George Neisser (1715-1784)
Item
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Publisher
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Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
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Type
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Text
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Format
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image/jpeg
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Description
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The author of this short biography wrote this account of George Niesser's life towards the end of the 19th century. He recounts his birth in Germany then his journeys to first Georgia and then Pennsylvania. He was the pastor of various congregations including Philadelphia where he died in 1784.
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Source
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https://www.moravianchurcharchives.findbuch.net/php/main.php#4d656d6f6972732ex5535
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Identifier
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MemBeth 0274
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Language
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English
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Extent
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2 pages
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Rights Holder
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Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
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transcript of
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George Neisser, the first schoolmaster of Bethlehem, Penna., was born on April 11, 1715, at Sehlen (or at Neutitschein?) and went to Herrnhut with his parents in 1723, & his younger brother Augustin (born 1717 in Schlen) an their grandmother Judith, m.n. Jäschke. His father, also a George Neisser, was a stone-mason and died in Berthelsdorf in 1756 [?]. His mother, Susanna m.n. Troschke of Senftleben, died in Herrnhut March 24, 1725, probably the first married sister to die there.
George Neisser, the future schoolmaster, was one of those who sailed for Georgia with Bishop David Nitschmann (the ship in which the Wesleys and Ingham also sailed) as was also his younger brother Augustin, 1735.
In February 1737 Toeltschig sent him to Pennsylvania to report to Spangenberg at Wiegner's about the troubles of the Moravians in Georgia. He was one of the Moravians engaged in the erection of the Whitefield House at Nazareth, and then worked for a time for Henry Antes, but rejoined the Brethren in... Bethlehem at the end of June 1741.
He encassed the document placed in the cornerstone of the Gemeinhaus, and was tehe first school-master of Bethlehem, when the school was opened in May, 1742, -- as he was also the first diarist and the postmaster, who had charge of the mail sent to and received from the Brother who rendered a like service in Philadelphia. In 1745, Feb. 14, he married Catherine Theodora Medter.
Ordained a deacon in Bethlehem by John d Watteville, Spangenberg and Cammerhof on Oct. 27, 1748, he served in the pastorate of various congregatoins, last of all in Philadelphia, where he died on November 1, 1784. He was buried in the Brethren's Cemetery, Franklin and Vine Sts. then the (church and) cemetery was sold in the Fall of 1886, and the remains yet in the graves reintered elsewhere, those of George Neisser wre brought to Bethlehem and reinterred in October in the Old Graveyard in Bethlehem - grave no. 18, row 3.
