History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > New York > Dutchess County > History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7

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* Council Minutes, XIX., Doc. Hist. III., 1012.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

but required the missionaries under a penalty of £40 to appear before the court in Pickipsi on the 16th of October. He then visited the Christian Indians in their plantations and took leave with much civility.

Col. Beekman, who had also been ordered to search the "Moravians and other disaffected persons " for arms and ammunition, and to cause the dispersion of the Indians, wrote to the Gover- nor " that there were four Moravian priests and many Indians at Schocomico," and that, having made search for arms and ammunition, he could neither find nor hear of any. In referring in the same letter to this visit of the Justice, Sheriff and others, on the "18th" of June, he wrote "they found all the Indians at work on their plantations," and that they "seemed in a consternation at the approach of the Sheriff and his company, but re- ceived them civilly ; that they found no ammuni- tion, and as few arms as could be expected for forty-four men."*

On the 22d of June, the missionaries went to Rhinebeck, in answer to summons, and were re- quired to prove in open court, before Justice Beek- man, that they were privileged teachers. “ Büttner produced his written vocation, and his certificate of ordination, duly signed by Bishop David Nitsch- man, adding, that the protestant church of the Brethren had been declared by the Archbishop of Canterbury to be an Episcopal and Apostolical church ; and therefore they hoped that they would be entitled to the same toleration enjoyed by other protestant communities." These evidences were rejected, and they were ordered to appear before the court to be held at Pickipsi in October follow- ing, by order of the Governor. But as the accusa- tions against them increased very fast, and a great stir was raised among the people, the magistrates thought proper to hasten the examination, and they were required to appear at Filkentown on the 14th of July. Three witnesses were heard against them, but their testimony "made no impression upon the court." Their friend, John Rau, kindly accompanied them, and was examined in their behalf. He testified that he " could say nothing but what tended to their honor; that he had frequently been present with his whole family at their meetings, and had never seen anything to justify the strange accusations brought against them." They were again honorably acquitted.

In the meantime the accusations of their adver- saries had been repeatedly brought to the ears of

Governor Clinton, and at a meeting of the council July 5, 1744, on presenting the subject to that body, he was advised to write to the sheriff of Duchess county to order the missionaries to appear before him at New York. The Governor com- municated this action to Henry Filkin, High Sheriff, the same date, and on the 17th, that officer visited Shekomeko, which, he says, in his letter to the Governor acquainting him of the fact, is inhabited chiefly by Indians, where also live Gudlop Bydner, Hendrick Joachim Senseman and Joseph Shaw, three Moravian priests, with their families, in a block house, and sixteen Indian wigwams round about it. The two first were at home, where- upon he acquainted them with his Excellency's order, and they promised to set out on the 24th instant, and that he perceived nothing disorderly there *

Accordingly the three missionaries repaired to New York, (Shaw being then at Bethlehem,) and there learned "that the attention of the whole town was raised," and that "they were regarded as disturb- ers of the public peace, deserving either imprison- ment, whipping, or banishment." They were ex- amined separately before the council on the Ist of August, and asked to take the oaths, which each refused to do. Justice Beekman, who had pre- viously examined them in Rhinebeck, publicly de- fended them in New York, and affirmed " that the good done by them among the Indians was unde- niable." August 11, 1744, in response to the in- quiry of the Governor as to "what further should be done in relation to the Moravian priests," it is recorded that "the council were of opinion to ad- vise his Excellency to order [them] back to their homes and required them to live there peaceably and await the further orders of his Excellency." On the 21st, leave was given them to return home ; but they were enjoined to "live according to their religious tenets in such a manner that no suspicions might arise concerning them." They received a certificate of their acquittal in writing, “ to secure them against any injury from the mob." Büttner and Shaw arrived at Shekomeko on the 9th of September ; but Senseman went to Bethlehem, there to give an account of these transactions.t

Büttner answered the summons to Pickipsi in October. His health was already greatly impaired, yet he was detained there two days in very severe weather. At last, through the intervention of a friend, his case was brought forward; but having

* Council Minutes, XIX., Doc. Hist III., 1013.

* Doc. Hist. III, 1014.

t Loskiel, Part II, Chap. IV. 61-62. Doc. Hist., III, 1014-1019.

1212392

THE MORAVIANS FORBIDDEN TO PREACH TO THE INDIANS.

received a dismission from the Governor, he was liberated without further examination.

