Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Weiss, George Michael

WEISS, or WEITZIUS, George Michael (wys), clergyman, b. in the Palatinate of the Rhine, Germany, in 1697; d. near Philadelphia, Pa., in 1762. He was ordained to the ministry at Heidelberg in 1725, and two years afterward emigrated to this country with 400 settlers. He went with them to Pennsylvania, organized a Reformed Dutch church at Skippack, returned to Holland, and collected funds for its support. He became pastor of German congregations in Schoharie and Dutchess counties, N. Y., in 1731, and labored there fourteen years, but was compelled to fly to Pennsylvania to escape the attacks of the Indians. From about 1746 until his death he preached in Old Gosenhoppen and Great Swamp, Pa. He published “An Account and Instruction relating to the Colony and Church of Pennsylvania, made up by the Deputies of the Synod of South Holland” (Amsterdam, 1730); a pamphlet concerning his arrangements with the classis of Amsterdam to care for the Germans in Pennsylvania (1731); and an “Account of the Indians” (1743).