1840
- 1897
From "The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume IIV", contributed by Al Tieman.Pasko, Wesley Washington, typographist, was born in Waterloo (Seneca Co.), NY, Jan. 4, 1840; son of Jeremiah and Martha (Von Osdol) Probasco and a descendant of colonial families of New York. He did not adopt the surname of Pasko until after 1872. He was graduated at the public school of Waterloo, was employed in a cotton and woolen factory until 1855, when he entered a printing office in Utica, NY, and in 1859 went to the office of the New York Tribune, removing to Charleston, SC in 1860. He was arrested as an abolitionist by the vigilance committee, and on failure to prove the charge he was ordered to leave the city. He was married Oct. 21, 1860 to Elizabeth Theresa Jarret. He published a paper in Trumansburg, NY, 1860-61, and returned to the Tribune in 1861. He enlisted in the 16th NY Heavy Artillery, and served in the army under Gen. B. F. Butler. He returned to New York at the close of the war and served on the editorial staff of newspapers both in Albany and Troy. He was an editor in the department of public instruction, assisted in codifying the NY school laws in 1867, and on his return to New York City in 1868, edited the Albion and subsequently a newspaper in Lancaster, NH, again returning to New York to engage in the printing business. He was literary advisor for a Cincinnati publishing house, 1879-83, and in 1883 established the New York Typothetae, being made its secretary and librarian in 1885. He invented the Pasko Press in 1886, capable of producing 60,000 impressions of small financial and stock exchange bulletins in one hour. He is the editor of: Men who Advertise (1868); Old New York (1870); author of: "Biographical History of Indiana" (1881); "History of Butler County, Ohio" (1883); "A Dictionary of Printing and Book Making" and "History of Printing in New York from its Beginning to the Present Time". He died in New York City, Dec. 15, 1897.
