Alexis Corydon Alvord

Background

Corydon Alexis Alvord was born on May 12, 1813 in Winchester, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of John and Experience (Webb) Alvord.

Career

Alvord went to Hartford at the age of fifteen and served an apprenticeship at the printer's trade, subsequently becoming foreman in the house of Case & Tiffany. In 1845 the opportunities of a large city lured him to New York, where he commenced business for himself, first at 51 John St. , then 29 Gold St. , and finally at 15 Vandewater St. Those familiar with his Vandewater Street establishment tell of a very unusual equipment, fonts of old-style type, and of ancient and oriental letters, old engravings, stereotype plates, with immense underground storage rooms separated by thick walls and connected by iron doors.

If any one had an unusual piece of printing to be done, Alvord was equipped to do it. Many books of the period which carry "Privately Printed" on the title-page show "C. A. Alvord, Printer" modestly tucked away somewhere. "Limited Editions, " too, came from his shop; e. g. , Thomas Dring, Recollections of the Jersey Prison-Ship (1865), James Parton, Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (1865), and other works.

In 1867, he bought a residence in Hartford and moved his family thither; he continued, however, to carry on his business in New York. In the spring of 1871, there came a merger of several printing firms, including Alvord's, into the New York Printing Company, Alvord accepting a position as superintendent. This printing company, the most extensive of its kind in the city, with over 2, 000 employees, was controlled by the "Tweed Ring, " and the "fancy prices" charged for the "Corporation printing" were already under suspicion.

In 1870, the Common Council had voted "to prepare for the press the ancient records of the City of New Amsterdam and those of the City of New York, prior to 1850. " Presswork on this job (in which old-style type was used and copy strictly followed) had been started under Alvord's supervision when the "Committee of Seventy" appointed to investigate Tweed's activities found reason to take possession of the company's properties. Comptroller Andrew H. Green reported that the work on the records as projected would have involved an outlay of more than half a million dollars, and produced 240, 000 volumes, enough to fill a room 24x24 feet, and 13 feet high, from floor to ceiling.

No discredit attaches to Alvord in this matter; he appears simply to have been carrying on the printing business for extravagant and unscrupulous employers. He retired to Hartford and indulged his taste for historical and genealogical research. A manuscript which he "incurred much expense to prepare" is the basis of the Genealogy of the Descendants of Alexander Alvord, finally published in 1908. Articles of his appeared in the Winsted Herald and Hartford Courant during the last two years of his life.

Achievements

• Alvord became a prominent figure in the prinring business and presented important resolutions.

Connections

On September 6, 1836 Alvord married Mary Ann Buckland of New Hartford, by whom he had ten children.

Father:

John Alvord

Mother:

Experience (Webb) Alvord

Spouse:

Mary Ann (Buckland) Alvord