Caspar Wistar, the son of forester Hans Caspar Wüster, spent his first 21 years in Waldhilsbach, a village in the Palatinate near Heidelberg under the reign of prince Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1658-1716). According to family tradition, he was born in the village's forester’s house. He grew up during the tumultuous Nine Years' War (1688-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) which caused hardships and instability for the people of the Palatinate due to invasions by the French and British.