Ohio History Journal

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314 Ohio Arch

314       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

 

 

THE REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,

 

BORN AT BEDFORD, ENG., MARCH 12, 1743; DIED AT BETHLE-

HEM, PA., JANUARY 21, 1823, AGED 80

YEARS, LESS 50 DAYS.

 

BY THE REV. WM. H. RICE,

 

VICE PRESIDENT MORAVIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY; LIFE MEMBER OF THE PENN-

SYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY; AND LIFE MEMBER OF THE

OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

One hundred years ago to-day, September 29, 1898, Rev.

John Heckewelder (then a man about fifty-five years old) moved

into the "First House" of Gnadenhuetten, which he and his helpers

had built on the east bank of the Muskingum (now Tuscarawas)

River.

We are assembled within sight of the spot on which the

"First House" stood, to celebrate with joyous thanksgiving the

centennial anniversary of the founding of Gnadenhuetten as a set-

tlement of whites.

Yonder monument was erected in 1872, on the site of the

first Gnadenhuetten, founded in 1772, as a village settlement of

Indian Christians, under the leadership of David Zeisberger and

John Heckewelder. The monument commemorates the destruc-

tion of the village settlement, in fire and blood, on March 8, 1782.

For ten years it had been an oasis of Christian life and peace

in the midst of savagery and war.

After an interval of sixteen years, in 1798, Heckewelder came

back to rebuild the desolated home of the "Brown Brethren" as

a settlement of whites. We have come together to-day, from

near and from far, to make memorial of the one hundredth anni-

versary of the founding of this second Gnadenhuetten under the

leadership of John Heckewelder.

David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder are the two names

which will always go together in the story of the work of the

Moravian Brethren's church among the Indians of North

America.