TUSCARAWAS
COUNTY
Page
679
TUSCARAWAS
COUNTY was formed from Muskingum, Feb. 15, 1808.
The name is that of an Indian tribe, and in
one of their dialects signifies “open
mouth.” This
is a fertile,
well-cultivated county, partly level and partly rolling and hilly. Iron ore, fire clay and
coal abound. It was
first permanently settled about the
year 1803, by emigrants from Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, many of
whom
were of German origin.
Area about 520 square
miles.
In 1887 the acres cultivated were 131,347; in pasture,
114,832;
woodland, 58,165; lying waste, 5,638; produced in wheat, 480,585
bushels; rye,
2,585; buckwheat, 663; oats, 552,788; barley, 1,995; corn, 652,929;
broom-corn,
1,000 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 43,758 tons; clover hay, 7,627; flaxseed,
15
bushels; potatoes, 109,672; butter, 635,400 lbs.; cheese, 812,114;
sorghum,
1,946 gallons; maple syrup, 1,683; honey, 5,645 lbs.; eggs, 550,117
dozen;
grapes, 8,730 lbs.; wine, 370 gallons; sweet potatoes, 191 bushels;
apples,
24,787; peaches, 15,998; pears, 1,307; wool, 381,026 lbs.; milch
cows owned, 10,781. Ohio
Mining
Statistics, 1888: Coal, 546,117 tons, employing 870 miners and 134
outside
employees; iron ore, 33,287 tons; fire clay, 21,950 tons. School
census, 1888,
15,370; teachers, 304.
Miles of
railroad track, 163.
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Auburn |
|
1,400 |
Perry |
1,381 |
1,208 |
Bucks |
1,547 |
1,129 |
Rush |
1,293 |
1,037 |
Clay |
864 |
1,293 |
Salem |
1,121 |
2,457 |
Dover |
2,247 |
4,107 |
Sandy |
1,415 |
1,864 |
Fairfield |
866 |
814 |
Sugar Creek |
1,450 |
1,462 |
Franklin |
|
1,166 |
Union |
945 |
714 |
Goshen |
1,885 |
5,226 |
Warren |
1,173 |
869 |
Jefferson |
992 |
1,258 |
Warwick |
864 |
1,525 |
Lawrence |
1,523 |
1,723 |
Washington |
978 |
1,089 |
Mill |
1,225 |
5,514 |
Wayne |
2,142 |
1,295 |
Oxford |
826 |
1,968 |
York |
865 |
1,080 |
Population
of Tuscarawas in 1820 was 8,328; 1830, 14,298; 1840, 25,632; 1860,
32,463;
1880, 40,198; of whom 32,753 were born in Ohio; 1,716 Pennsylvania; 262
Virginia; 198 New York; 136 Indiana; 32 Kentucky; 2,073 German Empire;
442
England and Wales; 356 Ireland; 153 Scotland; 49 British America; 41
France,
and 5 Sweden and Norway.
Census, 1890, 46,618.
PALÆOLITHIC
MAN IN OHIO.
In
the beginning of our first volume is an article by Prof. G. Frederick
WRIGHT,
entitled “Glacial Man in Ohio,” and in Hamilton
County more upon the same
general subject. In
October, 1889, a
discovery, by Mr. W. C. MILLS, was made in Tuscarawas county,
which helps to confirm the conclusions of Mr. WRIGHT as to the
existence of man
in Ohio in the glacial era, say 8 to 10,000 years ago.
Mr. WRIGHT, in The Nation,
for April 24, 1890, gave the following paper upon this
discovery, dated at Oberlin ten days previously:
Two
or three weeks ago Mr. W. C. MILLS, Secretary of the Archæological
Society of New Comerstown,
Tuscarawas county, Ohio,
sent to me a flint implement which, according to his description,
seemed to
have been found in the undisturbed gravel of the glacial terrace which
everywhere lines the valley of the Tuscarawas
Page 680
river. In
order the more fully to judge of the significance of the discovery, I
visited
the locality last week, together with a small party of Cleveland
gentlemen. The
result of the
investigation cannot fail to be of considerable public interest.
The
flint implement referred to is a perfect representative of the palæolithic type found
in Northern France and Southern
England. It is four
inches long, two
inches wide, and an inch and a half through at its larger end, tapering
gradually to a point and carefully chipped to an edge all round. Fig. 472 in
Evans’s “Ancient Stone Implements
of Great Britain” would pass for a very good representation
of it. The material
is black flint, or chert,
such as occurs in the “Lower Mercer” limestone
strata not many miles away, and has upon all
the
surface that peculiar glazed appearance which indicates considerable
age.
New
Comerstown is situated
upon the right bank of the
Tuscarawas river, about
one hundred miles directly south
of Cleveland and forty miles south of the glacial boundary in Ohio. The latter part of the
journey from the north
to reach the place is such a complete demonstration of the now accepted
theory
concerning the origin of the terraces along this river, and others
similarly
situated, that a brief description of it will be profitable.
The
headwaters both of the Tuscarawas itself and of the several branches
which
unite with it before reaching Canal Dover are all within the glaciated
area,
thus affording access to an unlimited quantity of debris brought by the
continental ice-sheet from the Laurentian
region in
Canada. Immediately
below the glacial
boundary, all these streams are bordered with extensive terraces, the
material
of which consists of assorted matter from the glacial drift such as
would
naturally have been carried down during the closing floods of the
glacial
period.
From
Canal Dover to New Comerstown
the Tuscarawas river
makes a long bend to the east, but the railroad cuts
across the elbow, and for twenty miles or more finds its way through
two small
valleys tributary to the main line of drainage.
The course of the railroad first strikes up the valley of
Stone creek,
following it for several miles. But
no
sooner does it enter this tributary valley than it leaves behind the
terraces
and other gravel deposits which mark the main valley and every
tributary
farther north. At
length the road, after
passing through a tunnel, strikes into the headwaters of Buckhorn
creek, which
runs southward to join the Tuscarawas at New Comerstown. Here, too, for several
miles, there is a
total absence of terraces or of any deposits of gravel.
On approaching the mouth of the creek,
however, a vast gravel deposit derived from the northern drift is
encountered,
in which the railroad company is making extensive excavations to get
material
for ballasting their track. Thus,
in
this short journey, there was demonstrated before our eyes the
limitation of
these peculiar gravel deposits to the main valley of the river, and so,
by
consequence, their glacial age and origin.
It
was in this last-named gravel-bank, on the 27th
of October, 1889,
that Mr. MILLS found the palæolith above described.
The surface of the terrace is at this point thirty-five
feet above the
flood-plain of the Tuscarawas. The
valley of the river is about a mile wide.
This gravel had been deposited in a recess at the mouth of
Buckhorn
creek, where it was protected from subsequent erosion, and extended up
the
creek about a quarter of a mile, but, according to the law of such
deposits,
with gradually diminishing height as one recedes from the main line of
deposition. The
implement was found by
Mr. MILLS himself, in undisturbed strata, fifteen feet below the
surface of the
terrace; thus connecting it, beyond question, with the period when the
terrace
itself was in process of deposition, and adding another witness to the
fact,
that man was in the valley of the Mississippi while the ice of the
glacial
period still lingered over a large part of its northern area.
