KEESECKER, Andrew

KEESECKER, Andrew. (Shepherdstown, VA, Jan. 29, 1810-Dubuque, IA, 1870). The Dubuque Visitor was the first of the early news publications in Iowa. Coming to Dubuque in 1834, John KING, who was not a printer, realized the good possibilities for a newspaper. He returned to Ohio in the fall of 1835 and purchased the equipment and hired William Cary Jones, an experienced printer. Jones was to be paid $350 with suitable board and lodging during one year to serve as the foreman of the printing office. Traveling to Cincinnati, the two purchased a Washington hand press and an assortment of type. Andrew Keesecker, a printer from Galena, Illinois was also hired. Andrew Keesecker, like his patron John King, remained in Dubuque. He served on various newspapers, setting type for over a third of a century. He was one of those rare individuals who could compose an editorial as he set it up in type, without reducing it to manuscript; and he acquired a great reputation as a rapid typesetter. Once he engaged in a typesetting contest with A.P. Wood, another Dubuque printer and publisher.

With a printer's devil as umpire they began at a signal to set up the words of the Lord's Prayer. Keesecker finished first and according to arrangements, started to announce his success by calling out the last word. Unfortunately he had a curious habit of stuttering which seemed to increase under excitement. So while he was vainly endeavoring to bring out the triumphant word, Wood also finished and cut into his stumbling efforts with an incisive "Amen"; whereupon Keesecker, recovering his voice, insisted that he had been trying to say that word for half an hour. The perplexed referee finally gave the award to Keesecker.