Ben Franklin & Conrad Weiser’s Beard

I recently read an unfamiliar anecdote about Benjamin Franklin and Conrad Weiser that amused me so much I had to share it with you. Both 18th century men were hugely important figures during Pennsylvania’s Colonial Era. Franklin, of course, was an international personality we all know. Weiser was an ambassador, interpreter, and negotiator whose significance (and colorful eccentricity), is under-appreciated these days outside his Berks County home-country. The two men were often associates, representing Pennsylvania at pow-wows and treaties that were instrumental in establishing the colony’s (mostly benevolent), Indian Policy.

In an outdated volume of PA history I picked up at a yard sale, I ran across a perplexing entry in the index: “Weiser, Conrad; Beard p.126-127”?! I had to investigate it. It was in a chapter about Ben Franklin. The author was hyperbolically enamored with the man. The purple prose drooled adulation. But he effectively demonstrated Franklin’s wit and wisdom by offering an episode I’d not heard about before. It referred to Ben’s reaction to the down-past-the-belt beard Weiser had grown since his conversion to the 7th Day German Baptist (Dunker) sect and retreat to their cloister in Ephrata.

First, some background: Conrad Weiser was born in Wurttemberg, Germany in 1696. His mother died of ‘fever’ in 1709. Soon after, his retired dragoon father fled with his family (siblings unknown), from a homeland ravaged by pestilence, persecution, and religious violence. They were among thousands of Protestants who escaped to England that year and camped outside London over winter. Queen Anne provided ten ships the following spring and relocated the refugees to the North American colonies.

Three thousand Germans were initially ensconced in two camps along the Hudson River. They were assigned specific job-types and expected to work off their indenture for future land-grants. However, the Weisers soon left their camp and relocated to Schoharie Valley in Mohawk Country. Conrad’s father struck an agreement with a local chief and, at age sixteen, the boy was sent to live with the tribe. During that winter and spring (171213), he learned much about the language and customs of the Iroquois Confederation.

Conrad Weiser became a farmer. He married Anne Feck of Schoharie in 1720. In 1725 they migrated down the Susquehanna River and settled near present-day Reading, PA. During hunting expeditions, Weiser (allegedly) met Shikellamy, the Oneida chief who was Iroquois overlord of all tribes in Pennsylvania. Shikellamy often hosted Weiser at his home at Shamokin Village (Sunbury, PA). He considered Weiser an adopted Mohawk and friend and took him to Philadelphia as interpreter for council with the provincial government. Pennsylvania’s officials were impressed by Weiser and enlisted his services from then on. He attended the follow-up council in August, 1732.

Weiser participated in negotiations that resulted in the Walking Purchase in 1736. It was a shift in PA’s Indian Policy. William Penn (d. 1718), purchased land directly from the Lenape, but now the Iroquois were recognized as their overlords and parlayed with, instead. Then, in 1737, Virginia Governor William Gooch enlisted Weiser to prevent a war between southern tribes and the Iroquois. In brutal winter conditions, Weiser and his ‘Dutch’ companion, Stoffel Stump, staggered north to the Iroquois capital, Onondaga (Syracuse), on the mission of peace. Weiser’s dedication and fortitude earned him respect and an Iroquois name: Tarachiawagon (Holder of the Heavens).

Weiser attended another council in Philadelphia in 1742. He was re-called to broker peace in Virginia, negotiated as ambassador before the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744, and visited Onondaga several more times. He and was at Albany in 1754, when the Iroquois agreed to support England in the Seven Years/French and Indian War. Weiser and Franklin were assigned to plan for defense and construct frontier forts in preparation for the conflict—another Pennsylvania policy change. Both men also attended the Treaty of Easton council in 1758.

Weiser worked at several trades in addition to farming: tanner, merchant, land speculator. He drew-up plans for the city of Reading in 1748, and was important in establishing Berks County in 1752. He was teacher, lay-minister, co-founder of Trinity Church in Reading and served as Chief Judge of Berks County until his death in 1760.

In 1731, Weiser burned his Lutheran books and, in frustration over conflicts between denominations, joined the Ephrata Cloister near Lancaster. As did Wm. Penn, he believed: “It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.” Anne put up with it for only a few months then returned to their Womelsdorf farm. Conrad occasionally took leave for diplomatic service and, despite encouraged celibacy, to father four more children (they had 14, seven who survived to adulthood). Another ‘habit’ of the Dunkers was big beards. Weiser’s was soon legendary.

Now, finally: When Ben Franklin first saw Conrad Weiser’s beard, he wondered why such a successful man would cover his face and torso, so. It was symbolic of isolation and retirement from the world at a time they were negotiating North America’s future. When Weiser showed up at his bookshop on Market Street on August 29, 1743, beard blowing in the wind, Franklin ‘goosed’ him. He reminded Weiser that Wm. Penn also believed: “A devout man is one thing, a stickler is quite another.” He sold Weiser “Hudibras,” a satire on English Puritans. Franklin quoted a couplet mocking ‘humbugs’ who: “Compound for sins they are inclined to / By damning those they have no mind to.” jaCK SCHiCK iS a long time QuaKertown area reSident and regular Contributor Here at ubfP. reaCH Him at SjCKSCHC@aol Com

Weiser apparently read the book and ‘got it.’ Five days later he wrote a “sharp letter” of resignation to the cloister and cut off his beard. At the Treaty of Lancaster signing the following year, Iroquois Confederacy chiefs formally thanked the Pennsylvania delegation for Conrad Weiser having cut his beard. They said it frightened their children.

The factuality of any Ben Franklin anecdote is suspect. His autobiography is generally considered historical fiction. I’d never heard this one and it tickled me. But I already knew something about Conrad Weiser. Now you do, too.