BIO:  WEISER Family, York County, PA

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, York Borough, Pg 54

THE WEISER FAMILY.  On proclamation of Queen Anne, of England, in 1708, owing to 
internal dissensions in Germany, about 4,000 Germans were transported to Holland 
in 1709, and thence to England.  They encamped near London, when, in the 
following year, Gov. Robert Hunter, of New York, who was then in England, and 
about to sail for his own country, invited with him about 3,000 of these Germans 
or Palatines to the town of New York, and they were soon afterward located on 
what was called the Livingstone District of that State, and turned their 
attention to agriculture.  A chief of the Mohawk Indians, who had about this 
time visited England, presented to Queen Anne a tract of his land in Schoharie, 
N. Y., and in 1713 about 150 families were transferred through the wilderness to 
that place.  Among these emigrants was the father of Conrad Weiser, with his 
wife and seven sons and daughters.  He is the great ancestor of the Weiser 
family in this country.  His Christian name is not for a certainty known.  From 
one of his sons, the Weisers, of York County, are descended.  The colony at 
Schoharie did not prosper.  They commenced improving lands and building houses, 
and labored until 1728, when they were partly dispersed, owing to defects in 
their titles to lands.  They then began to search for a new home, and began 
wending their course in a southeasterly direction, till they struck the 
Susquehanna.  Here they made canoes, in which they floated down the river to the 
mouth of the Swatara, and thence to the fertile spot in Berks County, along the 
Tulpehocken Creek, where they settled among the Indians, in the fall of 1823.  
The father of Conrad Weiser having become familiar with the Mohawk language, was 
an interpreter, and remained at Schoharie until 1729, when, with his wife and 
four children, all that were then living, he also came to the Tulpehocken.  It 
was his design to now devote all his attention to farming, but on many noted 
occasions his services as an interpreter were demanded by the authorities of 
Pennsylvania.  He was a man of great benevolence.  It was through him the 
Moravian people were made so attentive to Indian natives.  He died and was 
buried in Berks County.  Conrad Weiser, his eldest son, was a justice under the 
king, and also an Indian interpreter.  In 1736 he was sent to treat with the Six 
Nations of New York concerning a war that was to break out between them and the 
Indians of Virginia.  He was visited, August 14, 1752, by Count Zingendorff, at 
Tulpehocken, who here met a numerous embassy of sachems of the Six Nations.  The 
count preached the gospel to the Indians.  At the conclusion of his remarks to 
them he said concerning Weiser:  “This is a man whom God hath sent, both to the 
Indians and to the white people, to make known his will unto them.”  For a 
quarter of a century he attended all the important Indian treaties.  In 
connection with the governor of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin and several 
other persons, in 1752, he was appointed one of the trustees of the public 
schools, which were established through the efforts of Rev. Michael Schlatter; 
one of these schools was, about this year, started in York.  During the French 
and Indian war he was lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of Pennsylvania 
soldiers.  After an eventful and very useful life he died among his friends at 
Wormelsdorf, Berks County, on the 13th of July, 1760, at the age of sixty-four.  
His remains were interred and still rest in an historic old graveyard near that 
town.  He left seven children, who, by marriage, were related to the 
Muhlenbergs.

Samuel Weiser, a descendant of the Tulpehocken settlement, came to York in 1780, 
and immediately commenced the business of a hatter in a building on the present 
site of Jacob Wilt’s jewelry store on East Market Street.  He continued this 
business until 1822, but opened a dry goods store in 1808 on the corner still 
occupied by his descendants.  During the war of 1812 he employed about fifty 
workmen making hats, and sent wagon loads of them every Monday morning to 
Baltimore.  He died in 1834, aged seventy-four years, and his remains were 
interred in the graveyard adjoining Christ’s Lutheran Church.  They have since 
been removed to Prospect Hill Cemetery.  He was married to Eve Phtleager, and 
had eight children:  Samuel, Jacob, Charles, Daniel, Catherine, Eliza, Margaret 
and Cassandra.  Samuel, the eldest son, succeeded his father in the 
manufacturing of hats until 1840, when he bought a farm one-half mile south of 
York, and died there in 1856.  Augustus, his eldest son, died on the farm; 
Albert is living in Preston, Minn., engaged in the jewelry and drug business; 
Emilius is located in Decorah, Iowa, in the drug business; Louisa was married to 
John Ensminger; she is now dead; Alexander died unmarried; Catherine, married to 
John C. Rupert; Margaret married to Josiah Poorbaugh, of Berlin, Somerset Co., 
Penn.; Annie, married to David Ziegler, of York; Florence, now dead, was married 
to Martin Bender, of York; Helen, unmarried, living in York.

Jacob, second son of Samuel Weiser, Sr., went into the dry goods business in 
1818 with his brother Charles, which he continued until 1836, when he engaged in 
the lumber trade with his brother, Daniel P. Weiser.  He was director in the 
York County Bank, York Water Company, and York & Susquehanna Turnpike Company, 
each for many years.  He died in 1874 at the advanced age of about eighty-three 
years.  He left two children:  Franklin S., who succeeded him in the lumber 
business, and Jane, married first to Jacob Smyser (deceased), and now to 
Nathaniel Weigle.

