Dover High School - Swirl Yearbook (Dover, OH)

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CRinSOD GR6Y Indian conference. Some time later, Heckewelder, who had been left in icharge of Post’s affairs, returned to Pennsylvania to await events. The indefatigable Zeisberger, about the year 1771, visited the Shawnee village. He was occompanied by the converted Delaware Chief, Glikkikan. Their first destination was Watameke, where they were very hospitably received by a Shawnee Indian whose father had been an acquaintance of Zeisberger in 1755, in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. Here the party was entertained by a heathen teacher of great influence, who assembled the Indians, and gave Zeisberger an opportunity to address them. The exhortation, which is probably the first Moravian sermon preached in Ohio, made a profound impression upon the Indians. In the Spring of 1772, Zeisberger and Heckewelder, accompanied by five Indian families, numbering twenty-eight persons visited the valley of the Muskingum, (Tuscarawas) in what is now Tuscarawas county. They founded the village of Schoenbrunn, located about two miles southeast of the present city of New Philadelphia. A chapel was built forty by thirty-six feet, of squared timber, roofed by shingles and surmounted by a cupola and bell. The village was laid out in a neat and orderly manner, which excited the astonishment of its savage visitors. It contained a spring which remains to this day, a spot of historic interest. In April 1776, Zeisberger and Heckewelder founded Lichtenau. The year 1777, when the Shawnees joined the Indians of the lakes against the Americans, brought severe trials to the Moravian Colony. Forced by a war party of Muncie Indians, Zeisberger abandoned Schoenbrunn—thus increasing the population of Gnadenhutten and Lichtenau. Because of numerous attacks by a band of Indians composed of Hurons, Iriquois, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Wampanos and Potawautakas, and lead by Half King, Gnadenhutten, in April, 1778, was also abandoned, and the whole community concentrated at Lichtenau. Some time in this year (1778), perhaps in the early fall, occurred (he great ride of Heckewelder, rivaling that of Paul Revere, and in intensity, danger, sacrifice and results, one of the most remarkable episodes of border history. Rumor had it that Washington had been killed and his army coming westward to kill all the Indians,—who had in reality captured Burgoyne’s British army,—was the cause for which Heckewelder made his famous ride that saved the settlement of Lichtenau from destruction by the Indians. With peace once more restored in the Muskingum Valley, the missionaries began renewing their efforts in making settlements. Accordingly, Gnadenhutten was reoccupied; Schoenbrunn rebuilt on the west side of the river and Lichtenau, on the 30th day of March, 1780, abandoned, and a new settlement, called Salem, established about five miles southwest of Gnadenhutten. The Indian chiefs, who advocated peace, gradually gave way to those in favor of war and finally, after a few years the settlement of Salem was threatened with destruction, but fortunately the situation did not become serious until the trouble arose which led to the massacre of the Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten. These Indians were charged as public enemies who had violated the rules of war and forfeited all their right to protection. The prisoners plead their unhappy position between the lines; their long and constant friendship for the Americans which was known Page eight DOI CR mG

