Landisville and Salunga, Pa.

"Landisville Coach Works, C. H. Koser, Prop. Horseshoeing. All Kinds of Buggies and Carriages Built to Order. Automobile work a specialty." An advertising postcard that illustrates how one business in Landisville, Pennsylvania, adapted to the transition from buggies and carriages to automobiles as forms of transportation in the early part of the nineteenth century.

"S. N. Mumma & Co., packers of and dealers in leaf tobacco, Landisville, Pa. Represented by ________."

"A grand entertainment will be held on Saturday even., April 3, '97, in Cooper's Hall, for the benefit of the Salunga Cornet Band. The comedy-drama 'Tatters' is one of the finest amateur plays that has been written, abounding in the most pathetic and humorous scenes. Good music will add largely to the night's entertainment. Don't fail to come; rain or shine. Admission, 15 cents. Reserved seat, 20 cents. Committee. Pluck Print, 38 East Chestnut Street, Lancaster, Pa."

What looks like a calling card for D. B. Landis on the front (above) turns out to be an advertising trade card on the back (see below). David Bachman Landis (1862-1940) operated Pluck Art Printery, a letterpress print shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but he started out as a printer in his hometown of Landisville, which is located about eight miles from Lancaster. For the other side of this card, see The Village Vigil, Landisville, Pa., 1883 (below).

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).

Postmarked on back: "Landisville, Pa., Mar. 20, 1909."

"Wm. C. Myers, practical artesian well contractor. Test holes for prospectors. Estimates on application. Work done on short notice. Satisfaction guaranteed. Bell 'phone. Salunga, Lancaster Co., Pa. Traction." For a similar business card, see U. W. Myers, Artesian Well Driller, Myerstown, Pa.

Caption: "Dorwart Cottage, Landisville Camp Grounds." Sign above doorway: "Campview." Postmarked in 1916 in Landisville, Pa., and addressed to Mrs. Edward Searlis, 607 W. King St, Lancaster, Pa. (and forwarded from there to 653 State St., Albany, N.Y.). Handwritten message: "Here for a week at this cottage. With love, H. Y. Sprecher." The Landisville Camp Meeting , located in Landisville , Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, still exists today. The religious camp meeting consists of 27 acres that include 53 cottages and a tabernacle that seats 800, though I'm not sure whether the building pictured on this postcard is still standing.

"The Reading Depot, Landisville, Pa. Photo D.B.L., 1909." Printed on the back of this postcard: "D. B. Landis, publisher, Pluck Art Printery, Lancaster, Pa." David Bachman Landis, who was the owner and operator of Pluck Art Printery, photographed the train station in Landisville, Pennsylvania, in 1909, and published this postcard based on his photo.

A large sale bill printed by D. B. Landis, Pluck Print, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I believe that the Catherine Baker who held this sale was probably the same person identified as Catharine W. Kauffman Baker (1835-1912). She was the mother of Nora K. Baker Landis (1858-1910), who was the first wife of D. B. Landis. In 1908, Catharine Baker was 73 years old, and she passed away four years later. Public Sale on Saturday, October 17, 1908 The undersigned will sell at public sale, on the premises in the village of Landisville, East Hempfield Township, Lancaster, Co., Pa., the following described household and kitchen furniture, to wit: 1 Bed and bedstead, 2 Bedsteads, bed spring, wardrobe, 2 washstands, large Starling Double heater and pipe, Oil stove, 2 sideboards, organ, centre table, 1-2 doz. chairs, 4 rockers, hall rack, 1 chest, 1 heavy walnut chest, wood chest, refrigerator, bench, quilting frame, mirrors, Brussels, ingrain, hall and stair carpets, stair rods, lamps, chandelier, rubber handle knives and forks, glassware, 2 wash bowls and pitchers, 2 feather ticks, feather bolsters, bed clothing, boxes, baskets, books, fruit jars, lard stand, lantern, ironing stand, iron kettle, brass kettle, pale fence, and a variety of articles not enumerated. Sale to commence at 1 o'clock p.m., on Saturday, October 17th, 1908, when terms and conditions will be made known by Jonas L. Minnich, auct., Henry H. Koser, clerk. Catherine Baker. Pluck Print, Lancaster, Pa.

J. M. Trout Owner and operator of fire sand quarries. Also loam beds. Landisville, Penna. G. H. Thomas, western sales agt., Latrobe, Penna. Pluck Print. David Bachman Landis, who designed and printed this business card, wrote about J. M. (Jacob M.) Trout (1858-1935) and his father, Jacob S. Trout, in " Mineral Deposits and Works of the Hempfields ," an artilce that appeared in the Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society , v. 8, no. 8 (June 3, 1904), p. 247: " . . . Jacob S. Trout discovered a valuable bed of silica or 'fire' sand, in 1870. Experiments with this sand demonstrated its superior value in the construction of furnaces and the manufacture of steel and iron. Mr. Trout shortly after opened a large trade for his sand, and regularly shipped from Landisville station many carloads of it to the great works of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, at Steelton, and other steel and iron works in Central Pennsylvania. . . . Since the death of Jacob S. Trout, in the year 1893, his son, J. M. Trout (who resides in the village of Landisville at the present time) has taken up the silica sand business and has been shipping thousands of tons to different iron workers, as far West as Chicago, Ill., and East to Massachusetts." Compare the wiry borders in the design of this card with those used in the return address on an envelope for Charles S. Frantz, Graduate Ophthalmic Optician, Watchmaker, and Jeweler, Lancaster, Pa.

In 1900, the Sunday schools of churches in Landisville and Salunga, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, organized a trip to Penryn Park, a trolley park that was located about eighteen miles away near Cornwall in Lebanon County (YMCA Camp Shand, a children's summer camp, occupies the park site today). Grand Excursion and Picnic By Landisville and Salunga Sunday-schools, Wednesday, July 25, 1900, Penryn Park. Adults' ticket, 45 cents. Pluck Print.