History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 30

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton
Number of Pages: 878

USA > Ohio > Mercer County > History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 30
USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 30

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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 Northwest. "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." Ile 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 Tusearawas 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 Gnadenhutten, 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

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES; OHIO.

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- reetly or indirectly, in the murder of any white persons has never been established. Rev. Dr. Doddridge says that the charge of complicity by the Moraviaus 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, 1752, 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, 1182, 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 thein 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 1756) 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, 1782, 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 1756, on the cast 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 Rev4. Zeisberger, Heckeweller, and Edwards, and was composed chiefly of those who were captured by Matthew Elliott, at the Tuscarawas villages, in 1781, aud 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 Tusearawas 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, whuch 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. Bat 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, ou lands belonging to Elliott and MeKee, 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. Hle removed to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1767, where he qualified himself for the ministry, and. commenced his missionary labors in 1750, in the Tuscarawas Valley, and continued to exercise his ministerial fane- tions at various points for the period of thirty-three years. In 1913, 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 humnits 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 1721, when New Salem was ahan- doned, until the location and building of the village of Goshen and the rebuilding of Gnadenhütten, both in the Tuscarawas Valley, in the year

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

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 Fairfickl 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 Gnadenhutten, where Rev. John Heckewehier 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 Gnadenhutten, in the present township of Goshen, Tusearawas 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 Moraviaus 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- sand 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 Tusearawas, 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 ., 1726, 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 Gnadenhutten, from 1799 until 1810.

These two Moravian villages met with various successes and reverses. Soon the whites settled around them; some as lessees upon their lands, whose influence generally was pernicious upon the weak, half-disciplined Moravian Indians. They introduced ardent spirits among them, although the Territorial Governor and Judges had passed a law, in answer to peti- tions from Revs. Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and Mortimer, granting them the power of prohibiting its sale and use. Other vicious habits of the whites were gradually adopted. in spite of the efforts and restraining in- fluence of the missionaries. Some of the converts, yielding to the malign influences to which they were subjected, fell into evil ways, and some even lapsed into heathenism, and became castaways. The missionaries grew old, and lost in a measure their influence with their proselytes, be- ing unable to give them the requisite personal attention. Gradually the number of Indians in these villages diminished by deaths, removals west- ward, and by the encroachments and demoralizing influence of the white settlers. At length there were few or no Indians outside of these villages to proselyte, by reason of their removal westward. Meantime, the age, debility, and ultimately the death of the most influential and successful missionaries were felt as a serious calamity, and greatly retarded their prosperity. Thus matters gradually progressed from bad to worse, evidence of the decadence and ultimate extinction of these Moravian Christian Missions becoming more and more manifest every year, until the final removal from the valley, in 1824, of the Moravian Indians, the last little remnant of them then joining the Fairfield Mission in Canada.

RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW SALEM MISSION IN 1804.

In the autumn of 1803 Bishop Loskiel, the eminent Moravian histo- rian, made an official visit to the Tuscarawas Mission, and held a confer- ence with the missionaries at Goshen, from October 10t': to the 21st, at which it was decided to re-establish the New Salem Mission on the Huron River, which had been abandoned in 1791. In pursuauce of this

purpose, Rev. Mr. Oppelt and Rev. John Ben Haven reinoved a fragment of Christian Indians from Fairfield. in Canada, to the Hudson River, in the spring of 1804, and located them near or on the site of New Salem, within Milan township, Erie County. According to some authorities, Rev. Christian Frederick Dencke superintended this mission. But small Antecess attended the enterprise, however, and it had a brief career, the little remnant of converts soon removing to some point on the Sandusky River, from which they not long after finally scattered.

Rev. George Henry Loskiel, author of a "History of the Missions of the Moravians among the American Indians," was born November 7, 1770, at Angermünde, in Curland, and came to the United States in 1802, having been during that year consecrated a bishop. He became a Moravian in 1759, was appointed superintendent of the mission in Livonia in 1782, and occupied other positions of responsibility. Ilis history of the Moravian missions in America was published in London in 1794. His death took place at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1814.

OTHER TUSCARAWAS MISSIONARIES.

Rev. Benjamin Mortimer remained a missionary at the Tuscarawas Mission from 1798 until after the death of the venerable, patriarchal Zeisberger, in the year 1808, and subsequently became the pastor of a Moravian church in New York city, where he died November 10, 1834. Ile was a native of England, and was a minister of character and talents.

Rev. Lewis Huebner was a missionary on the Tuscarawas in the year 1800, and for a number of years thereafter, probably until 1805. He was a native American, born at Nazareth, Northampton County, Penn- sylvania, August 8, 1761, and was educated in his native town.

