Jacob Weiss
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1806 or 3 Mar 1802 - Switzerland
Christening:
Death: 30 May 1887
Burial: in Highspire, Dauphin, Pennsylvania
Cause of Death:
AFN #:
Spouses and Children
1. *Joanna Susanna (Joanna S.) (30 Apr 1809 - 3 Oct 1875)
Marriage: Bef 1835
Status:
Children:
1. Sarah Elizabeth Weiss (Abt 1835- )
2. Harriet C. Weiss (Abt 1838- )
3. Mary Ann Weiss (Wise) (1843-1930)
4. Barbara Anna Weiss (Abt 1843-1851)
5. Amanda R. Weiss (Abt 1846- )
6. Jason Weiss (Abt 1848- )
7. Rejina Weiss (Abt 1848- )
8. Alice J. Weiss (Abt 1857- )
9. Female Weiss (1835-Bef 1840)
Notes
General:
My father said that he was told that Jacob Weiss He wove rugs on his loom while at work as a ticket agent at the Highspire railway office.
Ella Huggins (3rd cousin in law still living in that area) says her "book" shows Jacob and Joanna/ Johanna Susanna are buried in Highspire - somewhere. Their graves are actually in the Dehart plot; I have photos of them.
In 1880 census says b 1810; 70 years old, b Switzerland. Harrison, Alleghany, PA. Widower.
His parents were both born in Switzerland.
He was staying w daughter Sarah Conklin in Steelton in the 1880 census. He is described as a rug weaver, which is consistent with my father’s report that he wove rugs while at work as a ticket agent at the Highspire railway station.
The 1840 census index says he did not live in Dauphin Co in 1840, and the 1880 census says Sarah was born between 1835 and 1840 in Pennsylvania.
He was in the 1840 census, in Lower Swatara township, Dauphin County. Highspire and Steelton through Swatara and Lower Swatara townships. Jacob Weise.
- - - - - 1 (1 male, age 30-40) 2 1 - - - 1 (2 females under 5, 1 female 5-10, 1 female 30 - 40)
This is consistent with the household composition in the 1850 census.
He owned a large plot of land on the railroad tracks near the station in Highspire. The Weiss property, which was literally on the railroad tracks which ran through it a block and a half from the railway station in the southern part Highspire, is shown on an old property map of Highspire as taking up five lots, and is shown in the 1850 census as worth $400 which I am told was about the worth of two small farms, and a good amount of property. .
Probably this is the five city lots the 1875 property map of Dauphin County shows that he owned on the railroad tracks, a block or so from the railroad station! I believe that this track and station were not built until the 1840's; Jacob may have owned it before he allowed or sold rights to the railroad company! This property probably was part of houses behind the railway station where employees lived, railroad owned (not nec true in Jacob's day) tht wre torn down after flooding in the 1960's. Between Front and Water STreets; Jacob's land took up the whole block, = 5 lots. Next block had 2 homes and the railroad station. The railroad ran right through it!
1850 census lookup (courtesy of Virginia Burke, on Dauphin County list at Rootsweb, has him 44 years old, a weaver, born Switzerland, owning property worth $400, which Vivian says is a good deal more than the value of many farms in the same year. Ella Huggins says a house, in which a certain woman who is a local historian, once lived, adjoined the railway station where Jacob allegedly worked as a ticket agent at one point; however, it appears that he may have owned his property. He lived in Dauphin Co, Highspire TWP, p. 185, household 16, family 16.
Jacob Wise, 44 M, Weaver, $400, b Switzerland
Joanna S 41 F b Germany
Sarah Elizabeth 15 F b PA in school
Harriet C 12 F " "
Mary Ann, 10 F, " "
Barbara Anna 7 F ""
Amanda R. 4 F b PA
Jason 1 M b PA
The age given on the 1850 census and the date of birth on his grave stone are four years apart.
List of children here is from 1850 census record for the family, ages calculated based on reported age on census; (Highspire) Mary Anne Weiss's reported age of ten on the census is clearly not accurate as family records consistently have her b 1841 or 1842. More children could have been born after the 1850 census enumeration, as the youngest, Jason, was listed as only 1 year old.
