USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 3
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Zeisberger, now with one companion, then with another, visited Indian villages far and near, at many of which, remarkable revivals were held, bringing many noted chiefs, as well as their followers, into the fold. At Machiwihilusing, on the Susquehanna, Papunhank, a talented Minsi Delaware, was baptized; he later became a teacher and preacher among his people,
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greatly aiding Zeisberger, founding with him a mission settlement at Friedenshütten, also on the Susquehanna. Here in 1765 a great revival was held, to which came Mohawks, Cayugas, Senecas, Onondagas, Mohicans, Wampanoags, Delawares, Tutelas, Tuscarawas and Nanticokes; "many went their way believing and scattered among their own tribes the seed of truth."
We cannot follow the detail of the indefatigable labors and signal successes of Zeisberger and his assistants. The tide of Moravian missions gradually swept westward and at Goschochgung, on the Alle- gheny River, near the mouth of Canawagy Creek, an important mission was located, in the midst of a des- perate and depraved class of Indians, "a den of paganism," under the influence of blaspheming sorcerers led by a "false prophet" called Wangomen, who boldly endeavored to discomfit Zeisberger in debate. A bitter controversy arose; the village was thrown into violent dissension and the life of Zeisberger was threat- ened. But the intrepid and eloquent missionary triumphed; Wangomen apologized and assisted in the ceremonies by which Zeisberger was adopted into the Monsey tribe (of Delawares). This "naturalization" took place at Kaskaskunk, the residence of Pakanke, a powerful chief of the Wolf tribe of the Delawares, then a warm adherent of Zeisberger.
One of the most distinguished of all the converts of Zeisberger, was Glikkikan, a Delaware warrior and captain, renowned for his wisdom and oratory. He had formerly opposed and by his arguments silenced the Jesuits who had vainly sought to convert him and his people. He at first met Zeisberger to antagonize
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him but was overcome by the persuasive powers of the preacher, accepted his convincing message, was baptized, and until his tragic death, was the unswerving lieutenant and, much of the time, the companion of his religious teacher.
In the Spring of 1770, numbers of the Christian Indians left the missions on the upper Allegheny and in fifteen canoes glided down the river, passing Fort Pitt, and swinging into the waters of the Ohio. They proceeded to the confluence of the Beaver, up which they steered beyond its rapids, where an encampment of bark-huts was erected. The encampment was soon changed into a town, named by Zeisberger, Friedens- stadt. Glikkikan and many Moravian Monseys from Goschochgung hastened to join the new mission.
And now Ohio again was to be invaded, this time permanently. It was ten years since Post built his little cabin on the Tuscarawas, for it was now March, 1771, when Zeisberger accompanied by Glikkikan, and two other converted chiefs, all mounted, crossed the Ohio, and after six days' journey reached the Tuscara- was, down the course of which they proceeded to the village of Gekelemukpechunk, meaning, “big still water," site of New Comerstown, capital of the Delawares and seat of their Grand Council, an imposing village of a hundred log huts.
Here presided Netawatwees, chief of the Turtle tribe of Delawares and the head chief of the Delaware nation, one of the ablest rulers this people ever had and under whose chiefdom the Delawares had migrated from the Delaware to the Ohio. He had fought the English in the French and Indian War and was afraid
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to meet Colonel Bouquet in 1764, when summoned to the Colonel's quarters; he attempted to escape in a canoe down the Muskingum but was captured by Bouquet's Indian scouts and carried before the Colonel who deposed him from office, an incident related in previous pages. As soon as Bouquet left the country the tribe council reinstated the dethroned chief and he thereafter retained his office till his death (in 1776).
