TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: county history Part 5 (published 1898) *********************************************************************** 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: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com Date: August 10, 1999 *********************************************************************** HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe LL.D., 1898 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 5 FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN OHIO Miss Mary Heckewelder, who was living at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, as late as 1843, is generally said to have been the first white child born in Ohio. She was the daughter of the noted Moravian missionary of that name, and was born in Salem, one of the Moravian Indian towns on the Tuscarawas, in this county, April 16, 1781. Mr. Dinsmore, a planter of Boone county, Ky., orally informed us that in the year 1835, when residing in the parish of Terre Bonne, La., he became acquainted with a planter named Millehomme, who informed him that he was born in the forest, on the headwaters of the Miami, on or near the Loramie Portage, about the year 1774. His parents were Canadian French, then on their route to Louisiana. The claim for Maria Heckewelder of having been the first white child born in Ohio has been so generally and widely accepted that she will always be spoken of as the "First White Child Born in Ohio." Our original edition of 1846 perhaps cast the first doubt upon Miss Heckewelder's claim by the above paragraph. Bishop Edmund de Schweinitz's Life of David Zeisberger," published in 1870, says: "A few weeks before the arrival of Schmick, there had been born in the midst of this mission family, on the 4th of July, 1773, at Gnadenhutten, the first white child in the present State of Ohio. Mrs. Maria Agnes Roth was his mother, and he received in baptism, administered by Zeisberger on the 5th of July, the name of John Lewis Roth." The author further remarks: "This interesting fact is established by the official diary of Gnadenhutten (in the archives of the Moravian Church), preserved at Bethlehem, Pa., which says: 'July 4, 1773. -To-day God gave Brother and Sister Roth a young son. He was baptized into the death of Jesus, and named John Lewis, on the the 5th inst., by Brother David Zeisberger, who, together with Brother Jungman and his wife, came here this morning.'" John Lewis Roth was taken to Pennsylvania when not quite one year of age. He educated himself at Nazareth Hall, Bethlehem, Pa.; later he removed to Bath, Pa., and died there in 1841. His tombstone bears the following inscription: "Zum Anderken au Ludwig Roth, geboren 4th Juli, 1773. Gestorben 25th September, 1841, alter 68 Jahre, 2 M., 21 Tage." A very interesting and careful investigation of this subject is embodied in an article by the late A.T. Goodman, entitled, "First White Child Born in Ohio," and published in the Magazine of Western History. Mr. Goodman calls attention to a passage in "The Narrative of Bouquet's Expedition" (see page 498): "Among the captives a woman was brought into the camp at Muskingum with a babe about three months old at her breast. One of the Virginia volunteers soon knew her to be his wife, who had been taken by the Indians six months before." Mr. Goodman says: "But it may be said, 'The Moravians had settled at Bolivar in 1761, and children may have been born unto them.' This inquiry is easily answered. Prior to 1764 there were but two white Moravians in Ohio, Heckewelder and Post. Heckewelder did not marry until 1780, and Post was married to an Indian squaw. Add to this the fact that there were no white women in the Moravian settlement prior to the year 1764, and we think the answer is complete. If any white children, whether French, English or American, were born within the limits of Ohio before the year 1764, we have been unable to find evidences of the fact. We think, therefore, we are safe in stating that the child of the Virginia captive born in 1764 was the first known white child born in Ohio." The first white child born within Ohio after the Marietta settlement had been made, in 1788, was Leicester G. Converse. He was born at Marietta, February 7, 1789, resided there until 1835, when he removed to Morgan county. He resided on a farm near McConnellsville at the time of his death, which occurred February 14, 1859. THE MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES CHRISTIAN FREDERICK POST, the first of the Moravian missionaries in Ohio, was born in Conitz, Prussia, in 1710. He came to Pennsylvania in 1742, was a missionary to the Moravian Indians in New York and Connecticut from 1743 to 1749. He