The
importance of this discovery is enhanced by the fact that this is only
the
fifth locality in which similar discoveries have been made in this
country, the
other places being Trenton, N. J., Madisonville, Ohio, Medora, Ind.,
and Little
Falls, Minn. But in
many respects this
is the most interesting of them all, especially as connected with
previous
predictions of my own in the matter, though it is proper to say that
Mr. MILLS
was not, at the time he made the discovery, aware of what had been
written on
the subject.
When,
in 1882, after having surveyed the glacial boundary across
Pennsylvania, I
continued a similar work in Ohio, I was at once struck with the
similarity of
the conditions in the various streams in Ohio flowing out of
Page 681
the glaciated region (and especially
in the Tuscarawas
river), to those in the Delaware river, where Dr. C. C. ABBOTT had
reported the
discovery of palæolithic
implements at Trenton, N.
J. Attention was
called to this
similarity in various periodicals at the time, as well as in my Report
upon the
Glacial Boundary made to the Western Reserve Historical Society in 1883
(pp.26,
27), where it was said that the Ohio abounds in streams situated
similarly to
the Delaware with reference to glacial terraces, and that
“the probability is
that if he [man] was in New Jersey at the time [during the deposition
of the
glacial terraces], he was upon the banks of the Ohio, and the extensive
terrace
and gravel deposits in the southern part of the State should be closely
scanned
by archæologists.
When observers become familiar with the rude form of these
palæolithic
implements, they will doubtless find them in
abundance.” Whereupon
a dozen streams,
among them the Tuscarawas, were mentioned in which the conditions were
favorable
for such investigations. The
present
discovery, therefore, coming as it does in addition to those of Dr.
METZ in the
Little Miami valley and of Mr. CRESSON in the valley of White river,
Ind., has
great cumulative weight, and forces, even on the most unwilling, the
conviction
that glacial man on this continent is not a myth, but a reality.
A
glance at the physical features of the region in Ohio and Indiana where
these palæoliths
have been found, shows
their eminent adaptation to the primitive conditions of life indicated
by the
implements themselves. The
Tuscarawas
valley has been formed by erosion through the parallel strata of
sandstone and
limestone here composing the coal formation.
The summits of the hills on either side rise to heights of
from 300 to
500 feet, and their perpendicular faces abound even now with commodious
shelters for primitive man. But
in
pre-glacial times the trough of the Tuscarawas was 175 feet deeper than
at
present, that amount of glacial gravel having been deposited along the
bottom,
thus raising it to its present level.
Hence in pre-glacial times the opportunities for shelter
must have been
much superior even to those which are now in existence.
The present forests of the region consist of
beach, oak, tulip, maple and other deciduous trees.
Evergreens are now totally absent, but the
advancing ice of the glacial period found here vast forests of
evergreen
trees. Not many
miles distant, terraces
of the same age with this at New Comerstown
have,
within recent years, yielded great quantities of red-cedar logs, still
so fresh
as to be manufactured into utensils for household use.
The
relation of glacial man to the mound-builders is so often made a
subject of
inquiry that a brief answer will here be in place.
The above relic of man’s occupancy of Ohio
was found in the glacial terrace,
and
belongs to a race living in that distant period when the ice-front was
not far
north of them, and when the terraces were in process
of deposition. Thus
this race is unquestionably linked with the great ice age. The mound-builders came
into the region at a
much later date, and reared their imposing structures upon
the surface of these terraces, when the settled conditions of
the present time had been attained, and there is nothing to show that
their
occupancy began more than one or two thousand years since, while their
implements and other works of art are of an entirely different type
from the
rude relics of the palæolithic
age. If, therefore,
interest in a work of art is
in proportion to its antiquity, this single implement from New Comerstown, together with the
few others found in similar
conditions, must be ranked among the most interesting in the world, and
will do
much to render North America a field of archæological
research second to no other in importance.
Several
years previous to the settlement of Ohio, the Moravians had a
missionary
establishment in the present limits of this county, which was for a
time broken
up by the cruel massacre of ninety-six of the Indians at Gnadenhutten,
March 8,
1782.
The
Moravian Indians were not in ignorance of a probable expedition against
their
villages, and were warned to flee to a place of safety, but knowing
themselves
to be free from any offence against the whites,
they
did not believe they would be molested.
HECKEWELDER says” Four SANDUSKY warriors, who,
on their return from the
Ohio settlements, had encamped on a run some distance from
Gnadenhutten, gave
them notice where they had been, and added, that having taken a woman
and child
prisoner, whom they had killed and impaled on this side of the Ohio
river, and
supposing that the white people, in consequence of what they
had done, might make up a party and pursue them, they advised
them to be on their guard and make off with themselves as soon as
possible.”
THE MORAVIAN MISSION.
The
following history of the Moravian Mission was written for our original
edition
by Hon. James PATRICK, of New Philadelphia.
His account we precede
Page 682
with a personal notice, on the general principle
of perpetuating the memories of those, so far as we are able, who
assisted us
in that olden time.
JAMES
PATRICK was born in Belfast, Ireland, August 6, 1792, of Scotch-Irish
parents. At the age
of twenty-four he emigrated
to America, and, having learned the printer’s
trade, engaged in journalism with the Aurora,
in Philadelphia. In
1819 he established
the Tuscarawas Chronicle, the first
newspaper in the county. His
paper had a
wide influence and large circulation.
He
held many public offices: was County Recorder, County Auditor, U.S.
Land Agent,
and served seven years as Judge of Common Pleas.
In 1846 he retired to private life.
He died January 23, 1883.
Three sons and three daughters survived him.
Hatred of Indians.—The
first white inhabitants of Tuscarawas county were the Moravian
missionaries and
their families. The
Rev. Frederick POST
and Rev. John HECKEWELDER had penetrated thus far into the wilderness
previous
to the commencement of the revolutionary war.
Their first visits west of the Ohio date as early as the
years 1761 and
1762. Other
missionary auxiliaries were
sent out by that society for the purpose of propagating the Christian
religion
among the Indians. Among
those was the
Rev. David ZEISBERGER, a man whose devotion to the cause was attested
by the
hardships he endured and the dangers he encountered.
Had
the same pacific policy which governed the Society of Friends in their
first
settlement of eastern Pennsylvania been adopted by the white settlers
of the
West, the efforts of the Moravian missionaries in Ohio would have been
more
successful. But our
western pioneers
were not, either by profession or practice, friends of peace. They had an instinctive
hatred to the
aborigines, and were only deterred, by their inability, from
exterminating the
race. Perhaps the
acts of cruelty
practised by certain Indian tribes on prisoners taken in previous
contests with
the whites might have aided to produce this feeling on the part of the
latter. Be that as
it may, the effects of this
deep-rooted prejudice greatly retarded the efforts of the missionaries.
The Moravian Villages.—They had three stations on the
river Tuscarawas, or rather
three Indian villages, viz.: Shoenbrun,
Gnadenhutten,
and Salem. The site
of the first is
about two miles south of New Philadelphia; seven miles farther south
was
Gnadenhutten, in the immediate vicinity of the present village of that
name;
and about five miles below that was Salem, a short distance from the
village of
Port Washington. The
first and last
mentioned were on the west side of the Tuscarawas, now near the margin
of the
Ohio canal. Gnadenhutten
is on the east
side of the river. It
was here that a
massacre took place on the 8th of March, 1782,
which, for cool
barbarity, is perhaps unequalled in the history of the Indian wars.
