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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... miles and miles of marching , for the severe life that lay before him ? May not such a sil- ver lining be found to the dark cloud which so often emp- ties its fatal charge on a household and strikes the mother ? Conrad's heart was of ...
... miles from Albany , in the spring of 1714. The sacrifice and toil incident to their second settling cannot be prop- erly realized , even after reading the graphic recital of the junior Conrad , which we here insert : " In the spring of ...
... miles and beg it on trust . One bushel was gotten here and one more there , sometimes after an absence from one's starving fam- ily for two or three days . With sorrowful hearts and tearful eyes the morsel was looked for - and often did ...
... miles off , sent a wagon with suitable bedding for them . He reached Heidelberg with much difficulty ; lived but a short time afterwards with his son , and fell asleep in death in the presence of his weeping children and grandchildren ...
... left his father's house during 1713-14 for an Indian town , about eight miles south of Schoharie . Here he resided until he left for Pennsylvania , in 1729. He was employed , like the vast majority of his German CONRAD WEISER . 43.