Born Ottmar Weber, son of Georg and Maria (Wagner) Weber. His parents both died when he was young, and he immigrated to the U.S. from Bavaria in December 1853 on the ship Admiral, and settled in Hollidaysburg, Penna., where he married a young widow Barbara (Miller) Mayer on 11 Jan. 1854 at St. Patricks Catholic Church, Newry. He became a citizen on 22 Oct. 1860, and by 1862 he had anglicized his name to Morris Weaver.

Morris left behind two siblings in Germany, a sister, Maria Josepha, wife of Leonhard Zink, and a half-brother, Leonhard Maier, who died in 1918 in Lutzenberg, Bavaria.

Morris served in Co. E. 84 Pa. Infantry in the Civil War and was wounded at Kernstown, Virginia, when he was run over by a supply wagon.

His first marriage was to Barbara Miller Mayer, who was a widow and pregnant when he married her just days after arriving in Hollidaysburg. Morris raised his stepson, Joseph Mayer, as a Weaver. The family lived on Garber Street.

In 1863 the Weaver family had a hired girl in the household and Morris became involved with her. She returned to her parent's house in East Freedom and bore Morris's child in 1864. Morris and his wife went on to have two more children, before her death from consumption in 1867. Later that year Morris fetched the hired girl back and made her his second wife. They went on to have 8 more children. As a result, Morris had a child born to wife number two, sandwiched in between children born to wife number one.

Morris and his second wife purchased a home on Franklin St. in Gaysport, 'across the tracks' from Hollidaysburg. Morris died there of pleurisy. His widow survived him by 42 years.

With his first wife Morris was the father of Catherine Weaver(1), Mary Ann Koch Marks, Barbara Downey, Ellen Theresa Ellis, Catherine Weaver(2) and Morris John Weaver. He was also stepfather to Joseph Mayer, who took the name Weaver. With his second wife he was the father of Jennie M. Weaver, Margaret Suckling, Annie Weaver, William Hilary Weaver, George Samuel Weaver, Franklin Jerome Weaver, Rosetha May White, Clara Elizabeth Shaffer and Florence Josephine Hamilton. All lived to adulthood except the two Catherines, Annie and Franklin, and ten of the remaining twelve produced children, eventually leaving Morris over 50 grandchildren, born from 1874 to 1920.

Morris and his first wife were members of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hollidaysburg. Some years after his second marriage, he joined his wife at the Hollidaysburg Zion Lutheran Church.

After Morris' death, his widow adopted another son, who also took the Weaver name: Raymond Russell Weaver.

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Altoona Tribune, Thursday, 21 December 1893, p. 1:

Hollidaysburg Happenings

Mr. Morris Weaver died at his home near Beaver street, Gaysport, at 11 o'clock yesterday morning after a brief illness from pneumonia. The deceased was born in Germany in March, 1833. He came to Hollidaysburg in 1856, where he served as a laborer in the Cambria Iron company furnaces for many years. He owns a gallant war record, serving as a private in company E, Eighty-fourth regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers. He was married twice, and his second wife with eight children, three of whom are under 16 years of age, survive his loss. He was a respected citizen, held in high esteem by his associates, and led an upright, honorable life. The funeral arrangements have not been perfected at this writing.