TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: County History part 6
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe LL.D., 1898

                        TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 6

        DAVID ZEISBERGER was born in Zauchtenthal, Moravia, April 11, 1721.
In 1736 his parents emigrated with the second band of Moravians to Georgia,
leaving their son in Europe to complete his education. Two years later he
joined them, and in 1743 he became a student in the Indian school at
Bethlehem, Pa., preparatory to engaging in the mission service. He became
conversant with many of the Indian languages, including Delaware, Onondaga,
Mohican and Chippewa. For sixty-two years he was zealously engaged in
Indian mission work in various localities.
        In the spring of 1771 he visited Gekelemukpechunk, the capital of
the Delawares in the Tuscarawas valley. He was received with great favor;
was the guest of Netawotwes, the chief of the nation, who granted him land
whereon to establish a mission. In May, 1772, with five Indian families
from Pennsylvania, he laid out the town of Schonbrunn, or "Beautiful
Spring." A chapel was dedicated Sept. 19, 1772, and before the end of the
year the village contained more than sixty houses. (Later Schonbrunn was
destroyed, and in December, 1779, new Schonbrunn built about a mile farther
up the Tuscarawas river.)
        In October, 1772, Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace) was laid out. In
1780 Salem was laid out and its chapel dedicated May 22 of the same year.
        In 1781, when the Moravian Indians were forcibly removed to Canada
by the orders of the British government, Zeisberger and other missionaries
were taken with them, and were finally settled on the Thames river.
        In 1798 Zeisberger with thirty-three Indians returned to Ohio and
founded Goshen, seven miles northwest of the site of Gnadenhutten. Here
Zeisberger died Nov. 17, 1808.
        He was the chief minister of the Tuscarawas missions.
        At the age of sixty he married Miss Susan Lecron, but they had no
children. Heckewelder says of him: "He was blessed with a cool, active and
intrepid spirit, not appalled by any dangers or difficulties, and a sound
judgment to discern the best means of meeting and overcoming them. Having
once devoted himself to the service of God among the Indians, he steadily,
from the most voluntary choice and with the purest motives, pursued his
object. He would never consent to receive a salary or become a 'hireling,'
as he termed it, and sometimes suffered from the need of food rather than
ask the church for the means to obtain it."
        Other Tuscarawas missionaries were:
        JOHN ROTH, born in Sarmund, Prussia, February 3, 1726, was educated
a Catholic; joined the Moravian Church in 1748; emigrated to America in
1756, and entered the service of the Indian missions three years later;
married Maria Agnes Pfingstag, August 16, 1770. In 1773 was stationed at
the Indian missions in the Tuscarawas valley and remained one year. He died
at York, Pa., July 22, 1791.
        JOHN JACOB SCHMICK, born at Konigsburg, Prussia, October 9, 1714;
graduated at University of Konigsburg; was pastor of Lutheran church at
Livonia; in 1748 united with the Moravians. In 1751 came to America and
entered the mission service. In August, 1773, with his wife, he entered the
Tuscarawas valley field, where he remained until 1777. He was pastor of the
mission at Gnadenhutten. He died at Litiz, Pa., January 23, 1778.
        JOHN G. JUNGMAN, born in Hockenheim, Palatinate, April 19, 1720;
emigrated to America in 1731, settling near Oley, Pa.; in 1745 married the
widow of Gottlob Buttner. Went to Schonbrunn in 1772; remained here as
assistant pastor until 1777, when he returned to Pennsylvania; again went
to the Tuscarawas valley in 1780, and labored at New Schonbrunn. He was
taken with the Christian Indians to Sandusky in 1782; retired from
missionary work in 1784, and died at Bethlehem, Pa., July 17, 1808.
        WILLIAM EDWARDS was born in Wiltshire, England, April 24, 1724. In
1749 he joined the Moravians and emigrated to America. He took charge of
the Gnadenhutten mission in 1777; was taken to Sandusky in 1782; in 1798
returned with Heckewelder to the Tuscarawas valley and died at Goshen,
October 8, 1801.
        GOTTLOB SENSEMAN was the son of Joachim and Catharine Senseman; the
latter was a victim of the massacre. His father afterward became a
missionary among the slaves of Jamaica.
        In 1780 Gottlob was assigned to duty at New Schonbrunn; was carried
into captivity with the Christian Indians, and died at Fairfield, Canada,
January 4, 1800.
        MICHAEL JUNG was born in Engoldsheim, Alsace, Germany, January 5,
1743. His parents emigrated to America in 1751. Ten years later he joined
the Moravians, and in 1780 was sent to the Indian mission at Salem. He
remained a missionary among the Indians until 1813, when he retired to
Litiz, Pa., and died there December 13, 1826.
        BENJAMIN MORTIMER, and Englishman, came as an assistant to
Zeisberger, when he returned with the Indians in 1798, and remained at
Goshen until 1809, when he became pastor of a Moravian church in New York
City, where he died November 10, 1834. JOHN JOACHIM HAGAN became one of the
