|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Matthias Bartgis, Pioneer Printer at Frederick
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
an apprentice.3 According to family tradition he was a soldier during
the early years of the Revolution and was an officer at the Battle of
Germantown. He married a Miss Veronica, a Canadian, and moved to
Frederick. The date of his arrival is not certainly known but it was prob-
ably in the fall of 1776.
The earliest imprint from his press that has been located is The Mary-
land Almanac, For the year of Our Lord 1778.4 Because of the ephemeral
character of almanacs it was customary to print them during the pre-
ceding year and have them on sale before the first of January, so Bartgis
was probably printing in Frederick in 1777. It is possible that he set
up his press in the Fall of 1776 so that he might publish the first of his
series of German almanacs. The earliest known example of them was
for 1780, which contains the statement that it was "zum vierten mal
herausgegeben."5 The advertisement in the Maryland Chronicle on Febru-
ary 1, 1786, shows that by the year 1778 he had enough business to
have acquired some debtors.
"Notice is hereby given, to all persons indebted to the Printer hereof, from the Year 1778 to
the present time, on Bond, Note or open Account, to make immediate Payment, or they may depend
on being treated with as the law directs."
Although no items printed by him from 1779 to 1783 have been located,
he was probably doing job work such as printing blank legal forms and
bills as well as publishing almanacs. Unfortunately, the product of the
Frederick printing trade has not been as well preserved as that of
Annapolis and Baltimore and for this reason copies of his almanacs
rarely find their way into the book market. The series of German al-
manacs which was begun in 1777 continued as late as 1784 and, accord-
ing to Seidensticker, until the end of the century.6
The imprints of his press for 1785 which have survived show that his
readers had a decided interest in the gruesome details of murder and
bloodshed. In this one year he printed two broadsides in German which
contain a poetical account of the murder of a woman and four children
by her husband.7 He also printed the Horror of Murder, Blasphemy,
and Sacrilege, the description of the murder of an Irish Catholic priest
3 J. T. Scharf, History of Western Maryland. Vol. I, p. 527.
4 See Bibliography of Imprints, No. 17.
5 See Bibliography of Imprints, No. 81.
6 See Bibliography of Imprints, No. 81 and 105. Also O. Seidensticker, The First Century of German Printing in Amer-
ica, 1728-1830.
7 See Bibliography of Imprints, No. 383 and 384.
[59]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
