"Weiser Genealogy"

or

"What John Yochum has found out about his ancestor Weisers so far."

May I have your attention: This is not complete. Please read with the knowledge that there may be errors and that there are certainly omissions. If you cannot bear this thought, please read no further. But please, if you can correct or add to this pool of knowledge I have tried to collect, please please contact me: John Yochum, P O Box 27, Sherwood OH 43556, bijou@smta.cc or call (419)899-4227. Thanks. Last update 2/18/95. This does not include all the Weiser descendants. For more names, dates, begats, and detail see my page at GenCircles: http://www.gencircles.com/users/yochum Posted 3/25/06 to the net, in hopes of finding out more about my family.

Contents:

11-greats Grandfather Jacob Weiser

10-greats-grandfather Jacob Weiser

9-greats-grandfather Johann Conrad Weiser

8-greats-grandfather John Conrad Weiser

7-greats Grandfather Frederick Weiser

6-greats Grandfather John Conrad Weiser

5-greats Grandfather Hannah Weiser (who married John Fisher)

4-greats Grandfather Michael Fisher

3-greats Grandmother Sarah Ann Fisher (who married Henry Jackson Stahl)

2-greats Grandfather James Stahl

Great Grandfather Henry Jackson Stahl

Grandfather William Woodrow Stahl

Mother Ruth Stahl (who married Frank Yochum)

Me, John Yochum

 

Sources include The Weiser Family by the John Conrad Weiser Family Association copyright 1960, much of which is paraphrased (although I have put the words in quotation marks). This is blatantly plagiarized just to put it into format with the rest of my genealogy. All of the John Conrad Weiser Family Association publications are extremely well-documented, with numerous sources cited in great detail. Also blatantly plagiarized is The Palatine Camps of 1710 by Elaine B Liepshutz

 

Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Weiser

 

"The precise home of the emigrant has been identified as Gross Aspach (a village located about 30 miles NE of Stuttgart in WurttembergGE) both by the autobiography of Conrad Weiser and by the surviving parochial records of the Lutheran Church there. The area was generally ravaged by the French in the seventeenth century, the town itself destroyed in 1693, which accounts for the difficulty in obtaining records. The parochial register begun in 1598 was burned then, and the new one begun in 1693 from memories of the townsfolk.

"German scholar E Schopf's Hans Conrad Weiser, Father and Son concludes:

 

'The Weiser family was a relatively well-off and respected family of peasants

related to the best families in town, out of which the tribunal and the senate got

its members, often allied by mariage with the Sturmfeder Schultheissen and appreciated

to have not only the town pastor but also the high patron Freiherr von Sturmfeder

as a godfather. It was a family which was not in want of forwards-striving, energetic,

and strong personalities, who were entitled to a leading role."

 

"Attempts to ascertain the meaning of the name Weiser lead to indefinite conclusions. It might be "the white one (der Weisse), the wise one (der Weise), one who does whitewashing, painting (der Weisser), or the one who points the way, the supervisor (der Weiser). Spelling is not uniform in early records, but Weisser seems to be prevalant. There are Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Weisers in several sections of Germany.

Jacob bore the office of Schultheiss, or magistrate, at Gross Aspach, according to Conrad Weiser's autobiography.

Children:

 

1.Jacob b.1625 (our ancestor-- see below)

2.Johann Konrad Weiser (b.8/2/1642 GrossAspach d.2/13/1720 Backnang m.8/15/1676

(Anna Catharina Linde) b.1655 Overbruden d.6/26/1733 Backnang

a.Maria Catharina b.2/3/1680

b.Maria Catherine b.2/3/1680

c.Friedrich Jacob b.1/14/1682

d.Euphrosina Dorothea b.2/12/1684

e. Friedrich Gottlieb b.7/20/1685 town clerk of Backnang m.Anna Barbara

f.Friedrich Carl b.5/9/1687

g.Regina Dorothea b.2/14/1689

h.Helena Rosina b.2/23/1691

i.Christian Friedrich b.4/9/1693

j.Maria Elisabetha b.7/1/1695

k.Christoph Friedrich b.12/13/1697 d.7/161763 Backnang

(Catharina Juliana Pfalzgraf) m.6/1/1723

(Maria Louise Dromer) m.9/9/1738 a widow of Leussler

(Sophia Juliana Georgii) m.9/26/1747 b.6/3/1710 d.9/10/1782

his descendants are prominent in Wurtemberg history

l.Euphrosina Rosina b.9/27/1699

 

10-greats-grandfather Jacob Weiser

 

This is the first Weiser in the lineage of whom there is a definite record. He bore the office of Schultheiss, or magistrate, like his father. This is identified in the parochial register in entrys concerning his son Hans Michael, and in the notice of his wife's death. It is supposed that the John Conrad Weiser who was Stadtschreiber (town clerk) of Backnang was Jacob's brother. It is this man's coat of arms that were adopted by the John Conrad Weiser Family Association as the Weiser coat of arms. There are arms that have meaning in their symbols, but this arms' swan doesn't seem to be the case, except that swans are white, and perhaps this is the meaning of Weiser.

Speculation sets the birth of Jacob at 1625 and assumes he died before 1694 when the register was begun again. His wife Anna died 7/6/1696 in Gross Aspach at the age of 68, according dating her birth at 1628. Their children:

 

1. John Conrad Weiser b.1660 Gross Aspach (our ancestor-- see below)

2. Hans Michael Weiser b.1657 d.8/5/1721 Schultheiss, or magistrate, of Gross Aspach like his father

(Anna Maria Aichele) m.1680 daughter of Ulrich Aichele

a.Anna Margarete b.12/2/1681

b.Hans Michael b.9/4/1684

(Maria Magdalena) b.1654 d.4/26/1733

c.Hans Michael b.11/21/1687

d.Hans Jacob b.7/12/1689

e Hans Adam b.4/12/1691 m.4/30/1715 Clara Anna Ulmer, dau. of Conrad Ulmer

f. Hans Erhard b.2/24/1694 d.12/11/1750 m.10/7/1721

g.Anna Christina b.12/20/1696 m.7/16/1720

(Ulrich Strecker) journeyman carpenter, son of Christoph Strecker

h.Anna Catharina b.12/20/1699

 

9-greats-grandfather Johann Conrad Weiser

 

The Weiser who emigrated to America, he was b.1660 GrossAspachGE, and became a corporal (a non-commissioned officer) in the Wurttemberg Blue Dragoons, which office he must have held until 1700, when he is listed as a baker, the position he occupied until his removal to America in 1709. His wife died suddenly in May 1, 1709, and he left for America June 24, 1709 perhaps dissatisfied with conditions at Gross Aspach.

Prof. Oscar Kuhns in his "german and Swiss Settlements in Pennsylvania," wrote "Turenne, who had received definite orders from Versailles to devastate the Palatinate, did his work thoroughly. Once more the monotonous tale of misery must be told: Nobleman, citizen, peasant plundered; fields laid waste; cattle carried off; even the clothing torn from the backs of the wretched victims. What could not be carried away was destroyed; even the bells and organs were taken from the churches. At one time, seven cities and nineteen villages were burning; starvation once more threatened the homeless peasant." Macaulay in History Of England III p.112, "The commander announced to near half a million human beings that he granted them three days of grace, and that within that time they must shift for themselves. Soon the roads and fields, which then lay deep in snow, were blackened by innumerable multitudes of men, women and children flying from their homes...Meanwhile, the work of destruction went on. The flames went up from every market place, every parish church, every country seat, within the devoted province. The fields where the corn had been sowed were ploughed up. The orchards were hewn down. No promise of a harvest was left on the fertile plains near what had been Frankenthal. Not a vine, not an almond tree was to be seen on the slopes of the sunny hills aroud what had once been Heidelberg."

Hank Z Jones III writes that "another factor was the severe winter of 1708-09, which was the worst in memory...Carla [Mittelstaedt-Kubaseck, his German researcher] has found several entries in church books regarding the severity of the winter, mentioning the heavy snows, fruit trees and grain frozen, people and cattle freezing, and the rivers and mills frozen, so there was great hunger in the land." He also mentions high taxes and exorbitant rents, but discounts the frequently mentioned religious reasons, "The 1709 group did not appear to be that strict in adhering to their own religions. They were religious, but frequently baptisms of members of Lutheran families were found recorded in Catholic church books. Johannes Heiner, a strong Lutheran leader in New York, is an example. His baptism in GE is recorded in a Catholic church book and his marriage appears in a Reformed church record. There are lists of Palatines, said to be Catholics, who were returned to Holland from London when the emigration became too large. These lists of 'Catholics returned to Holland' have been published in Knittle's book and elsewhere. We have traced some of these families; some were Reformed and some were Lutheran. Others actually were Catholic. Their religion was not the essential point." Of course, many records did not survive. One book survived World War II only to be burned by the pastor to cook his meal!

Mr Jones writes that a "Golden Book" was published that presented a very magical view of America, and was spread often by ministers. Petitions to emigrate often tried to find out who was advising people to leave with "trick questions." "How did you first come upon the idea of leaving Germany?" "Poverty, to improve the way of life, the high price of bread, etc" "Where will you get the means for your journey?" "Sell all my possessions, sell my animals, etc." "Who did you receive advice from?" "No one-- my own decision." He feels the most important factor may well have been the spirit of adventure.

Whether the reason was any of this, or his wife's death, we don't know, but John Conrad sold his property to his already-married eldest daughter and took the surviving eight children to London, from which they embarked several months later. The ships floated around in various English harbors from December 1709 until April 1710, when 3 warships and Robert Hunter, NY governor, joined the group and began the crossing. Conditions were dreadful and many died. Their vessel, the Lyon, landed at New York on June 13, 1710, with nine other vessels full with 800 other families, who had fled down the Rhine valley to Rotterdam, and then across to London to escape the ravages and persecutions of Louis XIV, the Catholic, had let loose on Protestant Germany after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The poor of London had come to resent them deeply, and that's why many of the immigrants were rushed off to New York to serve as a buffer against the French, a Protestant buffer, and as suppliers of naval stores.

