Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Jacob Miller Willis GEIST
Source: Biographical Annals of Lancaster CO., Pa., 1903 by J. H. Beers & Co., page 88-90.
J. M. W. GEIST, was born in Part township, Lancaster county, Dec. 14, 1824, and inherited the marked characteristics and strong intellectuality of his German and Scotch-Irish ancestors. In his early youth the country subscription schools were his only means of obtaining an education. Inspired by ambition, and carried forward by his energy, he was a diligent student, and early displayed a receptive mind at the age of sixteen he began to teach school in the very room where he had been a student, and followed that occupation successfully for several years. In the meantime he was induced to take up the study of medicine, although his inclinations were in the direction of the printer's art. For three years teaching school and the study of medicine occupied his attention. Then he went to Philadelphia to attend medical lectures, but in the end, not finding the work congenial, he abandoned it, and drifted into a printing office to pursue the vocation of his early preference. His leisure hours meanwhile had been spent in contributing articles in both prose and verse to the newspaper press. This developed a natural love for literary composition; and, following the natural bent of his mind, he soon drifted into journalism.
Mr. Geist began his professional career in July, 1844, as the editor and publisher of the Reformer, a temperance journal published first in Lancaster and afterward in Harrisburg, Pa., as the American Reformer and State Temperance Organ. He also edited the Yeoman, an independent Democratic campaign paper published in the latter city, and in 1847, he was at work on the Pennsylvanian, in Philadelphia, as assistant news editor. His next change was to a literary journal, Lippard's Quaker City, of which he is assistant editor. At the same tune he was doing duty on the Evening Argus, both papers being controlled by the same ownership. The suspension of these brought him to the Sunday Globe, on which paper he succeeded the late Dr. Thomas Dunn English as editor. Under his vigorous control the Globe was instrumental in driving the notorious impostor and swindler, Roback, from the city, its circulation running up froth 1,000 to 20,000. Later Mr. Geist became editor and one of the proprietors of the Sunday Mercury, but not being able to reconcile Sunday newspaper publishing with his obligations as a churchman he sought a more congenial ocupation. In his earlier days he had been a frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Express, of Lancaster, and upon the invitation of the proprietor he disposed of his interest in the Mercury, and removed to Lancaster to take charge of the editorial columns of that journal. There his successful and influential career has been carried forward. His removal took place in 1852, and in 1856 he purchased a half interest in the paper and began the issue of a daily edition. The Express quickly became the most influential paper in the great county of Lancaster, and Mr. Geist's reputation as a writer of vigorous idiomatic English rapidly extended throughout Pennsylvania.
Mr. Geist, while a Whig in politics, had not been active in political affairs up to this time. But events were now transpiring which turned his journalistic career in that direction and served to make him a power in the party with which he united his fortunes. The Whig party was no more. Where should its members go? Mr. Buchanan's candidacy became an issue. Although a resident of Lancaster, few Whigs, save intimate personal friends, supported him. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise and "Free Kansas" became issues. Thaddeus Stevens lived in Lancaster, and his well known anti-slavery views had permeated the public conscience. Who should oppose Mr. Buchanan? John McLean was spoken of, and he was the choice of Mr. Stevens. Public sentiment seemed to incline toward a new man as well as new principles. Mr. Geist, in a series of powerful editorials, demanded a new order of things. But his constituency was overconservative. and for a time unwilling to break away from their political traditions. He urged prominent Whigs to issue a call for a county convention. The party had split into two factions, the "Woolly heads," under the leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, and the "Silver Greys" led by Edw. C. Darlington, editor of the Examiner. Each mistrusted the other, and as a consequence neither was ready to take the initiative. Thrown back upon himself, Mr. Deist cut the Gordian knot by drawing up the following call, which appeared at the head of his editorial column for the first time on May 27, 1856:
"The citizens of Lancaster county, without regard to past differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; to the policy of the present rational admininstration; to the extension of slavery in the territories, and to the subjugation of the freemen of Kansas by the invasion of armed mobs from Missouri, encouraged in their lawless acts by the connivance of the Federal authorities; who are in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free State, and of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, are hereby requested to meet in Fulton Hall, in the city of Lancaster, on Saturday, May 31, 1856, at 10 o'clock A. M., to appoint three delegates to represent this Congressional District in the rational convention, which will assemble in Philadelphia on the l7th of June next, for the purpose of recommending candidates to be supported for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States. MANY CITIZENS."
The "Many Citizens" was a fiction, the entire program having been engineered by Mr. Geist, with two intimate friends, comparatively unknown in po1itics. In accordance with that call the county meeting was held on the day named, and the old political leaders were surprised at the large attendance. Benjamin Herr, Esq., a prominent member of the Bar, was president, and Ellwood Griest, and Dr. George Markley were secretaries. A committee was appointed to name delegates to the National convention, and the men were appointed, Thaddeus Stevens, who concluded at a late hour to participate in the proceedings, was one of those sent to the National convention, and Mr. Geist one of the delegationn sent to the State conventions. Strong resolutions breathing the spirit of the call were passed and, on motion of Mr. Stevens, a committee was appointed to confer with committees of other parties who were opposed to the extension of slavery, with a view to "forming a Union American Republican Party." Thus was the Republican party in Lancaster county born and christened, and such was the part Mr. Deist more at the accouchement. A few weeks later the Lancaster City Fremont Club was organized, with A. S. Henderson as president, and F. R. Diffenderffer, as secretary, and the new party was ready for business. From that time the stirring editorials of Mr. Geist were a powerful factor in having deep and strong the foundations of the party-foundations that are to-day as strong in the affections of the people of the county as when they first shouted for "Fremont and Freedom."
When the Civil war at last came along and burst in fury over the country no pen was more busy in upholding the cause of the Nation than Mr. Geist's. It was an inspiration as well as a clarion note, and every movement maintaining the Nation's sovereignty and for the relief of the sick and the wounded had his most earnest support. He never wavered and he never doubted, and the fervent spirit of patriotism that marked all his utterances, as they are recorded in his editorial columns, was far reaching in its effect throughout the State.
In 1876 the Express was merged into the Examiner, and Mr. Geist became the editor of the consolidated journal. A difference between himself and the publisher in regard to the policy of the paper caused him to retire in a few months, and in conjunction with ex-State Senator John B. Warfel he started The New Era, which almost at a bound sprang to the front rank in the journalism of the State, where it stands to-day. Its success was as decided as it was immediate, and outside of the big journals of the metropolis there is no newspaper in Pennsylvania that has a more devoted clientage or wields a stronger influence within its territory.
Mr. Geist has persistently refused to accept or be a candidate for public office, holding that any salaried political position must detract from an editor's freedom and independence. He was twice offered the best local federal positions by members of Congress who were grateful for services his journal had rendered them, and once a lucrative position in the custom house at Philadelphia by a senator, on partly personal and partly political grounds. The only public position he ever held was that of a Harrison elector, in 1892. He was active in the re-organization of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was chairman of the committee which selected and installed the library of that institution, and chairman of the committee which organized the series of excursions by which the money was raised to purchase the books. He has been chairman of the local board of visitors of the State Board of Charities for several years, and author of a report urging certain reforms in prison administration, notably divorcing it from partisan politics, which was highly commended by the State Board. His sincerity is perhaps one of his most striking characteristics. Millions would not tempt him to advocate a cause that he did not believe to be moral or deserving.
Mr. Geist is prominent as a churchman. He was intimately associated with the late Bishop Samuel Bowman in the founding of St. John's Free Church, Lancaster, the pioneer free church in that diocese, and has been a member and secretary of the vestry for forty-six years, and warden for the past twenty-one years. In 1873 he wrote and published, for the use of the congregation, a history of the parish, and has just completed (1902) a revised and enlarged edition, handsomely illustrated with portraits of the ministers who have officiated at St. John's and views of the church edifice, which is regarded as the hand somest and most complete Parish History that has been produced.
Mr. Geist was married in 1850 to Miss Elizabeth M. Markley, daughter of the late Dr. George Markley. She died in 1892. They had eight children, four of whom, three sons and one daughter, died young. Four daughters survive: Mrs. John M. Newbold and Mrs. Samuel S. Martin, of Lancaster; Mrs. Dr. J. Paul Lukens, of Wilmington, Del.; and Miss Emma, at home. F. R. D.
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
Return to The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website.
The information in this database may contain errors. If you find any questionable data, or if you have something to add my findings, please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "E-MAIL" link above. Thank you!
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.21 ©2009 on 07 July 2020