Ohio History Journal

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OHIO

OHIO

Archaeological and Historical

PUBLICATIONS.

 

 

 

THE GNADENHUETTEN CENTENNIAL.

SEPTEMBER 29, 1798.

One hundred years ago, the Rev. John Heckewelder moved

into the "First House," which he and his helpers built "on the

east bank of the Muskingum (Tuscarawas) River," where he

founded Gnadenhuetten as a Moravian Church settlement of

whites.

To commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of its found-

ing, Gnadenhuetten was visited by a concourse of seven thousand

men, women and children. This estimate of the number in at-

tendance is by the Rev. Dr. Hunter, of the Uhrichsville Presby-

terian Church, who is considered a very competent judge of

crowds in the Tuscarawas Valley, of which he has been a long

time resident. The larger part of the concourse in attendance

came from the cities and villages and farms of the valley; many

came "from all over" the State of Ohio; visitors were here from

Bethlehem, Pa.; from New York City and Philadelphia, Wash-

ington, D. C., and Pittsburg. From the neighboring states to

the westward, as far at least as Minnesota, Gnadenhuetten sons

and daughters were in happy attendance.

At the morning service of the first Sunday in the new year,

January 2, 1898, the pastor, the Rev. Wm. H. Rice, called the

attention of the congregation to the fact that this was the Cen-

tennial year of Gnadenhuetten's settlement. He read from the

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