Caspar Wistar (glassmaker)

Caspar Wistar (born Caspar Wüster) (February 3, 1696 – March 21, 1752) was a German-born glassmaker and landowner in Pennsylvania.

One of the first German colonists in Pennsylvania, he became a leader of that community and prospered in land transactions. He “arrived in Philadelphia in 1717 with nearly no money; at the time of his death in 1752, his wealth outstripped that of the contemporary elite more than threefold...an immigrant’s path to achieving the American Dream."

He was the father of Richard Wistar, Sr. (1727-1781), glassmaker and landowner in Pennsylvania and the grandfather of Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), the physician and anatomist after whom the genus Wisteria is named.

Caspar Wistar, the son of a forester, spent his first 21 years in Waldhilsbach, a village in the Palatinate near Heidelberg under the reign of the Elector of the Palatinate Prince Philipp Wilhelm (1658-1716). According to family tradition, he was born in the village's Foresthaus (Forester’s house).

He grew up during the tumultuous Nine Years’ War (1688-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) which caused hardships and instability for the people of the Palatinate due to invasions by the French and British.

Wistar served as a foresters' apprentice, but government reforms limited his professional opportunities, so he decided to emigrate to the United States.

He left the Palatinate in 1717, forgoing his father’s hereditary title and position to seek out a new life across the Atlantic Ocean.

He arrived in Pennsylvania in 1717 (according to his memoir, with only nine pennies to his name). Upon his arrival, he was registered under the surname "Wistar". He worked at various manual trades, including soapmaking and the manufacture of brass buttons.

...
Wikipedia