Submitted by Leona Baker of the Historical Society of Salisbury Township

Several years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Robinson donated a political banner to the Historical Society of Salisbury Township featuring candidates John Aldus McSparran and Frank Custer Musser. Made of silk and embroidered in gold thread with gold spiral fringe and wording on both sides, it was made for the election campaign of 1922 - tangible evidence of political activity in Salisbury Township at that time.

McSparran was a candidate for governor in 1922. His family members were dairy farmers in Lancaster County for many generations. As a secretary, treasurer and eventually master of the Pennsylvania State Grange, he became interested in politics. He entered the 1922 gubernatorial race but lost to Gifford Pinchot, although he received nearly 40% of the votes. Such was McSparran's influence and ability to cross political lines that when Pinchot won the gubernatorial election again in 1931, he appointed McSparran as secretary of agriculture.

Musser was mayor of Lancaster city from 1922 to 1930. The son of a New Holland cattle dealer, he left school at age 16 to help with the business, eventually becoming president of the Lancaster County Union Livestock Stock Exchange.

The post-World War I years were contentious political times between Democrats and Republicans. The 10th amendment to the Constitution had been passed in 1919, banning the sale of alcoholic beverages across the nation. By 1922, the proliferation of underground distilleries and "bathtub gin" accelerated. Due to the Great Depression occurring during the 1920s, some Salisbury Township families put food on the table by selling alcohol made with makeshift backwoods distilleries.

Musser, with several other prominent local men, formed the Lancaster County Coalition Party of Democrats and Independent Republicans. Musser was to be their candidate for mayor in 1921, on the ticket with McSparran.

While McSparran lost his race, Musser not only won the mayoral race but served two four-year terms. In that time, he successfully initiated the commission style of government in Lancaster city, modernized police department facilities, improved sewer and water infrastructure, brought city streets up to modern quality and equalized city tax assessment laws. He also worked hard to get the cobweb of phone and electric lines along the city streets placed underground to improve the appearance.

Musser was also a member of several men's clubs of the era: Moose, Elk, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. This membership may have been the catalyst of the Salisbury Township extension of the Musser/McSparran dedication, for the Knights of Pythias had an active branch in Gap. The brick building that now houses Houder's Town Clock Cheese Shoppe on Route 41 was the local Knights meeting place. Musser ran for Congress in 1929 but lost.

Information about McSparran was gathered in part from Paul Beers' "Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday." Information about Musser was gathered with the help of Brett Snyder from the Lancaster Democratic Committee and newspaper articles.