Rev. John Joachim Hagen became one of the missionaries at Goshen in 1804.

And Rev. Abraham Luckenbach ministered to the Moravian Indians on the Tusearawas until the final abandonnent of the mission and the dispersion of the converts in 1824. He was born May 5, 1777, in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Nazareth, where he was a teacher in 1797. He became a missionary among the Indians in the year 1800, and served as such, at various missions, for forty-three years, when he retired to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he died, March 8, 1854, having attained to the age of almost seventy-seven years.

REV. DAVID ZEISBERGER-REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER.

Before giving the details of the final termination of the Moravian mission stations in the Tuscarawas Valley, we may be permitted to give more extended biographical or memorial sketches of two of the most distinguished of the missionaries ( Revs. Zeisberger and Heckewelder) that were connected with them. So long, so intimately, so conspicuously were they identified with them, that biographical sketches of them amount substantially to a history of those mission stations. " More abundant in labors" were they than all others; from the infancy of those missions until they reached the period of their decadence, were they with and of them ; and so zealous and faithful were they, so devoted to their high calling, as to be, preeminently, the missionaries to the Indians of the " Upper Ohio Valley." The last named, Rev. John Heckewekler, came to the Tusearawas Valley in 1761, and did not finally leave it until 1810, covering a period, with some long intervals of absence, of forty- nine years ; and the former, Rev. David Zeisberger, first came in 1772. and died there in 1808, a period of thirty-six years, including some inter- vals of absence also. So eminent had they become, by reason of their carly-time arrival and their long-continued services ; and such, indeed. was their intimate identification with our pioneer history, in fact were "parts and parcels of it," to a large extent, that, in the opinion of many, they share, by no means inconsiderably, with others in the honor of being the founders of our State.

They were both scholarly men, familiar with several of the modern languages, and spoke a variety of Indian dialects fluently, and were also voluminous writers. Their acknowledged ability and talents, and their undoubted and well-merited claims as "men of letters," gave them a place in the fore-front, and secured them more than an ordinary degree of influence, not only as missionaries, but also as authors and civilians.

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

REV. DAVID ZELSBERGER.

Rev. David Zeisberger was born in a small village named Zauchtenthal, Moravia (now on the railroad from Cracow to Vienna), on Good Friday, April 11, 1721. Ilis parents were believers in and followers of the dis- tinguished Bohemian reformer, John Huss. They removed to 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 afterwards displayed in acquiring a knowl- edge 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 Hollanders. 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, Pennsylvania, was commenced, and he early identified himself with it, which soon became, and has ever since remained, "the chief seat of the Moravian Church in America." There his father died in 1744, and his mother in 1746.

David soon developed a character for courage, talents, energy, resolu- tion, and self-abnegation that marked him as one adapted to the mis- sionary service among the aborigines of this country. In 1744-45 he devoted himself to the study of the Indian languages, first at Bethlehem, then in the Mohawk Valley, where he perfected himself in the Mohawk tongue. IFere he came under the suspicion of being a spy, and suffered imprisonment both in Albany and New York, but, being found innocent, was discharged. Not long afterwards he was selected as the sociate of Bishop Spangenberg, to make negotiations with the Iroquois Con- federacy 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 extensive explorations of the Susquehanna and its branches, acting as an interpreter frequently, and serving as assistant missionary at Shamokin.

Rev. David Zeisberger was ordained to the ministry at Bethlehem, February 16, 1749, and at once proceeded to minister to the Shamokin Mission, which was situated near the present town of Sunbury, Penn- sylvania. In 1750 be made a voyage to Europe in the interest of Ame- rican missions, returning in the following June. He made frequent visits to the Onondagas, to Wyoming, to New York, to New England, and various other places, always to promote the welfare of existing mis- sions or to establish new ones. He also attended the treaty held with the Indians at. Philadelphia in 1756; at Easton, in July, 1,57; 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 interpreter at another general congress held with the Indian tribes at Easton.

Ile thus continued to make himself useful in the various capacities of interpreter, missionary, treaty negotiator, instructor, and superintendent until 1772, when we find him established at Schonbrunn, in the Tusca- rawas Valley, from which time the details of his career have already been given in this chapter. He visited Pennsylvania in 1781, and en- tered into the married relation with Susan Leeron, of Litiz, a Moravian village in Lancaster County, June 4, 1781, the venerable missionary, Rev. Bernard Adam Grube, performing the marriage ceremony, he who bad rendered a similar service for Rev. John Heckewekler the previous year.

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History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 30

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton Number of Pages: 878

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton
Number of Pages: 878