The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-08-19
BY JOSIAH Q. KERN.


The first house erected by whites in
what is now the State of Ohio except
such as may have been built by traders
or French Jesuits, was undoubtedly loca-
ted in what is now Stark county. 1t was
built in 1851, on the north side of the
Tuscarawas, near the confluence of Sandy
creek, in what is now Bethlehem town.
ship, by Christian Frederick Post, the
first Moravian missionary among the In
dams in the Ohio wilderness. The local
ity then known as Tuscaroratown is on
the south side of the Tuscarawas, in the
vicinity of Bolivar, near where Fort Lau-
rens was afterwards erected. Near Tus-
cararatown was the Indian fording place,
which lay in the course of the great In
dian trail running from Pittsburgh to De-
troit, and traversed principally by the
Delaware and Mohegan Indians. The
Rev. Mr.. Post built his house about two
thirds of mile in northerly direction
from Tuscaroratown, on what is now
known as section 25, in Bethlehem town
ship, Stark county. This house must
have been the first erected in Ohio, for
the Indian and Moravian village of
Schnnbrun was not commenced until
1772, eleven years afterwards. The site
of Mr.. Posts dwelling or missionary sta
ton was long indicated by pile of stones
which had probably formed the back
wall of the chimney. The garden site
differed from the woods around it in the
total want of heavy timber. The ruins
of traders house on the opposite side
of the river have been mistaken for this
missionary station. The authority for
the location of Mr.. Posts dwelling at
this point is Mr.. Joseph H. Larwill, the
original surveyor, who obtained ifront
Mr.. Heckewelder, well known Mora:
Wan missionary. In 1910 Mr.. Lewis Vail,
of Canton, published map of Stark
county, on which he noted, on section %,
in Bethlehem township, near the juno
ton of the Sandy and the ruscarawas,
the following words. "Moravian Mission
ary Station, 1861" and he seems to have
had ample authority for so doing. The
locality of Tuscaroratown, at the junction
of the Sandy and the Tuscarawas, has
also become famous as the point of COM
mencement of the Greenville treaty line
running thence to Fort Laramies, as
agreed upon in August 1895. 1t will also
be remembered that Brigadier General
Lachlan Mcintosh, of the Continental
Army, who in May, ITS, succeeded Cen
eral Hand in the command of the West
ern District, with headquarters at Fort
Pitt, erected Fort Laurens in November
and December following, on the west
bank of the Tuscarawas, half mile below
the present town of Bolivar, in Tusca-
rawas county, and it was therefore quite
near the historic spot under considera-
ton. Would it not be very appropriate
to erect monument on the spot where
POSTS house stood, indicating its precise
location and commemorating the erec-
ton OF the first house in the State of
Ohio?
Reference to Mr.. Post and his mission
ary labors among the Indians in Ohio is
made in Loskiel's History of the Missions
of the United Brethren among the In
dians of North America; also in the Me-
moirs of the Rev. David Zeisberger, in
the Memoirs O. the Rev. John Hecke-
welder's Narrative. In his History of the
Missions, Loskiel makes the following al
lusion to the missionary labors of the
Rev. Mr.. Post on the Tuscarawas in 1761
On the Ohio river where, since the last
war, some of the Ohio Indians lived who
had been baptised by the brethren, moth
ing could be done up to this time. How
ever, brother Frederick Post lived, though
of his own choice, about one hundred
English miles west of Pittsburgh, at Tus-
carcratown, with view to commence a
mission among those Indians. The breth-
rem wished the blessings of the Almighty
upon his undertaking, and when he ask
ed for an assistant to help him in his
outward concerns, and who might during
the same time learn the language Of the
Delaware Indians, they (the brethren)
made it known to the congregation of