Historic Germantown: Philadelphia, PA
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Christopher Sower

Printer

Sower (originally Saur) arrived with his wife and son in Germantown 1724. They soon moved to Lancaster, but Sower and his son (also Christopher) returned to Germantown in 1731. After securing a printing outfit from Germany, he issued the first German newspaper in America. The newspaper, then an almanac, was titled "Collection of News From the Kingdom of Nature and of the church." Trinity Lutheran Church has a copy of the first edition of this newspaper (August 20, 1739). It is one of three copies known to exist.

Sower printed his now famous Bible, the first to be printed in America, in 1743. After his father died on September 25, 1758, Christopher Sower II, continued his father's business.

Sources:
1. Marion, John Francis. Bicentenial City: Walking Tours of Historic Philadelphia. Princeton: The Pyne Press, 1974.
2. Jenkins, Charles F. The Guide Book to Historic Germantown. Germantown Historical Society, 1973.