The "Lancaster's Written Word: Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  A few weeks ago I made a visit to Ephrata, PA to see a display in a museum dealing with a local printer whose work was on display.  Got to talking with another visitor that day about the history of printing in Lancaster County. As we were  

talking, the name of Ben Franklin's came up.  He shared some information and then I realized how important Ben Franklin was to the city of Lancaster.  Ben was the godfather of American printing and is probably Lancaster's most celebrated printer.  How could he not be!  He founded our first print shop in 1751 and for six years he and his partner, Quaker printer James Chattin, tried to duplicate the success they had experienced in Philadelphia.  It was said that Ben probably provided James with a printing press and movable type and sent him to Lancaster from Philadelphia.  He paid one third of the expenses in exchange for one third of the profit.  He did this with many other printers from New York to Annapolis.  Oh yeah, he also had a "franchise" in Antigua in the Caribbean.  The business had a hard time competing and a year later Ben sent German printer Heinrich Miller and printer Samuel Holland to Lancaster to replace Chattin.   Those two printers printed the first item in book form called Circular-Schreiben der Vereinigten.  The only known copy remaining of this printed work is in the Netherlands. Perhaps you have one of these pamphlets on your bookshelf at home.  It was also in 1752 that they printed Lancaster's first newspaper "The Lancaster Gazette".  Each issue was printed in both German and English.  

Ben's major printing competition in Lancaster came from the nearby Ephrata Cloisters and eventually in 1753 his business failed.  Probably one of the few failures he experienced in his lifetime. He sold the business to Samuel Holland for 200 English pounds and later donated that amount to start today's Franklin and Marshall College which was founded in 1787. Samuel couldn't make a go of it either so Ben returned and put William Dunlap in charge of the shop. Soon William's nephew, John Dunlap, arrived in Lancaster from Ireland and apprenticed in the shop from 1754-57.  

John eventually became a great printer in Philadelphia and was the first to print the Declaration of Independence. Then in 1757 Ben returned to England and sent William Dunlap to Philadelphia and Ben's Lancaster printing business was history.  Ben's press which he used, The Franklin Press, was one of the most famous presses in America.  Today it is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.  Lancaster's history was made richer due to statesmen such as Ben Franklin and what he did to keep our town a vibrant place in early America.  It was an extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.