The Village Vigil, Landisville, Pa., 1883

An advertising trade card for the Village Vigil newspaper (above), which has the appearance of a calling card on the front (below).

Office of The Village Vigil. Landisville, Pa., 1883.

The Vigil will be a small and entertaining village paper. Its contents shall be spicy, and mostly original, and it needs your support. It will be a journal for the young, and the old folks with youthful hearts. It is not a large sum to you--50 cents per year--to us it will do a great deal, so consider this an invitation to subscribe.

We would be pleased to receive any orders for cheap and satisfactory job printing you may want.

Yours very respectfully,
D. B. Landis,
Editor and publisher of the Vigil.

D. B. Landis

David Bachman Landis (1862-1940) was only 21 years old when he decided to publish the Village Vigil in Landisville, Pennsylvania, in 1883.

Landis later provided the following information about himself and the Village Vigil in his book about his family's history, The Landis Family of Lancaster County: A Comprehensive History of the Landis Folk (Lancaster, Pa.: By the author, 1888), pp. 18-19:

"David Bachman Landis is the only son of Israel C., and was born in Landisville, February 12 1862…. On the 7th of October, 1878, David was apprenticed to the Inquirer Printing and Publishing Company, Lancaster, to learn Guttenberg's art. After serving four years at the trade, he opened a professional job printing office in Landisville, in April, 1883. On May 1 of the same year, he issued the initial number of the Village Vigil as a tri-monthly; in a year it was printed weekly; and in 1885 the paper was enlarged to eight pages, being known thereafter as the Landisville Vigil.…. On March 13, 1886 the Vigil was discontinued, the owner connecting himself with the Lancaster Inquirer, in which establishment he has had charge of the printing since then."

For the other side of this card, see D. B. Landis (below).