The life of (John) Conrad Weiser, the German pioneer, patriot, and patron of two races

Front matter

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CORNELL

Preface

There is no apology needed for writing the life of Conrad Weiser, if the opinions and wishes of knowing men carry with themselves any meaning or force. On the 13th day of November, 1793, General George Washington, accompanied by General Joseph Hiester and other dintinguished men, stood at the grave of Conrad Weiser, and said : " This departed man rendered many services to his country, in a difficult period, and posterity uriU not forget him." Richard Peters, Secretary of the Province of Pennsylvania, wrote already in 1761 : — " Since 1744 he has acted a prominent part between the Indians and the Government, by whom his loss will be severely felt. A faithful sketch of him by some of his descendants would be exceedingly interesting." Samuel Hazard, compiler and editor of " Pennsylvania Archives" and " Colonial Records," is careful to preserve the above remarks in his valuable collections. Thomas H. Burrows says : " On many occasions he was of the greatest service to the Province, by his influence with the Indians." Franz Loeher, author of " The History and Fortunes of the Germans in America," speaks of his significance in these words : " One man, whose name figures so largely in the original records and events of his day, deserves special mention." Prof. I. Daniel Rupp, the

INTEODUCTION.

The Indigenes.

The sources and means by which the New World was originally peopled has ever been a mystery. And who shall solve the riddle for us ? JSTo wonder that the unbelievers of the last and present century should have taken the shorter and very handy method to solve the problem, by asserting that America had its own spontaneous and independent people — Indigenes.

The numberless hypotheses and theories touching the American Aborigines show but too plainly the darkness of the theme. Campomanes patronized the claims of the Carthagenians. Kircher and Huet speak for the Egyptians. De Guignes favors the Huns. Sir William Jones brings India forward.' George De Hornn enumerates the Scythians, Phoenicians and Carthagenians. Gregoria Garcia leads the Mexicans, Peruvians and others forth as proofs that different nations contributed towards the original population. De Acasta makes the road to have been by the North of Asia and Europe, or by the Straits of Magellan. John De Laet peoples America originally by the Scythians and Tartars. Grotius brings the Norwegians over, first and foremost, by way of Greenland. De Moraez pronounces in favor of the Carthagenians and Israelites. Charlevoix looks upon Tartary and Hyrcania as aboriginal fountains. Lewis and Clarke are of the opinion that America received its first inhabitants from Tartary, China, Japan or Kam- 1

I INTEODUCTION.

schatka, since these people resemble each other in color, shape and features. " We make no doubt," say they, " that in some future time, and that not a very distant one, it will be reduced to a certainty that during some of the wars between the Tartars and the Chinese, a part of the inhabitants of the northern provinces were driven from their native country and took refuge in some of the Isles, and from there found their way to America.' They say, too, that whilst the Chinese call a slave "shungo," the Indians term a dog "shungush" ; that whilst the former call tea "shousan," the latter style tobacco " shousasan," and that the Indians retain the syllables cAe, cAa, chu, in imitation of the Chinese dialects. James Adair, Esq., who spent forty years among the Indians, declares the American Aborigines to have descended from the Israelites. In this opinion Conrad Weiser joins him. A comparison of their mutual religious rites, civil and martial customs, marriages, ceremonies, manners, languages and traditions confirms them in this view. They detail these correspondences under separate heads, such as — their tribal state under separate Chiefs ; the similarity between " Jehovah" and " Yohewah" ; their theocratic form of government ; their belief in angels and good spirits ; the likeness between the Indian dialects and the Hebrew language ; their orders of prophets, priests, festivals and religious rites and purifications, and their like fondness for ornaments and decorations.

But, alas ! the distinguishing rite of the Jewish jjeople is wanting — the rite of circumcision.

Certain writers claim that America and Asia once joined about the region of Kamschatka, and that the

INTKODUCTION. 3

first people came by that part. And time would fail me to record all the guesses in this direction. Still all these endeavors have fruited in something positive. The Icey, by which alone this mystery can be solved, has been fuund. The basis of language is that key. The proper adjusting of it now constitutes the task for philologists, who are solely competent to work at the problem. The lexical school is hard at it, too, and will sooner or later furnish the answer. Striking similarities have already been traced, in the etymological sphere, between the Indian dialects and the Martchon, Tongouse, Mongel, Samoyed, Celtic, Tchoud, Biscayan, Coptic and Congo Languages. Malte Brun establishes a geographical connection between the American and Asiatic languages. He concludes that the Finnist, Ostiack, Peruvian and Caucassian families spread themselves along the frozen ocean, over Behring's straits, towards Greenland and Chili ; that others, allied to the Japanese, Chinese and Kourilians, penetrated to Mexico, and that the Malays, Javenese and some African tribes may have borne a part hither, as well.

However America may have been settled, then, in the beginning, and from whatever several centres apparently, the general structure pervading all the Indian dialects has left no room to doubt that they all engraft themselves on one individual family. The peculiar manner of forming their congregation of verbs from one extremity of linguistic America to the other, favors the hypothesis of a primitive people or common stock. There is a divergence, indeed ; but a divergence from a common centre. There is a multiplicity of tribe, it is true ; but ill-disposed persons are too hasty in reasoning

4 INTRODUCTION.

from this fact to the conclusion of a number of original and independent sources. The tribes ally naturally into nations — e. g., The Four Nations — The Five Nations — The Six Nations. The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, style themselves " The Original People," and embrace some forty branches. The Iroquois divide into a like number of tribes. No well-founded Indian tradition claims more than twelve original tribes. This duodecimal people the philologist will gradually trace back to one common source, even as the Israelites are all gathered up in the loins of Jacob. Heckerwelder already seemed to see that all the Indian dialects branched from but Jour principal languages. The discoveries made by the lexical or grammatical schools, taken with the traditional facts which spread all over Indian history, already point to Eastern Asia, Thibet, Tartary, Japan, China. The systems of chronology, the monumental plans, the religious theories and practices — all these are too analogous to be considered as purely accidental coincidences. Even a comparison of the Zodiac, between the Thibetans, Monguls and Jajianese on the one side, and the American Indians on the other, ought to satisfy the most incredulous. The signs, such as the tiger, hare, serpent, ape, dog and bird, are identical. The common theories of man's early history, of the flood and of the disjiersion, these argue a common origin.

That the American Indians are not the Indigenes of this Continent, is at once patent to any student of archaeology. Not savages, but sages rather, commenced the line of human history here. American antiquities prove the existence of pre-historic races. The Mississippi Valley is a line of testimony from the lakes to the

INTKODUCTION. 5

gulf. Its series of earth-works, embankments and ditches, all laid down with precision and military science, remind us at once of the grassy mounds of Nineveh and Babylon. The paved roads, aqueducts, bridges, monuments, ruined temples, altars and idols — these raise their eloquent tongues in Mexico, in Peru and in the western slope of North America, against a savage origin. Not development, but a degeneration may plainly be traced from the period of the Aborigines to that of the 200,000 Indians whom the first European settlers found on this Continent. No wonder, then, that elaborate volumes are to be read, proving that the Jews first and then Christians colonized America. Even though we may not find the theory established, we may yet not ignore the masterly attempt.

Evidently the time has not yet come in which the problem, touching the original settlers of America may be fully solved ; but the dawn is at hand. And the dawn presages a mid-day. Let us be satisfied with so much.

The following is a brief distribution of the copper colored race in the New World :

I. The Indians are the Ganowanian or Bow-and- Arrow race.

II. The principal families were :

1. The Esquimaux — the euters of raw meat — who dwell above the sixtieth degree of latitude, from Labrador to Alaska.

2. The Algonquins, who lived east of the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude. Their home-seat was the Ottawa river.

3. Within this same territory also roamed the IIu-

6 INTRODUCTION.

ron-lroquois. Their domain extended over the country reaching from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron to Lakes Erie and Ontario, and south to the valley of the Upper Ohio. ' Within this district was a Confederacy of powerful tribes having a common ancestry and generally — though not always — acting together in war. At the time of their greatest power and influence, the Huron-Iroquois embraced no less than nine Allied Nations. These were — a) The Hitrrcms, living north of Lake Erie ; b) the Eries, and c) Andastes, south of the Lake ; d) the Tuscaroras, of Carolina, and the famous " Five Nations," to wit : e) The Senecas, f) Cayugas, g) Onondagas, h) Oneidas, and i) Mohaioks.

The warriors of this Confederation represented the Indian character in its most favorable aspect. They were brave, patriotic and eloquent ; not wholly averse to useful industry ; living in respectable villages ; tilling the soil with considerable success ; faithful as friends, but terrible as enemies. It was with this strange people that Conrad Weiser dealt officially during a long lifetime. The Delawares called them " Maquas" ; the French, " Iroquois" ; the English, the Five or Six Nations.

4. South of the Algonquins were the Cherokees and the Mobiiian Nations. The former family occupied Tennessee, the latter extending from the Lower Mississippi to the Atlantic. The Cherokees were greatly civilized from contact with the whites. The Mobiiian s embraced the Yamassees and Greeks, of Georgia ; the Seminoles, of Florida ; and the Choctaws and Chiokasaws, of Mississippi. South of the thirty-second parallel of latitude these people manifested the singular circum-

INTRODUCTION. 7

stance of temple-building — a circumstance not displayed among northern 'tribes.

5. West of the Father of Waters was the great race of the Dakotas, whose country extended from the Arkansas river to the country of the Esquimaux and westward to the Rocky mountains.

6. South of these the Comanches lived, covering the present State of Texas.

7. Beyond the Rocky mountains were the Indians of the Plains — the Shosonees, Selish, Klainaths and Califarnians.

8. On the Pacific slope the famous races of Aztecs and Toltees abode. These were the most civilized of the Indians, the best builders in wood and stone, and the least warlike.

The only hope of the perpetuity of the Indian race seems now to centre in the Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks and Chickasaws. These number about forty-eight thousand souls. Whether the Government can adopt such a policy as to solve the problem confronting it, is a question. Judging from the poor success that has thus far attended the efforts made, the prospect does not promise happy results.*

»N0TK.— We are indebted to Ridpath's History for some facts in this sketch.

Chapter I. Conrad Weisers Remote Ancestry And Native Place

The first condition ncces,sary to a fair understanding and correct appreciation of a character is to know his origin. Call it providence, destiny, fatality, no man can wholly escape from his ancestry, if we may credit that part of the Declaration of Sinai — " for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."

In the ancient Electorate of Wurtemberg, also called the Duchy of Wurtemberg, a part of the once famous Palatinate of the Rhine, and in the town of Gross- Aspach, a place of some note in the county of Backnang — the pedigree of Conrad Weiser took its first beginning. " In this place," he tells us, in a fragment of his manuscript biography, " my ancestors, from time immemorial, were born and are buried — as well on my father's as on my mother's side."

The Lutheran Pastorj Eisenhart, of Gross- Aspach, writes for us, February 17, 1871, from whose letter we extract as follows : " I herewith send you the Weiser lineage from the earliest date within my reach. Our Church books extend back but to 1693. During that year the Parsonage, together with some two hundred homes, was laid in ashes by the French. The records were accordingly destroyed. I may then ascend no higher, notwithstanding my anxiety to serve you. The Pastor Loci in 1697 epitomized, from memory and tradition, the names of all the surviving members of the congregation. On this roll the name of John Michael Weiser appears, who died in 1721; and also that of John Conrad Weiser, who is designated a ' baker' in handicraft, as well as distinguished by the title of Corporal."* From the same source we learu that a certain Frederick Weiser, of the direct line, is at this time a resident of Gross-Aspach — a statement which a lately emigrated nephew confirms. We may also state, on written and verbal authority, that the name Weise)' may be traced on the facade of an antique wine-press, which was regarded as one of the andent landmarks of the place — in 1870, at all events. The patronymic is likewise engraved in the tablet of a venerable stone mansion, which either the historical Conrad's father or grand-father had erected. An eye-witness describes it as standing directly over from the Magistrate's office in Gross-Aspach. We were told that the stone had been carefully re-placed during the re-building of the house in 1799.

Conrad's manuscript autobiography contains this note touching his forefathers: "My great-grand-father was Jacob Weiser, and my grand-father was, likewise, Jacob Weiser." The former he designates a "Schuldheisz," the Chief Magistrate of a district, somewhat be-

'••■.NoTE. — The Pastor alluded to tiore the name of Heqele. He was subsequently deposed from the ministry for engaging .in the very unclerical business of a wine merchant.

yond a Justice of the Peace among us. It is worthy of notice that the grand-father and father, as well as Conrad himself, filled the same office in their several days.

On the strength of Pastor Eisenhart's letter, Conrad Weiser's record, and the sayings of an eye-witness and living descendant, we are safe in regarding Gross-Aspach as the cradle-place of Conrad Weiser's ancestry, and that ancestry as of some age and honorable.

The numerous descendants of our venerable hero, scattered as they are over a number of States at this day, may hereby learn the source-spring of their being. We know of no Weiser-scion in America, which is not an outgrowth of Conrad, and through him a branch from the original trunk. This humble sketch will afford them the means, however spare, of knowing the quarter of their earthly origin, as well as the period of their fore-father's arrival in America, and line of their blood and name — all of which is fast proving a great satisfaction to the children of German, Swiss, French, English and other emigrated ancestry, in the measure according to which the society of our country is crystallizing into Families — a process which no nation can eventually escape.

Chapter II

CONRAD WEISEBS PARENTS. HIS FATHER AND

MOTHER.

Conrad Weiser's father was John Conrad Weiser. He was born and reared in the town of his ancestry — Gross- Aspach. Following the humble trade of a baker in early life, he succeeded by diligence and self-culture to attain to the position and office of " Schuldheisz," or American Esquire. He occupied, likewise, the station of a Corporal in the military service, and is so distinguished in the obituary note of his wife, which is entered on the necrological roll of his native place.

His wife, the mother of Conrad, was Anna Magdalena Uebele— not Webele, as it is usually written. This worthy woman was a native of the same place. We are told that the name is still worn by living representatives and descendants there.

On the first day of May, A. D. 1709, she died in the forty-third year of her life. The primal sorrow of her sex carried her from the bosom of her large family into eternity, when about to become the mother of her sixteenth child. Almost a moiety of this large group must have died quite young. Eisenhart informs us that only twelve names are carolled, though in the mortuary notice it is distinctly mentioned in these words : " Anna Magdalena Weiser died in the forty-thwd year of her life — -the mother of sixteen children."

CONilAD WEISEE. 13

The cataloguis of surviving children, in 1710, runs thus : Catharine, Margaret, Magdalena, Sabina, Conrad, George Frederick, Christopher Frederick, Barbara and John Frederick. Seven of their children must, then, have preceded her to that unknown and silent shore. We feel constrained to add a tribute of regard over the ashes of such a " mother in Israel" in view of the bare but eloquent fact just told us. Is not such a woman a martyr in a certain sense? Her noted son, Conrad, had then been in his thirteenth year, and tender enough never to have forgotten his early and great loss. He kindly writes of her : "She was much beloved by her neighbors and feared God. Her motto was, 'Jesus Christ! For Thee I live; for Thee I die; living or dying, I am Thine.' "

Her religious nature was largely implanted and perpetuated in her son, as we shall more fully learn in these pages. The doctrine that ascribes all the noble qualities and virtue of a child to the mother is a false doctrine. ' Mind is not of the mother' exclusively. The children of the Indians are always distinguislied by the name of the mother. The reason they give for this habit is, that their offspring are indebted to the father for their souls, the invisible part of their being, and to the mother for their bodies. We are inclined to endorse their view as orthodox. The Scriptural argument in favor of its correctness can be conducted with ease, if we are permitted to quote the holy mystery of the Incarnation as an analogy.

Yet the maternal influence counts for much, certainly — for one-half, if you please — in the formation of the offspring's character. This woman, though dying in mid-life and wlien her son was but a child, lived on in him. Like a good angel, her piety cleaved close to his heroic spirit all through his eventful life. We must ever hold the child of religious parents at a premium.

Conrad could never cease regretting the loss of his mother. Any half-orphan, of any tenderness, will appreciate his feelings. You seem constantly to detect a sighing after her. This is an evidence of the amiability of his nature, which even the savages could feel in later years. But might not that excellent mother's longer stay on earth have softened, weekened and enervated the child, and this unfitted the man for the miles and miles of marching, for the severe life that lay before him ? May not such a silver lining be found to the dark cloud which so often empties its fatal charge on a houshold and strikes the mother ?

Conrad's heart was of his mother, let us concede. But the strength, energy and self-reliance, which he exhibited, came by his father. Had not his father been just the cast-iron man he was, his offspring would never have shown so hardy a son. By Providence, then, the mother was suffered to come aloft, lest the son might be petted and indulged beneath the level, from which it is only possible to construct and elevate a hero. In more than one noble life may we find some such philosophy illustrated.

CHAPTEE III,

THE EXODUS OF CONEAD WEISEE's FATHER.

" As a bird that wandefreth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his plaee." — (Prov. 27, 8.)

The man who is led forth by the demon of unrest, or mere love of adventure, from his country and kindred, will surely realize the truth of the wise man's words. God "had made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth ; and hath determined the times afore appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." This pregnant saying finds its application in the individual and family, no less than in the kindred, stock, tribe and race. It is in the violation of this Providential ordering that we may find the cause of the shipwreck of men and nations. There is a wedding of names to places, no less than a nativism of plants and animals.

But it was not from any such adventurous motive, we may safely say, that John Conrad Weiser, already beyond mid-life, left Europe ; the Palatinate ; the Duchy of Wurtemberg ; Gross- Aspach ; the dust of his ancestors that had been gathering and mouldering for several generations ; the cradle-place of his being ; his kindred and neighbors and friends — the like of which no man can ever hope to re-place in the latter half of his history ; his homestead, hallowed by the dearest associations and traditions ; and the fresh tombs of his faithful and pious wife and little ones : all these for North America — the Wilderness of the New World — the Indian Territory of the Province of New York. Why, then, was this Abrahamic Exodus ? We may, to be sure, only surmise ; but in this way, perhaps, approximate the true causes.

Europe was in a state of unrest. The Palatinate had been most cruelly visited and devastated by the French, especially in 1683 and 1693. Religious wars bore heavily on that once fair region. Spanish aggressions were followed by pestilence and famine. Finally came the winter of 1709, when birds perished on the wing, beasts in their lairs and mortals fell dead in the way.

Why, then, continue to dwell in this fated place ? Had not good Queen Ann, of England, offered a free passage to America, the fabled land of promise? Had not Hollanders, Swedes, Swiss; Lutherans, Reformed, Mennonites, Quakers, all there opened the way already since 1613 ? Could not Penn and Pastorius, and others be trusted ?

A migrating epidemic seized upon the stricken masses, and, as by a wave, 30,000 Germans washed along the shores of England. The Israelites were not more astounded at the armored carcasses of Egyptian soldiers lying by the banks of the Red Sea, the morning after their deliverance, than were the English at this immense slide of humanity. A three-headed demon stared the realm of Queen Ann in the face — poverty, famine, war. Alarm set in. Riots ensued. How came the deliverance ? Five Chiefs of the Mohawk Indians, who constituted an embassage to the British Government for the purpose of asking aid against French aggressions, saw and pitied — ^yes, pitied ! — this perishing mass of men, women and children. They offered to open their hunting-grounds lying beyond the great Sea. The Government, only too happy over such a prospective riddance, devised ways and means of transportation, and Robert Hunter, the Provincial Governor of New York, led 4,000 Palatinates thitherward. "At the head of this Colony," says the " Sohwaebische Merkur and Kronik," " stood John Conrad Weiser." National calamity drove him a voluntary exile abroad. Domestic affliction, too, had but two months earlier embittered his cup. And may not, at certain intervals, along the line of history, the same impulses stir the bosoms of prophet-men or pivot-men as moved the ancient Chaldean shepherd to peril his all — :not knowing whither he went ?

