The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 27

Author: Warner, Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

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In June, 1779, the fort was threatened by about 190 Indians and a few British soldiers, said to be under the leadership of Simon Girty, but the enemy, happily, moved off toward the Ohio without making the attack. Col. Brodhead wrote under date of August 4, 1779, that he had just learned of two soldiers being killed at Fort Laurens. Heckewelder's narrative makes mention of the following loss of a soldier: "A Mr. Sample, Commissary at Fort Laurens, went with a detachment of men to Goshocking [Coshocton] for the purpose of purchasing from the friendly Delawares, their grain and other articles. He pitched his tent opposite the village, leaving one of his men to take care of the camp and horses, and had scarcely crossed he river, which lay between his camp and the town, when the soldier left in charge was killed and scalped by some hostile Delawares, who fled with the horses. The next morning another soldier, returning from the Moravian village of Lichtenau, was fired at from a corn-field adjoining the path, had his arm broken and was pursned almost to the town before he could be relieved." " In the summer of 1779," says Taylor's History of Ohio, "Fort Laurens wus threatened with another siege by forty Shawnees, twenty Mingoes and twenty Delawares, but by the interference of

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David Rummel

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the friendly Delaware chiefs, they were persuaded to abandon the siege without firing a gun. It is worthy of notice that while there were only four Dela- wares (as distinguished from Munceys) at the attack in January, twenty were present on the last occasion, thus indicating that the influence of Capt. Pipe and the war party of the tribe was on the increase."

Harassed and besieged by Indians, and having few supplies and no means of obtaining more, the garrison was kept in constant straits. The further retention of the fort was inexpedient, if not impossible. It was situated in the midst of the enemy's country, seventy miles distant from the nearest post. The extreme western division of the American army at Fort Pitt had not the " sinews of war " to prosecute a vigorous campaign, or supply the outposts with a sufficient quantity of provisions. The remnant of the garrison left Fort Laurens early in August, 1779, and made its way as rapidly as possible to Fort Pitt, first destroying all unnecessary baggage. The fort was left intact, but was never afterward occupied as a fort. It was seen in 1782 by a young man named Carpenter, in making his escape from the Indians up the Tuscarawas Valley. He had been captured in Washington County, Penn., and taken to one of the Indian camps on the Muskingum.

The fort was located one mile south of Bolivar, on the east bank of the Tuscarawas River, on an alluvial plain elevated about twenty feet above the water of the Tuscarawas. Charles Whittlesey surveyed the fort grounds in January, 1850, and in a letter to Mr. C. H. Mitchener, said: " When I made the accompanying plan of Fort Laurens in January, 1850, that part of the parapet in the cultivated ground was nearly obliterated, but the outline was traceable. The two eastern bastions were very much destroyed by the con- struction of the Ohio Canal, but the southern curtain, and most of the south- western bastion, was then quite perfect along the edge of the woods. Here the base of the parapet was seven feet broad, its height four and a half feet, and the depth of the ditch two and one-half feet, with a breadth of eight feel. It was a regularly laid out work, though small, and was probably picketed along the inner edge of the ditch, connecting the earthwork and stockade." It covered about half an acre, and the parapet walls were covered with pickets made of the split halves of the largest, trunks of trees. Portions of the earth. work can yet be pointed out.

The site of the ancient Indian town, Tuscarawas, was in close proximity to Fort Laurens, and it was here that Col. Bouquet, in 1764, built a stockade fort. The Indian town had been abandoned shortly before, and Col. Bouquet found more than one hundred lodges or houses still standing.

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CHAPTER V.

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS.

THE MORAVIAN CHURCH-POST'S FIRST EFFORT IN OHIO-MISSIONS ESTABLISHED ON THE TUSCARAWAS-CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY-THE MASSACRE AT GNADEN- HUTTEN-THE WANDERING MORAVIANS-RETURN AND FOUNDING OF GOSHEN-SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONARIES-FIRST CHILD BORN IN OHIO-THE GNADENHUTTEN MONUMENT.

