Following Braddock’s defeat, Conrad Weiser led many delegations of Indians to Philadelphia, and they always were entertained at his home en route. This hospitality was misunderstood by his neighbors, but his well-known integrity saved him in the hour of his greatest peril.
When the Indians committed so many murders in Penns Valley, at Mahanoy Creek and elsewhere, Weiser warned his neighbors at Tulpehocken, and when they gathered at his house for defense Weiser was made their commander.
An ungrateful Pennsylvania Assembly failed to pay Weiser’s bills, and for three years his accounts were unsettled. He refused to do further service until his bills were paid, and as Weiser was in demand his expense accounts were satisfied.
At the great Indian treaties at Easton Weiser was a prominent personage, and the final peace was due principally to his influence.
Weiser was now past sixty years of age. His work was almost done. While visiting near Womelsdorf he died July 13, 1760.
When he died one of his associates remarked: “He has left no one to fill his place.” An Iroquois orator declared: “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness.”
If all white men had been as just and friendly to the Indians as was this Pennsylvania German, the history of our westward advance might have been spared some bloody chapters.
It is said that President Washington, standing at the grave of Weiser, in 1794, remarked that the services of the latter to the Government had been of great importance and had been rendered in a difficult period and posterity would not forget him.