contained the merest drivel, or were elaborations of theories in regard to matters infinite held by narrow-minded controversialists. The press was flooded with them. There were publications bearing such depressing titles as The Happy Voyage Completed, and The Sure Anchor Cast. Cramer realized that in publishing works of this character he might be misunderstood. This sentiment was evident in the advertisement of at least one of his publications. On that occasion he prefaced his notice by stating: “On the recommendation of some pious friends, we contemplate printing, A Token for children, Being an exact account of the Conversion, holy and exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of several young children!”298

The most pretentious of his works was religious in character, and was published in 1807. It was A Dictionary of the Holy Bible by the Rev. John Brown of Haddington, in Scotland, of which two editions were printed. It was a noteworthy achievement to be accomplished on the frontier, hundreds of miles from the center of civilization. Many difficulties had to be overcome, not the least of which was the delay occasioned by the difficulty in procuring a regular supply of paper.299 The work was in two large octavo volumes, and was illustrated with engraved pictures and maps that are still desired by collectors. Heading the list of subscribers, was the name of President Jefferson, of whom Cramer appears to have been an ardent admirer. In 1810, the firm published the Select Remains of the Rev. John Brown, the author of the Dictionary.

Cramer’s publications covered a wide range. In 1808 The Lawyer, by George Watterson, appeared, which was imbued with the current prejudice against lawyers, and presented a sorry spectacle of the legal profession. The same year, a map of Pittsburgh was published, which, if in existence to-day, would be of great interest. One of his most valuable contributions to the literature of travel, was Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, by F. Cuming, published in 1810. It contained according to Reuben Gold Thwaites,300 a “picture of American life in the West at the beginning of the nineteenth century that for clear-cut outlines and fidelity of presentation has the effect of a series of photographic representations.” Another work of value was Views of Louisiana, by Judge Henry M. Brackenridge, published in 1814. Cramer had met Brackenridge in New Orleans, in December, 1811, while on one of his visits to that city, and arranged with him there for the publication.301 In 1813, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith were brought out.

One of the most important ventures of Cramer’s entire publishing experience, the fruition of which he did not live to see, was The Western Gleaner or Repository for Arts, Sciences, and Literature. It was a monthly magazine of sixty-four pages. The first number appeared in December, 1813, four months after Cramer’s death. Compared with magazines of the present time, it was not of the highest order of literary merit. In its day, however, it ranked with the best magazines published. The excellent literary taste of the editor also appears from an incident which occurred during the early life of the magazine. The Pittsburgh Gazette published a communication from a disappointed aspirant for literary fame, signing himself “Recluse,” whose poem in fourteen stanzas entitled “The Two Roses,” had been declined by the Western Gleaner. “Recluse” referred sarcastically to the “uncommonly profound and very discerning editor of the Western Gleaner.”

That the editor of the Western Gleaner was more “discerning” than the editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette, which published “Recluse’s” effort, along with his letter, is evident from a perusal of the poem. The first stanza, which is also the best, reads:

The same persistency which procured the publication of “The Two Roses” in the Pittsburgh Gazette, enabled “Recluse” a few years later to find a publisher for a volume of his poetry, in which “The Two Roses” was one of the gems.303

In one of the numbers of the magazine Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge contributed a poem, descriptive of his feelings on revisiting Pittsburgh, called “On a Circuit at This Place.”

Cramer realized that books having a local interest would find a ready sale. One of these was Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge’s Modern Chivalry; another was his Incidents of the Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, which was an effort to vindicate himself for his course in the Whisky Insurrection. Judge Addison’s impeachment in 1803, by the Republican General Assembly, had created profound interest in Pittsburgh. The account of the trial was immediately published in Lancaster, then the capital of the State, and eagerly read. Another book of local interest was Colonel James Smith’s Captivity among the Indians Westward of Fort Pitt in the Year 1755, published at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1799.

