OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 595 Today's Topics: #1 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 3 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 Herbert A. ROBBINS Will ["F Swisher" ] #3 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 3 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 22:09:35, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199908070209.WAA11954@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 3 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 HAMILTON COUNTY PART 3 PREMEDITATED MURDER. -A council was then held to determine how the Moravian Indians should be disposed of. This self-constituted military court embraced both officers and privates. The late Dr. Doddridge, in his published notes on Indian wars, etc., says: "Col. Williamson put the question, whether the Moravian Indians should be taken prisoners to Fort Pitt, or put to death?" requesting those who were in favor of saving their lives to step out and form a second rank. Only eighteen out of the whole number stepped forth as advocates of mercy. In these feelings of humanity were not extinct. In the majority, which was large, no sympathy was manifested. They resolved to murder (for no other word can express the act) the whole of the Christian Indians in their custody. Among these were several who had contributed to aid the missionaries in the work of conversion and civilization -two of whom emigrated from New Jersey after the death of their spiritual pastor, the Rev. David Brainard . One woman, who could speak good English, knelt before the commander and begged his protection. Her supplications was unavailing. They were ordered to prepare for death. But the warning had been anticipated. Their firm belief in their new creed was shown forth in the sad hour of their tribulation, by religious exercises of preparation. The orisons of these devoted people were already ascending the throne of the Most High! -the sound of the Christian's hymn and the Christian's prayer found an echo in the surrounding wood, but no responsive feeling in the bosoms of their executioners. PREPARING FOR DEATH. -George Henry Loskiel, who, from 1802, was for nine years a presiding Bishop of the American Moravian Church, and wrote the "History of the Moravian Mission among the North American Indians," says: "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which the brethren, and in the other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for slaughter. They declared to the murders that though they could call God to witness that they were perfectly innocent, yet they were prepared and willing to suffer death; but as they had, at their conversion and baptism, made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto Him, and endeavor to please Him alone in this world, they knew that they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave his mercy and pardon. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. -This request being complied with they spent their last night here below in prayer and in exhorting each other to remain faithful unto the end. One brother, named Abraham, who for some time past had been in lukewarm state of heart, seeing his end approaching, made the following public confession before his brethren: "Dear brethren, it seems as if we should all soon, depart unto our Saviour, for our sentence is fixed. You know that I have been an untoward child, and have grieved the Lord and our brethren by my disobedience, not walking as I ought to have done; but still I will cleave to my Saviour, with my last breath, and hold Him fast, though I am so great a sinner. I know assuredly that He will forgive me all my sins, and not cast me out." "The brethren assured him of their love and forgiveness, and both they and the sisters spent the latter part, of the night in singing praises to God their Saviour, in the joyful hope that they would soon be able to praise Him without sin." HELLISH SELF-PRAISE. -The Tuscarawas county history gives the following account of Abraham's death: "Abraham, whose long, flowing hair had the day before attracted notice and elicited the remark that it would 'make a fine scalp,' was the first victim. One of the party, seizing a cooper's mallet, exclaimed. 'How exactly this will answer for the business!' Beginning with Abraham, he felled fourteen to the ground, then handed the instrument to another, saying, 'My arm fails me; go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.'" THE SLAUGHTER. -With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or a moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within -all, save two -two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race. Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, Williamson and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoenbrun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with them fled for a time the hopes of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization were apparently lost. SYMPATHY OF CONGRESS. -The hospitable and friendly character of the Moravian Indians had extended beyond their white brethren on the Ohio. The American people looked upon the act of Williamson and his men as an outrage on humanity. The American Congress felt the influence of public sympathy for their fate, and on the 3d of September, 1788, passed an ordinance for the encouragement of the Moravian missionaries in the work of civilizing the Indians. A remnant of the scattered flock was brought back, and two friendly chiefs and their followers became the recipients of public favor. The names of these chiefs were Killbuck and White Eyes. Two sons of the former, after having assumed the name