Billmeyer, Michael (1752-1837)
In 1777 the British destroyed the Germantown (Pennsylvania) printing establishment of the Brethren (Dunkard) printer, 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, 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 <em>Ausbund</em>, and a polemic from a onetime Franconia Mennonite bishop, Ein Aufsatz oder Verteidigung von Christian Funk. In 1790 it reprinted Roosen's <em>Christliches Gemütsgespräch</em>. In 1803 Billmeyer printed the new Franconia Conference hymnbook, <em>Die kleine geistliche Harfe der Kinder Zions</em>, and reprinted it in 1820. In 1805 he issued the fourth edition of Die Wandelnde Seele by J. P. Schabalie. He was thus in effect for a generation the printer for the Franconia Mennonites.
Bibliography
Bender, Harold S. Two Centuries of American Mennonite Literature, A Bibliography of Mennonitica Americana 1727-1928. Goshen, IN: Mennonite Historical Society, 1929.
Flory, J. S. Literary Activity of the German Baptist Brethren in the Eighteenth Century. Elgin, Illinois, 1908: 157-160, 321-327.
| Author(s) | John C Wenger |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1955 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Wenger, John C. "Billmeyer, Michael (1752-1837)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1955. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Billmeyer,_Michael_(1752-1837)&oldid=75655.
APA style
Wenger, John C. (1955). Billmeyer, Michael (1752-1837). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Billmeyer,_Michael_(1752-1837)&oldid=75655.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 342. All rights reserved.
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