Caspar Wistar (born Caspar Wüster) (February 3, 1696March 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."
Family
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. Another child, Rebecca Wistar, married Samuel Morris.
His brother, John (born Johannes Wüster) (1708–1789) emigrated to Philadelphia in 1727 and settled in the Germantown district. John was registered under a variant of the surname, “Wister.” To this day there exists two spellings of the family name. While Caspar anglicized his name to "Wistar", John spelled his "Wister". The two each founded prominent Philadelphia-area families, and the difference in spelling persisted.
