Henry Oscar Houghton was an American publisher, cofounder of Houghton Mifflin, and a mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Houghton was born into a poor family in Sutton, Vermont. At age thirteen, he started working as an apprentice at The Burlington Free Press, where he became a typesetter. After graduation from the University of Vermont, he moved to Boston to work first as a reporter, then proofreader. He then joined a small Cambridge firm, Freeman amp Bolles, that typeset and printed books for Little, Brown and Company. At agehe became a partner and in 1849 the company was renamed Bolles and Houghton. After Bolles left, he took on full responsibility. In 1852 Houghton moved the business to beside the Charles River, renaming it the Riverside Press.
Source: Wikipedia