The
Moravian villages on the Tuscarawas were situated about midway between
the
white settlements near the Ohio, and some warlike tribes of Wyandots
and Delawares on the
Sandusky. These
latter were chiefly in the service of
England, or at least opposed to the colonists, with whom she was then
at
war. There was a
British station at
Detroit, and an American one at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg), which were
regarded as the nucleus of western operations by each of the contending
parties. The
Moravian villages of
friendly Indians on the Tuscarawas were situated, as the saying is,
between two
fires. As Christian
converts and friends
of peace, both policy and inclination led them to adopt neutral grounds.
Forced Removal.—With
much difficulty they sustained this position, partially unmolested,
until the
autumn of 1781. In
the month of August,
in that year, an English officer named ELLIOTT, from Detroit, attended
by two
Delaware chiefs, PIMOACAN and PIPE, with three hundred warriors,
visited Gnadenhutten. They
urged the necessity of the speedy
removal of the Christian Indians farther west, as a measure of safety. Seeing the latter were not
inclined to take
their advice, they resorted to threats and in some instances to
violence. They at
last succeeded in their object. The
Christian Indians were forced to leave
their crops of corn, potatoes and garden vegetables, and remove, with
their
unwelcome visitors, to the country bordering on the Sandusky. The missionaries were
taken prisoners to
Detroit. After
suffering severely from
hunger and cold during the winter, a portion of the Indians were
permitted to
return to their settlements on the Tuscarawas, for the purpose of
gathering in
the corn left on the stalk the preceding fall.
Return to Harvest Crops.—About
one
hundred and fifty Moravian Indians, including women and children,
arrived on
the Tuscarawas in the latter part of February, and divided into three
parties,
so as to work at the three towns in the corn-fields.
Satisfied that they had escaped from the thraldom of their less civilized
brethren west, they little
expected that a storm was gathering among the white settlers east,
which was to
burst over their peaceful habitations with such direful consequences.
WILLIAMSON’S
EXPEDITION.
Several
depredations had been committed by hostile Indians about this time on
the
frontier inhabitants of western Pennsylvania
Page 683
Shepler & Son,
Photo, Coshocton.
MONUMENT
AT GNADENGUTTEN,
On the site of the Moravian
Massacre.
Page 684
and Virginia, who determined to
retaliate. A
company of one hundred men was raised and
placed under the command of Col. WILLIAMSON, as a corps of volunteer
militia. They set
out for the Moravian
towns on the Tuscarawas, and arrived within a mile of Gnadenhutten on
the night
of the 5th of March.
On the
morning of the 6th, finding the Indians were
employed in their
corn-field, on the west side of the river, sixteen of
WILLIAMSON’S men crossed,
two at a time, over in a large sap-trough, or vessel used for retaining
sugar-water,
taking their rifles with them. The
remainder went into the village, where they found a man and a woman,
both of
whom they killed. The
sixteen on the
west side, on approaching the Indians in the field, found them more
numerous
than they expected. They
had their arms
with them, which was usual on such occasions both for purposes of
protection
and for killing game. The
whites
accosted them kindly, told them they had come to take them to a place
where
they would be in future protected, and advised them to quit work and
return
with them to the neighborhood of Fort Pitt. Some of the Indians had
been taken
to that place in the preceding year, had been well treated by the
American
governor of the fort, and been dismissed with tokens of warm
friendship. Under
these circumstances, it is not
surprising that the unsuspecting Moravian Indians readily surrendered
their
arms, and at once consented to be controlled by the advice of Col.
WILLIAMSON
and his men. An
Indian messenger was despatched
to Salem, to apprise the brethren there of the
new arrangement, and both companies then returned to Gnadenhutten. On reaching the village a
number of mounted
militia started for the Salem settlement, but ere they reached it found
that
the Moravian Indians at that place had already left their corn-fields,
by the
advice of the messenger, and were on the road to join their brethren at
Gnadenhutten. Measures
had been adopted
by the militia to secure the Indians whom they had at first decoyed
into their
power. They were
bound, confined in two
houses, and well guarded. On
the arrival
of the Indians from Salem (their arms having been previously secured
without
suspicion of any hostile intention), they were also fettered and
divided between
the two prison-houses, the males in one, the females in the other. The number thus confined
in both, including
men, women and children, have been estimated from ninety to ninety-six.
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 the 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
supplication 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 the
other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for
slaughter. They
declared to the
murderers 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 a 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 Savior, 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
Page 685
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
the missionaries to establish a settlement 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 the 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.
The Last of Moravian Indians in
Ohio.—On
the 4th of August, 1823, an agreement or
treaty was entered into at 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, condi-
Page 686
tioned 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 fulfilment
uncertain. The
Indians never returned. The
principal part of them took up their
residence at a 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 actors
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 slap, 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 Massacre.—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, 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
Page 687
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,
1782.” 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 the 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.
Page 688
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 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 an
Ludwig Roth, geboren 4th
Juli, 1773. Gestorben
25th September, 1841, alter
67 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
Page 689
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 not
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,
Page 690
John
Heckewelder.
Johanna Marie Heckewelder.
Page 691
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.
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 northeast 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 mis-
Page 692
sions 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 there 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, an 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 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 a 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 say yes. So he take him
home—no danger he be
cross! No! no! Squaw
know 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
Page 693
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 BIGSON, 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 United States troops, for the purpose of
marching in
the invalids and artificers who had tarried to finish the fort, or were
too
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.”
The Fort Besieged.—The
published
statements of this affair say that the Indians enticed the men out in
search of
horses, by taking off their bells and tinkling them; but it is certain
that no
horses were left at the fort, as they must either starve or be stolen
by the
Indians; so that Mr. JOLLY’s
version of the incident
must be correct. During
the siege, which
continued until the last of February, the garrison were very short of
provisions. The
Indians suspected this to
be the fact, but were also nearly starving themselves.
In this predicament they proposed to the
garrison that if they would give them a barrel of flour and some meat
they
would raise the siege, concluding if they had not this quantity they
must
surrender at discretion soon, and if they had they would not part with
it. In this,
however, they missed their
object. The brave
Col. GIBSON turned out
the flour and meat promptly, and told them he could spare it very well,
as he had
plenty more. The
Indians soon after
raised the siege. A
runner was sent to
Fort McIntosh with a statement of their distress, and requesting
reinforcements
and provisions immediately. The
inhabitants south of the Ohio volunteered their aid, and Gen. McINTOSH headed the escort of
provisions, which reached the
fort in safety, but was near being all lost from the dispersion of the
pack-horses in the woods near the fort, from a fright occasioned by a feu de joie fired by the garrison, as the
relief. The fort
was finally evacuated
in August, 1779, it being found untenable at such a distance from the
frontiers; and Henry JOLLY was one of the last men who left it, holding
at that
time in the continental service the commission of ensign.
Recent investigations
by Consul Willshire
BUTTERFIELD, embodied in his
“History of Ohio” from information derived from the
HALDIMAN collection of
Page 694
manuscripts in the British Museum, give a somewhat
different version from the foregoing accounts of both the attack on
Capt.
