Ohio History Journal
A CANOE JOURNEY FROM THE BIG BEAVER TO
THE
TUSCARAWAS IN 1773: A TRAVEL DIARY OF
JOHN HECKEWAELDER
Translated and edited by AUGUST C. MAHR
Professor of German, Ohio State
University
By 1772, due to circumstances beyond
their control, the
missionaries of the Moravian Church
among the Indians in Penn-
sylvania had found it inevitable to
abandon their two mission
stations on the upper North Branch of
the Susquehanna: Friedens-
hiitten, about one mile down the river
from present-day Wyalusing,
and Schechschequanniink (present-day
Sheshequin), about twenty-
five river-miles upstream from
Friedenshiitten.1
Between June 11 and the middle of
August 1772, a total number of
over two hundred Indian converts of the
Susquehanna mission,
under the leadership of the two
Moravian missionaries, the Rev.
Johannes Ettwein and the Rev. Johannes
Roth, migrated, partly
by water, and partly by land, from the
Susquehanna to the Big
Beaver, where the Rev. David Zeisberger
had founded, in 1770,
a new mission station among the Monsey.
The Monsey consti-
tuted the Wolf Tribe of the Lenni
Lenape, or Delaware, Indian
nation. The two other tribes were the
Unami (Turtle Tribe) and
the Unalachtigo (Turkey Tribe). Since
the beginning of the 1720's,
practically the entire Lenni Lenape
nation had gradually left its
old hunting grounds in eastern
Pennsylvania, migrating into the
Ohio basin, where the majority, the
Unami and Unalachtigo, had
settled in what today is the eastern
half of the state of Ohio,
while the Monsey established themselves
in northwestern Penn-
sylvania on the Allegheny, Big and
Little Beaver, and Mahoning
rivers.
Apart from the negative reasons for the
abandonment of the
1 A comprehensive account of the labors
of the Moravian Church in the Indian
mission field of North America in the
eighteenth century can be found in Bishop
Edmund deSchweinitz' excellent biography
of that church's greatest missioner among
the Indians, entitled The Life and
Times of David Zeisberger (Philadelphia, 1870).
The book also contains brief biographies
of the other Moravians mentioned in the
present pages: Ettwein, Roth, and, last,
but not least, John Heckewaelder.
283
284
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Susquehanna mission, there had also
been a strongly positive
motivation for Zeisberger and the
Moravian Mission Board to shift
the Indian mission's center of gravity
westward: it was the ever
more urgent invitation, on the part of
the great Delaware chief
Netawatwes and his grand council, to
move the Moravian mission
into the new Indian territory in
northwestern Pennsylvania and the
Muskingum basin. The founding of
Friedensstadt (or Lang-
undouteniink), in 1770, in the Monsey
country on the Beaver
River, had been Zeisberger's initial
step in following this invitation.
But even before the Friedenshutten and
Schechschequanniink con-
verts had started, in the summer of
1772, on their westward migra-
tion under Ettwein and Roth, the
rum-sodden heathen Monsey who
lived everywhere around Friedensstadt
had proved such unbearable
neighbors that Zeisberger, upon urgent
entreaties from Netawatwes,
had most willingly selected a new
mission site on the Tuscarawas
River, only twenty miles upstream from
the chief's capital. Here,
in May 1772, he founded the mission of
Schonbrunn; and here,
he decided, the Susquehanna converts
were to be taken. Friedens-
stadt, doomed to be abandoned, was
merely to serve as a temporary
receiving station: a stopover point
where he and his fellow mis-
sioners could work out careful and
effectual plans for the gradual
transferring of all their converts to
the Tuscarawas Valley.
Almost immediately upon the arrival at
Friedensstadt of the
weary migrants under Ettwein and Roth,
Zeisberger began to carry
out his intentions, with the aid of
Ettwein and John Heckewaelder,
the latter only recently appointed
assistant missionary for the new
area.
When, in the pursuit of this
enterprise, Friedensstadt was
definitely abandoned in 1773, Johannes
Gottlieb Ernst Hecke-
waelder, twenty-nine years old at the
time, was chosen as the
leader of a consignment of converts who
were to travel by water
in a flotilla of canoes from
Friedensstadt to Schonbrunn. The
others traveled across country, driving
a large herd of horned
cattle along with them, many of the
animals having formerly
hooved it all the way from the
Susquehanna to the Beaver.
Heckewaelder's diary covering his
strenuous river journey is
A Travel Diary of John
Heckewaelder 285
presented in these pages. Zeisberger's
junior by twenty-two years,
he was for a long time his faithful
collaborator in the Tuscarawas
missions, one of which, Salem, he
founded in 1780; in its chapel
he was married in the same year to
Sarah Ohneberg. Due to the
ill health of his wife he retired from
the Moravian Indian mission
work in the autumn of 1786 and returned
with her to Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, the seat of the Moravian
mother church in North
America. Subsequently, he rendered
numerous useful services to
both his church and the outside world,
and spent the last few
years of his life assembling the rich
memories of his active career
in two books of lasting value: Account
of the History, Manners,
and Customs of the Indian Nations (Philadelphia, 1819);2 and
Narrative of the Mission of the
United Brethren Among the
Delaware and Mohegan Indians (Philadelphia, 1820).3 As his
last literary effort he prepared in
1822 a collection of "Names,
which the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware
Indians, gave to Rivers,
Streams, and Localities within the
States of Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, with
their Significations." This
work was communicated to the American
Philosophical Society
in Philadelphia as early as April 5,
1822, but not until twelve
years later did it appear in print in Transactions
of the American
Philosophical Society.4
On the river journey he proved a
dependable and resourceful
leader; there were no accidents; none
of the travelers, not even any
of the old people, died during the
trip; nor were property and
provisions lost or spoiled. Once, on
the Muskingum, when the
seed corn had been wetted in a bad
rainstorm and threatened to
sprout, he called a stop in order to
dry the grain. Another time,
when the strain had become excessive,
camp was made at once
and a sweating oven built for the weary
boatmen to sweat out
their fatigue. No opportunity was
overlooked or time spared by
Heckewaelder for establishing and
maintaining friendly relations
with the West Virginia settlers along
the Ohio, as the perusal of
2 Henceforth to be cited as
Heckewaelder, History.
3 Henceforth to be cited as
Heckewaelder, Narrative.
4 Volume IV, New Series (1834), 351-396.
286
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
the diary readily shows. He was equally
anxious to assure for him-
self, for his charges, and thereby for
the Moravian mission the
goodwill of the great chief and his
grand council as soon as the
Lenape capital was reached, the same
as, a day or two previously,
a visit had been paid to the Shawnee in
their towns farther down
the Muskingum, where the year before
Zeisberger likewise had
visited. Although they were worn to the
utmost, he safely delivered
his human freight with their belongings
at Schonbrunn, their des-
tination, after a journey of
thirty-five days.
Viewing in retrospect his creditable
enterprise, Heckewaelder
many years later wrote these lines:
On the 13th of April, 1773, this handsome
village [Friedensstadt, on the
Beaver River] was evacuated; one part
of the congregation travelling
across the country by land, and the
other division, accompanied by the
writer of this narrative, in twenty-two
canoes, loaded with the baggage,
Indian corn, etc., by water, first down
the Big Beaver to the Ohio-thence
down that river to the mouth of the
Muskingum-thence up that river,
according to its course, near two
hundred miles, to Shonbrun [Schonbrunn],
the place of destination.5
The distance of "near two hundred
miles," as given in this
brief and modest account, evidently
refers solely to the travel on
the Muskingum and Tuscarawas rivers,
which, as will be presently
shown, Heckewaelder himself in a later
and more precise state-
ment estimated at "160
miles." The total distance of the entire
water journey from Langundouteniink
(Friedensstadt) to Schon-
brunn, according to figures obtained by
courtesy of the water
division of the Ohio Department of
Natural Resources, was 330
river miles. In an enumeration of his
journeys between 1762 and
1814, which also gives the distances,
Heckewaelder, for the year of
1773, had entered the following data:
In April, down Beaver creek, by water,
................... 30 [miles]
Thence down to [the] Ohio, to the mouth
of the Muskingum,
etc.,........................................... 150
Thence up the Muskingum, by water, to
Schonbrunn 1606
5 Narrative, 126.
6 Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society, I (1876), 234.
