USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 53
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John Lewis Roth was taken to Pennsylvania when not quite one year of age. He educated himself at Nazareth Hall, Bethlehem, Pa. ; later he removed to Bath, Pa., and died there in 1841. His tombstone bears the following inscrip- tion :
" Zum Anderken au Ludwig Roth, geboren 4th Juli, 1773. Gestorben 25th September, 1841, alter 68 Jahre, 2 M., 21 Tage."
A very interesting and careful investigation of this subject is embodied in an article by the late A. T. Goodman, entitled, "First White Child Born in Ohio," and published in the Magazine of Western History. Mr. Goodman calls attention to a passage in "The Narrative of Bouquet's Expedition " (see page 498) : " Among the captives a woman was brought into the camp at Muskingum with a babe about three months old at her breast. One of the Virginia volunteers soon knew her to be his wife, who had been taken by the Indians six months be- fore." Mr. Goodman says : " But it may be said, "The Moravians had settled at Bolivar in 1761, and children may have been born unto them.' This inquiry is easily answered. Prior to 1764 there were but two white Moravians in Ohio, /Heckewelder and Post. Heekewelder did not marry until 1780, and Post was mar- ried to an Indian squaw. Add to this the fact that there were no white women in the Moravian settlement prior to the year 1764, and we think the answer is com- plete. If any white children, whether French, English or American, were born within the limits of Ohio before the year 1764, we have been unable to find evidences of the fact. We think, therefore, we are safe in stating that the child of the Virginia captive born in 1764 was the first known white child born in Ohio."
The first white child born within Ohio after the Marietta settlement had been made, in 1788, was Leicester G. Converse. He was born at Marietta, February 7, 1789, resided there until 1835, when he removed to Morgan county. He
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resided on a farm near MeConnellsville at the time of his death, which oceurred February 14, 1859.
THE MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES.
CHRISTIAN FREDERICK POST, the first of the Moravian missionaries in Ohio, was born in Conitz, Prussia, in 1710. He came to Pennsylvania in 1742, was a missionary to the Moravian Indians in New York and Connecticut from 1743 to. 1749. He returned to Europe, but came again to Pennsylvania, and in 1758 en- gaged in Indian mission service. Post married an Indian woman named Rachel, who died in 1747, and two years later he married another Indian woman named Agnes ; after her death, in 1751, he married a white woman. On account of his Indian marriages he did not secure the full co-operation of the Moravian au- thorities.
In 1761 he visited the Delawares at Tuscarawas (now Bolivar) for the purpose of instructing the Indians in Christian doctrine. He built a cabin in what is now Bethlehem township, Stark county, just over the Tuscarawas county line. He then journeyed to Bethlehem, Pa., and returned in the spring of 1762, with Jolin Heckewelder, then about nineteen years of age, as an assistant in his work. Owing to the enmity of hostile Indians and the jealousy of the French, this at- tempt to establish a mission was a failure, and the following winter Heckewelder returned to Pennsylvania, Post having gone there some months before to attend an Indian conference at Lancaster.
Post then proceeded to establish a mission among the Mosquito Indians at the Bay of Honduras. He afterwards united with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and died at Germantown, Pa., April 29, 1785.
JOHN GOTTLIEB ERNESTUS HECKEWELDER was born in Bedford, Eng., March 12, 1743. When eleven years of age his parents removed to Bethlehem, Pa.
He attended school two years, and was serving an apprenticeship to a cooper, when he was called to assist Post. On his return from Ohio he was for nine years employed as a teacher at Missions. In 1771 he was appointed an assistant to Rev. David Zeisberger, at Freidenshuetten, Pa., and in 1772 assisted in estab- lishing the Moravian mission of the Tuscarawas valley, where he labored for fifteen years.
In 1792, at the request of the Secretary of War, he accompanied Gen. Rufus Putnam to Post Vincennes to treat with the Indians. In 1793 he was commis- sioned to assist at a treaty with the Indians of the lakes. He held various civil offices in Ohio, and in 1808, at the organization of Tuscarawas county, was elected an associate judge, which position he resigned in 1810, when he returned to Bethlehem, Pa., and engaged in literary pursuits until his death, January 21, 1823. Among his published works are " History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States," " Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians." Many of his manuscripts are in the collections of the Penn- sylvania Historical Society. Hon. Isaac Smucker, who has given much study to the subject of the Moravian missions in Ohio, the results of which have been --- published in the Secretary of State's report for 1878, says of Heckewelder :
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" His life was one of great activity, industry and usefulness. It was a life of vicissitudes, of perils, and of wild romantic adventure. How it abounded in hardships, privations and self-sacrificing devotion to the interest of the barbarians of the Western wilderness ! It would, indeed, be difficult to over-estimate the importance or value of the labors of Rev. Heckewelder in the various characters of philanthropist, philosopher, pioneer, teacher, ambassador, anthor and Christian missionary. He was a gentleman of courteous and easy manners, of frankness, affability, veracity ; without affectation or dissimulation ; meek, cheerful, unas- suming ; humble, unpretentious, nobtrusive; retiring, rather taciturn, albeit,
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John Heckewelders.
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Jofianna Maria Hechewelder.
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when drawn out, communicative and a good conversationalist. He was in exten- sive correspondence with many men of letters, by whom he was held in great esteem."
MARIA HECKEWELDER, daughter of Rev. John Heckewelder, was born at Salem, April 16, 1781. Her mother, Miss Sarah Ohneberg, had been sent as a mission teacher to Ohio, and was married to Rev. John Heckewelder in July, 1780. This was the first wedding of a white couple held in Ohio. The belief for many years that Miss Heckewelder was the first white child born in Ohio made her the object of unusual attentions. Visitors came from great distances to see and converse with her. Requests for her photograph and autograph were numerous. In 1785 her parents sent her to Bethlehem, where she was educated. She became a teacher in a Ladies' Boarding School at Litiz, Pa., but at the end of five years was obliged to give up her position on account of the loss of her hearing. After the death of her parents she resided at the Sisters' House in Beth- lehem. "Aunt Polly Heckewelder," as she was called, was respected and beloved by all who knew her. She died September 19, 1868, at the age of eighty-seven years.
. DAVID ZEISBERGER was born in Zauchtenthal, Moravia, April 11, 1721. In 1736 his parents emigrated with the second band of Moravians to Georgia, leav- ing their son in Europe to complete his education. Two years later he joined them, and in 1743 he became a student in the Indian school at Bethlehem, Pa., pre- paratory to engaging in the mission service. Hc became conversant with many of the Indian languages, including Delaware, Onondaga, Mohican and Chippewa. For sixty-two years he was zealously engaged in Indian mission work in various localities.
In the spring of 1771 he visited Gekelemukpechunk, the capital of the Dela- wares in the Tuscarawas valley. He was received with great favor ; was the guest of Netawotwes, the chief of the nation, who granted him land whereon to establish a mission. In May, 1772, with five Indian families from Pennsylvania, he laid out the town of Schonbrunn, or " Beautiful Spring." A chapel was dedicated Sept. 19, 1772, and before the end of the year the village contained more than sixty houses. (Later Schonbrunn was destroyed, and in December, 1779, New Schonbrunn built about a mile farther up the Tuscarawas river.)
In October, 1772, Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace) was laid out. In 1780 Salem was laid out and its chapel dedicated May 22 of the same year.
In 1781, when the Moravian Indians were forcibly removed to Canada by the orders of the British government, Zeisberger and other missionaries were taken with them, and were finally settled on the Thames river.
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In 1798 Zeisberger with thirty-three Indians returned to Ohio and founded Goshen, seven miles northeast of the site of Gnadenhutten. Here Zeisberger died Nov. 17, 1808.
He was the chief minister of the Tuscarawas missions.
At the age of sixty he married Miss Susan Leeron, but they had no children. Heckewelder says of him : " He was blessed with a cool, active and intrepid spirit, not appalled by any dangers or difficulties, and a sound judgment to discern the best means of meeting and overcoming them. Having once devoted himself to" the service of God among the Indians, he steadily, from the most voluntary choice and with the purest motives, pursued his object. He would never consent to receive a salary or become a 'hireling,' as he termed it, and sometimes suffered from the need of food rather than ask the church for the means to obtain it."
Other Tusearawas missionaries were :
JOHN ROTH, born in Sarmund, Prussia, February 3, 1726, was educated a Catholic ; joined the Moravian Church in 1748; emigrated to America in 1756, and entered the service of the Indian missions three years later ; married Maria Agnes Pfingstag, August 16, 1770. In 1773 was stationed at the Indian mis-
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sions in the Tuscarawas valley and remained one year. He died at York, Pa., July 22, 1791.
JOHN JACOB SCHMICK, born at Konigsburg, Prussia, October 9, 1714; graduated at University of Konigsburg; was pastor of Lutheran church at Li- vonia ; in 1748 united with the Moravians. In 1751 came to America and en- tered the mission service. In August, 1773, with his wife, he entered the Tus- , carawas valley field, where he remained until 1777. He was pastor of the mission at Gnadenhutten. He died at Litiz, Pa., January 23, 1778.
JOHN G. JUNGMAN, born in Hockenheim, Palatinate, April 19, 1720; emi- grated to America in 1731, settling near Oley, Pa. ; in 1745 married the widow of Gottlob Buttner. Went to Schonbrunn in 1772; remained there as assistant pastor until 1777, when he returned to Pennsylvania ; again went to the Tuscara- was valley in 1780, and labored at New Schonbrunn. He was taken with the Christian Indians to Sandusky in 1782; retired from missionary work in 1784, and died at Bethlehem, Pa., July 17, 1808.
WILLIAM EDWARDS was born in Wiltshire, England, April 24, 1724. In 1749 he joined the Moravians and emigrated to America. He took charge of the Gnadenhutten mission in 1777; was taken to Sandusky in 1782; in 1798 re- turned with Heckewelder to the Tuscarawas valley and died at Goshen, October 8, 1801.
GOTTLOB SENSEMAN was the son of Joachim and Catharine Senseman ; the latter was a victim of the massacre. His father afterward became a missionary among the slaves of Jamaica.
In 1780 Gottlob was assigned to duty at New Schonbrunn; was carried into captivity with the Christian Indians, and died at Fairfield, Canada, January 4, 1800.
MICHAEL JUNG was born in Engoldsheim, Alsace, Germany, January 5, 1743. His parents emigrated to America in 1751. Ten years later he joined the Mo ravians, and in 1780 was sent to the Indian mission at Salem. He remained a missionary among the Indians until 1813, when he retired to Litiz, Pa., and died there December 13, 1826.
BENJAMIN MORTIMER, an Englishman, came as an assistant to Zeisberger, when he returned with the Indians in 1798, and remained at Goshen until 1809, when he became pastor of a Moravian church in New York city, where he died November 10, 1834. JOHN JOACHIM HAGAN became one of the missionaries at Goshen in 1804.
Heckewelder's "Narrative of the Manners and Customs of the Indians " has preserved mich of value and some things quite amusing. Of the latter may be classed the speech of an aged Indian, in his article on Marriage and Treatment of their Wives.
An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much time among the white people, observed that the Indians had not only much casier way of getting a wife than the whites, but were also much more certain of getting a good one, "For," said he, in his broken English, "white man court-court-may be one whole year-may be two year, before he marry. Well may be, then he get a very good wife-may be not, may be very cross. Well, now suppose cross ; scold as soon as get awake in the morning ! Scold all day ! Scold until sleep -- all one, he must keep him ! (The pronoun in the Indian language has no fem- inine gender. )
" White people have law against throwing
away wife, be he ever so cross-must keep him always.
" Well, how does Indian do? Indian, when he sees good squaw, which he likes, he goes to him, puts his forefingers close aside each other-make two look like one-look : squaw in the face-see him smile-which is all one, he say yes. So he take him home- no danger he be cross! No! no! Squaw know very well what Indian do if he cross. Throw him away and take another. Squaw love to eat meat. No husband, no meat. Squaw do everything to please husband. He do the same to please squaw. Live happy! Go to Heaven !"
Half a mile below Bolivar, near the north line of the county, are the remains
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of Fort Laurens, erected in the war of the revolution, and named from the president of the revolutionary Congress. It was the scene of border warfare and bloodshed. The canal passes through its carthen walls. The parapet walls are now (1846) a few feet in height, and were once crowned with pickets made of the split trunks of trees. The walls enclose about an acre of land, and stand on the west bank of the Tuscarawas. Dr. S. P. Hildreth gives the annexed history of this work in " Silliman's Journal :"
Erection of Fort Laurens .- Fort Laurens was erected in the fall of the year 1778 by a detachment of 1,000 men from Fort Pitt, , under the command of Gen. McIntosh. After its completion a. garrison of 150 men was placed in it, and left in 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 MeIntosh, with an ex- pectation that it would act as a salutary cheek on their incursions into the white settlements south of the Ohio river. The usual approach to it from Fort McIntosh, the nearest military station, was from the mouth of Yellow creek, and down the . Sandy, which latter stream heads with the former, and puts off into the Tusearawas just above the fort. So unex- pected and rapid were the movements of Gen. McIntosh, 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 warriors with such seerecy that the fort was invested before the 'garrison had notice of their ap- proach. From the manuscript notes of Henry Jolly, Esq., who was an actor in this, as well as in many other scenes on the fron- tier, I have copied the following historieal facts :
"An Indian Ambuscade .- When the main army left the fort to return to Fort Pitt, Capt. Clark remained behind 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 theadvantage 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. The discharge wounded two of his men slightly. Knowing as he did that his men were unfit to fight the 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 Capt. 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 firewood, which the army had ent 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 mornings 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 eonecaled them- selves behind the monnd, and as the soldiers passed round on one side of the mound, a part of the Indians eame 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 Fort Besieged .- The published state- ments of this affair say that the Indians en- ticed 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 correet. During the siege, which continued until the last of Febru- ary, the garrison were very short of provisions. The Indians suspected this to be the fact, but were also nearly starving themselves. In this predicament they proposed to the garri- son that if they would give them a barrel of flour and some meat they would raise the siege, concluding if they had not this quan- tity they must surrender at discretion soon, and if they had they would not part with it. In this, however, they missed their objeet. The brave Col. Gibson turned out the flour and ment promptly, and told them be could spare it very well, as he had plenty more. The Indians soon after raised the siege. A runner was sent to Fort McIntosh with a statement of their distress, and requesting reinforcements and provisions immediately. The inhabitants south of the Ohio volunteered; their aid, and Gen. MeIntosh headed the escort of provisions, which reached the fort in safety, but was uear 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 untenable at such a dis- tance 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.
