History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 100

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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large and commodious printing house had took a prominent part in the management been erected on East King Street, now occupied by the Gazette Publishing Com- pany. The office is fitted up with first class machinery, including linotypes, presses and a full supply of all necessary printing ma- district in the Democratic National conven- terials. The York Gazette has always been recognized as an enterprising jour- nal.

of that corporation. During the adminis- tration of President Johnston he served as Internal Revenue Collector for the York district. He repeatedly represented this tions and three times served on the Demo- cratic electoral ticket. He was in the con- vention which nominated Franklin Pierce for president, in 1852, and was also a mem- ber of the convention which nominated James Buchanan. For thirty years he was

The German edition of the York Gazette, which was founded in 1796 and continued until 1804, was started a second time about 1828. It attained a large circulation among on terms of the closest intimacy and friend- the German speaking people of York ship with President Buchanan, who ten- dered him different public positions, which he declined. Mr. Welsh was a financier of ability. He was president of the York County for many years. Owing to the fact that the German language was not taught in the public schools it could not be read by the descendants of the first settlers, and National Bank from 1858 to 1867 and from

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

1874 to 1879. He was married to Cather- ough. Mr. Small was successful in busi- ness and for a period of forty years was a director in the York Bank, later the York National Bank.

ine Barnitz, of York. William H. Welsh, his eldest son, was chairman of the Demo- cratic State Committee, private secretary to President Buchanan, and prominent as an

He was married to Adeline Sprigman, of editor in Philadelphia and Baltimore. John Harrisburg, who died some years before B. Welsh, the second son, was one of the him. John E. Small, their eldest son, has owners of the York Gazette, and for sev- been connected with the York National eral years was proprietor of the York Daily. His daughter, Henrietta Catherine, married Pere L. Wickes, president judge of the courts of York County, and later a judge of the courts of Baltimore. Mary, another daughter, married Commodore Wells, of the United States navy. Henry Welsh died June 23, 1883.

Bank for twenty-five years. James B. Small, the second son, was a prominent bookseller in York, and served as post- master during Cleveland's administration. Luther A. Small, the third son, served as chief burgess of York. Mr. Small died August 10, 1885, aged 76 years.

The first number of the York Daily

The made its appearance, October 5, 1870, under the management of J. L. Shaw, H. C. Glassmeyer and A. DAVID SMALL, one of the owners of the Gazette for a period of forty-nine years, Daily. was born in York, in 1809, son of Peter Small, one of the early men of prominence P. Burchall, all of whom were strangers in in the borough. He obtained his education York.

It was printed in a Columbia office in the schools of his native town, and in and brought to York on the morning trains. 1836, at the age of 27, became half owner in the York Gazette, one of the leading Demo- cratic journals of Pennsylvania. He was careful and painstaking in all his business operations, and through his efforts, the Ga- zette reached a large circulation and wielded a strong influence in the public affairs of York County. Mr. Small was a Democrat in politics. He was a man of excellent judgment and possessed the highest integ- rity. These qualities made him a leader in the Democratic party of York County, a position which he maintained for a third of a century. He was never an aspirant for office, but owing to his business ability, served several years as director of the poor, an office for which he was especially fitted.

The business office was in Solomon Mey- er's building, on West Market Street. After a few weeks existence, Rev. J. C. Smith, a highly respected clergyman of York, and F. B. Raber, coal merchant, each having a son who was a practical printer, purchased printing material and placed it into the hands of the original firm, with the condition that their sons, John C. Smith and Lewis B. Raber, become partners in the business. The arrangement ceased on ac- count of the expenses exceeding the income, when Isaac Rudisill, in connection with Raber and Smith, by reducing the size of the paper, continued its publication. Under this management the press work was done in the office of the American Lutheran. The paper was enlarged and its circulation

