Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Stauffer, John G.
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Richland Township N-Z


   JOHN G. STAUFFER publisher, P.O. Quakertown, was born 
September 18, 1837.  The Stauffers came from Switzerland.  
According to tradition they owe their origin to a generation 
of knights called Stauffacher, at Hohenstaufen, who at the 
time of the freeing of Switzerland by William Tell were 
wealthy farmers and rendered great assistance.  Definite 
information is given only as far back as Hans Stauffer, son 
of Daniel.  Hans was married in 1685 to a widow named Kinget 
Hiestand (who was first married to Michael Risser).  Hans 
was an Anabaptist, or Mennonite, and was driven out of 
Switzerland shortly after his marriage by the followers of 
Ulrich Zwingle, on account of his religious faith, and fled 
to the Palatinate.  November 5, 1709, he started with his 
family to America.  He landed in London January 20, 1710.  
They had a very stormy passage and landed in America in the 
spring of the same year and settled in the vicinity of 
Valley Forge, not far from Philadelphia.  His family 
consisted of eight persons:  himself and wife; three sons: 
Jacob, 13; Daniel, 12; and Henry, 9 years old; and a 
daughter, Elizabeth, with her husband, Paul Friedt, and one 
child, Maria.  December 30, 1724, Jacob, son of Hans 
Stauffer, bought five hundred acres of land near 
Colebrookdale, in Berks county.  March 28, 1730, he sold one 
hundred and seventy-four and a half acres of this land to 
his brother Daniel, who was the father of a numerous family 
and the ancestor of John G. Stauffer.  The Stauffer 
descendants are numerous in the counties of Bucks, Berks, 
Lehigh, Chester, York and Lancaster, and in Canada.  John 
G., proprietor of the "Quakertown Printing and Publishing 
House," was born near Spinnerstown, in Milford township.  
His mother, Elizabeth (at present 81 years old), was a 
daughter of Rev. John Gehman, a Mennonite minister in 
Hereford, Berks county.  His father, Jacob O., was born in 
1800, and was a son of Abraham, who was a son of Daniel, who 
was a son of Daniel, who was a son of the above-mentioned 
Hans Stauffer.  John G. received a common-school education 
and was early put to ordinary farm work.  In November, 1856, 
he entered the printing house of the "Mennonite Printing 
Union," in Milford Square, Bucks county.  After six months' 
apprenticeship he assumed the management and at the same 
time acted as compositor, printer, foreman and in part 
bookkeeper and assistant editor.  The business of the 
"Printing Union" consisted of publishing a semi-monthly 
religious paper called the "Das Chrisliche Volks-Blatt," of 
which the first number was issued June 30, 1856.  There was 
also considerable book and job printing done.  He worked 
under heavy physical and mental exertion in this office (the 
last year as editor of the paper besides his other work) 
until May 27, 1863, when he took a western tour of seven 
months.  After his return he took charge of the office again 
and in a few years he established a German newspaper, of 
which the first number appeared July 4, 1867, under the 
title of "Independent Reformer."  January 4, 1868, the name 
was changed to "Der Reformer," and alter to "Patriot and 
Reformer," its present title.  Shortly after the 
establishment of this paper he purchased the business.  At 
this time he bought a power press and the new paper was made 
a success.  The subscription list soon swelled to 1,000 and 
later to 1,600.  In June, 1876, he commenced to issue a 
German monthly Sunday-school paper, called "Himmel's Manna" 
(Heavenly Manna), which was soon well patronized, and the 
same was issued in the English language in 1879, under the 
title "The Manna."  Both papers have been uninterruptedly 
continued by him, with the assistance of Dr. J. Y. Schultz.  
The circulation of the German paper is 5,000 and that of the 
English about 8,000.  He was married June 11, 1870, to 
Sarah, daughter of Abraham Geissinger, of New Zionville, 
Lehigh county, this state.  They have one son, Berend G., 
born April 4, 1872, and one daughter, Anna, born October 3, 
1878.  June 21, 1881, he removed the printing business and 
his family to Quakertown.  As soon as he was settled there 
he bought a steam engine and another power press.  August 
13, 1881, he started a new English weekly paper under the 
title of the "Quakertown Free Press."  Dr. W. T. Bruce acted 
as editor.  The circulation soon reached 800.  July 1, 1882, 
he sold the "Free Press" to U. S. Stauffer, who still issues 
it in connection with Prof. A. S. Shelly, under the firm 
name of Stauffer & Shelly.  In the latter part of 1886 Mr. 
Stauffer sold the "Patriot and Reformer" to Stauffer & 
Shelly, after it had been issued and edited by him for 
nineteen years.  In April, 1885, he established his fifth 
and last paper.  It is an independent religious monthly 
entitled "Die Kirche Unterm Kreuze."  It has a circulation 
of 2,000, and with the two "Mannas," is still published by 
him.  He also prints books, tracts and circulars.  His son, 
Berend, is attending the Quakertown High school and is also 
engaged in the printing business.