of Henry, out of respect to the celebrated Patrick Henry, of Virginia, were taken to Princeton College to be educated. White Eyes was shot by a lad, some years afterwards, on the waters of Yellow creek, Columbiana County. Three tracts of land, containing four thousand acres each, were appropriated by Congress to the Moravian Society, or rather to the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, which is nearly synonymous. These tracts embrace the three Indian towns already described, and by the provisions of the patent, which was issued 1798, the society was constituted trustees for the Christian Indians thereon settled. Extraordinary efforts were now made by the society in the good work of civilization. Considerable sums of money were expended in making roads, erecting temporary mills, and constructing houses. The Indians were collected near the site of the upper town, Shoenbrun, which had been burned at the time of the Williamson expedition, and a new village, called Goshen, erected for their habitations. It was here, while engaged in the laudable work of educating the Indian in the arts of civilized life, and inculcating the principles of Christian morality, that two of the mission aries, Edwards and Zeisberger, terminated their earthly pilgrimage. Their graves are yet to be seen, with plain tombstones, in the Goshen burying ground, three miles south of New Philadelphia. ASSOCIATION WITH WHITES. -The habits and character of the Indians changed for the worse, in proportion as the whites settled in their neighborhood. If the extension of the white settlements west tended to improve the country, it had a disastrous effect upon the poor Indian. In addition to the contempt in which they were held by the whites, the war of 1812, revived former prejudices. An occasional intercourse with the Sandusky Indians had been kept up by some of those at Goshen. A portion of the former were supposed to be hostile to the Americans, and the murder of some whites on the Mohican, near Richland, by unknown Indians, tended to confirm the suspicion. The Indian settlement remained under the care of Rev. Abram Luckenback, until the year 1823. It was found impossible to preserve their morals free from contamination. Their intercourse with the white population in the neighborhood was gradually sinking them into deeper degradation. Though the legislature of Ohio passed an act prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors to Indians, under a heavy penalty, yet the law was either evaded or disregarded. Drunken Indians were occasionally seen at the county-seat, or at their village at Goshen. Though a large portion of the lands appropriated for their benefit had been leased out, the society derived very little profit from the tenants. The entire expenses of the Moravian mission, and not unfrequently the support of sick, infirm or destitute Indians devolved on their spiritual guardians. Upon representation of these facts, Congress was induced to adopt such measures as would tend to the removal of the Indians, and enable the society t o divest itself of the trusteeship in the land. -continued in part 4 ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 23:00:32 -0400 From: "F Swisher" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <003601bee081$27145700$55da0bd0@swisher> Subject: Herbert A. ROBBINS Will Herbert A ROBBINS Will Submitted by F. Swisher. fwisher@geocities.com A copy of the will of Herbert A. ROBBINS Found at flea market near Marietta, OH 7/1999 States as follows: COPY OF WILL Herbert A. Robbins, Deceased The following is a copy of the Last Will and Testament of said deceased. I, Herbert A. Robbins, being of full age and of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament, hereby revoking and making null and void all other last wills and testaments by me heretofore made: Item 1: I desire that all my just debts. and the expenses of my last illness and burial, including the expense of placing at my grave a marker similar to the markers on the other graves on my family burial lot together with the costs of the administration of my estate, be paid out of the residuum of my estate as soon after my decease as may be convenient. Item 2: I give and bequeath to the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Ohio, Five Thousand Dollars ($5000.00), to be safely invested and the income thereof used under the direction of said Board of Trustees for the best interests of said Church. If, at any time, the joint Boards of Trustees and Elders of said Church shall be of the opinion that it will be to the best interest of said Church to expend for any purpose a part or all of the principal of said Five Thousand Dollars ($5000.00), the said Board of Trustees may expend such principal, or part thereof, in accordance with the determination of such joint Boards. I desire that the bequest made in this Item shall be paid by my executor to said Board of Trustees free from any inheritance taxes thereon; and my said executor is hereby authorized and directed to pay, out of the residue of my estate, any and all inheritance taxes which may be imposed upon the bequest made in this item. Item 3: I give and bequeath to the Director of Public Service of the City of Jackson, Ohio, the sum of One Thousand Dollars ($1000.00), to be held as a permanent fund in accordance with the provisions of Sections 4167, 4168 and 4169 of the General Code of Ohio, the interest or income thereof to be used by such Director for the perpetual mowing and general care of the burial lots, in Fairmount Cemetery of said City, now standing in the names of Mary E. ROBBINS, Margaret FRENCH and L. W. FRENCH. If such interest or income is sufficient for the purpose, it