History's Echoes
The Hometown News, Part III
By SHARON BAUMBAUGH

Fred Ziegler Jr., editor and proprietor of the Echo-Pilot, leased rooms on the first floor of the Franklin House on North Carlisle Street, where he would move the publication office of the paper in June of 1926. Under the terms of the lease, the paper would use three rooms - two large rooms that were formerly used by the Frank L. Carbaugh Post of the American Legion (and, before that, the dining room for the Franklin House Hotel); an office in the rear of the building that had been used by S.B. Jackson, Dr. G.S. Edwards, dentist, was to the front of this part of the section of the building. The May 13 issue of the paper was the last to be published at the old location. The next day, under the direction of A.M. Hart, the task of moving the equipment began, all machinery, from the site on West Baltimore, now part of the William Patton Estate, following his death, to the rooms just leased.

In September 1926, Ziegler, now owner, editor and publisher of the paper, signed a contract with the Mergenthaler Linotype Company of Brooklyn, N.Y., for the installation of a rebuilt Model 8 Linotype. This piece of equipment included three magazines with a total of six faces of type. The paper was one of the last in the country to leave the hand-composition way of printing. The need was realized for greater speed in production, not to mention the lack of people who could still compose the lines of print by hand.

Those who were part of the staff in 1939 (and many still there in 1949 to mark the paper's 100th anniversary) were: seated, G. Fred Ziegler, publisher and editor; Andrew Johnson, business manager; Helen Gonso Koser, linotype; and Morton Conn, assistant editor, standing: J. Thompson Conrad, printing plant foreman; Walter Shimer, linotype and pressman; Leroy Moats, pressman; John T. Conrad Jr., pressman.

The next year he would order an electric sign, with the name Echo-Pilot in white, in front of a green field.

1927 was also the year that Kauffman's Progressive News was purchased from C.C. Kauffman owner, by H.A. Grove and Warren R. Grove, both of East Baltimore Street. The new owners would take possession in August. Kauffman's Progressive was established in 1912 as a successor to The Greencastle Press, and during its 17 years was a prominent part of the Progressive Party's movement, consistently opposing gang politics and advocating clean government.

In October of that year, Ziegler purchased from the Shippensburg News Chronicle, a 7-column Babcock cylinder press. The machine was dismantled during a weekend and brought to Greencastle by truck for placement in the Franklin House rooms. The old Campbell cylinder press would be taken down and much of it used as replacement parts.

In 1949 the paper, still owned by Ziegler, would celebrate 100 years with a special issue that included six sections. This would be the largest issue in the history of the paper (until the 150th was marked in 1999).

This paper included history from the meager beginnings as a four-page issue, the growth of Greencastle and Antrim and information on the changes to the town in that first century. The town now included a free public library housed in Council Hall on North Washington Street, where the Rescue Hose Company began; there were 10 churches; new houses were being built along North Allison and Brown's Mill Road, and along South Washington Street, near the borough's boundary. There was talk of relocating Route 11, taking that traffic from the center of town to a new road further west. Other businesses of the time included A.G. Crunkleton Electric; Carl's Drug Store (opened in 1825 on North Carlisle Street); Norman Diehl's Sons; Farmers' Union Co-Op (originally the FPA, Farmers' Protective Association milk plant, started in 1929); Harry Friedly Hardware; Gem Garment Company; W. Harry Gillian Coal, Feed and Grain; Greencastle Laundry & Dry Cleaners; Greencastle Livestock Market (established in 1940); Greencastle Packing Company; Greencastle Sanitary Dairy; Henson's Bakery; Hovey Stanter and Company; Norman L. Kuhn; Leiter's Hardware and Implements; Little America; Meyers Implement Company (started in Kauffman in 1938); Omwake & Oliver; Rinehart Construction; A.F. Rees Hides and Tallow; Valley Mechanical Company; Victor Hosiery Branch; L.R. Walck Hatchery; Windsor Shoe Company; E.L.M. Stores (started in 1941); along with three utilities, the State Theater; two banks; funeral homes; beauty shops; barber shops; grocery stores; and more.

During the years, the paper branched out from telling only about the town and its people, to including the township news. There were columns filled with who visited who on a Saturday night along with special church or village programs that were planned, all penned by the correspondents who lived in that particular area. Upton was working on a new playground in 1949, purchasing land from F. R. Stickell, to be used for the community; Higginsville, the newest of the rural home sites, included a general store with meats and groceries offered by Mr. and Mrs. Bill Mayhugh; Clay Hill boasted 28 homes at the time with a population of about 150 and a general store operated by Harvey Myers; Coseytown's store of long standing (started in 1908 by Mr. Burkett) was now owned by Lester E. Hamby; and the Brown's Mill Improvement Association was now under the direction of officers Earl Sellers, Raymond Roop, Samuel Rotz and William Kline. Hollowell, Lemasters, Bino, Marion, Mason-Dixon, Milnor, Shady Grove, State Line, Williamson, Welsh Run and Worleytown were also heard from and about, in the columns of the local paper.