Mr. Small served as chief burgess of York for three terms. He held that office began to increase. John B. Welsh, of the in 1863, when the Confederate forces under Gazette, purchased a half interest in it, April 24, 1871, and during the following June became sole proprietor, with Isaac Rudisill as local editor. In September, 1871, the office was removed to South Beaver Street, where it remained until April, 1874, when it was removed to North Beaver Street. During this time new machinery and material were purchased, and associated press news received. On September 4, 1876, the Daily was sold to Isaac Rudisill, John H. Gibson and A. P. General Early, took possession of the bor- ough, on June 28, of that year. Before the southern troops entered the town, he was chairman of a delegation of five citizens who interviewed General Gordon at Farm- ers' Post Office, eight miles west of York, and entered into an agreement with that officer that no public or private property should be destroyed. While General Early occupied York with his division of 9,000 troops, he frequently visited the burgess, who used his influence with Early to be Moul, who formed a copartnership in its considerate in his demands upon the bor- publication. These parties had formerly

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been employes in the office. April 21, 1877, by the state authorities, captain of a mili- the paper was enlarged and greatly im- tary company ; was made one of the judges proved. The Daily had long become a ne- of the courts of Dauphin County when it cessity in York, even though for a time

was erected, in 1785; was commissioned an during its early history it struggled for associate judge under the constitution of existence. In 1881, the office was removed 1790 for Dauphin County, to which Leba- non belonged, serving in that position until his death, in 1803. Frederick Oberlin, the maternal grandfather of Hiram Young, a descendant of John Frederick Oberlin, of to a building opposite the Court House. On January 26, 1882, it was purchased by E. W. Spangler, John B. Moore and S. C. Frey. During the following July the price was changed from $3 to $4 per annum, and Strasburg, Germany, married a daughter of a more complete supply of associated press Captain Henry Sheaffer. dispatches received. It thus became one of the largest and newsiest of inland dailies. April 1, 1885, the issue of a twenty-page paper from this office was considered a marvel of enterprise.

The York Daily and its weekly edition were published successfully by E. W. Spangler and S. C. Frey until 1904, when both papers and all the interests of the publishing house were sold to the Dispatch Publishing Company.

HENRY J. STAHLE, editor and pub- lisher of the Gettysburg Compiler, was born near York in 1823. He learned the printing business in the office of the York Gazette and in 1847 he became editor and owner of the Gettysburg Compiler, which he published until the time of his death. Lancaster High School.

Mr. Stahle achieved success as an editor and publisher and for a period of half a century the Compiler was one of the best known and most profitable weekly papers published in southern Pennsylvania. He book business for himself, where he soon was one of the most active members of the built up a large trade, and then united in Pennsylvania State Editorial Association, and was deeply interested in agricultural affairs. He died at his home in Gettysburg, May 12, 1892.

HIRAM YOUNG, founder of the True Democrat and York Dispatch, was born May 14, 1830, at Sheafferstown, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, which village was founded by his great-great-grandfather, Alexander Sheaffer, a native of the Pala- tinate, who came to America from Germany in 1729. His great-grandfather, Henry Sheaffer, son of the founder of Sheaffers- town, was commissioned, in 1776, captain of a company of soldiers from Lancaster County in the Revolution; in 1777, as jus- tice of the peace, he administered the oath of allegiance to the United States to four hundred people : in 1783 was commissioned

Samuel Young, a native of Marietta, Pennsylvania, and father of Hiram, married Sarah, daughter of Frederick Oberlin. He died early in life, and their son, Hiram, spent his boyhood in the family of his grandfather, at Sheafferstown, where he obtained the basis of a good education in the village school. At the age of fifteen he went to Lancaster and spent the succeeding four years as an apprentice at the saddler's trade, devoting his leisure hours to study and reading, thus acquiring a fund of useful information. He spent but a few months working at his trade after his apprenticeship had been completed. In 1850, he became an employee of a bookseller at Lancaster, meantime pursuing a course of study in the

Later he served as a clerk in the large publishing firm of Uriah Hunt & Sons, and afterward with J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia. He returned to Lancaster and went into the

establishing the firm of Murray, Young & Co. In 1860, he sold out his interest at Lancaster and moved to York, where he opened a book store, which he continued until 1877.

During the presidential campaign of 1860, Mr. Young was a Douglas Democrat, but after the election and the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, he became an ardent supporter of President Lincoln's adminis- tration.

