George Neisser (1715-1784)
- Name:
- George Neisser
- First name:
- George
- Last name:
- Neisser (birth)
- Birth date:
- 1715-04-11
- Birth place:
-
Sehlen, Saxony
- Death date:
- 1784-11-01
- Death place:
-
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Gender:
- Male
- ML ID:
-
mlper000208
Relations (family):
- George Neisser, parent
- Susanna Neisser, née Troschke, parent
- Judith Neisser, née Jäschke, grandmother
- Augustin Neisser, brother
- Catherine Theodora Neisser, née Medter, spouse
Memoir:
- Archive: Bethlehem Archives
- Shelfmark: MemBeth0396
George Neisser was born on April 11, 1715, in Sehlen, Moravia, and emigrated to Herrnhut with his family in 1723 before sailing for Georgia in 1735 with Bishop David Nitschmann. He rejoined the Brethren in Bethlehem in 1741, where he became the settlement's first schoolmaster, first diarist, and postmaster upon the school's opening in May 1742. Ordained a deacon in 1748, he served faithfully as a pastor across multiple congregations in Pennsylvania, playing a foundational role in establishing the institutional life of the Moravian community at Bethlehem. He died on November 1, 1784, in Philadelphia, and was reinterred in the Old Graveyard in Bethlehem in October 1886, in grave no. 18, row 3.
View Transcription of Memoir
1
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.
2
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.