The Life of (John) Conrad Weiser, the German Pioneer, Patriot, and Patron of Two RacesJohn Conrad Weiser was among very few colonial settlers to achieve fluency in Native American languages, working for decades as an interpreter and peacemaker between European settlers and native tribes. The services rendered by Conrad Weiser were immensely important to the colonists of North America. He spent time living with the Maqua tribe, learning their customs and culture, and achieving supreme command of their language. When disputes arose, Weiser was called upon - on several occasions, his mediation and diplomacy prevented disagreements from descending into violence. In maturity, he served as Superintendent of the Indian Bureau; an agency which promoted peaceful cooperation between Native Americans and white Europeans. This biography charts Weiser's humble beginnings in Germany, his boyhood emigration to America, and his first communications and residence with the Maqua. His greatest successes as interpreter and promoter of peaceful understanding are related in detail. Strongly revered for decades after his death in 1760, George Washington himself revisited Weiser's gravesite in 1793 to remember his contributions. Weiser remains a pivotal figure in the history of colonial America, and his house in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania is today a museum dedicated to study of the era. The author of this biography, Clement Zwingli Weiser, was a descendent keen on family research, who lived at the turn of the 20th century. |
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... councils and conferences . Besides , his fellow interpreter , Shekallamy , an Indian , is spoken of in like terms , who certainly had not been wedded to a white woman . A much more likely explanation for the absence of Anna Eve's family ...
... Council of Pennsylvania and several Indians . Shekallamy * finds him , already in 1731 , in the wilds of Tulpehocken , and prevails on him to accompany him to Philadelphia . Here Governor Gor- don , likely , learned to know and ...
... Council then presented the sum of £ 12 to Conrad Weiser " for accompanying and being very careful of the Indians on their way from Tulpehocken ; and for having been extremely useful in framing an initiatory treaty with them . " It is ...
... Council , again and again , and always in most favorable terms . In September , 1736 , the Chiefs of the Six Nations were expected in Philadel- phia to confirm the treaty of 1732. He informed the Council , from Tulpehocken , that a ...
... Council at Philadelphia after this manner , in his behalf : " We esteem our present Interpreter to be such a person , equally faithful in the interpretation of whatever is said to him , by either of us ; equally allied to both . He is ...