A Travel Diary of John
Heckewaelder 287
This makes a total of 340 miles, that
is, a discrepancy of 10 miles
between Heckewaelder's figures and
those of the water division.
The explanation appears to be that
Heckewaelder's 30 miles of
river journey "down Beaver
creek" (from present-day Moravia
[Lawrence County, Pennsylvania] to the
mouth of the Beaver
River) are by 10 miles in excess of the
actual distance of slightly
more than 20 miles. Considering that
Langundouteniink may have
been situated a brief stretch upstream
from present-day Moravia,
and that Heckewaelder may have regarded
the location of his
night camp (near present-day Beaver) as
the terminal point of his
Beaver River journey, one may concede
to him five more miles but
no more, thus arriving at a total of
335 miles.
The account of this journey presented
below is a translation
from the German original in the
Moravian Archives, Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania. It is for the first time
that it appears in print. The
whole diary is given, the only change
from the original manuscript,
aside from the translation, being the
italicizing of the dates for the
convenience of the reader.
BROTHER JOHN HECKEWAELDER'S REPORT OF
THEIR TRAVEL BY WATER
FROM LANGUNDOUTENUNK TO WELHIK THUPPEEK
[SCHONBRUNN] IN
APRIL 1773.
The 13th of April, we departed
together in twenty-two canoes from
Langundouteniink and reached the falls7
at night. Brother Schebosch,
Johannes, and a few more Brethren
reached us there too, to take our
heaviest things with their horses by
land as far as below the falls.
The 14th, the latter turned back
because the water was rising and they might
have been cut off from journeying
overland to Welhik Thuppeek.8
The 15th. Since many of our
canoes were loaded too heavily, we resolved
to empty one of them; the Sisters and
some of the Brethren were supposed
7 The rapids in the Great Beaver River
near present-day Beaver Falls, Beaver
County, Pennsylvania, about five miles
upstream from the mouth of the Beaver.
8 Schebosch, Johannes, and a few other
Brethren evidently traveled to Welhik
Thuppeek (Schonbrunn) by land, going
directly west by way of the Great Trail.
The Great Trail in those days was a much
traveled route from Pittsburgh to Detroit,
equally popular with Indians and white
traders. After it had reached the mouth of
the Big Beaver, it led over the
highlands north of Lisbon, Ohio, and descended along
Sandy Creek to the Tuscarawas River,
which it crossed for its final destination,
Detroit. From the crossing place to the
mission site of Schonbrunn either the
Tuscarawas waterway could be used or a
trail along the river.
288 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
to carry the contents below the falls;
and some Brethren were sent out to
hunt, who brought five deer into camp in
the evening.
The 16th. The Indians found the
head of a man close to our camp. The
man had apparently been killed in the
last war, since his skull had been
split by an ax.
Our Indians pitied him, because he had
died an innocent victim. It was
still raining; hence, the strongest and
most courageous Brethren resolved
to ride the empty canoes over the falls.
They endangered their lives by
doing so, and two of our people were
nearly drowned, but there were
always a few Brethren with a canoe ready
to help in case of emergency;
yet they all traveled safely down,
although sometimes the canoes were half
filled with water.
