Conrad Weiser: Colonial Emissary, Indian Friend
Posted: Friday, September 30, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
Conrad Weiser (November 2, 1696—July 13, 1760), was a Pennsylvania German pioneer, interpreter, and renowned emissary for negotiations between the English colonies and Native American tribes. He was a respected friend of both Indian chiefs and provincial leaders. His career also included activities as a farmer, soldier, monk, tanner and judge. His diplomatic work, particularly between the Pennsylvania colonial government and the Iroquois Nations, elevated him to the first tier of important personalities during this formative period in American history.
Weiser, Sr. and his remaining family joined thousands of Palatine Germans refugees who fled to England, which offered support and sanctuary to displaced Protestants of Europe. So many Palatines made their way to London that the English set up a camp for them outside the city walls in the winter of 1709-10. The following spring, Queen Anne provided ten ships, and nearly 3,000 Germans were transported to the New York colony. These refugees were indentured to the Queen and were permitted to trade labor for land grants. They were initially settled in the East and West Camps on the Hudson River. Fourteen year old Conrad Weiser was among them.
Though most of the Palatines did not acquire land in the Mohawk Valley until 1723. Weiser, Sr. some how managed to move his family out of the Camps much earlier. They relocated to the Schoharie Valley, about 30 miles west of Albany. When he was 16, Conrad’s father came to an agreement with a Mohawk chief, and the boy went to live with the tribe during the winter and spring of 1712-1713. Though he suffered from cold, hunger and homesickness, Conrad learned much about the Mohawk language and the customs of the Iroquois that would serve him well in the future. He returned to his family in July of 1713.
On November 22, 1720, Conrad Weiser, at age 24, married a young German girl, Anna Eve Feck (Faeg). In 1723 the couple followed the Susquehanna River south, out of New York. They settled on a farm at Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania near the present day location of the city of Reading. Over the ensuing decades they had fourteen children, only seven of which lived to adulthood.
Conrad Weiser’s service to his colony and the Iroquois Nation began in 1731. Weiser, oral tradition has it, met Oneida chief Shikellamy while on a hunting trip. Shikellamy was the Iroquois overseer of the subordinate Lenape and Susquehannock tribes of the area. He lived at Shamokin village on the Susquehanna River. The two became close friends. When Shikellamy was sent to Philadelphia for a council with the Provincial government, he brought Weiser with him as interpreter.
The Iroquois trusted Weiser and considered him an adopted son of the Mohawks. He impressed the Pennsylvania governor and council, as well. Weiser also served as interpreter at the follow-up council in 1732. Pennsylvania Indian Affairs chief, James Logan, began to rely on Weiser as his prime go-between during negotiations with the tribes.
A land purchase agreement negotiated by Shikellamy, Weiser and Pennsylvania in 1736 represented a change in the colony’s policy toward Native Americans. Previously, land had been purchased directly from the local Lenape/Delaware chiefs. However, the tribe had been subordinate to the Iroquois since a war of conquest which ended in 1676. Concerned over the increased tension with the French and other tribes, Pennsylvania decided to recognize the Iroquois dominance and negotiate direct with them, effectively “taking sides” in a tribal conflict for the first time. The 1736 agreement sold to Pennsylvania all the land drained by the Delaware River south of the Blue Mountain, and included the “Walking Purchase,” Forks of the Delaware region.
Conrad Weiser brokered a peace treaty between the tribes of Maryland and Virginia and the Iroquois during the winter of 1737. Weiser survived deep snow, freezing temperatures and starvation to make a six-week journey to the Iroquois capital at Onondago, in New York. He was able to avert hostilities by persuading the Iroquois to not send war parties in the spring, but he was unable to get them to parlay with the southern tribes. The Iroquois were extremely impress with Weiser’s fortitude and named him "Tarachiawagon” (Holder of the Heavens). Had this Indian war not been averted, both Virginia and Pennsylvania would have been drawn into the conflict, with tragic, bloody consequences.
In 1742, Weiser again interpreted at a treaty meeting between the Iroquois and the English colonists. The Iroquois were paid (much more than the Penns had hoped to pay), for the land purchases of 1736. Onondaga chief Canasstego chastised the Lenape for attempting to thwart the agreement. He ordered the tribe to remove themselves from the area and settle in the Wyoming Valley or at Shamokin village. This accelerated the Lenape’s migration from their ancestral homelands to the Ohio Valley, and caused them to side with the French in future conflicts.
Weiser again acted as the interpreter for the 1744, Treaty of Lancaster council between the Iroquois, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. On July 4th, Canasatego again spoke. He offered recommendations to the English colonists that influenced American ideas of political unity thirty years later:
“Our wise forefathers established union and amity between the Five Nations. This has made us formidable; this has given us great weight and authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and by your observing the same methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire such strength and power. Therefore whatever befalls you; never fall out with one another.”
