TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: County History Part 4 *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Submitted by: MRS GINA M REASONER Email: AUPQ38@prodigy.com Date: August 8, 1999 *********************************************************************** TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 4 THE LAST OF MORAVIAN INDIANS IN OHIO. -On the 4th of August, 1823, an agreement or treaty was entered into a Gnadenhutten, between Lewis Cass, then governor of Michigan, on the part of the United States, and Lewis de Schweinitz, on the part of the society, as a preliminary step towards the retrocession of the land to the government. By this agreement, the members of the society relinquished their right as trustees, conditioned that the United States would pay $6,654, being but a moiety of the money they had expended. The agreement could not be legal without the written consent of the Indians, for whose benefit the land had been donated. These embraced the remainder of the Christian Indians formerly settled on the land, "including Killbuck and his descendants, and the nephews and descendants of the late Captain White Eyes, Delaware chiefs." The Goshen Indians as they were now called, repaired to Detroit, for the purpose of completing the contract. On the 8th of November they signed a treaty with Gov. Cass, in which they relinquished their right to the twelve thousand acres of land in Tuscarawas county, for twenty-four thousand acres in one of the Territories, to be designated by the United States, together with an annuity of $400. The latter stipulation was clogged with a proviso which rendered its fulfillment uncertain. The Indians never returned. The principal part of them took up their residence at the Moravian missionary station on the river Thames in Canada. By an act of Congress, passed May 26, 1824, their former inheritance, comprising the Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem tracts, were surveyed into farm lots and sold. The writer of this article (James Patrick) was appointed agent of the United States for that purpose. CHANGES WROUGHT BY CIVILIZATION. -In the following year the Ohio canal was located, and now passes close to the site of the three ancient Indian villages. The population of the county rapidly increased, and their character and its aspect have consequently changed. A few years more, and the scenes and acters here described will be forgotten, unless preserved by that art which is preservative of the histories of nations and of men. Goshen, the last abiding-place of the Christian Indians, on the Tuscarawas, is now occupied and cultivated by a German farmer. A high hill which overlooked their village, and which is yet covered with trees, under whose shade its semi-civilized inhabitants perhaps once "stretched their listless length, is now being worked in the centre as a coal mine. The twang of the bow-string, or the whoop of the young Indian, is succeeded by the dull, crashing sound of the coal-car, as it drops its burden into the canal boat. Yet there is one spot here still sacred to the memory of its former occupants. As you descend the south side of the hill, on the Zanesville road, a small brook runs at its base, bordered on the opposite side by a high bank. On ascending the bank, a few rods to the right, is a small enclosed graveyard, overgrown with low trees or brushwood. Here lie the remains of several Indians, with two of their spiritual pastors (Edwards and Zeisberger). The grave of the latter is partly covered with a small marble slab, on which is the following inscription: -------------------------------------------- DAVID ZEISBERGER, Who was born 11th April, 1721, in Moravia, and departed this life 7th November. 1808, aged 87 years, 7 months and 6 days. This faithful servant of the Lord labored among the Moravian Indians, as a missionary, during the last sixty years of his life. -------------------------------------------- Some friendly hand, perhaps a relative, placed the stone on the grave, many years after the decease of him who rests beneath it. SITE OF THE MASSACRES. -Gnadenhutten is still a small village, containing 120 souls, chiefly Moravians, who have a neat church and parsonage-house. About a hundred yards east of the town is the site of the ancient Indian village, with the stone foundations of their huts, and marks of the conflagration that consumed the bodies of the slain in 1782. The notice which has been taken of this tragical affair in different publications has given a mournful celebrity to the spot where it transpired. The intelligent traveller often stops on his journey to pay a visit to the graves of the Indian martyrs, who fell victims to that love of peace which is the genuine attribute of Christianity. From the appearance of the foundations, the village must have been formed of one street. Here and there may be excavated burnt corn and other relics of the fire. Apple-trees, planted by the missionaries, are yet standing, surrounded by rough