is my desire that blooming plants be kept, during the proper season of each year, in the two vases I have heretofore placed on said lots for that purpose. Item 4: To Herbert A. ROBBINS and his wife Elma ROBBINS, of 39 Chestnut Street, Jackson, Ohio, or to the survivor of them, I give and devise, absolutely and in fee simple, Lot Number One (1) in Burnsides' Addition to the City of Jackson, Ohio; and I also give and bequeath to them, or to the survivor of them, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5000.00). Item 5: To my cousin, Carrie FRENCH, of Jackson, Ohio, I give and devise all other real estate in Jackson County, Ohio, which I may own or have the right to dispose of at the time of my death, whether my title thereto be legal or equitable. This includes my one-sixth (1/6) interest in Lot No. 3 of C.S. DICKASON'S Addition to Jackson, Ohio, and in part of Out Lot No. 13 in the South half of said City, both of which now stand of record in the name of A. L. ERVIN, Trustee. I also bequeath to said Carrie FRENCH my automobile, and all my household goods, furniture, jewelry, watches and tools. Item 6: All the residue and remainder of my estate I give, devise and bequeath, absolutely and in fee simple, as follows: (a) To my cousin Carrie FRENCH Two-fifth (2/5) thereof; and (b) To my cousins Mary Alice McCARTHY and Sallie A. McCARTHY both of 806 Alby Street, Alton, Illinois, or to the survivor of them, Three-fifths (3/5) thereof. Item 7: I hereby authorize the said Carrie FRENCH, Mary Alice McCARTHY and Sallie A. McCARTHY to designate and nominate a suitable person or persons to be executor so chosen by them shall not be required to give bond. I hereby compromise, settle and adjust all claims and demands in favor of or against all claims and demands in favor of or against my estate; and to sell, at private or public sale, at such prices, and upon such terms of credit or otherwise, as he may deem best, the whole or any part of my personal property, and to execute, acknowledge and deliver instruments of conveyance therefor. It is my wish that the securities belonging to me at the time of my death be distributed in kind and without being converted into money, in so far as that may be practicable, in paying the legacies herein provided and in making distribution of my estate. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 21st day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty eight (1928). Herbert A. ROBBINS The foregoing instrument was signed, acknowledged and delcared by the said Herbert A. ROBBINS to be his Last Will and Testament in our presence, and was signed by us as witnesses, in his presence, and at his request, and in the presence of each other, this 21st day of November, 1928. Hester BOOTHE Frank DELAY ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 23:25:43, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199908070325.XAA11668@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 3 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 3 PREMEDITATED MURDER. -A council was then held to determine how the Moravian Indians should be disposed of. This self-constituted military court embraced both officers and privates. The late Dr. Doddridge, in his published notes on Indian wars, etc., says: "Col. Williamson put the question, whether the Moravian Indians should be taken prisoners to Fort Pitt, or put to death?" requesting those who were in favor of saving their lives to step out and form a second rank. Only eighteen out of the whole number stepped forth as advocates of mercy. In these feelings of humanity were not extinct. In the majority, which was large, no sympathy was manifested. They resolved to murder (for no other word can express the act) the whole of the Christian Indians in their custody. Among these were several who had contributed to aid the missionaries in the work of conversion and civilization -two of whom emigrated from New Jersey after the death of their spiritual pastor, the Rev. David Brainard . One woman, who could speak good English, knelt before the commander and begged his protection. Her supplications was unavailing. They were ordered to prepare for death. But the warning had been anticipated. Their firm belief in their new creed was shown forth in the sad hour of their tribulation, by religious exercises of preparation. The orisons of these devoted people were already ascending the throne of the Most High! -the sound of the Christian's hymn and the Christian's prayer found an echo in the surrounding wood, but no responsive feeling in the bosoms of their executioners. PREPARING FOR DEATH. -George Henry Loskiel, who, from 1802, was for nine years a presiding Bishop of the American Moravian Church, and wrote the "History of the Moravian Mission among the North American Indians," says: "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which the brethren, and in the other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for slaughter. They declared to the murders that though they could call God to witness that they were perfectly innocent, yet they were prepared and willing to suffer death; but as they had, at their conversion and baptism, made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto Him, and endeavor to please Him alone in this world, they knew that they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave his mercy and pardon. CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. -This request being complied with they spent their last night here below in prayer and in exhorting each other to remain faithful unto the end. One brother, named Abraham, who for some time past had been in lukewarm state of heart, seeing his end approaching, made