The 17th. The canoe which they
had begun to build the day before
yesterday was completed, so we did not
tarry any longer but entered into
the Ohio this same evening and made camp
beneath the old French fort,
the chimneys of which in parts are still
standing.9
The 18th. Now that we were on the
Ohio, we made an agreement with
each other on how we would conduct our
trip, namely, that we would travel
until evening, if the wind were quiet,
because the river is high. Today,
now and then, we saw plantations of the
white people on the other side
of the river; and in the evening we made camp close to the Mingo Town.10
The 19th. We passed this town in
the morning. The Mingo wanted to
talk with us, but there was no one among
us who understood their language.
From here, a year ago, Brother David
started with his traveling party
overland to Welhik Thuppeek.11 A few
miles farther down, a white man
called us and invited us to come ashore
and to rest a little, but we did not
want to delay ourselves. We told him the
reason, to which he replied:
9 Probably a discarded French stronghold
in the place of the later Fort McIntosh,
which was erected in 1778 near the mouth
of the Beaver in the vicinity of present-
day Beaver, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
The complete distance covered since the
13th of April, their day of departure
from Langundoutenunk, was only slightly more
than 20 miles; this was due to the
transportation difficulties at the Beaver rapids
as described above.
10 The distance covered on the 18th from
near present-day Beaver to the camp
above Mingo Town was about 40 miles.
11 On the 14th of April, 1772, the Rev. David Zeisberger set out from
Friedens-
stadt with a group of five married
couples of converts, several children, and one
unmarried man, for the Tuscarawas
Valley, where they eventually laid out the
mission of Schonbrunn. As a year later
John Heckewaelder did, Zeisberger too
directed the baggage, attended by a few
men, down the Ohio and up the Muskingum
in canoes.
A Travel Diary of John
Heckewaelder 289
"In that case, I wish you a happy
journey, you good people."12 Again we
saw houses and plantations of white
people on the east side of the river
in different places.13 No
sooner had we gone ashore in the evening14 than
six white people appeared across the
river from us and started talking
to me; but the river was so wide that we
were not able to understand
each other very well, hence I paddled
across with the Brethren Anton and
Boas. They questioned us about many
things for about half an hour, but
they were quite modest, most of their
questions being about our religion and
doctrine. Some of them I will note down;
for example: "What kind of
Indians are these, and where do they
come from?" - Answer: "They
are
a Christian Indian congregation and come
from Beaver Creek." - "Where
are they going?" - "To the Muskingum." - "Are these the Moravian
Indians?" - Answer:
"Yes." - "Do they have a minister with them?" -
Answer: "Yes, they are two
congregations, and each of them has its
teacher." - "Of what religion are their
teachers?" - "They are of the
Brethren's." - "Do they
receive an annual salary from the King or from
a certain society?" - "No." - "How then are they supported?" - Answer:
"The members of the Brethren's
Congregation voluntarily put up the money,
each according to his capability, and
their teachers are supported by this
voluntary contribution." Whereupon
they said to each other: "That, indeed,
is praiseworthy. Can their teachers talk
with them in their language?" -
"Yes." - "Did some of
them really come to the point where they truly
believe that there is a God in
Heaven?" - "Yes." - "Do they let them-
selves be baptized?" - "Yes." - "Are these two baptized, and what are
their names?" - Answer: "They
are both baptized, and they are called
Anton and Boas." - "Are they
faithful even after they are baptized?" -
Answer: "It seldom happens that any
of them leaves us again; you see a
good example here in this man Anton, who
has kept his faith for twenty
years." - They said to each other: "One can see in this man's face
that
he is a true Christian"; and they
further asked: "Do they celebrate the
12 This man may have been one of the first
settlers on the site of the later city
of Wellsburg (Brooke County, West
Virginia), Jonathan, Israel, or Friend Cox,
who in 1772 here built a log cabin on
the river bank. Work Projects Administration,
West Virginia: A Guide to the
Mountain State (New York, 1941), 485.
Wellsburg
is just "a few miles farther
down" from Mingo Town (today, Mingo Junction).
13 Among them, to be sure, the cabins of the first settlers of Wheeling,
West
Virginia, the three Zane brothers,
Colonel Ebenezer, Jonathan, and Silas, who in 1769
had here established themselves. West
Virginia Guide, 283.
14 This night-camp (April 19-20) was
across the river from present-day McMechen
(Marshall County, West Virginia). Its
distance from the previous one, above Mingo
Town, was about 25 miles.
290 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Sabbath and keep it holy, and do no work
on that day, not even hunting ?"-
Answer: "They celebrate the Sabbath
as it is usual with other Christian re-
ligions." - "Which day do you regard as the
Sabbath?" - Answer: "The
first day of the week." - "Do
they have any meetings except on the
Sabbath?" - Answer: "They have meetings once,
sometimes twice, every
day." - Thereupon they said:
"You see, they are true Christians. Now if
one of them does not behave himself,
what do you do with him?" -
Answer: "We reprimand him, and if
our reprimands do not help, he is
excluded from the Congregation;
sometimes he is even sent away." - "Do
you hold school for them?" -
"Yes." - "In what language?" - In
their own." - They said: "That is right." - "We think that as long as
they do not live entirely among the
white Brethren they will not be capable
of learning their [the white Brethren's]
language, because many of them are
too old, and others too little apt to
learn foreign languages." - Finally
they asked: "Don't you have any
trade with them, and don't they give you
part of their hunting bag?" -
Answer: "We do not have any trade with
them, nor do we receive anything from
them. We are satisfied with a
primitive mode of living, and when we
see that all along some of them are
converted and become believers, we
consider ourselves well paid." - Upon
which, they said: "It cannot in the
least be questioned that God is with you
and blesses your work. The minister
Jones, too, has given this testimony of
you. He has told us a lot about you. He
has also seen one of your ministers
and talked with him (that was Brother
David, with whom he had talked
in Gnadenhutten).15 He knows you as a
true Christian congregation in the
Indian country, and we wish you success
and God's blessings for your work,
so that your numbers might more and more
increase." Thereupon we parted,
because night had fallen.
The 20th. Just when we were about
to start on our journey again, the
same people came across the river and
looked at all our people and our
whole outfit. They pitied the old
people, because of the hardships of travel-
ing; they fondled the children, and
wished to all of us a happy journey.
Now I learned that they were Baptists;
one of them was a gentleman from
15 Soon after the arrival in the
Tuscarawas Valley of the Susquehanna converts
it proved necessary to found a separate
mission station named Gnadenhutten, ten miles
downstream from Schonbrunn, because the
Mohican converts from Schechschequannunk
could not get along with the Lenni
Lenape from Friedenshutten and insisted on living
at a different place. "The minister
Jones," here mentioned, was a Baptist preacher
from Freehold, New Jersey, who in 1772
paid a missionary visit to the Shawnee
along the Scioto. On his return trip
overland early in 1773 he stopped over at
Gnadenhutten, where on February 13 he
had the interview with Zeisberger here
referred to by Heckewaelder.
291 
292 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Philadelphia.16 They sat down
on the river bank and were astonished at
the general quietude of our people. In
the afternoon some of our men
wanted to stop and hunt, because they
had no more meat; but since the
weather was so beautiful, and there was
no wind, we did not want to lose
any time. But after we had traveled a
bit farther and encountered a little
island,17 they had a notion
that deer would be on the island. We encircled
it with our canoes and put some people
with a few hounds ashore, where-
upon at once four deer jumped into the
water, three of which we obtained.
The 21st. We started on our journey again early in the morning.
The
scenery was very beautiful here. Part of
the bottoms looked like orchards.
I saw many trees and herbs which I did
not know. The Indians said:
"Here we are strangers; the
scenery, the trees, and the grass are different
here." Again we saw houses of white
settlers; some of the people were
standing at the river bank and calling
out to us: "Where are you people
going?"; and I answered: "Up
the Muskingum to settle there"; whereupon
one replied: "I wish you were going
ten thousand times farther." Another,
standing beside him, reprimanded him,
saying: "You are mistaken about
these people. I am sure they are the
same of whom the minister Jones18
has told us so many good things; don't
you see how quiet and well-behaved
they are? None of them has his face
painted, and they all look their natural
selves";19 and they said: "We
wish you a happy journey."
