as literary editor of skill and
judgment and also a forceful manager of agents, Mr. Hinkle as a
thoroughly skilled binder and manufacturer.

Winthrop B. Smith and D.B. Sargent remained as special partners,
furnishing capital but taking no part in the direction of the business.

[Southern Reprint]

The Confederate States, at the opening of the War, had within their
limits no publisher of schoolbooks which had extensive sales. Nearly all
of the schoolbooks used in the South were printed in the North. But
there were printing offices and binderies in the South. The children
continued to go to school, and the demand for schoolbooks soon became
urgent. To meet this demand, a few new schoolbooks were made and
copyrighted under the laws of the Confederacy; but others were reprints
of Northern books such as were in general use. The Methodist Book
Concern of Nashville, Tenn., reprinted the McGuffey Readers and supplied
the region south and west of Nashville until the Federal line swept past
that city. This action on the part of the Methodist Book Concern had the
effect of preserving the market for these readers, so that as soon as
any part of the South was strongly occupied by the Federal forces,
orders came to the Cincinnati publishers for fresh supplies of the
McGuffey Readers. This unexpected preservation of trade was of great
benefit to the firm of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle.

[Wilson, Hinkle & Co.]

In 1866 the special interests were closed out, and Mr. Lewis Van Antwerp
was admitted as a partner. On April 20, 1868, the firm of Sargent,
Wilson & Hinkle was dissolved. Mr. Sargent retired and the new firm,
Wilson, Hinkle & Co., bought all the assets. At this date Mr. Robert
Quincy Beer became a partner. Mr. Beer had long been a trusted and
successful agent and he was put in charge of the agency department.
Under this partnership the business gradually became systematized in
departments. One partner had in charge the reading of manuscripts and
the placing of accepted works in book form, one had charge of the
manufacture of books from plates provided by the first, and one of
finding a market for the books. At the first organization of the firm of
Wilson, Hinkle & Co., Mr. Wilson was the literary manager as well as the
director of agency work. Mr. Hinkle was the manufacturer, having control
of the printing and binding, and Mr. Van Antwerp had charge of the
accounts. Mr. Beer was brought in to relieve Mr. Wilson in the directio