CLARK’S detachment and the siege of Fort Laurens.
The
attack on Capt. CLARK’S men was made by seventeen Indians,
mostly Mingoes, led by
Simon GIRTY. BUTTERFIELD
says:
“The
particulars were these:—On
the twenty-first of the
month Capt. John CLARK, of the 8th Pennsylvania
regiment, commanding
an escort having supplies for GIBSON, reached Fort Laurens. On his return, the
captain, with a sergeant
and fourteen men, when only about three miles distant from the fort,
was
attacked by the force just mentioned.
The Americans suffered a loss of two killed, four wounded
and one taken
prisoner. The
remainder, including Capt.
CLARK, fought their way back to the fort.
Letters written by the commander of the post and others,
containing
valuable information, were captured by GIRTY.” (These letters
now form a part
of the HALDIMAND Collection.)
“From
the vicinity of Fort Laurens, after his successful ambuscading the
detachment
of Capt. CLARK, the renegade GIRTY hastened with his prisoner and
captured
correspondence to Detroit, which place he reached early in February. He reported to Capt.
LERNOULT that the Wyandots
upon the Sandusky (and other Indians) were ready
and willing to attack the fort commanded by Col. GIBSON, and that he
had come
for ammunition. He
earnestly insisted on
an English captain being sent with the savages ‘to see how
they would behave.’
“By
the middle of February provisions began to grow scarce with GIBSON. He sent word to McINTOSH,
informing him of the state of affairs, concluding with these brave
words: ‘You
may depend on my defending the fort to the last extremity.’ On the 23d he sent out a wagoner
from the fort for the horses belonging to the post, to draw wood. With the wagoner
went a guard of eighteen men. The
party
was fired upon by lurking savages and all killed and scalped in sight
of the
fort, except two, who were made prisoners.
The post was immediately invested after this ambuscade by
nearly two
hundred Indians, mostly Wyandots
and Mingoes.
“This
movement against Fort Laurens, although purely a scheme of the Indians
in its
inception, was urged on, as we have seen, by Simon GIRTY; and Capt.
Henry BIRD
was sent forward from Detroit to Upper Sandusky with a few volunteers
to
promote the undertaking. Capt.
LERNOULT,
in order to encourage the enterprise, furnished the savages with
‘a large
supply of ammunition and clothing, also presents to the chief
warriors.’
“The
plan of the Indians was to strike the fort and drive off or destroy the
cattle,
and if any of the main army under McINTOSH
attempted
to go to the assistance of the garrison, to attack them in the night
and
distress them as much as possible.
“By
stratagem the Indians made their force so appear that 847 savages were
counted
from one of the bastions of the fort.
The siege was continued until the garrison was reduced to
the verge of
starvation, a quarter of a pound of sour flour and an equal weight of
spoiled
meat constituting a daily ration.
The
assailants, however, were finally compelled to return home, as their
supplies
had also become exhausted. Before
the
enemy left, a soldier managed to steal through the lines, reaching Gen.
McINTOSH
on the 3d of March, with
a message from GIBSON informing him of his critical
situation.”
New Philadelphia in 1846.—New
Philadelphia, the county-seat, is 100 miles northeasterly from Columbus. It is on the east bank of
the Tuscarawas, on
a large, level, and beautiful plain.
It
was laid out in 1804 by John KNISELEY, and additions subsequently made. The town has improved much
within the last
few years, and is now flourishing.
It
contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Disciples church, 5
mercantile
stores, 2 printing offices, 1 oil and 1 grist mill, 1 woollen
factory, and a population estimated at over 1,000.—Old Edition.
In
the late war, some Indians, under confinement in jail in this town,
were saved
from being murdered by the intrepidity of two or three individuals. The circumstances are
derived from two
communications, one of which is from a gentleman then present.
A Daring Leader.—About
the time of HULL’s
surrender, several persons were
murdered on the Mohiccan,
near Mansfield, which
created great alarm and excitement.
Shortly
after this event, three Indians, said to be unfriendly, had arrived at
Goshen. The
knowledge of this
circumstance created much alarm, and an independent company of cavalry,
of whom
Alexander M’CONNEL was captured, was solicited by the
citizens to pursue and
take them. Some
half a dozen, with their
captain, turned out for that purpose.
Where daring courage was required to achieve any hostile
movement, no
man was more suitable than Alexander M’CONNEL.
The Indians were traced to a small island near Goshen.
Page 695
Top
Drawn
by Henry Howe in 1846.
CENTRAL
VIEW INSCRIPTION:NEW
PHILADELPHIA
Bottom
Philp Strickmaker, Photo, 1887
CENTRAL
VIEW IN NEW PHILADELPHIA
Page 696
M’CONNEL plunged his
horse into the river and crossed,
as the same time ordering his men to follow, but none chose to obey him. He dismounted, hitched his
horse, and with a
pistol in each hand commenced searching for them.
He had gone but a few steps into the interior
of the island when he discovered one of them, with his rifle, lying at
full
length behind a log. He
presented his
pistol—the Indian jumped to his feet, but M’CONNEL
disarmed him. He
also took the others, seized their arms,
and drove them before him. On
reaching
his company, one of his men hinted that they should be put to death. “Not until they
have had a trial according to
law,” said the captain; then ordering his company to wheel,
they conducted the
prisoners to the county jail.
A Brave Judge.—The
murder which had been perpetrated on the Mohiccan
had
aroused the feelings of the white settlers in that neighborhood almost
to a
frenzy. No sooner
did the report reach
them that some strange Indians had been arrested and confined in the
New
Philadelphia jail, than a company of about forty men was organized at
or near
Wooster, armed with rifles, under the command of a Captain MULLEN, and
marched
for New Philadelphia to despatch
these Indians. When
within about a mile of the town, coming
in from the west, John C. WRIGHT, then a practising
lawyer at Steubenville (later Judge), rode into the place from the east
on
business. He was
hailed by Henry LAFFER,
Esq., at that time sheriff of the county, told that the Indian
prisoners were
in his custody; the advancing company of men was pointed out to him,
their
object stated, and the inquiry made, “What is to be
done?” “The
prisoners must be saved, sir,” replied
Wright; “why don’t you beat an alarm and call out
the citizens?” To
this he replied, “Our people are much
exasperated, and the fear is, that if they are called out they will
side with
the company, whose object is to take their lives.” “Is there no one
who will stand by you to
prevent so dastardly a murder?” rejoined WRIGHT. “None
but M’CONNEL, who
captured them.”
“Have you any
arms?” “None but an
old broadsword and a pistol.”
“Well,” replied W., “go call
M’CONNEL, get your weapons, and come up to
the tavern; I’ll put away my horse and make a third man to
defend the
prisoners; we must not have so disgraceful a murder committed
here.”
Three Against
Forty.—WRIGHT
put up his horse, and was joined by LAFFER and M’CONNEL. About this time the
military company came up
to the tavern door, and there halted for some refreshments. Mr. WRIGHT knew the
captain and many of the
men, and went along the line, followed by the sheriff, inquiring their
object
and remonstrating, pointing out the disgrace of so cowardly an act as
was
contemplated, and assuring them, in case they carried out their brutal
design,
they would be prosecuted and punished for murder.
Several left the line, declaring they would
have nothing more to do with the matter.
