Conrad Weiser and Family Arrive in America June 13, 1710

During the early days of the eighteenth century many Germans, or “Palatines” as they were called, came to America. Many of them settled near Albany, New York.

Among these Germans were John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad, who arrived in New York June 13, 1710, and settled on Livingston Manor, in Columbia County, N. Y. Conrad was then a lad of fourteen, being born November 2, 1696, near Wurtemberg, Germany.

The company of which the Weisers were members did not prosper in their new home; many of them starved. So in 1714 the Weisers removed to Schoharie, in the Mohawk Valley.

The removal made matters worse. The family had almost nothing to eat. The friendly Mohawk chief, Quagnant, offered to take Conrad 407into his wigwam for the winter, and his father consented. The lad learned the Mohawk language, but often wished himself back in his own poor home. “I endured a great deal of cold,” he said, “but by spring my hunger much surpassed the cold.” Conrad did not then foresee how valuable his knowledge of Indian language and customs would become.

Conrad did not long remain at home after his return from the Mohawk camp, but acted as an interpreter between the Dutch traders and the Indians.

The son may have been headstrong and the sire harsh, at any rate the youth left home and built himself a cabin in the neighborhood, earned a good income by selling furs, and spent the greater part of the next fifteen years among the Indians. Evidently, however, he retained a respect for the teachings of his ancestors, for he says: “I married my Anna Eve, and was given in marriage by Rev. John L. Haeger, Reformed clergyman, on 22d of November (1720), in my father’s house at Schoharie.” Weiser, the elder, was at that time in Europe.

When Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, heard of the plight of the Germans at Schoharie, he invited them to come to his colony, and promised them good land. John Weiser, a leader of the colony, set out at the head of a company and cut a road through the woods to the Susquehanna. In rough boats they floated down stream to the mouth of Swatara Creek, which they followed up to the beautiful Lebanon Valley, where they settled along Tulpehocken Creek.

Conrad Weiser and his young wife followed the elder Weisers, and settled near Womelsdorf, where he continued to reside until a few years before his death, when he removed to Reading.

It is said of Weiser that while on a hunting trip he met the great Shikellamy, and that the vicegerent was well pleased with him, and particularly so when he learned that Weiser could speak Mohawk. They became great friends.

In 1732 by special request of certain deputies of the Six Nations, Weiser was appointed by Lieutenant Governor Patrick Gordon, of Pennsylvania, interpreter for the Iroquois Confederacy. His Indian name was “Tharachiawakon.” From this time until his death he was identified with the history of the Province in all its relations with the Indians. His popularity and influence never waned, for he was honest in all his dealings.

In 1734 he was appointed a justice of the peace by the Pennsylvania Government and in the old French War was commissioned colonel and appointed to the command of all the forces that were raised west of the Susquehanna.

When Shikellamy complained to the Governor of Pennsylvania that the trade in liquor was causing the ruin of the Delaware and Shawnee, the Governor asked him to come to Philadelphia to discuss the matter. 408Shikellamy took with him Weiser, as interpreter, who he called “an adopted son of the Mohawk nation.”

James Logan saw the value an honest man like Weiser could render the Province, and he was made an agent for Pennsylvania in dealing with the Six Nations. Weiser thus represented both the Indians and the whites. The Iroquois declared that “Conrad Weiser is a good, true man, who will speak our words and not his own.”

Weiser entered also into the Indian affairs of Virginia and Maryland, and prevented those colonies from becoming involved in an Indian war. This was done at a great Indian council at Lancaster, in 1744.

Weiser was able, through his Indian friends to be kept informed of the French movements in the Ohio Valley. He early realized the importance of the English country “at the forks of the Ohio.” He made a journey to the western tribes and concluded a most important treaty at Logstown in 1748.

Squatters encroached upon lands in the Juniata Valley, which incensed the Indians so much that Conrad Weiser was sent to order them off the Indian lands. He succeeded in moving them off and then burned their cabins.

Following Braddock’s defeat, Conrad Weiser led many delegations of Indians to Philadelphia, and they always were entertained at his home en route. This hospitality was misunderstood by his neighbors, but his well-known integrity saved him in the hour of his greatest peril.

When the Indians committed so many murders in Penns Valley, at Mahanoy Creek and elsewhere, Weiser warned his neighbors at Tulpehocken, and when they gathered at his house for defense Weiser was made their commander.

An ungrateful Pennsylvania Assembly failed to pay Weiser’s bills, and for three years his accounts were unsettled. He refused to do further service until his bills were paid, and as Weiser was in demand his expense accounts were satisfied.

At the great Indian treaties at Easton Weiser was a prominent personage, and the final peace was due principally to his influence.

Weiser was now past sixty years of age. His work was almost done. While visiting near Womelsdorf he died July 13, 1760.

When he died one of his associates remarked: “He has left no one to fill his place.” An Iroquois orator declared: “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness.”

If all white men had been as just and friendly to the Indians as was this Pennsylvania German, the history of our westward advance might have been spared some bloody chapters.

It is said that President Washington, standing at the grave of Weiser, in 1794, remarked that the services of the latter to the Government had been of great importance and had been rendered in a difficult period and posterity would not forget him.

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