View source for Billmeyer, Michael (1752-1837)

[[File:Harfe1803.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Kleine Geistliche Harfe, 1803'']]     In 1777 the British destroyed the Germantown ([[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]]) printing establishment of the Brethren ([[Dunkard (Dunker)|Dunkard]]) printer, [[Saur, Christopher (1693-1758)|Christopher Saur, Jr.]] Six years later Peter Leibert, a Brethren minister, and Michael Billmeyer, his Lutheran son-in-law, bought what was usable of the Saur equipment, and set up shop in [[Germantown Mennonite Settlement (Pennsylvania, USA)|Germantown]], being more or less the successors of the younger Saur. This partnership continued for about three years, after which Billmeyer continued alone, and Leibert started a new printing business. In 1785 the Billmeyer press issued a reprint of the [[Ausbund|<em>Ausbund</em>]], and a polemic from a onetime Franconia Mennonite bishop, <em>Ein Aufsatz oder Verteidigung</em> von [[Funk, Christian (1731-1811)|Christian Funk]]. In 1790 it reprinted Roosen's [[Christliches Gemütsgespräch|<em>Christliches Gemütsgespräch</em>]]. In 1803 Billmeyer printed the new [[Franconia Mennonite Conference (Mennonite Church USA)|Franconia Conference]] hymnbook, [[Die Kleine geistliche Harfe|<em>Die kleine geistliche Harfe der Kinder Zions</em>]], and reprinted it in 1820. In 1805 he issued the fourth edition of <em>[[Wandering Soul|Die Wandelnde Seele]]</em> by [[Schabaelje, Jan Philipsz (Philipsen) (ca. 1585-1656)|J. P. Schabalie]]. He was thus in effect for a generation the printer for the Franconia Mennonites.
= Bibliography =
Bender, Harold S. <em>Two Centuries of American Mennonite Literature, A Bibliography of Mennonitica Americana 1727-1928</em>. Goshen, IN: Mennonite Historical Society, 1929.

Flory, J. S. <em> Literary Activity of the German Baptist Brethren in the Eighteenth Century. </em>Elgin, Illinois, 1908: 157-160, 321-327.
{{GAMEO_footer|hp=Vol. 1, p. 342|date=1955|a1_last=Wenger|a1_first=John C|a2_last= |a2_first= }}