History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881, Part 39

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 854

USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881 > Part 39

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His knowledge of the country and wonderful activity enabled him to elude his enemies and reach the settlements in safety.

On one of Captain Brady's scouting expeditions into the Indian country, with sixteen scouts or spies, they encamped one night at a place called

" Big Shell Camp." Toward morning one of the guard heard the report of a gun, and immedi- ately communicating the fact to his commander, a change of position was ordered, Leading his men to an elevated point, the Indian camp was discovered alnost beneath them. Cautiously ad- vancing toward their camp, six Indians were dis- covered standing around the fire, while several others lay upon the ground, apparently asleep. Brady ordered his men to wrap themselves in their blankets and lie down, while he kept watch. Two hours were thus passed without anything material occurring. As day began to appear Brady roused his men and posted them side by side, himself at the end of the line. When all were in readiness the commander was to touch, with his elbow, the man who stood next to him, and the communication was to pass successively to the farthest end. The orders then were that the moment the last man was touched he should fire, which was to be the signal for a general dis- charge. With the first faint ray of light six In- dians arose and stood around the fire. With breathless expectation, the whites waited for the remainder to rise, but failing, and apprehending a discovery, the captain moved his elbow, and the next instant the wild woods rang with the shrill report of the rifles of the spies. Five of the six Indians fell dead, but the sixth, screened by a trec, escaped. The camp being large, it was deemed unsafe to attack it further, and a retreat was immediately ordered.

Soon after the above occurrence, says DeHass, in returning from a similar expedition, and when about two miles from the mouth of Yellow creek, at a place admirably adapted for an am- buscade, a solitary Indian stopped forward and fired upon Brady's scouts. Instantly, on firing, he retreated toward a deep ravine, into which the savage hoped to lead his pursuers. But Brady detected the trick, and in a voice of thun- der ordered his men totree. No sooner had this been donc, than the concealed foe rushed forth in great numbers, and opened upon the whites a perfect storm of leaden hail. The brave spics returned the fire with spirit and effect; but as they were likely to be overpowered by superior numbers, a retreat was ordered to the top of the hill, and thence continued until out of danger.

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

The whites lost one man in this engagement, and two wounded. The Indian loss is supposed to have been about twenty, in killed and wounded.

In Howe's Historical Collection, Captain Brady is characterized as the Daniel Boone of the north-

east part of the valley of the Ohio. About the year 1780, a party of warriors from the Cuyahoga Falls made an inroad into what is now Washing. ton county, Pennsylvania, and murdered several families and robbed others, and, with their " plunder," had recrossed the Ohio river. Brady promptly raised a foree of his chosen followers, and started in pursuit of the murderers, but were, however, unable to overtake them before reaching their villages, which were situated in the present county of Summit. Brady and his scouts arrived in the vicinity of their towns, but were discovered, and by overwhelming numbers compelled to retreat. Brady directed his men to separate and each take care of himself, regarding that the better way. A large force of the Indians. knowing Captain Brady, pursued him, and aban- doned the chase after his men. The Cuyahoga, says Howe, here makes a wide bend to the south, including a large tract of several miles of surface, in the form of a peninsula. Within this tract the pursuit was hotly contested. The Indians, by extending their line to the right and left, forced him on the bank of the stream. Brady, knowing the locality, directed his course to the river, at a point where it is compressed by the rocky cliffs into a narrow channel of only twenty- two feet across the top of the chasm, but consid- crably more near the water, the rocks approach- ing each other at the top to within the distance named, at a height of forty feet or more above the bed of the river. Being so hemmed in by the Indians that he saw no way of escape else- where, concentrated all his powers, and made the leap successfully, and escaped. The place is still known as " Brady's Leap." The Indians kept up the pursuit, and Captain Brady made for a pond, and plunging in, swam under water some dis_ tanee, and found a hiding place at the trunk of a large tree which had fallen into it. And this is called "Brady's Pond " to the present day. It is situated in Portage county, near Franklin mills.

Brady's escape was miraculous. He however reached his home at length, (which Howe says,

was at this time at Chartier's creek), as did also his men. Some authority made him at one time a resident of Wellsburg. Brooke county, now West Virginia, and represented him as tall, rather slender, and very active, and of a dark complexion.

Captain Samuel Brady married a daughter, (says DeHass), of Captain Swearengen, of Ohio county, Virginia, who bore him two children, both sons, named John and Van S.

Such was Brady, the boldl leader of the spies, on our western frontiers. He died, says the au- thor of the "History of the Pan-Handle Coun- ties," at West Liberty, Ohio county, West Vir- ginia, in the year 1800, and was buried in the cemetery at that place ; a small stone marks his grave.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MORAVIAN MISSIONS.

Establishment of Lichtenau-Religions Services-Moravian Towns on the Tesearawas-Abandonment of Lichtenau- Biographical Sketches of Rev. David Zeisberger and Rev. John lockewelder.

T HE career or life-story of the laborious and self-sacrificing Moravian missionaries, and the establishment of Moravian mission stations by them in the wilderness, among the savage races that, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, occupied the Muskingum valley, together with the narratives of the zealous, faithful labors bestowed upon them, and generally upon the sur- rounding tribes and pagan nations, may well be regarded, without drawing largely upon the im- agination, as one of the most interesting and romantic chapters in our early-time history.

According to authentie history and the most reliable Moravian annals, there was only one Moravian village or mission station established within the present limits of Coshocton county.

So great had been the success and prosperity of the two Moravian villages of Schonbrunn and Gnadenhutten, situated on the Tuscarawas river, within the present boundaries of Tuscarawas county, that at the close of the year 1775 it was found their combined population numbered about five hundred; it was therefore deemed ad-

FARM AND RESIDENCE OF HENRY TALMAGE, JACKSON TOWNSHIP.

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

visable, after due deliberation, to establish another in the Tuscarawas or Muskingum valley. ' This decision was made by the missionaries in 1776; accordingly Rev. David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder with eight families, numbering thirty-five persons, left the aforesaid village and passing down the valley, looking out for an eligible location, finally encamped on the east bank of the Muskingum river, at a point about two and a half miles below the "Forks of the Muskingum "-now Coshocton-where, upon full consideration, they decided to establish the pro- posed mission station. This was the 12th of April, 1776. A mission house was soon built, and the prospective Moravian village was called Lich- tenau, that is a "Pasture of Light"-a green pasture illuminated by the light of the Gospel- as interpreted or explained by the Moravians. It is stated by an accredited Moravian authority, the " Life and Times of Rev. David Zeisberger "- a work entitled to credit for many facts herein contained-that the location of Lichtenau was made somewhat in deference to the wishes of Netawatwees, a friendly Delaware chief of the Turtle tribe, whose principal village, called Go- schachgunk, and which was subsequently de- stroyed by Gen. Brodhead's command in 1781, was situated at the junction of the Tuscarawas and the Walhonding rivers-now Coshocton- the unpronounceable Indian capital occupying the site of the lower streets of the present town of Coshocton, stretching along the river bank below the junction.

The site of Lichtenau is described by the biog- rapher of Zeisberger as a broad level of many acres stretched to the foot of the hills, with an almost imperceptible ascent, the river bank swell- ing out gently toward the stream in the form of an arc, covered with maples and stately syca- mores. Material for builling abounded, and the rich soil promised abundant crops. Numerous remains showed that the primitive aborigines of America had here had a home.

Rev. Edmund De Schweinitz, author of the " Life and Times of Zeisberger," visited the site of Lichtenau in 1863, and found it then occupied in part by portions of the farms of Samuel Moore and Samuel Forker, in Tuscarawas township, which were separated by a long lane extending

from the river to the eastern hills. The town began near the residence of Mr. Moore, and the church probably stood in his yard, reaching across the lane to the land of Mr. Forker, Lichtenau covering a portion of his farm. He identified the village site by numerous relics, and exact correspondence of former landmarks, as described by Mr. Moore, with the topography set forth in Rev. David Zeisberger's manuscript. The relative position of Lichtenau to a Mound Builder's enclosure of five acres, and a mound three-quarters of a mile further down the river, enabled the auther, with Zeisberger's descrip- tions and locations before him, to locate Lich- tenau with a good degree of certainty.