Zeisberger was the guest of Netawatwees, who intro- duced the missionary to his first audience, a throng of assembled Delawares. The long-looked-for day for the planting of a mission in Ohio had come. The Bethle- hem authorities assigned Zeisberger and Heckewelder, hereafter to be as David and Jonathan in their work, to the sacred commission. The early Spring (1772) found Zeisberger, who had been on a visit to Bethlehem, his assistant, Heckewelder and five Indian families, including Glikkikan, in all twenty-eight persons, on their way from Fort Pitt to the Tuscarawas. On May 3d, Heckewelder states, the Zeisberger party reached a spot, "which to them appeared to be the most con- venient and advantageous for a missionary settlement." It was, says Loskiel, "a large tract of land situated not far from the banks of the Muskingum (the river in this locality was called indiscriminately Tuscarawas and Muskingum) about thirty miles from Gekelemuk- pechunk, with a good spring, a small lake, good planting grounds, much game and many other conveniences for the support of a colony." -
Here within two miles of the Delaware capital, this unique Christian Indian caravan pitched its tents, and in recognition of the "beautiful spring" distinguishing
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the locality, they called the place Schoenbrunn, in the Indian tongue Welhek-Tuppeek. Netawatwees ap- proved the selection, welcomed the Christian immi- grants, mostly his own nation, to his tribal country, for he had earnestly invited them to come, when Zeis- berger was his guest the year before, and the generous chieftain sealed his good faith in the matter by making an ample grant of land to the Moravians for the mission colonists, in the vicinity of the "beautiful spring." The village was wisely planned with wide, regular streets, crossing each other at right angles; and quickly the little log-hewn homes, the mission-chapel and the school-house, doubtless the first erected in Ohio, sprang up from the cleared spaces, to the swinging axes and resounding songs of the rejoicing strangers in the wilderness that was to be their abiding place for life and their final sepulchre.
Faithful converts from the eastern Indian missions joined the Ohio community, which grew apace with tilth and thrift. Upon the genuine zeal and consistent purpose of these regenerated tribesmen there is no better commentary than the laws adopted to govern their religious life and social conduct. They were to know no other God but the one only true God, who made us all and all creatures and came into this world in order to save sinners, to Him alone will we pray; we will rest from work on the Lord's Day and attend public service; we will honor father and mother, and when they grow old and needy we will do for them what we can; we will have nothing to do with thieves, murderers, whoremongers, adulterers or drunkards; we will not take part in dances, sacrifices, heathenish
ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE INDIANS
David Zeisberger, the Moravian Missionary, preaching to the Ohio Indians, on the banks of the Muskingum. A reproduction of the engraving of the original painting now hanging in the Chapel of the Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pa.
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IME RISE AND PROGRESS
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festivals or games; we will be obedient to our teachers, etc .; we will not be idle, nor scold, nor beat one another, nor tell lies; whoever injures the property of his neighbor shall make restitution; and man shall have but one wife-shall love her and provide for her and his children; a woman shall have but one husband, be obedient to him, care for her children, and be cleanly in all things; we will not admit rum nor any other intoxicating liquor into our towns; if strangers or traders bring intoxicating liquor, the helpers shall take it from them and not restore it until the owners are ready to leave the place; we will not go to war and will not buy anything of warriors, taken in war.
There were many other rules of like but lesser import.
Schoenbrunn was indeed an historic spot; for there were sown the first seeds of the protestant religion, in the Ohio country or the Northwest Territory; happy and prosperous were these Indian disciples working out the problems of religion and civilization:
"How bright were the waters-how cheerful the song, Which the wood-bird was chirping all the day long;
And how welcome the refuge their solitudes gave, To the pilgrims who toiled over the mountain and wave: Here they rested-here gush'd forth salvation to bring, The fount of the Cross, by the 'Beautiful Spring.'"'
In the Fall of the same year (1772) a band of Chris- tian Indians, of the Mohican tribe, from the Moravian center at Friedensstadt (Pa.) emigrated to the Mus- kingum, under the leadership of an Indian preacher called Joshua, whose baptism, in the year 1742, is said by Loskiel to have been one of the first among the Moravian conversions. The site selected for settle- ment by Joshua and his followers was some ten miles
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
from Schoenbrunn, down and upon the Muskingum River. They named this second hearth of the Moravian faith in Ohio, Gnadenhutten, signifying the "Tents of Grace," the scene, some ten years later of the bloodiest martyrdom in American history. In the fair valley of the Muskingum there arose other Moravian communi- ties, as Lichtenau and Salem, of which mention will be made later.
A rare and faithful glimpse of these first settlements at Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten is given us in the Journal "of two visits to the nations of Indians on the west side of the River Ohio in the years 1772 and 1773," by the Rev. David Jones, a Baptist minister of the Gospel at Freehold, N. J.
Mr. Jones was a keen and animated observer and wielded a ready pen. He discourses at much length on the genius, government, customs, diversions and religion of the Ohio Indians, which adds a peculiar value to his diary. In his second "visit" he proceeds from Fort Pitt, by the Ohio, to the mouth of the Sciota (Scioto), so called by the Shawnees as the word meant "Hairy River," because along its course the "deers were so plenty, that in the vernal season, when they came to drink, the stream would be thick of hairs." Up that Sciota, Jones paddled or poled his canoe; he reached Paint Creek, called by the Indians, Alamonee- theepeece, on some branches of which were situated the chief towns of the Shawnees; stopped at Pikaweeke, consisting "of about one hundred souls, being a mixture of Shawnees and other nations, the most remarkable town for robbers and villains, yet it pre- tends to have its chief men, who are indeed very
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scoundrels, guilty of theft and robbery without any apology or redress;" breakfasted with the "King" on fat buffalo, beavers' tails and chocolate; arrived at "Chillicaathe," chief town of the Shawannee Indians, situated north of a large plain adjacent to a branch of Paint Creek; describes "old fortifications" evidently the works of Mound Builders; meets "one James Gerty, [Girty] who was well acquainted with their [Indian] language, but a stranger to religion;" Girty refuses to interpret for Mr. Jones while he preaches; leaves Sciota country and goes east to Muskingum River, passing Little Shawannee Woman's Town and Captain White Eye's Town; reached New-Comer's Town, chief town of the Delawares, one hundred and thirty miles from Chillicaathee; New-Comer's Town takes its name from the King called Neetotwhealemon- new comer, it is on the Muskingum; here met Joseph Peappi, a Moravian Indian, "who is a good interpre- ter."
Here Jones desired to preach to the Delawares but a great feast was in progress and the "King" refused Mr. Jones permission to preach till the dancing and gaming was ended, which would not be for many days; "to improve present time concluded to visit the Mora- vian towns." Of his visit to Schoenbrunn, we let Mr. Jones speak entirely for himself:
"Sabbath, 14 (January) in company with Mr. Duncan, set out, but by reason of ice, arrived not to it till afternoon. When we came, worship was finishing; the minister continued but a few sentences, which were spoken by him in the English tongue, an inter- preter giving the meaning to the Indians. This town
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is situated on high level land east side of Muskingum, about ten miles up the stream from New-Comer's Town. It is laid out in regular form-houses are built on each side of the street. These Indians moved here about August, 1772, and have used such frugality, that they have built neat log houses to dwell in, and a good house for divine worship, about twenty-two feet by eighteen, well seated, and a good floor and chimney. They are a mixture of Stock-Bridge, Mingo, and Delaware Indians. Since the last war their chief residence has been about Wioming. Their conduct in time of worship is praise-worthy. Their grave and solemn countenances exceed what is commonly seen among us at such times. Their minister, the Rev. David Siezberger, seems an honest man, a native of Moravia, nor has he been many years in this country. He has been successful among these poor heathens, condescending for their sake to endure hardships. While I was present he used no kind of prayer, which was not pleasing to me, therefore asked him if that was their uniform practice. He replied that some times prayer was used. Their worship began and ended with singing an hymn in the Indian language, which was performed melodiously. In the evening they met again for worship, but their minister, inadvertently or by design, spoke in the German language, so that by me nothing was understood. Mr. Siezberger told me that near eighty families belong to their two towns, and there were two ministers besides himself. I was informed that one of them, whose name is Youngman, is a person of good abilities. By what appeared, must say, that the conduct of the Moravian society towards
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the heathen is commendable. They have behaved like Christians indeed, while most of other societies have altogether neglected, or in general made but faint attempts. In the evening, informed Mr. Seizberger, that it would gratify me to preach to his Indians. He replied with some appearance of indif- ference, that an opportunity might be had in the morning. "Tis probable he was a little afraid to coun- tenance me, lest some disciples might be made; than which, nothing was more foreign from my intention. Or his reservedness may be ascribed to his natural disposition."
