The Conrad Weiser Area

By Carl Ganster, Carl Reidler and Lynn Otto

In 1729, John Conrad Weiser, the most famous citizen of the area, joined his fellow Germans and built his homestead just east of present-day Womelsdorf. The settlement grew in the 1800s with a turnpike, a canal, a railroad, and more highways. Villages were started, and three became boroughs. Womelsdorf is the oldest borough in the western part of Berks County, while Robesonia and Wernersville were railroad towns laid out in the 1850s. Some remain villages to this day. Stouchsburg grew up around the turnpike and the canal. Charming Forge was the first industry in the area, and the village still looks like it did 200 years ago. The remaining parts of the area are rural, and some of the best growing soil is found in the Conrad Weiser area. In 1954, seven municipalities joined to form the Conrad Weiser Area School District. This book covers photographs from 1900 until the 1960s and includes all municipalities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jun 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439651629

Carl Ganster

Authors Carl Ganster and Carl Reidler are graduates of the Conrad Weiser High School class of 1975. Carl Ganster grew up in Stouchsburg and, at an early age, had an interest in the Stouchsburg/Marion Township area. He is also the treasurer of the Tulphocken Settlement Historical Society. Carl Reidler is from Wernersville and has had an interest in the Wernersville/South Heidelberg area. He is past president of the Heidelberg Heritage Society and is active in the only Patriotic Order Sons of America lodge that meets in Robesonia. The images in this book come from the collections of both authors.

Book preview

collections.

INTRODUCTION

Photographs and postcards are truly snapshots in time. Taken to remember people, places, and objects, they tell us about our past. Unfortunately, when talking about the 18th century and the early history of the Tulpehocken Valley, we can only draw our images from the written word. But these words can stimulate snapshots in our mind. Such is the case when remembering Conrad Weiser, the Tulpehocken Valley’s most famous early occupant. Let us start to form our postcard.

Conrad Weiser was born in the German Palatinate town of Affstätt on November 2, 1696. After the death of Conrad’s mother, Anna Magdalena, in 1709, Conrad’s father, Johan, decided to move his eight children to America. Their destination was the royal colony of New York. Their occupation was to raise hemp and produce pine tar and pitch in the Hudson Valley. When this endeavor did not work out, the Weiser family and others moved to the Schoharie Valley, near Albany, New York.

During this period, young Conrad spent a winter with the Mohawk Indians. Although not pleasurable, this experience would prove invaluable to Conrad in his future. In 1720, he took a bride, marrying Anna Eve Feeg. This union was the source of strength for things to come and produced 14 children, seven of whom lived to adulthood. However, conditions did not improve greatly for the German immigrants, and in 1729, Conrad, Anna Eve, and four of their children moved from New York to a fertile land in Pennsylvania called the Tulpehocken Valley. There, Conrad built his farm in the shadow of Eagles Peak. This would be his home for the next 31 adventurous years.

Early on in his life in the Tulpehocken Valley, Conrad recognized the apparent need for a skilled interpreter who could help in Indian negotiations. Drawing on his experience of living with the natives, he became a skilled negotiator, and over the next 30 years, his service to the colony of Pennsylvania was invaluable. Through this experience, he formed a lifelong bond with Sachem Shikellamy. Their friendship would continue until Shikellamy’s death in 1748. Conrad’s plantation grew to 900 acres, and he maintained a tannery, orchard, and vineyard while splitting his time between Indian policy and his home life.

In 1750, Berks County was formed through Conrad’s help, and he served as justice of the peace and, later, the first judgeship in Berks County. In addition to purchasing several lots and establishing a home, he helped lay out the town of Reading. During the French and Indian War, he served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Battalion of the newly formed Pennsylvania Regiment. Finally, Conrad Weiser was laid to rest after his death on July 13, 1760. His plantation passed to his son and was later sold to a Mr. Sheetz. Little evidence of the Weiser plantation remained into the 19th century except the little stone building and Conrad’s grave maker. It appeared as if the Tulpehocken Valley had forgotten all about the efforts of this man. Or had it?

By the 1920s, a movement was afoot to somehow commemorate Conrad Weiser and his achievements. Starting with a donation of 20 acres for $1 from Le Roy R. Valentine, owner of the Weiser property at that time, the Conrad Weiser Memorial Park Association began to realize its plan to memorialize Conrad Weiser. After raising $30,000, the park association sought the help of the Olmstead Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, to design the park. Slowly, the park and restorations were under way. The dedication of the Conrad Weiser Memorial Park finally took place on September 1, 1928. More than 25,000 people attended this event. Rev. Dr. P.C. Croll delivered the dedicatory address. Many snapshots and postcards from this time period exist, showing us the way the park and house looked in those early days. Since that time, this lovely park has seen many owners, lastly the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). In 2009, the historical area of the park was closed because of cuts within the state budget. However, a recent management agreement between the PHMC and the Friends of the Conrad Weiser Homestead allowed the historical area to reopen for public viewing.

Many things have changed in the years between 1729 and today. People, places, and objects continuously evolve. Surely, the surrounding Tulpehocken Valley area has grown, with the addition of new roads, new buildings, and new towns. Yet if we look beneath the shadow of Eagles Peak, the same stone house and gravesite remain unchanged.

—Lynn Otto

Vice President, Friends of the Conrad Weiser Homestead

One

MARION TOWNSHIP

In 1723, the first settlers made Marion Township their home. At the time, it was called Tulpehocken, named after the creek that runs through it. Marion had the first church, Reed’s in 1727, and the first mill, that of Leonhardt Reed in about 1730. As time went by, the settlement grew, and a second church, Christ Lutheran, was built in 1743. In 1749, the first forge, Tulpehocken Eisenhammer (later, Charming Forge), was started in the western part of Marion. Charming Forge ceased production in the 1890s.

Starting in Reading and running west into Dauphin County, the first turnpike, the Berks-Dauphin Turnpike, was opened in 1805. The road improved commerce for local residents, as it ran through Marion. The turnpike lasted into the 1920s, when the state appropriated the road.

In 1808, Andrew Stouch purchased land along this road and built a tavern, after which houses sprang up on the north side of the turnpike. By the 1820s, Jacob Shitz had laid out lots on the