The worship of the Great Creator, by this col- ony of thirty-five, closed the day, April 12, 1776. The next morning the sturdy strokes of the ax began to ring through the bottoms, and were reverberated from the hills near this embryo village in the wilderness of the Muskingum, and with a great crash tree after tree fell to the ground on the site of Lichtenau, says one author. " Sun- day," he continues, "followed upon the days of toil. The chief and his villagers came to Lich- tenau in full force to attend religious services. On the river's bank, beneath the gemmed trees ready to burst into verdure, gathered the con- gregation of Christian and Pagan Indians. Zeis- berger preached on the words, 'Thus it is writ- ten, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that re- pentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, begin- ning at Jerusalem,' Afterwards fires were lighted, around which the converts continued to instruet their countrymen in the way of life, until the shades of evening fell. And this was doubtless the first gospel sermon, either Protest- ant or Catholic, preached within the present lim- its of Coshoston county.

" The town progressed rapidly. Its mission house served at first as the place of worship; the other buildings formed one street, running par- allel to the river, and midway between its north- ern and southern extremities a chapel was subsequently erected."

Netawatwees, his son, and a grandson with his family of six children, carly became converts to

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

Moravianism. The principal chief of the Turkey tribe of Delawares, together with his own and ten other families, became immediate actual or prospective settlers at Lichtenau, by securing lots and by other acts looking to ultimate settle- ment there.

The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was cele- brated at Lichtenau for the first time on Satur- day evening. May 18, 1776. This event was suc- ceeded during the summer by the administra- tion of baptism to the converts from heathenism.

Rev. John Heckewelder, in the autumn of 1776, retired from Litchenau and returned to Schonbrunn, a mission station up the Tuscarawas river, a short distance below the present town of New Philadelphia, his place being supplied by Rev. William Edwards, who became Zeis- berger's associate at Lichtenau, November 4, 1776. He was an Englishman, born April 24, 1724, in the parish of Brinkworth, Wiltshire; joined the Moravians in 1749, and soon after emigrated to America, where he became a dis- tinguished missionary among the Indians.

During the year 1777 schisms and feuds sprang up at Schonbrunn, and most of those who had not apostatised, came to Lichtenau, including Rev. John Heckewelder, leaving the once happy, Schonbrunn in possession of renegades who had returned to heathenism. This accession to Lich- tenau included the missionary, Rev. John George Jungman, who remained from April until Au- gust, when he returned to Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania. He was born at Hockenhein, in the Pala- tinate, April 19, 1720, came to America in 1731, settled in Pennsylvania, where he joined the Moravians, and became an eminent missionary, serving many mission stations usefully, and finally died at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, July 17, 1808, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.

In 1778, Lichtenau received another accession of Moravian Indians. This was from the then only other mission station, Gnadenhutten, in the Tuscarawas valley, which, in consequence of dis- turbances growing out of the war, had to be abandoned temporarily.

High hopes were cherished of Lichtenau until early in 1779, when some hostile Wyandot and Mingo warriors, having made it a rendezvous and the starting point of a new war path to the Ohio

river, and one or two of the surrounding tribes becoming more and more unfriendly, its aban- donment was reluctantly decided to be a neces- sity, and, in pursuance of said decision, was grad- ually accomplished. Rev. William Edwards, one of the missionaries, in April, 1779, left Lichtenau, and moved with a colony up the Tuscarawas river, and re-occupied the lately abandoned mis- sion station and village of Gnadenhutten, on the west bank of said river, within the present limits of Clay township, Tuscarawas county. During the month of December, 1779, Rev. David Zeis- berger left with another colony, and passed up the Tuscarawas river-Muskingum, it was then called-to a short distance above Schonbrunn, and commenced building a town, to which was given the name of New Schonbrunn. It was situated a mile or more below the present town of New Philadelphia, in what is now Goshen township, Tuscarawas county. And in the spring of 1780, Rev. John Heckewelder, with all the Christian Indians that remained at Lichtenau, left it and started the town of Salem, on the west bank of the Tuscarawas, about six miles below Gnadenhutten, its site being in the present town- ship of Salem, Tuscarawas county, about sixteen miles below the county seat of said county.

And thus terminated the only Moravian mis- sion station ever established within the present limits of Coshocton county.

Brief biographical sketches of the two most distinguished missionaries connected with Lich- tenau-Zeisberger and Heckewelder-may ap- propriately be given in conclusion. It may, how- ever, be here remarked, incidentally, that after the final abandonment of Lichtenau by the Mora- vian Indians in April, 1780, it was occupied by some Delawares (see Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, page 161), who named it Indaochaic, and that it was utterly destroyed by the military forces under command of Colonel Daniel Brodhead in April, 1781, the details of which will be found elsewhere.

