by Anne Motto, F.M. Kirby Curator of Collections
December 2, 2025
In the early 19th century, a popular source for everything from weather predictions to cures for whooping cough were yearly almanacs. Typically thin booklets, a multitude were created for localities across the US and calculated for each place’s longitude and latitude. One local man, David Young of Hanover, became one of the most trusted names in the field for over 30 years. In addition to contributing to innumerable issues of almanacs from The Whig Almanac to The Methodist Almanac, he also founded one of the longest surviving, the Farmers’ Almanac (not to be confused with The Old Farmer’s Almanac), which just released its final issue 207 years after the first was printed in Morristown.
Always billed as “David Young, Philom. [Philomath],” the astronomer built a formidable reputation over the course of his career. In fact, his name held such caché by the time of his death in 1852 that newspapers from New Orleans to Vermont reported on his passing, and every editor of the Farmers’ Almanac up to the present listed themselves as “the successor to David Young, Philom.” Young also busied himself with astronomical lectures and his own, more succinct edition of The Morristown Ghost. For both these side projects and his almanacs, he often worked with the same printers, particularly Jacob Mann of Morristown, publisher of the Palladium of Liberty, and Benjamin Olds of Newark.
Olds would continue to print the Farmers’ Almanac with Young’s successor, Samuel Hart Wright, through the 1860s. In fact, upon his own death in 1881, his obituary was also printed nationally due to his connection to the publication. The almanac survived him as well and was carried into the 20th century by Wright’s son, Berlin. Already over a century old, it was later taken over by another father, Ray Geiger, who later passed it to his son, Peter. The publication forged ahead into the 21st century, despite the rise of the internet and the access to information it brought the masses, becoming one of the longest-running publications of its kind. So, while the 2026 edition will be its last, it is highly unlikely anyone in 1818 could have predicted how long it would run.
Update: In January 2026, it was announced that the publication would continue under new ownership.
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