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Domininkas Boczkauskas (1846–1909)

The Mahanoy City publisher behind one of the giants of the Lithuanian-American press. Markers: ★ verified · ✔ confirmed · ✎ corrects a common error · ⚑ open/caution.

Domininkas Boczkauskas founded the Lithuanian newspaper Saulė (“The Sun”) in Mahanoy City on July 27, 1888 — printed at first in a cellar, with help from his children. ★ Its significance is hard to overstate: because the Russian Empire banned Latin-alphabet Lithuanian printing in the homeland from 1865 to 1904, the free coal towns of Schuylkill County became, improbably, a world capital of Lithuanian-language culture, and Saulė was its flagship. At its peak it had some 9,000 subscribers — the highest circulation of any Lithuanian paper of its time. ★

✎ Saulė is often called the “first” Lithuanian paper; its own historical society calls it the second of its kind in the United States — so “longest-running and highest-circulation” is the defensible claim. The paper ran until 1959, carried on by his family for fifty years after his own death — so the newspaper’s long life (1888–1959) should not be confused with the publisher’s (1846–1909). ★

Boczkauskas — the period Polish-orthography spelling he used in America; Bačkauskas in modern standardized Lithuanian — had edited a Polish paper in Buffalo before Saulė. He died on February 25, 1909, in Mahanoy City, and is buried in the town’s St. Joseph Lithuanian cemetery. ★

His paper’s place in “Little Lithuania, USA” is set out in the Lithuanians of Schuylkill County profile.

Sources

Frequently asked

What was Saulė?
'Saulė' ('The Sun') was a Lithuanian-language newspaper founded by Domininkas Boczkauskas in Mahanoy City on July 27, 1888, printed at first in a cellar. Because the Russian Empire banned Latin-alphabet Lithuanian printing in the homeland, free coal towns like Mahanoy City became centers of Lithuanian publishing. At its peak Saulė had some 9,000 subscribers — the highest circulation of any Lithuanian paper of its time — and ran until 1959.
Was Saulė the first Lithuanian newspaper in America?
No — its own historical society calls it the second of its kind in the United States. The defensible claim is that it was the longest-running and highest-circulation Lithuanian paper of its era.