REV. DAVID ZEISBERGER,

One of the founders of Lichtenan, was born in a small village named Zachtenthal, Moravia (now on the railroad from Cracow to Vienna), on Good Friday, April 11, 1721. His parents were be-

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

Hernhut, the chief seat of the Moravians in Europe, in 1726, and came to America in 1736, and settled in Georgia. They, however, left their son David at Hernhut to finish his education. He was an apt scholar, "learning Latin with the facility that he afterward displayed in acquiring a knowledge of the Indian languages." Soon after he was fifteen years of age, he was taken to Holland by Count Zinzendorf, where he soon learned the Dutch language spoken by the Hol- landers. When he was seventeen he embarked at London for the New World, and soon joined his parents.

David spent several years in Georgia and South Carolina, and, in 1740, went to Pennsylvania. In 1741, the village of Bethlehem, in said State, was commenced, and he early identified himself with it, and it soon became. and has ever since re- mained, " the chief seat of the Moravian church in America." There his father died in 1744 and his mother in 1746.

David Zeisberger soon developed talents, cour- age, energy, resolution and self-abnegation that marked him as one adapted to the missionary service among the aborigines of this country. In 1744-45 he devoted himself to the study of cer- tain Indian languages, first at Bethlehem, then in the Mohawk valley, where he perfected himself in the Mohawk tongue. Here he came under the suspicion of being å spy, and suffered imprison- ment both in Albany and New York, but being found innocent, was discharged. Not long after- ward, he was selected as the associate of Bishop Spangenberg to make negotiations with the Iroquois Confederacy, in regard to the transfer of the Shekomeko mission to the Wyoming. He impressed the Onondagas so favorably, that they adopted him into the Turtle tribe of that nation, and gave him an Indian name. He made exten- sive explorations of the Susquehanna and its branches, acting as an interpreter frequently, and serving as assistant missionary at Shamokin.

leivers in and followers of the distinguished Bo- | made a voyage to Europe in the interest of hemian reformer, John Huss. They removed to American missions, returning in June, 1751. He made frequent visits to the Onondagas, to Wyoming, to New York, to New England, and various other places, always to promote the wel- fare of existing missions, or to establish new ones. He also attended the treaty held with the Indians at Philadelphia, in 1756; at Easton, in July, 1757; and again in October, 1758. In 1759 he journeyed as far south as North Carolina, and in 1760 he was appointed superintendent of the Brethren's House at Litiz, where he remained more than a year. In August, 1761, he was in- terpreter at another general congress held with the Indian tribes at Easton.

Rev. David Zeisberger thus continued to make himself useful in the various capacities of inter- preter, missionary treaty negotiator, instructor and superintendent, until the year 1771, when we find him visiting the Tuscarawas valley, and there, in the tribe of Netawatwees, the principal chief of the Delawares, delivering a sermon at noon, on the 14th day of March, 1771, and which was probably the first Protestant sermon preached within the present limits of Ohio. The Indian capital, in which this sermon was preached, oceu- pied the suburbs of the present village of New- comerstown, in Oxford township, Tuscarawas county, Ohio. The proposition to establish a mission among the Delawares in the Tuscarawas valley met with such a degree of favor as to in- duce an effort, at an early day, by the zealous Zeisberger, who, after a stay of a few days de- voted to missionary labors, returned to Frieden- stadt (City of Peace), a Moravian town on the Beaver river (now in Lawrence county, Pennsyl- vania), where he had, during the previous year, established a mission.

In 1772, Rev. David Zeisberger arrived at Big Spring, two miles south of the present town of New Philadelphia, and with a colony of twenty- eight Moravian Indians, commenced, May 3, to build the town of Schonbrunn, interpreted Beautiful Spring. The village of Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace) was established later in the same year, and was situated eight miles below Schonbrunn, on the cast bank of the Tuscarawas, within the limits of what is now Clay township,

Rev. David Zeisberger was ordained to the ministry at Bethlehem, February 16, 1749, and he at once proceeded to minister to the Shamo- kin Mission, which was situated near the present town of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. In 1750 he | Tuscarawas county. To these two Moravian

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

villages Rev. David Zeisberger gave most of his time, from 1772 to 1776, when, with the help of Rev. John Heckewelder, the village of Lichtenau was started, and where he remained as already detailed until December, 1779, when he moved up the Tuscarawas and established New Schon- brunn. On June 4, 1781, he was married to Susan Lecron, of Litiz, a Moravian village in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.