During the fall of 1863, when

True Andrew G. Curtin was re- Democrat. elected war governor of Penn- sylvania, Mr. Young, with a number of other citizens of York, issued a Republican campaign paper, called the

Democrat. This was the beginning of his prosperous newspaper career, which ex-

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

tended over a period of forty years. On June 7, 1864, the day of the Republican National Convention at Baltimore, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for his second term, Mr. Young, as publisher and editor, issued at York, the first number of the True Democrat, an ardent Republican paper, earnestly devoted to supporting the prog- ress of the war and the Lincoln adminis- tration. This paper wielded a strong in- fluence and was ably edited and well con- ducted. It soon reached a large circulation. In 1888, Mr. Young was the Republican nominee for Congress to represent the dis- trict composed of York, Cumberland and Adams counties. Though defeated, he re- ceived an encouraging vote. From 1892 to 1896, under President Harrison's adminis- tration, he was postmaster at York, being the first official in that position to occupy the new government building in the city. Mr. Young devoted much of his time to agricultural subjects and gave special atten- tion to leaf tobacco interests and its culture. In 1876, he founded the York York Dispatch, a daily newspaper. Dispatch. This paper for many years has been a medium for the circula- tion of news in southern Pennsylvania. It He organized agricultural clubs and did ex- cellent service in advancing the welfare of the farming community with his half cen- tury's personal experience and knowledge of the financial history of the nation, and has been conducted with ability, and since repeated disasters resulting from tariff and its origin, has kept pace with the most progressive methods of metropolitan jour- nalism. In 1901, Mr. Young had his news- paper business incorporated as the Dispatch Publishing Company, with himself and his four sons, Edward, Charles P., William and John, as the sole members of the company. In 1904, the Dispatch Publishing Company purchased the entire interests of the York Daily, the oldest daily newspaper in the county. During the same year, the com- pany bought a large building on Philadel- phia Street, and fitted it up with all the modern improvements of an enterprising printing house. free trade agitation and legislation. In 1890, he represented the National Sheep and Wool Growers' Association from Pennsyl- vania before the Mckinley Ways and Means Committee, in Congress, at Wash- ington, D. C., and again in 1896, before the committee which formed the Dingley Tariff Bill. In 1892, he furnished the National Republican Committee a table showing the imports, exports and balance of trade for one hundred years, indicating the result of every administration from Washington to Harrison to demonstrate how protection in- creases the nation's wealth. For a period of fourteen years, he was a director of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, and in 1900 was elected its president. He was a member of the board of trustees of the

Meantime, the True Democrat had been changed to the Weekly Dispatch, especially devoted to the agricultural interests of southern Pennsylvania. When the Dis- State Agricultural College, near Belle- patch Publishing Company purchased the fonte. In 1903, Governor Pennypacker York Daily, the York Weekly and the appointed him one of the commission- Weekly Dispatch were discontinued and ers to represent Pennsylvania at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, at St. Lonis. Mr. Young was a director of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, of Red Lion. He was a member of the Penn- sylvania Sons of the Revolution, the Penn- sylvania German Historical Society, and the York County Historical Society. the entire attention of the printing house was devoted to the publication of the York Daily, as a vigorous and enterprising morn- ing journal, and the Dispatch, which had attained a circulation equal to that of any other newspaper in central or southern Pennsylvania. These journals, under the editorial management of Edward S. Young, Hiram Young was married in 1857 to Mary E. Shreiner, a daughter of Philip Shreiner, a well-known jeweler and clock- maker of Columbia. He died in York, July 13, 1905. with Charles P. Young as business man- ager, are wide-awake and progressive news- papers, ranking among the best in the Key- stone state. New machinery, linotypes and presses have recently been purchased, furnishing all the facilities for enterprising journalism.

The Hubley Printing Company has done an extensive printing business for twenty years. It is engaged largely in typesetting

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and making electrotype plates for books and Catalogue of the Insects of Pennsylvania," periodicals. George S. Billmeyer is presi- a book of sixty 12mo pages. Dr. E. A. Swartz, of the Bureau of Entomology, at Washington, D. C., says :

dent : Henry C. Niles, secretary, and Harry E. Powell, general manager.

The Maple Press Company was incorpo- rated in June, 1903, and purchased a full equipment of presses, types, type metal and the necessary appliances for electro-typing and printing books. The company was organized by the election of H. A. Wisotz- key, president, and Allen Kauffman, secre- tary and treasurer. This company owns and publishes the American Medicine, a be rescued from oblivion." This was the popular and influential medical journal.

