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

It was an ordinary day.  Doing some more research as to how our local newspaper came into existence. Yesterday I wrote about Ben Franklin and his contribution to Lancaster's written word and today I'll add another link into the history chain of printing in Lancaster, PA.  Jacob Miller Willis Geist, known as Willis was a home-grown printer, having been born into a Pennsylvania-German/Scotch-Irish family in Bart Township in 1824.  At the age of 16 he was teaching at the same one-room school house where he had been a recent student.  Two years later he moved to Philadelphia to learn the printing trade from the masters of the era.  

Geist's Company, The New Era Printing House

Wasn't long after that he returned to Lancaster and began his printing and publishing career.  The Daily New Era Newspaper was started by Willis and John B. Warfel in 1877.  Their business was located in Penn Square at 3 South Queen Street were the Marriott Hotel stands today.  He also created the Lancaster Republican party at about the same time, thus his paper was right-leaning politically.  His biggest rival, both in printing and in politics, was Democrat Andrew Jackson Steinman whose Intelligencer Printing Company published The Intelligencer Journal right across the street from him at 8 South Queen Street.  

Masthead for his newspaper.

Willis' New Era Printing House was a showcase of state-of-the-art typography and equipment.  In 1877 he bought the first rotary printing press in Lancaster so he could print his New Era.  Then in 1890 he and his partner installed the first electricity-powered printing press, one of the first in the country.  Years later, in 1928, after the New Era had moved to the first block of North Queen Street, Steinman's sons bought Willis' New Era and eventually moved it to Lancaster Press on North Prince Street.  

Newer masthead for the Lancaster New Era.

Then, a year later, both the New Era and the Intelli- gencer Journal moved into their current home on West King Street where the Steinman family publishes the newspapers today.  That is where I am visiting this morning with my friend Tom who has run the pressroom for quite a few years.  I talked him into a visit so I could smell the odor of printer's ink once again and view this historic building.  Stick with me tomorrow for a few more details about how Lancaster's printing trade, which now includes now only myself, but my two sons, grew to what it is today.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.