On the following day, Monday, Mr. Jones did preach, Joseph Peappi, interpreting for him. He gives a synopsis of the sermon, which was simple, direct and decidedly orthodox. Returning to New-Comer's Town he met and conversed with Captain Killbuck, "who is a sensible Indian," has "the complaisance of a gentleman and speaks good English; * In our discourse he told me, that some years since, two Pres- byterian ministers visited them-that they did not incline to encourage their continuance, yet their visit had such effect, that they had been thinking it over since. He said, that they intended to have both a minister and schoolmaster, but would not have Pres- byterians, because their ministers went to war against them, and therefore did not like to be taught by them now, who were before for killing them."
On the other hand Killbuck did not seem to favor the Moravians remarking that they were from Ger- many, and "did not belong to our (English) kingdom;" nor would the Moravians fight, hence were useless as
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allies in time of war. Captain Killbuck, who seemed quite loquacious in the presence of Mr. Jones, further added the Indians intended to go to England and see the King and "tell him that they would be of the same religion as he is and would desire a minister and school- master of his own choosing;" that they had raised forty pounds for the purpose and had selected himself, Killbuck, and Swallowhead as messengers on this errand to Sir William Johnson. Mr. Jones offers the suggestion that "the service of the Church of England, as it now stands, will never be prescribed for Indians, for nothing would disgust them more than to have a religion, which would consume the greater part of life only to learn ceremonies."
An examination of Killbuck by Mr. Jones as to the religious belief of the Indians brought out the acknowl- edgment that they believed "in a God who created all things;" that "they believed that when any person died, their soul went to a happy state or to a state of misery."
Mr. Jones closes his interviews with Killbuck by commenting: "These (Delaware) Indians are not defective in natural abilities, and their long acquaint- ance with us, has given some of them better notions than many other savages. They are as void of civil government as the Shawannees. Their virtues are but few, their vices near the same with other Indians. Neither these nor the Shawannees claim any distinct property in lands, looking on it that God made it free for all. Nor could I understand that they have any fixed bounds to a nation, esteeming it chiefly useful for hunting. Providence seems to point out the civiliz-
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ing of these Indians; for a farming life will lead to laws, learning, and government, to secure property. * * 'Tis a little surprising that Protestants should be so neglectful of the Indians; and in common there is no concern appears among them, about civilizing the many nations, that are yet rude savages: while on the other hand, the French Papists have been very industrious to instill their principles into the minds of such as were contiguous to them, and with some success. The Waindots [Wyandots] are a little tainted, but might, 'tis probable, be easily better informed, and especially as the French are in a manner expelled."
And here for the present, we leave the Indian con- verts to work out, under their Moravian teachers, their lessons of faith and good work, while we turn our attention to stirring events in another quarter.
CHAPTER II. THE OHIO INDIAN CONFEDERACY
T HE American Indian was not merely a warrior. He was a wily politician and at times a far- sighted statesman. He instinctively realized the potency of the maxim "in union there is strength." We have seen with what tremendous results he employed this principle in the case of the Six Nation Confederacy, and how Pontiac invoked it in the carrying out of his vast conspiracy. The Ohio tribes, long the enemy and more or less the dependents of the haughty and overbearing Iroquois resolved to make the Ohio wilderness the scene of another attempt at centralization of savage power, such as would surpass all other similar efforts.
At the outset, let us clearly understand the political geography of the savage empire of the Ohio tribes, at the time of which we are to speak. We have already located the Delawares on the Muskingum and the territory extending east to the Ohio River. In this section however were also bands of the Mingo tribe, or Mengwe, a term given them by the Iroquois and meaning "treacherous," a sort of subdivision of the Cayugas. They settled mainly on the Ohio, their headquarters being a few miles below Steubenville, at Mingo Town, mouth of Beaver Creek, where resides their illustrious chief Tahgahjute, meaning "his eye- lashes stick out," as if looking through or over some- thing, spying, or shrewd, but renowned under the name of Logan. He came to Mingo Town from his Pennsylvania home in 1770 and seems to have remained there until early in 1773, when he removed temporarily to the mouth of Yellow Creek, where he established a hunting camp. In the early part of 1774, he trans-
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ferred his dwelling to Old Chillicothe (Westfall) on the west bank of the Scioto, in what was known as the Darby Plains. In his Chillicothe cabin he was not distant from his people for higher up on the same river, at the Forks of the Scioto, juncture of the Olentangy -as then known, now the Big Darby,-present site of Circleville, the Mingoes had made village settlements, shortly after the French and Indian War. They also had scattering habitats on the Sandusky and were there- fore often called the "Senecas of the Sandusky, " being erroneously credited to the Seneca tribe.