1860 census lists:
Jacob Wise, no occ, Lower Swatara Twp,, Middletown PO. Jacob Wise 56. Susanne 53. Mary A. 16. Rejina E. 12 F, Alice J. 3, F. Notice no Jason, and Rejina is not listed above though she would have been living. But the German call name is the second name, so Amanda R. may be Amanda Rejina.
In the 1870 census, Jacob and his wife Susanna, both b PA, he a retired weaver, b abt 1798, lived in Lower Swatara Township. Next door lived Peter Day, wife Regina, age 23, -b abt 1847, both born in Wurtemberg, and a son Charles, age 8 months, born Pennsylvania. Regina was in the right age range to be Jacob's daughter.
Despite having two children allegedly born before 1840, or else the eldest born in 1840, in Pennsylvania, this supported by them being given common English names, Jacob Weiss is not shown in 1840 census index as in Dauphin Co. Joanna/ Johanna Susanna, b Apr 30 1809, Germany. Died Oct 3 1875, Highspire. Jacob's and Johanna's graves both read "our mother", and "our father", indicating more than one Weiss child was around to bury them!
Sarah married George H. Conklin and lived with him in Steelton in 1880 census. He was a laborer in 1880 and an engineer in 1897-90 Harrisburg area directory, when he lived at 515 N. Front St, AND Jefferson and Front, and Front near Jefferson. He was 41 in 1880 census, and Sarah was 40 despite having been 15 in 1835. Their children on 1880 census; John J. Conklin W M 14 son in 1897-1900 lived 354 S. Front, laborer William W M 9 son in 1897-1900 a butcher, lived variously at 515 N Front and 328 N Front Daniel M. W M 7 son in 1899-1900 an oiler, at 515 N. Front. Perley W F 8 son (that's what it says) Lusky W M 2 son Jacob Wise age 88, father, lived with them.
Both parents born in Switzerland as well as Jacob himself. retired carpet weaver. The Highspire Cemetery grave list indicates that the broken down and, according to my source, unreadable, little grave next to Jacob's and Joanna's and clearly belonging to the same grave lot, belongs to "Barbara Ann Johnson, daughter of Jacob, b 13 Dec 1813 d 25 Mar 1851." If this is even correct, it is an enigma who this is. Jacob and Joanna had a daughter Barbara Ann living in 1850, not born anything resembling 1813. She does not appear to have been living in 1860. She also may be one of three children who died.
They seem uncommonly in a hurry to assimilate for German immigrants living in the heart of PA Dutch territory, who normally not only proudly kept their German surnames but gave their children German names spelled in German for atleast a generation or two. ALL of the children but one had distinctively American names, their only son as of 1850 census enumeration was named Jason. Johanna Susanna is listed Joanna S. on the census record though that could
conceivably be census enumerator's mistake. However, not only the census record has their name as Wise; our family records show they used both the names Weiss and Wise. Also, they may have gone to an extremely evangelical church, and they sure don't turn up in any of the compiled records of the mainstream German churches in that period.
Family think Jacob Weiss and family were Brethren or else went to a radically Evangelical church in the area. Jacob may have been of Swiss Mennonnite/ Anabaptist background; this sect evolved into the Swiss Brethren, and one or two radically Evangelical offshoots of that Brethren sect had churches near Highspire. Mary Weiss' picture indicates that one of her parents had ancestry not from Switzerland or Germany; she had a dark complexion and partially Asiatic, classically Indo-Aryan features. She is the source of the squinty eyes that run in my family, and her daughter my great grandmother looked even more Asiatic than she did. People of Mennonite and Anabaptist background ended up in Switzerland and neighboring Alsace from points quite far removed, including a substantial number from Russia. There were also "Black Dutch", and people from southern France and Italy, and Spain. Something was odd about this family; they anglicized their names. Gave atleast half of their children distinctively American names. This was unusual among Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants from Germany at that time. Usually they took great pride in identifying as German, and gave their children old country names of close relatives. Jacob Weiss also seems to have shared the Dehart manic energy level and clear tendency to work two jobs at once.