The Weiser Family

Citation preview

I|benriS^lpania=0erman ©enealogies

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 1924

10

publication Committee. J.

E.

BURNETT BUCKENHAM,

M.D.

H. M. M. RICHARDS, LITT.D.

ELMER

E. S.

JOHNSON, PH.D.

.•l

si.

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.

COLONEL CONRAD WEISER AS FROM AN

A

YOUNG MAN.

OIL PAINTING ON WOOD, FOR MANY YEARS IN THE WEISER FAMILY. LAST IN POSSESSION OF REV. C Z. WEISER. D. D., DECEASED, AND BY HIM ASSERTED TO BE AUTHENTIC.

PREPARED BY AUTHORITY OF

The Pennsylvania-German Society

BY

HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG RICHARDS,

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY

LlTT.D.

Copyrighted BY THE

1924

|Jcnn3^lvan(a*0crman Society.

LANCASTER PRESS. INC. LANCASTER. PA.

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THE WEISER FAMILY. Foreword.

LTHOUGFI

the writer of these records has

had con-

considerable experience in the compilation of family

genealogies he has found that of the \Yeiser family to be

and comiplicated, mainly owing to the that Col. Conrad Weiser and his brother Christopher,

exceedingly fact

difficult

as well as his half-brother, Frederick, lived in the

neighborhood of Pennsylvania.

Many

same

of the offspring

Conrad and Christopher, especially, w^ere born near each other, baptized in the same churches, had the same, or similar, Christian names, and w’ere frequently of equal age, thus making proper classification far from easy, if of

not impossible.

Many

persons, bearing the

selves to be descended ity, is

from Colonel Conrad,

hard for them

It

to realize this disappointing fact.

following records have been compiled with the

greatest care,

comparison.

after

much

research,

Lacking much,

doubtedly, the most complete believed to be accurate.

k

but, in real-

have one of the other brothers for their ancestors.

The

9

Weiser name, presume them-

as

correspondence and

they do, they are, un-

in existence to-day,

and are

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The Pennsylvania-German

6

However,

neither absolute accuracy nor completion

claimed for them, and they are for the

first

Society.

time

in

now

is

given to the public

the hope that such publicity

may

lead

to greater future perfection.

H. M. M. Richards.

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The

we would

JVeiser Family.

9

Conrad Weiser, and truly realize the debt our country owes him, vre cannot do better than to briefly trace God’s purpose in our history, to see how nobly this man performed his task, and how well he was fitted for the part assigned So,

if

truly understand the greatness of

him.

was the loving

Heavenly Father to make our iVmerica, separated by great oceans from the turmoils of an old and war-worn world, to be an asylum It

desire of our

for the persecuted peoples of the earth, when, sooner or later,

such an asylum would surely be needed.

Wh en

Norsemen first discovered this continent in the year A.D. looo, and even made settlements upon it which flourished for a while, their work came to naught because the time was not ready for the fruition of this the

plan.

Columbus rediscovered America; when printing by movable type was invented and information thereby rapidly disseminated amongst all classes of people, leading to the great Reformation of Luther, which was followed by the awful Thirty Years’ War making of Germany almost a wilderness; when, following upon its heels, came the cruel French InBut, when, five centuries later, Christopher

vasion of 1693, with

its

nate, bringing pestilence

not

sufficient,

utter devastation of the Palati-

and famine; when,

as if that

occurred the terrible winter of 1709

birds perished on the wing, beasts in their lairs,

were

when

and mor-

way, then the wretched Palatine survivors lost courage, and the Spring of 1709 found 32,000 Germans, who had abandoned their native land, washed, tals fell

dead

in the

mighty wave, along the shores of England, with hearts set upon reaching what to them was the “ Promised

like a

Land”

—

Pennsylvania.

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The Pennsylvania-Gcrman

i6

Society,

To

overcome their foes they willingly accepted the aid offered by the Mengwe, or Iroquois. This alliance continued until the end of their migration eastward, when, eventually, the Delawares settled in Pennsylvania while the Iroquois occupied the region along the Great Lakes. In time hostilities broke out between the former friends when the Iroquois claim that they overcame the Delawares fairly in battle and made them their vassals. On the other hand the Delawares asserted that it was through a despicable artifice they consented to allow the Iroquois

become merely their protectors, and, to that end, donned the petticoat of a w^omari. From that day, when the Delawares ascertained how they had been duped, there existed a bitter animosity between the two bodies, which nothing could heal. The advent of Weiser upon the scene found the Delawares, then a weakened tribe, occupying his own Pennsylto

vania, with their friends, the Shawanese, largely in the

western part, and the Six Nations, or Iroquois, constantly

growing in strength, covering all that territory^ in New York which served as a barrier between the French in Canada and the English to the south. To accomplish their aim the French were constantly intriguing with all the various Indian tribes to gain them over. Allied with the Iroquois it would seem as if nothing could prevent a successful invasion from the north. Having the Delawares with them they hoped to split the colonies in twain by a raid into Pennsylvania through the gatew^ay of the

To

Upper Susquehanna.

bring their plans to naught

it

devolved upon the

English to frustrate them.

There was no living being able to handle this Knowing to the problem save Conrad Weiser.

intricate full the

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The Pennsyh'anla-Gerrnan

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purchased from them

Susquehanna River.

in

The

Society,

1736, which lay w'est of the Delawares were not even in-

vited to attend, but merely told they might be present at

Complaint was made to the Governor, by the Iroquois, that people were daily settling on the He was Juniata Valley lands and spoiling the hunting. asked to remove them. This he promised to do but called attention to the fact that a number of Delaware Indians above the source of the Lehigh River, on the Minisink lands, had refused to give peaceful possession of the territory secured by the “ Walking Purchase.” Then it was that, turning to the Delawares who were present, the Iroquois chief, Canassatego, scathingly accused them of dishonesty, gave them no opportunity to defend themselves, and ordered them to remove immediately. They sullenly withdrew to brood over this insult which was never fortheir

own

expense.

gotten.

Time

prevents any extended reference to the

manner

in

which Weiser succeeded in making peace between the Iroquois and Virginia and Maryland at the Lancaster Treaty of 1744, without which a war would have been started with that powerful nation which wmuld have eventually embraced all the colonies.

was a semblance of peace and neutrality, with the Delawares and Shawanese gradually drifting into the arms of the French, and the Six Nations becoming firmly anchored to the English through the wisdom and untiring efforts of Conrad Weiser. It was a loaded magazine to which was laid a dangerous fuze. The explosion came with the defeat of Braddock, in July, 1755, in his ill-fated and mismanaged expedition against So, for thirty years, there

Fort Duquesne, and, with

it,

there

swarmed

into eastern

Pennsylvania marauding parties of savages, burning,

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