T THE history of the labors of the Moravian missionaries among the Dela- wares of the Tuscarawas Valley possesses far more than the ordinary local value and interest which may be attached to other events that have trans- pired in the same locality. The evangelization of the native Americans, attempted by many Christian sects, nowhere finds a better example of the bright success which might await it under favorable circumstances, nor of the utter failure which inevitably follows through the certain bad influence of contact with the whites and other demoralizing environments. No religious society has made more untiring, persevering or successful efforts in behalf of the salvation of the red man's soul than the Moravians; and of their many missions, covering a period now of about a century and a half, none have opened with that brilliant prospect of success, and none have met with the overwhelm- ing disaster that marks the history of those which dotted the beautiful valley of the Tuscarawas. A brief account of the Moravian Church is not inappro- priate in connection with its greatest missionary work.

In the spring of 1735, a little band of Christians, eleven in number, hav- ing endured persecutions at home on account of their religious belief, sought an asylum in the New World. They were natives of Moravia, Germany, and members of the Moravian or United Brethren Church. This society derived its origin from the Greek Church in the ninth century. Bohemia and Mora- via at that time were inhabited by the Cheskian Slavonians, ancestors of the present Bohemians and Moravians, and to them the Gospel was preached by two ministers sent from Constantinople, and accepted first in Moravia, then Bohemia. The Popes of Rome exerted every influence to win them to the Catholic Church, and in the year 1080, Gregory VII brought them under his supremacy. But the hearts of the people clung to the customs of their fathers, and John Huss, who attacked the moral corruption of the church, in the early part of the fifteenth century, received their support. After his execution, the Hussite War followed, and for many years Bohemia and Moravia were rent with religious and political factions. In 1457, a few Bohemians, who longed for a revival of pure and undefiled religion, retired to the barony of Lititz, Bohemia, with Bradacius, a godly priest, for the purpose of worshiping in the simplicity of primitive times. The object at this time was not to found a new

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church, but to carry out a reformation on articles of concession already made, and form a society within the National Church, pledged to accept the Bible as the only form of faith and practice. The association took the name of the " Brethren and Sisters of the Law of Christ," soon after changed to the Uni- tas Fratrum or " Unity of the Brethren." The society increased and oppres- sions began. The impossibility of obtaining a sufficiency of regular pastors and the increasing corruption of the National Church, led to the discussion of the propriety of totally separating from it. Determined, however, to leave the decision entirely with God, in 1464 or 1465 they resorted to the lot, which decided the question in the affirmative. In 1467, the Brethren met to elect the first ministers, but again not knowing whether this was the time appointed by the Lord, they again had recourse to it, and as a result three ministers were chosen. The ministers were ordained by priests of the Walderises, and a new form of church government was adopted. In spite of persecutions the Brethren increased numerically. Before the advent of Luther, they had about 400 churches in Moravia and Bohemia. In the Smalcaldic war, which ensued soon after his death, between the Catholics and Protestants, the Brethren re- fused to engage. In 1548, a decree was promulgated in Bohemia, command- ing conformity with the Romish Church under penalty of expulsion from the realm. In consequence, a large number of the Brethren emigrated to Prussia, then to Poland, where a branch of the church had been organized. The op- position soon after ceased through the treaty of Augsburg. In 1621, a violent persecution began under Ferdinand, and six years later not a single church of the Unitas Fratrum remained in Bohemia or Moravia, and shortly after the Polish branch became extinct. Some fled to England, Saxony and Branden- burg, while many, overcome by the severity of the persecutions, conformed to the Church of Rome. In Moravia, however, many families secretly main- tained the old faith, and Bishop John Comenius preserved the episcopacy, with which clergymen were invested from time to time.

In 1722, nearly a century after the destruction of the church, through the exertions of Christian David, a humble mechanic, a few descendants of the Moravians wishing to return to the worship of their ancestors, found shelter at Herrnhut, Saxony, on the estate of Count Zinzendorf. Others joined the colony, and in five years it numbered 300 souls. Count Zinzendorf soon after accepted their religion, and became their advocate and defender against much opposition and persecution. In 1735, he was ordained Bishop, and discharged the duties of that station till his death in 1760. David Nitschmann was the first Bishop ; Count Zinzendorf the second. The church, thus renewed, spread over Europe to Great Britain and to North America.

