Not many small businesses stand the test of time like Franklin Printing Company has. They have been bringing print services to the community for 75 years and are still going strong, adapting with the times and providing top-notch small-town customer service and high-quality print products from their family-owned and operated business.
Franklin Printing Company was founded by Everett H. Jackson, Sr., who originally ran the operation out of the basement of the family’s farmhouse.
Everett Jackson Sr. served as a medic in the military and wanted to continue working in the medical industry after returning home. But the GI Bill required that he take a vocational class, and he chose a class in printing. After his training, he got a job with one of the local print shops. Some time after, another print shop was selling all their equipment, so he decided to purchase everything and bring it home to the family farm.
“He was milking cows in the morning and the evening, coming to Zanesville and selling printing,” explained Everett Jackson Jr., the President of Franklin Printing.
The business may have started in the basement of the farmhouse, but with Everett Jackson Sr’s dedication to his work, the business eventually outgrew the space.
“I remember all of these different stages because I was born before that, and the farmhouse in the basement there and moving to Maple Avenue. We were on Maple Avenue for quite a few years until about the year 2000, and then we secured this land here and built this building, and this is where we are today. My mom worked in the pre-press setting the type. Originally, it was all hand set, and then they got a line of type machines so they could set the type,” Everett recalled.
75 Years later, and the business remains centered around family and community values. Everett’s brother, Eldon Jackson, is the Vice President. Sarah Jackson, Eldon’s daughter, also works for the company. Over the years, the industry has changed from a more manual type setting method to everything going digital, and as technology changes, Franklin Printing Company has adapted to meet the latest standards.
“My dad was the kind that when new technology came out, he bought it,” Everett explained. “He was always on the cutting edge, even though some of the new technology didn’t work too well, you know, he still got it. I remember one day we were here at the office in the old plant, and my dad called up (he’d gone to Chicago) and he says, ‘What do you think we need to buy to increase our productivity?’ … He bought a four-color printing press for almost half a million dollars sight unseen because he thought that was, and he did he was correct, that was the new technology.”
The business offers all kinds of printing services, including business cards, flyers, brochures, annual reports, booklets, and even large-format items like yard signs.
“We do all types of work, we do program books, we do oil paintings—we do reproductions for artists who come in and want note cards made, we have a photography studio here where we photograph the original artwork, and then we can print whatever they want, explained Everett. “We also do a lot of mailings … sometimes we’ve done as many as you know, seven mailings in the same day for different companies.”
A unique offering that the print shop produces is amateur radio QSL cards.
“I’m an amateur radio operator,” said Everett, “my call sign is WZ8P I’ve been licensed since 1962 so I have a little niche here because when you talk to somebody in a foreign country you like to get a card from them and they have what they call QSL cards and we print those by the thousands some people even order 50,000 cards … there’s like 340 countries in the world that an amateur radio operator can talk to and we print cards for many of these countries when someone goes there for them to send out to other people to confirm that they actually talked to that country.”
“We’d like to thank the community for their support,” added Everett. Even though we have seen many name changes in the community, I can think of some of the very first customers my dad had when he started the business 75 years ago, and we still are printing for those institutions, even though the personnel have changed and even the name has changed.”
Franklin Printing Company is located at 984 Beverly Ave, Zanesville. They can be reached by calling 740-452-6375 or by email at franklin@franklinprinting.us.