missionaries at Goshen in 1804.
        Heckewelder's "Narrative of the manners and Customs of the Indians"
has preserved much of the value and some things quite amusing. Of the
latter may be classed the speech of an aged Indian, in his article on
marriage and Treatment of their Wives.
        An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much time among the
white people, observed that the Indians had not only much easier way of
getting a wife than the whites, but were also much more certain of getting
a good one. "For," said he, in his broken English, "white man court -court
-may be one whole year -may be two year, before he marry. Well may be, then
he get a very good wife -may be not, may be very cross. Well, now suppose
cross; scold as soon as get awake in the morning! Scold all day! Scold
until sleep -all one, he must keep him! (The pronoun in the Indian language
has no feminine gender.)
        "White people have law against throwing away wife, be he ever so
cross -must keep him always.
        "Well, how does Indian do? Indian, when he sees good squaw, which
he likes, he goes to him, puts his forefingers close aside each other -make
two look like one -look squaw in the face -see him smile -which is all one,
he says yes. So he take him home -no danger he be cross! No! no! Squaw
known very well what Indian do if he cross. Throw him away and take
another. Squaw love to eat meat. No husband, no meat. Squaw do everything
to please husband. He do the same to please squaw. Live happy! Go to Heaven!"
        Half a mile below Bolivar, near the north line of the county, are
the remains of Fort Laurens, erected in the war of the revolution, and
named from the president of the revolutionary Congress. It was the scene of
border warfare and bloodshed. The canal passes through its earthen walls.
The parapet walls are now (1846) a few feet in height, and were once
crowned with pickets made of the split trunks of trees. The walls enclose
about an acre of land, and stand on the west bank of the Tuscarawas. Dr.
S.P. Hildreth gives the annexed history of this work in "Silliman's Journal:"
        ERECTION OF FORT LAURENS. -Fort Laurens was erected in the fall of
the year 1778 by a detachment of 1,000 men from Fort Pitt, under the
command of Gen. McIntosh. After its completion a garrison of 150 men was
placed in it, and left in charge of Col. John Gibson, while the rest of the
army returned to Fort Pitt. It was established at this early day in the
country of the Indians, seventy miles west of Fort McIntosh, with an
expectation that it would act as a salutary check on their incursions into
the white settlements south of the Ohio river. The usual approach to it
from fort McIntosh, the nearest military station, was from the mouth of
Yellow creek, and down the Sandy, which latter stream heads with the
former, and puts off into the Tuscarawas just above the fort. So unexpected
and rapid were the movements of Gen. McIntosh, that the Indians were not
aware of his presence in their country until the fort was completed. Early
in January, 1779, the Indians mustered their warriors with such secrecy
that the fort was invested before the garrison had notice of their
approach. From the manuscript notes of Henry Jolly, Esq., who was an actor
in this, as well as in many other scenes on the frontier, I have copied the
following historical facts:
        "AN INDIAN AMBUSCADE. -When the main army left the fort to return
to Fort Pitt, Capt. Clark remained behind with a small detachment of Untied
States troops, for the purpose of marching in the invalids and artificers
who had tarried to finish the fort, or were to unwell to march with the
main army. He endeavored to take the advantage of very cold weather, and
had marched three or four miles (for I travelled over the ground three or
four times soon after), when he was fired upon by a small party of Indians
very close at hand. I think twenty or thirty paces. The discharge wounded
two of his men slightly. Knowing as he did that his men were unfit to fight
the Indians in their own fashion, he ordered them to reserve their fire and
to charge bayonet, which being promptly executed put the Indians to flight,
and after pursuing a short distance he called off his men and retreated to
the fort, bringing in the wounded." In other accounts I have read of this
affair it is stated that ten of Capt. Clark's men were killed. "During the
cold weather, while the Indians were lying about the fort, although none
had been seen for a few days, a party of seventeen men went out for the
purpose of carrying in firewood, which the army had cut before they left
the place, about forty or fifty rods from the fort. Near the bank of the
river was an ancient mound, behind which lay a quantity of wood. A party
had been out for several preceding mornings and brought in wood, supposing
the Indians would not be watching the fort in such very cold weather. But
on that fatal morning, the Indians had concealed themselves behind the
mound, and as the soldiers passed round on one side of the mound, a part of
the Indians came round on the other, and enclosed the wood party so that
not one escaped. I was personally acquainted with some of the men who were
killed.

        -continued in part 7


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