Over time, Tufts’ Narrative has been tied to the fate of its publisher’s print shop, and the printer himself, Samuel Bragg, Jr. The plain fact is that Bragg’s printing shop burned down; this is a fact not in dispute. The claim holds that the burning was intentional, and that the motive was revenge for publishing Henry Tufts’ book, and that the fire was started by an angry mob. We can see this legend grow over time and become a frequently repeated part of the book’s story, mostly thanks to Edmund Pearson. Here is a timeline of the claim and how it grew.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s essay “A New-England Vagabond” (1885) was the first and only piece of scholarship written on Henry Tufts or his book between the time of its publication (1807) and 1928. Higginson makes no mention of Bragg or the fire, focusing instead on the content of the book.

1928 saw Edmund Pearson first write of the book in an essay titled “A Yankee Casanova” in his volume Queer Books. He is aware of the fire, though his source is unknown, and here he writes: 

This is admitted speculation on Pearson’s part about the public’s perception about the fire. “Probably” is certainly doing a lot of work, and the passive construction “was burned down,” gives a slight suggestion of agency. The office was burned down by what or whom? Pearson does not make any suggestion at this point, so he’s not yet drawing the clearest possible line between the two.

1930 finds Pearson still shy of making the complete claim, though he is nearer to it:

“New Hampshire promptly shut down upon Tufts: the printing office which issued this book was burned, three or four years later, and the printer died of a broken heart. A manifest judgment.” (Pearson 1930, xi)

So Pearson is saying here that the people of New Hampshire took little liking to the book, and the burning of the printing office is cited as evidence. “Was burned” is the passive phrase this time, leaving the door open just a crack for people to draw their own conclusions. It stops just short of claiming arson. Unless things happened considerably more slowly back then though, the word “promptly” isn’t warranted even if the implied causation is true, it being “three or four years later.” 

The mid-20th Century saw little to no published scholarship on Henry Tufts. However, when the 1970s brought around the next round of publications, the claim begins to assert itself once again, working off of Pearson.

1974 brings us to Gordon M. Day and his article “Henry Tufts as a Source on the Eighteenth Century Abenakis.” Writes Day, “The printing office which issued it was burned a few years later, and the printer died, it is said, of a broken heart.” (Day 190). Day cites Pearson as a source for the claim, but has somewhat mitigated Pearson’s coy insinuations towards the claim of arson.

1976 sees the claim arise in full. George Carter, in an undated essay quoted verbatim in Tufts Kinsmen, writes, “failing to dissuade Bragg from printing more books, a mob burned the printery and its contents” (Tufts Kinsmen Association 39). Carter does not offer a source for this claim. However, Carter also writes in the same paragraph that “the author of this story does not know of any original edition now outstanding, but several reprints have been edited and printed.” This likely refers to the Pearson edition, as no other reprint existed at the time; and since Carter had not encountered an original 1807 edition, all of Carter’s knowledge of the text and the scholarship thereof likely begin and end with Pearson.

In 1993, Neal Keating published two works which promoted the claim to varying degrees. “The publisher had his printshop torched by a mob of outraged colonists,” (Foreword xviii) he writes in the Foreword to the 1993 Loompanics Unlimited reprint of Pearson’s edition of the text, citing the claim in the Tufts Kinsmen article above as a source. Keating also cites a contemporary account (Wadleigh, discussed below) of the fire, commenting breathlessly, “Was it arson? The letter is strangely silent on this” (Keating “Foreword,” xix). Strange, yes, perhaps. Stranger though is that Keating’s other publication of the same year says merely “three years after publishing Tufts’s narrative, Bragg’s entire operation burnt to the ground” (Keating “Land Pirate,” 183). The claim of causation is absent. 

After 1993 though, the damage was done. Keating’s Foreword, as it appears in the last widely-available reprint before the year 2017, seems to be responsible for the claim spreading widely, fully formed beginning at that time. It is frequently repeated online in blogs discussing Henry Tufts and his book.

