TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: County History part 3 (published 1882) 
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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 missionaries, 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 to
divest itself of the trusteeship in the land.

        -continued in part 4




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