Description: This image shows a memorial to Gnadenhutten, a Moravian church. The memorial reads "Here triumphed in death ninety Christian Indians March 8, 1782". Gnadenhutten is the oldest settlement in Ohio, a settlement of German American and Lenape American Indians. The Moravian Church founded the village as a mission to the American Indians. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06565
Subjects: Gnadenhutten Massacre; American Indians; Moravian Church--Missions--Ohio; Delaware Indians--History--18th century
Places: Gnadenhutten (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This 1930s-era photograph shows an area surrounded by an iron fence with 10 stone pillars. The body of David Zeisberger, missionary and founder of nearby Gnadenhutten, as well as William Edwards, missionary, and William Henry "Chief Killbuck" Gelelemend, who was head chief of the Delaware Indian Council, are buried within the enclosure. There are also several rows of Indian graves and a few other missionaries buried in the cemetery. Zeisbergers Memorial Cemetery, sometimes called the Goshen-Indian Cemetery, is located between Goshen Valley Road SE (Township Hwy 322) and David Road SE in Goshen. A Moravian village was established in Goshen in 1798 by David Zeisberger, of Pennsylvania, and a band of Christian Indians. For 16 years after the Gnadenhutten massacre in 1782 the little band of refugees had moved from place to place. In 1798 they went back to Tuscarawas, setting up new villages on the 12, 000 acres of land granted them by Congress, and prospered for a while. But the deaths of the missionaries and the return of Pastor Heckwelder to Pennsylvania left the Ohio converts without effective guidance, and Goshen and the other missions settlements declined. In 1832 Goshen ceded its holdings to the Government for $6, 654, and the town virtually disappeared. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B15F01_018
Subjects: Cemeteries--Ohio; Moravian Church -- Missions -- Ohio; Gnadenhutten Massacre, Gnadenhutten, Ohio, 1782; Zeisberger, David, 1721-1808
Places: Gnadenhutten; Goshen (Ohio); New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Illustration showing the massacre of American Indians led by Colonel David Williamson of the Pennsylvania militia. In 1772, Moravian missionaries founded a mission for American Indians in the Ohio Country at Schoenbrunn ("Beautiful Spring" in German). Because of its success, Rev. David Zeisberger founded a second village in the same year at Gnadenhutten ("Tents of Grace" in German). Life at Gnadenhutten was similar to life at Schoenbrunn. On March 8 and 9, 1782, a group of Pennsylvania militiamen under the command of Williamson attacked the mission and the American Indians on site in retaliation for the deaths and kidnappings of several white Pennsylvanians, although this particular group of so-called "Christian Delaware" had recently returned from their new outpost at Upper Sandusky to forage for crops, and had no connection to the Pennsylvania attack. In all, Williamson's men murdered 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children, and the village was burned. There were only two survivors, who informed Moravian missionaries and other American Indians as to what had occurred. This illustration comes from William Dean Howells' "Stories of Ohio" (1897). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07916
Subjects: Gnadenhutten Massacre; Moravian Church -- Missions -- Ohio; American Indians in Ohio; Delaware Indians -- History
Places: Gnadenhutten (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Handwritten on reverse: "Zeisbergers Cemetery at Goshen. S.H. Green West High Ave. New Phila." This photograph shows an area surrounded by an iron fence with 10 stone pillars. The body of David Zeisberger, missionary and founder of nearby Gnadenhutten, as well as William Edwards, missionary, and William Henry "Chief Killbuck" Gelelemend, who was head chief of the Delaware Indian Council are buried within the enclosure. There are also several rows of Indian graves and a few other missionaries buried in the cemetery. Zeisbergers Memorial Cemetery, sometimes called the Goshen-Indian Cemetery, is located between Goshen Valley Road SE (Township Hwy 322) and David Road SE in Goshen. A Moravian village was established in Goshen in 1798 by David Zeisberger, of Pennsylvania, and a band of Christian Indians. For 16 years after the Gnadenhutten massacre in 1782 the little band of refugees had moved from place to place. In 1798 they went back to Tuscarawas, setting up new villages on the 12,000 acres of land granted them by Congress, and prospered for a while. But the deaths of the missionaries and the return of Pastor Heckwelder to Pennsylvania left the Ohio converts without effective guidance, and Goshen and the other missions settlements declined. In 1832 Goshen ceded its holdings to the Government for $6,654, and the town virtually disappeared. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F10_036_1
Subjects: Cemeteries--Ohio--Tuscarawas County; Moravian Church--Missions--Ohio--History; Gnadenhutten Massacre, Gnadenhutten, Ohio, 1782; Zeisberger, David, 1721-1808
Places: Goshen (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image shows the village at the Schoenbrunn Mission in New Philadelphia, Ohio. Schoenbrunn, founded in 1772 as a Moravian mission among the Delaware Indians, was the first Christian settlement in Ohio. Although the village prospered for several years, pressures from encroaching settlers and British-aligned Indians forced the abandonment of Schoenbrunn in 1778, shortly after the start of the Revolutionary War. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06446
Subjects: Schoenbrunn (Ohio)--History; American Indians in Ohio; Moravian Church--Missions--Ohio
Places: New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a photograph of the village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio in the County of Tuscarawas. Lead by missionary Rev. David Zeisberger, this village was settled in 1772 as a mission for the Delaware Indians. In 1781, they were ordered to abandon the village and move to northern. They settled on the Sandusky River, but it was too late in the year to plant crops. After a winter of starvation in 1781-1782, a group was sent back to Gnadenhutten in March 1872 to harvest any crops they could find. On March 8, the group was attacked by the militiamen who mistakenly thought they were the ones responsible for attacks on Pennsylvania settlements. The Christian Delawares were placed in two abandoned buildings, one for the men and one for the women. They were told that they would be executed in the morning. The Christian Delawares spent the night singing and praying. In the morning, the soldiers took them to a cabin in pairs and killed them. In all, twenty-eight men, twenty-nine women and thirty-nine children were murdered. There were only two survivors, who informed the Moravian missionaries and the other Christian Indians about what had occurred. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F01_005_001
Subjects: Gnadenhutten (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio); Moravian Church; American Indians; Religion
Places: Gnadenhutten (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reconstructed buildings and garden at Schoenbrunn Village near New Philadelphia, Ohio. The word Schoenbrunn means "beautiful spring" in German. The purpose of this community, founded in 1772, was to provide Moravian missionaries a place to teach Christianity to Native Americans residing in Ohio. At its greatest size, Schoenbrunn had a population of four hundred Christian natives, mostly Delaware Indians, and more than sixty buildings, including the first school and Christian church built in Ohio. The community was abandoned in 1778 during the American Revolution, due to opposition from both sides of the war, but has since been rebuilt and is administered as an historic site by the Ohio Historical Society. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02774
Subjects: Schoenbrunn (Ohio); Multicultural Ohio--Religion in Ohio; Moravian Church--Missions--Ohio
Places: New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Josua, a Mohican convert and missionary leader, led Mohican and Munsee Christians downriver and settled Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace) on October 9, 1772. This image depicts his grave. The tombstone reads "Joshua A Mohican Indian the Moravian Elder died August 1, 1775 Oldest memorial in Ohio". The remnants of the original gravestone are encased in acrylic within a new marker. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06566
Subjects: Gnadenhutten Massacre; American Indians; Moravian Church--Missions--Ohio; Delaware Indians--History--18th century
Places: Gnadenhutten (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)