1874 York Daily: Is it worth anything?
The York Daily, York County’s first daily newspaper, as it appeared four years after its founding in 1870. Background posts: Solomon Meyer ‘forsook the publishing business and betook himself elsewhere’, York cartoonist’s work helps celebrate peace activism and Newspaper’s founding date hard to pin down and York County, Pa., reader does detective work on The Gazette and Daily’s Boys and Girls newspaper .
Carl Wire brought a framed copy of the York Daily to the newsroom of successor York Daily Record/Sunday News this week.
If the papers sound alike, there’s a reason. The Daily Record drew its name from the York Daily and the York Legal Record after J.W. Gitt retired his nameplate and alter ego The Gazette and Daily in 1970.
Anyway, Ken Wire, Carl’s father, for years had displayed the newspaper in his Comfort Barber Shop in York and also in a second shop in Warrington Township.
Carl had a simple question. Is it worth anything?…
My answer: It’s not worth much, but it’s too valuable to throw away.
Copies of the York Daily can be found around, and that 1874 edition did not report on a significant news event. My guess is that the York County Heritage Trust would accept the newspaper for its files. Then Carl and his taxman would have to decide his ability to deduct his donation as a charitable gift.
Anyone interested in talking with Carl about that particular newspaper is welcome to call 717-783-8088.
Meanwhile, here’s a brief bio of the York Daily as found in my “Never to be Forgotten.”
1870: York
Paper changes over years
The York Daily, the county’s first daily newspaper, starts publication. The Daily attempts to steer a middle ground between the Republicans and Democrats, a change from the usual partisan approach to producing a local newspaper. The Daily does not have the staying power of The York Dispatch and The York Gazette, later its daily competitors. The Dispatch purchased The Daily in 1904. The Gazette bought the newspaper from its competitor, The Dispatch, in 1918 and became known as The York Gazette and Daily. The Daily’s name re-emerged in 1970, when new owners of the former York Gazette named their paper, the York Daily Record. The Record came from the York Legal Record, previously published by The York Gazette and still in operation today.
