Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Sholes and Densmore were not strangers even at the time they worked together on the Kenosha Telegraph, which was fifteen years before they came into business relations in the typewriter. They had met eight or ten years before that at Madison, Wisconsin. -- Henry W. Roby's Story of the Invention of the Typewriter, George Banta Publishing, Menasha (1925).

It is incredible for me that Messrs. Christopher Latham Sholes and James Densmore had met that time at Madison. It is sure that in December, 1853, Mr. Densmore became associated with Mr. Sholes on the Kenosha Telegraph (cf. C. L. Sholes: "James Densmore", Kenosha Telegraph, Vol.14, No.28 (December 30, 1853), p.2, l.1). Then, according to Dr. Roby, Messrs. Sholes and Densmore had met at Madison in 1843 or 1845. It's impossible. Mr. Densmore landed to Wisconsin, at Milwaukee, in 1848 (cf. James Densmore: "A Little Personal Gossip", Oshkosh Democrat, Vol.3, No.1 (March 7, 1851), p.2, l.3-4), and before that he had resided in Pennsylvania for about fourteen years (cf. Family Record of James Compton and Clarissa Cleveland-Compton, Porter Cleveland-Compton (1901)). I've found that Messrs. Sholes and Densmore had met at Madison on January 13, 1853 (cf. "Editor's Convention", Oshkosh Democrat, Vol.4, No.48 (January 28, 1853), p.1, l.3-5), but I'm not sure that it was their first time.

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