North of the Delawares from the regions of the headwaters of the Tuscarawas and the Cuyahoga to the mouth of the latter and east along the southern shores of Erie were various bands of the Iroquois tribes, mainly of the Seneca and Tuscarawas nations, but their occupancy was temporary in character, being chiefly for hunting purposes.
West of the Cuyahoga, in the valley of the Sandusky particularly, were the chief towns of the Wyandots, but they spread in scattered dwellings from Lake Erie to the Ohio, with villages on the course of the Hocking and also along the southern shores of Erie to the Maumee. They were a brave and noble people.
In the same northern region were the Ottawas, their villages being indiscriminately located with those of the Wyandots, indeed members of these two tribes often pitched their wigwams side by side.
The powerful tribe of the Miamis had for their habitat the valleys of the great Miami and the Maumee. They claimed to be the original proprietors of the lands they occupied; asserting that they had always retained
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them. In 1763, however, they left their homes on the Miami, abandoning their chief town Piqua, and settling on the Maumee.
The Mingoes likewise had settlements along up the Scioto as far north as the mouth of the river formerly called the Whetstone, now known as the Olentangy. Much confusion arises among writers, as to the locations on the Scioto relative to the Olentangy-a confusion owing to the transference of the name Olentangy or Ollentangy from one river to another. The river known as the Big Darby, which rises in Logan county and empties into the west side of the Scioto, at present site of Circleville, was originally known to the Indians as the Ollentangy. In the later pioneer settlement days it became known as the (Big) Darby, while the river, flowing from two head streams, its east and west branches, rising in the north of the state, formed a river known to the Indians as Keenhongsheconsepung, which later became known to the pioneers as the Whetstone, and which enters the Scioto from the northeast at the present site of Columbus. In 1833 the Ohio Legislature undertook to restore the Indian names of many Ohio rivers and made the mistake of "restoring" the name Olentangy to the Whetstone in- stead of to the Big Darby. Hence events, in early Indian days, spoken of as occurring at or near the juncture of the Olentangy and the Scioto should be located at Circleville rather than at Columbus. This same act of the legislature, among other changes, de- clared that the "main west branch of the Muskingum, commonly called the White Woman," should thereafter be known by the Indian name Walhonding.
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But the tribe that shall from now on be most constant and conspicuous in the eye of history is the Shawnee, the most remarkable of all the people inhabiting the region east of the Mississippi. We have already, in previous pages, spoken of their origin, their character, wanderings and warrior triumphs. They have been called the "Spartans of their Race, " and the "Bedouins of the American Wilderness," for their bands were found on the banks of the Mississippi; in the Valley of the Shenandoah; on the hunting grounds of Kentucky; on the Mobile River, in New Spain; on the Congaree in South Carolina; on the Cumberland and the Tennes- see; in the Valley of the Susquehanna and they even followed the river courses of the Illinois and Wisconsin. But gradually the Shawnees gravitated to the inland rivers of Ohio, particularly the Scioto, at the mouth of which they at first built their principal town; in time they moved up stream to the "Pickaway Plains," the "wilderness garden" of the Scioto Valley, where they located their chief settlements. There they were to gather and their wanderings were to cease.
The Pickaway Plains may be designated as the sec- tion lying between the Scioto on the west, Salt Creek on the east and extending north and south between lines which would run east and west through Circle- ville and Chillicothe respectively. This rich bottom land, the most fertile in Ohio, was the favorite location of the prehistoric Mound Builders, as well as the most historic field of the Ohio Indians. In this plain on Scippo Creek, just north of where it is entered by Congo Creek was Grenadier Squaw's Town, a wigwam center thus named from a Shawnee woman of great
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