The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-07-24
in THE DAYS OR THE PIONEERS.
Events ir the Tuscarawas Valley One Hundred
Years Ago.
by Smith,
BY Jacob Smith.
CHAPTER WI.

| of civilization. No person was allow
ed to live in the society without first
having promised to conform to the
rules as laid down, BY referring to
Heckewelder's narrative we find the
entire code of rules, TWENTY-FIVE In
number. from which we take the lib
erty to copy part SO that the reader
may form some estimate of their worth
and grandeur.
l. We will Know OF no God, nor
worship any other but him who has
created US and redeemed us with his
most precious blood
2. We will rest from all labor on
Sundays, and attend the usual meet
ings on that day for divine service.
! 3. We will honor father and mother
and support them in age and distress
a. We will not be idle and lazy;
nor tell lies of one another; nor strike
each other; we will live peaceably to-
gether.
5. We will not permit any rum or
spirituous liquors to be brought into
our towns. If traders or strangers
happen to bring any, the helpers OF
! assistants are to take it into their pos
session, and take care not to deliver
1t to them until they set off again.
6. Young people are not to marry
without the consent of their parents
and taking their advice etc.
The year following another settle
ment was commenced about ten miles
further south, which was called Gnad-
enhutten, and which name the place
is known by at the present day.
In March, 1880, the town of Salem
was built near the present Port Wash
ington. 1t was also a Moravian set
tlement of Christian Indians, and
had chapel for worship of the same
size of those in the towns of Shoen-
brun and Gnadenhutten, viz: thirty
six by forty feet. and in this chapel
the same year Heckewelder and Miss
Sarah Ohneberg were married, being
the first known couple of white people
married in the state.
These Moravian towns being stu
ated on the border line between the
settlements of western Pennsylvania,
northern Virginia, and the savage
tribes inhabiting the country adjacent
to the northern lakes and north of the
Ohio river, they became an object of
hatred to the settlers. as it was sup
posed that the marauding bands of In
dians were harbored at these places
when or their excursions against the
whites, and that they secretly helped
the Indians in different ways. Act
ing under this belief the whites deter
mined to destroy the Indian towns and
thus remove what they supposed one
of the great factors in the present dis
turbance. This was the period of
time during which Great Britain was
most active in stirring up the Indians
to activity against the frontier settle
ments along western Pennsylvania
and Virginia. and quite number Of
settlers and their families had been
cruelty slaughtered as a result. These
depredations had been carried on to
such an extent that the settlers deter
mined to retaliate with vengeance.
CHRISTIAN INDIANS AGAINs \
WAR.
The Christian Indians had during
the continuance of the war so far
nobiy withstood every allurement
which was practiced to draw them
within its vortex, and expressed their
strong disapprobation of war in gem
eral, saying that it must be displeas-
ing to that Great Being who made
men, to destroy one another, but their
duty was to love and assist each 9TH
err"
Early In the month of March, 1882,
about one hundred men assembled
themselves at the Old Mingo town near
the present Steubenyille for the pur-
pose of effecting the destruction OF
the Moravian towns. They were plac-
ed under command of Colonel David
Williamson, who ayowed their object
to be the destruction of the houses
and the laying waste the crops in or
der to deprive the hostile savages of
the advantages of obtaining shelter
and provisions 80 near the frontier,
and the removal of the Moravians to
Fort Pitt to preserve them from per-
sonal injury which, it was feared.
would be inflicted upon them.
They took UP the line of march from
the Mingo town, and on the morning
of March 6 they reached the town
of Gnadenhutten.
Arrived among the Indians. they Of
fered no violence, but, on the con-
trary, protesting peace and good will,
assured them they had come for the
purpose of escorting them safely to
Fort Pitt. that they might no longer
be exposed to molestaNon from the
militia of the whites or the warriors
of the savages. many of whom believed
them tn ha acting I'm hahalf OP fna