There, about 2400 souls of the original 4000 who started the trip made it to quarantine on Governor's Island in Manhattan. About 250 more people died there, and were buried on Governor's Island. The English insisted that older children be indentured to settled residents, so John Conrad's two children George Frederick and Christopher Frederick were bound out by the governor to Long Island. The remaining Palatine immigrants were bound to produce tar from the pitch of pine trees at camps near the Hudson River, about 100 miles north of New York City. Eventually, there came to be the East Camps (really four small villages of Annesbury, Queensbury, Haysbury and Hunterstown, with a joint population of 1189), and the West Camps (614 people in 3 villages). It is doubtful if there are that many people there today, according to Elaine B Liepshutz, in The Palatine Camps of 1710! The settlers were divided into five villages at first, and John Conrad was the head of Queensbury. As such, he voiced the complaints of his fellowmen before Governor Robert Hunter, who was caught in an impossible situation: the trees could produce no tar, the overseer of the Palatines (Robert Livingston) was a scoundrel, and the Germans expected better conditions-- plenty of food (all provisions were issued from Manor warehouses) and land of their own. Even children walked the three miles to the pine forests to work, picking up fallen knots from trees.

This Robert Livingston (1654-1728) and his Dutch wife Alida Schuyler (m.1679 then the 22 year old widow of Nicholas Van Rensselaer, b.Albany, a literate business woman) felt they were too old for all this business of providing for the Palatines, but the opportunity to get settlers for the area was a wonderful piece of luck. On 9/29/1710 the Livingstons sold Gov. Hunter 6000 acres for about the price they had paid the Indians in 1683. Their profit on the deal was the tidy parcel of thousands of acres they had left for themselves. Dr Lawrence Leder, the foremost authority in this area says Livingston " was a successful man of his time." Elaine Liepshutz agrees, calling him ambitious, grasping, hard-working and a good husband and father, coming to AlbanyNY in 1674 with very little money, having spent 11 of his 20 years in Rotterdam. In 1710, their conglomerate business enterprise consisted of a store and home in Albany, a store and a home in New York, and growing complex of farms on their lands on Livingston Manor. The manor house was built before 1694, and added to in 1698. In the spring of 1710, Robert had craftsmen build and launch a small river sloop named "Caledonia." By the time the Palatines arrived, there was a grist mill, a saw mill, a brew house, and a bake house in operation. The warehouses were stocked with trade goods, and they did both a wholesale and retail business. Most of what we knew of Livingston had been written by his political enemies. Governor Fletcher, his political foe, called him "ye vilest man that ever lived-- a great scoundrelle. A man of such vile principales, from sucking any more blood of the Provinces, for he has been a very sponge to it...never disbursing 6 pence but with expectation of 12 pence, his beginning being but a little bookkeeper, yet he has screwed himself into one of the most considerable estates in the Province." Liepshutz says," the financial affairs of 18th century colonial governments make the recent Watergate mess look like child's play. Robert loaned money to the government and expected to be repaid. I suspect he padded his bills by about 25%, knowing the Lords of Trade would be expecting about a 25% donation to process his accounts." The Palatine Livingston Manor (called Loewenstein in John Conrad's German) is not LivingstonManor New Jersey of today. It is the southern third of Columbia County, on the east bank of the Hudson, about 110 miles north of New York City.

A military campaign in 1711 became the climactic point. Our Germans considered the Catholic French their arch-enemies, and Louis XIV the cause of all their troubles. Several hundred joined the Expedition of 1711 in a proposed expedition against Canada. They spent the better part of the summer training about Albany and Lake George instead of farming. Fortunately, this expedition showed the men the vast amount of land available and taught them to use guns, so that survival later in Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys was possible. When the Palatine contingent (one of whose captains was John Conrad) returned from a futile march into northern New York, they discovered their famlies nearly starved. Weiser led the complaint and Hunter lost his temper, shouted at the Palatines, and sent a company of soldiers to disarm them, fearing a revolt. August 1712, political opponents of Hunter gained the upper hand, and he released them to go where they pleased as long as they returned in the spring to work. 9/6/1712 he announced that they would not be provided for in the future. No stores for the winter; would their children starve?

John Conrad was one man deputized by the Germans to seek land at Schoharie, about 50 miles W of Albany. After some time, 150 families packed their meager possessions and settled there in villages, or "dorfs," one of which bore the name Weisersdorf, and is today known as Middleburgh. (It is ironic that the 63 families that decided to stay, finding employment and help where they could, did receive deeds to their lands by the 1740's. An almost feudal system developed with others, on tenant farms on Livingston's and other landed gentry Manors. "Agrarian conflicts" were common until 1840 cure with the ballot box. Most of the ball and shot in the French and Indian War was manufactured an Livingston Iron Furnace in AncramNY. Robert was firmly for the Rebellion in 1776, so many Palatines were at first Tory agents, being promised 200 acres of land free, but fought against the British in the end. The four small villages Conrad left behind became GermantownNY. Clues of the Palatines are still everywhere, in street names, churches, and the names of present-day inhabitants.)

Back to our ancestors, since the 150 families were squatters, it was inevitable there would be trouble. When the Governor sent an agent to make deeds for the Palatines, they so mistreated him out of suspicion that the government eventually granted the land to others, one of whom, Adam Vroman, arrived in 1715. Evidently the two Weisers (this John Conrad and his son, John Conrad Jr) made conditions so miserable for Vroman that he petitioned Governor Hunter for aid. A warrant was placed the hands of the justices of the peace in Albany and Dutchess Counties for John Conrad's arrest. The Palatines resolved to send Weiser, William Scheff and Gerhart Walrath to Philadelphia and then to London to appeal to King George I, a fellow German. Attacked and stripped by pirates enroute, the ship had to put into Boston for new supplies. Then the three men contracted so many debts in London that they were thrown into prison. Walrath, homesick afterward, sailed for New York but died before reaching his destination. Scheff returned to New York toward the end of 1721 but died soon, within 6 weeks of his homecoming. John Conrad stayed behind, seeking in vain to establish the Palatine's rights. After five years, Nov 1723, he returned to America, only to find the colony scattered. (--Knittle p.204)

The remaining years of his life found him in several places, never settled down, always following some scheme. He tried to purchase lands on the Delaware, but ran afoul of the Proprietors of Pennsylvania. Late in life, after many years of silence toward his family, John Conrad was discovered in upstate New York, not too far from Livingston Manor, his first home there. Conrad, his son, visited him and when conditions became to dangerous, sent his two sons to bring him to Pennsylvania in May 1746.

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg wrote of John Conrad's last days:

 

" He was so worn out by his long journey that he was carried into my house almost dead. After he had lain in bed for 24 hours and had taken some nourishment, he came to himself again and began repeating in broken words the hymn: Schwing dich auf zu deinem Gott...His eyes were almost dark and his hearing gone, so that I could not converse with him. But I could not withhold my tears when I heard him repeating over and over the great texts relating to the blessed attonement in Christ, such as: Himself took our infirmities...to which he added companion texts, such as: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden...

"My father-in-law meanwhile sent a wagon with a bed and had him brought fifty miles farther to his home, and when he had given us his blessing, had with great difficulty reached his destination, and had lived for a short space longer with his Joseph in Goshen, he fell asleep at last amid the heartfelt prayers and tears of the children and grandchildren who stood around him, after having been between eighty and ninety years on his pilgrimage."

 

He died May 1746 in Berks CoPA, and there is widespread belief that he is buried at Zion, or Reed's Cemetery, near StouchsburgPA, but there is no reason to doubt that he might have been buried, instead on the Weiser farm, now Weiser Park, at Womelsdorf.

The home of John Conrad Weiser is standing in Gross Aspach, Germany, as of 1960.

 

 

marriage and family

He married first in 1686 at Gross Aspach,GE Anna Magdalena Ubelen, and they were the parents of likely fifteen children, of whom thirteen are known by name. Anna had been born in 1666 in Gross-Aspach Germany, and May 1, 1709 Anna died there suddenly due to an attack of the gout while pregnant for the fifteenth time, being buried there May 4 (Ancestral File ver 4.02 c.1987,1990 by Corporation of the President of the CChurch of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, all rights reserved, at the Fort WayneIN public library). He left the next month for America. Anna's parents were Hanna Johannas Uebele (b.1640) and Anna Catherine (b.1644).

He had married a second time, in the spring of 1711, Anna Margaret Miller, and they had three children. Of her life, little is known.

 

John Conrad Weiser

(Anna Magdalena Ubelin)

1. Maria Catharina b.1686 m.5/19/1705 Hans Conrad BOSS, son of Jerg Zacharias Boss

This is the daughter to whom John Conrad sold his possessions when he left for America. She

died 2/26/1761, according to Ancestral File.

2. Anna Margarete b.1689 Gross-AspachGE d.9/1748 New Jersey, unmarried (Ancestral File)

3. Anna Magdalena b.1692 Gross-AspachGE m.John DeLong

4.Maria Sabina b.1694 Gross-AspachGE

5.John Conrad b.11/2/1696 (our ancestor-- see below)

6.George Frederick b.1697 Gross-Aspach GE m.1764 Scudder & Rebecca Udall

7.Christopher Frederick b.2/24/1699 G-A GE m.1721Elizabeth&CatherineRoederKnass d.6/16/1763

A.Jacob (b.922/1736 d.1/1808 Tulpehocken)

(Anna Elizabeth Walborn)p.Johann Hermanus W. grandp. our 5 grandp Hans Adam--

see the chapter on the Walborn branch of our family tree

8.Anna Barbara b.10/17/1700 Gross-AspachGE m. 1722 SchenectadyNYNicholas Pickert or Pickard

9.John Frederick b.6/25/1702 Gross-AspachGE d.7/2/1702

10.Rebecca b.6/6/1703 d.6/8/1704

11.John Frederick b.2/27/1705 GE d.12/1710 LivingstonManor,NY (AF: b.2/23/1705 d.12/1711)

12.Erhard Frederick b.6/11/1706 Gross-AspachGE d.11/29/1707

13.Rebecca b.6/11/1706 Gross-AspachGE d.1709

(Anna Margaret Miller)

14.Jacob

15.Rebecca m.Klein

16.John Frederick b.11/14/1713 m.Henrick (Hummer)

 

We know that one of the sisters married a Mr Picket, because Conrad Weiser Jr in his autobiography recommended their son for learning the Mohawk language in 1750.

 

 

 

8-greats-grandfather Johann Conrad Weiser

 

The John Conrad Weiser Family Association of 425 George St in HanoverPA 17331 copyrighted in 1976 "the greatest treasure owned by the John Conrad Weiser Family Association," the diary of John Conrad compiled by Johan Friedrich Weiser (1775-1840), his great-grandson. It was written in a booklet of over forty pages and apparently descended through the family of Frederick, Conrad's son, to Isaac Womelsdorf (1813-1882), a great-great-grandson, where it was found and published by Hiester H Muhlenberg MD in Collections of the Historical Society of PA 1853, and by Clement Zwingli Weiser (1830-1898) a Reformed clergyman descendant, in The life of (John) Conrad Weiser, the German Pioneer, Patriot, and Patron of Two Races (Reading 1876, and secondly in 1899). The original manuscript was passed by Isaac Womelsdorf to his sister Sarah Souders of Tamaqua, to Howell Souders then in 1945 to Mrs Howell Souders of Philadelphia. No one knows where it is today, but copies were made, and Johan Friedrich Weiser received one.

