91 r- 3 AS.// X 77 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum.and^Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun77unse i MARK T :'W‘A. X ]ST5 S seiiac book. RA TENTS: UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. FRANCE. June 24TH, 1873. May i6th, 1877. May i8th, 1877. TRADE MARKS: UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. Registered No. 5,896. Registered No. 15,979. DIRECTIONS. Use but little moisture, and only on the gummed lines. Press the scrap on without wetting it. DANIEL SLOPE & COMPANY, NEW YORK. # ihstdecs:- r/TVVI- r^. i a* a wrong inflicted upon us by a member of a given race upon another member who may be entirely innocent of it is peculiarly an Indian characteristic. The tragic story of .Guadenhiitten would seem to show that to.V*.~ H it is rather a characteristic of barbarous human nature. The assertion that the Mo¬ ravian Indians were in league with the Bate, i hostiles was but a pretext, which an to.:/#.; pir « ' if . examination of all the facts of the case completely dissipates. They were simply unoffending people who under the influence EARlfY^MORAVIAN INDIAN B of the most devoted of missionaries had WORK. been converted to a very practical Christi¬ / /C anity. Their peaceful, industrious settle¬ I. ments in the wilderness, where church, A chapter upon the Moravians in “ The schoolhouse, orchards and gardens, and (Making of Pennsylvania ” contains a para¬ cultivated fields were the wonder of white graph whichbears upon one of the most in¬ visitors, testified to how completely they had teresting episodes in the early history of been weaned from wild life. So substantial ithis State. Speaking of this remarkable and admirable was the work done for these 'body of Christians the author says : “They Indians by the Moravians that had it been were among the first who carefully studied permitted to grow undisturbed there can be Indian customs j they formed successful no reasonable doubt that all the wild tribes communities among the savages near Beth¬ with whom the Moravians came in contact lehem and also as far west as the Ohio. would gradually have become civilized But the coming on of the French and In¬ and ultimately absorbed among our own dian War destroyed the fruits of all their people. That this happy result was never efforts, as it destroyed all that Penn and attained must be admitted by unpreju¬ the Quakers had done. The flourishing diced students of our Indian history to Indian community of the Moravians in be as much due to the barbarism and in¬ j Ohio became suspected of being in league justice of the white race as to the atrocities with the hostile tribes, and was destroyed of the savage Indians. When in 1756 the by the white settlers.” There is chance for French and Indian War broke upon our a little confusion here, and the statement Pennsylvania frontier, and later during the needs further elucidation. The community Pontiac War of 1763, our people, exasper¬ referred to was Gnadenhiitten (Habitations ated by their horrors, found the Christian of Crace), a Moravian Indian village on Indians a more convenient object of ven¬ the Tuscarawas River, in what is at present geance than the wild ones. Bishop De the State of Ohio. This was destroyed by Schweinitz, treating of the history of this a party of Pennsylvania volunteers, not, as time and of the Pontiac War, in his life of the foregoing paragraph would lead the David Zeisberger says : “ Especial bitter¬ reader to infer, during the French and In- ness was manifested by the Scotch-Irish dIa? War or as a result of it, but at the close settlers, in whom the zeal of their fore¬ of the War of the Revolution. The precise fathers had degenerated into fierce fanati¬ date of its destruction was March 7, 1782. cism upon the subject of the aborigines of We wish Mr. Fisher had thrown a little America. They professed to believe that more light on this massacre of Christian the Indians were the Canaanites of the Indians by white men, nominally Christians Western World ; that God’s command to so that the balance of truth might be the Joshua to utterly destroy these nations held better preserved, and so that many readers good with regard to the savages also, and who have been instructed from childhood that, therefore, the whole Indian race ought in every incident of Indian atrocity which to be exterminated, and that the war then reddens the pages of our national history raging was a judgment from the Most High might learn that our own people have been because this had not been accomplished.” guilty on more than one occasion of equal Knowing the danger which they ran, the.; I barbarism. But doubtless the author felt / Christian Indians appealed to the Governor he had not space for this digression. We I for protection. This he accorded them, ' are accustomed to