16 From the Rev. Jones's travel diary,
entitled A Journal of Two Visits Made to
Some Nations of Indians on the West
Side of the River Ohio, in the Years 1772
and 1773 (Burlington, Vt., 1774; reprinted, New York, 1865),
pages 34-38, it
appears that these Baptists were from
Philadelphia and had traveled to the Ohio
with the Rev. David Jones and another
Baptist minister, the Rev. John Davis; they had
arrived at the settlement of Dr. James
McMechen, on the site of present-day
McMechen (Marshall County, West
Virginia), on December 2d (or 3d), where the
Rev. Davis died on December 13th. Dr.
James McMechen was that "gentleman from
Philadelphia," here mentioned.
17 This little island must have been
Captina Island, since there is no other island
between it and McMechen. The channel
between Captina Island and the West
Virginia river bank being very narrow,
deer could easily cross over from the mainland
and back.
The distance covered on April 20
(McMechen-Captina Island) was about 10
miles.
18 These people most likely were of the
Cresap family, who since 1771 had been
settling in the river flats opposite
present-day Powhatan Point (Belmont County,
Ohio). On the United States Geological
Survey map these flats are named "Cresap
Bottom." The Rev. David Jones must
have told them about the Moravian Indians
after his overland return from the
Shawnee and Delaware territory to the McMechens,
with whom he subsequently stayed for
three weeks (February 28-March 19, 1773),
obviously spending part of his leisure
time visiting the white settlers along the
neighboring West Virginia bank of the
Ohio. Jones, Journal, 110, 112.
19 The Moravian Mission would not permit
its Indian converts to paint their
faces as did the heathen Indians.
A Travel Diary of John
Heckewaelder 293
It is true, this minister outdid himself
in telling others how much he had
been pleased with our Indians; and that
is the reason why all the people in
this vicinity love and respect us.
Several people told me that, if war should
break out again, we would suffer no
harm. Before I forget it, a bear was
shot today.
The 22d. We traveled through the
most lovely countryside of our entire
trip; crooked as the Ohio runs in other
places, here it went straight ahead,
and its course was W.S.W.;20 nor did we
see mountains any more, but
level bottoms on both sides; the trees
were for the most part in their full
foliage, and many trees bloomed, as did
all kinds of flowers, and the grass
was about one foot high. Everyone was
surprised to have such a beautiful
vision of summer in this month.
Hereabouts, on the east side of the river,
there is supposed to be a settlement of
2-300 families, a little stretch
inland, though, because they do not like
to live right at the river for fear
of the Indians.21 At noon we left the
Ohio and entered the Muskingum.
This river is very deep a few miles from
its mouth, and paddles and oars
have to be used there; afterwards it is
not so deep any more,22 and a little
wider than the Lehigh at Bethlehem.
Today again a bear was shot.
The 23d. We left the lovely
countryside; the terrain became very moun-
tainous and the bottoms very swampy and
were almost completely covered
with beech trees.23 At
evening time our Brethren went on a little hunt
and again shot a bear.
The 24th. We met an Indian from
Gekelemukpechunk who was acquainted
with us. He was on his way home from the
hunt after he had shot a
buffalo, many of which are found around
here.24
The 25th. We traveled on till
noon, and since many complained of fatigue,
20 This
is the stretch of the Ohio popularly known as the Long Reach, between
Sardis (Monroe County, Ohio) and its
sharp bend about four miles south of Reno
(Washington County, Ohio).
21 It
has been impossible to identify this settlement, nor can the night camp for
April 21st be located. The distance
covered from Captina Island to the mouth of
the Muskingum, reached on April 22d,
about noon, was about 60 miles.
22 That indirectly indicates that in
less deep water the canoes were punted along
with poles. The night camp at the
Muskingum on April 22d was most likely at the
first slackwater place, near present-day
Lock 2, about 6 miles up the river from its
mouth.