The adversaries of the missionaries having thus far failed in their machinations, except so far as to annoy them and interfere with the successful prose- cution of their labors, now resorted to other meas- ures which, unhappily, were successful and ulti- mately broke up the flourishing mission at She- komeko. The prosecutions thus far had been con- ducted under the enactment against Jesuits, passed July 31, 1700, previously referred to; but each examination to which they had been subjected showed clearly that they had no affiliation with papacy. It became necessary, therefore, in order to accomplish their purpose to resort to other means ; and, knowing that the Moravians had con- scientious scruples against taking an oath, through their exertions a law was passed by the As- sembly September 21, 1744, requiring all persons residing within the province to take the State oaths under a pecuniary penalty, or six months imprison- ment in default, and forbidding any person "to reside amongst their Indians under the pretence of bringing them over to the Christian's faith, without the license of the Governor and the consent of the council.'

November 27, 1744, the Governor, by advice of the council, directed the Deputy Clerk of the council to write to the sheriffs of the counties of Albany, Ulster and Duchess, "to give notice to the several Moravian and vagrant teachers among the Indians in their respective counties * * * to desist from further teaching or preaching and to depart this province;" also to the several Justices of the Peace of those counties, directing them, in case of refusal, to "immediately put the act in execution against them." December 15, 1744, the sheriff and three justices arrived at Shekomeko, prohibited all meetings, and commanded the mis- sionaries to appear before the court in Pickipsi on the 17th of that month. Büttner was too ill to comply ; but Rauch and Mack did so, and were edified by the reading of the act in question. Bütt- ner thus wrote to the brethren in Bethlehem : "We are either to depart, or incur a heavy penalty. They threaten to seize upon all we possess. We have but little, and if they take away that little, then we shall yet have as much left as our Lord had, when on earth."t

In November, 1744, the Moravian Bishop, A. G. Spangenberg, to whom the care of the affairs of the brethren in North America had been com- mitted, visited the persecuted congregation at She- komeko, with whom he remained from the 6th to the 18th ; but his efforts to devise means whereby the good work might be continued were unavailing.

December 31, 1744, Count Zinzendorf addressed a letter from Marienborn, Germany, to the Board of Trade of New York, in which he complained of the injustice of the act of September 21, 1744, and asked for relief. Two Moravian ministers also directed their attention to the same subject. June 28, 1745, the Board of Trade wrote Governor Clinton, requesting information regarding "the behaviour of these Moravians," " and whether any ill-practices on their part gave occasion to their being inserted by name in the said act." This elicited from the council in May, 1746, an official exposition of the reasons which, in their opinion, influenced the Assembly in the passage of the law- " a document which," says Davis, "for its miscon- ception of the real character of the zealous and good men against whom it was aimed, and the odious imputations which it casts upon them, is seldom equalled." " It is some palliation, perhaps, of these persecuting measures," adds the same author, "that the public mind was exceedingly sensitive, and that the whole country was filled with rumors to the prejudice of the harmless Moravians. But, on the other hand, it is equally true that they had fully proved themselves clear of every charge that had been preferred against them, and finally, secured a full vindication by the highest authority of the British Government. For, by an act of the British Parliament, passed May 12th, 1749, ' the Unitas Fratrum were acknowledged as an ancient Protestant Episcopal Church ; those of its members who scrupled to take an oath, were exempted from it on making a declaration in the presence of Almighty God, as witness of the truth; they were exempted from acting as jurymen ; they were entirely exempted from military duty under reasonable conditions.' Such was the ultimate result of the remonstrances of the Moravians to the British and Colonial Governments. A result however, so tardy as that, though it aided their subsequent missionary efforts, it was yet of little or no service to the poor Christian Indians and their self-denying teachers at Shekomeko." In 1753, they were invited to the scene of their former persecutions both in New York and New England to preach. In New York city they built

* This law was calculated to continue in force for one year only, and expired by its own limitation .- Doc. Hist., III, 1027.

t Digest of Davis's Shekomeko, in Moravians in New York and Con- necticut, 45 ; Holmes' Missions of the United Brethren, 134 ; Loskiel, Part II., Chap. IV ., 63, 64 ; Doc, Hist., III., 1019, 1020.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

a church ; they ministered to the Indians at Pachgatgoch and Wechquadnach; and even the white settlers of Duchess county " begged for and obtained a minister from Bethlehem."*