The captain became angry, ordered the ground to be
cleared, formed his
men and moved towards the jail. M’CONNEL
was at the jail door, and the sheriff and WRIGHT took a cross cut and
joined
him before the troops arrived. The
prisoners had been laid on the floor against the front wall as a place
of
safety. The three
arranged themselves
before the jail door—M’CONNEL with the sword.
Sheriff LAFFER had the pistol, and WRIGHT was without
weapon. The troops
formed in front, a parley was had,
and WRIGHT again went along the line remonstrating, and detached two or
three
more men. He was
ordered off, and took
his position at the jail door with his companions.
The men were formed, and commands,
preparatory to a discharge of arms, issued.
Noble Courage.—In
this position the three were ordered off, but refused to obey,
declaring that
the prisoners should not be touched except they first despatch
them.
Their firmness had its effect; the order to fire was
given, and the men
refused to obey. WRIGHT
again went along
the line remonstrating, etc., while M’CONNEL and LAFFER
maintained their
position at the door. One
or two more
were persuaded to leave the line.
The
captain became very angry and ordered him off.
He again took his place with his two companions. The company was marched
off some distance and
treated with whiskey; and after some altercation, returned to the jail
door,
were arranged and prepared for a discharge of their rifles, and the
three
ordered off on pain of being shot.
They
maintained their ground without faltering, and the company gave way and
abandoned their project. Some
of them
were afterwards permitted, one at a time, to go in and see the
prisoners, care
being taken that no harm was done.
These
three gentlemen received no aid from the citizens; the few that were
about
looked on merely. Their
courage and
firmness were truly admirable.
The
Indians were retained in jail until Governor MEIGS, who had been some
time
expected, arrived in New Philadelphia.
He instructed Gen. A. SHANE, then a lieutenant, recruiting
for the
United States service, to take the Indians with his men to the
rendezvous at
Zanesville. From
thence they were
ordered to be sent with his recruits to the headquarters of Gen.
HARRISON, at
Seneca, at which place they were discharged.
Attempt at Poisoning Indians.—Another incident occurred in
Lieutenant SHANE’S journey to
headquarters, which illustrates the deep-rooted prejudices entertained
by many
at that time against the Indians.
The
lieutenant with his company stopped a night at Newark.
The three Indians were guarded as prisoners,
and that duty devolved by turns on the recruits.
A physician, who lived in Newark, and kept a
small drug shop, informed the officer that two of his men had applied
to him
for poison. On his
questioning them
closely what use they were to make of it, they partly confessed that it
was
intended for the Indians. It
was at
night when they applied for it, and they were
Page 697
dressed in fatigue frocks.
In the morning the lieutenant had his men paraded, and
called the doctor
to point out those who had meditated such a base act; but the doctor,
either
unwilling to expose himself to the enmity of the men, or unable to
discern
them, the whole company being dressed in their regimentals, the affair
was
passed over with some severe remarks by the commanding officer on the unsoldier-like conduct of those
who could be guilty of such
a dastardly crime of poisoning.
The foregoing account was, in the main, written for us by Judge JOHN C. WRIGHT, at the time editor of the Cincinnati Gazette. The judge was an old-fashioned gentleman, one of the first-class men of Ohio in his day. He had very little dignity of manners but excellent sense, united to a keen sense of humor, and a power of sarcasm that, when in Congress, made him about the only member that ventured to reply to the stinging words of John RANDOLPH, which he was wont to do in an effective strain of amiable, ludicrous raillery.
The judge was of a strong social nature, and on an occasion some one said to him, “I think, judge, you are rather free in loaning your horses and carriage to so many people who have no claims upon you.” “Oh, no,” replied he; “when I am not using my turn-out, and my neighbor, who is not able to own one, wants to take his family out for an airing, I have no right to refuse him.”
He was born in 1783, in Wethersfield, Conn., a town on the river Connecticut, early famous for its huge crops of onions which grew on the alluvial soil of the valley, and was better than a gold mine. In the onion-growing season, it was said, the women of the town were all down on their knees, from morning to night, busy weeding onions. WRIGHT learned the printer’s trade with his uncle, Thomas COLLIER, at Litchfield, edited the Troy (N. Y.) Gazette, studied law, came out to Ohio just after the State was organized, settled in Steubenville, and began the practice of the law in 1810. For many years he was Judge of the Supreme Court, and served in Congress as an ADAMS Democrat from 1823 till 1829, and then, as a Henry CLAY Democrat, was defeated for re-election. Judge WRIGHT’S “Reports of the Supreme Court of Ohio” (1831-1834) was a work of fine repute; but he could not well disregard his fondness for humor in his reports of cases that would allow of its introduction. He lived until February, 1861, at the time being in Washington a delegate to the Peace Congress.
Judge CARTER, in his “Reminiscences of the Court and Bar of Cincinnati,” has given these anecdotes of the judge:
“In
the days of the Tippecanoe and Tyler too” campaign, Judge
WRIGHT used to be
called by the adversary press one of General HARRISON’S
conscience
keepers. This arose
from the fact that
he belonged to a committee of three, consisting of himself, Judge
BURNET, and
another, whom I just now forget, who were appointed by political
friends to
answer all political letters addressed to the general, who, at the
time, a
weak, infirm old man, was not thought fully able to attend to all the
duties of
the laborious campaign. As
I know well,
it did not at all disturb Judge WRIGHT to be dubbed a conscience keeper
of the
general. “Better
be a keeper of the good
conscience of the general than the hunter-up of the conscience of
Martin VAN
BUREN,” he would sometimes facetiously say.
I
must not forget to narrate a story, though somewhat at the expense of
my old
friend and law preceptor, Judge WRIGHT.
I know if he were alive he would not take it amiss,
because he
frequently told the story upon himself.
Judge WRIGHT was formerly a member of Congress from Ohio,
from the
Steubenville district, and while there he had for a
fellow-representative from
the State of Tennessee the long ago famous Davy CROCKETT. Judge WRIGHT was not at
all attractive in
personal appearance. He
was a diminutive
man in stature, with a very large head, and a prominent face of not
very
handsome features, so that his looks, by no means prepossessing, were
perhaps
quite plain and homely, and not at all strikingly beautiful or
picturesque. His
mouth, chin and nose
were extended somewhat, and this fact did not add to his beauty. Indeed, he had a
reputation for being a very
able and ill-looking congressman.
On
one occasion Davy CROCKETT was visiting a menagerie of
animals—not the House of
Representatives—in Washington City, and he had a friend with
him. They were
looking around at the animals, and
at last they came to the place where the monkeys were.
Among these was one large, grinning,
full-faced monkey, and as CROCKETT looked at him he observed to his
friend,
“Why, that monkey looks just like our friend, Judge WRIGHT,
from Ohio.” At
that moment he turned around, and who
should be just behind him, admiring the same monkey, but Congressman
Page 698
Judge WRIGHT himself.
“I beg pardon, Judge WRIGHT,” said
CROCKETT, “I beg pardon; an apology
is certainly due somewhere, but for the life of me, I
cannot tell whether it is to you or the monkey.”