Johan Friedrich Weiser moved to Ohio in1806 settling near Delaware in 1816, where John Frederick Weiser's Book remianed with his descendants until one, Florence Weiser Harger (1902-1964) presented it to the Association in 1960.

 

[page one] John Frederick Weiser's Book

Containing a Summarized Autobiography

Of the Honorable

Conrad Weiser

Together With His Ancestry

From the Year 1696

 

[page two is blank]

 

[page three] "On Nov. 2, 1696, I, Conrad Weiser, was born in Europe, in the land of Wurttemberg, in the county of Herrenberg; the village is called Astodt [Astaet], and I was christened at Kupingen, nearby, as my father has informed me. I say that on Nov. 2, 1696 I was born.

"My father's name was John Conrad Weiser. My mother, Anna Magdalena, nee Ublin [Ubelen is the old Swabian name of Conrad Weiser's mother's family. Whoever wrote the copy here assumed that the name was Ubel and added the German feminine ending "-in"]. My grandfather Jacob Weiser, my great-grandfather also Jacob Weiser, magistrates in the village of Grossaspach, inthe District of Backnang, also situated in the country of Wurtemberg. My ancestors, from very old times were born in the above-named village and lie buried there, on my father's as well as my mother's side"

 

[page 4] Psalm 139:14-17, Is 63:16, Mt 6:9-10 written out, in German of course.

 

[page 5] "In the year 1709 my mother departed to eternity on the 1st day of May in the 43rd year of her age, when she was with her 16th child. She left the children, Catharina, Margareta, Magdalena, Sabina, Conrad, George Frederick, Christoph, Barbara, Johann Frederick, and was there buried by the side of her ancestors. She was a pious woman, beloved by her neighbors. Her motto was: Jesus to thee I live, to thee I die, thine I am in death or life.

 

[page 6] Psalm 25:16-22

 

[page 7] "In the above named year, namely 1709, my father moved away from Grossaspach, on the 24th of June. He took eight children with him. My oldest sister Catharina remained there with her husband, Conrad Boss, with whom she had already two children. My father left them his house, fields and meadows, vineyards and gardens. They could raise no more than 75 guilders. The rest amounting to 600 guilders my father was to get later, but it was never done and is now presented to them."

 

[page 8] Lamentations 5:19-21, Psalm 106:47

 

[page 9] "After about two months we landed in London, England, with a few thousand Germans whom Queen Anna of most honorable mermory received and supplied with food. About Christmas we were loaded, ten ships full, about 4000 souls, for America. On the 13th of June we came to anchor in New York, North America, and in the fall of the same year were placed on Loewenstein's Manor at the expense of the Queen Anna."

 

[page 10] Ps 107:2-5,8,43

 

[page 11] "Here in Livingstone or as we High Germans say, Loewenstein's Manor, we were to burn tar and cultivate hemp to renumerate the Queen for the passage from Holland to England and from England to New York. [We were] under the direction of Commissaries as: Johann Cast, Heinrich Meyer, Reichard Seuhot, who were placed over us by Robert Hunter, Governor of New York. Nothing would succeed, however, and the people were declared free and released in one year, 1713. Then the people separated into the province of New York. Many remained there.

 

[page 12] "Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: and the high German people in New York. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. They have ploughed upon my back; they have made long their furrows. Ps 129:1-3. Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it. Ps 127:1

 

[page 13] "Nearly 150 families resolved to move to Schochary, a place about 50 English miles to the west of Albany. They sent deputies to the Maqua Land to confer about it with the Indians, who allowed them to settle at Schochary because of their Indian deputy, who was in England while the German people lay in tents on the Black Heath, had presented this Schochary to Queen Anna to settle this people on it. The Indian Deputies were sent to direct the Germans to Schochary. My father was the first among the German deputies.

 

[page 14] Ps 61:8,10 In November 1713, after the above mentioned deputies returned from the Maqua Land to the Lewenstein Manor, the people moved the same fall to Albany and Schenectady, so as to move to Schochary the next spring. Bread was extraordinarily expensive. The people worked hard to earn their daily bread, but the inhabitants were

 

[page 15] very sympathetic and did these newly-arrived Germans much good although the evil-minded were also not lacking. My father arrived the same fall in Schenectady and stayed during the winter with a man by the name of Johannes Meinderten. A chief of the Maqua Nation by the name of Quainant visited my father, and they decided that I should go with Quainant into his land in order to learn the Maqua language.

 

[page 16] Ps 41:1, 42:2-4

 

[page 17] "I went with him and arrived toward the end of November in Maqua Land and had to lodge with the Indians. I had to suffer much from the severe cold for I was but poorly clothed. Toward spring I suffered much from hunger because the Indians had nothing more to eat. One bushel of corn costs from 5 to 6 shillings. The Indians were at that time also very cruel in their drunkenness, so that I often had to hide myself from fear of the drunken Indians.

 

[page 18] Ps 44:17-18,25-26

 

[page 19] "In the spring my father moved from Schenectady to Schohary with about 150 families in great poverty. One borrowed a horse here and another borrowed a cow there, a harness for plow, with it they hitched together and broke up so much land so that the next year they had almost corn enough to eat. During the year we suffered much hunger, however, and the people made many a meal with wild potatoes and strawberries which grow there in large quantities. Potatoes are called by the Indians ochnanada, and strawberries, otgraquara.

 

[page 20] "Who cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper roots for their meat. They are driven forth from among men, they cried after them as after a thief. To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth and in the rocks. " Job 30:4-6 "In those days there was no king in Israel; but every man did that which was right in his eyes." Judges 17:6

 

[page 21] "If we wanted flour we had to go about 35 or 40 miles for it and to get it we had to beg it on credit; then one got a bushel or two here and the other there of wheat and often had to be three or 4 days from home before we arrived with our own people, who waited meanwhile with pain and tears for bread. The people had settled in villages of which were seven. The first and nearest to Schenectady was called 1.Kneskerndorf. 2. Gerlachsdorf 3.Fuchsendorf. 4. Hans George Schmidsdorf. 5. Weisers or Brunnendorf. 6.Hardtmansdorf. 7.Oberweisersdorf. After the deputies who were sent from Lovenstein's Manor to the Maqua Land.

 

[page 22] Ge 11:5-8

 

[page 23] "Towards the end of July I came again from the Indians to my father. I had made a good beginning, or had learned the greater part of the Maqua language. One English mile from my father's house lived some Maqua families. Then there were often some of the Maqua on their hunting trips in trouble and there was much to interpret but without pay. There was no one else to be found among our people who understood the language. I therefore mastered the language completely, as much as my years and other circumstances permitted.

"Here the people lived for a few years without preacher and without government, generally in peace. Each one did what he thought was right.

 

[page 24] "And the Canaanite was then in the land." Ge 13:7

"About this time I became very sick and thought I had to die and would gladly have died, for my stepmother was a stepmother indeed. On her representation I was treated very severely by father, had besides no other friend, and had to suffer hunger and cold. I had often decided to run away but by this sickness the bridle and bit were laid in my mouth, I was bound as it were with a rope to obedience and to stay with my father. I said above that my father migrated as a widower from

 

[page 25] Germany and landed with 8 children in New York in 1710. There my two brothers George Frederick and Christopher Frederick were bound out by the Governor to Long Island, with permission of my father who was sick at the time. The following winter, namely in December, my youngest brother Johann Frederick, died about the sixth year of his age and was buried in Lovenstein's Busch as we said then. He was the first who was buried in the church yard where the Reformed church now stands.

 

[page 26] Job 33:23-24, 27-28 Ps 38:9

 

[page 27] Ps 119:9, 28, 52, 176 Job 19:7

 

[page 28] Ps 129:3 Hosea 13:9

 

[page 29] "In the year 1711 my father married my stepmother of whom I have just written. It was an unfortunate marriage and caused that my brothers and sisters were all scattered. And at last I was alone with him, besides the three children he had with my stepmother, namely John Frederick and Jacob Weiser and Rebecca. Everything else went backward too and one misfortune after another came over our family, of which I took my share at all times. Often I knew not where to go and I learned to sigh to God and the Bible became to me a very acceptable book.

 

[page 30] "To come back to Schohary, the people had taken possession of it without informing the Governor of New York, who after he showed them his disapproval, sold the land of Schohary to seven rich merchants, of whom four lived in Albany and the other three in New York. The names of those in Albany were: Meindort Schyler, John Schyler, Robert Liwingstein, Peter von Brughen. Those in New York were: George Klerk at the time Secretary, Doctor Slands, Kip von Dam; whereupon arose a great cry in Schohary and Albany because in Albany many people desired that the poor people should keep the land.

 

[page 31] "The people in Schochary divided into two parties, the strongest party would not submit but preferred the land, and sent deputies to England therefore to obtain from King George the First not only Schochary but more land for the other High Germans. It did not go according to their wish, for first the three deputies had to depart secretly. They took ship therefore in Philadelphia in 1718 and as soon as they got on the open sea ran into the hands of pirates, who took their money as well as that of the people of the ship, and then let them go. My father, who was one of the deputies, was bound three times and but

 

[page 32] would confess to no money. At last William Schaf, the other deputy, said to the pirates: you men, this man and I had one purse and I have given it to you, he can give you nothing, thereupon they let him in peace. They had to run into Boston to buy provisions in the place of those which the pirates had taken from them. When they arrived in England they found the times changed, nor did a Queen Anna rule any more, but they found a very few of the old benefactors, among whom were two gentlemen, Boem and Robert, Preacher of the German Castle Chapel.

 

[page 33] "These did all they could. The matter of the deputies came at last before the Lord Commissioners of Trade and Plantation. The governor of New York, Robert Hunter, was cited home; in the meantime the deputies got into debt. Walrach, the third deputy, got homesick, boarded a ship for New York and died on the ocean. The other two were thrown into prison. They wrote in good time for money but the lack of understanding, and dishonesty of those who should forward the money which the people had brought together, caused the money to come to England very slowly. Meanwhile Robert Hunter arrived in England, settled his difficulties, and had ac-

 

[page 34] counted for what he had done to Schohary before the Lords of Trade. His opponents were in prison, had neither friends nor money. When at last a draft of 70 pounds sterling arrived they wre released from prison again and renewed their appeal. At last they effected an order on the newly arrived Governor of New York, by the name of Burnet, to give to the High German people who had been sent to New York by Queen Anna of blessed memory the land which had not yet been given away.