Daniel, fourth son of Samuel Weiser, Sr., was a tanner and currier for many 
years, and afterward formed a partnership with his brother Jacob in the lumber 
business.  He died about 1855, leaving three sons:  Gates J. Weiser (lately 
deceased), David Weiser and Oliver P. Weiser.  Charles Weiser, father of John A. 
and Charles S. Weiser, who are prominently identified with the business 
interests of York, was born in 1796, and was the junior member of the dry goods 
firm of J. & C. Weiser, commencing business in 1818 and continuing until 1846.  
In 1856 he founded the banking-house in his own name.  In January, 1860, his 
son, Charles S. Weiser, became a member of the firm.  In January, 1867, the 
present firm, Weiser, Son & Carl, was formed.  For a number of years he was a 
director in the York Bank, and president of the York & Gettysburg and York & 
Susquehanna Turnpike Companies.  He was a member of Christ’s Lutheran Church 
under Dr. Schmucker, and one of the founders of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.  He 
died in 1867, aged seventy-one years.  He lived for twenty-five years on the 
property now owned by Jere Carl, Esq.  He was married to Anna A., daughter of 
Gen. Jacob Spangler, and left nine children:  John A., Erastus H., Horace, 
Charles S., George (who died in infancy), Josephine (married to Dr. Pentz), 
Theodosia E. (unmarried), Arabella (now deceased), Amelia (married to M. S. 
Green), Adaline (married to Jere Carl).  John A. Weiser, eldest son of Charles 
Weiser, was born July 31, 1824.  He received his education in York County 
Academy.  He began his mercantile career in 1838 as a clerk in his father’s 
store, and remained in the same position until 1846, when he succeeded his 
father in the business.  This he continued until 1883, when his two eldest sons 
succeeded him.  The present firm name is H. P. Weiser & Bro.  The same store, in 
the same location, has been continued in the Weiser name since its organization 
in 1808.  Mr. Weiser has been exceptionally prosperous as a merchant, and his 
name is very familiarly known in York County.  Possessing rare business 
qualifications, he has been prominently connected with other interests in the 
town and county.  He was one of the founders of, and is still one of the 
directors of, the Farmers’ National Bank, and was for many years a director of 
the York County Bank.  He has been president of the York & Gettysburg Turnpike 
Company since 1881; treasurer of the York Gas Company since 1850; manager and 
treasurer of the York & Susquehanna Turnpike Company since 1867.  He was married 
first to Miss Georgiana Eichelberger (now deceased) in 1851.  Of this marriage, 
there was one son – Harry – born in 1852, now senior member of the mercantile 
firm of H. P. Weiser & Bro.  In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary Jane Upp.  The 
children by this marriage are Bertha, born in 1860; George U., in 1861; P. 
Sterrett, in 1864; Louisa, in 1865, and Annie S., in 1867.  He resides in his 
delightfully situated home at 210 East Market Street, surrounded by all the 
comforts and conveniences of life.

Erastus H. Weiser, second son of Charles Weiser, was born in 1826.  He received 
his preparatory education at York County Academy and Pennsylvania College at 
Gettysburg.  He afterward entered Yale College, and graduated in the class of 
1849; read law with John G. Campbell, Esq., and had a lucrative practice in this 
profession before the York Court until the time of his death in 1871.  He was 
married, in 1852, to Miss Annie Franklin, daughter of Walter Franklin, Esq., of 
York, who is now also dead.  They had two sons:  William F. Weiser, in the 
banking firm of Weiser, Son & Carl, and Charles, a student in Collegiate 
Institute.  He was an earnest and devoted worker, and an elder in the 
Presbyterian Church at York, and a teacher in the Sunday-school.

Horace S. was educated at Yale, and read law with Judge Fisher.  He practiced at 
the York bar for a few years, then removed to Decorah, Iowa, and founded the 
Winneshiek County Bank in 1854, and conducted the same successfully until the 
time of his death in 1875.

Charles S. Weiser was born in 1838, and educated in the schools of York and in 
York County Academy.  He began the banking business as a partner with his father 
in 1860, and is now the senior member of the firm of Weiser, Son & Carl, which 
bank is described elsewhere in this book.  For several years he was a member of 
the firm of Weiser & Bender, engaged in the lumber business in Center County, 
Penn.  The following list of positions of trust and honor held by him gives 
conclusive evidence of his business capacity and integrity:  treasurer of the 
York Water Company, of the York County Academy, of the York Hospital and 
Dispensary, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of the York 
County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of the Board of Home Missions of the 
General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States, of the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, of the Charles A. Morris fund of $7,000 for 
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and vice-president of the Orphan’s Home and director 
in the York & Susquehanna Turnpike Company.  Mr. Weiser was married, in 1866, to 
Miss Isadora Brown, daughter of the late William Brown, Esq., of York.  They had 
one child – Charles, who died in infancy.  He and his wife are members of the 
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and also teaches in the Sunday-school.  He is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, and resided in a comfortable and convenient 
home at 225 East Market Street.