Caspar Wistar (glassmaker)

This article is about the glassmaker. For the physician (his grandson), see Caspar Wistar (physician).

Caspar Wistar (born Caspar Wüster) (February 3, 1696 – March 21, 1752) was a Holy Roman Empire-born glassmaker and landowner in Pennsylvania.[1]

One of the first German colonists in Pennsylvania,[2] 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."[3]

  1. ^ Owen, J. Victor. "Historical American Glass". Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  2. ^ John Woolf, Jordan (1911). Colonial And Revolutionary Families Of Pennsylvania. New York, NY: Lewis Historical Pub. Co. p. 264.
  3. ^ Penn State University Press, Immigrant and Entrepreneur, The Atlantic World of Caspar Wistar, 1650–1750 Rosalind Beiler, accessed August 31, 2014.