Millheim Journal Archive

In 1764, James Potter, a captain in the colonial milita, explored the lands of the future Centre County in Pennsylvania whose rich soil and abundant natural resources would soon attract waves of German immigrants to the county’s eastern region. These were primarily High (Fancy) Germans from southern Germany and, if religious at all, were Lutheran or Reformed--not to be confused with the Low (Plain) Germans of Mennonite, Amish, and Brethren persuasions.

Named for its location in the middle of Pennsylvania, Centre County was created on February 13, 1800, out of Huntingdon, Lycoming, Mifflin, and Northumberland counties. What became Millheim had a road by 1771, and two mills were built on nearby Elk Creek by the 1780s. Anglo-German for "home of the mill," "Millheim" also may allude to several German mill towns named Mühlheim. Solidly Democratic, Millheim had 577 inhabitants in 1880, prospering with small factories and rail access, becoming a business center for miles around.

The Millheim Journal originated in 1827 in Aaronsburg, a mile west of Millheim, as Der Centre Berichter ("The Centre Reporter"). Philip Stover bought the paper in 1870 and moved it to Millheim, selling it in 1873 to George Washington Foote. By the time Foote sold the Berichter in 1876 to Alfred Walter and Benjamin O. Deininger, the Millheim Journal had assumed its new title and comprised two German and two English pages. In 1876, Deininger's daughter married Robert A. Bumiller, who was born in Munich and who came to Millheim in 1873. Bumiller had worked for Foote on the Berichter, then later on the Bellefonte Republican in the county seat. Bumiller returned to Millheim in 1876 as the Berichter's German editor.

On January 4, 1877, Bumiller’s editorial said that the paper’s bilingual format would continue, noting that "In many, if not in most families, where it pays its weekly visits, the older members read the German part and the young folks the English." Page 1 was headed The Millheim Journal with Das Journal on the first German page. But on July 24, 1879, Bumiller had startling news: henceforth, the Journal would appear entirely in English. The July 31 issue explained that Centre County Judge John Orvis had recently ruled that "the Journal as heretofore published was not a German paper 'in the sense of the law'...the effect...is to deprive the Journal of all legal advertising, and wipe it out of existence as a German paper."

Thus the Journal became, "with unfeigned regret," an English-only newspaper. Bumiller continued, "It may be neither fashionable nor popular to say so, but we do most strongly and decidedly declare that we are German - by birth, instinct and education, and that if we cannot retain the language we will try to remain true to the genius and spirit of our fathers." He asked "our old German friends" to remain loyal, as "There are but few families in which there is not some one that can read English." Plus, on the practical side, he noted, "the price has been reduced to one dollar." The Millheim Journal continued until 1983, when it combined with the Centre Democrat.