But the beloved Büttner was not permitted to return with his associates to Bethlehem. He sank under his physical infirmities, which were aggra- vated by mental afflictions, and "fell gently and happily asleep in Jesus," February 23, 1745, in the presence of all the Indian assistants, whom he exhorted with his dying lips to be faithful to the end. The Indians wept over him as children over a beloved parent. With holy awe and reverence they prepared his remains for the tomb. They dressed his corpse in white, and buried it with great solemnity in the burying-ground at Sheko- meko. They watered his grave with their tears, and for a long period thereafter continued to weep over it. The stone afterwards erected over his grave bore the following ; inscription :-

HIER RUHET GOTTLOB BUETTNER, DER NACH DEN BEFEHL SEINES GOTTES AM KREUZ,

DEN HEIDEN DIE BOTSCHAFT BRACHTE, DAS IHRE SUNDEN DURCH DAS BLUT JESU VERSÖHNT SIND, WELCHES SIE AUCH ANGENOMEN UND SICH IN DEN TOD DES HERRN HABEN TAUFEN LASSEN. SEIN LEZTES FLEHEN WAR, DAS SIE ALLE MÖCHTEN BEHALTEN WERDEN, BIS AUF DEN TAG JESU CHRISTI. ER WAR GEBOREN DEN XXIX sten DECEMBER MDCCXVI, (v. s.) UND ENTSCHLIEF, IM HERRN, AM XXIII sten FEBRUAR MDCCXLV. (v. s.)

After the burial of Büttner, the believing In- dians held a council, to consider whether they should not leave Shekomeko ; fearing that, if left to themselves, they might be gradually overcome by sinful seductions. However, they continued to meet as usual, and only now and then one or more brethren, acquainted with the language, were

sent to visit and advise with them. They fre- quently went to Bethlehem where they were always received with great cordiality and friendship, and sometimes they spent several weeks there in large companies.

But the persecutions of their enemies did not cease, and sometimes they were even cruelly treated; nor can it be denied, says Loskiel, that some occasion was given by the inconsiderate zeal of the awakened Indians, who, often boldly reproved the white people for their sinful way of life, and when interrogated, spoke the truth with- out reserve or caution.

At length the continued aspersions of the absent missionaries, who were accused of an intention to reduce the believers to a state of slavery, had its effect upon their persecuted and disheartened flock. Some not only departed from the faith, but returned to their sinful practices ; division and much slander was occasioned, which ended at last in confusion and misery. The Moravians resolved on an effort to remove them from Shekomeko and near to Beth- lehem, where they might enjoy perfect liberty of conscience, and be less exposed to the seductions of the white people. Wajomick, (Wyoming,) from which the Shawanese had then mostly removed to the Ohio, was regarded an eligible location, and in May, an embassy, consisting of Bishop Spangenberg, Conrad Weiser, David Zeisber- ger and Shabash, set out for Onondaga to gain the consent of the Iroquois, to whom the country belonged, or by whom it was claimed, to its occu- pancy. But now an unforseen difficulty arose ; for after the consent of the Iroquois was obtained, the Indians at Shekomeko refused to accede to the proposition. They alleged as a reason that as the Governor of New York had particularly commanded them to stay in their own town, and promised them protection, they could not, therefore, remove with- out giving new cause for suspicion, and encourag- ing a new persecution against the missionaries ; and further, if they emigrated, their unbaptized friends and relations would yet remain there and enter upon their old sinful courses, which would grieve them exceedingly. An event soon tran- spired, however, which compelled their removal ; for the white people drove them from Shekomeko by force, under pretense that the ground upon which the town was built belonged to other people, who would soon come and take possesion,* and

* Crantz' History of the United Brethren, 401.

t A copy of this inscription is now in the possession of Benson J. Lossing, LL. D., and was furnished by him for publication in The Dutchess Farmer, of May 7, 1878. It was copied exact from the tomb- stone, and sent from "Northeast Town," May 16, 1806, to Gilbert Livingston, at Poughkeepsie, by Stephen Winans, at the request of his father, Gerardus Winans, for translation into English. It recently came into the possession of Mr. Lossing with other papers of the Livingston family. The original draft, from a published copy of which the above is given, is preserved in Bethlehem. The following is the English transla- tion, as given by Loskiel, (Part II., Chap .. V., 69) :-

" Here lies the body of Gottlob Buettner, who, according to the com- mand of his crucified God and Saviour, brought the glad tidings to the heathen, that the blood of Jesus had made an atonement for their sins. As many as embraced this doctrine in faith, were baptized into the death of the Lord. His last prayer was, that they might be preserved until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was born December 29th, 1716, and fell asleep in the Lord, 'February 23, 1745."

