USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 29
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not far from where the Broken Sword Creek empties into it, about ten miles from Upper Sandusky. They at once proceeded to look up a loca- tion, and without delay built a village of small huts to protect themselves against the inclemency of the weather. This village, which soon took the name of "Captive's Town," was situated on the bank of the San- dusky River, probably a mile above the mouth of the Broken Sword, in the present township of Antrim, Wyandot County.
TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL OF THE MISSIONARIES.
On the 14th of October the missionaries were summoned by the British commandant at Detroit, to appear before him for trial. Accord- ingly, on the 25th of October, Revs. Zeisberger, Heckewelder, Senseman, and Edwards started for Detroit, to meet the charges against them. They travelled across the Black Swamp to the Maumee River, and from thence to Detroit, where they arrived after a weary journey of many days. Soon after their arrival they were ushered into the presence of Major De Peyster, the commandant, who at once entered into a colloquy with them touching the charges that had been lodged with him against them. They were treated well, and had a final hearing on the 9th of November, when they were discharged by the commandant, pronounced not guilty, and permitted to return to their families and friends on the Sandusky, whom they rejoined on the 22d of November.
CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT OF SCHEBOSH AND HIS PARTY.
On the day the missionaries started for Detroit, Shebosh, a native assistant missionary, organized a force at "Captive's Town" of Moravian Indians, to go to the Tuscarawas towns, to gather some of the corn they had raised there during the preceding summer, with which they intended to return to Sandusky, and thus save their suffering friends there from perishing. They were captured, however, by a party of Americans, com- manded by Col. David Williamson, and held as captives for a time at Pittsburgh, whither they were taken. The object of this expedition of Col. Williamson, in the autumn of 1781, was to remove all the Moravian Indians they could find on the Tuscarawas to Pittsburgh, under the belief that they had not kept faith with them as against the hostile Sandusky savages; but they found themselves anticipated in the inglo- rious achievement of breaking up the mission, that having already been accomplished by the British.
A small church edifice was erected for worship in "Captive's Town" before winter (which proved to be one of great severity) had fully set in. It was built of small logs, the spaces between them being filled with moss, and was completed December 8. Many privations and great suf- ferings were endured, especially by the women and children, because of the severity of the weather and scarcity of provisions. For the purpose of relieving the sufferings of these poor, starving Indians, it was decided to make one more effort (that of Schebosh having failed) to procure some corn from the Tuscarawas Valley, thousands of bushels of which, of their own raising, still remaining on the stalks there, and from which, during the preceding autumn, they were forcibly driven by the British emissary, Elliott. In pursuance of this purpose, about one hundred and fifty of them, embracing men, women, and children, left "Captive's Town" late in February, to go to their cornfields on the Tuscarawas, to gather the corn they had raised. On their arrival they divided their forces about equally between the three villages, and proceeded at once, with energy, to gather the corn, and make a speedy return to Sandusky with it for the relief of their captive friends there, who were threatened with star- vation. But in this noble enterprise they were defeated, and sad, sad was the fate of about two-thirds of those who had volunteered in the good work of ministering to the imperilled and suffering Christian cap- tives in the valley of the Sandusky.
THE CAPTURE AND MASSACRE.
