Born in Salem, New Hampshire, where his family had lived for more than one hundred years, he was educated there and at Boston before deciding to become an actor.

Subsequently, he introduced the "Turnover" and the "Firefly," which could produce 10,000 printed cards an hour.

(Gordon claimed that Benjamin Franklin had revealed the basic design of the press to him in a dream.)

The Gordon Press solved the problem of clam-shell presses (which previously had "snapped" and endangered pressmen's fingers) by having the platen open on cams, so that it was flat and lagged for the pressman as he fed the sheet, before closing parallel to the type bed.

Gordon began manufacturing presses in Rhode Island but in 1872 established his factory in Rahway, New Jersey.