Judge WRIGHT and Judge Benjamin TAPPAN were brothers-in-law. Many anecdotes were related to TAPPAN in that day illustrating his sharp, pungent wit, which had peculiar force from his personal peculiarities, he being cross-eyed, with a pair of sharp black eyes, and talking through his nose in a whining, sing-song sort of style. The following legal anecdote appeared in our first edition, and, according to our memory, WRIGHT contributed it, for he never would withhold a good story for relation sake. The scene of its occurrence was said to have been in New Philadelphia at an early day.
The
court was held on this occasion in a log-tavern, and an adjoining
log-stable
was used as a jail, the stalls answering as cells for the prisoners. Judge T. was on the bench,
and in the
exercise of his judicial functions severely reprimanded two young
lawyers who
had got into a personal dispute. A huge, herculean
backwoodsman, attired
in a red flannel shirt, stood among the auditors in the apartment which
served
the double purpose of court and bar-room.
He was much pleased at the judge’s
lecture—having himself
been practising
at another bar—and
hallooed out to
his worship—who happened to be cross-eyed—in the
midst of his harangue, “Give
it to’em, old
gimlet eyes!” “Who
is that?” demanded the judge.
He of the flannel shirt, proud of being thus
noticed, stepped out from among the rest, and drawing himself up to his
full
height, vociferated, “It’s
this ‘ere old hoss!” The
judge, who to this day never failed of a pungent repartee when occasion
required, called out in a peculiarly dry nasal tone,
“Sheriff! Take that old hoss, put
him in the stable, and see that he
is
not stolen before morning.”
Col.
Charles WHITTLESEY knew Benjamin TAPPAN well, and used to relate this
of him:
There came with TAPPAN from Massachusetts into Portage county
an odd character whom, for the nonce, we may call John DOLBY. He was not over bright,
very garrulous, and
was wont, when others were talking, to obtrude his opinions, often
making of himself
a sort of social nuisance. On
an
occasion of suffering of this kind, TAPPAN flew at him and whined out,
“John
DOLBY, you shut up! you
don’t know anything about
it! You was a
fool forty years ago, when I first knew you, and you have been failing every day since!”
NEW
PHILADELPHIA, county-seat of Tuscarawas, 100 miles northeast of
Columbus, 100
miles south of Cleveland, is surrounded by a district rich in
agricultural and
mineral products. Cheese-making
is a
large industry. Its
railroads are the C.
L. & W., and C. & P.; also on the Ohio Canal.
County
Officers, 1888: Auditor, John W. KINSEY; Clerk, John C. DONAHEY;
Commissioners,
William E. LASH, Robert T. BENNER, Wesley EMERSON; Coroner, B. D.
DOWNEY;
Infirmary Directors, Ozias
DeLONG,
J. Milton PORTER, Louis GECKLER; Probate Judge, John W. YEAGLEY;
Prosecuting
Attorney, James G. PATRICK; Recorder, John G. NEWMAN; Sheriff, George
W.
BOWERS; Surveyor, Oliver H. HOOVER; Treasurer, John MYERS. City Officers, 1888:
Daniel KORNS, Mayor;
Israel A. CORRELL, Clerk; H. V. SCHWEITZER, Treasurer; H. E. SHULL,
Marshall;
Philip GETZMAN, Street Commissioner.
Newspapers: Times,
Democratic,
Samuel MOORE, editor and publisher; Der
Deutsche Beobachter,
German, S. R. MINNIG, editor and publisher;
Ohio Democrat, Democratic, F. C.
ERVINE, editor and publisher; Tuscarawas
Advocate, Republican, J. L. McILVAINE,
editor and
publisher. Churches:
1 Reformed, 2
Lutheran, 1 Disciples, 1
United Brethren, 1 Methodist,
Presbyterian, 1 German Reformed. Banks:
Citizens' National, S. O. DONNELL, president, Charles C. WELTY,
cashier; City,
W. C. BROWNE, president; Exchange (A. BATES), John HANCE, cashier.
Manufactures and Employees.—CRISWELL
& NAGLEY, doors, sash, etc., 12 hands; New Philadelphia Iron
and Steel Co.,
sheet iron and steel, 250; Charles HOUPT, carriages, etc., 6; WARNER,
LAPPIN
& ERWIN, doors, sash, etc., 8; W. M. HEMMEGER & Son,
carriages, etc.,
7; SHARP & Son, machine shop, 4; SHARP & Son &
KISLIG, foundry, 3;
New Philadelphia Brewing Co., beer, 8; WELTY & KNISELY, straw
paper, 22; A.
BATES, harness leather, 3; New Philadelphia Pipe Works
Page 699
Co., water and gas pipe, 125; River Mills,
flour, etc., 10; J. P. BARTLES & Son, carriages, etc.,
7.—State Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 3,070.
School census, 1888,
1,384; W. H. RAY, school
superintendent. Capital
invested
in manufacturing establishments, $345,000.
Value of annual product,
$375,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
Census, 1890, 4,476.
The
county around New Philadelphia fills one with a sense of magnificence. The Tuscarawas here is
about four hundred
feet wide, the valley itself from two to three miles wide. The river hills low and
with graceful
rounding slopes, alternating with forests and cultivated fields. The town site is level as
a floor, with broad
streets and large home lots.
In
the vicinity are three salt furnaces, the wells about 900 feet deep. The brines are
“40 Salometer
test,” which is characteristic of the Ohio and Pennsylvania
brines. The united
production of these wells is about
75,000 barrels. Bromine is manufactured at the salt
wells, and is more an article
of profit than the salt. Large
quantities were used in the hospitals in the war time.
The fire-clay industry, in certain parts of
the county, is growing in importance, and the materials are
abundant—coal, clay
and water. At Urichsville
Sewer Pipe Works the clay is fourteen feet thick, under a four-feet
seam of coal, in the drift mines there.
Dover in 1846.—Dover,
three miles
northwest of New Philadelphia, was laid out in the fall of 1807, by
SLINGLUFF
and DEARDORFF, and was an inconsiderable village until the Ohio Canal
went into
operation. It is
now, through the
enterprise of its citizens and the facilities furnished by the canal,
one of
the most thriving villages upon it, by which it is distant from
Cleveland
ninety-three miles. Its
situation is
fine, being upon a slight elevation on the west bank of the Tus-
Drawn by
Henry Howe in 1846
DOVER
carawas, in the midst of a beautiful and fertile
country. The view
was taken on the line
of the canal: DEARDORFF’S mill and the bridge over the canal
are seen on the
right; in the centre of the view appears the spire of the Baptist church, and on the extreme left,
WELTY and HAYDEN’S flouring
mill. The town is
sometimes incorrectly
called Canal Dover, that being the name of the post-office. It contains 1
Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1
Moravian, 1 Baptist and 1 Methodist church; 6 mercantile stores, 1 woollen factory, 2 furnaces, 1
saw and 2 flouring mills, 3
tanneries, 2 forwarding houses, and had, in 1840 598 inhabitants, since
which
it is estimated to have doubled its population.—Old
Edition.
Page 700
CANAL
DOVER is three miles northwest of New Philadelphia, on the west bank of
the
Tuscarawas river, the
Ohio Canal, the C. & M., C.
& P. and C. L. & W. Railroads.
City
Officers, 1888: J. H. MITCHELL, Mayor; Emanuel AMICK, Clerk; Wm. H.
