Introduction

Biography

John was the son of Eb­en­ezer Wy­eth and Ma­ry Win­ship.

He was ap­prenticed to a print­er as a boy. At age 21, he be­came the man­ag­er of a print­ing com­pa­ny in San­to Do­min­go, on­ly to bare­ly es­cape with his life in the in­sur­rect­ion there.

In 1792, he re­turned to Am­eri­ca and set­tled in Har­ris­burg, Penn­syl­van­ia, where he be­came in­volved in the pub­lish­ing bu­si­ness and co-owned a news­pa­per (The Ora­cle of Dau­phin).

After on­ly a year in Har­ris­burg, Pre­si­dent George Wash­ing­ton ap­point­ed him post­mas­ter. He lost his of­fice five years lat­er when Pre­si­dent John Adams de­clared the po­si­tion to be in­com­pa­ti­ble with in­volve­ment in news­pa­pers.

Works

• Repository of Sac­red Mu­sic, 1810
• Repository of Sac­red Mu­sic, Part Se­cond (Har­ris­burg, Penn­syl­van­ia: 1813)

These two vol­umes were huge­ly suc­cess­ful, sell­ing 150,000 co­pies.