Let us listen to the nearer details of the veritable up-rooting of himself and his homestead, as given by the son: "In 1709 my father moved away from Gross-Aspach, on the 24th day of June, and took eight children with him. My eldest sister remained there with her husband, Conrad Boss, with whom she had two children. My father sold them his house, fields, meadows, vineyard and garden. But they could only pay 75 Guldens ; the remaining 600 Guldens were to be paid at a subsequent period. As this was never done, it was made a present to them." A man at that period and in that country, owning a homestead with adjoining fields, meadows, vineyard and garden, worth 675 Guldens, and titled, besides, as an Esquire and Corporal, he may well be considered to have been the leading spirit of the

Colony. 2

We will but add a morsel, touching their voyage. " In about two months we reached London, in England, along with several thousand Germans, whom Queen Ann, of glorious memory, had taken in charge and was furnishing with food." From the close of August until near the close of the year — four months — they lay over the Blackmoor. " About Christmas day we embarked, and ten ship loads with about 4,000 souls were sent to America." From a later notice we learn that this was a full six months' voyage. Considering the condition of this living freight, the rude construction of sailing vessels and the season of the year, we cannot well exaggerate the misery and suffering of our Palatinate forefathers. And yet Conrad, who having been but thirteen years old at the time, did not forget to magnify the kindness of Providence, through a record in his private journal of this tenor : " Give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed, and gathered them out of the lands, east and west, north and south. They wandered in a solitary way. In the wilderness they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distress !"

In what respect, we may ask, were the Puritans in advance of the Palatinates ? Neither in suffering nor in patience did the English excel the German pilgrims. We hail not the former less, but the latter more.

Chapter IV

CONEAD's father chief of the colony at LIV- INGSTONE MANOR.

Queen Ann had directed, with the acquiescence of the benevolent Mohawk Chiefs, that the goodly tract, on which Newberg and New Windsor subsequently rose, should be granted by Letters Patent to the Palatinates, as best adapted for the founding of their homes, schools and churches — the triune characteristic of our fore-fathers' advent. Robert Hunter, Governor of New York, and Robert Livingstone, a wealthy landlord of the Province, however, knew too well how to hold the emigrants in suspense, and delay the consummation of the good intention of the royal heart, until those grounds should fall under their own hands and control. They artfully and wickedly changed the course and destiny of the unsuspecting Colony. Having anchored at New York on the 17th day of June, 1710, the conspirators removed the Germans to Livingstone Manor by the following autumn, with the malicious design of owning and possessing living property. Hardly had the locating been effected, ere they imposed an annual ground rent for ten acres on every separate family. Then $33.00 were exacted per capita as passage money. According to Franz Loeher's calculation, this taxation would have netted the sum of |200,000 for the men-mongers. Like the tasks which the Egyptian rulers imposed upon the Israelites, we may regard the burning of tar and the cultivation of hemp, which these greedy men exacted from the German Colony at Livingstone Manor. Let us hear Conrad's own words, lest we might falsely charge : " Here, in Livingstone Manor, or, as it was called by the Governor, Loebe!)istein' s Manor, we were to burn tar and cultivate hemp to defray the expenses incurred by Queen Ann in bringing us from Holland to England, and from England to America. We were directed by several Commissioners, viz : John Cast, Henry Meyer and Richard Leykott, who were put in authority over us by Robert Hunter, Governor of New York." Who can refrain from recurring to the task- masters in Egypt? Did we but have access to their names, we might place them most appositely aside of their modern successors. Hunter and Livingstone were cousin-germans in the bargain and sale. The grounds were to have been a free gift, and their passage was to have been a free passage likewise. It was simply an outrage.

For a little while the Colony toiled under the strange and galling yoke, rather than provoke the ire of their Pharaohs, in whose hands they found themselves, as clay in the potter's. But quietly a rebellion was brewing, and the soul of that rebellion was John Conrad Weiser, their Esquire and Corporal. To him had already been accorded the position of counsellor and leader during the voyage hither, and he now naturally led the movement of resistance, which resulted in the emancipation of the Colony at Livingstone Manor in 1713.