"With a handful of brevier and an ounce or two of printer's ink"—as he later recollected—Wisconsin's first printer managed to produce 1,000 lottery tickets at Navarino, now the city of Green Bay, in 1827. The printer was Albert G. Ellis, who had previously worked as an apprentice at Herkimer, N.Y. He could not undertake regular printing at Navarino before obtaining a printing press in 1833; then, in partnership with another young New Yorker named John V. Suydam, he began to publish the Green-Bay Intelligencer.[82]

The first issue of this newspaper, dated December 11, 1833, is the oldest example of Wisconsin printing known to survive, and it is represented in the Library of Congress collections. Neatly printed in fine type on a small sheet, the four-page issue shows professional competence. The publishers apologize for the type they use and for the necessity, owing to limited patronage, of commencing the Intelligencer on a semimonthly basis. Their front page features an Indian story entitled "The Red Head," chosen from some "fabulous tales ... politely furnished us by a gentleman of this place, who received them from the mouths of the native narrators." Inclusion of the story accords with a stated editorial policy of giving faithful descriptions of the character and manners of the natives. Some articles in this issue concern proposed improvements on the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers that would open navigation between Green Bay and the upper Mississippi. And the question where to locate the capital of an anticipated Territory of Wisconsin is another topic of the day. The Territory was not actually created until 1836.

Aside from its obviously having been detached from a bound volume, there is no visible evidence of the Library of Congress copy's past history. It does not figure in A Check List of American Newspapers in the Library of Congress (Washington, 1901); but it is registered in the union list, American Newspapers 1821-1936 (New York, 1937).

The Library of Congress also owns the only known copy of Kikinawadendamoiwewin or almanac, wa aiongin obiboniman debeniminang iesos, 1834, printed at Green Bay on the Intelligencer press. Its 14 leaves, printed on one side only, are within an original paper cover bearing the manuscript title "Chippewa Almanac." A document held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin reveals that in 1834 the Catholic mission at Green Bay charged "the Menominee Nation of Indians" for "an Indian Almanac rendered by signs equally useful to those among the Natives who are unable to read their language, published at Green Bay, 150 copies, $18"; and that the bill went unpaid.[83] Since the almanac was intended for use in the year 1834, it was likely printed before the end of 1833; yet there is no evidence to suggest that it predates the Intelligencer. At the suggestion of Douglas C. McMurtrie, the Library purchased its unique copy from the Rosenbach Company for "$375.00 less usual discount" in 1931.