Measer family celebrates a century of journalism
by DAVID F. SHERMAN Managing Editor
One hundred years ago this week, a dedicated printer took a risk by buying the local newspaper from the family that started it.

George J. Measer purchased The Amherst Bee from the widow of Adam Rinewalt, the man who founded it on March 27, 1879.

Rinewalt died in 1902. Then on March 18, 1907, The Bee was purchased by Measer and remains in the same family today.

Measer headed the company until his death in 1965. At that time, his son, George J. Measer Jr., assumed control of the company and began a series of acquisitions and moves which eventually created a group of nine weekly newspapers.

His brother, Robert Measer, was editor of The Amherst Bee from 1936 until his death in 1963.

Measer, famous for his bow tie, was publisher until his son, Trey, succeeded him upon his retirement on Jan. 1, 1994. Trey's son Michael, circulation manager, is the fourth generation to work for the newspaper.

Herman C. Beers founded The Clarence Press in 1944 as the successor to his earlier, monthly newspaper, called "The Good News Press," which he began in 1937. George Measer Jr. purchased The Clarence Press and The Akron Herald on July 4, 1968. The Press was later renamed The Clarence Bee.

Standing beside the massive press used to print The Bee in 1915 is George J. Measer Sr., publisher.

The newspaper now known as The Depew Bee originated in 1893 and was best known as the Depew Herald and Cheektowaga News. It was purchased by Bee Publications Inc. in October 1971. In 1878, Anton Busman and William B. Fuller began publishing The Lancaster Star. John Soemann purchased it in 1910 and combined it with his newspaper, The Lancaster Enterprise.

The Lancaster Enterprise and Depew Herald were purchased by Bee Publications in 1971.

The Cheektowaga Bee was established in 1977; the West Seneca Bee, 1980; and The Ken-Ton Bee, 1982. The last two newspapers to be added to the group were The Orchard Park Bee in 1986 and The East Aurora Bee in 1987.

Eugenie Snyder Measer, editor, and George J. Measer Sr., publisher, are shown in the Bee office in 1915. The telephone on the wall was the first one installed in Amherst. Michael Measer, circulation manager, and his father, Trey, publisher, stand outside the Williamsville office. Photo by Jim Courtney, Business First