Rev. David Zeisberger remained at New Schon- brunn until September 11, 1781, when he, with Heckewelder and other missionaries with the Moravians of Tuscarawas valley, were made cap- tives, by Captain Matthew Elliott, a British emissary, who had under his command about three hundred hostile Indians, and removed to the Sandusky river, not many miles from Upper Sandusky, where they remained in what is called " Captive's Town " until the next spring. Zeisberger and the other missionaries were tried at Detroit on the charge of being spies, but were acquitted.

Rev. David Zeisberger, with a portion of the captives, located on Huron river, thirty miles north of Detroit, in the summer of 1782, and there built a village called New Gnadenhutten. There he remained until the summer of 1786, when he, Rev. John Heckewelder and others established themselves as a Moravian community, at Pilgerruh Mission, known also as " Pilgrim's Rest," situated on the banks of the Cuyahoga river, twelve miles above the mouth of said stream.

In the spring of 1787, Rev. David Zeisberger, with the "Pilgrim's Rest " colony, removed to Huron river, and there established the village of New Salem, which they abandoned in 1791 and established themselves on the Canada side of the Detroit river, calling this mission the " Watch- Tower."

In 1798 the Moravian village of Goshen was built on the old Schonbrunn traet, and Gnaden- hutten was rebuilt, under the direction of Zeis- berger, Heekewelder and others, the former chosing Goshen for his residence and the latter Gnadenhutten.

Rev. David Zeisberger was a somewhat volum- inous writer, the following being only a partial list of his works :

1. " Essay of a Delaware Indian and English Spelling Book, for the use of the Schools of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum River." Published in Philadelphia, 1776. A second edition appeared in 1806.

2. " A Collection of Hymns for the use of the Christian Indians of the Moravian Missions in North America." Published in Philadelphia in 1803. This was a volume of 358 pages. A second edition was issued, in an abridged form, in 1847, under the editorship of Rev. Abraham Lucken- bach, of Bethlehem, where the second edition was published.

3. " Sermons to Children." This was a transla- tion from the German into the Delaware, and was issued in Philadelphia in 1803.

4. "Something of Bodily Care for Children." This, also, is a translation from the German of Bishop Spangenberg into the Delaware, and has been bound into one volume with the "Sermons to Children," the two making a book of 115 pages. . 5. " The History of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." This also is a translation from the Ger- man of Rev. Samuel Sieberkuhn, into the Dela- ware Indian language, and makes a volume of 220 pages. It was printed in New York, in 1821. It is supplemented with an "Address of the late Rev. David Zeisberger to the Christian Indians," bearing date, Goslien, May 23, 1806.

6. "A Collection of Delaware Congregations," published at Leipsic, in 1821.

Of the writings of Rev. David Zeisberger, many remain in manuscript. Of those deposited in the library of the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia, are the following :

1. "Lexicon of the German and Onondaga Languages," a very extensive production of seven or eight volumes. There is an abridgement of it. also, in manuscript.

2. "A Complete Grammar of the Onondaga Language."

3. "A Grammar of the Language of the Lenni- Lenapi, or Delaware Indians."

The following is a list of his manuscripts, de- posited in the library of Harvard University :

I. " A Dictionary in German and Delaware."

2. " Delaware Glossary."

3. " Delaware Vocabulary."

4. " Phrases and Vocabularies in Delaware."

HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

5. " Delaware Grammar."

6. " Harmony of the Gospel in Delaware."

7. " Hymns for the Christian Indians in the Del. aware Language."

8. " Litany and Liturgies in Delaware."

9. " Ilymn-Book in the Delaware Language."

10. "Sermons in Delaware."

Il. "Seventeen Sermons to Children."

12. " Church Litany in Delaware."

13. "Short Biblical Narratives in Delaware."

14. " Vocabulary in Maqua and Delaware."

Some of the foregoing are duplicates. The above manuscripts were handsomely bound af- ter reaching the library of Harvard University, and occupy a conspicuous place there, and will be carefully preserved for posterity.

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History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881, Part 39

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co. Number of Pages: 854

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 854