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Show 4 SdmemllmmT f 4 ' fft'l ri -, t-t'j, Site ol Schoenbrunn Spring. Thnpnng ". 'TSr'r. ... U3"-4 :' ?'A supplied the water lor the tovra of Schoea- Splitting nd .bavins .hmsles-pioneer .tyle-Ior WJ ... . , ' 4 I & Khool hou. Sept Oct, 127 Schoenbrunn Me- ,V j v X ? Vfetf A f v I ,onal Park.near New Philadelphia, Ohio ,,. . A 1 CCu Jr?. ,fcJHs ir - - fTi 1 t"$ - ' a & L'f - The Schoenbrunn Cemetery was discovered March 12, 1927. Forty-lour Indian graves were ?Q-$Jt found. Bunals from Dec 29, 1772 to Jan. 24, 1777. This is the oldest cemetery in Ohio.- f , ... &jU First cabin rebuilt at Schoenbrunn, first town in Ohio. Built 1772. rebuilt June-July, 1927. Indian Cemetery in the distance. e .s- 7 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON A FTUU being "lost" for nearly one hundred and At" "fiy years, the historic 'V? town of Schoenbrunn is 'ty'. f rise from Its ashes at:d T'i i to live again. The res-II res-II I J toration on its original J, site Is already under way and onlv the other dav state odielals and the citizens of Ihrichs-vllle, Ihrichs-vllle, Dover and New Philadelphia, Ohio, gathered near the latter town to dedicate the replica of the original Kchoenbrunn schoolhou.se. which had been erected there July 2!1, 1771!, the llrst school building In that state. That the dedication of this particular particu-lar building and the whole plan for the restoration of Schoenbrunn has more than local interest was attested attest-ed to by the fact that hundreds of visitors from other states attended the ceremonies and that the plans for the renaissance of this historic town are being followed with appreciation for lis significance by many outside the borders of the Buckeye state. For Schoenbrunn, established as an Indian mission, was the first town built by the whites In that part of the Old Northwest territory which was later to attract so many settlers to Its fertile lands; in it stood the first church and the first public school building in that part of the territory and there, too, was organized the first peace and temperance societies west of the Alleghanies. It is these facts which give it importance in our national history and when the restoration restor-ation is completed, the new Schoenbrunn Schoen-brunn will stand as a monument to the spirit of the pioneer missionaries who, with their Bibles and Christian teachings, did their share in winning the West as truly as did those other pioneers who carried into the wilderness wilder-ness the ride and the ax. The story of the .Moravian Indian mission at Schoenbrunn and. its sister sis-ter mission towns of I.ichtenau and Onadenhutlen is a story of Christian heroism, n tale of romance, pathos and tragedy. All of it centers around the names of two great missionaries, John Ileckewelder and David Zeis-berger Zeis-berger and most of all, Zelsberger. From 17.'7, when he was but sixteen years old, until 1S0S, when he died, lie gave every day of those seventy-one seventy-one years to the one consuming passion pas-sion of nis life that of bringing Christianity to the Indians of the Middle West. Early In 1771 Zeisbergei crossed over into Ohio and on March 14 of that yea arrived at Gekelemulpe-chunk, Gekelemulpe-chunk, the principal town of the Delaware Dela-ware tribe (now Newcomersto-vn, Ohio) where he preached the first Protestant sermon ever delivered in Ohio. He came back again in March. 772, and, the chief of the Delawares having suggested that he establish a mission among them, Zelsberger began be-gan to look around for a suitable site. While doing this he discovered a sparkling spring which he gave the name of Schoenbrunn (Beautiful Spring) and .resolved to establish his misfrf" there. So he went back to Pennsylvania to return two months later with 2S Christian Indians and work was begun at once on the build Ing of homes, a church and a school. On August 2;!. 