Weiser, Conrad b. November 2, l696;Affstatt, Wurttemberg d.July 13, l760;Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania German Indian agent who developed a colonial policy for dealing with the Iroquois Confederacy that stressed peaceful relations. After the death of his mother, Weiser’s father moved the family to Schenectady in the New York Colony in 1710.
His father allowed him to live in a Mohawk village during the winter and spring of 1712 and 1713. During his time with the Mohawks, a tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy, Weiser learned to speak fluent Iroquois and gained a thorough understanding of Native American customs and culture. Living with the family of Quay- nant, a Mohawk chief, Weiser was accepted as an adopted member of Quaynant’s wife’s family. The knowledge he acquired during his residence with the Mohawks served him in his later life.By 1723 Germans of the Mohawk Valley began migrating south to the Tulpe- hocken Valley in what is now Berks and Lebanon counties, Pennsylvania. The Weiser family joined the migration in 1729, settling near the site of present-day Womelsdorf in western Berks County. Weiser became a prosperous farmer, building a tannery and investing in land. He also served as a schoolmaster and as a leader in the local German Lutheran congregation. In addition, the Pennsylvania provincial government appointed Weiser a magistrate in the Lancaster County courts.
Because of his knowledge of Native American culture, Weiser was selected by provincial secretary James Logan to help develop a colonial policy for dealing with the Iroquois Confederacy. Most of the province’s leaders were Quakers, strict pacifists who did not believe in using military force, even in self-defense. Weiser and Logan recognized that some policy had to be developed to avoid war with the Iroquois. Through a friendly alliance with the Confederacy, a war between the Indians and settlers could be avoided. Weiser worked with the Iroquois authority in Pennsylvania—an official named Shickellamy—to develop the policy and traveled to the Confederacy’s capital at Onondaga in 1737 to obtain its approval.
The policy was approved and war was avoided. Weiser made four additional journeys to the Iroquois homeland in 1743, 1745, 1750, and 1751. In 1748, he traveled to Logstown on the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh to claim the region for the English and to counter growing French influence. Weiser was able to convince the Iroquois to take no part in quarrels between the French and the English.Weiser was a deeply religious man. In 1734 he left the Lutheran Church and joined Conrad Beissel and the German Sev- enth-Day Baptist Church at the Ephrata Cloister in the Cocalico Valley. After being baptized by Beissel in 1735, he unsuccessfully attempted to establish a Seventh-Day Baptist congregation in the Tulpehocken
Valley. Recognizing his failure, he moved with his wife Anna to the cloister. Anna remained at the cloister only a few months before moving back to the Tulpehocken Valley. Weiser left the cloister in 1741, returning to his home and becoming a lay leader in the Lutheran Church of America. He also promoted the work of the Moravian Church in establishing a mission among the Native Americans in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Weiser was one of three commissioners responsible for the sale of lots in the new town of Reading in 1749. He was commended for his honesty and integrity when he mediated a dispute between the provincial government and the other commissioners who were trying to individually profit from the sale of the lots. With the establishment of the town, Weiser began a campaign for the creation of a new county around it. The campaign was successful and Berks County was created from parts of Lancaster and Philadelphia counties in 1752. Weiser was appointed the county’s first president judge, a position he held until his death.
In 1756 Weiser was appointed a lieutenant colonel in command of the 1st Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment. His battalion was responsible for manning a line of forts between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. He served in the regiment until 1758.
John David Rausch Jr.
See also Ephrata; Pennsylvania
References and Further Reading
Merrell, James H. Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.
Pardoe, Elizabeth Lewis. “The Many Worlds of Conrad Weiser: Mystic Diplomat.” Explorations in Early American Culture 4 (2000): 113-147.
Wallace, Paul A. W. Conrad Weiser, 1696—1760: Friend of Colonist and Mohawk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1945.