Enos Benner and the Paper That Kept Pennsylvania German Culture Alive

For thirty years, from eighteen twenty-eight to eighteen fifty-eight, a German-language newspaper called Der Bauern Freund, or The Farmer's Friend, rolled off a press right here in Montgomery County. Its publisher was Enos Benner, a teacher, editor, author, and printer who understood that Pennsylvania's large German-speaking population needed a press of its own. Benner's weekly newspaper served readers who were largely left out of English-language political coverage during the Jacksonian era, and historians now consider it a valuable record of that period's political and social currents.

Much of the run survives, making it an invaluable primary source. The Benner family maintained the print shop long after Enos established it. In an era when most small-town papers vanished after a few years, that kind of continuity was exceptional.