Jonathan Leavitt (publisher) - John F. Trow & Co.

John F. Trow & Co.

In 1840, Leavitt became partners with fellow Andover native John F. Trow, a veteran of the Andover publishing firm Leavitt had helped found: Flagg & Gould, operator of the Codman Press. The pair of Andover men founded two publishing firms – both located at 191 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. They founded John F. Trow & Co., as well a second firm under their combined names, Leavitt & Trow, to do publishing and bookselling.

From the beginning, the new firm published a wide array of books and pamphlets. In 1841, for instance, its presses turned out Merciful Rebukes: A Sermon Preached in the Rutgers Street Church, New York, on Friday, May 14, 1841, On Occasion of the National Fast Recommended by the President of the United States. Two years later, the firm published a more ambitious project: a four-volume set of the sermons and papers of Rev. Jonathan Edwards entitled The Works of President Edwards, in Four Volumes. The firm, with the experienced Trow in command of the printing end, also published the classical series of Prof. John J. Owen, which was wildly popular and went through several printings.

Leavitt's partner Trow was an early adapter of new printing technologies, and among the first to use power presses, then in 1840 a stereotype press as well. In 1843, the John F. Trow firm printed in 1843 Memoir of Mrs. Louisa Adams Leavitt by Rev. Asa Dodge Smith. Leavitt & Trow became a prominent presence on the early New York publishing landscape, not least because of partner Trow's familiarity with the latest printing technologies, but also due to his heavy involvement in the business. "Our business has the personal attention of ourselves", Trow wrote to the public in 1845, "and we trust by unwearied application to receive from our patrons and the public in general a continuance of their patronage." In 1847 the two Andover natives began publishing directories. (In the following years the Trow directories to New York became an established city institution). The pair were soon joined in the business by George Ayres Leavitt, Jonathan's son, who had recently graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, and who had served an early apprenticeship with publishers Robinson & Franklin.

About 1848 the two founding partners split their interests: Trow returned to running his own company (primarily his increasingly lucrative directory business, which he largely invented); and Leavitt went into business with his son until his death. The firm retained the name Leavitt & Trow up until Jonathan Leavitt's death. George A. Leavitt continued his father's business as a sole proprietorship for a year until he joined forces with childhood playmate John K. Allen, who had been brought up in the publishing business.