10 Years Ago

Thursday’s Record Express
September 19, 1996

• New Lititz Library - Add a decade of planning, a dozen proposed locations and lots of fund-raising, and you’ve got the equation for a new public library.

Of course, nothing is final until Warwick Township officials approve a site plan, which is currently in the works, but on Sept. 9 board members of the Lititz Public Library culminated a laborious search for the ideal place for a 15,000 square foot building by approving three-acres of land at the Siegrist Farm along Kissel Hill Road.

The new library, which could be up and running as early as next year, will replace the space-deficient house at 302 S. Broad St. that has sheltered books for the borough since 1965.

• Traffic Woes - A solution to traffic woes along Route 501 and Route 72 is not realistic in this century.

But planners are busy presenting various options to the public in hopes of getting feedback as to what local residents want or expect.

The process started Sept. 12 and the study area includes the boroughs of Lititz, Manheim, East Petersburg, plus Warwick, Manheim, Elizabeth, Penn, Rapho and East Hempfield townships.

One engineering firm reports that Route 501 is the most heavily traveled road in the study area, with as many as 25,000 vehicles per day.

• Dosie Dough Bakery - Despite the office/professional designation of 45 S. Broad St., the Zoning Hearing Board voted three to two in favor of allowing Marsha Baron to open a retail bakery at the former Lee’s photography studio.
Dosie Dough, which will feature a unique variety of fresh European breads and pastries, is expected to open near the end of October.

20 Years Ago

Thursday’s Record Express
September 18, 1986

• Hot Topics - In a Sept. 15 “man-on-the-street” interview, the Record Express asked local people two questions: What they think about the proposed bypass around Lititz? and What do you think about housing development in the borough and surrounding townships?

Larry Gemmell on the bypass: “Send it back to the drawing boards.”

John Buzzard on the bypass: “I think it’s long overdue.”
Fannie Ressler on development: “They may be going a little fast.”

Stanley Honig on development: “It’s inevitable.”

• LCC Opposes Bypass - On September 17, members of the Lititz Community Center steering committee unanimously passed a resolution opposing the bypass through the center of what it termed a community recreation area.

The resolution proposed by Chairman Dick Nuffort declared that the committee “wishes to go on record opposing the concept of a bypass or two-lane roadway through the property of the proposed new rec center and that it is opposed irrespective of whether the rec center is located there or not.”

• Soccer Team Undefeated - The Warwick soccer team continues to forge an impressive record. Last week the booters downed three opponents to run their unbeaten record to five victories.

30 Years Ago

Thursday’s Record Express
September 23, 1976

• Glenn McElroy Retires - June 8, 1940. Does that date mean anything to you?

Probably not; but it was the day, a Saturday, that Glenn McElroy opened his pharmacy at 100 E. Main St. and started a business that was to become an established part of the Lititz scene.

September 30, 1976. Thirty-six years later, McElroy will release the reins of the business, and his partner, Dale Shelley, will take over.

McElroy says he might help out when needed, but his retirement plans reveal a full schedule of events, including golfing, antique-hunting, and lots and lots of traveling.

• Remodeled Lititz El - The newly remodeled Lititz Elementary School building will be dedicated during a special program Sunday, Oct. 3, at 2 p.m.

The $1.35 million project was done in two stages: the first started in the summer of 1975 and the second followed.

• Musical Merv Sands - Lititz’s Merv Sands has been cast in the three-act musical, “A Man Called Peter,” to be presented by Maranatha Productions Inc. at the Evangelical School of Theology Oct. 8-9 at 7:30 p.m.

Sands, 193 Millport Road, is the well-known TV host of “The Magic Cacoon” and “Happy Face.” He will play the role of Sen. James Knox Polk.

40 Years Ago

Thursday’s Record Express
September 22, 1966

• Prayer in School Editorial - The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee has now conducted hearings on the proposed constitutional amendment to allow voluntary prayers in the public schools. If nothing else, the hearings have provided a lot of confusion on the part of some citizens as to the meaning and purpose of the “principle of separation of church and state,” which is manifest in the First Amendment. Designed to prevent establishment of an “official” church, and any other political interference with religious freedom, that First Amendment is now being interpreted to mean that religious beliefs should be prohibited from display in all public or governmental institutions; in other words, religious practices must be confined to churches.

To a certain extent that the same interpretation is evident in the Supreme Court ruling of June 1962 which made necessary this present proposal of a new constitutional amendment on the matter of religious freedom. For since that ruling, Senator Strom Thurmond (Republican of South Carolina) has recently pointed out: “Freedom is a one way street. Children in the public schools are free not to pray, but they are not free to pray even if they want to. This is freedom from religion, and not freedom of religion.”

• Kissel Hill School - The Warwick School Board reached a compromise agreement with Hogan Homes Tuesday night to purchase for $75,000 the land on which the Kissel Hill School is being built.

