Early Printers of the Middle Susquehanna Valley

The history of printing in the Middle Susquehanna Valley begins surprisingly early. By the 1790s, Sunbury and Northumberland had become important centers of newspaper, political, religious, and commercial printing. From there, trained printers carried the trade westward to Williamsport and southward and eastward into Danville, Milton, New Berlin, Lewisburg, Muncy, and Bloomsburg.

In this period, “printer” usually meant much more than press operator. The same person might set type, operate the press, solicit advertisements, edit political essays, collect subscriptions, print handbills and legal forms, and sometimes deliver the newspaper.

The earliest firmly documented printer in the region was Andrew Kennedy, a Philadelphia-trained printer who established the Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette in June 1792. It was apparently first printed at Sunbury and moved to Northumberland in 1793. Kennedy’s name appeared in the imprint during the 1790s; George Schusler operated the paper for a time around 1799–1801, after which Kennedy resumed control.

Kennedy’s office did more than publish a weekly newspaper. In 1799, he printed a book edition of Joseph Priestley’s Letters to the Inhabitants of Northumberland, including Priestley’s political and economic writings. This makes Kennedy important not only as a newspaperman but also as one of the earliest book printers in interior Pennsylvania.

Kennedy also trained apprentices. The best-known was Simon Cameron, later a United States senator, secretary of war, and political power broker. Cameron’s apprenticeship agreement required Kennedy to teach him “the art, trade, and mystery of a printer,” while providing food, lodging, and annual money for clothing.

About 1800, Jacob D. Breyvogel began publishing a German-language newspaper at Sunbury called Der Freiheitsvogel — “The Bird of Freedom.” It appears to have been short-lived. Clarence Brigham’s authoritative bibliography of early American newspapers reported that no copy had then been located, so much of what is known comes from references in other newspapers.

Breyvogel was nevertheless an important teacher of printers. William F. Buyers, founder of Williamsport’s first newspaper, learned the trade in Breyvogel’s office. By December 1802, Breyvogel announced that he had turned his English-language printing work over to John Binns.

The Breyvogel operation is significant because it demonstrates that the valley’s earliest print culture was bilingual. German-speaking readers were an important market, especially in Northumberland, Union, Snyder, and adjoining counties.

The man who took over some of Breyvogel’s English printing was John Binns, an Irish political radical who had been imprisoned in Britain before emigrating to America. On December 24, 1802, Binns established the Republican Argus and County Advertiser at Northumberland. Its motto declared that “persons, not property,” should form the basis of political representation.

Binns’s Northumberland press became an outspoken Democratic-Republican voice. He left for Philadelphia in 1807, where he founded the influential Democratic Press. He later produced an elaborate ceremonial engraving of the Declaration of Independence, surrounded by the arms of the thirteen original states.

The Northumberland County Historical Society now holds issues of the Republican Argus from 1808 through 1812, making it one of the most promising repositories for studying the daily work of these early printers.

William F. Buyers, born at Sunbury in 1782, carried the printing trade up the West Branch. A notice in Kennedy’s newspaper dated October 26, 1801, announced that Buyers had established a printing office at Williamsport. He was only about twenty years old.

His newspaper, the Lycoming Gazette, was Williamsport’s first. The 1892 county history described it as a four-column paper printed on coarse sheets approximately twenty by seventeen inches. Buyers was taxed in 1802 for “one printing office.” The earliest issues were irregular, reflecting the difficulties of obtaining paper, ink, news, subscribers, and payment in a frontier community.

Buyers left the Gazette around 1808 and eventually returned to Sunbury, where he established the Sunbury Times in 1812. He also commanded a militia company during the War of 1812 and served as a Northumberland County commissioner.

The history of the Lycoming Gazette provides a remarkable succession of printer-politicians. Later proprietors included future Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ellis Lewis, future governor William F. Packer, and Colonel James Cameron, brother of Simon Cameron.

Danville’s first known newspaper was the Columbia Gazette, established by George Sweeny on November 2, 1813. It lasted approximately a year. In 1815, Jonathan Lodge established the Express, later published by Lodge and Caruthers. Sweeny returned to newspaper work in 1820 with the Watchman, whose office stood near Market and Ferry streets.

According to D. H. B. Brower’s 1881 history, these early papers consisted largely of material copied from metropolitan newspapers. Local editorial content became livelier when Sweeny and Judge Thomas Cooper began attacking each other with what Brower called their “sharp goose quills”—apparently one of Danville’s earliest newspaper feuds.

In 1828, Valentine Best founded the Danville Intelligencer as a Democratic newspaper. Best later entered politics and played a central role in creating Montour County in 1850.

Another Danville printer, Charles Cook, founded the Danville Democrat and Tariff Advocate in 1840. Although its title included “Democrat,” the paper opposed the Democratic Party. Cook also issued a German campaign newspaper, Der Tariff Advokat, in 1844. When Cook’s office burned in 1845, his hand press crashed into the cellar but was recovered, repaired, and used for years afterward.

Milton’s first newspaper was the Miltonian, established by Henry Frick on September 21, 1816. Frick had served an apprenticeship in the printing trade before settling in Milton. He remained associated with the paper for more than twenty years and later served in the Pennsylvania legislature and United States Congress.

The Miltonian was more durable than many frontier newspapers. Brigham’s bibliography recorded surviving issues beginning with the inaugural number of September 21, 1816.

Printing developed early in several Buffalo Valley communities. Mifflinburg had the Advocate of Union in 1815–1816. Lewisburg’s known newspaper sequence begins with the Lewisburg Journal in 1830, followed by the Lewisburg Journal and Union County Advocate in 1833 and the Lewisburg Democrat in 1835.

New Berlin, then the Union County seat, became an especially active printing center. Its newspapers included the Union Times, the Union Telegraph, several Anti-Masonic papers, and numerous German-language publications. Among the latter were Die Stimme von Union, Northumberland und Centre Counties Advertiser, Der Anti-Freu-Maurer Advocat, Der Union Demokrat, and Der Christliche Botschafter.

This concentration reflects New Berlin’s role as a county seat, center of Anti-Masonic politics, and headquarters of the Evangelical Association. Government notices, political arguments, church publications, legal forms, and German-language, religious material all provided work for printers.

Muncy’s first local newspaper was the Muncy Telegraph, established in 1833 by J. Potter Patterson. After Patterson’s death, J. Kidd Shoemaker purchased it in 1835. In 1841, the paper changed ownership and became the Muncy Luminary, beginning the lineage of the later Luminary.

The earliest readily accessible Bloomsburg newspaper is the Columbia Democrat, whose first issue appeared on April 29, 1837. Surviving catalog records identify H. Webb as a publisher during the 1840s and Levi L. Tate beginning in 1847.

Bloomsburg also contributed to printing technology. Local papermaker Thomas Trench patented a new printing press in 1837 and operated paper mills near Bloomsburg. Although Trench was primarily an inventor and papermaker rather than a newspaper editor, his work shows that the region supplied both printed matter and some of the machinery and raw material needed to produce it.

In a 2025 study from Northwestern University entitled The State of the News, there were 938 daily newspapers printed and circulated across the United States. The count is down from over 1,400 daily papers in 2000 and more than 1,700 in 1950. Most major outlets now have far more online subscribers than print readers.