USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio, containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history : with descriptions of its counties, principal towns, and villages > Part 71
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About one hundred and fifty Moravian Indians, including women and children, arrived on the Tuscarawas in the latter part of February, and divided into three parties, so as to work at the three towns in the corn-fields. Satisfied that they had escaped from the thraldom of their less civilized brethren west, they little expected that a storm was gather- ing among the white settlers east, which was to burst over their peaceful habitations with such direful consequences.
Several depredations had been committed by hostile Indians, about this time, on the frontier inhabitants of western Pennsylvania and Virginia, who determined to retaliate. A company of one hundred men was raised and placed under the command of Col. William- son, as a corps of volunteer militia. They set out for the Moravian towns on the Tusca- rawas, and arrived within a mile of Gnadenhutten on the night of the 5th of March. On the morning of the 6th, finding the Indians were employed in their corn-field, on the west side of the river, sixteen of Williamson's men crossed, two at a time, over in a large sap- trough, or vessel used for retaining sugar-water, taking their rifles with them. The re- mainder went into the village, where they found a man and a woman, both of whom they killed. The sixteen on the west side, on approaching the Indians in the field, found them more numerous than they expected. They had their arms with them, which were usual on such occasions, both for purposes of protection and for killing game. The whites ac- costed them kindly, told them they had come to take them to a place where they would be in future protected, and advised them to quit work, and return with them to the neighbor- hood of Fort Pitt. Some of the Indians had been taken to that place in the preceding year, had been well treated by the American governor of the fort, and been dismissed with tokens of warm friendship. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the unsus- pecting Moravian Indians readily surrendered their arms, and at once consented to be con- trolled by the advice of Colonel Williamson and his men. An Indian messenger was dis- patched to Salem, to apprize the brethren there of the new arrangement, and both com- panies then returned to Gnadenhutten. On reaching the village, a number of mounted militia started for the Salem settlement, but e'er they reached it, found that the Moravian
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Indians at that place had already left their corn-fields, by the advice of the messenger, and were on the road to join their brethren at Gnadenhutten. Measures had been adopted by the militia to secure the Indians whom they had at first decoyed into their power. They were bound, confined in two houses, and well guarded. On the arrival of the Indians from Salem, (their arms having been previously secured without suspicion of any hostile inten- tion,) they were also fettered, and divided between the two prison-houses, the males in one, the females in the other. The number thus confined in both, including men, women and children, have been estimated from ninety to ninety-six.
A council was then held to determine how the Moravian Indians should be disposed of. This self-constituted military court embraced both officers and privates. The late Dr. Dodridge, in his published notes on Indian wars, &c., says: " Colonel Williamson put the question, whether the Moravian Indians should be taken prisoners to Fort Pitt, or put to death ?" requesting those who were in favor of saving their lives to step out and form a second rank. Only eighteen out of the whole number stepped forth as advocates of mercy. In these, the feelings of humanity were not extinct. In the majority, which was large, no sympathy was manifested. They resolved to murder (for no other word can express the act) the whole of the Christian Indians in their custody. Among these were several who had contributed to aid the missionaries in the work of conversion and civilization-two of whom emigrated from New Jersey after the death of their spiritual pastor, the Rev. David Brainard. One woman, who could speak good English, knelt before the commander and begged his protection. Her supplication was unavailing. They were ordered to prepare for death. But the warning had been anticipated. Their firm belief in their new creed was shown forth in the sad hour of their tribulation, by religious exercises of preparation. The orisons of these devoted people were already ascending the throne of the Most High ! -the sound of the Christian's hymn and the Christian's prayer found an echo in the sur- rounding woods, but no responsive feeling in the bosoms of their executioners. With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within-all, save two-two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race.
Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, William- son and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoen- brun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with thein fled for a time the hopes of the mis- sionaries to establish a settlement of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization, was apparently lost.
The hospitable and friendly character of the Moravian Indians, had extended beyond their white brethren on the Ohio. The American people looked upon the act of William- son and his men as an outrage on humanity. The American Congress felt the influence of public sympathy for their fate, and on the 3d of September, 1788, passed an ordinance for the encouragement of the Moravian missionaries in the work of civilizing the Indians. A remnant of the scattered flock was brought back, and two friendly chiefs and their fol- lowers became the recipients of public favor. The names of these chiefs were Killbuck and White Eyes. Two sons of the former, after having assumed the name of Henry, out of respect to the celebrated Patrick Henry, of Virginia, were taken to Princeton College to be educated. White Eyes was shot by a lad, some years afterwards, on the waters of Yellow creek, Columbiana county.
Three tracts of land, containing four thousand acres each, was appropriated by congress to the Moravian society, or rather to the society for propagating the gospel among the heathen, which is nearly synonymous. These tracts embrace the three Indian towns already described, and by the provisions of the patent, which was issued 1798, the society was constituted trustees for the Christian Indians thereon settled. Extraordinary efforts were now made by the society in the good work of civilization. Considerable sums of money were expended in making roads, erecting temporary mills, and constructing houses. The Indians were collected near the site of the upper town, Shoenbrun, which had been burned at the time of the Williamson expedition, and a new village, called Goshen, erected for their habitations. It was here, while engaged in the laudable work of educating the Indian in the arts of civilized life, and inculcating the principles of Christian morality, that two of the missionaries, Edwards and Zeisberger, terminated their earthly pilgrimage. Their graves are yet to be seen, with plain tombstones, in the Goshen burying-ground, three miles south of New Philadelphia.
The habits and character of the Indians changed for the worse, in proportion as the whites settled in their neighborhood. If the extension of the white settlements west tended
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to improve the country, it had a disastrous effect upon the poor Indian. In addition to the contempt in which they were held by the whites, the war of 1812 revived former preju- dices. An occasional intercourse with the Sandusky Indians had been kept up by some of those at Goshen. A portion of the former were supposed to be hostile to the Amer- icans, and the murder of some whites on the Mohiccan, near Richland, by unknown In- dians, tended to confirm the suspicion.
The Indian settlement remained under the care of Rev. Abram Luckenbach, until the year 1823. It was found impossible to preserve their morals free from contamination. Their intercourse with the white population in the neighborhood, was gradually sinking them into deeper degradation. Though the legislature of Ohio passed an act prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors to Indians, under a heavy penalty, yet the law was either evaded or disregarded. Drunken Indians were occasionally seen at the county seat, or at their village at Goshen. Though a large portion of the lands appropriated for their ben- efit had been leased out, the society derived very little profit from the tenants. The entire expenses of the Moravian mission, and not unfrequently the support of sick, infirm or des- titute Indians devolved on their spiritual guardians. Upon representation of these facts, congress was induced to adopt such measures as would tend to the removal of the Indians, and enable the society to divest itself of the trusteeship in the land.
On the 4th of August, 1823, an agreement or treaty was entered into at Gnadenhutten, between Lewis Cass, then governor of Michigan, on the part of the United States, and Lewis de Schweinitz, on the part of the society, as a preliminary step towards the retro- cession of the land to the government. By this agreement, the members of the society relinquished their right as trustees, conditioned that the United States would pay $6,654, being but a moiety of the money they had expended. The agreement could not be legal without the written consent of the Indians, for whose benefit the land had been donated. These embraced the remainder of the Christian Indians formerly settled on the land, " in- cluding Killbuck and his descendants, and the nephews and descendants of the late Captain White Eyes, Delaware chiefs." The Goshen Indians, as they were now called, repaired to Detroit, for the purpose of completing the contract. On the 8th of November, they signed a treaty with Governor Cass, in which they relinquished their right to the twelve thousand acres of land in Tuscarawas county, for twenty-four thousand acres in one of the territories, to be designated by the United States, together with an annuity of $400. The latter stipulation was clogged with a proviso, which rendered its fulfilment uncertain. The Indians never returned. The principal part of them took up their residence at a Moravian missionary station on the river Thames, in Canada. By an act of congress, passed May 26, 1824, their former inheritance, comprising the Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem tracts, were surveyed into farm lots and sold. In the following year the Ohio canal was located, and now passes close to the site of the three ancient Indian villages, The popu- lation of the county rapidly increased, and their character and its aspect have consequently changed. A few years more, and the scenes and actors here described will be forgotten, unless preserved by that art which is preservative of the histories of nations and of men. Goshen, the last abiding place of the Christian Indians, on the Tuscarawas, is now occupied and cultivated by a German farmer. A high hill which overlooked their village, and which is yet covered with trees, under whose shade its semi-civilized inhabitants perhaps once "stretched their listless length," is now being worked in the centre as a coal mine. The twang of the bow-string, or the whoop of the young Indian, is succeeded by the dull, crash- ing sound of the coal-car, as it drops its burden into the canal boat. Yet there is one spot here still sacred to the memory of its former occupants. As you descend the south side of the hill, on the Zanesville road, a small brook runs at its base, bordered on the opposite side by a high bank. On ascending the bank, a few rods to the right, is a small enclosed grave- yard, overgrown with low trees or brush-wood. Here lie the remains of several Indians, with two of their spiritual pastors, (Edwards and Zeisberger.) The grave of the latter is partly covered with a small marble slab, on which is the following inscription.
DAVID ZEISBERGER, who was born 11th April, 1721, in Moravia, and departed this life 7th Nov., 1808, aged 87 years, 7 months and 6 days. This faithful ser- vant of the Lord labored among the Moravian Indians, as a missionary, during the last sixty years of his life.
* The writer of this article was appointed agent of the United States for that purpose.
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Some friendly hand, perhaps a relative, placed the stone on the grave, many years after the decease of him who rests beneath it.
Gnadenhutten is still a small village, containing 120 souls, chiefly Moravians, who have a neat church and parsonage-house. About a hundred yards east of the town is the site of the ancient Indian village, with the stone foundations of their huts, and marks of the conflagration that consumed the bodies of the slain in 1782. The notice which has been taken of this tragical affair in different publications, has given a mournful celebrity to the spot where it transpired. The intelligent traveller often stops on his journey to pay a visit to the graves of the Indian martyrs, who fell victims to that love of peace which is the genuine attribute of Christianity. From the appearance of the foundations, the village must have been formed of one street. Here and there, may be excavated, burnt corn and other relics of the fire. Apple trees, planted by the missionaries, are yet standing, sur- rounded by rough under-brush. A row of Lombardy poplars were planted for ornament, one of which yet towers aloft undecayed by time, a natural monument to the memory of those who are interred beneath its shade. But another monument, more suitable to the place and the event to be commemorated, will, it is hoped, be erected at no distant day. Some eight or ten individuals of the town and neighborhood, mostly farmers and me- chanics, met on the 7th of October, 1843, and organized a society for the purpose of en- closing the area around the place where the bodies of the Christian Indians are buried, and erecting a suitable monument to their memory. The two prominent officers selected were Rev. Sylvester Walle, resident Moravian minister, president, and Lewis Peter, treas- urer. The first and second articles. of the constitution declare the intention of the " Gna- denhutten Monument Society" to be-" to make judicious and suitable improvements upon the plat of the old Indian village, and to erect on that spot an appropriate monument, com- memorating the death of 96 Christian Indians, who were murdered there on the 8th day of March, A. D. 1782." It is further provided, that any person paying annually the sum of one dollar, shall be considered a member ; if he pay the sum of ten dollars, or add to his one dollar payment a sum to make it equal to that amount, he is considered a member for life. Owing to the circumscribed means of the members, and the comparative ob- scurity of the village, the fund has yet only reached seventy dollars, whereas five hundred would be required to erect any thing like a suitable monument. Whether it will be ulti- mately completed, must depend on the liberality of the public. Sixty-five years have elapsed since the Moravian Indians paid the forfeit of their lives for adhering to the peace- able injunctions of their religion. Shall the disciples of Zeisberger, the philanthropist, the scholar, and the Christian-he who labored more than half a century to reclaim the wild man of the forest from barbarism, and shed on his path the light of civilization-shall no monument perpetuate the benevolent deeds of the missionary-no inscription proclaim the pious fidelity of his converts? If the reader feels a sympathy for the cause in which each became a sacrifice, he has now the power to contribute his mite in transmitting the memory of their virtues to posterity.
Miss Mary Heckewelder, who was living at Bethlehem, in Penn- sylvania, as late as 1843, is generally said to have been the first white child born in Ohio. She was the daughter of the noted Mo- ravian missionary of that name, and was born in Salem, one of the Moravian Indian towns on the Tuscarawas, in this county, April 16th, 1781.
Mr. Dinsmore, a planter of Boone county, Ky., orally informed us that in the year 1835, when residing in the parish of Terre Bonne, La., he became acquainted with a planter named Millehomme, who informed him that he was born in the forest, on the head waters of the Miami, on or near the Loramie Portage, about the year 1774. His parents were Canadian French, then on their route to Louisiana.
Half a mile below Bolivar are the remains of Fort Laurens, erected in the war of the revolution, and named from the president of the revolution congress. It was the scene of border warfare and bloodshed. The canal passes through its earthen walls. The par -- apet walls are now a few feet in height, and were once crowned? with pickets made of the split trunks of trees. The walls enclose
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about an acre of land, and stand on the west bank of the Tusca- rawas. Dr. S. P. Hildreth gives the annexed history of this work, in Silliman's Journal.
Fort Laurens was erected in the fall of the year 1778, by a detachment of 1000 men from Fort Pitt, under the command of General M'Intosh. After its completion, a garri- son of 150 men was placed in it, and left in the charge of Col. John Gibson, while the rest of the army returned to Fort Pitt. It was established at this early day in the country of the Indians, seventy miles west of Fort M'Intosh, with an expectation that it would act as a salutary check on their incursions into the white settlements south of the Ohio river. The usual approach to it from Fort M'Intosh, the nearest military station, was from the mouth Yellow creek, and down the Sandy, which latter stream heads with the former, and puts of into the Tuscarawas just above the fort. So unexpected and rapid were the movements of General M'Intosh, that the Indians were not aware of his presence in their country, until the fort was completed. Early in January, 1779, the Indians mustered their war- riors with such secrecy, that the fort was invested before the garrison had notice of their approach. From the manuscript notes of Henry Jolly, Esq., who was an actor in this, as well as in many other scenes on the frontier, I have copied the following historical facts.
" When the main army left the fort to return to Fort Pitt, Captain Clark remained be- hind with a small detachment of United States troops, for the purpose of marching in the invalids and artificers who had tarried to finish the fort, or were too unwell to march with the main army. He endeavored to take the advantage of very cold weather, and had marched three or four miles, (for I travelled over the ground three or four times soon after,) when he was fired upon by a small party of Indians very close at hand, I think twenty or thirty paces. This discharge wounded two of his men slighty. Knowing as he did that his men were unfit to fight Indians in their own fashion, he ordered them to reserve their fire, and to charge bayonet, which being promptly executed, put the Indians to flight, and after pursuing a short distance, he called off his men and retreated to the fort, bringing in the wounded." In other accounts I have read of this affair, it is stated that ten of Captain Clark's men were killed. " During the cold weather, while the Indians were lying about the fort, although none had been seen for a few days, a party of seventeen men went out for the purpose of carrying in fire-wood, which the army had cut before they left the place. about forty or fifty rods from the fort. Near the bank of the river was an ancient mound, behind which lay a quantity of wood. A party had been out for several preceding morn- ings and brought in wood, supposing the Indians would not be watching the fort in such very cold weather. But on that fatal morning, the Indians had concealed themselves be- hind the mound, and as the soldiers passed round on one side of the mound, a part of the Indians came round on the other, and enclosed the wood party, so that not one escaped. I was personally acquainted with some of the men who were killed.".