"Toward the end of the year 1720 this William Burnet arrived in New York. At the beginning of 1721 I was sent to this above named Governor to give him a peti-

 

[page 35] tion. He showed himself friendly and told me of the order of the Lords of Trade he had brought with him, which he had resolved to live up to. Our deputies were yet in England and were not satisfied with the decision, but accomplished nothing more. Toward the end of this year, 1721, Schaff had become dissatisfied with my father and came home since they both had hard heads. At last in November 1723 my father also came home. Schaff had died 6 weeks after his arrival. Governor Burnet gave those few who wanted to settle on land of the Maqua

 

[page 36] nation patents, namely for land on Stony Arabia and above the Fall, but none on the river, as the people had hoped. Therefore they separated, most of them moved to the Maqua land or stayed in Schohary and bough land from the above named seven gentlemen. The people received word of the land at the Schwadara and Tolpenhaken in Pennsylvania. Many of them came together, cut a way from Schochary to the Susquehanna and brought their good hither and made canoes and journeyed down to the mouth of the Swatara Creek and drove their cattle overland which happened in the spring of 1723. Thence they came to Tulpehocken and this was the beginning of Tulpehocken and settle-

 

[page 37] ment. Later others followed and settled there, at first also without permission of the owner of the land or his commissaries, also against the will of the Indians, for the land had not yet been purchased from them. There was no one among the people who could govern them: each one did as he wished and their stubbornness stood in their way up to this hour. I will now leave them and describe my own circumstances.

 

[page 38] "Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?" Amos 3:6 Ps 104:25-27 "Lord in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them." Is 26:16 "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me." Ps 50:15 "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?" Je 22:23

 

[page 39] "In the year 1720 when my father went to England I married my Anna Eva, and the Rev. Johann Frederick Heger, Reformed Preacher, united us on the 22nd November in my father's house in Schohary. On the 7th of September 1722 my son Philiph was born and baptized by Johann Bernard von Dueeren, Lutheran preacher. His sponsors were Philiph Braun and his wife. On the 14th of January 1725 my daughter ANna Magdalena was born and was baptized by Johan Jacob Oehl, Reformed Preacher. The sponsors were Christian Bauch junior and my sister Barbara.

 

[page 40] "On the 24th June 1727 my daughter Maria was born and was baptized by Wilh. Christian [sic; should be Christoph] Birkenmeyer, Lutheran preacher. Sponsors were Nicolous Feg and his wife. On the 24th of December 1728 my son Friederich was born. He was baptized by Johann Bernhard von Duhren, Lutheran Preacher. Sponsors were Nicholous Feg and his wife. These four were born to me at Schohary. In 1729 I moved to Pennsylvania and settled at Tulpehocken where the following children were born to me, namely

"On the 27th of February 1730 my son Peter was born.

 

[page 41] "The 15th of February 1731 two sons were born to me, who were named Christoph and Jacob: the first lived 15 weeks and the second 13 weeks; when they were released from the evil of this time and departed into blessed eternity. On the 19th of June 1732 my daughter Elisabeth was born to me. On the 28th of January 1734 my daughter Margaretha was born. On the 23rd of April 1735 my son Sameul [sic] was born. On the 18th of July 1736 another son was born to me. I named him Benjamin. When he was three months old the kind Providence of the Almighty God took him away and in the same year my daughter Elisabeth also died. May the merciful God give me them again to the honor of His Glory.

 

[page 42] "On the 11th of August 1740 again a son was born to me. We named him Jabez. The mercy of God released him from the evil of this time when he had lived 17 days.

"On the 27th of February 1742 again a daughter was born to me. I named her Hanna. On the following 11th of August she departed into the blessed eternity. On the 16th of March of this same year my beloved daughter Magdalena departed from time to eternity with a gentle death after a long continued sickness. Her faith, trust and confidence was in the crucifed Savior Jesus Christ, to whom she had given herself in healthy days, with body and soul unto eternal chastity.

 

[page 43] "On the 12th of August 1744 my son Benjamin was born to me.

"Conrad Weiser died on the 13th [of July] 1760.

"Anna Eva died on the 11th of June 1781.

"Help, oh Lord, that I succeed,

If the horror word of death,

As the most horrid of things,

Presses me with decomposition,

Oh God, at that time,

Let your comfort fall on me,

That my death may be a changing,

But not my end."

He writes that he was baptized at Kuppingen, but no entry there exists to record this fact, perhaps a pastoral oversight, as there are numerous other gaps.

Conrad emigrated to America in 1710 with his father, and shortly thereafter was placed in the hands of the Mohawk Indians. From them he acquired the knowledge of Indian words, and ways which launched him on the career that has made his name known in the annals of Pennsylvania and national history of the colonial era.

He did not go with the first migration of some thirty families (History of Bethel & TulpehockenTwps says 16 families) in the spring of 1723 to Pennsylvania, but it did include our greats-grandfather Sebastian Fisher, and such familiar family-tree names as John Baltzer Anspach, John Godfrey Fidler, John Lantz, the John Leonard, George & Peter Ried families, Anthony Schadt, Conrad Sheetz, Lawrence Zerbe, John Michael Christ, John Peter Pacht, Joseph Sab, John Claus Shaffer, Antonius Scharf and Andrew Walborn. The Tulpehocken had been a part of Chester Co before 1729, then Lancaster Co. The Indians had in 1718 given rights to William Penn for a large area, but the upper boundary was the Lechay Hills (South Mountains) near the Schaefferstown, Newmanstown area of LebanonCo. The Indians had observed the early settlers trespass upon their rightful land in 1723 but took no action. Individual families trickled in (greats-grandfather Martin Batdorf, greats-grandfather Peter Feg, greats-grandfather John Adam Walborn, Leonard Feg, Martin Barren, Philip Brown, John Cons, Conrad Culpman, John Conrad Diffenbach, John Michael Emerich, John Enterfelt, John George Fay, John Forrer, Jacob Frayman, Michael Ernst Herner, John George Hiene, Peter and Jacob Klopp families, Jacob Kobel, John Adam and George Lesch families, John Michael Meiser, John Moor, Nicholas Neff, Jacob Perker-Berger, Nicholas Riem, Casper and Leonard Ried families, Nicholas Rule, John George Seigner, Frederick, Michael and Nicholas Shaffer families, John Henry Schuchert, John Adams Sheetz, Christopher and John George Stumps families, Martin Stub, Peter Torn, Stephen Wasserschmidt and Martin Zerbe) until five years later another big German group arrived ( greats-grandfather John Philip Schneider, Leonard Anspach, Johan Jacob Hosteiner, Philip Theis, Johannes Noecker, Jacob Werner, Heinrich Six, George Schmidt, George Zeh, Andreas Kapp, Jacob Lowegut, Casper Hohn, Michael Lauer, Jacob Katterman, and Conrad Scharf among others) and they complained 6/5/1728 to the Provincial Council in Philadelphia. The immigrants countered with the following plea:

 

"The petition of us, the subscribers, being thirty-three families in nmuber-- at present inhabiting Tulpaheca creek-- humbly sheweth--

"That your petitioners, begin natives of Germany, about 15 years ago, were by great goodenss and royal bounty of her late majesty, Queen Anne, relieved from the hardships which they then suffered in Europe, and were transported into the colony of New York, where they settled. But their families increasing and being in that government confined to the scanty allowance of ten acres of land to each family, whereon they could not well subsist, your petitioners, being informed of the kind reception which their countrymen usually met within the Province of Pennsylvania, and hoping they might, with what substance they had, acquire larger settlements in that province, did last year leave their settlements inNew York government and came with their families into this province, where, upon their arrival, they applied themselves to his excellency, the Governor, who of his great goodness permitted them to inhabit upon Tulphaca creek (being the farthest inhabited part of the province NW from Philadelphia) on condition that they should make full satisfaction to the proprietor or his agents for such lands as should be alloted them when they were ready to receive the same. And now your petitioners, understanding that some gentleman agents of the proprietor, have ample powers to dispose of lands inthis province, and we, your petitioners, being willing and ready to purchase, do humbly beseech your excellency and council to recommend us to the favorable usage of the proprietor's agent, that upon paying the usual prices for lands at such a distance from Philadelphia, we may have sufficient rights and titles made to us for such lands as we shall have occassion to buy, that our children may have some settlement to depend on hereafter, and that by your authority we may be freed from the demands of the Indians of that part of the country, who pretend a right thereto. And we humbly beg leave to inform your excellency and council that there are fifty families more who, if they may be admitted upon the same conditions are desirous to come and settle with us. We hope for your favorable answer to this, our humble request, and as in duty bound, shall ever pray."

 

The Provincial Council did agree that the area allotted by the Governor for the settlement of the Tulpehocken area did indeed lay beyond the boundaries of the land purchased from the Indians in 1718. The Indians were asked not to offer the settlers any violence, but to wait till such time as the situation could be corrected. The proceedings, however, could not stop the German immigration into the area, and as a result in 1732 the Indians sold the lands in the entire valley and moved beyond the Blue Mountain. With this purchase, the area was quickly settled primarily by immigrants from Germany, Switzerland, France and some Holland Dutch. These people intermarried and became known throughout the world as "Pennsylvania Dutch."

Conrad had waited until 1729, bringing his family of four children. This late arrival explains why he took up land at about the eastern extremity of what is really the heart of the Tulpehocken.(The word "Tulpehocken" is from the Indian tribe Tulpewihacki, meaning "the land abounding with turtles." The area takes in eastern Lebanon, and western Berks Counties.) His SchoharieNY neighbors, Mr and Mrs Philip Brown, chanced to be his neighbors again. They had been sponsors of his first child's baptism. By the time he arrived, he found roads, clearings, a school, and a church. His SchoharieNY pastor, Rev John Bernhard Von Duehren, came once or twice yearly to supply these people with preaching at their already-organized Lutheran congregation.

The first summer he put up a rude shack while his stone cottage was being erected near a spring, on about 1000 acres, near the roadway built a few years before "to begin at the Lutheran Meeting House on the Tulpehocken and to end in ye High Road at ye Quaker Meeting House near George Boone's Mill in Oley." He literally lived by the side of the road, and became a friend to red men going by in their rovings, and white settlers in their neighborhood traffic, able to talk to the Indians, the Germans, and the English provincial officials, surveyors and mapmakers.

In 1731, Shelilammy, the chief of the Six Nations Federation, with headquarters at Shamokin, now Sunbury, persuaded him to accompany him to the provincial council at Philadelphia, where Weiser's employment as Provincial Indian Interpreter and Agent began.