50 Years Ago

Thursday’s Record Express
September 20, 1956

• New High School Opens - Growing pains of the expanding Lititz community stabbed again this week when the new Warwick High School opened its doors and the traffic route to the school, West Orange Street, was closed.

The pair of circumstances will result in the shifting of original plans in transporting and dropping off students in the high school when it begins full sessions next week.
Meanwhile, school authorities asked parents who transport their children not to pull their cars into the driveways of the schools in order not to hamper the school buses.

• Park Restoration - A subcommittee charged with finding a workable plan for Elmer Bobst’s $100,000 park restoration fund is optimistic in the belief that they have formulated a plan to satisfy all townspeople. However, Wilbur B. Miller, chairman of the subcommittee, said details of the plan would not be made public until the general committee headed by Dr. H. K. Cooper could sit down and look them over.

• Smallest Show on Earth - One of the most popular attractions at last night’s opening of the farm show was the miniature mechanical circus which apparently is an authentic reproduction of the famous Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus. The entire 150 acrobats, clowns, animals, etc. are hand-carved and valued at $10,000.

60 Years Ago

Thursday’s Record Express
September 19, 1946

• Meatless Weekend - A meatless week-end far worse than anything experienced during the war was in store for Lititz this week with prospects that local slaughterers and meat store proprietors, who closed down last week-end, will remain out of business for an indefinite period.

Branding present O.P.A. regulations as “impossible to live up to,” two of the local slaughterers closed their doors for the first time in more than half a century.

They are Edwin Markley, of Lexington, who estimated that the present shut-down is the first in more than eighty years, in which the business has been in continuous operation; and Benjamin F. Lutz, this borough, who declared the shut-down to be his first in a total of sixty-five years of continuous operation.

“This is not a strike nor is it an effort to raise the price of meat to the retailer,” Mr. Markley asserted. “The whole question is one of being permitted to legally purchase live cattle at a price which will permit us to remain legally in business.”

• War Memorial Meeting - A mass meeting to discuss a war memorial for Lititz will be held at the High School Auditorium October 17. The public of Lititz will be invited to express ideas.

An added feature of the meeting will be a concert by the Lititz High School Band conducted by Henry J. Steiner.

• Hawk Mountain Excursion - A 40-inch rattlesnake proved to be the unexpected feature of the annual visit to Hawk Mountain by the members of the Lititz Bird Club. After the snake had been viewed by everyone, it was released inasmuch as all animal life is protected within the boundaries of the sanctuary.

While visibility was excellent, lack of wind currents reduced the number of hawks viewed to only 75.
Persons stationed at the sanctuary declared that a total of 1,200 hawks had passed during the three days previous.

70 Years Ago

Thursday Morning’s Record
Sept. 24, 1936

• New Brunnerville School - The new Brunnerville school building, which was under construction this summer, is expected to open the first week in October.

There are five classrooms with movable desks. Each room will seat about 40 pupils from grades one to eight.
The following teachers have been assigned to the school: Mrs. Roy Doster, first and second grades; Miss Anna Bomberger, second and third grades; Miss Hazel Esslinger, fourth and fifth grades; Miss Irene Keener, sixth and seventh grades; and Mr. John Moore, seventh and eighth grades.

• Brunnerville Reunion - The first reunion of the Brunnerville School was held Saturday with 300 former teachers, pupils and friends attending.

Norman Risser, a former pupil, now teaching in Nutley, N.J., was chairman; and F. Earl Landis, music supervisor of the Warwick schools, directed the singing. Former teachers gave talks.

Prizes were awarded to Mrs. Doster, of town, the oldest teacher present; Mr. Sheetz, of Lancaster, the oldest pupil present; and Mrs. Kathryn Flory Dainty, of Texas, the person coming the greatest distance.
Another reunion will be held in 1937.

• Lititz Democrats - Warren Van Dyke, State Secretary of Highways, urged every member of the Democratic party to do his or her own little campaign job to perfection to insure victory in the November election, in a talk at a large rally of the Lititz Democratic Club in Malta Hall, Tuesday night.
Van Dyke also praised the work of the state and national administrations and urged voters to stand in back of both Earle and Roosevelt.

80 Years Ago

Thursday Morning’s Record
Sept. 23, 1926

• Pigeon Race - A homing pigeon owned by Dr. M. H. Yoder of Lititz, in a pigeon race by the Red Rose Pigeon Club of Lancaster, won second honor in the 100 mile fly.

The pigeons were liberated at 8:15 a.m. at Manassas, Va. and Dr. Yoder’s bird arrived here at 11:10 a.m., an airline distance of 109 miles. The bird averaged 1,156.42 yards a minute. The race was for birds raised this year, and Dr. Yoder’s bird was five months old.