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cRimon - grg y When the Indians first occupied the Ohio Valley they may have travelled only on rivers and lakes. When they turned inland we can be reasonably sure that they found the ready made and deeply worn routes which for years before the coming of the Indian, were used by the mound builders and originally made by the mastodon. The famous Muskingum trail entered the northeastern part of Tuscarawas county, crossed the great trail leading from Fort Pitt to Detroit at the place where the Big Sandy now enters the Tuscarawas, descended on the west side of the river, crossed Sugar Creek near the present site of Dover, crossed Stone Creek at its mouth and followed Frye’s Creek to the present site of Port Washington, thence turned westward on the hills toward Chili in Coshocton county. From this old time highway, near the present village of Bolivar, is seen the rise of ground which marks the site of Fort Laurens. Farther down the river at Goshen lies the dust of the heroic Zeisberger. From this trail could also be seen the quiet hamlet of Schoenbrunn, famous for its chronicles of heroism and suffering, and the now historic Gnaden-hutten. The Indian occupation of the Ohio Valley being more temporary in character than permanent, as before stated, there were in consequence but few Indian villages within the present limits of Tuscarawas county. The ancient Senaca capital, Tuscarawas, located near the site of the present village of Bolivar, at the time of Heckewelder’s visit there in 1762, was inhabited by Delawares, and seems to have been built long before the coming of the white man. Further down the river were Beavertown, about eight miles north of Dover, the Ottawa capitol, an old town below the mouth of Sugar Creek, Three Legstown, at the mouth of Stillwater, King Beaver’s hamlet, near the present Gnadenhutten, Gehelemukpechuk Delaware capitol fifteen miles south of the “Big Spring,” King Newscom-erstown, at the site of the present town of that name, Old Wyandot town. White Eyes’ hamlet, Custaloga’s town and White Woman’s town, making twelve in all, and each in its day the scene of Indian glory or captive’s suffering. Of Christian towns there were Schoenbrunn, old and new, Gnadenhutten, Lichtenau, Salem, and Post’s Mission House, each in its day the scene of Christian suffering and heathen persecution. U ii=. —THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS— The advent of the Moravian Missionaries into the Tuscarawas Valley is an era in pioneer history. The devotion of these missionaries to the cause in which they risked their lives, the persistency with which they clung to it through dangers and privations, their zeal and perse-verence in their unselfish efforts to evangelize the Indians of the valley and their steadfast friendship for the American colonists, will forever stamp them as among the noblest benefactors of the human race. The pioneer missionary in Ohio was Rev. Christian Frederick Post. In 1762, in company with John Heckewelder, then about nineteen years of age, he left Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and came to the headwaters of the Tuscarawas, where he had built himself a small cabin on the banks of the river above the present site of Bolivar. Late in the summer of 1762, Post accompanied by Shingash, the greatest Delaware warrior of his time, went to Lancaster to attend an Page seven DOl CP . 199,6

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CRimOn-CRGY by all men; the many timely warnings they had given by which the Americans had averted much suffering; and finally that they were believers in the same faith and followers of the same Savior as were their white brethren. It was all in vain. Although every word of their plea was true it was all rejected—but not by all. When the time came for a verdict to be reached, Williamson said, “Shall the Moravian Indians be taken prisoners to Pittsburg or put to death? All those in favor of sparing their lives advance one step and form a second rank.” Eighteen men took one step, but the majority decided to mash their heads and take their scalps and have something to show for their trouble. The wailing woe of women, the shrinking shriek of girls, the piercing cry of children, the shivering sobs of boyhood and the gulping groan of men formed a chorus that will haunt the scene as long as the North Wind shall search the groves of Gnadenhutten. But soon they remem-oered they were children of the Father who had chosen this way to call them home, and their composure returned. They protested an innocence of which no intelligence worthy of respect now dares to presume a doubt. They asked for time to array their souls for Heaven, and the killing was set for the early morning. The night was passed away in tears. But those were such as washed their lives of sin and made them white as snow. No messages were sent to distant friends—there was no one to carry a farewell. No disposition was made of earthly possessions—everything was engulfed in overwhelming ruin. All night long, six faithful preachers restricted to the prison, prayed with their brethren who comforted each other with songs of praise that grew into hymns of triumph as the dawn drew near. The hours that made what some would call their night of gloom afford one of the brightest examples of faith that time has given. Those brown people of the forest prepared for death as the famous martyrs did. To deny their sincerity is to dispute the power of Christ’s religion. And thus passed the evening and morning of the last day, of which the light broke on a prayer that was interrupted by the questtion if they were ready. On answering that their peace was made, two places were designated as the “Slaughter Houses.” Zeisberger and Heckewelder wrote accounts of the massacre that differ in detail but agree in conclusions. From Heckewelder it would appear that the executioners entered the prisons and struck the victims on the head with a cooper’s mallet—the first one killing fourteen in this way before he stopped to say he had done pretty well but his arm was giving out. Zeisberger tells that they were lead out one at a time. But from a comparison of various accounts it seems that the men women and children were led out, bound in couples with ropes, into the slaughter houses where they were murdered and scalped. The slaughter of these Christian Moravian Indians of more than a hundred souls, of whom much the larger numbers were women and children, whose only crime was unspotted innocence, whose greatest earthly misfortune was the adoption of a worship that taught charity to all and malice toward none and whose greatest mistake was confidence in their own selves as a defense against greed, stands out as one of the bloodiest massacres in the annals of history. EUGENE SCHOTT. Page nine Doi eR. m6