* The site of Shekomeko was included in the Little Nine Partners Tract, which was granted to Sampson Boughton and eight others, April 10, 1706. A map of the tract was made in 1744, by Charles Clinton, and in 1769 lot 12, embracing this site was sold to James Winans, by the partners.

FINAL EXTINGUISHMENT OF THE MISSIONS.

even appointed a watch to prevent all visits from Bethlehem .* They applied in vain to the Governor for help.

It was further reported that a thousand French troops were on their march to the province, and that the Indians at Shekomeko, would join theni and ravage the country with fire and sword. The rumor spread terror, particularly at Rhinebeck, so that the inhabitants demanded a warrant of the justice to kill all the Indians at Shekomeko. The warrant was not granted ; but the fact that it was demanded was soon known to the Indians, some of whom, notwithstanding their great attachment to Shekomeko, were constrained to accept the invita- tion of the brethren at Bethlehem. In April, there- fore, ten families, comprising forty-four persons, left Shekomeko, "with sorrow and tears," for Beth- lehem, where they were received "with tenderness and compassion." They were established tem- porarily adjacent to Bethlehem, in a village called Friedenshuetten, or " Tents of Peace ;" and sub- sequently removed to a tract of two hundred acres, at the junction of the rivers Mahony and Lecha, (Lehigh) beyond the Blue Mountains, about thirty miles from Bethlehem, and the same distance from Wyoming - (near where Mauch Chunk now stands). This village was called Gnadenhuetten, or "Tents of Grace ;" and many other Indians from Shekomeko and Pachgatgoch soon joined them there. Others who still remained joined the army at the call of the English to help repel the French Indians, who had penetrated to within a day's journey of Shekomeko.

July 24, 1746, the missionaries Hagen and Post were sent from Bethlehem to Shekomeko and held a love-feast with the remaining baptized Indians. They then, by a written deed of gift, secured the chapel to them as their property, and thus, with sorrowful hearts, concluded their labors at this place, where, within the space of two years, sixty- one adults had been baptized, exclusive of those baptized in Bethlehem. The converted Indians were now dispersed in different places, at a con- siderable distance from each other, viz : in Gna- denhuetten, Bethlehem, Pachgatgoch, Wechquad- nach and Shekomeko; some, notwithstanding the war and other troubles still remaining at the latter place, to which they were so much attached, though their misery daily increased. The brethren from Bethlehem and Gnadenhuetten frequently visited Pachgatgoch and Wechquadnach, to prevent the entire extinguishment of the spark of truth which

yet glimmered there ; and the missionary Frederick Post staid some time in Pachgatgoch, living in the Indian manner, preaching the gospel, and work- ing at his trade as a joiner. In 1747-48, Shekome- ko was also variously visited in conjunction with those places ; and in December of the latter year all three places were visited by Bishops Johannes von Watteville and Frederick Cammerhoff, in com- pany with Nathan Seidel, a minister of the society, their chief object being "to look after the lost sheep." At Shekomeko they found everything de- stroyed, except the burying ground ; but in March following, these places were again visited by Bishop Cammerhoff and Gottlieb Bezold, "to strengthen the believers, and to administer the sacraments to them." Twenty Indians were then added to the church by baptism. In January of this year, 1749, the missionary David Bruce was appointed to the care of the Christian Indians in Pachgatgoch and Wechquadnach, and remained till his death which occurred July 9th of the same year. "Since the before-mentioned visit," says Loskiel, these Indians "had again formed a regular settlement," the lat- ter, this time, apparently, on the east border of In- dian Pond, in the town of Sharon, Connecticut. Bruce lived chiefly at Wechquadnach, in a house belonging to the brethren, called Gnadensee. He sometimes resided at Pachgatgoch, whence he paid visits to Westenhuck, " by invitation of the head- chief of the Mahican nation, sowing the seed of the gospel wherever he came." His funeral was conducted with appropriate ceremonies, and one of the assistants "delivered a powerful dis- course upon the solemn occasion." His suc- cessor was Abraham Bueninger, who, "at leisure hours, was very diligent in instructing the children." In the spring of 1753, "the small congregation of Indians settled at Wechquadnach were driven away by their neighbors, and some retired to Wajonick. Thirty-four of these people, having given satisfac- tory proofs of their sincerity, obtained leave to re- move to Gnadenhuetten." In 1755, the missionary, Christian Seidel, twice visited Pachgatgoch, bap- tized several Indians, and administered the Lord's supper to the communicants. He passed "through Oblong, Salisbury, Shekomeko, and Reinbeck, where his animated testimony of the gospel was well received by many." "The congregation at Pachgatgoch, whose situation," says Loskiel, " was very distressing in the year 1762, was still more oppressed during the war, and at length so much dispersed, that nothing remained but the hopes that they might unite again in time of peace." This

