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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... tion , too , had but two months earlier embittered his cup . And may not , at certain intervals , along the line of his- tory , the same impulses stir the bosoms of prophet - men or pivot - men as moved the ancient Chaldean shepherd to ...
... Surely these Germans must either fly or buy . The singular and suspicious part of the whole transac- tion 24 THE LIFE OF CHAPTER VI Conrad Weiser's Father the Defender of the Rights and Liberties of Countrymen at Schoharie.
Clement Zwingli Weiser. The singular and suspicious part of the whole transac- tion is that these are just seven landlords , one for every one of the seven settlements ! In the language of the record " a great uproar arose both in ...
... the Six Nations were constantly pasing to and fro , in order to bring the treaty to a ratifica- tion . Conrad Weiser is the pivot man on all such occa- sions . Shekallamy naively says , in 1734 , when CONRAD WEISER . 53.
... tion of Thomas McKee , and set out next morning with Mr. McKee for Shamokin , where we arrived on the 1st of February . I left Shamokin the 6th and arrived at home in the night , the 9th of February . " In April the interests of ...