page_title: Conrad Weiser
section_title: Other interests
hierarchical_section_title: Conrad Weiser / Other interests
caption_attribution_description: English: Conrad Weiser House on the NRHP since October 15, 1966. Located less than 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Womelsdorf, in Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Area also called Tulpehocken because of Indian path through the area. Weiser was a diplomat, interpreter, and "friend of the Indian" in early Pennsylvania, important in acquiring land, writing treaties. Died about 1760 near the end of the French and Indian Wars. Historical signs on property suggest that this is the place of Weiser's house but only that this particular house was built "sometime before 1835"
context_page_description: Conrad Weiser, born Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., was a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer who served as an interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native American nations. Primarily a farmer, he also worked as a tanner, and later served as a soldier and judge. He lived part of the time for six years at Ephrata Cloister, a Protestant monastic community in Lancaster County.
  As an emissary in councils between Native Americans and the colonies, especially Pennsylvania, during the late 18th century's tensions of the French and Indian War, he contributed to alliances that supported the British effort.
context_section_description: Between 1734 and 1741, Weiser became a follower of Conrad Beissel, a German Baptist preacher and musician who founded what became known as the Ephrata Cloister, a Protestant monastic settlement in the Ephrata Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Most people were encouraged to be celibate, although there were also married couples at the community. Weiser lived there for periods over six years.  His wife lived there only a few months before returning to their farm.  Weiser visited her frequently enough to father four more children. In addition, he took leaves of absence from the monastery for diplomatic duties, such as those he performed for the colony of Pennsylvania in 1736 and 1737.
  Like many other colonists, Weiser combined farming with other trades: tanner, merchant, and land speculator.  He drew the plan for the town of Reading in 1748, was a key figure in the creation of Berks County in 1752, and was appointed to serve as its chief judge until 1760.  Weiser was also a teacher and a lay minister of the Lutheran Church, and one of the founders of Trinity Church in Reading.
  In 1756, during the French and Indian War, the Lenape began to raid central Pennsylvania.  When the colony organized a militia, its leaders appointed Weiser as a Lt. Colonel. Working with Benjamin Franklin, he planned and established a series of forts between the Delaware and Susquehannah rivers.  When General Forbes evicted the French from Fort Duquesne in 1758, the threat subsided.  Following its victory in the Seven Years War, Britain later gained all French territory east of the Mississippi River at the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
caption: Conrad Weiser Homestead, Womelsdorf, Berks County, PA
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