OVER TWO CENTURYS AND STILL GOING STRONG!

The very first issue of what has become known as The Hagers-Town Town & Country Almanack came off John Gruber's press in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1797. It was originally entitled "Neuer Hagerstauner Calender Stadt und Land" and was produced on the original hand press in the Gruber home and place of business, located on South Potomac Street, on the corner of an alley near the Public Square in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Early editions were printed entirely in German and for many years, were only available in German. In 1822, due to popular demand, an English edition was also printed and this bilingual publication continued for almost one hundred years until 1918, when the German edition of The Almanack was discontinued.

The founder lived in the small, modest one story house that also housed his printing shop. A small garden completed the scene and along with his loving wife, Catherine, daughter of Captain Henry Alles, a prominent officer in the First United States Continental Army, lived and worked there for the rest of his life. The original Gruber’s house was later torn down in 1873 to make way for a more modern building.

Gruber brought four daughters into the world and each would prove, over the years, to be instrumental in maintaining the mission, look, and appeal of the founder’s original publication.

For a number of years, the English edition carried the name ‘American Farmer's Almanack’ and was published under the name of Gruber and May, Daniel May being a printer and bookbinder by trade and also Gruber's son-in-law through his marriage to Rebecca, the second Gruber daughter

After being directly involved for over sixty years with the compilation, editing, and publication of The Almanack, Mr. Gruber passed away at his home on December 29, 1857 in his ninetieth year. For the ensuing seven years, his widow, Catherine assumed the role of editor and publisher, carrying on the publication’s traditions set forth by her husband. She was, in fact, was the very first women to edit and publish an almanac in the United States (recently, The Old Farmer’s Almanac named a woman as editor but The Hagers-town Town & Country Almanack can claim having had a woman as editor for over 150 years prior to that!) Gruber’s other daughters, Wilhelmina and Frederika continued as editors from 1864 to 1886 (with Rebecca’s assistance). Frederika then passed her controlling interest to Charles Gutzlaf Fisher. Though never directly involved with The Almanack, Fisher later passed over his interest to his wife, Margaret Hay Fisher. Margaret became the editor-of record in 1903 though it is believed she had assumed that role several years prior to it being made official. Her son, Charles Worley Fisher continued the tradition until his untimely death in 1935. His wife Emily Kohler Fisher became editor, continuing in that role for 38 years until her death in 1972. Her son, Charles Worley Fisher, Jr then became editor. Charles (having dropped the Jr. after his father’s passing) was editor until his retirement in 2001. His son, Charles W. Fisher, Jr., the great-great-great-great grandson of John Gruber, now edits The Almanack from his home in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Business management for the company also was a responsibility that had been handed down from generation to generation within the same family. In 1910, Mr. W. H. McCardell became the Business Manager for The Almanack, continuing in that capacity for many years until his death. At that time, the responsibility passed to his brother, O.D., who served until 1934. In 1935, Mr. O.D.’s son-in-law, Mr. Frank .S. Leiter handled the business affairs until his retirement in 1959, when his son, Franklin S. Leiter, Jr. and son-in-law, John Hershey, Jr., took over as Sales Manager and Business Manager respectively. John Hershey’s son-in-law, Gerald Spessard then took over as Business Manager in the early 1970s, running the business operation at first and then handling sales and distribution after the recent retirement of Mr. Leiter in 2002). The Hagers-town Town & Country Almanack is truly the most unique in that it is the oldest publication of its kind in America still in the same families of its founder and management!

The Almanack has always relied on individuals who used traditional methods of the day when calculating and conjecturing the weather. Each has used basically the same fundamentals and information with an amazing degree of accuracy, which is all the more astounding when it is considered that their predictions were done over a year in advance. There have been a total of seven Calculators over the past 213 years, the first being Charles Flack (1797-1824). Charles was known locally as the ‘Blacksmith Astronomer’. Other Calculators were Charles F. Egelmann (1825-1861) Lawrence J. Ibach (1862-1888), his son, Will R. Ibach (1889-1918), W.M. Kopenhaver (1919-1929), and William Shoemaker (1930-1969). In 1970, Prof. William E. O'Toole, III, retired computer science professor from Mount St. Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, Maryland began predicting upcoming weather and prepares all of The Almanack’s astronomical calculations. O’Toole attributes his uncanny accuracy to a combination of elements that include using specialized software and computer power to precisely calculate phases of the Moon, close analysis of sunspot activity, and the tracking and noting of El Nino/La Nina cycles. His methods have produced impressive results year after year, even outscoring Farmer’s, Old Farmer’s, and the National Weather Service!

It is interesting to note that during the early years of The Almanack, following the death of its founder, various booksellers around Hagerstown and later, in Baltimore, many who were among the first advertisers also acted as agents for the publication. Sometimes this representation went too far. Self-promoters saw the opportunity to benefit from The Almanack’s growing popularity and soon, several unauthorized versions of The Almanack started appearing across the region, many with the exact same cover graphics and content). After many years of negotiation without reaching agreement with any of the parties, The Gruber Almanack Company finally resorted to legal action. Favorable court decisions provided that all publishers of unauthorized versions shall cease and desist (as an example, see Court of Appeals of Maryland, April Term, 1906, The Gruber Almanack Company vs. Otho Swingley, prohibiting publication or sale of any almanac calculated to deceive an individual into believing that it was an original J. Gruber’s Hagerstown Town &Country Almanack. John Gruber’s original almanac maintained its integrity and established its authenticity and to this day, still directs its readers to always Buy The Genuine - Take No Other.

