JOHN LEWIS ROTH
The First White Child Born in the
Moravian Mission
at Gnadenhutten1
By HARLOW
LINDLEY
The Ohio Society, Daughters of the
American Colonists, at
least must be given credit for arousing
a group of Ohio's citizens
from
an unusual state of disinterestedness to one of profound
interest and concern as to who was the
first white child born in
Ohio, and some of these seem to have
gone out of their way to
misinterpret what it is all about. I
hold in my hand a clipping
carrying a challenge which I am sure all
of us already were
aware of--"Birthplace of first
white child in Ohio still remains
unmarked."2 That is a
challenge, but still it can cast no reflec-
tion on any sincere effort to perpetuate
the memory of any child
born under unusual circumstances within
the State.
Oh, that Ohio people would interest
themselves in more
worthy fields of history than
endeavoring to discount the efforts
of any really interested group who are
willing to put forth a
constructive effort in investigating and
preserving the State's
history!
This organization is to be praised for
its efforts and enthus-
iasm in perpetuating the history of the
State.
The environment in which we now find
ourselves is sug-
gestive of much of interest in connection
with the beginnings
1 Address delivered at the
unveiling of a bronze tablet marking the site on Friday,
September 28, 1934, by the Ohio Society,
Daughters of the American Colonists, and
published at the request of the Society
and the Roth descendants.
2 The first claim to the distinction of
being the first white child born within the
limits of Ohio was made for Polly
Heckewelder. We now have the authentic record
for the birth of John Lewis Roth as to
time and place. The record of the birth of
James Conner in 1771 has been secured
but the exact place has not yet been located.
There is also evidence of the birth of a white child, Henry
Mallow, at an Indian village
at the mouth of the Scioto River
on November 18, 1758: The mother, Mary Mallow,
had been captured by the Indians a few months before. Henry Mallow died
September
12, 1854, and his grave is in the Mt.
Hope Lutheran Church Cemetery at Kline, Pen-
dieton County, West Virginia.
(250)
JOHN LEWIS ROTH 251
of our State. We stand on ground made
sacred by the blood
of ninety-six Christian Indians deceived
and massacred in cruel-
est manner. They were not heathen
Indians. They were not
at war with the Americans. They did not
wear Indian costumes,
their faces were not painted, their
implements and utensils were
made by their own blacksmiths. They made
their plea in a
Christ-like manner and in the clutches
of their enemies they
showed no weakness. Nobler heroism never
was displayed more
than in this awful crisis. Through the
livelong night the victims
maintained devotional services,
exhorting one another to hold
fast the beginning of their confidence
in Jesus, steadfast to the
end, singing the hymns of their faith,
preparing to die. One
could easily take the whole hour in
eulogizing these Christian
martyrs. Their story was told in graphic
style here two years
ago when the State of Ohio provided for
a commemorative occa-
sion on the 150th anniversary of their
death.
The hour might well be spent in telling
the story of Gnaden-
hutten as one of Ohio's first
settlements. The hour might well
be spent in reviewing the history of the
Moravian activities in
the Tuscarawas Valley.
But this occasion is to honor the memory
of the first white
child born in this mission station at
Gnadenhutten--the second
son of a Moravian missionary, and one
cannot well honor the
son without paying tribute to the
father.
In the midst of the tumult going on in
Central Europe at
the opening of the eighteenth century
there was born a son to
King Frederick who was endeavoring to
unite 314 small states
and 1475 small territories, each
practically independent, into a
single state--Germany. This first born
son became known to
history as Frederick the Great. Fourteen
years later there was
born in Saarmund, Brandenburg, in 1726,
John Roth, and the
course of his life journey was
contemporaneous with that of
the stormy life-time of the greatest
warrior and most successful
general of Europe in the eighteenth
century. He grew up amid
the toils, privations and hardships
entailed on all his countrymen
252
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and after a period of education he began
at fifteen the appren-
ticeship for the trade of a locksmith.
In 1756 Roth came to America on a
Moravian ship, the
"Irene," and went at once to
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He had
left alarm and distress in Europe to
find alarm and distress in
America. The French and Indian War was
coming on and the
wild Indians were destroying the white
settlements. The Mo-
ravians were believers in peace and
opposed to war and they
were thoroughly imbued with the
missionary spirit.
