William Davis Gallagher was one of the most important promoters of literary culture in the trans-Appalachian West in the first half of the nineteenth century. Himself a poet and essayist of considerable repute, he edited and published a series of literary magazines and journals in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, especially in the 1830s. He combined his artistic concerns with a frank western boosterism and the promotion of common schools and internal improvements. Throughout his editorial career he maintained a profile of high principle. An early biographer records that "the boys in the printing office used to call him William 'Dignity' Gallagher."

Gallagher was born to Bernard Gallagher and Abigail Davis in Philadelphia in 1808. His father died in 1814, and shortly thereafter the Gallagher family moved to southwestern Ohio. As a boy William enjoyed roving the unspoiled woods of the Ohio River valley, and his youthful appreciation would remain characteristic...