Christopher Sower

Christoph Sauer (1695 – September 25, 1758) was the first German-language printer and publisher in North America.

Johann Christoph Sauer was born in 1695 in Ladenburg (near Heidelberg), the son of a Reformed pastor. He came to the county (Graftschaft) of Wittgenstein in central Germany as a child with his widowed mother some time between 1700 and 1710. He was a graduate of a German university, and studied medicine at the University of Halle. At the time, its rulers were tolerant of a variety of Pietists and other religious dissenters, most notably Alexander Mack, who would found the Schwarzenau Brethren and later emigrate to the United States. Most Brethren denominations descend from this original congregation. Johann Christoph Sauer married the widowed Maria Christina (born Gruber) in 1720. The family lived in the village of Schwarzenau, which now belongs to the town of Berleburg though had ties to Laasphe as well.

Pennsylvania The family emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1724, settling in Germantown. Sauer worked as a tailor before moving in 1726 to Lancaster where he had a farm. In 1731, Sauer's wife, Maria Christina, joined Johann Conrad Beissel's Seventh Day Baptist community at Ephrata, the Ephrata Cloister. She was known in Ephrata as "Sister Marcella," and eventually became sub-prioress of the community, which was dedicated to celibacy. Maria Christina's decision disabled Sauer's farming operation, and he moved with his son to Germantown where that same year he built a large dwelling for his residence.

Around 1735, Sauer took up the idea of becoming a printer and publisher. Benjamin Franklin dominated this trade at the time, and was a supplier of printed materials to the large German community around Pennsylvania. Significantly, Franklin used only Roman typefaces. Sauer obtained Fraktur type from a foundry in Nuremberg originally purchased by Jacob Gass of the Ephrata Cloister. In 1738 Sauer began to publish almanacs, calendars, books and newspapers in 1739 using a type face that his German readers could more easily read.

The press itself is believed to have come from Berleburg in Wittgenstein, with which he had remained in contact. It had been used by Pietist printers there. Sauer also made his own ink, which he eventually sold as “Sauer’s Curious Pennsylvania Ink-Powder.” and again in 1776 by his son.