The published statements of this affair say that the Indians enticed the men out in search of horses, by taking off their bells and tinkling them; but it is certain that no horses were left at the fort, as they must either starve or be stolen by the Indians ; so that Mr. Jolly's version of the incident must be correct. During the siege, which continued until the last of February, the garrison were very short of provisions. The Indians sus- pected this to be the fact, but were also nearly starving themselves. In this predicament, they proposed to the garrison that if they would give them a barrel of flour and some meat, they would raise the siege, concluding if they had not this quantity they must sur- render at discretion soon, and if they had they would not part with it. In this, however, they missed their object. The brave Colonel Gibson turned out the flour and meat promptly, and told them he could spare it very well, as he had plenty more. The Indians soon after raised the siege. A runner was sent to Fort M'Intosh with a statement of their distress, and requesting reinforcements and provisions immediately. The inhabitants south of the Ohio volunteered their aid, and General M'Intosh headed the escort of provisions, which reached the fort in safety, but was near being all lost from the dispersion of the pack- horses in the woods near the fort, from a fright occasioned by a feu de joie fired by the garrison, at the relief. The fort was finally evacuated in August, 1779, it being found un- tenable at such a distance from the frontiers; and Henry Jolly was one of the last men who left it, holding at that time in the continental service the commission of ensign.
New Philadelphia, the county seat, is 100 miles northeasterly from Columbus. It is on the east bank of the Tuscarawas, on a large level and beautiful plain. It was laid out in 1804, by John Knisely, and additions subsequently made. The town has improved
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much within the last few years, and is now flourishing. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Disciples church, 5 mercantile
Central View in New Philadelphia.
stores, 2 printing offices, 1 oil and 1 grist mill, 1 woollen factory, and a population estimated at over 1000.
In the late war, some Indians, under confinement in jail in this town, were saved from being murdered by the intrepidity of two or three individuals. The circumstances are derived from two com- munications, one of which is from a gentleman then present.
About the time of Hull's surrender, several persons were murdered on the Mohiccan, near Mansfield, which created great alarm and excitement.
Shortly after this event, three Indians, said to be unfriendly, had arrived at Goshen. The knowledge of this circumstance created much alarm, and an independent company of cavalry, of whom Alexander M'Connel was captain, were solicited by the citizens to pur- sue and take them. Some half a dozen, with their captain, turned out for that purpose. Where daring courage was required to achieve any hostile movement, no man was more suitable than Alexander M'Connel. The Indians were traced to a small island near Goshen. M'Connel plunged his horse into the river and crossed, at the same time order- ing his men to follow, but none chose to obey him. He dismounted, hitched his horse, and with a pistol in each hand commenced searching for them. He had gone but a few steps into the interior of the island when he discovered one of them, with his rifle, lying at full length behind a log. He presented his pistol-the Indian jumped to his feet, but M'Connel disarmed him. He also took the others, seized their arms, and drove them be- fore him. On reaching his company, one of his men hinted that they should be put to death. " Not until they have had a trial according to law," said the captain ; then ordering his company to wheel, they conducted the prisoners to the county jail.
The murder which had been perpetrated on the Mohiccan had aroused the feelings of the white settlers in that neighborhood almost to phrenzy. No sooner did the report reach them that some strange Indians had been arrested and confined in the New Philadelphia jail, than a company of about 40 men was organized at or near Wooster, armed with rifles, under the command of a Captain Mullen, and marched for New Philadelphia to dispatch these Indians. When within about a mile of the town, coming in from the west, John C. Wright, then a practicing lawyer at Steubenville, (later Judge,) rode into the place from the east on business. He was hailed by Henry Laffer, Esq., at that time sheriff of the county, told that the Indian prisoners were in his custody, the advancing company of men was pointed out to him, their object stated, and the inquiry made, " what is to be done ?" " The prisoners must be saved, sir," replied Wright ; " why don't you beat an alarm and call out the citizens ?" To this he replied, " our people are much exasperated, and the fear
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