Recent investigations by Consul Willshire Butterfield, embodied in his " History of Ohio " from information derived from the Haldiman collection of
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manuscripts in the British Museum, give a somewhat different version from the foregoing accounts of both the attack on Capt. Clark's detachment and the siege of Fort Laurens.
The attack on Capt. Clark's men was made by seventeen Indians, mostly Mingoes, led by Simon Girty. Butterfield says :
"The particulars were these :- On the twenty-first of the month Capt. John Clark, of the 8th Pennsylvania regiment, commanding an escort having supplies for Gibson, reached Fort Laurens: On his return, the captain, with a sergeant and fourteen men, when only about three miles distant from the fort, was attacked by the force just mentioned. 'The Americans suffered a loss of two killed, four wounded and one taken prisoner. The remain- der, including Capt. Clark, fought their way back to the fort. Letters written by the commander of the post and others, contain- ing valuable information, were captured by Girty" (These letters now form a part of the (Taldimand Collection.)
"From the vicinity of Fort Laurens, after his successful ambuscading the detachment of Capt. Clark, the renegade Girty hastened with his prisoner and captured correspondence to Detroit, which place he reached early in February. He reported to Capt. Lernoult that the Wyandots upon the Sandusky (and other Indians) were ready and willing to at- tack the fort commanded by Col. Gibson, and that he had come for ammunition. He earnestly insisted on an English captain being sent with the savages 'to see how they would behave. '
"By the middle of February provisions began to grow scarce with Gibson. He sent word to McIntosh, informing him of the state of affairs, concluding with these brave words : ' You may depend on my defending the fort to the last extremity.' On the 23d he sent out a wagoner from the fort for the horses belonging to the post, to draw wood. With the wagoner went a guard of eighteen men.
The party was fired upon by lurking savages and all killed and scalped in sight of the fort, except two, who were made prisoners. The post was immediately invested after this ambuseade by nearly two hundred Indians, mostly Wyandots and Mingoes.
"This movement against Fort Laurens, although purely a scheme of the Indians in its inception, was urged on, as we have seen, by Simon Girty ; and Capt. Henry Bird was sent forward from Detroit to Upper San- dusky with a few volunteers to promote the undertaking. Capt. Lernoult, in order to encourage the enterprise, furnished the savages with 'a large supply of ammunition and clothing, also presents to the chief war- riors.'
"The plan of the Indians was to strike the fort and drive off or destroy the cattle, and if any of the main army under MeIntosh at- tempted to go to the assistance of the garri- son, to attack them in the night and distress them as much as possible.
"By stratagem the Indians made their force so appear that 847 savages were' counted from one of the bastions of the fort. The siege was continued until the garrison was reduced to the verge of starvation, a quarter of a pound of sour flour and an equal weight of spoiled meat constituting a daily ration. The assailants, however, were finally com- pelled to return home, as their supplies had also become exhausted. Before the enemy left, a soldier managed to steal through the lines, reaching Gen. MeIntosh on the 3d of March, with a message from Gibson inform - ing him of his critical situation."
New Philadelphia in 1846 .- New Philadelphia, the county-seat, is 100 miles northeasterly from Columbus. It is on the cast 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 much within the last. few years, and is now flourishing. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Disciples church, 5 mercantile stores, 2 printing offices, 1 oil and 1 grist mill, 1 woollen factory, and a population estimated at over 1,000 .- Old Edition.
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 communications, one of which is from a gen- tleman then present.
A Daring Leader .- About the time of Hull's surrender, several persons were nfur- dered 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 cav-
alry, of whom Alexander M'Connel was cap- tain, was solicited by the citizens to pursue and take them. Some halfa 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.
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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
CENTRAL VIEW IN NEW PHILADELPHIA.
Moss EUCH NY
Philip Strickmaker, Photo., 1887.
CENTRAL VIEW IN NEW PHILADELPHIA.
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M'Connel plunged his horse into the river and crossed, at the same time ordering 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 dis- armed him. He also took the others, seized their arms, and drove them before him. On reaching his company, one of his men hinted that they should be put to death. "Not un- til 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.
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