The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-27

Bishop, DR.. Edmund de Schweinitz, of
Bethlehem, Pa, was the orator of the
occasion. Four Delaware Indians lin
cal descendants of those who were
murdered), from the New Fairfield mis-
sion in Canada, unveiled the monument,
and two of them delivered brief ad-
dresses to the vast multitude of visitors,
estimated at ten thousand persons.
The monument is thirty-five feet seven
inches high, is composed of subcarbo-
niferous limestone, is of light brown
color, and cost 5000; it bears the fol-
lowing inscription
ERECTED JUNE 9Th, 1872.
HERE
TRIUMPHED IN DEATH
NINETY CHRISTIAN INDIANS,
MARCH Sth, 17S2.
GNADENHUETTEN."
Surely it was the sentiment of Chris
tian love which prompted the Moravian
people, after lapse of ninety years, to
honor in this substantial manner their
Indian brethren of a common faith.
Gnadenhuetten is kind of Mecca or
Jerusalem to which the Moravian Chris
tian is wont to make pilgrimage.
The place is beautiful for situation.
Besides the monument there are other
items of attraction. A little mound of
pleasing proportions marks the site of
the old mission-house. The places where
stood the two laughter-houses," in
which the helpless Indians were so in
humanity murdered, are also. pointed
out. An apple-tree 112 years of age,
planted by the Indians in IVA, is still
ina fruitful condition it is being jeal-
ously guarded against the sacrilegious
hand of the relic-hunter. Grass-plots,
driveways, shrubbery and evergreens,
add grace and variety to the scene.
The adjacent cemetery, with its scale
of grave-stones, from the modest sand
stone slab of sixty years ago to the
costly granite monument of to-day,
gives rise to reflections on the social
progress which generation of time
produces, while, at the same time, it
grimly suggests the way which every
man is appointed to go.
A COINCIDENCE.
Birth and death bring many coinci-
dences to mans notice. Gnadenhuet-
ten has historic interest also in the fact
that it was the birthplace, on July 4,
1773, of the first white child born in
the State of Ohio; it was a boy, and
was solemnly christened John Lewis
Roth.
DAVID ZEISBERGER.
On April II, 1921, there was born at
Zauchtenthal, Moravia, in Bohemia,
David Zeisberger. He was educated
in Saxony; there he made the acquaint-
ance of Count Zinzendorf, the founder
of the Christian sect, known as Mora
vians, whose religious faith he adopted;
he was destined to become one of the
most noted and successful missionaries
of the Moravian denomination. Early
in life he came to America, and in 174O
he began his labor as a missionary to
the Indians. He organized the Gna-
denhuetten mission; its tragic extinc-
ton in 1882, interrupted for season
his Jealous enterprise. But he did not
give up; he induced Congress to grant
in 1876, to the Moravian Indians,
tract of land lying about eight miles up
the Tuscarawas river, from Gnaden-
huetten. Accompanied by number of
converts, he took possession of this
tract, and built thereon the town of
Goshen. The place is still locally known
as Goshen, but of the old Indian town
there are now no traces left but several
apple-trees, the graveyard, and recol-
lections in the minds of the older resi-
dent inhabitants, who, in an early day,
possessed the neighborhood.
On Nov. II, 1908, having reached the
venerable age of almost eighty eight
years, David Zeisberger died at Goshen,
and his remains were buried there in
the little Indian graveyard" which
he himself laid out. One of his assist
ant missionaries and number of his
Indian converts are buried about him.
On his grave lies large sandstone
covered by a plain marble slab, on which
are chiseled his name, dates of birth and
death, together with the following tes-
timOny to his Christian work:
"This faithful servant of the Lord
labored among the American Indians
as a missionary, during the last sixty
years of his life.'