Joseph Tucker Crowell (December 27, 1817 – September 22, 1891) was an American

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

, editor, and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He served as Speaker of the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

and as President of the New Jersey Senate.

Biography

Crowell was born in

Rahway, New Jersey Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

in 1817, the son of Nathan and Harriet (Tucker) Crowell. He first learned the printer's trade working on the ''Elizabeth Journal'' of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He later set type on the first number of the ''Sunday Atlas'' in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and printed other New York journals. For five years he published ''Crowell's Pictorial and National Register'', the first pictorial newspaper printed in the United States. Crowell was a printing contractor for the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

, working with Congressional printer Cornelius Wendell. Wendell had established a printing business in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in a building designed in 1856 by Edward Clark. Crowell acquired the building in 1859. In 1861 he was presented with a check for $135,000 for the purchase of the building by the federal government to house the newly established

Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...

. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, Crowell became active politically as a

War Democrat War Democrats in American politics of the 1860s were members of the Democratic Party who supported the Union and rejected the policies of the Copperheads (or Peace Democrats). The War Democrats demanded a more aggressive policy toward the Con ...

. In 1861, he was elected to the New Jersey Senate from Union County, serving as the body's president in 1862. He went on to serve in the

, holding the position of Speaker in 1865. Crowell became City Treasurer of Rahway in 1869. He was indicted in 1880 on charges of embezzlement of city funds, but the jury ended in a deadlock. In the 1888 presidential election, Crowell left the Democratic Party to support the Republican ticket of

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

. In 1891, Crowell died in Rahway at the age of 74.

References

External links

Joseph T. Crowell
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowell, Joseph T. Democratic Party New Jersey state senators Presidents of the New Jersey Senate Speakers of the New Jersey General Assembly Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly 1817 births 1891 deaths People from Rahway, New Jersey Politicians from Union County, New Jersey American printers 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople