Conrad Bescherer ¹

   FamilySearch ID: LKQY-254.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Arrival: Jul 1818, in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ¹

2. Residence: Deed Book 3, pages 476-478. Conrad Besherer living on Lick Creek. On 11 Apr 1828 in Lick Creek, Davidson, NC. ² 11 Apr 1828. Conrad Besherer is justly indebted to Thomas Mull, Senior, of Rowan County, North Carolina for $544.00 with Jacob (v) Goss as security, along with 2 tracts of land near Lick Creek where Besherer now lives adjacent Thomas Ingram, John Blackburn, containing 140 acres purchased from Jaocb Goss & Jesse Harrison, along with the livestock & household property. The conditions are such that Besherer & his family may continue to reside in the home until they go to Germany or some other part of the country. Witnesses: Thomas L. Cowan, George Vogler. Registered 20 Sep 1828.

3. He signed a will Will Book K page 35, transcription of will of Conrad Beshier, dated 20 Apr 1841, probated May 1846. On 20 Apr 1841 in , Rowan, NC. May Sessions 1846
I Conrad Beshier of the County of Rowan State of North Carolina being sick of body but of sound mind and memory, and considering the uncertainty of my earthly substance, do make this my Last Will & Testament in manner and form following that is to say
Item 1st I Will and bequeath to my wife Margaretta the Plantation on which I now reside containing One Hundred & fifty acres of Land more or less also Two Broads and furniture, one milk cow, six chairs one table, during her natural life.
Item 2d I will and bequeath to my daughter Sophia the sum of Two Hundred Dollars
Item 3rd I will and bequeath to my daughter Margaret One Hundred and fifty Dollars
Item 4th I will and bequeath to my daughter Raily One hundred & fifty dollars
Item 5th I will and bequeath to my daughter Christina the sum of One Hundred & Fifty Dollars
Item 6th I will and bequeath to my daughter Louisa One Hundred & fifty Dollars
Item Seventh I will and bequeath to my son Phillip One hundred and fifty dollars
Item 8th I will and bequeath to my son John one hundred and fifty Dollars and a bay mare colt I now have
Item 9th I will and bequeath to my son Godfrey the account I have against him and what I have heretofore given him which is more than his proportion
Item 10th I will and bequeath to my daughter Elizabeth what I have heretofore given her.
It is my Will and desire that my Three Tracts of Land in Davidson County and every thing else I may be possessed of be offered to sale at a reasonable credit by my Executor hereinafter named and the bequests heretofore made paid if the amounts to among by to pay them if not to be paid in proportion to the amounts of each. It is my Will and desire that my Executor correspond with my Brother Phillip Beshier of Nassau Weilburg Germany and obtain from what may be coming from my Father, Mother and my Brothers Sisters Estate out of which the foregoing bequests are to be paid should my property not be sufficient & in case enough should not be obtained from that source. It is my Will and desire that the Plantation I have willed to my wife to my wife be sold at her death and the bequests paid out of that. The balance of any after paying the foregoing bequests I wish equally divided among my children.
I do hereby Constitute nominate & appoint my Trusty friend John Shuman Jun. my lawfull Executor to all intents and purposes to execute this my last Will and Testament and according to the true intent & meaning of the same and every part and every part and every claims & thereof hereby revoking and declaring utterly Void all other Wills & Testaments by me heretofore made hereunto set my hand & seal this the 20th day April 1841.
Conrad Beshier (SEAL)

Signed sealed & published and declared by the said Conrad Beshier to be his last Will & Testament in Presence of us who at his request and in the presence of each other do subscribe our names as witnesses thereto.
R. E. Campbell
Samuel Rosver.

4. Newspaper: Salisbury Post: Tales from Grandmother Elliotte, 7 Sep 2003, Salisbury, Rowan, NC. ³ <start of article snipped as not pertinent to Bescherer>

And the Bishops, Bescheers, Bisherers, Bescherers? Even if servant girl Margaretha and Conrad Bescherer sailed across the Atlantic to America in 1818 with some of the family's assets, legend says a storm at sea caused them to throw all their belongings overboard. (Yet they were wealthy Rowan County residents.)

Conrad's oldest son, Godfrey Bischerer, who was born on the voyage that brought his parents to America, was a "true" survivor of the Civil War. Serving as the oldest private in Co. F, 7th Regiment, N.C. State Troops, he was in numerous battles in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, and the most famous battle of all, Gettysburg. He spent a year as a prisoner of war before returning to Rowan County. Ironically, at the same time, Godfrey's son William Bescheer (his spelling), was a guard at the Salisbury Prison Camp.

5. LifeSketch: Written by Jamie Bisher, great great grandson of Conrad Bescherer, in 2008,. ¹ Conrad immigrated from Germany with his 21 year old wife, Margaretha, in July, 1818. They sailed from Amsterdam and landed in Charleston, South Carolina after an eventful voyage that saw the birth of their first son, Godfrey. Conrad settled near Salisbury, North Carolina. His 175-acre family farm on the Bringle Ferry Road near Salisbury became known as "the Bisherer Plantation." By the mid-1830's, the Bescherers also owned several other tracts of land throughout Rowan County, North Carolina: "152 acres on the north bank of the middle fork of the Crane Creek below Vogler oil mill," another of 22 acres on the south fork of Crane Creek, and other parcels. The Bescherers had no slaves--a fact verified by U.S. Census-takers, as well as by family legend. Family lore has it that Conrad's philosophy was 'Why pay for slaves when you can have children for free?'

Upon his death in 1846, Conrad left some property to a brother, Philip, in Weilburg, Nassau, Germany. He signed his will with an "X," whether out of infirmity or illiteracy is not known. His grave lies unmarked today in the historic Old Lutheran Cemetery in Salisbury, North Carolina. The gravestone of his daughter, Sophia, is intact in the same boneyard, and confirms the original spelling of the family name as "Bescherer."

Conrad married Margaretha. (Margaretha was born in , , Hesse-Darmstadt, DEU and died in , , NC.)