VORHARR,
Treasurer; John W. GOODMAN, Marshal; John W. CRISWELL, Street
Commissioner. Newspapers:
Iron Valley Reporter, Independent,
W. W.
SCOTT, editor and publisher; Tuscarawas
County Democrat, Democratic, W. C. GOULD, editor and
publisher. Churches:
1 German Methodist, 1 Methodist
Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, 1 Catholic, 1 Moravian, 1 German Evangelical. Banks: Exchange (P.
Baker’s Sons & Co.),
Jesse D. BAKER, cashier; Iron Valley (A. VINTON, STOUTT &
VINTON).
Manufactures and Employees.—Cascade
Mills, 5 hands; City Mills, 17; Dover Brewing Co., 4; S. TOONEY
& Co.,
carriages, etc., 35; Christian FEIL, carriages, etc., 4; WIBLE, WENZ
& Co.,
doors, sash, etc., 7; The Penn Iron and Coal Co., 75; G. H. HOPKINS,
iron
castings, 12; Sugar Creek Salt Works, 13; DEIS, BISSMANN, KURTZ
& Co.,
furniture, 95; Dover Fire Brick Co., 30; REEVES Iron Co.,
175.—State Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 2,228.
School census, 1888,
1,065. Capital
invested in manufacturing
establishments, $412,000. Value of annual product, $730,200.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
Census, 1890, 3,373.
Drawn by
Henry Howe in 1846
[On
the right is shown the hotel; on the left, the store—beyond,
up the street, is
a building of considerable elegance,
the residence of
Mr. BIMELER. Among
the
carefully cultivated shrubbery in the
gardens adjoining are
cedar trees
of some twenty feet in height,
trimmed to almost perfect
cylinders.]
THE GERMAN COMMUNIST
SETTLEMENT AT ZOAR.
Eleven
miles north of the county-seat and eight from Dover is the settlement
of a
German community, a sketch of which we annex from one of our own
communications
to a public print.
Strangers in a Strange Land.—In the spring of 1817 about two
hundred Germans from Wirtemberg
embarked upon the ocean. Of
lowly origin, of the sect called
Separatists, they were about to seek a home in the New World, to enjoy
the
religious freedom denied in their fatherland.
In August they arrived in Philadelphia, poor in purse,
ignorant of the
world, but rich in a more exalted treasure.
On their voyage across the Atlantic, one young man gained
their
veneration and affections by his superior intelli-
Page 701
gence, simple manners and kindness to
the sick. Originally
a weaver, then a teacher in
Germany, and now intrusting his fortunes with those of like faith,
Joseph M.
BIMELER found himself, on reaching our shores, the acknowledged one
whose sympathies
were to soften and whose judgment was to guide them through the trials
and
vicissitudes yet to come. Acting
by
general consent as agent, he purchased for them on credit 5,500 acres
in the
county of Tuscarawas, to which the colonists removed the December and
January
following. They
fell to work in separate
families, erecting bark huts and log shanties, and providing for their
immediate wants.
Strangers
in a strange land, girt around by a wilderness enshrouded in
winter’s stern and
dreary forms, ere spring had burst upon them with its gladdening smile,
the cup
of privation and suffering was held to their lips, and they were made
to drink
to the dregs. But
although poor and
humble, they were not entirely friendless.
A distant stranger, by chance hearing of the distress of
these poor German
emigrants, sent provisions for their relief—an incident
related by some of them
at the present day with tears of gratitude.
Power of Associated Effort.—For about eighteen months they
toiled in separate families,
but unable thus to sustain themselves in this then new country, the
idea was
suggested to combine and conquer by the mighty enginery of associated
effort. A
constitution was adopted,
formed on purely republican and democratic principles, under which they
have
lived to the present time. By
it they
hold all their property in common.
Their
principal officers are an agent and three trustees, upon whom devolve
the
management of the temporal affairs of the community. Their offices are
elective, females voting as well as males.
The trustees serve three years, one vacating his post
annually and a new
election held.
For
years the colony struggled against the current, but their economy,
industry and
integrity enabled them to overcome every obstacle and eventually to
obtain
wealth. Their
numbers have slightly
diminished since their arrival, in consequence of a loss of fifty
persons in
the summer of 1832, by cholera and kindred diseases, and poverty in the
early
years of their settlement, which prevented the contracting of new
matrimonial
alliances.
Their
property is now valued at near half a million.
It consists of nine thousand acres of land in one body, one oil, one saw and two flouring
mills, two furnaces, one woollen
factory, the stock of their domain and money
invested in stocks. Their
village, named
Zoar, situated about
half a mile east of the
Tuscarawas, has not a very prepossessing appearance.
Everything
is for use—little for show.
The
dwellings, twenty-five in number, are substantial and of comfortable
proportions; many of them log, and nearly all unpainted. The barns are of huge
dimensions, and with
the rest are grouped without order, rearing their brown sides and
red-tiled
roofs above the foliage of the fruit trees, partially enveloping them. Turning from the village,
the eye is refreshed
by the verdure of the meadows that stretch away on either hand, where
not even
a stick or a chip is to be seen to mar the neatness and beauty of the
green
sward.
Plodding Industry.—The
sound of the horn at daybreak calls them to their labors. They mostly work in
groups, in a plodding but
systematic manner that accomplishes much.
Their tools are usually coarse, among which is the German
scythe, short
and unwieldy as a bush-hook, sickles without teeth, and hoes clumsy and
heavy
as the mattock of the Southern slave.
The females join in the labors of the field, hoe, reap,
pitch hay, and
even clean and wheel out in barrows the offal of the stables. Their costume and language
are that of
Germany. They are
seen about the village
going to the field with implements of labor across their shoulders,
their faces
shaded by immense circular rimmed hats of straw—or with their
hair combed
straight back from their foreheads and tied under a coarse blue cap of
cotton,
toting upon their heads baskets of apples or tubs of milk.
Systematic
division of labor is a prominent feature in their domestic economy,
although
here far from reaching its attainable perfection.
Their clothing is washed together, and one
bakery supplies them with bread. A
general nursery shelters all the children over three years of age. There these little pocket
editions of
humanity are well cared for by kind dames in the sere and yellow leaf.
An Economical Boniface.—The
selfishness
so prominent in the competitive avocations of society is here kept from
its odious development by the
interest each
strikingly manifests in the general welfare, as only thus can their own
be
promoted. The
closest economy is shown
in all their operations—for as the good old man KREUTZNER,
the Boniface of the
community, once observed in broken English, when starting on a bee line
for a
decaying apple cast by a heedless stranger into the
street—“saving make rich!” Besides acting as host in
the neat village
inn, this man KREUTZNER is the veterinary Æsculapius
of this society, carrying out the universal economy still further by practising one the homœopathic
principles! Astonishing are the results of his skill on his
quarto-limbed
patients, who, from rolling and snorting under acute pains of the
abdominal
viscera, are, by the melting on the lips of their tongues of a few
pills of an
infinitesimal size, lifted into a comfortable state of physical
exaltation.
With
all the peculiarities of their religious faith and practice we are
unacquainted; but, like most sects denominated Christian, there is
sufficient
in their creed, if followed, to make their lives here upright, and to
justify
the hope of a glorious future. Separatists
is a
term applied to them, because they separated from the Lutheran and
other
denominations. They
have no prayers,
baptisms nor sacraments, and, like Jews, eschew pork.
