100

man language, probably a production of Hasselbach's,
has survived;⁸⁷ and Henry Dulheuer, on June 13, 1786,
appears to have begun publication of a German news-
paper.⁸⁸ But it remained for Samuel Sower (or Saur,
as he spelled it on his German imprints) to print the
first German publications in Baltimore which are still
extant today in considerable number.

Samuel Sower belonged to the third generation of
the Germantown, Pennsylvania, Sower family, famous in
the annals of Pennsylvania printing. The family in
America was founded by Christopher Sower (1694-1758)
who established a press in Germantown, Pennsylvania in
1738.⁸⁹ This first Christopher Sower desired on his
death bed that the printing business might never go
out of the family of his descendants, but that one or
the other of the lineage should acquire and practice
the art. This wish was carried out through at
least three of the succeeding generations.

Samuel Sower was the tenth son of the second

Christopher Sower (1721-1784) and his wife, the former

Catherine Sharpnack... The printing business of Chris-
87 Wroth, L.C. A history of printing in colonial
Maryland, p. 113, and Maryland imprints of the
colonial period, item 287.

88 Wheeler, op. cit. p. 71.

89 McCulloch, William. Additions to Thomas's
History of printing, p. 144.

90 Wheeler, J.T. op. cit. p. 147.

91 Sower, C.G. Genealogical chart of the de-
attendants of Christopher Sower.