The people who fled from beyond the
mountains came to the Mo-
ravians without arms or ammunition,
empty-handed, hungry, half-naked--
men without coats or hats, women and children who had
rushed from
their beds with only the clothing they
had been sleeping in and perhaps
a blanket or quilt around them--some
barefooted. Moreover, they knew
the Moravians were not a fighting
people, that they deprecated war and
would not even join in military drill.
The population of the town was not
more than five or six hundred persons,
the men trained only to peaceful
avocations, many defenseless women and children to be
protected and
troops of terror-stricken people rushing
in from the back country to seek
refuge among them. Probably among the
Moravians of Bethlehem and
Nazareth together not fifty guns could
have been found. Occasionally
some of the farmers and woodmen went
hunting to find provision to eke
out their scanty store in seasons of
scarcity; guns were at times taken
along on journeys through the forest to
secure needed food; beyond this
they had no use for fire-arms.
A peaceable and peace-loving community,
they were unsupplied with
the means of defense, relying, by profession,
on the protection of Him who
declared that "The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that
fear Him, and delivereth them."'
What should they do in this extremity?
It was a time of testing. Two courses
lay open. One was to abandon the
principles they professed, call in the
militia and fight the savages; the other,
to keep faith with God and hold fast the
beginning of their confidence to
the end. The test was severe. They were
no fanatics. They were men
of sound mind and fixed principles,
prudent, practical men, who directed
the affairs of the community at this
critical juncture with wisdom and dis-
cretion beyond all praise.
They put their trust in the Lord and set
a watch to guard against
surprise. Skulking bands of "French
Indians" at times were discovered
prowling about the outskirts of the
town, seeking an opportunity to effect
a surprise. They were always foiled in
their murderous designs by finding
the guards alert. No definite assault
was made because the place never
was left unguarded. The savages murdered
and scalped and burned where
they could do so with comparative safety
to themselves. They kept the
whole frontier in terror while the war
lasted, but with one exception the
Moravians never were attacked. God kept
faith with his people in Bethle-
hem and Nazareth even as they kept faith
with him.
'Psalms, 84:7.
JOHN LEWIS ROTH 253
John Roth was set down in this turmoil
of savage warfare, an in-
terested spectator, soon to become an
active participant. Everything was
different from the life and surroundings
to which he had been accustomed,
everything peculiar, strange, wonderful,
in this new environment. The
vast forests in their untamed, sombre
wildness could not fail to impress
his sensitive mind. The first Indians he
met, the wild denizens of this
great wilderness, would not fail to give
rise to much speculation and food
for thought for many a day. The wide
contrast between the new order
of things in this New World as over
against the orderly ongoing of affairs
in old Europe--even in the throes of
war--would meet him and compel
attention at every turn. He was now a
man of thirty years, not without
experience in life, not without
education, not without a fair share of solid
common sense, doubtless much perplexed
and somewhat mystified for a
time over many things encountered in
this strange new land; nevertheless
always walking steadfastly in a clear
path in the way of the duty he had
come to fulfill. Strange, indeed, to many a mind, it
seems that any man
should hold it his sacred duty to spend
his life in trying to Christianize
these murdering savages; yet it was for
this that John Roth had left his
native land, crossed the wide ocean and
was now in the way of preparing
himself to be a missionary among them.
The work before him was difficult not
only by reason of the rude
and semi-civilized conditions
physically, full of hardships and privations,
exposed to hunger, heat and cold,
wearisome toil, danger to life and limb,
living with the Indians, cut-off from congenial
society, and all the refine-
ments of civilized life; even more
difficult because of the necessity for
learning the barbarous language, coming
to an understanding of the Indian
nature and acquiring a sympathetic
insight of their hearts in order to
bring the message of the Gospel to their
understanding and win their souls
to Christ. All this was essential to
gaining their confidence and gaining
their assent to the saving truths of the
Holy Gospel. It was the love of
Christ which filled the soul of the man,
fired his heart with holy zeal and
held him in willing servitude to his
divine Lord. The difficulties in the
way looked insurmountable but with the
faith of an Apostle he could say:
"I can do all things through Christ
Who strengtheneth me."4
And at his work he went. The first task
before him was that of ac-
quiring the language of the Delaware
tribe, on whose territory the Mo-
ravians were establishing themselves.5
All his years as a missionary were spent
among people chiefly
of this tribe.
