Weber was born June 3, 1814, in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to a Mennonite family of Swiss descent.
[2] Though she was more widely known as Anna, she was also sometimes called "Nance" and she is recorded as "Nancy Weber" in "A Biographical History of Waterloo Region" by Ezra E.
[2] In 1721, Anna's great-great-grandfather, Henry ("Heiner") Weber, immigrated to America from Switzerland and purchased about 3,000 acres of land in the Conestoga River valley in Pennsylvania.
In 1833, Anna's father was ordained minister to the congregation of the new Martin's Mennonite Meeting House, a mile or two west of their farm.
In the last few years of her life, she was bed-ridden, but continued to draw and paint while lying on her back, holding her quill pen in crippled fingers.
[3] Several pieces have been retained by family members dating as far back as 1784, including an illuminated Spiritual Labrynth by the renowned Pennsylvanian artist Heinrich Otto.
[2] The local Fraktur art style, known as the Earl Township school, is characterized by the use of a two-headed bird motif and took the form of Vorschriften, gaudily decorated calligraphy inscribed in Gothic German script.