B03 Borough of Columbia, Pennsylvania USA 1788

NOTICE: The subscriber, desirous to avoid being associated with those heartrending scenes and unrighteous persecutions, that was directed against the colored population of this borough in the month of August last, was induced on the 19th day of the following month, (September) to publish in the “Columbia Spy,” and the “Lancaster Journal,” the following advertisement viz:

I offer my entire stock of lumber, either wholesale or retail, at a reduced price, as I am determined to close my business at Columbia…. Any person desirous of entering into the lumber trade extensively can have the entire stock at a great bargain; or persons intending to open yards along the line of the railroad, or builders, will find it to their advantage too call on me or my agent at my yard, as I am desirous of disposing of the above as soon as possible.    

Now upwards of six months have elapsed, and I have not been favored with an opportunity of completing my original design. I do, therefore, under the guidance of a benign Providence, and with renewed confidence in the integrity and virtue of my fellow-citizens, make known to my patrons and the public generally, not only in the county of Lancaster, but Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere, that I shall continue to prosecute my business with usual vigor, and will be ready on every occasion, to execute all orders in my line with promptness and dispatch.    

P.S. - I do most cheerfully return my hearty thanks to my customers for the very liberal patronage I have always received, but more specially for their favors during that eventful period of excitement. For never before has there been a time when I could place such a just estimation on the value of friends.

— Stephen Smith, “Columbia Spy,” 1835

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