THE NEW GRUBER ALMANACK, LLC

In 2005 the heirs and shareholders of the Gruber Almanack Company were faced with many challenges. Together with rising costs, major distribution issues, and a declining readership, it was questionable whether or not The Almanack could continue its centuries-old tradition. In mid-2005, long-time partner and former Business Manager of The Almanack, Mr. Jack Hershey, decided to liquidate his holdings in The Gruber Almanack Company and he urged the other heirs and partners to do the same. This action would, in effect, dissolve the company. Faced with ending a long-standing tradition (and 210 years of continuous publication of your favorite almanac!), a decision had to be made whether to accept this as our fate or figure a way to somehow continue.

First, our current Business Manager, Mr. Jerry Spessard took on the Herculean Task of dissolving the old company and as a result of his tireless efforts, The Gruber Almanack Company was officially dissolved in early 2006 and all of its financial responsibilities to Mr. Hershey and to the heirs and many shareholders who owned small shares in the company were met.

Then, together with Mary McCain Wilcox Fisher, widow of the late Charles W. Fisher, editor from 1971 to 2001 and a member of the Gruber family, Prof. William O’Toole, III, The Almanack’s weather prognosticator extraordinaire, Mr. Spessard formed a three-way partnership. In July of 2006, The Gruber Almanack, Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) was officially registered in the State of Maryland.

Not stopping there, Mr. Spessard took a major step to increase our readership by crafting an arrangement with Orgill, Inc., the nation's largest and fastest growing, independently-owned hardware and building supplies distributor (https://www.orgill.com/) to offer The Almanack for sale at many of the retail locations it services across the country. That was soon followed by national distribution agreements with True Value Hardware and CVS. To provide our new readers with weather forecasts that were appropriate for their region, the new partners agreed to include 12-region national weather forecasting for the “Lower Forty Eight”.

Finally, Mr. Spessard suggested to the partners and gained their agreement to publish multiple editions of The Almanack, the first in the Fall (as it has been for many years), one in Winter (December), and then one in the Spring, thus making it available for purchase throughout the entire year.

Our many faithful and loyal readers can rest assured that the almanac they have come to love and appreciate over the past 213 years will still retain its local charm, will include even more information than past editions, and will be around for another 200 years!

THE MAKING OF A TRADITION

Perhaps the longevity and appeal enjoyed by this humble publication is due to the fact that the Hagers-town Town and Country Almanack has remained basically unchanged since its first edition in 1797. Our loyal readers have surely appreciated the little change in appearance or content over the years. In looking through back issues, it is quite apparent that very little changes there have been.

Originally, the German edition had quite an elaborately engraved cover, and the first few English editions duplicated it; in 1826, however, Mr. Gruber first introduced Miss Columbia with the ship, butter churn, and spinning wheel which readers of the Almanack have become familiar with ever since. The only slight change in this cover has been when a red over-print was added to the old-fashioned grape vine border in 1963. Occasionally a small hole has been punched in the upper left hand corner for easy hanging by a string to a convenient hook or nail.

Even the back cover has seen very little change since the introduction of The Long Multiplication Table, an invention of Mr. Gruber's, which first appeared as early as the 1841 issue. Many generations have cut their mathematical eyeteeth on this tree of numbers, as they will continue to do so in the future.

From 1797 until 1965, the size of the Almanack remained the same familiar quarto size instituted by the founder, but in 1966 a slightly smaller more convenient-to-handle format was introduced. Whereas the original publication ran to twenty-nine pages, the current edition is over double in number to 64.

On the inside, very little has changed from the explanation of the constellation characters and astronomical signs, which still appears on the inside front cover, to the frontispiece containing much of the original language of the first edition. The monthly calculation pages are identical in format to those that appeared in 1797 except that they are now in English. In the 2007 edition, the calendar pages were streamlined to make reading easier and eliminating old or unpopular. Opposite the calendar pages, regional weather forecasts were provided for that month (in 2007, regional weather forecasts were placed in the center-most pages making them hard to find).

The Almanack’s weather predictions, with a high degree of accuracy, have come to be main reason for our popularity. As a regional publication, readers could count on dead-on forecasts that were, at times, even more accurate then ones from Farmer’s, Old Farmer’s, and the National Weather Service! One amusing anecdote comes to mind regarding the weather forecast for the inauguration of President Taft in 1909. While all the other forecasters predicted fair weather for that date, The Almanack's expert called for "Rough Weather"; the Almanack won by a blizzard. We have even predicted snow on Easter in 1924, and, sure enough, there were hailstones the size of walnuts. The story about our predicting snow for the Fourth of July one year and its actually snowing has so far proved apocryphal, but we're still digging back into the records for verification as of this publication date.

The phases of the moon are still listed in the same manner as they were in 1797, and the conjecture of the weather that appears for each month continues to be a feature since first included back in 1830. In 1850, the Tables for Prognostication of the Weather were first passed on to our readers, as they have been ever since.

Closely associated with each month of the year are the quaint old-fashioned scenes depicting early farm life. Originally printed from woodcuts painstakingly carved by hand, these unusual bits of Americana made their entrance in 1836 and have appeared in each subsequent issue.

In many respects, the publication of J. Gruber Hagerstown Town & Country Almanack is a family tradition, one that our readers have come to rely on for generations and generations. As we look forward to the next century, we trust that that our stewardship of this Gruber heritage will continue to live up to the founder’s motto, “By Industry We Thrive” .It is our mission to continue the tradition that our founder started so long ago by providing useful information and inspiration for everyday living, survival tactics for the 21st Century, and entertaining articles and original poetry. It is our hope that he can look down upon each new issue of his beloved Hagers-Town Town & Country Almanack and smile approvingly!