John F. Cumming | A Humble, Honest Man

V. THE BOSTON–CENTRAL CONNECTION

Historians contradict themselves and each other, and their accounts sometimes differ wildly from the one written about James A. St. John. Furthermore, they defy reconciliation with USPTO records of designs patented by John K. Rogers in 1870….

In 1869 [St. John],¹ “a group of disgruntled BTF stockholders deposed” Rogers as BTF Agent and elected St. John, a congenial Boston-educated Newfoundlander who had advanced “from errand boy to supervisor.” Rogers soon managed to purchase a majority of BTF shares and regained his position.²

In 1870 [Annenberg 73, Bullen 1906³], 1871 [St. John, Bullen 1907] or 1872 [Annenberg 98], Rogers opened a BTF branch in St. Louis MO and transferred St. John there to manage it. Or, according to St. John: In 1871, with the highest salary ever paid a typefounder in the US [Bullen 1906 corroborates that his salary was considered enormous for a TF employee], he opened the BTF St. Louis Branch.

In June 1871, St. John was issued an unassigned patent for Bank–Note Black Extended; his affidavit signature was witnessed by J.K. Rogers and his brother, Daniel Webster Rogers, long the BTF treasurer. Since patent application dates were not published until 1874, this information is inconclusive: He may have filed it years earlier and moved to St. Louis by the time it was approved.

The branch was not profitable at first [Bullen 1906, Annenberg 73] and Rogers ordered it closed in 1874 [Annenberg 73], during the time Cumming knew St. John. Or… Business boomed immediately [Annenberg 98, St. John].

In 1874 [Bullen 1906, Annenberg 98] or 1875 [St. John, Bullen 1907], St. John persuaded BTF superintendent Carl Schraubstadter Sr., a German immigrant, to join him as a partner in purchasing the branch from BTF. They named it Central Type Foundry, and their success was spectacular [all agree from this point forward!].

When J.K. Rogers (born 1821) died in January 1888, St. John and Schraubstadter Sr. purchased his BTF stock. Thereafter, the partners managed both TFs with D.W. Rogers in charge of the eastern branch. By then, Central challenged MacKellar Smiths & Jordan as the top US exporter and worldwide leader. According to St. John, they operated offices in England, Australia and every large city on the continent.

In the merger of 1892, Central and BTF joined the American Typefounders’ Company—the only divisions purchased outright for cash; all others accepted ATF stock as part of the deal [Bullen 1907].

The combined Central•BTF catalog dated 1892 (University of Michigan Library) appended a bound-in seven-page ATF advertisement listing 17 branches. This catalog illustrated a nearly complete inventory of both TFs. With few exceptions, every BTF face was marked “patented” regardless of validity.

It appears that the two TFs maintained a cordial working relationship throughout. Dresden, first of two BTF typefaces that Cumming designed (1881), was named for the birthplace of Schraubstadter Sr.

The Printer’s Review article on St. John states that he designed many of Central’s typefaces and held several patents. USPTO records validate four as a Missouri resident (1881-1883) and the one filed in ≤1871 during his brief term as BTF Agent. All affidavits claim that he “invented and produced” the typefaces; this language is interpreted to mean that he did not personally design them.

The BTF catalog of 1880, entitled Original Faces Cast by the Boston Type Foundry, showed Central’s Geometric#, a face patented by St. John in 1880–1881; he later patented Geometric Bold# (1882–1883). Bullen [1907] identifies Geometric# as Central’s first successful typeface.

Considering the title of this BTF edition, it is strange that Geometric# was shown at all; it displays a “patent pending” notice, which implies that the face originated at BTF.

Even stranger, the same BTF specimen book also shows Pen Text, which McGrew [133] attributes to the Cincinnati TF in 1879. This design was not patented—Cincinnati held few design patents, primarily for ornament fonts.

The above observations support the proposition that without a staff type cutter since 1877, BTF was in serious trouble by 1880. With no new faces in production, this catalog was “fluffed” with marginally profitable (or break-even) distribution fonts originating with “fraternity brothers.”

Introduction • Biography • Loy’s Article • Patents • Boston • Boston–Central
BTF 1870–1881 • BTF 1881–1884 • DTF 1884–1892 • ATF 1892–1901

_____