Ohio History Journal

JOSEPH E. WEINLAND, REBUILDER OF

SCHOENBRUNN*

 

 

BY ROBERT M. WILKIN

 

Our meeting tonight is occasioned by the departure

of our president from our community and his resignation

as president of this Association and chairman of the

Schoenbrunn Committee. The purpose of the meeting

is to take account of his services and express our grati-

tude for what he has done and what he has been.

We meet as historians; and retrospection is the busi-

ness of historians. Historians look back through the

years, put together scraps of evidence of the life of

former times, and then make estimates of men and meas-

ures as viewed in the reconstructed scene.

In accordance with this function of historians, and

in order to proceed according to our habit of thought,

I am going to ask you to project yourselves into the

future one hundred and fifty years and then turn and

look back to our times and view the character and works

of Brother Joseph E. Weinland. We shall be better able

to estimate his worth if we see him in true historical

perspective. It is a generally recognized fact that the

significance of a man's character and work cannot be

properly estimated by his contemporaries. It is one of

the rules for admission to the Hall of Fame at New

York that the bust or memorial of no man shall be voted

* An address at a special meeting of the Tuscarawas County Historical

Society in honor of Rev. Joseph E. Weinland.

(116)

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Joseph E. Weinland, Rebuilder of Schoenbrunn  117

a place in the Hall of Fame until he shall have been dead

at least twenty-five years. So in order to gain impar-

tiality of judgment, let us imagine that we are viewing

the activities of our day and community from the eyes

of a generation a century and a half hence.

I shall not take time to describe our local scene at

that time other than to say that our county is practi-

cally one city extending from Strasburg to Dennison and

from Dennison to Newcomerstown. I shall withstand

the temptation to discourse upon the vast improvements

at that time. I direct your attention at once to one part

of the scene which has not taken on modern improve-

ments and has not grown and developed with the sur-

rounding country. The little historic village of Schoen-

brunn stands as it stood three hundred years ago. Of

course, the hand of time and the process of decay cannot

be stayed. The little village has taken on an appearance

of antiquity. The log buildings have settled into the

landscape and the trees and shrubs have grown up about

them. Mold and compost have accumulated on the sides

of the buildings and the stones have accumulated moss

and lichen.

Now, let us imagine that a history class from one

of our eastern universities is on a tour of inspection of

our country. They have visited the historic scenes along

our eastern border and now they have passed over the

Appalachian Mountains to visit the historic scenes in

the central and western part of the country. Of course

they travel by airplane. And after passing Pittsburgh,

the site of the ancient Fort Pitt, they begin to look for

Schoenbrunn, the site of the famous Christian Indian

village, the site of the first school and the first church

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118     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and the first civil code in this part of the world. They

drop down out of the sky into the Tuscarawas Airport

and proceed at once to visit the historic village, for that

is by far the most important thing in the Middle West.

Here they obtain a view of pioneer life as it really ex-

isted three centuries ago. Here they catch the true scene

of the activities of the Moravian missionaries who

brought the story of the Cross to the native red men and

preserved the peace between them and the colonists while

the new nation struggled for its independence. As they

walk about the streets of the little village, the instructor

tells them the history of Zeisberger and Heckewelder

and the Christian Indians. And suddenly one of the in-

quiring young minds asks, "Is it possible that this vil-

lage has been standing here for three hundred years?"

And the instructor says, "No. The first village was de-

stroyed by the marauding Muncies on one of their forays

from the north during the Revolutionary War." And

then his discourse proceeds to the story of the rebuilding

of the village one hundred and fifty years later.

The instructor tells how the site of the village was

lost for many years. The forest around the village had

been cleared by settlers and the site of the village had

been incorporated in the fields and the farms which were

cultivated and tilled until the plowshare had entirely

eradicated all outline of the buildings from the surface

of the land. Early in 1920, however, a sense of the im-

portance of the site was awakened in the community and

a historical association was organized for the purpose

of properly monumenting and preserving the site of the

village. At that time there lived in Dover, Ohio, a

pastor of the local Moravian Church, named Joseph

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Joseph E. Weinland, Rebuilder of Schoenbrunn  119

Weinland. He had in him the high zeal and fortitude

of the famous missionaries of his church and the ability

in statecraft and administration of the early fathers of

the Christian church. He lent his services to the local

Historical Association at its very inception, and his en-

thusiasm for the cause and his gift of leadership carried

him at once to the very front in the work. He con-

ceived the idea that the proper way, and by far the most

commendable way, to properly monument the site of the

ancient Christian village was to reconstruct it so that

succeeding generations might see it in replica.

And then the history instructor points out that it

was not an easy task to accomplish such a plan. It was

almost as difficult to rebuild the village in Weinland's

day as it had been to build it in the first place in Zeis-

berger's day. While Zeisberger lacked certain facilities

for building, he was blessed with an abundance of ma-

terials. When Weinland set about to rebuild, it was

with some difficulty that he found sufficient logs of suf-

ficient size and quality. It was with difficulty that he

found men possessed of the ancient skill with adze and

ax to prepare the timbers for the buildings. Labor was

plentiful in the day of Zeisberger, but it came at a very

high price in the commercialized day of Weinland. Tens

of thousands of dollars were required to defray the ex-

pense of the building and Weinland was a poor min-

ister. The day in which he lived has been characterized

as the Jazz Age. It was a time of intense materialism

and people were interested only in commercial develop-

ment and pagan pleasures. Weinland, however, recog-

nized in that very condition the need for a proper re-

minder of the Christian vision of the missionary pio-

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120     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

neers. He recognized that the people of his day needed

to be told and retold that the country which they en-

joyed was their heritage from Christian ancestors. The

modern pagans of his day were in as great need of the

services of Christian ministers as were the aborigines

whom Zeisberger served.

