About Grit: America's Greatest Family Newspaper

In addition to the national Sunday edition, Grit of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, also recorded local timely events and celebrated family and community through good times and bad. Many of its stories and photographs are endearing and touching portraits that have chronicled the region’s progress and misfortune.

One of thousands of delivery boys for Grit

The newspaper began as a Saturday supplement of Williamsport’s Daily Sun and Banner, published in 1882. It was a short-lived venture and in 1884, Dietrick Lamade bought the enterprise. Lamade, a German immigrant and self-made man, then turned Grit into one of the miracles of modern publishing.

Lamade was born February 6, 1859 in Goelshausen, Germany, one of nine children of Johannes Dietrick and Caroline Lamade. His family moved to Williamsport in 1867, and on January 1, 1869, Johannes Lamade died from typhoid fever. At the age of ten, Dietrick Lamade, along with his older brothers and sister, quit school to support the family. He worked as an errand boy for several years before joining the offices of Beobachter, a local German-language publication

At the age of eighteen, Lamade ventured into publishing. During the holiday season of 1877, he produced several issues of the Merchants’ Free Press, a four-page advertising pamphlet. Later, he published a theater program, and in the summer of 1880, while the Pennsylvania National Guard bivouacked in Williamsport, he published a small paper called the Camp News.

In 1882, Lamade went to work for the Daily Sun and Banner as its advertising compositor and assistant composing room foreman. There, he typeset the first masthead for Grit. Two years later, he left the Sun and Banner to help revive the Times, a weekly publication that was scheduled to become a daily. Its owner, however, lacked the money to carry out this plan and the paper folded.

Lamade lost his job. At the age of 25, he had had a wife and two children to support. He later said that he knew this would be the opportunity of his life. He persuaded two men to invest in his idea and then bought the Grit name from the Sun and Banner to use for his new publication. He also bought the equipment from the Times.

The first year was one of adversity and uncertainty. The publication owed more than it was worth and seven business partners came and went. Despite these hardships, Lamade did not lose faith. He knew that he had to improve circulation (then about 1,500) if the paper was to survive. Lamade decided to lure new subscribers with contests and drawings. He printed coupons in his newspaper offering readers chances to win such prizes as a piano, a gold watch, a marble-topped bedroom suite, a rifle, and a silk dress. His partners thought his ideas were impractical and costly; one threw up his hands in horror at the idea of more debts, and announced that he was through with the enterprise. Lamade’s motto was “Difficulties show what men are.” Undeterred, he enlisted his younger brother as a new partner.

Lamade traveled throughout Northcentral Pennsylvania, using a lottery to stimulate statewide circulation of Grit. He convinced many small store owners and news agents to carry the publication. He tacked fliers to buildings, fences and trees, and hired boys to deliver circulars to all the homes in the region. After his week on the road, he returned to the paper’s office and slept on a folding cot to ensure that his publication would be shipped to out-of-town agents on Saturday mornings, and that the Williamsport edition was ready for Sunday morning deliveries. Lamade’s tireless efforts more than doubled circulation and helped to stabilize Grit’s finances. He saved the newspaper.

In 1886, Grit boasted a weekly circulation of 14,000, and all of its bills were paid in cash. With a $400 surplus, Lamade and his partners shook hands, patted themselves on their backs, and gave themselves raises from $12 to $15 a week. They bought new equipment and moved to a better office. By 1887, circulation reached 20,000 and the partners ordered their first newspaper perfecting press at a price tag of $8,000.

In 1891, Grit and its 40 employees moved again into a new building at the corner of William and West Third streets. Circulation averaged 53,000 copies weekly in most states east of the Mississippi. Lamade began using direct mail and hired newsboys throughout the country to sell the paper. By the start of 20th century, circulation reached 100,000, then tripled by 1916. By the late 1970s, its circulation was more than 1.2 million.

Lamade never intended to print negative news or compete with metropolitan dailies or national magazines. He wanted only to serve small towns and villages removed from the influences of big cities. “If I have succeeded,” Lamade once said, “it is because I have concentrated on one thing.” He read his newspaper each week with a critical eye and always encouraged optimism. “Make every issue of Grit ring the joy bells of life,” was his sage advice.

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