Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-06-07
SELECT.
GNADENHUTTEN.
Story of the Massacre OF the
MOrayian Indians.

means tents of grace and at this
quiet spot with holy name was per-
petrated a wholesale butchery of inno-
cent people which will always remain
foul blot on the early history of Ohio.
Twenty-nine men, twenty seven women
and thirty-four children were slaus hter-
ed. Two buildings were selected
for the horrible purpose, the women
and babes being killed in one, the men
and boys in the other. 1t is recorded
that they died almost cheerfully, the
hymns and prayers of those about to
perish mingling with the death groans
of their unhappy companions. The
story of the crime and the circum-
stances which led up to it forms an in
teresting but awful chapter IN the
chronicles of the time
In order that our readers may
thoroughly comprehend the significance
Of the event it is necessary to 60 back
to the year 1850. 1t was then that
David Zeisberger, the Moravian mis-
| sionary, man of rare picty, faith and
purity, was pursuing bis great work
among the Indian tribes He suffered
hardships in the wilderness he endur
ed i'll treatment at the hands of the
savage tribes whom he had resolved to
convert and never was heard to mur-
mur a complaint. He worked wonders.
Going among the heather he found
them demoralized by whisky sold to
them by white traders, wicked and un-
scrupulous. He gently persuaded them
to relinquish liquor, and pointed out
its evil effects so forcibly that whole
tribes yielded to the fascination of his
eloquence and the weight of his argu-
ments. From being frenzed brutes
they became sober and reasonable peo-
ple His influence spread rapidly from
nation to nation. Thousands, in fact.
embraced Christianity Zeisberger's
enthusiasm and piety carried all before
them. In l760 great progress had
been made and the missions were
fourishing. But that same yeareyents
occurred which greatly put back the
work of conversion. The Moravian
Indians were accused of being concern
ed in Pontiac's conspiracy. He was
who organized plot among the various |
Indian tribes to murder at given time |
the English garrisons at all points.
This was discovered, and, though it
was never proved that the Moravian
Indians took the slightest part in the
conspiracy, they were prosecuted as
much as if they had The Scotch-Irish
settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier
treated them with great harshness and
severity. They pretended to believe
or perhaps were, in fact so ignorant
and bigoted as to believe-that the In
dians were the Canaanites of the New !
World, and that the existing war had /.
come upon the colonies as a judgment
for failing to totally exterminatc the
native tribes The Moravian Indians
being kind and gentle were very
naturally fit and fair quarry for these
highly civilized white settlers.
An interesting chapter in the history
of their early prosecutions is that which
treats of the narrow escape from ex-
termination of considerable body of /
the Moravian Indians. The threats
against those who had settled on the |
Pennsylvania frontier were ofso deadly ,
a nature that David Zeisberger advised !
them to deliver up their arms and to .
march to Philadelphia. They sought
refuge In the military quarters there,
but the soldiers threatened to kill them |
if they did not go away. The poor !
refugees were mobbed by an excited |
and angry rabble, and the streets rang
with yclls and shouts which sounded
as fierce as the warhoop ofthe savages.
Zeisberger was with them all the time, |
standing by them and encouraging
them A goodly number of Quakers
who had suffered their share of cruelty !
and persecution not so long before also
took the poor Indians by the hand,
needless of the groans and curses OF
the mob. They were finally removed
to an island in the river as a measure
of precaution. Their lives were provi-
dentially preserved A body of Scotch
Irish, several hundred strong, from
Lancaster, calling themselves the Pax
ton Boys after butchering number
of Conestoga Indians, who bad sought
protection in Jail, marched toward
Philadelphia with the avowed object
of killing all the Moravian refugees.
Zeisberger and others prevailed upon
them to relinquish their murderous de-
signs and so the poor Indians escaped
with their lives on that occasion Some
of them, it is true, were reserved for a
worse fate and were brutally killed in
the Tuscarawas Valley. Meanwhile
the Indians were taken off the island
and conveyed to the upper Susquehanna
region, beyond the Wyoming Valley,
where they built the hamlet of Frieden
shutten, or Tents of Peace About
1863 Zeisberger established stations Oh
the Allegheny and Beaver rivers.
1t was in ITO that a number of
Moravian Indians settled in the Tus-
carawas Valley. They worked hard
tilling the fertile soil and living lives
of exemplary frugality and industry.
The settlement flourished and Indians
focked from the extreme West to the
pleasant tract in eastern Ohio. For
ten wears all went well. The country
abounded in rich fields of waving corn.
Each house had its Garden and or
cbard, peace and prosperity prevailed.
In 1880 the British melted body of
Delawares commanded by Captain
Pipe against the little colony at
GnaGenhutten. They were joined by
party of Wyandottes, and they
broke up the settlement, carrying the
Jnd;anC tn SanduSxv and their teach
ers to Detroit, the seat of the British
headquarters 1t was in the follow
ing year that the slaughter took place,
and this was how it came about The
poor people, who had been so cruelty
kidnapped from their homes at Gnad-
nnhnttan left acres and acres of corn