returned to Europe, but came again to Pennsylvania, and in 1758 engaged in Indian mission service. Post married an Indian woman named Rachel who died in 1747, and two years later he married another Indian woman named Agnes; after her death, in 1751, he married a white woman. On account of his Indian marriages he did no secure the full co-operation of the Moravian authorities. In 1761 he visited the Delawares at Tuscarawas (now Bolivar) for the purpose of instructing the Indians in Christian doctrine. He built a cabin in what is now Bethlehem township, Stark county, just over the Tuscarawas county line. He then journeyed to Bethlehem, Pa., and returned in the spring of 1762, with John Heckewelder, then about nineteen years of age, as an assistant in his work. Owing to the enmity of hostile Indians and the jealousy of the French, this attempt to establish a mission was a failure, and the following winter Heckewelder returned to Pennsylvania, Post having gone there some months before to attend an Indian conference at Lancaster. Post then proceeded to establish a mission among the Mosquito Indians at the Bay of Honduras. He afterwards united with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and died at Germantown, Pa., April 29, 1785. JOHN GOTTLIEB ERNESTUS HECKEWELDER was born in Bedford, Eng., March 12, 1743. When eleven years of age his parents removed to Bethlehem, Pa. He attended school two years, and was serving an apprenticeship to a cooper, when he was called to assist Post. On his return from Ohio he was for nine years employed as a teacher at Missions. In 1771 he was appointed an assistant to Rev. David Zeisberger, at Freidenshuetten, Pa., and in 1772 assisted in establishing the Moravian mission of the Tuscarawas valley, where he labored for fifteen years. In 1792, at the request of the Secretary of War, he accompanied Gen. Rufus Putnam to Post Vincennes to treat with the Indians. In 1793 he was commissioned to assist at a treaty with the Indians of the lakes. He held various civil offices in Ohio, and in 1808, at the organization of Tuscarawas county, was elected an associate judge, which position he resigned in 1810, when he returned to Bethlehem, Pa., and engaged in literary pursuits until his death, January 21, 1823. Among his published works are "History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations, who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States," "Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians." Many of his manuscripts are in the collections of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Hon. Isaac Smucker, who has given much study to the subject of the Moravian missions in Ohio, the results of which have been published in the Secretary of State's report for 1878, says of Heckewelder: "His life was one of great activity, industry and usefulness. It was a life of vicissitudes, of perils, and of wild romantic adventure. How it abounded in hardships, privations and self-sacrificing devotion to the interest of the barbarians of the Western wilderness! It would, indeed, be difficult to over-estimate the importance or value of the labors of Rev. Heckewelder in the various characters of philanthropist, philosopher, pioneer, teacher, ambassador, author and Christian missionary. He was a gentleman of courteous and easy manners, of frankness, affability, veracity; without affectation or dissimulation; meek, cheerful, unassuming; humble, unpretentious, unobtrusive; retiring, rather taciturn, albeit, when drawn out, communicative and a good conversationalist. He was in extensive correspondence, with many men of letters, by whom he was held in great esteem. MARIA HECKEWELDER, daughter of Rev. John Heckewelder, was born at Salem, April 16, 1781. Her mother, Miss Sarah Ohneberg, had been sent as a mission teacher to Ohio, and was married to Rev. John Heckewelder in July, 1780. This was the first wedding of a white couple held in Ohio. The belief for many years that Miss Heckewelder was the first white child born in Ohio made her the object of unusual attentions. Visitors came from great distances to see and converse with her. Requests for her photograph and autograph were numerous. In 1785 her parents sent her to Bethlehem, where she was educated. She became a teacher in a Ladies' Boarding School at Litiz, Pa., but at the end of five years was obliged to give up her position on account of the loss of her hearing. After the death of her parents she resided at the Sisters' House in Bethlehem. "Aunt Polly Heckewelder," as she was called, was respected and beloved by all who knew her. She died September 19, 1868, at the age of eighty-seven years. -continued in part 6 *************OH-FOOTSEPS Mailing List***************************