The York Printing Company was incor- porated, January 29, 1906, and organized by the election of John C. Zimmerman, presi- dent ; George J. Hildebrand, treasurer and manager; and James Rudisill, vice-president and secretary. This company purchased a complete outfit of presses, types and lino- types, and has since done a general printing business, including books, pamphlets and magazines. The first volume of this history was issued from the press of the York Printing Company.

HANOVER JOURNALISM.

Soon after the Rev. Frederick Valentine Melsheimer became pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, of Hanover, he made an effort to establish the printing press. Mel- sheimer had written and published two or more pamphlets in his native country before coming to America.

The first newspaper was established at Hanover by W. D. Lepper and E. Stettin- ius, both educated Germans who had learned the art of printing in the Father- land. Their paper was called the Pennsyl- vanische Wochinschrift, and its first issue appeared April, 1797. This weekly paper continued until 1805. In 1797, Lepper and Stettinius published the first book at Han- brother, Titus S. Eckert, purchased Mr. over. It was a little volume of 112 pages, Schwartz's interest. At the opening of the Civil War, in 1860, the Gazette changed from a Democratic to a Republican paper ; George E. Sherwood was for a time its editor. It ceased publication in 1864, after an existence of sixty years. of which less than half a dozen copies are now known to be in existence. This work, written by F. V. Melsheimer, is an account of a theological controversy which he had with Rev. Father Brosius, pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart, situated on the Conewago Creek, near Hanover. WV. D. Lepper continued his printing office at Hanover after the first paper had ceased publication, for in 1806 he published "A

"This book was intended to contain a catalogue of the insects of North America which were then known to the science of entomology. It has been frequently re- ferred to in both European and American scientific literature. It contains a classifi- cation of 1,363 species of American insects and many points of interest that deserve to first book on entomology published in America. There are only seven copies of it known to be in existence; five in this coun- try and two in Europe. The copy, originally owned by the author, with many additions and interlineations in his own handwriting, belongs to the Bureau of Entomology at Washington. In 1809, Melsheimer pub- lished, at Hanover, a book entitled the "Beauty of Holiness," and he also is the author of two other works, published in Frederick, Maryland.

April 4. 1805, Daniel P. Lange,

The an intelligent German, and J. P.

Gazette. Stark commenced to issue the Hanover Gazette, a German

paper. The type was purchased at York, having been used in publishing a paper that had been discontinued. The partnership of Lange and Stark continued until 1816, when Mr. Lange alone continued the publication of the paper regularly until 1842, and from that year until 1846, Augustus Schwartz was associated with him. From 1846 to 1850, Mr. Lange again conducted the Ga- zette alone, and afterward sold it to Gute- lius and Schwartz. The first named was pastor of the Reformed Church of Han- over, who sold his interest to V. C. S. Eckert, in 1852, and soon after, his

Another German paper was started in 1809, and continued only one year. In August, 1818, Rev. Jacob H. Wiestling, pastor of the Reformed Church, issued the Guardian, the first English paper published

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

in Hanover. In 1819, he sold it to Joseph when it was purchased by Senary Leader, Schmuck, father of Henry M. Schmuck, of of Baltimore, Maryland, who had previously Hanover, a prominent merchant and finan- cier. Joseph Schmuck owned one of the old time Franklin presses. One day while printing his paper he over-exerted himself working at the press, burst a blood vessel and died from the result at the age of thirty-three. William D. Gobrecht purchased the paper in 1824. It was discontinued in 1825, and soon after the Hanoverian, another English paper, took its place, and was published for several years. In 1824, Joseph Schmuck and Dr. Peter Mueller began the publication of the Intelligenceblatt. It was soon re- moved to Adams County. In 1835 another English paper, the Herald, was started by George Frysinger, and in 1839 was pur- chased by J. S. Gitt, and in 1840, by Grum- bine and Bart. It suspended in 1842.

