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Bill & Doug Weisheit

Glenmont, NY

1951 (Bill)
1955 (Doug)

Interviewed on location at Bill Weisheit’s home on January 31, 2024 by Eric Bryant w/ Bill Ketzer & Tim Beebe present.

The German word for wisdom is “Weisheit,” which was made pertinently clear after our visit with brothers Bill & Doug Weisheit on the road through Glenmont that still bears the family name. And boy, were they ready for us, with carefully organized boxes of photographs, original land deeds dating back to the Patroon era, and all sorts of family ephemera that both boggled the mind and served as knockwurst for the history nerd’s soul.

The family’s history in America began in 1889, when their great-grandfather William E. Weisheit arrived in the Albany area from Germany. It was here he met his wife Elizabeth, whose family also emigrated from Deutschland.  They were married around 1895 and were in Bethlehem by the turn of the century.  In 1909, he purchased 90 acres of farmland that was likely once a part of a 225-acre parcel leased from the Van Renssalaer family to Heinrich and Arie Van Wie.  The land ran along Wemple Road (then called “The Road to Jericho”) all the way south to the Vloman Kill, where it bordered the vast land holdings of Col. Francis Nicoll, son of Rensselaer and Elizabeth Salisbury Nicoll and heir to their landmark “Bethlehem House” estate that still stands tall on Dinmore Road. He is buried with several other soldiers of the American Revolution just across the street.

This, however, was not the only major farm operation in the family. William E.’s son – William Henry Weisheit, Sr. – married Gertrude Stang, whose Uncle Frederick & Aunt Anna ran Spring Valley Farm on Feura Bush Road, right across the street from the Lutheran Cemetery near Glenmont Plaza.  The barns are long gone, but the Stang homes at 425 and 435 Feura Bush are still going strong.  

After about 45 years in agriculture, William E. sold the Wemple Road lands to his youngest son Edward and his wife Doris, whose grandfather Barrington Lodge was founder of B. Lodge and Co. on North Pearl Street in Albany. This store was founded in 1867 and remains in business today. The couple never had children but didn’t miss out on child rearing, since Edward’s nephew, William H. Jr. had four of his own – Bill, Doug and brothers Rick and Ron – who helped out on the farm.  

William H. Sr., (grandfather of Bill, Rick, Doug and Ron), for a time worked as a chauffeur for Samuel Hessberg, son of a German shoe merchant who amassed a considerable fortune as a banker and broker in Albany.  In 1909, Samuel and his wife Rose built a massive Colonial Revival mansion designed by famed Albany architect Marcus T. Reynolds at Cedar Hill, on land now occupied by the federal AmeriCorps agency.  No longer standing, no photographs of this model estate were known to exist until Bill and Doug rolled out their photo albums and stunned us with brand new Bethlehem history.

While Bill, Rick, Doug and Ron Weisheit spent many hours on their great Uncle Ed’s farm, they also learned a lot about farm equipment from another great uncle, D.H. Weisheit, whose International Harvester dealership was just down the road on Route 9W.  They absorbed the intricacies of animal husbandry from a third great uncle, well-known veterinarian Dr. Henry Weisheit.  Lessons in retail food sales were also readily available at their grandfather’s Ideal Food Store, on the corner of South Lake and Western avenues in Albany, which still exists as a small community grocery.  In our interview, they talk in detail about these early experiences, and how the value of that hard work awakened their own entrepreneurial spirits in the 1960’s, when they opened a successful farm stand on Wemple Road.  You can still see this stand today, winding east down the passage near the corner of Wemple and Weisheit Road.  

By 1980, Bill developed a strong reputation for small engine repair and troubleshooting at Hilchie’s (now Phillips Hardware) in Delmar.  The four brothers, though still quite young, decided to buy the farm from their Aunt Doris after their Uncle Ed passed.  Bill struck out on his own as founder of Weisheit Engine Works, and the siblings built a facility on the farmland that he rented from their partnership.  Until his retirement in 2018, his technical and diagnostic skills with small engines were regarded by many as second to none. 

Simply put, the vibrant accounts of the Weisheit family’s legacy in Bethlehem and their contributions to the economy and character of our town is far too vast for this single narrator page.  But until we “get a bigger boat,” we are incredibly pleased to share this intimate look into their lives with you.

Family Photos