Although a Republican himself, Cramer’s mercantile instincts led him to sell books written in opposition to that party. A little volume of poems was of this class. David Bruce, a Scotchman living in the adjacent village of Burgettstown, whom Cramer designated as “an ingenious Scotch poet of Washington County,” had published in 1801, in Washington, Pennsylvania, a book which, while mainly political in character, had considerable merit. Bruce was a strong Federalist, and his volume was dedicated to Judge Addison. To the Republicans, Brackenridge, Gallatin, McKean, and other more or less local celebrities, Bruce’s references were disparaging. To Brackenridge he addressed the cynical lines:

A book of the same character, but covering a wider range, and of a higher literary tone, was The Echo. It had a local interest in that it contained a number of clever satirical references to Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, Hartford was the literary center of Federalistic ideas. They were promulgated by a group of young authors known as the “Hartford Wits.” Included in the coterie was Richard Alsop, who was the principal writer of The Echo. The Echo had originally appeared serially, but in 1807, the parts were collected and published in a volume. The allusions to Brackenridge indicated a keen sense of humor and considerable poetic spirit. An article written by Brackenridge had appeared in 1792 in the National Gazette of Philadelphia, then recently established as the organ of the Republicans, in which he urged savage reprisals against the Indians, who were causing trouble west of Pittsburgh. To this screed, The Echo made the mocking reply:

On another occasion when Brackenridge was a candidate for Congress, he published in the Aurora an appeal to the electors of his Congressional District in which he animadverted harshly on the educational accomplishments of General John Woods, his Federalist opponent. This presented another opportunity for the clever writers of The Echo to burlesque a leading Republican. The Echo gibed:

Cramer’s books covered the entire range of literary endeavor and among them were a majority of the contemporary publications. The French Revolutionary movement was well represented. A work coming under this designation was the Life and Campaigns of General Count Alexander Suwarrow, which was of interest also because Suwarrow’s title to fame rested at least partly on the fact that he was the originator of the high tasseled-boot, much worn both in military and civil circles after the year 1800. There was a flood of Bonapartist literature. A book of this class which had a local interest was the Life of General Jean Victor Moreau. After being exiled from France on account of conspiring against Napoleon, this officer had come to the United States in 1805, and made a tour of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Having passed through Pittsburgh, his name was well known there. Works of travel were numerous. Conspicuous in biography were the lives of Washington, Franklin, and Kotzebue, the German playwright and novelist, then at the height of his career. There were histories of various European countries, and William Winterbotham’s History of the American United States. The History of Women, if at hand to-day, would be of interest to that large body of women who are making such herculean efforts to obtain greater rights for their sex. Among the notable books of the day was Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. Two editions had been published prior to Jefferson’s becoming President. After the election in 1800, the work was republished in a large octavo volume, for which Cramer was agent in Pittsburgh.308 Another book which attracted considerable attention was the History of John Adams, Esquire, late president of the United States, by John Wood. It was a rank Republican account of a most interesting period. It was printed and ready for publication in December, 1801, but was suppressed at the instigation of Aaron Burr, as being incorrect and libelous. The book was finally published in 1802. A companion-piece to Wood’s book, was the one by James Cheetham, which gave an account of the suppression. It was entitled, A Narrative of the Suppression by Col. Burr of the History of the Administration of John Adams, by a Citizen of New York.

Philosophy was not neglected. Representative of that science were William Enfield’s History of Philosophy, William Smellie’s Philosophy of Natural History, Francis Hutchinson’s System of Moral Philosophy, and Count Volney’s Law of Nature. Books relating to trades, included the Miller and Millwright’s Guide; the Young Carpenter’s Assistant; the New System of Gardening; the Dictionary of Husbandry; Washington’s Letters to Arthur Young; the English Gardener; and Elements of Architecture. Freemasonry was described in William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry. Among books relating to the professions, those pertaining to divinity were most numerous. The Methodists had increased in numbers and were in better standing in the community. John Wrenshall was addressed as the “Rev.” John Wrenshall, and Cramer began to sell the Memoirs of George Whitfield, the famous exponent of Methodism. Law books were a close second to those of divinity. There were books on state, national, and international law. In medicine there were books for family use, and books for physicians.

Belles-lettres and poetry formed an important department. Predominant in belles-lettres were the writings of Addison, Steele, and Pope in the Spectator, and its successors, the Guardian, and the Tattler; Dr. Johnson, in his “Rambler”; and Salmagundi, when it appeared in 1807. Junius’s Letters; the works of Lawrence Sterne; the Posthumous Works of Jonathan Swift; and Peter Pindar’s Satires were other books in this department. In the selection of plays, those of Kotzebue were prominent. The English plays were represented by George Colman, the younger’s, The Poor Gentleman, a comedy produced in Covent Garden in 1801, and by Thomas Morton’s, Speed the Plough, produced in 1798. Because of its authorship, The Battle of Bunker Hill, by Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, had a local interest. In the realm of poetry, were the poems of John Pomfret, Robert Burns, Dr. Thomas Brown, Alexander Pope, John Milton, Thomas Moore, Allan Ramsay, and Robert Southey. In this class was Thomas Campbell’s The Pleasures of Hope; James Beattie’s The Minstrel; Samuel Rogers’s Pleasures of Memory; William Cowper’s Beauties of Cowper, and The Task; Joel Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus; Robert Bloomfield’s, The Farmer’s Boy, and A Song; James Thomson’s Seasons. Zaida, by Kotzebue; Charlotte Temple, by Mrs. Susanna Rowson, and Don Quixote were popular romances. In colonial days, and in the early days of the republic, little stitched pamphlets, called chapbooks, because largely circulated by itinerant vendors, or chapmen, were much in vogue. Books in this form for children had a large circulation, and Cramer carried an interesting list.

Cramer’s upright nature often led him to express opinions that were contrary to the views obtaining in publications of his firm. Cuming in his Tour of the Western Country, in the reference to Pittsburgh had written: “Amusements are also a good deal attended to, particularly the annual horse races.” On this observation Cramer commented in a note: “We are sorry to have to acknowledge that horse racing contrary to the express law of the State, has been more or less practiced within the vicinity of this place for a few years back; but we are pleased with the prospect of having it totally abolished by the influence of its evident impropriety, danger, and wickedness, operating on the minds of the more thoughtful and judicious.”309 That Cramer was not alone in condemning the horse races is apparent from a communication which had appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette six years earlier.310 This writer designated the races as “a fruitful seminary of vice.” He declared that the “schools and shops are shut up or deserted, and the youth of both sexes run to harm, folly, and debauchery.... The money, too, which ought to be expended in the honest maintenance of families and the payment of debts is squandered on sharpers, gamblers and sutlers.”

If some fact or custom was referred to, which Cramer considered morally wrong, or which might disparage Pittsburgh in the eyes of the world at large, he spoke out vigorously in opposition. In the Navigator for 1811,311 the statement was made that there were “two or three whisky distilleries in the town.” This was immediately followed in the text by a disapproval of distilleries, and a quaint homily on the evils of intemperance. “We cannot say anything in praise of these,” Cramer wrote. “Whisky as a medicine is good, that is, to take it only when the system requires it and no more than is sufficient to perform the part of a gentle stimulant; but to drink it as is now universally practiced, is destructive of health, strength, morals, religion, and honesty; and is a serious national calamity, in which man sinks in the estimation of himself, and becomes an abhorrence in the eyes of God.”

Cramer’s career was short. He had never been robust, and close attention to business had undermined his constitution; consumption developed. He attempted in vain to obtain relief in southern travel, and died on August 1, 1813, just before reaching his fortieth year, at Pensacola, Florida, while on the way to Havana, the journey having been recommended by his physician. In Pensacola his remains were buried and there they lie in an unmarked grave. To the last he was planning new business projects, and preserved his cheerfulness to the end. Not once was he known to be fretful or ill-natured. He left his widow and one child, a daughter, Susan. The firm was continued for many years, first by the widow, in conjunction with John Spear, and after her death on May 5, 1818, by the daughter. The affairs of the partnership were not wound up until July 6, 1835.

In early life the daughter married Dr. J. B. Cochran in Pittsburgh. Becoming a widow, she removed to Beaver, Pennsylvania, with her three children. Her children were Zadok Cramer Cochran, James Spear Cochran, and Mary Cochran. After their mother’s death in 1854, the children removed to Coatesville, Pennsylvania. From Coatesville they went to Freeport, Illinois. Here the two sons engaged in teaching and conducted an academy. James later took up the study of the law, and was admitted to the Bar. Drifting into politics he was elected to the State Senate. The two brothers are both dead, but the sister is still living, being the wife of Joseph Emmert, of Freeport, Illinois.