Isaiah Thomas - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Isaiah Thomas was an American pubisher and patriot whose was driven from Boston by the British in 1775. In addition to many hundreds of other works, Thomas was the publisher of The Massachusetts Spy (1770-1802), The Royal American Magazine (1774), The New England Almanac 1775 - 1803), and History of Printing in America (1810). He was also the founder of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester.

Description: Isaiah Thomas was born in Boston in 1749. When he was just six years old, he was apprenticed to the printer Zechariah Fowle. Fowle taught young Isaiah how to set type. By the time he was in his teens, Isaiah was managing the print shop and was considered to be an excellent printer. After a falling out with Fowle, Isaiah wandered from Nova Scotia to South Carolina, supporting himself with temporary printing jobs. His goal was to raise enough money for a trip to Europe, but he was unable to do so. In 1770, Thomas reconciled with Fowle, and together they began printing The Massachusetts Spy. Fowle soon retired, and Thomas carried on the publishing business alone. Now a supporter of the cause of the independence, Thomas contributed to a number of publications, and directly supported activities that angered the British. After a time, the British considered Thomas so dangerous that he later recalled "he had the honor of being included with John Hancock and Samuel Adams in a list of twelve persons who were to be summarily executed when taken." By 1775, the pressure on Thomas was so great that he felt compelled to leave Boston. In April, Thomas packed his press and type sets, and relocated to Worcester Massachusetts, where he resumed publishing the Spy. The paper included first-hand accounts of the progress of the war, including stories of the battles at Lexington and Concord, and these stories helped to solidify support for the Patriot cause in the early days of the conflict. Thomas eventually prospered as a both a printer and bookseller. He owned a printing house in Worcester and another in Boston - together they housed 16 presses. He also owned bookstores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Maryland. In 1810, Thomas published A History of Printing in America which was considered to be one of the most important collections of early American newspapers and pamphlets. By now a collector of historical documents, Thomas had amassed a personal library of some 8,000 volumes. In 1812 Thomas founded the American Antiquarian Society - an organization dedicated to preserving the "literature of liberty"— the newspapers, broadsides, books, pamphlets, and letters that had shaped public opinion during the revolutionary period. Isaiah Thomas died in Worcester in 1831. His original burial site was within a tomb in the Mechanic Street Cemetery in Worcester, but later the tomb was later moved to its current location in the Rural Cemetery. Date of birth: 01/19/1749 Date of death: 04/04/1831 Area of notoriety: Historical Figure Marker Type: Tomb (above ground) Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daylight hours. Cemetery office is open weekdays from nine until four. Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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