Weiser, Conrad, pioneer, was born at Afsteadt, near Württemberg, Germany, Nov. 2, 1696, son of John Conrad and Anna Magdelena (Uebele) Weiser. When he was thirteen years old, his father, having lost his wife, emigrated to America, and on June 13, 1710, arrived in New York with a party of German settlers. The son grew up among the hardships and privations of pioneer life, and lived for fifteen years with the Iroquois Indians in the province of New York. He was a great favorite among them, and became perfectly familiar with their language. Desiring to visit Pennsylvania, he proceeded to Philadelphia, where he met William Penn for the first time. He became a confidential interpreter and special messenger for the province, among the Indians, and helped to negotiate many of the important treaties between them and the proprietory government. During the heated controversy between the assembly, led by Benjamin Franklin, and the proprietors led by the governor, Weiser retained the confidence of the governor, the assembly and the proprietors in England, and his influence was an important factor in bringing the latter to temporary terms. In 1729 Weiser removed to Pennsylvania and settled in Tulpehocken. In 1737 he was commissioned by the governor of Virginia to visit the grand council at Onondaga, and he traveled 500 miles through a wilderness accompanied by a Dutchman and three Indians. In 1744 he was in like manner dispatched to Shamokin "on account of the unhappy death of John Armstrong, the Indian trader. In 1749. after Nicholas Scull had laid out the town of Reading for Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn, the latter appointed Conrad Weiser to be the first named of the three commissioners to dispose of the plots by public sale. Among the lots sold he himself purchased several and about 1750 erected on one of them a two-story stone building, which was the first in the place. He had also an Indian agency and a hardware and general merchandise business, which he carried on successfully for a number of years. This was the first business place at Reading. In 1755, during alarms on the frontier, he was appointed colonel of a regiment of volunteers from Berks county. He died on his farm at Womelsdorf, Pa., July 13, 1760. The Indians, who always entertained a high respect for his character, were for years after his death in the habit of making visits of remembrance to his grave.
Source: James Terry White. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women Who Are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time. New York: James T. White & Co., 1910, p. 497.
Contributed by: Nancy.