From:
pbeewax@aol.com
Date: 3/7/2007
Hello! I wanted to share the
above pictures of the general area of the original
Weiserdorf in
Schoharie County,
New York, as well as my story. My name is Rachel (Klehn)
Galka, and I am
pictured above next to my older brother Aaron
Klehn. The pictures
(save for the historical marker) were taken from
Vrooman's Nose, also
known as Onistagrawa
(Corn Mountain in the Mohawk language).
I discovered last summer that Conrad Weiser
(Jr) is my 9th great-grandfather. the story of this discovery is a
combination of coincidence, serendipity and perhaps good old Weiser
stubbornness that has filtered down through the generations.
Though we live in New York now, my family,
both on my mother's father's side and my father's father's side
hailed from Iowa. When we kids were growing up, my grandfather,
William Otterbeck
(on my mother's side, from whom we derive the
Weiser heritage)
spoke with pride of his German
heritage, though he was not aware of the link to Weiser. He was very
proud of the family stories of the immigration to Iowa from Germany
on his mother's father's side. He could recite some of the names,
and did to us kids, but as he passed away suddenly in 1989, these
were mostly lost or forgotten.
My grandfather and his brother came to New
York in the 1950s for their work in the construction field and
eventually settled east of Albany in Columbia/Rensselaer
County. So far as we knew, this NY branch of the family did not
have any local ties, as most of the family remained behind in Iowa
and Wisconsin. When my parents were first married in the 1970's, my
father's work for the state of New York resulted in my family's
relocation to Schoharie,
about 40 miles from my mother's home outside of Albany. So, my
brother, and our sister Jamee
and I played in the Schoharie
Creek as kids, and some of our earliest memories are of driving
through this beautiful valley, with the one main road going
literally right through Old
Weiserdorf. My grandfather, again, unaware of his own
link to the place, loved the sight of the rolling hills of
Schoharie, often
equating their beauty to those in Germany that he'd seen during the
war, and a recent visit with my grandmother. My family moved from
Schoharie in the
mid-1970's, though
my brother and I return there every year to hike, paint the
landscape and take long drives in the country.
Around the time of my grandfather's death,
when I was about 18, I began to develop an interest in Native
American culture . While I was on a camping trip in the NY
Adirondacks, the true enormity of the injustices done to this people
really struck me. As soon as I arrived home, I went out and started
reading books about Native Americans to try and understand their
culture. Curiously, I read a lot about famous Native Americans like
Sacajawea,
Tecumseh,
Pocohantas, Black
Elk, Sitting Bull, etc. but not about our local
Iroquois.
Then, around 2000, I happened
upon a book about the history of the
Mohawk (one of the 5 tribes of the NY Iroquois), and the 18th
century history of the Mohawk Valley, NY. In the book, however
there is mention of Conrad Weiser,
a Palatine German who became the Valley's 1st interpreter. Now, not
knowing anything about the Palatine Germans, I did some research and
found out that they originally established
Schoharie in 1712, long before the Dutch came
later. Of course I found that interesting because the original "Weiserdorf"
or town named after Conrad's father is today
Middleburgh, very
close to our former homes in
Schoharie, so I knew it well. So, over the next few
years I expanded on my research of both the Mohawk and the
Palatines, and found
that unlike so many settler vs.
Indian conflicts, these two cultures
coexisted quite well, and had a mutual fondness for one
another (prior to the Revolutionary War that is but that's a whole
other story!) that was very intriguing.
Anyhow, fast forward to 2003. As an
adult student returning to college, one of my required classes was
entitled Natives and Strangers , that focused on the
immigrant experience in America. The course was fascinating, and
since the subject of our research papers was of our choice, my final
project built on my personal interest in the Palatine Germans, and
their unique relationship with the Iroquois. I made copies of old
maps, had them enlarged, and attached them to "colonially" decorated
poster board and with my laser
pointer, showed the class the migration from Germany to England to
southern New York and finally to
Schoharie. My daughter helped me w/these and listened
to me practice ad nauseum,
so she remembers this well.
In 2004, I had an opportunity to stay for 2
weeks at the Native American community of
Kanatsiohareke, in
Fonda NY to partake in a project called The
Mohawk Language Immersion Project. Though I would receive
college credit for the class, my primary reasons for the study were
personal. I was still trying to understand as well as deepen my
understanding of Iroquoian
culture, and what better way than to learn the language? I will not
go on here about the experience
I had there, but suffice it to say it was amazing and the founders
there deserve true recognition (and perhaps more funding) for what
they are trying to do at that community, which is try to preserve
the Mohawk language and culture, as well as open it up to people
of other cultures.
What is really ironic, now, in hindsight, is
that I was literally
following in Conrad's footsteps, staying with the Mohawk to learn
the language, in the same area he is reported to have 292 years
earlier. I'd like to reiterate that still, at this point I was
unaware of my own ancestral ties to Conrad
Weiser.
So, had none of the above happened,
stumbling on a message in a message
board this last summer posted in 2001 by my
grandfather's sister in Iowa would have not really registered
with me. But instead, it happened like this: I'd been playing
on the Internet looking into my
genealogy, since there is very little family recollection of my
grandfather's family history. I kept running into brick
walls, especially encumbered by the lack of any names save for
Steele and Otterbeck.
Most sites seem to lead you to sites, where you have to pay for
virtually any and all information
of any significance, frustrating to say the least.
Not coming up with much, I instead started
researching Iowa, and its history because I don't know much about
it. Well, on one of these sites I was lead to a site established
the the Coover
family, who included a link to
Rootsweb.com
where you can pop your ancestors
name in, and if anyone else has
written about him/her, you can access it free
of charge. So I put in my grandfather's
name, and lo and behold there were several messages, two of
which were my grandfather's sister (whom
I've never met), which I found exciting,
because really, what are the odds in that to begin with?! When I
clicked on one, she was responding to another post about about
Conrad Weiser, in which she
stated that she is related to CW throught
her mother. I nearly fell off my chair! I could not believe
that a man I had done so much research on, had lived w/in a stone's
throw of his first homestead
in America, and had such an integral part of our local history, and
such an exemplary relationship with the Native Americans I too am so
fond of made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. When my
daughter and I had been tracing his migration across the Atlantic
for my final research project, we'd been in fact tracing our own!
Amazing!
Not that I doubted
my grandfather's sister, but since I'd never heard this
before, I started to research her claims. Thanks to the research
and dedication of other Weiser
relatives (thanks all of you!), I found out what she claims is
accurate. In yet another ironic twist, my family descends from
Frederick, the last child of Conrad's born in
Schohaire, and I
like to think that realistically, some of his earliest memories,
like mine, were of that pretty little valley too. Here's my lineage:
Conrad
Weiser whose
son was
Frederick
Weiser whose daughter was
Anna Catharine(Weiser)
Kahl
whose son was
Michael Sr.
Kahl whose daughter was
Catherine (Kahl)
Bower whose son was
Benjamin Franklin Bower whose daughter was
Sarah
Catharine (Bower) Hammond whose
daughter was
Eva Livera
(Hammond) Steele (my grandfather's
grandmother) whose daughter was
Eva May (Steele)
Otterbeck (my
grandfather's mother) whose son was
William L.
Otterbeck (my grandfather)
I have since
purchased
Weiser
Families in America, which also supports what many of
you have posted on Rootsweb
as well, with
regards to my family. I've seen on the message boards that people
who don't have access to the book occasionally request information,
and I'd be happy to help out when I can.
Well , I'm glad some of you continue to share
an interest in the ever-growing story of the
Wesiers, and the
amazing journeys we
Weiser-ites
continue to travel on!