Their log church is often filled winter even-
Page 702
ings, and twice on the Sabbath. The morning service
consists of music,
instrumental and vocal, in which a piano is used, together with the
reading and
explanation of the Scriptures by one of their number.
The afternoon exercises differ from it in the
substitution of catechizing from a German work for biblical instruction.
A Beloved Leader.—They
owe much of their
prosperity to BIMELER, now an old man, and justly regarded as the
patriarch of
the community. He
is their adviser in
all temporal things, their physician to heal their bodily infirmities,
and
their spiritual guide to point to a purer world.
Although but as one of them, his superior
education and excellent moral qualities have given him a commanding
influence,
and gained their love and reverence.
He
returns the affection of the people, with whom he has toiled until near
a generation has passed
away, with his whole soul. He
has few thoughts for this father-land, and
no desire to return thither to visit the home of his youth. The green hills of this
beautiful valley
enclose the dearest objects of his earthly affections and earthly hopes.
The
community are strict utilitarians,
and there is but little mental development among them.
Instruction is given in winter to the
children in German and English. They
are
a very simple-minded, artless people, unacquainted with the outer
world, and
the great questions, moral and political, which agitate it. Of scarcely equalled
morality, never has a member been convicted of going counter to the
judicial
regulations of the land. Thus
they pass
through their pilgrimage with but apparently few of the ills that fall
to the
common lot, presenting a reality delightful to behold, with contentment
resting
upon their countenances and hearts in which is enthroned peace.
The
condition of the Zoar
community has not changed
materially since the foregoing was written.
Some of the former customs have been abandoned; they have
become more
prosperous; their log-houses have been largely replaced by spacious
brick
structures, and the larger part of the farm labor is done by hired help. German is still used in
family and business
discourse. Converts
to their belief and
mode of life are accepted into the society after a probationary period;
and
while accessions are continually being received desertions are not
uncommon. The two
iron furnaces operated
by them have been abandoned for some years, they having proved
financial
failures. Joseph M.
BIMELER, to whom
they were so much indebted, died August 27, 1853.
They now number about seventy-five families,
and their record as law-abiding citizens still stands without a blemish. They are a very hospital
people and entertain
many visitors.
DENNISON
is ten miles southeast of New Philadelphia, on the P. C. & St.
L. R. R.,
and was laid out for their use about the year 1864.
City Officers, 1888: T. R. WOODBORNE, Mayor;
D. A. DEMUTH, Clerk; W. M. MISER, Marshal; John W. HILL, Treasurer; J.
T.
WATTERS, Street Commissioner; T. H. LOLLER, Solicitor, S. S. DEMUTH, Weighmaster.
Newspaper: Paragraph,
Independent, W. A. PITTENGER, editor.
Churches: 1 Episcopal, 1 Catholic and 1 Presbyterian. Here are the repair shops
of the P. C. &
St. L. R. R., with 686 hands.
Population, 1880, 1,518.
School census, 1888, 754. Chas. HAUPERT,
superintendent of
schools. Capital
invested in
manufacturing establishments, $12,000.
Value of annual product,
$40,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
UHRICHSVILLE
is ten miles southeast of New Philadelphia, at the junction of the P.
C. &
St. L. and C. L. & W. Railroads, and joins on to Dennison. City Officers, 1888: J.
MARSHALL, Marshal;
James PARRISH, Street Commissioner.
Newspaper: Tuscarawas Chronicle,
Republican, J. E. GRAHAM, editor and publisher.
Churches: 2 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Christian Union, 1 Disciples,
1 Moravian, 1 Presbyterian. Banks:
Farmers’ and Merchants’, Wm. B. THOMPSON,
president, T. J. EVANS, cashier;
Union (Geo. JOHNSTON), I. E. DEMUTH, cashier.
Manufactures
and Employees.—EVERETT
& THOMPSON, doors, sash, etc., 8 hands; Diamond Fire Clay Co.,
sewer pipe,
etc., 40.—State Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 2,790.
School census, 1888,
1,345. R.
B. SMITH, superintendent of schools.
Capital invested in manufacturing
establishments, $48,000. Value of annual product, $83,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
PORT
WASHINGTON is twelve miles southwest of New Philadelphia, on the
Page 703
Tuscarawas river,
the Ohio Canal and the P. C. & St. L. R. R.
School census, 1888, 239.
NEW
COMERSTOWN is seventeen miles southwest of New Philadelphia, on the
Tuscarawas
river, the Ohio Canal and P. C. & St. L. and C. & M.
Railroads,
City Officers,
1888: S. F. TIMMONS, Mayor; J. D. LONGSHORE, Clerk; R. F. DENT,
Treasurer;
Lewis GARDNER, Marshal; Thomas KNOWLS, Street Commissioner. Newspaper: Index,
Independent, R. M. TAYLOR, editor and publisher.
Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Methodist
Protestant, 1 Baptist, 1 Lutheran.
Bank:
Oxford, George W. MULVANE, president; Theodore F. CRATER, cashier. Population,
1880, 925. School census, 1888, 498. Capital invested in
manufacturing
establishments, $9,000. Value of annual product, $10,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
MINERAL
CITY, P. O. Mineral Point, is ten miles northeast of New Philadelphia,
at the
crossing of the Valley and C. & P. Railroads.
Newspaper: Mineral Pointer,
Independent, W. HOSICK, editor and publisher.
Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 United Brethren, 1 Lutheran, 1 Catholic,
1 German Reformed. School census, 1888, 420;
S. R. BOONER, superintendent of schools.
It is a lively mining town, with extensive coal and
fire-clay mines and
extensive fire-brick works. Population about 1,000.
BOLIVAR
is twelve miles north of New Philadelphia, on the Tuscarawas river,
the Ohio Canal and W. & L. E. R. R.
Newspaper: News-Journal,
Independent, M. H. WILLARD, editor and publisher.
Churches: 1 Lutheran, 1 Methodist, 1 German
Lutheran and 1 Catholic. Population about 800.
WEST
CHESTER, P. O. Cadwallader,
is twenty miles southeast
of New Philadelphia. Population,
1880, 216.
ZOAR
is on the Tuscarawas river
and W. & L. E. R. R.,
eleven miles north of the county-seat; has about 300 inhabitants.
SHANESVILLE
is on the C. & C. Railroad, about eleven miles west of
county-seat. It has
churches, 1 Methodist, 1 Reformed and
1 Lutheran; 1 newspaper, News,
Independent, John DOERSCHUK, editor; a bank and 500 inhabitants. School
census, 1888, 139.
BLAKE’S
MILLS is one-half mile south of New Philadelphia, on the Ohio Canal. It has 1 Methodist
Episcopal church. School
census, 1888, 179.
GNADENHUTTEN
is eleven miles south of New Philadelphia, on the Tuscarawas river
and on the P. C. & St. L. R. R.
School census, 1888, 119.
S. K. MARDIS, superintendent of schools.
This
name is pronounced Noddenhiten. There is here a Moravian
church, and is the
site of the Moravian massacre. Near
the
monument yet stands an apple-tree, planted in 1774 by the Indians, and
it has
borne apples from that day to this.
The
apple is about two inches in diameter.
Its skin is variegated in crimson and white, and the fruit
pleasant in
taste.