considamhat revenge for ; 1 an(l_at the same time suggested that ; ■1 which the lhdians bore with extraordinary ! ome visible apparent badge of distinction ■ # should be agreed on by which they might patience. be known to befriends. Squire Horsfield, But the i oint which seems to us of great¬ to whom this duty was assigned, drew up est interest n this matter, and in treating eight articles describing their appearance, which briefly we wish to conclude this first regulating their conduct when meeting paper, is, with what degree of justice was white men, and calling upon both soldiers the charge brought, against these Christian and civilians “ not to upbraid these In- Indians of complicity in the murder of | dians with the acts of other Iudians, Wetterhold, and his men? This charge nor spitefully to treat them, nor to threaten was at onje brought, as similar charges to shoot them.” This plan served its pur¬ were alwayp preferred when any outrages pose for a time, but on the night of August by Indians Were committed. It is disposed 20, 1763, an event occurred which clearly of completeljy by Bishop De Sch weinitz, from showed what savage brutality our own whom we again quote in closing : “ The au¬ civilization can be guilty of. “ Zacharias, thor of the‘Conspiracy of Pontiac,’ p. 422, his wife and little child, and Zipora, all says that thfe charges against the Moravian Christian Iudians, on their way to Long Iudians of having taken part in the mur¬ Island, a village on the Susquehanna, were ders in Northampton County ‘were never tranquilly sleeping in a barn near Bucha- fully confuted,’ and adds, ‘ it is highly prob¬ buchka Creek, relying for protection on able that some of them were disposed to Captain Jaeob Wetterhold and his com¬ sympathize With their heathen countrymen.’ pany, who happened to be quartered at the I am sorry that he has marred, his interest¬ same place, when suddenly these very pro¬ ing and valuable work by such an imputa¬ tectors, who happened to have been drink¬ tion upon the memory of the Moravian ing hard, fell upon and murdered them all, Indians, and as this is a matter of import¬ not sparing even the mother and her child, / ance, because it serves to illustrate the although she knelt at their feet in an agony' .complete change produced in their hearts and besought them to have mercy!” This! by the Gospel, I here give the proof which act, which was by no means without counter establishes their innocence: 1. AH the re¬ part in the history of our State, was virtu j cords of the missionaries positively assert ally the beginning of the Paxton Insurrec ! it, which these records would not do if they tion, which led to the dispersion of the! had been guilty ; for in a later period, when Moravian converts and their flight, under! the mission had been transferred to Ohio, the leadership of their missionaries, to seek^ such converts as took part in the wars are protection from the British garrison at mentioned in the diaries of the missiona Philadelphia, but not to the complete ruin of ries and were excluded from church fellow the Moravian missions among the Indians. ship. 2. The peculiar discipline observed in That final disaster was reserved until the all Moravian Indian congregations rendere ’ “ Massacre of Gnadeuhiitten,” to which we it almost impossible for a convert to join have already referred, at the close of our war party without being detected ; and thi struggle with Great Britain. It was during discipline in the Pontiac War was particu the following month of October that larly strict, the missionaries at Nain am Captain Wetterhold and some of his men Wechquetank keeping an exact journal o were killed by a party of wild Indians in where each convert spent every day an revenge for the murder of Zacharias and night. (Letter from Bishop Boehler t his family. The intense feeling against Governor Hamilton, B. A.) 3. The Wech all Indians which this event awakened in quetank Indians in July and August, 1763 Northampton County finally led to the adoption of a plan by which, most unjustly twice actually prevented of their own and unfortunately, these Christian Indians accord attacks upon the settlements by per¬ were removed to Philadelphia. We do suading'the warriors who stopped in their not intend to follow their wanderings on town to return to the West. 4. When the this pitiful journey, which proved to be a Indians removed from Wechquetank their prolonged and destructive exile to them, nearest white neighbors, who certainly knew further than to say that everywhere on the them well, petitioned the Governor to send road, and especially in Germantown, they them back, stating that these Indians were were greeted with hootings and threats of the best safe-guard they could have against death, which with difficulty the Sheriff the assaults of the savages.