Allusion has been made to the unfortunate location of the Moravian mission stations on the Tuscarawas - unfortunate in relation to the American military post at Pittsburgh and the English military post at Detroit-and equally unfortunate as between the frontier settlers east of the Ohio and the hostile and vindictive savage enemies of the wliites on
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the Sandusky. The latter, in making their marauding and murderous incursions beyond the Ohio River, would frequently halt at the Moravian villages, and partake of their hospitalities; and likewise on their return with their captives and property stolen from the white settlers, a similar halt was made, if they supposed that they were not closely pursued. It is quite probable some of this stolen property was left with the Christian Indians, either carelessly or in payment of supplies obtained from them. The hospitalities above mentioned were virtually enforced-were be- stowed of necessity-in order to ward off the suspicion and hostility of . the savages. It was compulsory kindness bestowed, as is alleged, for self-protection, and was extended in equal measure, and under similar restraint, and for the same purpose, upon the whites as upon the Indians. The latter, failing to secure the co-operation of these Christian Indians in their war movements against the whites, charged them with being in sympathy with their enemies, the frontiersmen east of the Ohio River; and the latter were no less disposed to suspect them of treachery, because they would not make common cause with them against their enemies on the Sandusky. The aforesaid enforced acts of hospitality and kindness were alleged as proof of the correctness of their suspicions; and these suspicions were further strengthened by the fact that during a season of pleasant weather, early in February, some war parties, probably from the Sandusky regions, had made raids into the white settlements and committed various thefts and some murders-among the killed being the family of William Wallace, consisting of his wife and five children ; and they also carried John Carpenter into captivity at the same time. The early period in the season when those Indian visitations were made and outrages committed, induced the belief that the murderers of the Wal- lace family and the captors of Carpenter were the Moravian Indians or others who had received "aid and comfort" from them while on their murderous raid. In either case, the frontiersmen determined to hold the Christian Indians of the Tuscarawas responsible for the atrocities perpetrated, and inflict chastisement upon them; and for this purpose they proceeded to organize an adequate force of mounted men and move with all practical celerity to the Tuscarawas Indian villages, they having heard of the return there of a considerable number of their former occu- pants, for the avowed object of gathering corn.
The force, consisting of about ninety men, that charged itself with the duty of capturing and punishing those Christian Indians, at work in their own cornfields, from which they had been driven the preceding autumn, rendezvoused, early in March, 1782, at Mingo Bottom (three miles below the present city of Steubenville), under the command of Col. David Williamson. Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, in his "Indian Wars," speaking of Col. Williamson's men, says that "they were not vagabonds or miscreants, but many of them were men of the first standing in the country." On the night of the 5th of March, " this corps of volunteer militia" arrived within a mile of Gnadenhutten, the middle one of the three Indian villages (New Schonbrunn being above it and Salem below), where they met Schebosh, a half-breed Indian convert, and a man of con- sideration among them, and deliberately, and in cold blood, killed him. And on reaching the village they murdered another man; also a woman. By treacherously promising protection, they disarmed the Indians at Gnadenhutten, and likewise those at Salem, whom they brought to the first named place. Col. Williamson and his militia having by falsehood and deceit obtained entire control of these now defenceless Christian In- dians, they fettered them, and confined them in two well-guarded houses. Thus shamefully and treacherously were more than ninety Moravian Indians inveigled to their destruction, many of whom being helpless women and children. And the number would have been increased by about fifty, if the "militiamen" had succeeded in capturing those at New Shronbrunn, which they attempted, but in which they were happily foiled. Suspecting treachery and a murderous intent, those at the latter place, on hearing of the capture and imprisonment of their brethren at the two other villages, made their escape barely in time to avoid cap- ture.
Colonel Williamson submitted the fate of his helpless and, as we think, innocent captives to his men for decision, the alternative being to take them as prisoners to Fort Pitt, or to butcher them ! The latter method of disposing of them prevailed by a large majority, only eighteen men of the entire command favoring the proposition of dealing with them as
prisoners! "And they were then and there, March 8, 1782, murdered in cold blood!" "With gun and spear, and tomahawk and scalping-knife, and bludgeon and mallet, the wholesale, brutal murder of these peace- able, innocent, defenceless people was accomplished !" "The work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses," says Howe, " until not a sigh or moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within !" The torch was then applied to those prison-houses of woe and death, and, with ninety-four murdered Indian bodies, consumed! Two, and only two, of the whole number of captives, in some extraordinary, if not miraculous manner, escaped with their lives. The story of the deliver- ance of two Indian boys, notwithstanding one of them, named Thomas, was knocked down and scalped, has been often told, and need not be repeated here; suffice it to say, that they lived many years, to bear tes- timony, in after times, to the savage cruelty of the men of Col. William- son's command towards the Moravian Indians they so cruelly murdered.
The Moravian historian, Loskiel, details at length the story of this atrocious massacre, and characterizes it as "the most infamous act in the border wars of the west," and as "the most disgraceful event in the history of the country."
Rev. Dr. Doddridge, in his account of what he calls the " Moravian campaign," unhesitatingly pronounces this act of the "militia" as an "atrocious and unqualified murder." And it does indeed make for us the darkest, cruelest, bloodiest page in the history of the North west. "A terrible tragedy," another historian calls it. "Over this horrid deed," says another, " humanity must shed tears of commiseration as long as the record of it shall remain."
The incidents of this butchery are so revolting, that we have purposely refrained from giving the details of the infamous outrage at any consider- able length. Would that the chapter which relates the events of the expedition of Col. Williamson to the Indian towns in the Tuscarawas Valley could be torn from our country's history ; but, to our great mor- tification, that cannot be done. The record of that murder is " a ghost that will not down at our bidding."
The historian of Western Virginia and Pennsylvania (Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge) was personally acquainted with Col. Williamson, and in his "Indian Wars" pronounces him to have been "a brave, humane man, and not cruel." He says, by way of mitigation, that as " Col. Williamson was only a militia officer, he was without power to prevent the murder of those Christian Indians, against the decision of so large a majority (about four to one) of self-willed, determined, vindictive men, who had recently been greatly exasperated by the horrible murder, by Indians, of the Wallace family." His strong desire was, says Doddridge, to treat the Indians as captives, and remove them as prisoners to Pittsburgh, but was unable to enforce his wishes, and that therefore "his memory rests under unmerited obloquy." Whether justly or unjustly, Col. Williamson has borne much of the responsibility of the massacre of the Moravian Indians of the Tuscarawas Valley. It will, however, be an act of justice to his memory to state that he did not lose standing with his country- men on account of his connection with the expedition or command which committed these outrageous murders, as not long thereafter they gave him undoubted evidence of their continued confidence and regard by elections to positions of honor and responsibility, civil as well as military.
It is highly probable that a majority of Col. Williamson's militiamen did not set out on their expedition with the purpose of murdering the Moravian Indians, but simply to take them prisoners, although the kill- ing of Schebosh before reaching Gnadenhütten, and two others soon after entering the village, shows that some of them at least were bent on murder! Having, however, had their feelings greatly outraged by the then recent murder of the Wallace family, and dwelling on the out- rage as the theme of their conversation on their march, they naturally became more and more sanguinary and vindictive in their temper as they progressed in their expedition. And it has been further proclaimed in mitigation of their brutality, if not in justification of it, that they found the dress of Mrs. Wallace, still bloody, at one of the mission towns, and thereupon rashly, illogically, insanely rushed to the conclu- sion that those with whom that dress was found were the murderers of the Wallace family, and that then, in the execution of the afterthought, they decided upon the commission of the brutal murder of innocent
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women and children, whatever might be believed as to the guilt of the men they massacred.
But the charge of murder against the Moravian Indians was undoubt- edly an act of great injustice to them. Their guilty participation, di- rectly or indirectly, in the murder of any white persons has never been established. Rev. Dr. Doddridge says that the charge of complicity by the Moravians with the hostile Indians in the murder of the families of the western frontiersmen, and which served as a pretext for their de- struction, " was utterly false." It has always been the judgment of the public that the seventy men, or thereabouts, of Colonel Williamson's command who voted in favor of killing ninety-six Moravian Indians at Gnadenhütten, on the Tuscarawas River, March 8, 1782, were guilty of an atrocious murder. So say the general public, and so saith all reliable history !
CAPTIVE'S TOWN ABANDONED IN 1782.