The first small colony to America, in 1735, settled in Georgia. A second colony of twenty persons joined them the next year, and the first Moravian Church in America was organized February 28, 1736. In 1840, this church was brought to a premature end. War had broken out between England and Spain, and the Moravians were called upon to take up arms. This was contrary to the principles of the church, and rather than obey they relinquished the im-

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provements they had made, and a greater part of them emigrated to Pennsyl- vania.

John Wesley arrived at Savannah, Ga., in the same vessel that brought these first Moravians. In his journal he thus described them : "I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behavior. Of their humility they had given a continual proof by performing those servile offices for other pas- sengers, which none of the English would undertake, for which they desired and would receive no pay, saying, "It was good for their proud hearts, and their Savior had done more for them.' And every day had given them occa- sion of showing a meekness, which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, a storm arose ; the sea broke over up, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sang on. I asked one of them afterward, 'Was you not afraid ?' He an- swered, 'Ithank God, no.' I asked. 'But were not your women and children afraid ?' He replied mildly, 'No; our women and children are not afraid to die.'" Of their manners in Georgia, Wesley said : "They were always em- ployed, always cheerful themselves and in good humor with one another." Of one of their meetings he adds: "After several hours spent in conference and prayer, they proceeded to the election and ordination of a bishop. The great simplicity as well as solemnity of the whole almost made me forget the seven- teen hundred years between, and imagine myself in one of those assemblies where form and state were not, but Paul, the tent-maker, or Peter, the fisher- man, presided yet with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power." This tribute from a cotemporary evangelist reveals the spirit that pervaded the life and prompted the missionary labors of these humble Moravians.

The remnant of the Georgia Moravians reached Philadelphia April 20, 1840. Some had returned to Europe, and others had scattered to different colonies. From Philadelphia, those who remained proceeded with George Whitfield to Northampton County, Penn .. where they remain d a short time, then removed ten miles farther south, on the Lehigh River, where Bishop. Nitschmann, who had been commissioned to begin a settlement in Pennsylva- nia, had just purchased an extensive tract. At Christmas, 1841, on the occa- sion of Count Zinzendorf's first visit to America, this place received the name of Bethlehem, by which it is still known. It was originally intended as the center for an Indian mission, but other emigrants arriving a church settlement was organized June 25, 1742, on the plan of those established in Germany, with all their appliances of exclusivism. Three other towns near by were or- ganized soon after, and were also made exclusive. For twenty years the Brethren formed a semi-communistic association, chiefly for the sake of meet- ing the emigration expenses yet unpaid. It was a communism of labor only.

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not of goods, and it was left to the free will of each member to adopt or re- ject. While in force, it defrayed these expenses, gave the colony a sufficient daily support, and maintained the mission among the Indians as well as an ex. tensive itinerancy among the white settlers. A part of the community called Pilgrims traveled over the country and preached the Gospel to the settlers Men. however, were to be merely converted, not gathered within the fold of the church, and this plan greatly impeded church extension. Preaching stations were established in different colonies, and instead of forming church societies of the converts, isolated retreats were founded for the promotion of personal spirituality and the development of a holy brotherhood. This system pre- vailed until 1843, when the exclusive policy was given up and church-extension adopted.

Mission work among the Indians was inaugurated in Georgia in 1736 by the founding of a school for the children of the Creek nation. A fruitless attempt to spread the Gospel among the Cherokees followed. The first success- ful enterprise was begun by Christian Henry Rauch among the Mohicans and Wampanongs of Dutchess County, N. Y., in August, 1742. Several Indian churches were established, but in 1744 this work was brought to a close by the Assembly of New York, which forbade the missionaries to preach in the prov- ince. This action was taken in consequence of a report that some of the Indian converts had detached themselves from friendly connection with Great Britain. The traders, whose traffic in whisky with the red men was greatly reduced by their conversion, were loud in their denunciation of the mission. aries. Many converts of the Six Nations followed the missionaries into Penn- sylvania, where several missions were founded.

