He was too active to limit his energies to his business. In 1803, he became Secretary of the Mechanical Society, and thenceforth devoted much attention to the office, which he held for several years. He was not an active politician, but was warmly attached to the Republican party, and moreover had the respect of the entire community. In 1811, when a division took place in the Republican party in Allegheny County, and two tickets were placed in the field, his standing was such, that he was named as a member of the committee selected to bring about harmony.[293] Like the modern successful business man, he had a desire for the free life and clear skies of the country, and he engaged in farming and sheep-raising. When he died he had on the plantation of his brother-in-law, Josiah Clark, in Washington County, a flock of one hundred and twenty-eight sheep. In 1808, the partnership with John Spear began, and the firm became known as Cramer & Spear. The establishment, however, continued to be called “Zadok Cramer’s Bookstore”; sometimes it was advertised as “Zadok Cramer’s Classical, Literary, and Law Bookstore.” In 1810, William Eichbaum was taken into the firm. He had served a seven years’ apprenticeship in bookbinding with Cramer, and with Cramer & Spear, and was the son of William Eichbaum, the elder. It may be that young Eichbaum was the “active youth of good morals and respectable character, wanted to learn the bookbinding and stationery business,” for whom Cramer had advertised on November 6, 1802.[294] The firm was now Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, and continued as such until 1818, the year of the death of Elizabeth Cramer, the widow of Zadok Cramer, when Eichbaum withdrew and the firm was again changed to Cramer & Spear. Cramer had traveled extensively, first in pursuit of information for his _Navigators_, and later in search of health. He went down the Ohio in 1806. In 1810, he was in Kentucky.[295] When the _New Orleans_, the first steamboat that ran on the Western rivers was being operated between Natchez and New Orleans, he descended the Mississippi River in it twice, from the former to the latter place. Much of the information in regard to the _New Orleans_, its structure, cost, earnings, and length of time required between river points, is to be found in the _Navigators_.[296]