The "Sunday, April 4, 1926 - A Thrill Of A Lifetime" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking at a website titled Uncharted Lancaster to see what unusual Lancaster stories I could find.  Unlimited supply of neat and unusual stories of Lancaster County fill the site which I'm sure you would find interesting.  But, for me, the biggest find was locating one of Lancaster Newspapers "Sunday News" from April 4, 1926.  

Click on images to enlarge them.

The website took me to the 40 page newspaper that held the story of a buggy driver who committed suicide on a Lancaster County road and forever haunted that strip of road in Lancaster County.  But, it was also the start of an entire evening of reading the news from Lancaster County and the surrounding area.  A few months ago Lancaster Newspapers opened their archives to allow those of us that hold a subscription to the home delivered newspaper, or subscribe to the online version, a chance to search stories from as far back as 1794.  I have spent quite a bit of time reading stories from my childhood and high school years, but also enjoy reading about Lancaster soon after the newspaper came to town.  And then, when I had a chance to search for a story about a ghost that was said to haunt the south end of Lancaster, I took to the archives and the "Sunday News" on April 4, 1926.  I had the best time reading page after page of the history of Lancaster 18 years before I was born.  News filled the first 24 pages of the paper with a magazine section starting on page 25.  And, there it was on page 25!  The story titled "Passing Of The Haunted Houses of Lancaster".  Story about the buggy driver who committed suicide and forever haunted that section in southern Lancaster County.  

Page 40 of the 1926 newspaper.

But, there was so much more to read throughout this paper that gave the history of Lancaster as only an old newspaper can.  I loved the final page, page 40, which featured a full sized puzzle that had 17 things wrong on the page.  You had to find the 17 items as well as color the page with crayons or maybe colored pencils (did they have colored pencils in 1926?).  The page reminded me of visiting with my daughter and her family on weekends and going to the corner store to buy the Washington Post and finding the same type of puzzle page in the booklet supplement.  Loved to do that with my granddaughter.  Page 38 of the paper was devoted to puzzles of all types.  Page 35 featured a short story by Fannie Hurst who was known as the World's Highest Paid Short Story Writer.  Are there still Sunday newspapers in the country that feature a full-page short story?  

Part of a page from the newspaper with interesting headlines.

Another entire page featured "Flowers In Abundance" that had photo after photo of local flowers, all in black and white.  A few pages offered a few surprises, at least in today's society.  One page was titled "Filling The Gaps In The Story Of Christ's Life" which had a subtitle that read...Nineteen Centuries After His Ministry, Christian Scholars Incline to Belief That He Was Educated by a Sect of Mystics Called the Essenes, Whose Principles Inspired Many of His Teachings, He Being Also A Master of biblical and Jewish Law.  Some rather interesting views and thoughts filled the page in the newspaper.  Certainly entirely different that today's papers would carry.  Another page told of the vast herd of steers required yearly to furnish Lancaster's meat supply.  Another page told of the rise and fall of the drum while a page told stories of Lancaster during the Revolutionary War.  

Should this page have been part of a local newspaper?

But, I found page 31 of the newspaper to be rather unusual, even for the year 1926.  The page was titled "Africa For The Africans" and told of the "Stepping Stones of Colored Man's Progress" in Lancaster County.  Can't imagine the calls and letters that would be sent to the newspaper office today if they featured a page such as that.  News pages offered stories about topics such as the Boy Scouts planning a new camp to Sewer Inspections to a gentleman being punished for a crime by hanging.  

The Davis automobile.

Then there was an advertisement for The New Davis Automobile as well as well as an ad for The Dodge Brothers Car and the Hudson motorcar.  A headline on page 12 read Lancaster County is Generally Believed to Have Been Site of the Third Jewish Settlement in United States.  As you can see, the paper was filled with page after page of mostly local news.  Page one of the newspaper featured the highlights of the paper with stories about a murderer who begged for a life term, but was sentenced to the gallows.  Another story talked about enforcement of Prohibition In "Dignified And Courageous Manner" while a headline decried, "Lancaster Prepared For Joyous Easter Celebration".  A few other short stories told of the expectation of good weather for the Easter Holiday, a Parkesburg man who took his life with a shotgun and the Easter Bunny for Tots Whose Dads were Jailed."  Wow, what a thrill it was to go through the paper.  I next have to explore a paper from the archives that may have told of the ending of WWII.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Part of the front page of the newspaper from Sunday, April 4, 1926 in Lancaster, PA.