The Moravians never employed violent
measures for the
attainment of their ends. They relied
upon the power of the
Gospel for the transformation of an
uncivilized into a civilized
race. They endeavored to make the
Indians Christians, but not
Caucasians.
At Bethlehem Roth met a young woman
devoted to the
Moravian religion--Maria Agnes
Pfingstag. She was a favorite
4 Philippians, 4:13.
5 David Luther Roth, Johann Roth,
Missionary (Greenville, Ohio, 1922), 23-25.
254
OHIO ARCH AEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
with all the "sisters"6 and
at the time of their meeting she was
thirty-five years old. Roth, nine years
her senior, proposed mar-
riage. After due consideration she gave
her consent and they
were married, August 16, 1770. And now began
the preparations
for removal to the frontier. In 1771,
because of troubles in the
East, the Delawares were invited to
locate on the Tuscarawas
River in Ohio.
What a march that was! From
Friedenshuetten on the Shawnee trail,
practically across the State of Pennsylvania! The
diaries of Roth and
[John] Ettwein gave us full details. The joy of the weary
pilgrims when
it was ended in the Town of Peace was
great and pure and more noble
than the rejoicing of any army that ever
battered down the walls and
entered a conquered city. John Roth took
up his work of winning souls
to Jesus but, as everywhere, Satan
fought to hinder that holy work.
Drunken savages interfered to lead the
converts into sin and turn them
away from their teachers. Opposition
increased. His wife was in peril.
On one occasion, when he was lying sick
in bed, an Indian frenzied with
rage and fire-water, with his war-paint
on, brandishing his tomahawk,
burst into the room theatening to kill
the white man. Mrs. Roth caught
up her child and ran screaming from the
house. The missionary raised
himself on his elbow, looked steadfastly
into the glaring eyeballs of the
savage and held him with his unfaltering
gaze until Christian Indians
came in and seized the would-be
murderer.
The determination was presently reached
to accept the invitation of
the Grand Council of the Delawares and
gather all the Indian converts in
a new settlement to be formed in the
Tuscarawas Valley. Again the
pilgrim-staff was taken up. Across the
country one division moved; down
the Beaver and Ohio and up the Muskingum
the other went, to the junc-
tion of the Tuscarawas where [David] Zeisberger
and [John] Heckewelder
had begun to clear land and plant and
build in preparation for their coming.
In the course of a few years this
beginning had grown into a cluster of
Christian communities:
Gnadenhutten (Tents of
Grace), Lichtenau
(Meadow of Light), Schoen Brunn
(Beautiful Spring), and Salem. Here
dwelling in peace and plenty were hundreds
of Indian converts and their
families, and a corps of devoted
missionaries: Zeisberger, Heckewelder
and wife, Gottlob Senseman and wife,
John G. Jungmann and wife, John
Roth and wife, John J. Schmick and wife
and others later.
So successful was their work that just
before the Revolutionary
War broke out the Grand Council of the
Delawares resolved and pub-
lished the edict that:
Liberty is given the Christian religion,
which the Council advises
the other nations to adopt. The
Christian Indians are on an entire
equality with the Delawares, all
constituting one nation. Christian
Indians have like property rights in the
nation's lands with the rest
of the nation. Only converts may settle
near the towns of the Chris-
tian Indians.
6 A term used to denote the
unmarried women who lived in the "Single Sisters'
House."
JOHN LEWIS ROTH 255
Zeisberger drew up the following
statutes for the government of the
Indian communities and in accordance
with them all their affairs were
regulated:
We will know no other God but the one
only true God, who
made us and all creatures, and came into
the world in order to save
sinners to Him alone we pray. We will
rest from work on the Lord's
day, and attend public service. We will
honor father and mother,
and when they grow old and needy we will
do for them what we can.
No one shall have leave to dwell among
us until our Pastors
have given their consent, after due
examination by the Helpers. We
will have nothing to do with thieves,
murderers, whoremongers,
adulterers or drunkards. We will not
take part in dances, sacrifices,
heathenish festivals or games. We will
use no witchcraft in hunting.