Rev. Abraham Rudisill, father of Isaac and George Rudisill, of York, purchased the printing office of Joseph S. Gitt, at Hanover, ical Society.

in 1846. He founded the Monthly Friend, In 1860, J. Samuel Vandersloot, a religious and literary magazine which was The of Gettysburg, started an English Citizen. Democratic paper in Hanover, which after a brief existence sus- pended publication to be revived soon afterwards by George W. Welsh and Joseph Dellone, under the title of the Hanover popular and widely read. He published it for five years at Hanover and then removed it to Carlisle, where it was issued three years. During the succeeding five years, he published the paper at York. Mr. Rudi- sill served as a corporal in Rickett's battery Citizen. A German paper called the York during the Civil War, and is reported to have been one of the bravest men of his regiment. He was distinguished for his valor at Gettysburg, when the battery was charged upon by Hayes' Louisiana brigade, which was driven back largely through the effect of the artillery firing.

Rev. A. W. Rudisill, son of Abraham Rudisill, who has served as a Methodist missionary at Madras, India, established a printing press in that city, and has con- tinued it for a period of twenty years. Dur- ing the years 1893-4, his nephew, James

Rudisill, of York, was connected with the of the latter, April 25, 1868, Mr. Heltzel mechanical department of this plant. The printing press was one of the largest plants in India. From this press, Mr. Rudisill issued the Woman's Friend, a missionary journal, for a period of fifteen years.

The Spectator.

The Democrat, an English paper, was founded in 1841; in 1844 its name was changed to the Planet and Weekly News,

founded the Bedford, Pennsylvania, En- quirer. He changed the name of the paper to the Hanover Spectator. Mr. Leader was an enterprising and progressive editor and publisher, and his journal for many years had a wide circulation. It was one of the best family newspapers in York County. The Spectator supported the principles and policy of the Whig party until that political organization, in 1856, was succeeded by the Republican party. Senary Leader died March 20, 1858, and his widow became the publisher, and her son-in-law, F. M. Baugh- man, the editor, who continued until 1860. Mrs. Leader conducted the paper until her death, in 1875, when it became the property . of her descendants and was conducted by W. H. and E. J. Leader until 1892, when it was discontinued. The entire files of the Hanover Spectator from 1844 to 1892 are in the possession of the York County Histor-

County Democrat, published by Schwartz and Bart, was purchased by Welsh and Dellone and its name changed to Hanover Citizen and York County Democrat. The first number of the English Citizen was published January 31, 1861, F. M. Baugh- man being the editor. In February, 1863, the owners assumed the editorship of the English paper and Von Manikowski was made editor of the German edition. No- vember 9, 1865, William Heltzel bought the papers and a month later sold one-half in- terest to Von Manikowski. After the death resumed entire ownership. In March, 1869, W. J. Metzler became an equal partner, but sold his interest in October, 1871, to A. P. Bange, who edited the German paper. Mr. Bange died May 4, 1875, and Mr. Heltzel was sole proprietor until June 29, 1879, when he sold the office to Barton K. Knode. In the spring of 1892, J. S. Cornman, of Hampstead, Maryland. bought out Mr.

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Knode and in August following started a York County to abandon hand composition. daily evening edition under the name of In 1903, a linotype machine displaced the Hanover Daily Record. He at the same type-setting machine. In 1904, the Han- time discontinued the German paper. over Printing Company was organized and In April, 1895, the Record Pub- the Evening Herald and the Daily Record merged into the Record-Herald, Mr. Smith being president of the new company and himself continuing the publication of the Weekly Herald.

The lishing Company, Limited, suc- Record. ceeded Mr. Cornman and buying the Hanover Advance, the com- peting Democratic weekly, consolidated it with the Citizen, styling the new paper the Weekly Record. The new paper was en- larged to eight pages and the Daily Record from six to eight columns. The Record Publishing Company is composed of H. N. Gitt, P. J. Barnhart, L. D. Sell, A. R. Brod- beck and H. O. Young. In May, 1904, the Hanover Printing Company was incorpo- rated and the Daily Record was changed to a morning paper, while the Record-Herald was established by a consolidation of the carrier lists of the Daily Record with those of the Evening Herald.

The Hanover Advance, a weekly news- paper, was published by H. O. Young, Wil- liam Anthony, and William H. Long, from 1893 to 1895.

The Hanover News, a six-page daily newspaper, was published in Hanover in part of the year 1905.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 100

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372