Inspired by his worthy cause, Weinland organized

and led committees before the State Legislature in order

to obtain State aid. He organized plays and pantomimes

depicting the scenes of the ancient village in order to

arouse local interest and obtain local support. He made

repeated appeals to wealthy men and charitable founda-

tions. He wrote an interesting and direct account of

the history of the village and placed it on sale. His in-

genuity made the most of every honorable opportunity

to raise funds for carrying on the work. When the

church was rebuilt he enlisted the aid of all Christian

churches. When the school was rebuilt he enlisted the

services and assistance of the teachers and pupils of all

the schools. And best of all, when money was raised

he supervised its expenditure with painstaking care and

with the skill of an economist.

The raising of the necessary funds was not the only

difficulty. Opposition to the project sprang up in vari-

ous ways. Not only was he confronted with the indif-

ference of those who said, "I am interested in the Pres-

ent, not the Past," but there were organized forces that

opposed the work. One man developed quite a lot of

believers in his contention that Weinland had not located

the true site of the village. Weinland's frank, courteous,

but firm reaction to such opposition won and maintained

for him the ardent support of all reasonable minds. His

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Joseph E. Weinland, Rebuilder of Schoenbrunn  121

painstaking care in making excavations resulted in the

exact location of the church and the school and the prin-

cipal dwellings as well as the graves of all the Christian

Indians who had been buried in the village cemetery.

And then the history instructor tells his class that

some of the memorandum books which Weinland had

kept were in possession of the local Historical Society--

little loose-leafed, leather-backed books. And having

examined some of these books, the instructor calls to

the attention of his hearers some of the items in order

to indicate the extent of the work which Weinland had

done. Here are found notations of arguments to be

presented to legislative committees appointed to deter-

mine whether or not the true site had been located, and

arguments for other legislative committees charged with

the responsibility of dispensing public funds. Here are

expense accounts for numerous trips to Pennsylvania in

order to make researches in the archives of the Moravian

Historical Society; quotations from the diary of Zeis--

berger; scraps of evidence as to the location of the de-

scendants of some of the Moravian Indians; notations

of trips made into Canada to obtain cups which had been

used by the Christian Indians in their Love Feast; nota-

tions as to the location and ownership of other relics and

antiques. Here are calculations as to how the meager

funds at the disposal of the Schoenbrunn Committee

might best be spent in order to obtain the greatest ac-

complishment; a wealth of data embodying the most

minute detail, and innumerable suggestions for the man-

agement and improvement of the village for presenta-

tion to the various meetings of the Schoenbrunn Com-

mittee. And here are the notes for numerous addresses

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122     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

delivered near and far for the sake of stimulating in-

terest and obtaining help.

And the instructor then calls the attention of his

hearers to the fact that all of this work was done in odd

hours, which most men waste, the hours which Weinland

could spare from his manifold duties as active pastor of

a large congregation. All this work was accomplished

in time which was left after writing and delivering ser-

mons, calling on the sick and the sorrowing, and at-

tending all the various meetings which a pastor of that

day was expected to attend. And then he would con-

clude that as a result of such painstaking care and

zealous service, the local community, the State and

the Nation were given a historic monument unique

in its conception and truly accurate in its portrayal of

the scene which it would commemorate. And then he

adds that Joseph Weinland, after the completion of the

rebuilding of the village, had been elevated to a position

very high in the national councils of his church, but that

in his declining days he had returned to the ancient

Christian Indian Village where his saintly character

gave to the scene of his earlier activity the glory of its

sunset rays, and made of the historic site a true shrine

of Christian devotion. On the honor roll of this historic

village, after the names of Zeisberger and Heckewelder,

the instructor places next the name of Joseph E. Wein-

land.

And then the history class spin their propellers and

are off for the next scene.

Rev. Weinland, on behalf of all your associates in

the work of the Historical Association in this county,

I wish to say that your services are highly appreciated.

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Joseph E. Weinland, Rebuilder of Schoenbrunn  123 We have enjoyed with rare pleasure the association with you in the work. Your zeal and your fidelity have been an inspiration to us. You have proved to us that a man can take a very active part in the affairs of this world and still maintain the highest Christian principles of conduct. We have enjoyed your friendship and it is with deep regret that we give you up. But we recognize that your church has a right to call you into a larger field of service. And we are comforted by the fact that your interest will still be with us in the work at Schoen- brunn. We have enjoyed your spoken sermons, but the life which you have lived in our midst is a living sermon which shall ever direct us to the ideal life, that of a Christian gentleman. As a token of our sincerity, we present you with a present and placed securely in it so that they may be ever with you, are our love and our esteem and our ardent wish for your return,

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