the following public confession before his brethren: "Dear brethren, it seems as if we should all soon, depart unto our Saviour, for our sentence is fixed. You know that I have been an untoward child, and have grieved the Lord and our brethren by my disobedience, not walking as I ought to have done; but still I will cleave to my Saviour, with my last breath, and hold Him fast, though I am so great a sinner. I know assuredly that He will forgive me all my sins, and not cast me out." "The brethren assured him of their love and forgiveness, and both they and the sisters spent the latter part, of the night in singing praises to God their Saviour, in the joyful hope that they would soon be able to praise Him without sin." HELLISH SELF-PRAISE. -The Tuscarawas county history gives the following account of Abraham's death: "Abraham, whose long, flowing hair had the day before attracted notice and elicited the remark that it would 'make a fine scalp,' was the first victim. One of the party, seizing a cooper's mallet, exclaimed. 'How exactly this will answer for the business!' Beginning with Abraham, he felled fourteen to the ground, then handed the instrument to another, saying, 'My arm fails me; go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.'" THE SLAUGHTER. -With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or a moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within -all, save two -two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race. Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, Williamson and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoenbrun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with them fled for a time the hopes of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization were apparently lost. SYMPATHY OF CONGRESS. -The hospitable and friendly character of the Moravian Indians had extended beyond their white brethren on the Ohio. The American people looked upon the act of Williamson and his men as an outrage on humanity. The American Congress felt the influence of public sympathy for their fate, and on the 3d of September, 1788, passed an ordinance for the encouragement of the Moravian missionaries in the work of civilizing the Indians. A remnant of the scattered flock was brought back, and two friendly chiefs and their followers became the recipients of public favor. The names of these chiefs were Killbuck and White Eyes. Two sons of the former, after having assumed the name of Henry, out of respect to the celebrated Patrick Henry, of Virginia, were taken to Princeton College to be educated. White Eyes was shot by a lad, some years afterwards, on the waters of Yellow creek, Columbiana County. Three tracts of land, containing four thousand acres each, were appropriated by Congress to the Moravian Society, or rather to the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, which is nearly synonymous. These tracts embrace the three Indian towns already described, and by the provisions of the patent, which was issued 1798, the society was constituted trustees for the Christian Indians thereon settled. Extraordinary efforts were now made by the society in the good work of civilization. Considerable sums of money were expended in making roads, erecting temporary mills, and constructing houses. The Indians were collected near the site of the upper town, Shoenbrun, which had been burned at the time of the Williamson expedition, and a new village, called Goshen, erected for their habitations. It was here, while engaged in the laudable work of educating the Indian in the arts of civilized life, and inculcating the principles of Christian morality, that two of the mission aries, Edwards and Zeisberger, terminated their earthly pilgrimage. Their graves are yet to be seen, with plain tombstones, in the Goshen burying ground, three miles south of New Philadelphia. ASSOCIATION WITH WHITES. -The habits and character of the Indians changed for the worse, in proportion as the whites settled in their neighborhood. If the extension of the white settlements west tended to improve the country, it had a disastrous effect upon the poor Indian. In addition to the contempt in which they were held by the whites, the war of 1812, revived former prejudices. An occasional intercourse with the Sandusky Indians had been kept up by some of those at Goshen. A portion of the former were supposed to be hostile to the Americans, and the murder of some whites on the Mohican, near Richland, by unknown Indians, tended to confirm the suspicion. The Indian settlement remained under the care of Rev. Abram Luckenback, until the year 1823. It was found impossible to preserve their morals free from contamination. Their intercourse with the white population in the neighborhood was gradually sinking them into deeper degradation. Though the legislature of Ohio passed an act prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors to Indians, under a heavy penalty, yet the law was either evaded or disregarded. Drunken Indians were occasionally seen at the county-seat, or at their village at Goshen. Though a large portion of the lands appropriated for their benefit had been leased out, the society derived very little profit from the tenants. The entire expenses of the Moravian mission, and not unfrequently the support of sick, infirm or destitute Indians devolved on their spiritual guardians. Upon representation of these facts, Congress was induced to adopt such measures as would tend to the removal of the Indians, and enable the society t o divest itself of the trusteeship in the land. -continued in part 4 -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #595 *******************************************