The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-27
SreciaI Contributors.
A M0RAVlAN MISSION.
BY REV. J. +. SCHNEIDER.
(Mitchellville, Ia.)


''Gnadenhuetten" is the name of a
village of few hundred population,
situated on the east bank of the Tusca-
rawas river, lin Tuscarawas county,
o., on the line of the Pittsburg, Gin
cinnati & st. Louis railroad, nearly one
hundred miles east of Columbus. It
was here that David Zeisberger, the
celebrated Moravian missionary, about
the year 1772, succeeded in converting
to Christianity, and organizing into a
fourishing congregation, large num-
Der Of Indians of the Delaware tribe.
The Revolutionary War, which broke
out in 1775, was attended by circum-
stances, which, for time, interrupted
the peace and prosperity of the Gna-
denhuetten mission.
The English and the Americans both
suspected the Christian Indians of be-
ing hostile to their cause, and allied
with the opposition, and regarded the
missionaries as spies. Under this double
suspicion they suffered many limita-
tions of lawful privilege. The English
governor of Detroit conspired with the
chief of the Wyandot tribe to kidnap
the missionaries and their converts.
In 1881 the missionaries and most of
their congregation were taken and con-
Quoted to Sandusky, the home of the
Wyandots. The missionaries were sum-
moned to Detroit to meet the court
martial appointed to examine into their
imputed completely with the Amer
leans fortunately for them, they were
exonerated from all charges and sus-
picions, and permitted to return to their
congregation.
What proved to them fatal year,
1882, had begun. There was neither
corn nor game in the place selected for
them as their home, nor were there any
houses to shelter them from the win
ter's severity. Their cattle died of
dren persisted for want of food. Driven
by stress of circumstances, they deter
mined to work their way back to Gna-
denhuetten. After journey of sew
eral weeks, in which they endured the
most terrible privations of hunger and
cold, they arrived at their old home
and, to their great joy, they found the
corn of the previous summer still stand
ing unharvested in the fie Id But
having escaped from one misfortune,
they were soon to be Overtaken by an
other, and more fatal.
Very early in the year 1882, the white
settlers living on the Ohio river, in the
vicinitles of Steubenville and Wheel
ing, were seriously molested by Indians.
1t was supposed that the Christian con-
verts residing in the Tuscarawas valley,
either committed the depredations or
harbored the guilty parties so it was
decided to destroy completely the Mora
Wan mission settlements. Accordingly
Col. David Williamson, in command of
about one hundred volunteers from
Virginia and Pennsylvania, set out for
Gnadenhuetten. When they had ar
rived near the village, they met the son
of one of the assistant missionaries and
cruelty murdered him. They entered
the town, and under pretense of friend
ship, urged the Indians to move to
Pittsburg, where they would be secure
from all their enemies. To this propo-
sition the unsuspecting converts finally
agreed, and made preparation to set out
on the journey. Col. Williamson and
his men watched their opportunity,
seized the mission Indians, disarmed
and imprisoned them; the men were
put into one house, the women and
children into another. A consultation
was held, and it was decided by a delib-
crate vote of eighty-two against seven
teen, to kill the entire party of prison
ers. Their fate was announced to them,
and they were given until the following
morning to prepare for death. On the
Sth of March, 1882, was perpetrated one
of the most barbarous crimes recorded
in history. Men, women, and children
were led forth as animals to the slaugh-
ter, knocked down with a mallet found
II a cOoper-shop, and brutally butch
cred. Ninety-six Moravian Indians were
killed-forty men, twenty-five women,
thirty four children. The spot on which
the horrible tragedy was enacted has