The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-11-17
FIRST NATIVE OF OHIO.

John Lewis Roth, the First
White Child born Oh the Soil
0fOhiO.
Robert Clarke, the Cincinnati pub
Usher, sends the following COM
munication to the Cincinnati Chroni-
Gle:
In the American Pioneer fer. May,
1912, (vol. 2, p. 224), is published
letter from Mary Heckeweldtr, in
which she states that she s'was born
April 16, 1881, in Salem, one of. the
MOravian Indian towns on the Mus
kingum river, State of Ohio" and
then gives a slight sketch of her cap
tivity and early life. The editor, Mr..
J. S. Williams, in his Introductory
note calls her "the first white child
born in the Slate of Ohio" though
she makes no such statement in the
letter. One Of the contributions to the
Autograph Department Of the Great
Western Sanitary Fair, held in this
city in December, 1868, was a letter
from the same lady, though she signs
her name johanna Maria HttkeWpldeE.
In this letter, which is now before me,
after giving the date of her birth as
above, she says:
II am called the first white person
born in your now great State." There
seems to be lingering doubt in this
expression, as if she were not quite
sure of it herself but was inclined to
believe it because Mr.. Williams, and
Fperhaps Others, had so represented it.
Since that time she has certainly been
SO considered, and when she died,
ISeptember 19, 1868, her death was
Everywhere chIonitled as the "death
of the first white child born in the
St te of Ohio"
She was tire daughter of Rev. John
Heckewelder, a man of note among
the moraVians, and one Of the brave
band of missionaries who founded the
mission stations of Schonbrunn and
&nadenhutten, in the present county
Of TuscaraWas, in this State, in 1872
and for nine years preached the gospel
with great success among the Della
ware Indians. The colony Was a sue
cessful one, embracing several large
towns inhabited by few missionaries
and large number of converted In
dians, who buried the hatchet and
practised, in great harmony, the peace.
ful art of agriculture.
The mission station of Schonbrunn
was commenced on the 24th day of
May, 1872, "by five families, number
ing twenty-eight persons" On the
18th of June two hundred and four
persons, most OF them Indian converts,
arrived at Friedenstadt, on Beaver
river, Lawrence county, Pennsylvania.
On the 9Th of October of the same year
the town Of Gnadenhutten was begun
in what is now Clay township, Tds-
carawas county, Ohio. In the spring
Of the following year the settlement of
Friedenstadt was broken up and the
| inhabitants transferred to the Tuscara.
was stations. New stations, Lichte-
nau, New SchOnbrunn and Salem
were established, and they continued
to thrive until the British and Indians
destroyed and carried off both mission
aries and converts to Sandusky, in
1871. This was the year of Miss
Heckewelder's birth. IS there was
quite number of white families at
the settlements, it would be rather
| singular if no white children were
born in all that time, from 17T3 to
II781.
Fortunately we are not left to prob
abilities in this matter, but have
distinct and indisputabIe record of a
birth long anterior to that Of Miss
Heckewelder.
In the "Life and times of David
Zeisberger, the Western Pioneer and
Apostle of the Indians" by Edward
DeSchweiniIz, recently published by
J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia,
at page 288 we find the following
stateneht: "a few weeks before the
arrival OfSchimzk there had been born
in the midst of this mission family,
on the 4th of July, 1873, at Gnaden-
hutten, the first white child in the
present State of Ohio. HRS. Maria
Anges Roth was his mother, and he
received in baptism, administered by
Zeisberger on the 9Th of July, the
name of John Lewis Roth"
In a note the author gives his au-
thority for this statement: "This in
terestihg fact is established by the Of
fetal diary of Gnadenhutten lin the
archives of the MOravian Church, pre-
served at Bethlehem, Pal which
says: "July 4, 1773-To-day God
gave brother and sister Roth young
son. He was baptized into the death
of Jesus, and named John Lewis, on
5th inst, by brother David zeisberger,
who, together with brother Jungman,
and his wife, came here this morn
ing" Then follows an account of the
presents of the child.
This seems to establish the fact be-
yOnd doubt that John Lewis Roth
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