In 2018, the claim found its way into print again, now accruing a further layer of apparent veracity. A Narrative of Henry Tufts: The Critical Edition includes in its introduction: “The first edition was published in Dover, New Hampshire, by Samuel Bragg, in 1807, but the press burned down shortly afterwards. Outraged by the publication, a mob started the fire” (Crooks et al., 1). Its citation? “Tufts. 1993, xix.” In other words: Keating’s Foreword, quoted above.

So we can see the claim grow over the years, and pretty well trace its progress and where each claimant found it. But what of primary sources? What, if anything, was written at the time? We need look no further than George Wadleigh’s Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire (1913), which chronologically compiles primary source texts. This entry from 1810 is quite revealing: 

Dec 26 [1810]–This Wednesday evening, at 9 ¼ o’clock the inhabitants of Dover were alarmed by the cry of fire. It commenced its destructive progress in a large building owned by Samuel Bragg, jr. printer, in the bindery on the lower floor, the upper story of which was occupied by Mr. Bragg as a Printing Office and Bookstore, and the remainder of the ground floor was tenanted by Messrs. Philemon Chandler, shop-keeper, and Jesse Varney, morocco Shoemaker. On the first discovery the Bindery, which was full of books, and loose paper, appeared completely enveloped in flames and before means could be possibly taken for alarming the citizens the stair-case leading to the Printing Office and Bookstore were shrouded in a sheet of fire. The conflagration from room to room was rapid beyond conception: and although the inhabitants who were in large numbers assembled in a few minutes made every exertion in the power of mortals to arrest the velocity of this devouring element, the whole building soon exhibited one column of flame, ascending in awful grandeur to the clouds. The dwelling house of Samuel Bragg, the elder, standing within a few paces of the printing office, after having had the fire frequently extinguished upon it in various places, at last yielded to the fury of the raging flames and in a few minutes became a heap of smoking ruins. A small dwelling house situated near the south end of the printing office, belonging to a Mrs. Marshall, was also consumed. A large dwelling house, in one end of which was a store, occupied by Mr. Horace Parmele and family, standing near, was almost wholly destroyed by attempts to pull it in pieces in order to save the stores and buildings on the opposite side of the streets. Providentially the evening was very calm. Not a single article was saved from the Printing office and Bookstore. A few articles from Mr. Chandler’s shop, and a few articles with his account books from Mr Varney’s shoe store, were rescued. Mr Parmele’s loss was also considerable. 

The grateful thanks of all interested are due to the prompt, judicious and preserving exertions of the citizens and engine company in their united endeavors to rescue the property of the sufferers from destruction and to prevent a more general devastation. The engine company of Berwick deserves great praise for their manly endeavors to afford assistance at this awful period. Fortunately throughout this scene of consternation and amazement no life was lost, nor limb broken. 

The Christian and philanthropist, the wealthy of all denominations, are earnestly besought to afford from their abundance liberal assistance to these unfortunate sufferers. No claims can be stronger on the feelings of humanity than those of the honest and industrious whose hard earnings have been swept to destruction in a moment by the maddening power of this master of the elements. (Letter from Dover on the morning after the fire, to the Portsmouth Oracle.) 

(qtd. in Wadleigh, 197-198)

Wadleigh also includes the subsequent death of Samuel Bragg:

Dec. 8 [1811]–Died, Mr Samuel Bragg, jr. editor and printer of the Dover Sun. “In the death of Mr. Bragg the town of Dover has experienced a great loss. He was a very industrious and enterprising man of steady habits and attention to his business. He had by his assiduity and great diligence acquired a very handsome property, when about twelve months since, while absent on a journey, he was in a moment stripped of almost every dollar by the all-devouring element of fire. This disaster took such a hold of his mind, as, after a while, to produce a dejection of spirits, and invite a complication of disorders which has thus early put a period to his mortal existence.” (qtd in Wadleigh, 199)

