One of Elizabethton’s oldest businesses has been sold — Fitzsimmons Printing Co.
The real estate transfer was registered this past week at the Carter County Register of Deeds Office. The owner, Millard Fitzsimmons, Jr., sold the property and building contents to William G. Soller and his daughter, Melissa Soller, of Elizabethton.
Fitzsimmons, who will be 92 in June, has been a resident of Cornerstone Assisted Living in Johnson City for several months. He continued to operate the family printing business up until a couple of years ago.
“I spent a lifetime in the printing business. I began working in the business when I was just a boy, but there’s a time for everything, and it was time to get rid of it,” said Fitzsimmons.
Both he and his father, Millard, Sr., worked at the Elizabethton Star, when it was located in a building on the corner of Elk Avenue and Main Street.
“My dad quit his job at the STAR to begin the family business. In the beginning we were located upstairs over the old A&P Grocery, when it was on Elk Avenue. Later we operated from our house on Grove Street. We moved to the present building after I returned home from World War II,” said Fitzsimmons.
According to records at the Register of Deeds office, Mrs. Florence Fitzsimmons, mother of Millard, Jr., purchased the property Jan. 13, 1943, when it was placed into receivership by the court. It was formerly owned by the Watauga Development Co., and when the company went bankrupt, its holdings were placed into receivership and ordered sold by the court.
According to the deed, Mrs. Fitzsimmons purchased the property for $125 and arranged to pay for it with three promissory notes — the first for $41.66 due in six months, and the second and third for $41.67 each, due six months after the first and second payments.
“My parents had the building constructed on the lot and we were a thriving business for many years. At one time we employed three or four persons in addition to my father and me. My mother kept the books and worked a lot in the business as did my brother, Charles,” Fitzsimmons said.
He noted that the business had several small letter presses and one big shoulder press on which booklets were printed.
“Back when we were in the printing business, we had to do it the hard way. There were no computers. It was a different kind of art then and called for skill,” explained Fitzsimmons. “Almost anyone can take a computer and design and print letterheads, invitations, and the kind of printing that we did at one time.”
Fitzsimmons, Jr. came from a family of printers dating back to his great-grandfather, W.R. Fitzsimmons, who in 1876 founded The Mountaineer, a weekly Elizabethton newspaper. W.R. published the The Mountaineer for nearly a quarter of a century before selling it in 1902 to J.N. Edens and George Boren.
The “Mountaineer” was described by W.R. as “strictly Republican in its politics.”
Later his sons, Charles, W.R., Jr. and James G., would continue the printing tradition by publishing another weekly newspaper, the Carter County Banner, a forerunner of the Elizabethton Star.
Millard, Sr. worked in the newspaper business from the age of seven until July 1946, when he left his position at the STAR as composing room foreman to begin the family business.
Millard, Jr., when he worked at the STAR, designed advertisements. “We did it the old way then with metal and linotype,” he shared.
“I enjoyed the printing business. It provided us with a good living and a means of giving back to the community,” Millard, Jr. said.
Millard, Sr. died in 1983. He was well-known in the community and for many years got together the Christmas parade. “It was a fun thing for him,” his son said.
Millard, Jr. noted that long before he did his last printing job, business had dwindled. “Most of our customers had died, and computers had taken over,” he said.
“I have no complaints. I have lived a long and good life and enjoyed many successes,” he concluded.
In addition to the printing business, Fitzsimmons was active in the community and a long-time member of the First Christian Church, where he served as an elder.
His brother, Charles, was a teacher at Elizabethton High School and minister for 25 years at Gap Creek Christian Church.
The Sollers purchased the building and lot for $16,000. “From what I understand they plan to use the building to refinish furniture,” Millard, Jr. said.
About the printing presses and other equipment, it is obsolete. “You could say the pieces are antiques, now,” Fitzsimmons said.
One thing for sure. The ink still run deeps in Millard Fitzsimmons’ blood.