One of the most bizarre chapters in Conrad's life was the period he spent trying to live as a monk at the Ephrata Cloister across the mountain in Lancaster County. Many of the old buildings there, restored by the commonwealth. Conrad's disposition -- and Anna Eva-- eventually dulled his aspiration to celibacy, and he wa soon back in the thick of provincial affairs.

History of Bethel and Tulpehocken Townships c.1976 by the Historical Committee of NW Berks Bicentennial Committee, Boyer Printing Co, LebanonPA records:

"Indeed it was quite a peaceful region, the area between Bethel and the first ridge of the Blue Mtns when the white man first settled here in the 1730's. It had a few scattered farms cleared by early German settlers who dwelt in peace and harmony with the local Indians, the Tulpehockens, who were a friendly, gracious and concerned tribe.

"This friendliness continued for the early white man, and it was further inspired by Brother Penn, as the Indians called the founder of PA, who tried to deal fairly with them, which unfortunately was not always the case after him.

"The early settlers of NW Berks, then Lancaster, were the frontier of Penn's Woods in the 1730 decade Diedrich Six was one of the first to cultivate a farm at the foot of the mtn along the trail leading from the intersection of the Indian paths from Sunbury and Orwigsburg. This same trail became the Tulpehocken Path by which the Indians of the North (Sunbury and beyond) traveled to Philadelphia to visit Brother Onas (Penn) for detente with him.

"Penn and his heirs were constantly entreating with the Indians endeavoring to solve the problems, to keep the domain happy and peaceful. Accordingly, as the settlers increased the problems became more numerous, especially due to the white man's impatience, greed, and lack of appreciation, the trail became more frequented.

"In 1737 the Governor of the proprietory sent a man destined to be the saving grace of the colonies on this primeval road for the purpose of establishing good relations with the powerful, honest, and intelligent Indian Sachem, Chief Shikellamy. This man was Conrad Weiser, the peer of Indian interpreters, who knew the Red Man, had good common sense and a deep appreciation of our obligations to him.

"Now in 1737 he passed by the farm of the Sixes on this important mission to the Indian potentate. Fortunately, his mission was successful indeed and the Chief became his lifelong friend and a strong buffer against unfriendly redmen.

"Weiser was a religious man, in fact a Pietist (He spent some time in the Ephrata Cloisters going there with Rev Peter Miller of the Tulpehocken Church) and naturally was concerned about the converting of the Indian. Understandably when Count Ludwig Zinzindorf, Moravian missionary at large, needed someone with interest and interpretive ability, knowledge of the path and a friend of the big chief, he sought Weiser and persuaded him to be his guide and associate. Zinzindorf and his aides would preach and sing; and Conrad would interpret while the Indians listened with awe and profound interest, and some were converted. On the missionary journey of 1742 traveling the path through Tulpehocken and Bethel presumably on horseback they came to the 1600' elevation of the first mountain and they halted for respite at the fresh flowing spring. To this pool the Count gave the fanciful name of Pilger Ruh (Pilgrim's Rest) which can be appreciated after a long climb. To the wilderness beyond he gave the name "Anton's Wald" after Anton Seyfert, a missionary of the party.

"Weiser was to make this journey many times as a missionary for peace, the demand for which service increased wit each succeeding year from 1737 to 1769 (Naturally he stopped at Pilger Ruh).

"France and England had always been bitter rivals in the realm of world conquest and in the year 1755 th eformer wit its paid Indian renegades, mostly the fierce Hurons, caused all peace to vanish at the foot of the Blue Mountains from the Schuylkill to the Susquehanna. Ruthless, most vicious, and contemptible forays by small bands of marauders shooting, scalping, tomahawking, burning, amounting to most awful torturing and destruction, which also included many abductions of women and children, caused tremendous consternation.

"These terrible outrages caused the governor and assembly to act and order the erection of forts from the Schuylkill to the Susquehanna, a chain to protect the vulnerable area. Weiser was commissioned a colonel in command of the first battalion of the PA regiment [October 31 1755, Colonel of the Berks County Regiment, by 5/1756 Lieutenant Colonel of the first Battalian of the PA Regiment with a major, captains, lieutenants, ensigns and five hundred enlisted men under him]; and B. Franklin were ordered to have these forts built immediately. They divided the assignment; Franklin taking the eastern section and Weiser the western. Weiser dispatched his men among the various selected stockade locations and ordered them to erect the forts posthaste..."

 

The first attack by the Indians in this area occurred 11/15/1755, detailed in a letter dated 11/16 from Peter Spyker to Conrad Weiser:

"Conrad Weiser Esq

"John Anspack and Frederick Reed came to me and told me the miserable circumstances

of the people murdered this side of the mountain. Yesterday the Indians attacked the Watch

and wounded him at Derrick Sixth [Dietrick Six], and in that neighborhood great many in that

night. This morning our people went out to see, came about 10 o'clock inthe morning to

Thomas Bower's house finding a man dead killed with a gun shot. Soon we heard a noise of

firing guns. Running to that place, and found four Indians setting on Children scalping, 3 of

the children are dead, and 2 are alive the scalps are taken off; hereafter we went to the watch

house of Derrick Sixth where the Indians first attacked, finding 6 dead bodies, 4 of them

scalpt, about a mile this side the Watchhouse as we went back the Indians set fire to a Stable

and Barn, where burnt the corn, cows, and other creatures, where we found 7 Indians, 5 in

the house eating their dinner and drinking rum which was in the house and 2 outside the

house, we fire to them but in vain, the Indians have burnt 4 Plantations more the above

account told me. Peter Anspack, Jacob Caderman, Christopher Noacre, Leonard Walborn

told me in the same manner.

"Now we are in great danger for to lose our lives or Estates. Pray therefore for help, or

else the whole of Tulpehocken will be ruined by the Indians in a short time, and all building

will be burnt down and people scalped, therefore you will do all haste to get people together

to assist us. The Assembly can see by this work how good and fine friends the Indians are to

us, we hope their eyes will go open and their Hearts tender to us, and the Governor the same,

if they are true subjects to our King George the second, of Great Britain, or are willing to

deliver us in the hands of these miserable Creatures.

I am your friend, Peter Spycker."

 

Conrad Weiser then wrote to Governor Morris:

 

"...On Saturday last about 4 of the clock some men from Tulpehocken were going to Dietrick

Six place under the hill on Shamokin Road to be on the Watch appointed there, they were

fired upon by Indians but one hurt or killed. They ran towards the watch house which was

about one half of a mile off, and the Indians persued them and killed and scalped several of

them. A bold stout Indian came up with one Christopher Ury who turned about and shot the

Indian right thru the breast (Christopher Ury was later to died from wounds received in the

battle) The Indians divided themselves into two parties, some came this way to meet the rest

that was going to the watch and killed some of them, so that six of our men were killed that

day and a few wounded. The night following the Enemy attacked the house of ThomasBower

on Swataro Creek. They came to the house in the Dark night, and one of them put his Fire-

Arm through the window and shot a shoemaker." [Neighbors came to help the Bower Family

and the Indians were scared off. The Bower Family was taken to the home of Daniel Schneid-

er for refuge. The following morning 8 parties of men were sent from Heidelberg and Tulpe-

hocken to assist the settlers] "The first Party saw four Indians running off. They had some

Prisoners whom they scalped immediately, three children lay scalped yet alive, one died since,

the other two are likely to do well. Another party found a woman just expired with a male

child on her side, both killed and scalped. The Woman lay upon her face, my son Frederick

[our Grandfather] turned her about to see what she might have been, and to him and his

companions surprise they found a Babe of about 14 days old under her, wrapped up in a little

cushion, his nose quite flat which was set right by Frederick and life was yet in it and recover-

ed again."

 

"To Fort Henry he dispatched Captain Busse, a physician of Reading, with fifty men to erect the outpost. It was located on the Dietrick Six farm a bit east of the Sunbury road on a small promontory to provide better intelligence. It was built in the forepart of 1756 according to Weiser's diary and letters on hand which had passed on from Six to Franz Umbenhauer, son Peter, George Poll, James Batz and now Mrs. Herman Reber.

"Some recollections of the fort made more than 100 years ago are these: a semi-circular front of 200' in length with a 3' thick stone wall 14' in height surrounded by a stockade inside of which the settlers could take refuge. The pioneers, our forebears, who had to suffer great discomfort and human outrage gave great thanks for this place..."

"...Throughout the entire war in addition to his military command Conrad Weiser continued in his efforts to bring an end to the hostility between the white man and the Indians. Through the efforts of Conrad Weiser, Sir William Johnson and others a Conference with the Indians was held at Easton and after many delays an agreement was finally reached which brough an end to the war in 1758...for 50 years prior to the conflict they had lived in close proximity to the white man. During this time there had been but three conflicts between the races in Berks Co. Two of these skirmishes took place in Amity in 1728 and were conducted by Indians foreign to this area, and another at Cacoosing in 1728 where two white men murdered an Indian man and two women. The white men were captured and punished; and the Indians were given gifts for compensation, thus settling the issue peacefully."

"After all the misery of the war, the fort depreciated so that 100 years ago it was a pile of stones, which also disappeared into the adjoining barns and buildings. James Batz recalled finding many clay pipe remnants and foundation stones as he plowed. Speaking of stones and gazing at the landmark Nose on the mtn NE of the fort, some of the early settlers claimed that the stone chips on the plateau below the promontory indicated that the Indians hewed their arrows, spears, hatchets and tools at that location.

"The Indians called Conrad Weiser Father, and looked to him for protection as did the people of Tulpehocken, Bethel and many more throughout PA and VA."

 

Conrad died 7/13/1760 on his farm at WomelsdorfPA, where he is buried. A sandstone slab marks the spot of his final journey with the inscription "Dieses ist die Ruhe Staette des weyl Ehren geachten M Conradt Weiser. der Selbige gebohren 1696 d 2 November in Astaet im Amt Herrenberg im wittenberger Lande und gestorben 1760 d 13 Julius ist alt worden 64 Jahr 3M 3 wch" or "This is the resting place of the greatly honored respected M Conradt Weiser, the same born..."

His wife survived him until June 11, 1781:

 

"Anno 1781, on the 11th of June, early about 2 o'clock, did the wife and mother Anna Eva Weiser, widow, fall asleep at the home of her son Peter in Womelsdorf Town, and on the 12th of June buried by the old Church" --document quoted by HMM Richards in The Weiser Family (LancasterPA.: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1924), p.27

"...she had lived seventy-six years and the last years she was in wretched circumstances, having lost her sight, suffered a stroke and become helpless." ---The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg ed. Theodore G Tappert and John W Doberstein (Philadelphia: The Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States, 1942-1958), III, p.428, 431.) Muhlenberg was her son-in-law.

