Quinn's Print Shop
Story furnished by Clarence Crocker
Quinn Print Shop was owned and operated by The Reverend Clyde Quinn from mid 1940s to mid 1960s. Clyde had built a new home on the Fernwood/Glendale road and opened the print shop in the basement of his home. Clyde, the son of John and Hattie Byars Quinn, was born February 10, 1913 in Woodruff, South Carolina.
His first venture was with an old model press in which the type had to be set by hand. He printed business flyers, gospel tracts, church and revival announcements. This writer watched him one day taking the preformed type in various size pitch from a large cabinet with tweezers, spelling out the words of the announcement letter by letter.
As the business grew he purchased a Linotype typesetting machine like those used by newspapers for years. By using a typewriter style keyboard the Linotype allowed words to be created on a lead bar called a slug. This resulted in a “line of type” about six inches long. Clyde, his wife Minnie and sister, Mrs. Sara Quinn Varner became proficient with the Linotype as did his sons, Alvin and Johnny.
Later, Clyde purchased an Offset Printing Press that involved multiple steps and a good bit of expertise to obtain the printed page. Basically, light sensitive chemicals and photographic techniques were used to transfer an image of the material to be printed onto an aluminum plate that was then attached to a cylinder of the press from which the paper was printed. Alvin became somewhat of an expert with the photographic techniques involved in the process. A large portion of the work was then done on the Offset Press.
In the late 40s Clyde printed a book written by Dr. J. Harold Smith, Founder/President of the world renown Radio Bible Hour entitled, “God’s Three Deadlines” which he used in conjunction with his radio ministry. The book was copyrighted in 1949 and became very popular. Incidentally, the sermon outline and video is available today on the web which showed some 10,000 hits as of Oct. 6, 2010. Dr. Smith presented a modern Kluge printing press to Quinn’s Print Shop to be used in printing the book. Clyde also did print work for the Blue Ridge Quartet which was very popular in this region for 10 to 20 years.
Clyde had married Minnie Fullbright, the daughter of Ashbury and Elizabeth York Fullbright and they became the parents of five children; Barbara, Annie Marie, Alvin, Johnny and Janet Elizabeth who died at the age of three in 1936. Rev. Quinn, his family along with his mother and father were wonderful “next door” neighbors to this writer’s family for many years
Clyde and his family were members of the Glendale Baptist Church where Clyde was ordained to preach the gospel in February of 1937. Rev. Quinn served as Pastor of Churches while operating the print shop. Closing the shop in the mid sixties, Rev. Quinn went into full time Pastoral/Evangelistic work.
He retired from the Canadys First Baptist Church, Canadys, S. C. where he was preaching when his wife, Minnie Quinn died. She was in the hospital in Charleston when she died on February 1, 1978. She was buried in the Glendale Community Cemetery, Glendale, S. C. This writer had the privilege of bringing the messages in a Revival at Canadys First Baptist while Rev. Quinn was serving as Pastor.
Following the death of his wife, Mrs. Minnie Quinn, Rev. Quinn married Effie Wilson of Ruffin, S. C. He had retired from the Church when he took sick and died in the hospital at Charleston, S. C. May 14, 1994. He too was buried alongside of his first wife in the Glendale Community Cemetery. Both were survived by their children and Rev. Quinn was survived also by his second wife, Effie Wilson Quinn.
My sincere appreciation to Annie Marie Quinn Bridges and Taylor Varner III for their contribution to this story. Written October 2010 by Rev. Clarence E. Crocker
This web site has been started as a public service to share the story of Glendale. See more information about Mary and her Glendale connection at Mary McKinney Teaster.