What facts have we learned here? First, there was a fire that burned down Bragg’s print shop, completely destroying it; Second, that it happened around three years after the publication of Henry Tufts’ book; Third, that the fire took people by surprise (“the inhabitants of Dover were alarmed by the cry of fire”; “before means could be possibly taken for alarming the citizens”); Fourth, that there was a mob (“the inhabitants. . . were in large numbers assembled”); but that, fifth and finally, they were there to put out the fire (“in a few minutes [they] made every exertion in the power of mortals to arrest the velocity of this devouring element.”) Notably there is no mention of Henry Tufts or unpopular books published by Bragg in general, no sign of mob violence, nothing to indicate Bragg, along with the apparently blameless Jesse Varney, Philemon Chandler, Horace Parmele, Mrs. Marshall, or Bragg the Elder, were the targets of intentional arson. Furthermore, Bragg’s death a year later is regarded as a genuine tragedy, and he is not regarded as someone who got his just deserts after promoting immorality in the community. It does however confirm that the fire was instrumental in bringing about Bragg’s untimely end, so Pearson’s “disease and melancholia” and “broken heart” assertions which have also been frequently repeated, are well attested.

Granted, I cannot prove that something did not happen, and this incident is no exception. Where Keating sees a sinister omission in the lack of mention of arson, I see no particular reason to draw any particular conclusions of foul play; but I of course can’t point to any alternative cause, other than the fact that all buildings were made of wood and heated with wood fires at the time, and that a print shop and bookstore would have been packed with flammable material, and that this happened in December.

To anyone writing about Henry Tufts’ book in the future, I encourage caution in repeating this claim. No assertion of it appears until well over a century since its initial publication; the claim is only repeated in sources discussing Henry Tufts, not those discussing Bragg; and the claim grows more over time when being paraphrased or quoted from one source to another. Henry Tufts’ book itself is full of known lies and half-truths, and many things that can’t be verified one way or another. When you discuss the history of the book, try not to add to the confusion.

Sources

Crooks, Marley, et al. (2018). Critical introduction: A narrative of the life, adventures, travels, and sufferings of Henry Tufts. In A narrative of Henry Tufts: The critical edition. (pp. 1-9). Library of Early Maine Literature.

Pearson, E. (1930). Introduction. In The autobiography of a criminal. (pp. ix-xvii). Duffield & Company.

Pearson, E. (1928). A Yankee Casanova. In Queer books. (pp. 271-298). Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc.

Keating, N. (1993). Foreword. In The autobiography of a criminal: Henry Tufts. (pp. i-xxix). Loompanics Unlimited.

Keating, N. (1993). Henry Tufts, Land Pirate. In Gone to Croatan: The origins of early American drop-out culture, eds. Sakolsky, R., and Koehnline, J. (pp. 181-200). New York. Autonomedia.

Tufts Kinsmen Association. (1976) Yes, He was the Very Worst! Tufts Kinsmen, II(3):37-39. 

Wadleigh, G. (1913). Notable events in the history of Dover, New Hampshire. 

Timeline:

1928 Pearson: the office of the printer was burned down

1930 Pearson: the printing office which issued this book was burned

1974 Day: the printing office which issued it was burned(1)

1976 Tufts Kinsmen (Carter): a mob burned the printery and its contents(1)

1993 Keating: the publisher had his printshop torched by a mob of outraged colonists(1)

1993 Keating: three years after publishing Tufts’s narrative, Bragg’s entire operation burnt to the ground(1)

2018 Library of Early Maine literature: outraged by the publication, a mob started the fire (2)

(1) cites Pearson

(2) cites Keating

Cite this article:

Allie, D. (2023, August 17). The “devouring element:” The growing myth of the Samuel Bragg fire. Henrytufts.com

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Thomas Tufts for providing me with a copy of the Tufts Kinsmen article.