1772, itev. John Ileckewelder and Rev. John Ettwein with more than 200 Christian Indians arrived and the next day the missionaries mission-aries and their Indian helpers laid out the town of Schoenbrimn and formulated the first civil code ever adopted in the state of Ohio for the govern!, ent of their town. By the middle of September the church was finished and services were held in it. For awhile the mission was prosperous pros-perous and peace and contentment reigned in the town. The Indians were not only instructed in the Christian Chris-tian religion but they were shown how to eultivat; the land and to raise live stock. Visiting Indians were amzed to see these Indians content to remain re-main in one place and to work. But trouble soon came to the peaceful peace-ful town of Schoenbrunn, stirred up probably by the surrounding tribes who resented the influence of the whiles in changing the lives and habits hab-its of their red brethren. A certain clique in the town plotted to overthrow over-throw the missionaries and, although Zeisberger saw the rebellion brewing and attempted to stem it in time, his efforts were fruitless. Finally he called a meeting of those who remain' re-main' loyal and there on April 19, 1777, he held the last services, after which he ordered the church to be torn down that it might not be desecrated dese-crated by the apostates who had plotted plot-ted against him. Scon afterwards the missionaries anj their faithful Indians Indi-ans deserted the town and the ..m;.ss were burned down and the fields laid waste by the "pagan" Indi.t.is. From that time on Gnadenhutten was the center of the Moravian activity. During the Revolution the .Moravian Indians tried hard to maintain a strict neutrality but this attitude won them friends on neither side. The British charged them with aiding the Americans Amer-icans and it is true that they did aid them by ran.-oming captives from hostile hos-tile Indians and by warning the officers offi-cers at i'it!sbu"gh of impending Indian In-dian attacks. But as lime went on, the Americans also began to suspect the Moravian Indians of being pro-British. pro-British. The licsiile Indians used the Moravian towns as convenient "halfway "half-way houses" when starling on or returning re-turning from a foray against the Kentucky Ken-tucky or Pennsylvania settlements and there they got shelter and refreshment re-freshment which the Moravian Indians Indi-ans dared not refuse them. Finaily a party of Penn'vlvaniaiis. led by Ihe notorious Col. David Williamson, Wil-liamson, set out with the avowed in tention of wiping out the Moravian towns. They arrived at Gnadonhut ten on March 7. 17,c2. and g:i; bored the unsuspecting Indians in houses, the men in one and the woni hi and children in (he other. Then they told th" Indians that they were to he pat to death. The next morn ing the butchery began. The whites . entered the cabins and cold-bloodedly put to death the " defenseless men, women and children an unexcusable massacre and in many respects as revolting re-volting a crime as ever the most savage sav-age Indians perpetrated against the whites. From that time on the surviving .Moravian Indians were wanderers in Canada aj.d Ohio. All that time Zeisberger Zeis-berger continued bis work among them and when he died in 1S0S at the age of eighty-seven he was buried, at his own request, in the Indian cemetery among the people he had served so long and so well. When the inrush of settlers flooded Ohio after the last Indian wars in the Old Northwest, the early settlers of Tuscarawas county coun-ty completed the work of destruction of the owl of Schoenbrunn. The land was farmed over and the site of the village was indistinguishable from the surrounding fields. It became a "lost" city until the efforts of Rev. J. E. Weinland of the Moravian church at Dover, Ohio, who made many trips to Bethlehem, Pa., where he pored over the archives of the Moravian church, resulted in finding the data which led to the town's "rediscovery" in 1023. Excavations made on the site revealed the exact outlines of the church, the schoolhouse, Zeisberger's house and the houses of a number of ll.e Indians. The:, a movement for the restoration restora-tion of the town was started. The Eighty-fifth general assembly of Ohio appropriated $10.1)00 which enabled the Tuscarawas Historical society to purchase most of the land on which the town stood. The next general assembly added ST.oOO for three adjoining ad-joining tracts and the last general assembly as-sembly pn vided n $25,000 appropriation appropria-tion for the actual work of restoration restora-tion which is being carried on in the !f;."i-nere Schoenbrnr.n Memorial, park Ivy a committee appointed by the (ihio Slate Archeolngie.il and Historical Histor-ical society. One of '.lie log cabins, that of John .'oscph Schihosh. Zeisberger's assistant assist-ant who married an Indian woman end whose eldest son was the first person kill: d in the Gnadenhutten massacre, was rebuilt last year. The rebuilt schoolhiuse was dedicated July 2!) of this year and the dedication dedica-tion of the church lias been announced for Octoh. r 21 of this year. |