In 1755, the French and Indian war opened, and further operations of the missionaries were for the time checked. In that year, nearly all the mission- aries at Gnadenhutten, Penn., together with their families, were massacred by the savages. In 1763, when Pontiac's war opened, the atrocities of the savages so inflamed the passions of the settlers, that they no longer distinguished between the Christianized Indians and the murderous red men on the war path. A number of the Moravian converts were massacred by the exasperated whites, and about 140 were conveyed to Philadelphia for safe keeping. They were followed by a large body of men, bent on their destruction, but the authorities of the State furnished them protection during this Paxton insurrec- tion. More than one-third of the coverts died at Philadelphia. The remnant, after peace had been concluded, founded Friedenshutten in 1765, in Bradford County, Penn.

The church relinquished the idea of converting the Six Nations, and de- voted itself to the salvation of the Delawares. Several successful missions were founded among the members of this nation in Western Pennsylvania. Glickhican, a Delaware Chief, residing in what is now Butler County, Penn., became first the friend of the Moravians and afterward a convert to Christian- ity. He was baptized by the name of Isaac, and was prominent in the his- tory of the Ohio missions.

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POST'S UNSUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH A MISSION.

The first effort to establish a mission among the Indians in Ohio was made by Rev. Christian Frederick Post. He was born in Conitz, Polish Prussia, emigrated to America in 1742, and the next year entered upon the labors of a Moravian missionary. He acquired a good command of the Mohawk language, and while engaged in work among that nation in 1745 was arrested, together with Rev. David Zeisberger, for supposed sympathy with the French, and im- prisoned in Albany and afterward in New York. After enduring many weeks' confinement, they were examined, acquitted and discharged. Rev. Post then joined a mission in Connecticut, remaining until 1749, when he paid a brief visit to Europe. On his return, he carried on the missionary work as an inde. pendent laborer among the Indians of Wyoming, but at the breaking out of the Indian war in 1754, he returned to Bethlehem. He was appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania embassador to the Delawares, Shawanees and Min- goes who lived on the Ohio, and were at that time allied with the French against the English. In July, 1758, he set out on his expedition, and was so successful in his negotiations that the Indians refused to join the French in attacking General Forbes on his march against Fort Du Quesne. He started on a second expedition of the same nature in October, 1758, returning the fol- lowing January. Post had married an Indian Christian woman, named Rachel, of the Wampanoag tribe, who died in 1747. His second marriage, which oc- curred in 1749, was with Agnes, a Delaware Moravian; she died in 1751. His third wife was a white woman. His matrimonial alliances with the Indian race were distasteful to the Moravian authorities, and in consequence he failed in securing their full co-operation. He remained a Moravian, was in full com- munien with the congregation, and had received full permission from Count Zinzendorf to preach the Gospel wherever he pleased among the Indians.

His previous expeditions to the Ohio had aquainted him somewhat with this region, and he determined to plant the Gospel in the great West, far re- moved from white settlements. Accordingly, in 1761 he journeyed to the Muskingum, visited the capital of the Delawares at Tuscarawas (now Bolivar), and obtained from the tribe permission to settle among them for the purpose of instructing the natives in the Christian doctrine. On the spot designated by the Indians, he built a cabin; then returned to Bethlehem to secure an as- sociate who might teach the Indian youth to read and write, and assist him in preaching the Gospel. The cabin erected stood in what is now Bethlehem Township, Stark County, just across the Tuscarawas County line. The ad- jacent Indian town, however, was on Tuscarawas County soil, and the history of the attempt to plant Christianity at this village is a proper subject of notice.

At Bethlehem, Post secured as his companion John Heckewelder, then serving his apprenticeship to a cooper. Heckewelder was not yet nineteen years of age, and was afterward intimately connected with the missions in Tuscarawas County. In the spring of 1762, the journey to the distant wilder- ness was commenced on horseback. At Fort Pitt, Post . had expected to make

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arrangements for a supply of flour to be brought to his new home by traveling traders, but to their great disappointment, the magazine had been overflowed by a tremendous inundation, and no flour was to be had. Neither could any be procured from the surrounding country, as there were no farms within hun- dreds of miles. The journey was performed through floods, and Tuscarawas was reached April 11, after a pilgrimage of thirty-three days. The two mis- sionaries entered their cabin singing a hymn.