23 This
description corresponds with the scenery along the river between present-
day Lock 2 and Lock 3, near Lowell,
where probably the night camp on the 23d
was made after a journey in a shallow
channel of only 7 1/2 miles. Even today beech
(Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.) occurs in these bottoms.
24 The stretch from Lowell (Lock 3) to
Beverly (Lock 4), the most probable site
of the night camp on April 24th, is
about ten miles long; the land, especially be-
tween Coal Run and Beverly, is flat on
both sides of the river-ideal buffalo country.
294 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
we resolved to make camp near a huge
rock.25 Some of the Brethren at once
built a sweating oven to sweat out their
fatigue;26 others went out hunting
a little and encountered buffaloes, at
which they shot, but without success.
This night we did not find much rest
because of the enormous number of
toads, which greatly annoyed us.27 The
Indians, therefore, call this place
25 The huge rock here mentioned, near
which, after only about eight miles' travel,
Heckewaelder's Indians made their night
camp of April 25th, was once situated on
the east bank of the Muskingum (which
here flows from south to north) about
halfway between present-day Luke Chute
Dam, near Swift, and Brokaw. The rock
was broken up and the fragments carried
a short stretch downstream to be used in the
construction of the dam. The remainder
was allegedly blasted off when, all along
the right bank of the lower Muskingum,
the Ohio and Little Kanawha spur of the
Baltimore & Ohio system was built. A
substantial chunk of the huge rock can
still be traced in the river, at its
original location, under about three feet of water.
Across the river from that spot there
used to be a settlement, Big Rock, which was
wiped out of existence by a river flood
after the Civil War; on a map of 1854 of the
state of Ohio the village of Big Rock is
still shown. I am greatly indebted for this in-
formation concerning the big rock to Mr.
Larry Semon of the Marietta Boat Club; to
Miss Louanna Walker of Marietta; and to
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Walker
of Brokaw, Ohio.
26 The half-day journey of nearly eight
miles on April 25th between Beverly
and the big rock must have been
exceedingly strenuous; it is indicated by Hecke-
waelder's remark about their building
"a sweating oven to sweat out their fatigue."
27 In
the evening of April 25, 1952, under almost identical weather conditions,
this writer visited the area where, most
likely, Heckewaelder and his converts made
their night camp in 1773. It is roughly
the site of present-day Brokaw, where the
steep, rocky proclivity which closely
hugs the east bank of the Muskingum upstream
from Luke Chute Dam sufficiently recedes
from the river to make room for a camp near
the flats at Madison Run, which, coming
from the south, here empties into the
Muskingum. Especially after heavy rains,
such as had fallen on April 25th in both
1773 and 1952, these flats are very
soggy, with countless puddles and rills, making
an ideal spawning ground for toads and
frogs. The entire expanse, moreover, is
loosely covered with shrubby willows.
Except for the railroad dam that traverses
these flats from east to west at Brokaw,
close to, and almost parallel with, the
river, the swampy bottom appears not to
have been disturbed between 1773 and the
present day. Based on the supposition
that, therefore, its fauna likewise has re-
mained essentially unchanged, this
writer's expectations were fully borne out: starting
at twilight (about 7:30 P.M. E.S.T.),
and ever increasing in both shrillness and
volume as darkness deepened, there rose
from the swamp a batrachian chorus nothing
short of ear-splitting. Not a single
toad's typical call was heard, however; it was a
pure chorus of Hyla crucifera
crucifera Wied., the spring peeper, a tree frog, which,
by the way, is called a toad by the
people of the region. This misnomer confirms
my belief that Heckewaelder, at least in
the case at hand, likewise failed to dis-
criminate between "toad" and
"frog." It is certain that his Lenape converts did not
either, since their language has but one
word, tsquall, for both "toad" and "frog."
