Kamera Griffin / CorrespondentA ledger page printed in the old shop at Dement Printing in Meridian.

Johnny Dement climbs up the steep stairs of what was once his terrain, the historic Dement Printing Company. New owner Scott Bancroft is right on his heels. The stairwell is wide enough for only one person and has no handrails to help make the climb to the second floor easier.

As Dement gets to the top, Bancroft by his side, he gazes at a veritable museum of antique equipment from the early days of the printing business and starts a nostalgic tour of the work area where machines once clattered and printers tried and failed to keep ink off their clothes.

Dement makes his way to tables covered with rubber stamps of all sizes, and everything is covered in thick, black dust. He picks up a large stamp with an old Mississippi logo on it, sending particles of dust flying.

A look of happiness and longing covers his face as he talks about how the stamp would have been used years ago.

Showing respect for Dement’s passion for the old printing floor, Bancroft doesn’t rush him.

Windows that were once clear are now covered in grime and thick dust. The floor is worn in places, and in spots the wood dips from years of use. Old light fixtures hang from the ceiling, some without bulbs. As Dement and Bancroft stroll through, dust particles fly in every direction.

This part of the old building would have been run by 12 people when it was in use, and the company altogether used to be home to 70 workers. Now only eight work here.

After reminiscing about what the printing floor used to be, Dement strides across the room and pulls back plastic covering a doorway, and it’s like taking a step forward in time.

Machines spit out envelopes on the far side of the room, and employees are hard at work using modern printing equipment. The printing business has come a long way since Dement, 72, started working here. Now, he is looking back to what his life used to be, and Bancroft is looking forward to the rest of his.

On Sept. 1, Dement and Bancroft walked into an office downstairs to finish transferring the company to Bancroft.

The two men had been negotiating the sale since February.

As the papers were signed, a feeling of relief washed over Dement. Someone he trusted, someone with experience in printing, would be taking over, and Bancroft was excited to finally own a community icon.

The Dement Printing Co. has been around since 1875 and had been in the family for generations. Right out of the University of Mississippi, where he starred on the golf team, Dement had started in sales in 1966 and worked his way up to take ownership of the company from his dad. He hoped his own son would do the same. When Dement’s son decided that he would rather be outdoors than stuck inside printing, he moved to Colorado, leaving Dement with no one to take over.

That’s when he sought out Bancroft, who owns Safeguard of Mississippi.

“I wanted somebody local,” Dement said. “I wanted somebody who had been in the business. Scott’s been in the business for 25 years, but he’s never had a manufacturing facility. He’s always bought the stuff from somebody else. He decided that he wanted to try it.”

Bancroft was ecstatic to get a business that been part of the fabric of downtown Meridian for as long as most people can remember.

“The Dements have a strong name in Meridian,” Bancroft said. “They have been here forever, and this building has always intrigued me. I was up for the challenge, and I felt like it was too good an opportunity to turn down.”

Bancroft said even though they have printing equipment upstairs, they print a lot of their products offsite.

“Part of what we do is what you saw upstairs,” he said. “We do a lot of check printing. You can’t do that in house. Safeguard, the company I represent, we do most of that type of printing. We have a company in New York that prints our books for us. We do office supplies here, so we do a lot of things outside of what we can do upstairs.”

Bancroft said he is fortunate to inherit employees who have been there for a long time. They range from being there three years to being there almost 60. But they can all agree on one thing. They are thankful that Bancroft took over. They love the company, and would have hated to have to try to find other jobs.

Thomas Moody, 79, known as Tuck, has been here 58 years.

“I really enjoy the work here,” Moody said. “It’s a good bunch of people to work with, and you know what you’re going to do every day. Sometimes I slip a little surprise in on you. You kind of have to break your rhythm and all that.”

Moody says that employees refer to Dement as JED, for John Earnest Dement.

“I really liked him,” Moody said. “He has been real good (to us).”

Another employee, Angie Thomas, who has been with the company for 14 years, can’t wait to see where Bancroft takes the company.

“He’s a go-getter,” she said. “I think he is going to pump life back into the company. I think he is going to make the company run better. I hope he makes it bigger and revitalizes it. I think he is going to modernize it some. We do a lot of stuff on the copy machines now that we didn’t do before.”

The company may not change too much, though, as Bancroft and Dement are alike in many ways, other employees said.

“My plans are probably the same as Mr. Dement’s were,” Bancroft said. “He thought he had a daughter and son who planned on taking over the business. Up until four years ago, that was going to happen still. Life happens and things change. I’ve got three children, and my youngest one is a junior in high school. He has an interest in business, and I’d like for him to get involved one day. I plan on being here until I retire.”

A lot has happened to the print industry in the past few years as the digital world has slowly taken over, but businesses such as Dement Printing Co. have found a way to adjust and persevere.

“You have to keep changing with the times,” Bancroft said. “The industry keeps changing, so you have to find new products to sell and new services to offer. That’s kind of what I’ve brought to the business. We’re doing some things here that they weren’t doing, and they were doing some things here that I wasn’t doing. The two (companies) have kind of meshed together pretty good, and we hope to keep it moving forward.”

Emily Davis is a University of Mississippi student.