• Big Bout - By this time Jack Dempsey, World’s champion heavy-weight, and Gene Tunney, challenger, are in Philadelphia all ready to step in the ring at the Sesqui Grounds for the title bout to-night.

Who’ll win? Dempsey seems to be a 2 to 1 favorite over Tunney, but Tunney is confident that he will leave the ring the new champion.

Hear the big bout over the radio at Jacob Kling’s Electric Shop on Broad street. Several other places in town will have outdoor loud speakers for the benefit of the public.

• Mayor Travels North - Burgess Norman Badorf will leave Friday by auto for Canada, where Mrs. Badorf has been spending five weeks at a camp with a party of friends. Mrs. Badorf has gone there for the past several summers.

• Corn Roast at the Spring - A corn roast under the auspices of the Moravian Bible class was held on the Spring Grounds on Monday evening. Besides corn, hot doggies and roasted marshmallows were served. An orchestra furnished music. It was a delightful event. Over 100 persons were present.

90 Years Ago

Thursday Morning’s Record
September 22, 1916

• Miss Sally of Halfville - Services of a most interesting nature were held on Sunday afternoon at the home of Miss Sally Rudy, the blind nonagenarian at Halfville, in honor of her 96th birthday, which occurred on Thursday of last week, Sept. 14. Hers has been an interesting history.

For many years she and two sisters did all the work on the little farm. They worked like boys, and were known as the “Rudy Men.”

One day Sally was splitting wood when a chip flew into her eye and caused her to be deprived of the sight in one eye. The other eye failed in consequence and has left her blind for forty years, although not helpless.

The other sisters died and Sally is all alone in this world, but she also has many friends who remember her kindness and thoughtfulness in the days of her youth and prime.

Her little farm of eight acres is titled by Levi Eckert, and Mrs. Eckert takes care of her. But the income is scanty and leaves no money for improvements or repairs, hence her friends occasionally make donations, as on her birthday anniversary when she received $17.75 in cash.
The services have become an annual custom.

100 Years Ago

Friday Morning’s Record
September 21, 1906

• Telling Reynolds’ Tale - From Lititz, the “Topton Orphans” excursion to Gettysburg is expecting a big crowd. They are proud of the record we made last year.

Col. James A. Long, the last man of many who were on the firing line, will be at his best and will tell the battle where Reynolds fell on the first day, and when Hancock was wounded at the High Water Mark, and when 500 Confederates fell under General Longstreet and the gallant Pickett.

• Small Schools - The ideal small school in Penn Township, the Locust Grove, is exceeded in littleness this year by the Chickies School. The enrollment of the two is said to be thirteen.

• Milk Protest - There have been rumors that milk is to be raised to eight cents a quart and consumers voice a protest.

• Vaccination Debate - There are still some parents who refuse to vaccinate their school children.

110 Years Ago

Friday Morning’s Record
September 18, 1896

• Local Tidbits - The Moravian personage will be heated by a combination of hot water and hot air. J. L. Huber will furnish the apparatus and do the work.

Birney Oehme has opened a five-cent barber shop in the basement of Zook’s bookstore.

Andrew Dunlap sold his residence at Kissel Hill and will shortly build a home at the trolley station, rolling the station back and using it for a kitchen, and using part of the new building as a waiting station. This is the first house to be erected on the hill for seventeen years.
Haydn Ringer feels older now since he became the father of a daughter, who is a welcome arrival in the family as well as in the Hotel Sturgis.

Advertisement: “The Old Rome Distillery near Lititz. This old established distillery which came into my possession April 1st, shall be maintained to its highest standard as formerly for the distilling of genuine PURE RYE WHISKEY. I also have old liquor on hand at all times, and can furnish it by the gallon or barrel, at prices according to age. I have it from $1.75 to $3.50 per gallon.” - S.B. Erb.

120 Years Ago

Friday Morning’s Record
September 24, 1886

• Civil War Veterans - Wednesday the veterans of the late war held their first reunion in Lancaster city. They had a parade in which over 1000 men participated, in which the Lititz post was represented with 36 men headed by the Rothsville band.

The rink was handsomely trimmed with flags, and in the centre was a large steel engraving of General Grant.
The veterans sat down to four tremendous long tables, which extended nearly the whole length of the large room and accommodated 400 men each. The veterans were each supplied with a tin plate and cup and knife and fork. The chief article for dinner was bean soup.

• Remember the Editor - Mr. Edwin Holl, of Warwick, on Monday evening dropped into the Record office sanctum with a box of large black raspberries and four specimens of the genuine good old-fashioned smokehouse apples, which he presented to the editor. Mr. Holl has our sincere thanks.
Research for Out of the Past is compiled weekly by Record Express editor Stephen Seeber staff writer Michael Yoder. Much of the style and information reported is written as it appeared in its original form.
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