Virginia and Pennsylvania assumed that, in the Treaty of Lancaster, the Iroquois had sold them settlement rights to the Ohio Valley. The Iroquois disagreed. In 1748, Pennsylvania sent Weiser to Logstown, on the Ohio River, to hold council with chiefs representing ten tribes, including the Iroquois, Lenape and Shawnee. Weiser negotiated a treaty of friendship between the colony and these tribes. The French felt threatened by the treaty and increased their own diplomatic efforts. They began to build a string of forts on the frontier to protect their interests, including Fort Duquesne at present-day Pittsburgh, which was completed in 1754.
In 1750, Pennsylvania again sent Weiser to the Iroquois capital at Onondaga. He found the politics of the Six Nations dramatically changed. Canasatego, who had always been pro-British, was dead. Several of the tribes were leaning toward alliance with the French. However, Weiser’s adopted tribe, the Mohawks remained pro-British.
By 1754, the European Seven Years’ War was about to spread to the North American colonies, where it would be called the French and Indian War. Early that summer, Weiser was a member of a delegation from Pennsylvania that was sent to Albany. The British government had called for a council, hoping to negotiate assurances that the Iroquois would continue to support the English. Representatives of seven colonies were there.
There was substantial division among the British delegates and the Iroquois Nations, so no general agreement was reached. Each colony made the best individual deal it could with the Iroquois leaders. Conrad Weiser was able to secure one of the most successful agreements for Pennsylvania. Some lower-level chiefs deeded to the colony most of the remaining land that constitutes present-day Pennsylvania, including the southwest corner which was still claimed by Virginia at the time.
In 1756, as the French and Indian War intensified and the Lenape began to carry out raids in central Pennsylvania, the provincial government appointed Conrad Weiser as a Lt. Colonel in the newly organized militia. He and Benjamin Franklin were assigned to oversee the construction of a series of forts between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers to defend the frontier.
In the fall of 1758, Weiser attended another treaty council at Easton, PA, where representatives of the colony, the Iroquois Nations and many other tribes were present. Tensions were high, but Weiser was able to smooth over hostilities. With the signing of the Treaty of Easton, the tribes in the Ohio Valley agreed to stop supporting the French. The collapse of this support was a major reason the French decided to destroy Fort Duquesne and withdraw from the area as General Forbes advanced.
It is claimed that Conrad Weiser, because of his early association with them, was overly sympathetic to the point-of-view and desires of the Iroquois, at the expense of the Lenape, Shawnee and other tribes. He may have angered some lesser tribes, but the Iroquois were the true power in the region. Over his decades-long career, Weiser was a key player in negotiations, land purchases, and the formulation of Pennsylvania’s Indian policies. Weiser built on his knowledge of the Native American languages, culture, and hierarchy to forge agreements that saved countless lives. He also greatly influenced the future of North American history. With his help, the powerful Iroquois remained allied with the British against the French. This service contributed substantially to the survival of the British colonies and eventual victory in the colonial war.
Conrad Weiser had diverse interests in colonial Pennsylvania. He combined farming with other trades. He was a land owner and speculator, a tanner and a merchant. He created the plan for the town of Reading in 1748. He was a key figure in the creation of Berks County in 1752. He served as chief judge of the county until 1760. He was also a teacher and lay minister for the Lutheran Church and one of the founders of Trinity Church in Reading.
Unlike his friend and frequent employer, James Logan, and other Pennsylvanian leaders, Weiser was not a Quaker. He was associated with several Protestant sects. Between 1734 and 1741, Weiser was a follower of Conrad Beissel, the German Seventh Day Baptist preacher. For six years Weiser lived at Beissel’s monastic settlement, Ephrata Cloister, in Lancaster County. His wife managed to stick it out only a few months before returning to their farm. Celibacy, was encouraged, but not mandatory at the colony. He visited home enough to have four more children. Weiser also took leaves from the monastery for his diplomatic missions.
Conrad Weiser, “Holder of the Heavens,” died on his farm in Reading on July 13, 1760. He was 63. An Iroquois spokesman said of the tribe’s relations with the colonists, “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness…as since his death we cannot so well understand one another.” Shortly after Weiser’s death relations between the two groups did, indeed, begin to rapidly decline.
Conrad and Anna Weiser’s descendents continued to play roles in the civic life of Pennsylvania and the nation. Their daughter Maria married Henry Muhlenberg. Two of their sons played important roles in the American Revolution. Peter Muhlenberg served as a Major General in the Continental Army and Frederick Muhlenberg was the first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A great-grandson, Peter M. Weiser was a member of the Corps of Discovery and traveled to Oregon with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The contributions to American history by Conrad Weiser are not forgotten. His original homestead had been preserved and now serves as an interpretive center for 18th century farming, political and colonial history, and hosts regular re-enactments of events during the French and Indian War. The property is administered as a state park. There is a 17,000+ acre Conrad Weiser State Forest that covers parts of several counties. In Berks County there is a Conrad Weiser School District.
However, few outside the local area have even heard of this important figure from the Colonial Era.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)My great great great grandfather was Isaac Van Amberg. He was an adopted Iroquois who took his German family's name. He became one of the first lion tamers, and had his own circus. His daughter married into the Reynolds family. I loved your tale about this German. Several themes here. German, Iroquois, New York. I am sure my grandfather benefited from this man's life.tell us his story, Christopher
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