1776.  James Johnston, born in Scotland, was the first to establish a printing press in Georgia (1762) and in April, 1763, began publication of The Georgia Gazette, which was published by him for twenty-seven years.  His successor (1793) was another Scot, Alexander M’Millan, “Printer to the State.”  Robert Wells (1728-94), born in Scotland, was a publisher and bookseller in South Carolina for many years, and published the South Carolina and American General Gazette.  John Wells, Florida’s first printer (1784), born in Charleston, served his apprenticeship at Donaldson’s printing house in Edinburgh.  Matthew Duncan, son of Major Joseph Duncan, of Scottish ancestry, introduced printing into Illinois in 1809, and published the first newspaper there.  Major Nathaniel McLean, brother of John McLean, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the first publishers in Minnesota (1849, the same year in which printing was introduced into the state).  The township of McLean, Ramsey county, was named in honor of him.  There is mention of a printing press being set up in Michigan in 1785 by Alexander and William Macomb, but nothing further is known of it.  The first book printed in Montana was in 1864, and in August of the same year John Buchanan founded the Montana Post at Virginia City.  John Dunlap (1747-1812), an Ulster Scot born in Strabane, was Congressional Printer and first printed the Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Ritchie (1778-1854), born of Scottish parentage.  He wielded a powerful influence for good in both the national and state politics of Virginia, and his funeral was attended by nearly all the distinguished men of the times, including the President.  Ritchie County, West Virginia, was named in his honor.  Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), political writer, negotiator of peace conference at Hampton Roads in 1864, and editor of the Washington Globe, was a descendant of Commissary Blair of Virginia.  James Gordon Bennett (1795-1872), born near Keith, Banffshire, pioneer of modern American journalism and founder of the New York Herald, a newspaper which has long wielded a great influence on political affairs.  Horace Greeley (1811-72), founder of the New York Tribune, unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency in 1872, anti-slavery leader, and author of “The American Conflict” (1864-66), was of Ulster Scot descent.  Of the same origin was Joseph Medill (1823-99), proprietor of the Chicago Tribune (1874); and Robert Bonner (1824-99), founder of the New York Ledger (1851), was born in Londonderry of Ulster Scot origin.  James Thompson Callender (d. 1806), a political exile from Scotland, a controversial writer of great power, a severe critic of the administration of John Adams, founded the Richmond Recorder, predecessor of the Richmond Enquirer.  John Swinton (1829-1901), born in Haddingtonshire, was editorial writer for the New York Times