 

Possibly she was reinterred at the farm graveyard, next to her husband, but the tombstone which is there and which is frequently accepted as hers, is certainly not accurate for her as it now reads, giving her dates as January 25, 1730 to December 27, 1778. History of Bethel & TulpehockenTwps says they are buried together from which spot "can be seen the mountain, Round Top, which he traveled over so many times in his quest for peace and brotherhood between the white man and the red man...Songs are sung of the exploits of the Indian Fighters Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket, but no one sings the praises of a PEACEMAKER."

"Washington in 1793 at Weiser's grave said-- "Posterity will nver forget his service." Indian Seneca George said-- "We are in great loss and darkness since the death of Conrad Weiser as well as you." (--History of Bethel and Tulpehocken Twps)

 

marriage and family

11/22/1720 at WeisersdorfNY, he married Anna Eva Feck, whose name appears in the same community in Schoharie County that the Weisers inhabited and later as one of the earliest settlers in the Tulpehocken region of Pennsylvania, between May 13,1723 and January 1, 1725.

 

1. Philip b.9/7/1722 SchoharieNY baptized by Rev John Bernhard von Duehren, Lutheran, Mr& Mrs Philip Brown, sponsors. Moved to PA with his father, there m.11/22/1748 on his parents' wedding anniversary Sophia, dau. of Peter Reim "in the old church," ie Reith's Church. Entered Ephrata Cloister as Brother Theobald with his father, farmed his father's land, held title to a lot in Reading (patented to him 7/11/1752, sold to Nicholas Godshall, locksmith 1/29/1759) and to a 139-acre tract on the Swatara, bought from Sheriff Thomas Lincoln 8/9/1759, sons baptized at Christ Church, but contributed to schoolhouse for St Daniel's (the Heidelberg congregation) and was buried at Reith's Church at Womelsdorf. Served the the French & Indian War, with his father, commissioned a "Captain-lieutenant" on 7/3/1756. Christopher is executor in his will.

 

a.Jabeth b.7/3/1753 Womelsdorf. Served as private from 1777 to1780 in the

American Revolution in Capt. Womelsdorf's Company from Berks Co. Took

the oath of allegiance 6/22/17778 d.6/16/1829 Womelsdorf

(Mary Elizabeth Wengert) b. 9/18/1754 d.9/17/1835 m.1775

i.Henry Solomon Weiser b.2/14/1786 Womelsdorf In 1820 in wagon

pulled by two oxen to Mercersburg,FranklinCoPA. Mortally wounded

3/29/1860 there while attempting to arrest one of a drunken gang of

street rioters.

(Elizabeth Shaffer) b.2/16/1791 m.6/21/1807 d.1/10/1878 FtLouden

c.Jacob (b.1/15/1808 i.BendersvillePA),John,Daniel,Samuel,

Jabetz,Geo,Reuben,MrsRebeccaBurkholder,MrsCatharine

Burkholder&MrsElizaSnyer (at whose home Elizabeth

Shaffer Weiser died)

(from AGoodChristianMan:TheStoryOfJacobWeiser c.1952

on the occasion of their reunion at PineGroveFurnacePA)

b.Conrad Weiser, b.8/30/1749, added to the diary kept by his Grandfather Conrad :

 

[page 44] "In 1749 I, Conrad, the fourth generation from the first Weiser who came here to America from Germany, was born, namely the 30th of August in the year 1749 and baptized the 10th of September o fhte same year. My sponsors were Mr. Kurtz, then the preacher in Tulpehocken, and my grandmother Eva Weisern, since my grandfather Johan Conrad Weiser was not at home then, but in Lancaster County.

"1751, April 26, my brother Peter was born and baptized May 16 the same year. His sponsors were Petrus Weiser, my father's brother, and his wife.

 

[page 45] "He was wounded in the last American war, as the Reverlution arose, on the banks of the Brandywine on September 11, 1777, and died as a Lieutenant on September 4, 1779. He was the first who went out as this war began and risked his life for the so-called American freedom. He went at first to Boston as a sargeant.

"1753, July 3, my brother Jaebetz was born and baptized July 23. The sponsors were Peter Riem and Elisabeth Weisern.

"1761, March 27, my father Philiph Weiser died and was buried at the old Tulpehocken Church.

 

[page 46] "1761 December 14, my sister Hanna Philippina was born and baptized the 20th of December.

"1764, October 1, my mother Sophia, born a Rimanin [ie., Riem] died.

"1770, July 25, I, Conrad Weiser, was married to Barbara, born a Beyern, by the English preacher Alexander Mury in Reading Town.

"1771, the 31st of August, my daughter Sophia was born between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon and baptized September 29th. Her sponsors were Johannes Beyer and his wife, the grandfather and [grand]mother.

 

[page 47] "1775, October 31, between 12 and 1 o'clock in the morning my son Johann Friederick was born. His sponsors were Johannes Kobel and his wife.

"1777, in September, another son was born to me, but he died right after his birth."

"1779, March 11, between 7 and 8 o'clock in the evening my son Petrus was born. His sponsors were Benjamin Weiser and his wife Ester.

"1782, March 7, between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon my daughter Hanna Philippina was born and baptized March 29. Her sponsors were Johannes Benistch and his wife.

 

[page 48] "1784, July 21, between or toward 10 o'clock in the evening my daughter Maria Barbara was born and baptized immediately afterwards, namely on July 24. Her sponsors were Benedict Imhoff and his wife.

"1786, September 11, my son Johannes Conrad was born. His sponsors were Conrad Weiser and his wife Elizabeth.

"1789, February 27, my daughter Catharina was born and baptized April 10. Her sponsors were Johannes German and his wife.

 

[page 49] "1791, May 28, towards 10 o'clock in the morning my son Henrich was born and baptized June 5. His sponsors were Henrich Spiker and his wife.

"1793, July 30, a son was born to me. His sponsors were Johannes Keiser and his wife Sussanna, and give him the name Johannes. Died December 10th, of this year, buried in Mittel Taun [Middletown, now Womelsdorf], Heidelberg Twp, BerksCo, by the honorable Emanuel Schultz, Lutheran preacher. His funeral text was Math. c.17, v.4.

"1795, Ocotber 18, my son Petrus died, buried in Penns Twp, Northumberland Co [now Snyder] on my land. His text is John 16 C., v.28. Hymns sung, in the house 'Gute Nacht' etc. In the Church 'Vallet will ich dir geben.'

[page 50] "1796, April 18th, Imoved with my family from Berks Co to NorthumberlandCo, in Penns Township. I had then 8 children living.

"1796, April 23rd, my son Heinrich died, buried on my land by Mr. Fr. John. Kr. [sic] His funeral text was Wisdom of Solomon, 4 C., v.7,10,14.

"1799, January 13, my son Daniel was born at 6:30 in the evening. His sponsors were Daniel ROth and his wife in Penns Twp, NorthumberlandCo.

 

[page 51] "Conrad Weiser, the 4th generation from the Conrad Weiser who came from Germany, and born into this world in the year of our Lord 1749, August 30th, baptized September 10 in the same year. In the year 1770,

 

[page 52] blank

 

[page 53] July 25, Conrad Weiser and Barbara Beyern entered matrimony and produced together 12 children. It pleased the Lord of life and death to transfer Conrad Weiser from time to eternity on the 1 day of February 1803.

 

[page 54] blank

 

 

2. Anna Magadalena b.1/13/1725 d.3/16/1742 during her novitate at Ephrata Cloisters "March 16, of this year, my dear daughter, Madlina, went from time to eternity, through an easy death, after a long and tedious illness. Her faith, consolation and refuge was in the crucified savior, Jesus Christ, whom she had vowed herself to in days of health, with soul and body."

3. Anna Maria b.6/24/1727 m.Muhlenberg

4. Frederick b.12/24/1728 -- our ancestor, see below

5. Peter b.2/27/1730

6. Christopher--twin b.2/15/1731 d.5/1731

7. Jacob--twin b.2/15/1731 d.5/1731

8. Margaret b.1/28/1734 m.Heintzelmann, Fricker

9. Samuel b.4/23/1735 m.Levan

10. Benjamin b.7/18/1736 "...when he was three months old, the care of the Almighty God took him away; the same year my daughter Elizabeth followed him. A merciful God will give them all to me again, to the honor of His glory."

11. Jabez b.8/11/1740 d.8/28/1740 "The mercy of God removed him from the evil of these days when he was 17 days old."

12. Hanna b.2/27/1742 "...the following August 11 she went into a happy eternity."

13. Benjamin b.8/12/1744

14. Elizabeth d.1736

 

Today

 

There is today in the Egner Memorial Chapel at Muhlenberg College in AllentownPA a stained glass window image of Conrad Weiser, although of course no actual portrait of Weiser is known to exist.

 

Today, Eagle's Peak is also known as Conrad Weiser's mountain.

 

Conrad was one of the founders of Reading PA, helping to establish Trinity Lutheran Church there, even writing a hymn for its dedication.

 

The ReadingPA YMCA's Camp Conrad Weiser sits atop the South Mountain and attracts hundreds of boys each year.

 

The site of Conrad's home and store in downtown Reading has been marked by a tablet.

 

The Conrad Weiser monument was erected by P O S of A

 

Feg in-laws

 

The German origins of the Faeg family were 6580 Idar-Oberstein (14km. sw of Kirn; Churchbooks begin 1669, Lutheran).