* Loskiel, Part II., Chap. V., So.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

is the last account Loskiel gives us of these inter- esting missions, whose last flickering light seems now to have been extinguished. The subsequent history of those who removed hence to Pennsyl- vania was not less checkered than we have seen it to have been here, but we have not the space to follow it. It was, for the most part, a sickening succession of injustice, outrage and oppression, such as has characterized the subsequent treatment of the unfortunate red man by his white neighbors, relieved by only an occasional ray of light flashing athwart their retreating horizon, through the singu- lar fidelity of the devoted missionaries who first taught them to look to a future life for that happi- ness which was denied them in this.

In 1753, immediately after the dispersion of the Indians at Wechquadnach, Abraham Reinke, an ordained clergyman, was sent by the Moravians, in response to a request of the inhabitants, and established a Moravian congregation of white per- sons on the western side of Indian Pond, in the town of North East, on the present farm of Mr. Douglass Clarke (1858). The meeting-house stood here till within a few years; and in an adjoining burying-ground is the grave of the Rev. Joseph Powell, the Moravian missionary of that name, and one of the last to minister here under the auspices of the Moravian society. His labors here were brief, commencing in the spring and ending in the autumn of 1774. As appears from the stone which stands at his grave, he died in 1774, aged sixty- three years.

For a full century the veil of obscurity was drawn over the scenes and events we have narrated, and all knowledge of them was almost obliterated from the minds of the present generation. For a cen- tury the remains of the faithful and gentle Büttner enjoyed that serene quiet and rest which were so foreign to the closing years of his laborious life ; and but for the stone which marked his last resting- place, it is probable that his deeds, in this connec- tion, would never again have been revived in this locality. That stone, " which," says Mr. Lossing, the historian, " was a heavy mass of gray carbonate of lime, smoothed on one side for the inscription, which is in the thin Latin characters which are met with in the printing of the last century," was, in the lapse of time, broken into fragments, and only a small portion, containing the central part of the inscription, preserved ; but it was sufficient, with the aid of the records of the society in Bethlehem, to certainly identify it, and connect it with this mis- sion. In 1855, that fragment which some sup-

posed to be the monument of an Indian chief, was deposited in the museum of the Poughkeepsie Lyceum, and by that society generously presented to the Moravian Historical Society at Nazareth, Pennsylvania, who now have it in their posses- sion. *

The results of the researches of Rev. Mr. Davis, as published in his Shekomeko, came to the knowl- edge of the Moravian public, and were of so satis- factory a nature as to suggest the propriety of visiting the scenes to which they referred; and it was thought that, with the aid of records and docu- ments known to exist in the archives of the church at Bethlehem, Mr. Davis' discoveries might be confirmed, new clues obtained, and the identity of the old stations established beyond a doubt. Ac- cordingly, in June, 1859, a party of gentlemen, members of the Moravian Historical Society, visited the localities of Shekomeko and Wechquad- nach, under the guidance of Messrs. Lossing and Davis, whose interest and aid were readily enlisted in an enterprise of so much interest to this county. Arriving at Mr. Edward Huntings, the party were joined, in addition to Mr. Hunting's family, by other residents of the county. "A slight de- pression in the soil, and the protruding edge of the heavy limestone," says the account of this visit, published in The Moravian of July 21st and 28th, were all that marked the grave of Büttner; which was discovered in 1854, by Messrs. Davis and Hunting, with the aid of Mr. Josiah Winans, (a son of Gerardus Winans, who succeeded his father, James Winans, as proprietor of the farm, on the death of the latter in 1795,) who was the only per- son living from whom any reliable information could be obtained in reference to it. By means of a sketch of Shekomeko, made in 1745, which the visitors brought with them, they were not only able to identify the locality of the grave, but also of the Indian village, the huts of which-seventeen in number-were arranged in the form of a crescent around the little bark-covered church, only some eighteen feet from the missionary's grave. The following day the party proceeded to the site of Wechquadnach, where the missionaries, David Bruce and Joseph Powell, are buried. Of the Wechquadnach mission house, says the account before quoted, there is no trace; but Douglass Clarke, on whose farm it was located, pointed to where it stood within his recollection. (He was then-1859 -- "a venerable man of eighty-three.") Tradition has preserved nothing of the site of the

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History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868