Matthias Bartgis

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Matthias Bartgis (1759 – 1825) was a pioneer German-American printer in Maryland and Virginia.

Matthias Bartgis was born June 3, 1759 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He learned the art of printing from William Bradford in Philadelphia. He established a printery in Frederick, Maryland in 1778 and one in Winchester, Virginia in 1787.

Bartgis also established a regular bi-weekly private mail system in 1788 which connected York, Pennsylvania on the north end to Fincastle, Virginia on the southern end.

Publications:

  • Almanac: Der...Americanische Reichs-Bothe...und Geschichts-Calendar [in German] (1777)
  • Maryländische Zeitung [in German] (1785-?)
  • The Maryland Chronicle or the Universal Advertiser (1786-?)
  • Virginia Gazette, and Winchester Advertiser (1787-1792)
  • Virginische Zeitung [in German] (1789-1790)
  • Staunton Gazette (1790-?)
  • General Staatsbothe [in German] (1790-?)

[edit] References

  • Dolmetsch, Christopher, "The German Literature of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, 1789-1854: A Historical, Linguistic and Literary Study" (Ph.D. diss., U. of Wisconsin-Madison, 1979).
  • Wust, Klaus G. "Matthias Bartgis' Newspapers in Virginia," American-German Review, Vol. XVIII, NO. 1, (October 1951).