Christopher Sower (younger)

Christopher Sower (20 September 1721 in Laasphe, near Marburg, Germany – 4 August 1784 in Methacton, Pennsylvania) was a clergyman and printer.

His father, also named Christopher Sower (I), had founded a printing and publishing business and other enterprises in Germantown, Pennsylvania, which the son later continued. Christopher Sower II was liberally educated. His early education was by Christopher Dock, whose work “Eine Einfältige und gründlich abgefasste Schul-Ordnung” he later published. Sower learned the printing and publishing trades from his father. When he was 26 years old, he became a minister, and was associated with Sanders Mack in Germantown and the oldest Dunker church in the United States. Five years later, he was chosen overseer, or bishop, and continued the duties of his office in connection with his inherited secular business until his death.

Upon taking charge of the printing and publishing business, he so increased it that for many years it was the largest book manufactory in the country. In 1763, he published a second edition of the great quarto Bible, in 1776 a third, all in German. These editions were issued previous to the publication of the first English Bible in the colonies by Robert Aitken in 1781.

Sower did his own type founding, wood engraving, ink making and book binding. In 1773 he constructed a paper mill on the Schuylkill River. He also managed a large business in his father's medical preparations, which he sent to various parts of the country. Before the American Revolutionary War, he was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies. He was one of the founders of the Germantown Academy, to which he largely contributed. He also was an opponent of slavery.

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