Owing to the hostile feelings of the tribes in the Sandusky region towards the remnant of Moravian Indians at "Captive's Town," it was deemed necessary to abandon it and seek a location elsewhere. To return to the Tuscarawas Valley was not to be thought of, as Col. William- son's men had burnt all their habitations in the villages before leaving them. And if that had not been done, the British commandant at De- troit would not have permitted it, first, for State reasons, and secondly, because it would have been construed to mean a defiant menace, and have inevitably led to their extermination. Said commandant (Major De Peyster) generously tendered them aid and encouragement, provided they would establish a mission station on Huron River (now called . Clinton). They, after due deliberation, accepted of his proposition, and commenced a settlement on said river, about thirty miles north of De-' troit, July 21, 1782, calling the village New Gnadenhutten. The mis- sionaries and their families left Captive's Town in the spring, upon the invitation of Major De Peyster, and reached Detroit May 10, 1782, where they remained until their removal up the Huron or Clinton River, in July, as above stated. Many of the Indians at Captive's Town had found it necessary to disperse during the winter to procure food; others proba- bly relapsed into heathenism under the pressure of surrounding circum- stances; still others probably were unwilling, for various reasons, to go with their brethren to the Huron River, so that the remnant of Chris- tian Indians on the Sandusky, after the murder of ninety-four of them on the Tuscarawas, was comparatively small. The few that remained at Captive's Town after the departure of the missionaries and their families and converts for Detroit, about the last of April, were driven out and dispersed by order of Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief of the Wolf tribe, who was an unrelenting enemy to the Moravians. Henceforth for four years (from 1782 to 1786) no Moravian mission station existed within the present limits of Ohio.
Of the six Moravian missionaries who were removed to Sandusky in 1781, and who went to Detroit in May, 1792, Rev. John George Jungman was the only one who never afterwards identified himself with any mis- sions among the Indians of Ohio. He was born April 19, 1720, at Hock- enheim, in the Palatinate. In 1731, he emigrated to America, and set- tled near Oley, in Pennsylvania, where he became acquainted with the Moravians and united with them. After his arrival at Detroit in May, 1782, he returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he died, after a long retirement from active service, July 17, 1808, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.
PILGERRUH MISSION, FOUNDED IN 1786.
The Pilgerruh Mission, known also as "Pilgrim's Rest," was estab- lished in the summer of 1786, on the east bank of the Cuyahoga River, in what is now Independence township, Cuyahoga County, distant from the mouth of said river (now Cleveland) ten or twelve miles. The colony was led from the vicinity of Detroit by Revs. Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and Edwards, and was composed chiefly of those who were captured by Matthew Elliott, at the Tuscarawas villages, in 1781, and who had lived principally, since that time, at New Gnadenhütten. Pilgrim's Rest was not intended to be a permanent mission, but only a stopping-place for a
year or two, with the purpose of an early removal to their former locali- ties in the Tuscarawas Valley. Soon huts were built and corn was planted, the mission being located upon the site of an old abandoned village of the Ottawas, the land being therefore cleared, so that by the last of June they were in comfortable habitations. A chapel was also erected, and dedicated on the 10th of November.
A resolution was adopted by Congress, on the 24th of August, 1786, inviting the remnant of the expatriated or exiled Moravian Indians of the Tuscarawas to return to their former homes, guaranteeing them the protection of the government, and tendering to them, at the same time, a quantity of corn, as well as blankets, axes, and hoes, as a donation; but the opposition of certain Indian tribes to their return to their former village was so manifest, that they decided to seek another home, and not, for the present at least (notwithstanding the generous legislation of Congress in their behalf), attempt to return to the Tuscarawas Valley. They stood firm in their decision to abandon "Pilgrim's Rest," how- ever, and locate elsewhere. Accordingly on the 19th of April, 1787, the colony, under the leadership of Rev. Zeisberger, took up their line of march westward towards the Pettquotting, now called Huron River, which empties into Lake Erie at the town of Huron, in Erie County, though Black River was their destination at first, but, on arriving there, circumstances seemed not to favor it as a mission station.
NEW SALEM, FOUNDED IN 1787.
