Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-05-18
AN OHIO CENTENNIAL,
The Massacre OF Moravian Christian
Indians in the Muskingum Valley.

VII blc Gttu VI lSAG MAY IutTt WI
be celebrated at Gnadenhutten, Tus
carawas county, o., the one-hundredtI
anniversary of one of the most horri
BILE tragedies that ever darkened tn
pages of American history, that OF tn
massacre in cold blood Of ninety.si
Moravian Christian Indians by a ban
of white settlers. As the centennia
of this event approaches, a brief aC
count of the circumstances leading t
the sad tragedy will, no doubt, be o
great interest to the readers of Tn
Gazette.
In 1873 the German Moravian mis-
sionaries Teisberger and Heckwelde
induced a number of the Indian con
verts to make a settlement here, AM
huts were soon erected, lands cleared
and thriving little Indian villag
was the result. For ten years thes
Christian Indians enjoyed the peac
and comforts of a civilized life, hut
alas, how soon were they to be sub
jected to the most cruel and outrageOu
treatment. In the fall of 1882 tn
British stationed at Detroit ard thei
Indian allies under Half King Pipe, a
Sandusky, endeavored to induce thes,
Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten t
aid them in waging a war on the whit,
settlers in the Tuscarawas valleys
This the Moravians refused to do, a,
they desired to remain neutral anC
thus avoid the horrors of a border war
fare. Enraged at this, the British
seized Teisberger, Heckwelder, and al
the Christian MOravian Indians al
Gnadenhutten, and with their horses
cattle, etc, drove them prisoners Il
Detroit. Here these poor Christians
almost starved to death, and about
midwin,er one hundred or more OF
them received permission from theil
captors TO return to Gnadenhutten and
there gather the corn crop of the last
year and bring it to their starving
brethren in Detroit.
About the time these Moravians
started on their humane expedition to
Gnadenhutten, bands of savages were
instigated by the British to plundel
and pillage the white settlers in the
Tuscarawas valley, in order to inAame
the prisoners, and thus induce them tC
make war on the Moravians, whom the
British well knew would be charged
with these atrocities. In February
1882, a band of these savages mur.
dered the family of one William Wal,
lace, in eastern Ohio, and fled toward
the Morayian town of Gnadenhutten.
On their trail they hung the mutilated
bodies of Mrs. Wallace and her babe
on trees in order the further to in1ame
the settlers whom they knew would
soon be in pursuit. On arriving at
Gnadenhutten the MOravians warned
these savages of, as they well knew
the whites would soon be in pursuit.
and thus blame them (the Moravians)
for harboring these savages. Before
leaving, however, one of these Indians
traded the bloody dress of the mur.
dered Mrs. Wallace to a young and
thOughtless Moravian girl.
Early in March a company of white
settlers, numbering about one hundred
started from Mingo bottoms, near the
present site of Steubenville, under com
mand of Col. David Williamson, and
proceeded toward Gnadenhntten ia
have revenge, as they supposed, on the
perpetrators of the recent barbarities
On reaching Gnsdenhutten they found
the Moravlans gathering the corn ia
carry to their famishing brethren in
Detroit, little suspecting the horrible
tragedy which was in store for them
AT first Col. Williamson's men treat.
ed the Moravians very kindly, and un.
der promises of friendship and good
will induced all of them to give up
their arms. The whites further prom.
ised them that they would do them no
harm, but would take them safely to
Fort Pitt as prisoners, and there treat
them kindly. No sooner had the Mora.
vians surrendered their arms than the
whites began to accuse them of per-
petrating the recent outrages on the
settlers, and plainly told them they pro.
posed to butcher all of them. In vain
did the Moravians protest their limo.
cence, but the bloodthirsty whites cried
for vengeance, and pointed to the
bloOd-stained dress of the murdered
Mis-. Wallace as evidence of their guilt.
The Moravians, to the number of
one hundred, were confined in large
log building used as a cOoper-shop, and
a vote was then taken by Col. William
sons men as to whether they should
butcher these poor victims or carry
them as prisoners to Fort Pitt. Out of
the whole command only eighteen voted
to spare their lives, and the almost
unanimous decision, therefore, was
murder. And thus it was decided to
perpetrate a deed which makes up the
darkest and bloodiest page in the his.
tory of the country. When the de.
cision was made known to the
MOravians, they asked a few moments
for devotion and prepared to meet
death as the martyrs of old.
They were then taken from the
building, two by two, with their hands
tied behind them, and led to another
building, and just as they entered the
doorway, a soldier within dealt them a
terrible blow on the head with a
heavy copper's mallet, which crushed
the skull Of the poor victim and
scattered his brains around the room.
The poor victims were then dragged to
one side, only to make room for
another, and in this manner were
murdered in cold blood ninety.six
Moravian Christian Indians, thirty
three Of whom were Innocent women
and children and infants at the breast.
Thus the work of death progressed in
these slaughter-houses until not a sigh
or moan was heard to proclaim that
human being was alive. The gun,
the spear, and scalping.knlfe finished
the wholesale and brutal murder of
these innocent and defenceless victims.
Only two escaped to recount in
after years this horrible tragedy.
After the victims were all killed and
scalped, they were piled in heaps and
burned, and for many years the bones
of these murdered victims lay bleach.