Heckewelder has preserved a full description of this expedition, and from it this account is taken. The cabin in which they lived stood on the east side of the river about four rods from it. A mile down the stream lived a trader, Thomas Calhoun, " a moral and religious man." Farther south was Tuscara- was, consisting of about forty wigwams. A mile still farther down, a few fam- ilies had settled. The Indians were suspicious of Post's intentions, and when they observed him marking out three acres for a corn-field and beginning to cut down the trees, they sent word for him to desist and to appear before the council the next day. On his appearance, they expressed their fears of ulti- mate claims to their lands by the whites by this method, to which Post replied that he did not wish to become a burden to them, and only desired the use of land enough to raise provisions for his and his companion's sustenance. The Indians then allowed him a garden lot fifty steps square.

The situation of these pioneer missionaries was embarrassing. They had failed in securing flour, and in consequence of a famine, no corn was to be ob- tained from the Indians. Potatoes also were very scarce, and they were forced to depend upon the scanty vegetation of the forest, and the gun and fishing hook. Ducks and geese were almost inaccessible from lack of a canoe; pheas- ants and squirrels were almost worthless in summer. Larger game was rap- idly shot down by the more expert Indians, whom hunger rendered still more active. Fish were obtained in abundance, but they soon became distasteful and even loathsome, from the manner in which they were compelled to pre- pare them. They lived mostly on nettles, which grew abundantly in the bot- toms, and of which they often made two meals a day. A few vegetables and greens were also made use of, and they had brought with them some tea and chocolate, which they drank without milk or sugar. This kind of diet weak- ened them from day to day and made the labor of clearing the garden patch more exhaustive to them.

Heckewelder says: " One day some chiefs came to request my assistance for a few days in making a fence round their land. I gladly accepted the invita- tion, being desirous of doing anything to secure their good will, and I did my best to be of service to them. At the same time, I was enabled to restore my health and strength; for as long as I stayed with them, I could eat enough to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Thus I found myself suddenly transferred as it were to a land of plenty, and where I had opportunities to cultivate the ac- quaintance of the Indian youth, and to secure the favor of the tribe by my in. dustry. During my stay with them, I received the name of " Piselatulpe," turtle, by which I am still known among the Delawares."

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Late in the summer, an Indian conference was to be held at Lancaster, and Post had promised the Governor of Pennsylvania that he would attend and bring with him as many of the Western Delawares as possible, " but above all King Beaver and the great war chief Shingash." The latter was the greatest Delaware warrior of that time. His person was small, but in point of activity and courage, he was said never to have been exceeded by any one King Beaver and other chiefs accompanied Post, but Shingash refused, believing the English only wanted to murder him for the damage he had done them in the late war. Scarcely six weeks after they had departed, it became known that the French had once more persuaded the Indian nations to take up arms against the English, and it was said a treaty with the English by those who had gone to the conference at Lancaster would have no effect, and that Post would not be permitted to return to the Tuscarawas.

It had been arranged at Bethlehem by the Elders of the Congregation that if Post proceeded to Lancaster, Heckewelder should accompany him to Penn- sylvania, but the brave youth was unwilling to abandon the enterprise and re- mained in his lonely cabin. With the assistance of Post and one of Calhoun's men, a canoe had been made for the purpose of bringing down cedar wood with which to make tubs and other articles for the Indians, and also for the purposes of hunting. By means of the canoe, Heckewelder shot an abundance of wild ducks, but by the carelessness or dishonesty of the Indian boys, who often borrowed the canoe to spear fish or to pursue deer on the river by torch-light, it was lost before many days. He was then left in great distress for food. The nettles had become too large and hard, and the vegetables in his garden were stolen by passing traders. To assist him in passing the time, Post had left a number of old sermons and religious books, at the same time cautioning Heck- ewelder never to read or write in the presence of the Indians, and also to con- ceal the books from their sight, as the Indians were very suspicious and would believe it concerned them or their land. The youth kept the books in the garret, from a window of which he could see any one approaching. There he whiled away many an hour.

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The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 27

Author: Warner, Beers & Co. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Warner, Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017