underbrush. A row of Lombardy poplars were planted for ornament, one of which yet towers aloft undecayed by time, a natural monument to the memory of those who are interred beneath its shade. But another monument, more suitable to the place and the event to be commemorated, will, it is hoped, to be erected at no distant day. A MONUMENT PROPOSED. -Some eight or ten individuals of the town and neighborhood, mostly farmers and mechanics, met on the 7th of October, 1843, and organized a society for the purpose of enclosing the area around the place where the bodies of the Christian Indians are buried, and erecting a suitable monument to their memory. The two prominent officers selected were Rev. Sylvester Walle, resident Moravian minister, president, and Lewis Peter, treasurer. The first and second articles of the constitution declare the intention of the "Gnadenhutten Monument Society" to be -"to make judicious and suitable improvements upon the plat of the old Indian village, and to erect on that spot an appropriate monument, commemorating the death of ninety-six Christian Indians, who were murdered there on the 8th day of March, A.D. 1782." It is further provided, that any person paying annually the sum of one dollar shall be considered a member; if he pay the sum of ten dollars, or add to his one dollar payment a sum to make it equal to that amount, he is considered a member for life. Owing to the circumscribed means of the members, and the comparative obscurity of the village, the fund has yet only reached seventy dollars, whereas five hundred would be required to erect anything like a suitable monument. Whether it will be ultimately completed must depend on the liberality of the public. Sixty-five years have elapsed since the Moravian Indians paid the forfeit of their lives for adhering to the peaceable injunctions of their religion. Shall the disciples of Zeisberger, the philanthropist, the scholar and the Christian -he who labored more than half a century to reclaim the wild man of the forest from barbarism, and shed on his path the light of civilization -shall no monument perpetuate the benevolent deeds of the missionary -no inscription proclaim the pious fidelity of his converts? If the reader feels a sympathy for the cause in which each became a sacrifice, he has now the power to contribute his mite in transmitting the memory of their virtues to posterity. GNADENHUTTEN MONUMENT In 1871 the Gnadenhutten Monument Fund having reached the sum of $1,300, the society contracted for the erection of a monument, to cost $2,000, of which $700 was to be raised by subscription. The dedication took place at Gnadenhutten, Wednesday, June 5, 1872. The stone is Indiana marble; the main shaft rising twenty-five feet above the base is one solid stone, weighing fourteen tons. The entire height of the monument is thirty-seven feet. On the south side is the inscription, "HERE TRIUMPHED IN DEATH NINETY CHRISTIAN INDIANS. MARCH 8, 1872." On the north side is the date of dedication. The monument is located in the centre of the street of the original town. DEDICATORY CEREMONIES. -Several thousand people witnessed the dedicatory ceremonies. The oration was delivered by Rev. Edmund de Schweinitz, D.D., of Bethlehem, Pa., Bishop of the Moravian Church. At its close a funeral dirge was chanted, and an Indian, at each of the four corners, with cord in hand, as the last notes of the requiem died away, detached the drapery, which fell to the ground, and the monument stood revealed to the gaze of the assembled multitudes. The four Indians were from the Moravian mission in Canada. One of them, John Jacobs, was the great-grandson of Jacob Schebosh, the first victim of the massacre ninety years before. CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL EXERCISES. -Memorial exercises were held at Gnadenhutten, May 24, 1882, the centennial year of the massacre. The day was pleasant; excursion trains brought an audience of nearly 10,000 people. Henry B. Lugwenbaugh, a grandson of Rev. John Heckewelder, was present with his wife. In the village cemetery temporary indices were erected, pointing to the location of historical buildings. West of the monument, some thirty feet away, was a small mound labelled, "Site of Mission House." Fifteen feet east of the monument, "Site of Church." Seventy feet farther east, "Site of the Cooper Shop, one of the slaughter houses." Near the cemetery fence, some 200 feet south of monument, was a mound, eighteen feet in width and five feet high, bearing the sign, "In a cellar under this mound, Rev. J. Heckewelder and D. Peter, in 1779, deposited the bones." At eleven o'clock in the morning the assembly was called to order by Judge J. H. Barnhill. Bishop H.J. Van Vleck delivered an address of welcome. Hon. D.A. Hollingsworth, of Cadiz, was the orator of the day. In the afternoon Gov. Chas. Foster and other distinguished guests addressed the assembled people. -continued in part 5 *************OH-FOOTSEPS Mailing List***************************