There had evidently been "a legendary story that she was an Indian maiden, originated because Weiser does not mention her family name and long circulated as a plausible fact," but Anna Eva was the daughter of Peter and Anna Maria (Risch) Feck, also Lutheran 1709er's like the Weisers. Peter arrived in Tulpehocken sometime after 5/13/1723. Feck seems to have been a younger brother of John Feck, another settler of the New York community. John's home is listed in the Kocherthal records as Oberstein, Duchy Nassau-Siegen, but all attempts to locate this community were unsuccessful. Peter Feck wrote a will on 4 February1741/42 which was probated 20 February 1748/49 in which he named his wife and family. In addition to his descendants, the family of his supposed nephew, Leonard Feck, lived in the Tulpehocken Valley. The genealogy of Peter and Anna Maria Feck:

 

Johannes Schneider (origin Idar Oberstein 14 km sw of Kirn; chbks begin 1669 Lutheran)

Nicholas Schneider (m.9/28/1671 i.4/27/1724 as Nicholas Feg, 76y1m3w1d)

(Anna Margaretha Koch) b.1652 d.11/1697 p.Wilhelm(b1615d.9/1674)&Lucia(d.9/29/1679)Koch

AAA.Johannes Feg (b.1670 Oberstine-PalatinateGE m.4/12/1689 arr.NY 1710 in Johan Encrist's ship.

was a soldier in the 1711 Palatine Volunteers to Canada. nat.AlbanyNY 10/11/1715. residents of

WeiserdorfNY in 1717, later moving to Tulpehocken Settlement near StouchsburgPA

(Anna Maria Margaretha Becker) b.10/28/1672 GE p.Martin & Elizabeth Becker Widow by 1745

I. Leonardt Feg ( b.1687 d.2/2/1747 crushed by mill cogwheel m.11/1/1716 WCamp,SchoharieNY.

Will dated 5/23/1743 probated 9/2/1743 PhiladelphiaCoAdmin BkE p.5)

(Anna Catharina Schutz) p.Conrad of Langen-Sellweck, earldom of Isenburg.

c. Johannes, Anna, Anna Margaretha, Maria Barbara Elisabetha Magdalena (m.1745 Leonhard

Noef at Tulpehocken)

II. Anna Margaretha Feg m.5/15/1717

(Michael Reith) b.1698 d.1754

1.Anna Catherine Reith b.6/2/1718

2.Margaretha Elisababetha Reith b.3/29/1721

3.Anna Margaretha Reith b.10/8/1723

4.Anna Magdalena Rieth b.9/12/1725 baptism sponsored by Mr & Mrs Conrad Weiser

5.John Casper Rieth b.2/2/1729 m.Anna Margaretha c.Maria Margaretha b.5/22/1747

6.Elisabetha b.4/13/1730

7.Maria Barbara b.3/13/1732

8.Johann Michael b.12/18/1733

9.Daniel b.2/25/1735

10.Christina Rieth b.6/11/1739

III. Elisabetha Barbara Feg bap.12/25/1693 Idar m.3/31/1714 West Camp, SchoharieNY

(Frantz Finck) p.John Adam of Trabach, commune Birkenfield

IV. Maria Margaretha Feg bap 9/24/1710 NY m.7/20/1728

(Hermanus Wallborn)

1.Anna Elizabeth (b.1/22/1747 d.10/1/1805 Tulpehocken)

(Jacob Weiser)b.9/22/1736 son of Christopher Frederick Weiser, grandson of our grandparent

John Conrad Weiser-- see above, and the Walborn chapter

 

JOHN CONRAD WEISER HANS ADAM WALBORN

(ANNA EVA FEG) (ANNA ELIZABETH FEG)

Christopher Frederick Weiser Johann Hermanus Walborn

Jacob (m.Anna Walborn) Anna (m.Jacob Weiser)

ANNA MARIA WALBORN

(MARTIN BATDORF)

 

V. John Nicholas Feg b.1699 d.6/25/1746

(Margaretha Miller) d.11/1772 SchoharieNY

1.Jacob m.10/31/1749 freeholder at Schoharie in 1763,in CaptThomasAckeson's Co in1767,

will dated 9/17/1797 probated 3/12/1798

(Anna Maria Vroman)

2.Johannes m.2/2/1758 Schoharie also freeholder at S in 1763, also in Capt A'sCo in 1767

(Jannetje Last)

3.Magdalena b.1/24/1727 d.6/24/1746

4.Margaretha b.2/24/1732 d.6/24/1746

5.Cornelius bap 11/1735 Schoharie

6.Maria bap 6/25/1738 Schoharie

7.Elisabetha bap 5/23/1740 Schoharie

8.Peter bap 3/6/1741/2 in Capt Thoma Ackeson's Co in 1767)

VI. Jacob Feg (lived on the Hudson River nat.10/11/1715)

(Anna Maria Dausweber) m.Zacharias Oenmaest 11/7/1724

1.Jacob b.4/11/1716 Pacquee

2.Christina b.5/3/1718 Highland

3.Nicolaus b.3/3/1721 Tapan bap Hackinsack

4.Margaretha b.2/1/1723

BBB.Johann Peter Feg (bap.11/17/1672 d.12/5/1744 m.11/26/1697 Idar a Lutheran 1709er)

(Anna Maria Risch)bap 5/1/1681 p.Johannes (1646-1717)&AnnaMargaretha(1651-5/26/1728) Risch

A Jacob Risch wed Margaretha Petri in a double wedding the same day at Idar, and a notation

mentioned that both couples left here and moved to PA. Another brother?

I.John Leonhard Feck, d.August 1743 m.11/1/1715 Reed's Church, Tulpehocken

(Janiz Van Huss) p.Johannes

(Anna Catharine Schultz) m.Jn Roos

a.Johannes Feck, m.Barbara

b.Anna Margaretha Feck

c.Elizabeth Magdalena Feck, m.1745 Leonhard Noef

d.Anna Feck

e.Maria Barbara Feck

II. Peter Feck, m. 5/2/1743 Reed's Church, Tulpehocken. Will in Heidleburg dated 7/19/1790 and

probated 10/29/1790.

(Christina Karr) p.Johan Jacob Karr

c.Jacob, AnnaMaria,Elisabetha,EvaMagdalena,AnnaCatharina,AnnaMargaretha,Christina

Maria Catharina, Sophia, and Magdalena.

III. Anna Catharina Feck, m.Peter Reith (Reed), who came to Tulpehocken in 1723

IV. Anna Eva Feck, b.1703 (according to Marcia K Slavatore 2937 LeasaCt, MariettaGA 30066) m. John Conrad Weiser, our ancestor

V. Eva Elizabeth Feck m.Fetzin

VI. Elizabeth Feck, b.2/14/1713 Norman'sKill AlbanyNY m. 1729

(Peter Schaffer) b.12/18/1703

a.Johann Nicolaus Schaffer b.11/13/1730

b.Anna Magdalena Schaffer b.12/8/1732 sponsors Mr&MrsPeterFeg

c.Abraham b.5/15/1735 sponsors: his parents

d.Petrus b.12/22/1738 sponsors: his parents

e.Catharina b.9/25/1740

f.Elisabetha b.9/11/1744 bap 10/21/1744 sponsors Mr & Mrs Peter Feg

VII. Anna Margaretha b.12/18/1715 bap 1/22/1716 SchoharieNY

 

A listing of those who fought in the American Revolution, collected at Womelsdorf and marched to South Amboy in New Jersey, participating in the Battle of Long Island Aug/Sep 1776, includes Peter Fegh as a private and a Conrad Weiser as 1st Lt. under Capt. Michael Wolf. Also listed is Andrew Zeller (Frederick Weiser married Amelia Zeller) as fifer under Captain John Lesher. This was the Battalion of Col. John Patton.

 

7-greats-grandfather Frederick Weiser

 

Frederick was born b.12/24/1728 SchoharieNY, baptized by John Bernhart von Duehren, Lutheran, sponsors being Mr & Mrs Niklas Feg. He was only a few months old when his parents migrated to Pennsylvania in 1729. He accompanied his father as far as Sunbury (then Shamokin) on the first state of his journeytoOnadaga in1745, taking the horsesback to Tulpehocken, and again in 1753 went there with his brother Sammy to ascertain any traces of French influences. In October 1755, following a massacre of settlers along Penn's Creek, Frederick and Peter brought their cousins, the Reeds, from along the Susquehanna River near present-day Port Trevorton to the home at Tulpehocken. In November, he is listed as one of the party defending the frontier along the Blue Mountain near Dietrich Six's, according to the disposition of Jacob Morgan, Frederick having scalped the Indian casualties. Muhlenberg comments 6/24/1763 that Frederick "had returned two days previously from the Indian frontier, where he had gone to bring back his cattle which had been sent to graze on his late father's land."

Research had failed to reveal his name on any military roster of the period, as those of his brothers Philip and Samuel, but on the boundaries of one of the land warrants to Arthur Auchmuty, adjoining Weiser land on the Susquehanna River, Frederick is mentioned after his death with the title "Captain."

August 1769 he represented the Weiser family at the Conference at Fort Augusta, Sunbury, to express condolences from the Penns to Seneca George on the murder of young Seneca George. Frederick spoke on behalf of one of his cousins then in jail accused of the murder.

Frederick farmed the 450-acre homestead even before the death of his eldest brother Conrad, and was active in local affairs, contributing to St Daniel's Lutheran Church, receiving as trustee the land for the congregation in 1757. He was also a deacon there. He was Berks County Commissioner 1763 to 1766, and one of the viewers appointed in 1768 to survey the Tulpehocken Path between Reading and Fort Augusta.

Muhlenberg was in Reading in September of 1773 concerning the disposition of Conrad Weiser's will, where he mentioned that Frederick was very sick with dropsy, and suggested that death was expected. He had several "heart-to-heart talks" with Frederick before Frederick died 11/15/1773 at WomelsdorfPA. He was likely buried on the family graveyard, as he requested in his lengthy will.

His wife Anna Amelia continued to live on the homestead until 1791 when their eldest, our ancestor, sold it to Daniel Levan, and moved to Northumberland County. (Mr Levan sold it to Jacob, one of the sons of Christopher Frederick Weiser, a brother of Conrad's. Jacob's son John inherited the land in 1795, and sold off part. Upon his death the farm passed to Jacob Hehn, then to John Sheetz, sometime after 1833. A metorite fell near the new house while it was being constructed there, according to Hehn tradition on 11/13/1833. It then went to John A Sheetz from John Sheetz, then Peter Marashall, John F P Marshall, and upon his death the estate sold it 10/2/15 to L Roy Valentine, now 142 acres. About 25 acres was given conditionally to the Conrad Weser Memoral Park Association, and the rest sold to the Farr Nursery Company). She then spent time with various children, but on 12/17/1801, letters in her estate were granted to Daniel Levan, a friend. The place of her burial is unknown.

