Anna Weber^[1]

1814 - 1888  (74 years)

• Name	Anna Weber
  Born	3 Jun 1814	Earl Twp., Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania   [2, 3]
  Gender	Female
  Artifact	Drawing of a tree
  	Drawing of a tree shaped object with text, and two yellow, purple and blue birds (distelfink) on either side of it at the top. There are green, yellow and purple flowers on either side at the bottom, inside the border. Inside the tree is blue, purple and black text written in German script, and arranged in a centre square. Surrounding this is eight purple and mauve hearts, and three concentric circles, also filled with text. It has a decorated border of green, blue, yellow, purple, and mauve. "Anna Weber Hat Das Gemacht Den 4 Dezember/ 1879 Fihr Das Emanda Eby" is written in lines at the bottom. Source: Joseph Schneider Haus Museum
  		Drawing of a tree Source: Joseph Schneider Haus Museum
  Hobbies	artist
  Name	Nancy Weber
  Residence	1871	Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3]
  	Mennonite
  Eby ID Number	00127-7684
  Died	12 Oct 1888	Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2, 4]
  Buried	Martin Meeting House Cemetery, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [5]
  Person ID	I17712	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Rev. John Weber,   b. 20 Mar 1786, Earl Twp., Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 21 Jan 1854, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 67 years)
  Mother	Catherine (Katherina) Gehman,   b. 11 Mar 1782, Of, Earl Twp., Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 2 Jun 1864  (Age 82 years)
  Married	18 Mar 1806  [6]
  Family ID	F4612	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Nancy Weber," the third daughter of John and Catherine Weber, was born June 3rd, 1814, and died October 2nd, 1889. She was unmarried and had her home with John Sitler's where she died." Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.]. ________________________ WEBER, ANNA (sometimes called Nancy), needle-worker and fraktur artist; b. 3 June 1814 in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Penn., the fifth of ten children of John Weber and Catherine Gehman; d. 12 Oct. 1888 in Woolwich Township, Waterloo County, Ont. Anna Weber, daughter of a Mennonite minister and farmer, immigrated to Upper Canada from Pennsylvania with a party of 13 in April 1825. Her family settled on a farm one mile south of Conestogo in a predominantly Pennsylvania-German Mennonite community. She lived with her parents, and, after the death of her father on 21 Jan. 1854, with her mother, who died on 2 June 1864. For the remainder of her life Anna was moved from household to household within the Mennonite community. She lived at the fringe, and largely at the expense, of her social group until her death, apparently from an accidental overdose of medicine. After 1835, the year in which Anna had first made a sampler to demonstrate her skill at needlework, she did much stitchery. She made show towels - finely embroidered linen strips decorated with traditional motifs and designs for the hope chests of neighbourhood girls - stuffed animals, including horses and squirrels as toys for children, and hooked mats of hand-dyed woollen materials which depicted stylized scenes. About 1855 Anna began the painting of distinctive pen and wash fraktur art, which she continued until her death. This form of art had originated in Germany more than two centuries previously but was highly developed by the Pennsylvania-Germans. It is a purely decorative art, often used to illustrate manuscripts, book-plates, and such family records as birth and baptismal certificates. There is a definite lack of perspective in these pieces and scale is ignored. Recurring motifs - hearts, tulips, paired birds, and the tree of life - appear in balanced, usually symmetrical, form. Anna inherited and developed these traditional designs but her actual subjects were usually taken from nature. Instead of the traditional unicorn, for example, Anna would portray a stylized horse. Practically all of Anna Weber's fraktur works are signed and precisely dated, with the lettering forming an integral part of the painted frame around each design. Her paintings, which resemble art nouveau stained glass or tiles, display a good sense of composition and colours which are soft and yet definite. The whole effect is one of assurance, and presumably pleasure, in these sprightly finished products which were often made as gifts for children. The majority of fraktur artists, including Mr Altsdorf who probably taught Anna in Pennsylvania, were schoolmasters. A female fraktur artist was an anomaly but Anna was the most original and prolific of Ontario's fraktur artists. Although afflicted with dropsy, arthritis, and the ailments of age, her concentrated efforts produced many fraktur paintings, of which about 60 are extant. Anna Weber was said to have been of "unbrilliant mind," but because of her individualistic temperament she was allowed to sign her paintings - a "sinful" practice in the self-denying Mennonite community. Like much folk art in Canada, Anna's is dominated by nature and her fraktur paintings also reflect her strong ethnic heritage. E. Reginald Good M. S. Bird, Ontario fraktur: a Pennsylvania-German folk tradition in early Canada (Toronto, 1977). E. R. Good, Anna's art: the fraktur art of Anna Weber, a Waterloo County Mennonite artist, 1814-1888 (Kitchener, Ont., 1976). J. R. Harper, A people's art: primitive, naïve, provincial, and folk painting in Canada (Toronto and Buffalo, N.Y., 1974). D. A. Shelley, The fraktur-writings or illuminated manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans (Allentown, Pa., 1961). J. J. Stoudt, Early Pennsylvania arts and crafts (New York and London, 1964). M. [S.] Bird, "Ontario fraktur art: a decorative tradition in three Germanic settlements," OH, 68 (1976): 247-72. Nancy-Lou Patterson, "Anna Weber hat das gemacht: Anna Weber (1814-1888) - a fraktur painter of Waterloo County, Ontario," Mennonite Life (North Newton, Kans.), 30 (1975), no.4: 15-19. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval ___________________ Anna Weber (1814-1888), was a Waterloo County Mennonite. Born in Lancaster County, she immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1825. She had strong religious convictions which show in many of her drawings. Most of drawings were done in her later life. A total of sixty to seventy drawings, and three decorated books are the result of her efforts. Anna was one of the last to practice the Fraktur art form in the nineteenth century. By the 1870's and 1880's, the time when she was most active, this tradition was no longer in style in the Germanic settlements of North America. She was considered queer (gshpasich) and strange (sondiboa) by the people who knew her. She remained unmarried and lived with her parents until the death of her mother in 1864 (her father died in 1854). Between 1864 and 1888 she lived with nine different families. She didn't like household chores, and "she drew pictures and helped along as a sideline". Anna suffered a stroke in 1886. It is believed that she either took the wrong medicine, or the wrong medicine was given to her, and she died in 1888. Schneider Haus Museum

  
  

• Sources

  [S64] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo City - Martin's Mennonite CC#4521 Internet Link. Nancy's name is given as Anna on her tombstone [S10] Book - Vol II A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 571. [S144] Census - ON, Waterloo, Woolwich - 1871, Div. 4, Pg. 4. [S64] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo City - Martin's Mennonite CC#4521 Internet Link. Eby gives death as 2 Oct 1889 tombstone gives date as 12 Oct 1888 [S64] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo City - Martin's Mennonite CC#4521 Internet Link. [S10] Book - Vol II A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 570.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 3 Jun 1814 - Earl Twp., Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania Residence - Mennonite - 1871 - Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 12 Oct 1888 - Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Martin Meeting House Cemetery, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth