FAIRFIELD ON THE RIVER THAMES1
By FREDERICK COYNE HAMIL
The name Moraviantown is well known to
students of the
War of 1812, for it was near this place
that General William
Henry Harrison defeated Colonel Henry A.
Procter, and the
famous Indian Chief Tecumseh was killed.
The Battle of the
Thames is also known as the Battle of
Moraviantown. American
histories of the war, following official
accounts, usually omit to
mention the sequel to the battle, the
plundering and destruction
of the village called by the Moravians
Fairfield. Of little moment
in the course of a war, this event was
tragedy to the Christian
Indians of the settlement and their
missionaries.
The Moravian missions in Ohio had been
abandoned in the
fall of 1781 on orders from the British
at Detroit. Although their
religion forbade fighting, they were
looked upon with suspicion
by both sides in the American
Revolutionary War. The follow-
ing March a hundred of the Indian
converts, returning to gather
the standing corn, were massacred at
Gnadenhutten by a party
of American frontiersmen. The remainder
founded a settlement
on the Clinton River near the present
Mt. Clemens, Michigan.
In 1787 they returned to Ohio, forced to
leave because of the
hostility of the Chippewas. Four years
later, feeling themselves
in grave danger from the warfare being waged between the
western Indians and the American
militia, the Moravians secured
permission to move across the Detroit
River, at the entrance to
Lake Erie, near where Amherstburg now
stands. This place
they called the Warte, or
Watch-Tower. It was but a temporary
refuge. It was still too close to the
scene of fighting; and they
were terrified by threats from Indians
who attempted to draw
them into the war with the Americans.
They decided to with-
1 Extension of a paper read at
Amkerstburg, Ontario, June 9, 1938, before the
joint meeting of the Ontario,
Michigan, and Detroit Historical
Societies.
(I)