We will obey our Pastors and the Helpers
appointed to preserve
order in our public services, and in the
towns and in the fields. We
will not be idle, nor scold, nor beat
one another, nor tell lies. Who-
soever injures the property of his
neighbor shall make restitution.
A man shall have but one wife, shall
love her and shall provide
for her and his children. A woman shall
have but one husband, shall
obey him, care for her children, and be
cleanly in all things. Young
persons shall not marry without the
consent of their parents and their
pastor.
We will not admit rum or any other
intoxicating liquor in our
towns. If strangers or traders shall
bring intoxicating liquors, our
Helpers shall take it from them and not
restore it until the owners
are ready to leave the place.
No one shall contract debts with traders
or receive goods to
sell for traders, without the consent of
the Helpers. Whoever goes on a
hunt or journey must give due notice to
the Pastors or Stewards.
Whenever the Stewards or Helpers appoint
a time to make fences or
to do other work for the common good, we
will assist and do our part.
Whenever corn is needed to entertain
strangers, or sugar for love-
feasts, we will freely contribute from
our supply. We will not go
to war and will not buy booty taken in
war.7
The government of these Moravian towns on the Tusca-
rawas was administered by the
missionaries and their Indian
Helpers, who constituted a Municipal
Council. When the sub-
ject of removal came up, the decision
was always left to the vote of
the people. Agriculture and
stock-raising were what mainly oc-
cupied these Indian converts, although
hunting, as we have seen,
was not given up entirely.
The prosperity of this remarkable
cluster of Indian towns
excited the wonder and admiration of the
white men and the red
men. Many persons came long distances to
see for themselves
these habitants of peace, the fame of
which spread afar.
7 Roth, Johann Roth, Missionary, 153-55.
256
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Inasmuch as our object is primarily to
follow the fortunes
of Roth and his family we shall present
one transcript from his
official diary now in the archives of
the church at Bethlehem and
then leave the general development of
the history of the mission
for the present. Here is the copy:
July 4th, 1773. Today God gave Brother
and Sister Roth a young
son. He was baptized unto the death of
Jesus and named John Lewis, on
the 5th inst., by Brother David
Zeisberger, who, together with Brother
Jungmann and his wife, came here this
morning. The sponsors for the
young child were two Indian Christians:
Anton, a Delaware, and Chris-
tina, a Mohican.
Christina was among the number slain in
the massacre at
Gnadenhutten in 1782.
Because of the danger to the
missionaries, growing out of
the wars in which the whites and Indians
were engaged, which
afterward developed into the
Revolutionary War, Zeisberger, who
was best qualified to read the signs of
the times, advised that
the missionaries who had families should
return with them to
Bethlehem for greater safety. Roth and
his family accordingly
departed from Schoenbrunn in the spring
of 1774, traveling
by way of Pittsburgh, back to Bethlehem.
He served the Mo-
ravian Church in Pennsylvania until his
death in 1791.
I know of no better way of concluding
this tribute to John
Lewis Roth and to his father, Johann
Roth, than to quote the
closing meditation of David Luther Roth,
the author of the
book, which has served as the basis for
my remarks, written
when he was seventy-five years old.
I am one of the great-grandsons of the
noble man and wife who gave
their lives to win the souls of their
fellowmen, savage and civilized, to
God, the Father of us all. I am proud of
it. I hold it as my title of
nobility. Others have their ancestors of
whom they speak with pride.
Theirs may be "the pomp of
heraldry, the pride of power," of lofty station
or mere wealth. Our ancestors have
bequeathed us virtues; a nobler
heritage. Their souls were nourished by
the Divine Spirit. They found
their joy in service and self-sacrifice.
They sleep the sleep of the just. Let
their memory be ever cherished.
We, their children, living in this later
age, who may not always have
followed in their track, should go, when
we would raise our thoughts and
strengthen our faith, to their lowly
resting places, and there seek strength
and consolation. From such communion
with sacred memories, we shall
JOHN LEWIS ROTH 257
come forth with fresh courage for our
duty and renewed faith in the
everlasting love of God. After all that
our fathers have done and suffered
it would ill become us to forget them
and stop to complain of difficulties
in our way while we were enjoying the fruits of their
labors. Our defeats
would have seemed to them victories. If
we had their greatness of soul and
their high trust in God--if all Christians
had it--the world would be at
the foot of the Cross today.