New Salem was established on the east bank of the Huron River, a few miles from its mouth, in the present township of Milan, in Erie County, in the spring of 1787, by the colony from " Pilgrim's Rest." There some old, but then unoccupied plantations, were found, and upon which they built " New Salem." The chapel was erected and occupied in June, and the village and mission soon enjoyed a good degree of prosperity. Revs. Zeisberger, Edwards, and Jung were the principal missionaries at this new station, at the beginning, but Rev. Gottlob Senseman joined it after- wards, in the year 1790. That was the year of its greatest prosperity, the congregation then numbering two hundred and twelve persons. But an impending Indian war rendered the condition of the mission precari- ous, a war which culminated, for this year at least, in the defeat of Gen- eral Harmer, at the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's (now Fort Wayne), in October, 1790. The continued existence of Indian hostilities rendered it inexpedient to remain much longer at New Salem. It was, therefore, resolved to abandon it early in 1791, which was accordingly done in April of said year, the mission being removed to the Canada side of the Detroit River, and established, by invitation of their owners, on lands belonging to Elliott and McKee, both of whom had been their bitter enemies. They called this mission the Watch-Tower.
Rev. Gottlob Senseman, after the abandonment of New Salem, in 1791, was never afterwards connected with Moravian missions among the Ohio Indians. He was, however, identified with other missions, principally in Canada, the last of which was at Fairfield, situated on the right bank of the river Thames, in the present township of Oxford, Canada West, where he deceased January 4, 1800.
Rev. Michael Jung was a native of Engoldsheim, Province of Alsace, Germany, where he was born January 5, 1743. He came to America in 1751, and settled at Broadbay, in Maine, where he joined the Moravians. He removed to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1767, where he qualified himself for the ministry, and commenced his missionary labors in 1780, in the Tuscarawas Valley, and continued to exercise his ministerial func- tions at varions points for the period of thirty-three years. In 1813, he retired to Litiz, a Moravian town in Pennsylvania, where he died Decem- ber 13, 1826, at the advanced age of almost eighty-four years. New Salem was the last mission to which he was attached within the present limits of Ohio.
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF TUSCARAWAS MISSIONS.
For various reasons there were no Moravian missions within the pres- ent limits of Ohio from the spring of 1791, when New Salem was aban- doned, until the location and building of the village of Goshen and the rebuilding of Gnadenhütten, both in the Tuscarawas Valley, in the year
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1798. The colony that entered upon this enterprise was under the direc- tion of Revs. Zeisberger, Mortimer, Heckewelder, and Edwards, and was composed chiefly of Christian Indians from the Fairfield Mission, on the river Thames, in Canada. The two last named located themselves and a portion of the colony before midsummer upon the site of Gnadenhütten, where Rev. John Heckewelder had a house built, which was finished and occupied September 9, 1798. The two first named arrived in October, 1798, and built the village of Goshen upon the old Schonbrunn tract, on the west bank of the Tuscarawas River, seven miles above Gnadenhütten, in the present township of Goshen, Tuscarawas County, about two miles below New Philadelphia.
Rev. John Heckewelder was no longer a missionary proper, but made Gnadenhütten his headquarters as "Agent of the Society for Propagating the Gospel." This was a Moravian organization incorporated by "Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature," for the purpose implied in its title. Con- gress had invited the Moravians to re-establish their mission in the Tus- carawas Valley, and had donated to them twelve thousand acres of land to aid in the work of Indian civilization and evangelization. Four thou- Band acres were surveyed so as to include the old Schonbrunn village site, four thousand to include Gnadenhutten, and the remaining four thousand to embrace Salem. These several tracts were conveyed to the aforesaid society, in trust, for the purpose of propagating the gospel among the heathen on the Tuscarawas, or rather, as the act of incorporation expresses it, "for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity among them." Said society, of which Bishop Ettwein was the president, appointed Rev. John Heckewelder its agent, in 1788, to execute the trust in accordance with the terms of the grant, which remained in a state of abeyance until 1798, when, for the performance of his duties as agent, he made his resi- dence at Gnadenhütten, as above stated. The foregoing tracts of land were surveyed, pursuant to an act of Congress bearing date June 1, 1796, although several "Acts of Congress" had been previously passed, pledg- ing the government to grant donations of land to the Moravians in the Tuscarawas Valley. These several "Acts" bear date May 20, 1785 ; July 27, 1787; and September 3, 1788. These lands were under the superin- tendence of Rev. John Heckewelder, who, as agent, leased and managed them in the interest of the Tuscarawas Mission, embracing the two sta- tions of Goshen and Gnadenhütten, from 1798 until 1810.
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