 

marriage and family

According to the records of Christ Lutheran Church, he m.12/3/1751 Anna Amelia Zeller, orphan daughter of John Zeller. Children:

 

1.John Conrad b.4/15/1753, our ancestor -- see below

2.Anna Eva b.7/5/1755 m.1774 Daniel Womelsdorf (sponsors at baptism of our ancestor)

3.John b.1757 m.Popelina Michal

4.Anna Catharine b.4/10/1760 m.John Jacob Kehl, son of Michael Kehl

5.Peter b.2/7/1762 m.Elizabeth ?? i.Fisher's Ferry, SnyderCo

c.Mrs Catharine Hart, Samuel, Margaret, Jacob, Peter, John, Sarah, and Col.Geo ( r.SunburyPA,of WarOf1812 m.Barbara Oswald, who rememberd as a child the attack on Fort McHenry at Baltimore and oft soke of her hearing the roar of cannon and after the battle was taken to the scene and saw dead British soldiers and sailors lying in the river. One of her 11 children, Catherine, married WmHenryMusselman)

6.Hannah b.1764

7.Anna Maria b.1766, died young

8.Salome b.1769

 

Zeller in-laws

Frederick's wife, Anna Amelia, was the daughter of John (b.1686 in France, d.1737) and Catherine Zeller. With his brother John Henry and his mother, John arrived in New York on June 14, 1710 where they stayed until 1713, taking residence at Schoharie until 1723, when they all moved to the Tulpehocken. John's will is dated 9/3/1737, probated 9/12/1737 (Philadelphia County Wills, F-59-55).

9 greats-grandpa Hans Heinrich Zeller (b.1609 d.1672, professor of sacred theology at the University of Zurich)

8 greats-grandfather Hans Rudolph Zeller (b.1637 d.1693, court preacher at Zveilbrucken)

7 greats-grandfather Jacques Zeller (b.1660 France d.1709 r.Strasbourg)

(Clothilde de Valois) b.1660 France i.ChristLutheran Church, Stouchsburg 1/14/1749. "She

was a member of the house of Valois, which ruled France from 1328 to 1589."

John Henry Zeller (erected "Fort Zeller" in 1745)

6 greats-grandfather John Zeller (m.Catherine)

5 greats-grandmother Anna Amelia (m. Frederick Weiser)

 

Johan Georg Reith (arr.1710 LivingstonManor,NewStuttgart, Weisersdorf, SchoharieValleyNY, Lutheran)

(Anna Catharina Bern) all children came to Tulpehocken

Maria Bern b.1687 m.Anspach

John George m.Dieffenbach

John Michael m.Feg

John Peter m.Feg

Caspar m.Schirmer

John Leonhard Reith b.1691 m.Anna Elisabetha Catharina

Johan Georg b.1714 m.Zeller, Aulenbach

Johan Nicholas m.Seibert

Johan Frederick

Anna Maria Margaretha m.Zeller

Johan Leonhard m.Knoll

Johan Peter m.Ziegler

Wilhelmina

 

6-greats-grandfather Johann Conrad Weiser

 

John was b.4/16/1753 on the Weiser estate at WomelsdorfPA , baptized 4/23 with Peter Weiser and his grandmother Conrad Weiser's wife as sponsors. He accompanied Frederick A C Muhlenberg on his journey to the forks of the Susquehanna River, June 25-July 2,1771.

"Likely he served in the American Revolution, although descendants of his cousin Conrad (1749-1803) of Selinsgrove, have claimed the service records. Likely, he was the first Lieutenant in Captain Michael Wolf's Company, 1776-1780." (!!!) --1960 John Conrad Weiser Association's The Weiser Family

He farmed the Weiser homestead until it was sold in 1791. The account book of the farm contains records compiled by Conrad, his father Frederick, and grandfather Conrad. Then he settled on land owned by he father-in-law John Philip Klinger, who held four contiguous tracts, warranted to him 1771-1786, patented 1793-1796, for over 1100 acres, along the Pine Creek to the south of the gap in Mahantango Mountain at Spread Eagle ("dopplete adler"), present-day Klingerstown. He lived in Mahanoy Township, Northumberland Co, PA.

He died 9/19/1804 in NorthumberlandCoPA, and is buried at Klinger's Church. His wife survived until 3/12/1820. Letters of administration in his estate were issued March 26, 1805 to his eldest son Frederick; his wife left a will dated 3/2/1820.

 

marriage and family

He m.11/12/1775 Elizabeth Klinger (b.3/10/1756 ReadingPA d.3/10/1820 NorthumberlandCoPA) with his Uncle Benjamin Weiser performing the ceremony. Children:

 

1.Frederick b.10/17/1776 WomelsdorfPA bapt.Christ Ch next day with Anna Amelia Weiser, his grandmother, the sponsor. m.5/10/1800 Maria Catharine(b.7/3/1780 d.8/30/1861 DelawareOH, dau of John Heim) Lived in AugustaTwp,NorthumberlandCoPA until 1814 when he migrated to DelawareCoOH, settling S of the city of Delaware on a farm held by his descendants until 1917. He died there 5/5/1855. He, his wife, and several children were buried at Delaware and subsequently moved to Oak Grove Cem in Delaware. Lutheran. First member of the Weiser family to settle here.

a.Eva Pauline b.4/12/1801

b.Elizabeth b.4/27/1802

c.Mary Catharine b.12/20/1803 AugustaTwp d.7/29/1840 Delaware i.Delaware unmark

d.Jacob b.3/24/1805

e.Peter b.2/11/1807

f. son b.11/18/1808 d.11/26/1808

g. Mary b.10/10/1809

h.son i.11/1811 Zion Lutheran Ch, AugustavillePA

i.Hannah b.2/23/1812

j.William b.11/29/1813

k.David b.2/29/1816

l.Susannah b.6/2/1819 DelawareOH d.8/6/1837 Delaware i.D, unmarked

m.Lavina b.4/19/1821

2.Catharine b.9/8/1778

3.Hannah b.12/22/1780-- our ancestor, see below

4.Eva b.11/17/1782 WomelsdorfPA, baptized 11/12 Christ Ch with Uncle Daniel Womelsdorf and wife Eva, as sponsors. She m.George (b.11/16/1783 d.2/3/1835) Hepner, son of Henry Hepner of MifflinTwp DauphinCoPA. They were farmers in the neighborhood of Mahanoy Twp. George is buried at HebePA. Eva was still living in 1846, although reported ill at that time.

a.Catherine Hepner b.2/24/1809

b.Jacob Hepner b.1811 d.4/8/1821 i.HebePA

c.John Hepner b.5/6/1813

d.Sarah

e.Margaret E b.2/9/1818

f.Catherine (b.2/24/1809 d.4/18/1885 m.10/3/1826 LykensTwp DauphinCoPA

(Jonathan Mark Koppenheffer) b.10/13/1802 d.7/3/1891 p.Michael &Catherine (Garrett) K. Farmer in MifflinTwp DauphinCo. Reputation for athletic prowess, shot the last deer on Berry's Mtn, and at the age of 85 defeated John Buffington, age 80, in a race!

i.Emanuel Koppenheffer b.8/19/1827 d.11/21/1899 farmer,plasterer DauCo

(Caroline Keabauch) b.4/12/1834 d.6/21/18 i.BerrysburgPA

I.Francis Koppenhaver (b.8/19/1852 d.2/5/1921 butcher Lykens)

(Loisa Hassinger)b.1/8/1846 d.5/20/1896 i.WiconiscoPA

c1.Charles E (b.1871 d.1944 m.2/10/1897 i.W,PA butcher)

(Gertrude Hawk) b.1873 no children

c2.Harvey Andrew (b.5/9/1873 d.8/24/27 m.3/13/1895)

(Mary Augusta Kniley) b.11/23/1872 d.7/12/34 butcher

C1.Mildred Louise K. (b.9/1/1896 m.12/6/23

(James Arthur Smith) b.4/30/1880

C2.Robt Arthur K.(b.10/25/06 m.4/9/39

(Freida Florine Willier) b.2/11/08

c3.Daniel (b.9/27/1878 d.11/15/03 i.WiconiscoPA

c4.Clayton Eugene (b.11/2/1883 d.2/22/55 m.8/19/03)

(Mary Celesta Bingaman)b.12/17/1879 i.W,PA meat

C1.Charles Raymond (b.3/1/04) meat LykensPA

(Anna Mahoney)

II.Mary Ellen (11/6/1856 d.1937) laborer, ElizabethsvillePA

(John Franklin Cook) b.10/31/1856 d.3/28/36 i.MapleGroveCem

ii.Angelina b.9/9/1829

iii.Moses b.7/21/1831

iv.Sarah Ann b.2/24/1833

v.George W b.8/20/1835

vi.John b.9/20/1837

vii.Elizabeth b.1840

viii.Catherine b.1841

ix.Rebecca b.8/24/1844

x.Mary Jane b.3/29/1847

xi.Emaline b.11/16/1849

5.Jacob b.12/21/1784 m.Elizabeth

6.John Philip b.5/13/1787 m.Elizabeth Catherine Melich

a.Catherine m.Henry Fasold

i.Catherine Louise m.7/11/1872

(Rev Prof E F Bartholomew PhD,DD,LHD,VP of AugustanaCollege

of RockIsIL)

I.Nettie Cordelia m.6/16/1897 K T Anderson r.RockIsIL

7.Salome b.7/3/1789 WomelsdorfPA d.before 1805

8.Elizabeth b.6/4/1792 MahanoyTwp,NorthumberlandCoPA d.12/7/1807 same i.Klinger'sCh

9.Christine b.7/31/1797 MahonoyTwp d.before 1805

10.Sarah b.6/18/1800 d.1/13/1838 in stillborn childbirth, had 3 sons/3 dau. who survived her,

and one child who preceded her in death.

 

Klinger in-laws

Georg Klinger (b.1610 burgomeister of Paffinburfurth, owner of a Grist Mill. 10-greats grandfather)

(Christina) b.1614 d.10/31/1695

Johan Georg Klinger (b.5/5/1655 d.5/25/1694 m.5/5/1680 9-greats grandfather)

(Anna Elizabeth Gottman)

Johannes Klinger (b.11/18/1694 m.11/6/1720 8-greats grandfather)

(Agatha Heusten) b.8/4/1699 d.4/10/1780

John Philip Klinger (b.7/11/1723 Paffenburfurth, parish Reichelsheim, OdenwaldGE d. 9/30/1811 i.Klinger's Church. Migrated to America 9/2/1747 or 1749 on the Albany )

(Eve Elizabeth)

(Anna Eve)

6 greats grandmother Elizabeth Klinger

(John Conrad Weiser)

 

5-greats grandmother Hannah Weiser

 

Hannah was b.12/22/1782 WomelsdorfPA, and baptized two days later, with her aunt Hannah Weiser, her sponsor. d.8/2/1859 Fremont SanduskyCoOH i.BinkleyCemetery FremontOH

 

Fisher in-laws

She married John Fisher and they settled in Thorne Township, Perry County OH as early as November 1813.

See the Fisher section of the Stahl chapter for further details

Other chapters in my genealogy include those of the Yochum family, the Hinsch family, the Jones family, the Rathbun family, the Mattson family, the Brown family, and the Stahl family