Another of this writer's observations in
the Madison Run flats seems to shed some
light on the nature of the annoyance
caused the campers of 1773 by that "enormous
number of toads": some of the
creatures, after but the briefest interruptions, con-
tinued their singing with the full glare
of a flashlight close upon them; yet, not
a single one could be seen. That makes
it evident that the sleep of the weary travelers
was disturbed solely by the noise; for
it seems out of the question that those par-
ticular frogs "annoyed" them
by hopping or crawling about the camp.
A
Travel Diary of John Heckewaelder 295
Tsquallutene, that means, town of the
toads.28 About midnight we had a
terrible thunderstorm accompanied by a
heavy rain. A part of our people
sought shelter beneath a rock which was
standing beside the huge one.
This big rock is 70 feet long, 25 high,
and 22 wide, and is solid rock.29
The 26th and 27th. The
channel was pretty good, and we advanced quite
a bit. But when we noticed that our
grain had been wetted by the last
rain and had started sprouting, we
resolved to travel on the 28th only as
far as Sikhewunk and dry our grain
there. Together with some of our
Brethren I went about ten miles up this
creek to see the famous salt spring,
which is imbedded in a sandbank, wells
heavily, and has no visible outlet;
evidently, it has an outlet underground,
because after having been emptied
it soon fills up again. We saw quite a
few contraptions there for boiling
salt.30 At the mouth of this
creek there is a very fine mount of anthracite
28 Tsquall-utene means 'a town of toads (or frogs)'; if it were supposed
to
mean 'a human settlement named after
toads, Toadtown,' the Lenape word would be
Tsquall-uten-unk (Lenape tsquall, 'frog; toad'; uten(e)-, 'town';
-unk, a suffix in-
dicating 'place where').
29 The measurements here given indicate
a rock of 38,500 cubic feet, large enough,
indeed, to attract the attention of both
Indians and whites.
30 According to Heckewaelder's Indian
Word List (History, page 440, where the
name reads Sikheunk), Sikhewunk means 'at the salt spring' (sikhe, 'salt'; -w-,
copulative; -unk, locative
suffix, 'place where'; literally: 'place where there is
salt'). It cannot have been the name of
the creek (which may have been
Sikhewihannok) but merely was that of the salt-boiling place on
"this creek,"
although Heckewaelder does not make it
very clear. There is multiple evidence that
"this creek" was Salt Creek,
mainly in Salt Creek Township, Muskingum County,
Ohio, the most conclusive of all being
Heckewaelder's remark in the next sentence
about a mount of rather pure coal at the
very mouth of "this creek." It little matters
that this coal is not Steinkohle, as
Heckewaelder calls it (which would be anthra-
cite), but, according to the special
maps of the regional carbon deposits, Middle
Kittanning (No. 6), which is the only
kind cropping out, at about water level,
at the mouth of Salt Creek. In view of
the fact that the entire region of Salt Creek
and its numerous branches and smaller
tributaries contained several salt licks and
springs, it must be noted that
Heckewaelder calls Sikhewunk the famous salt spring,
and that, to inspect it, he took a
special side-trip. This spring clearly was the main
source of the Indians' salt supply in
both the region and the period. The Schonbrunn
Diaries in the Moravian Archives,
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, repeatedly tell of Indian
excursions to and from Sikhewunk. S. P.
Hildreth (Pioneer History [Cincinnati,
1848], 211, 260 et seq., 476)
greatly stresses the difficulties encountered by the
early Marietta settlers in obtaining
"culinary salt, . . . so necessary to the comfort
and health of the inhabitants." He
further relates that "white men, taken prisoners
by the Indians, had seen them make salt
at these springs [on "Salt creek, that falls
into the Muskingum river at Duncan's
falls"], and had noted their locality, so
that from their description a skillful
woodsman could find them [1796]." A salt-
boiling plant was erected, and began to
operate the same year, on the site of that
Indian salt spring, where eventually
Chandlersville was laid out. The preeminent
emphasis on this particular salt spring,
on the part of both the Indians and the
white settlers, makes it clear that it
was Sikhewunk, Heckewaelder's famous salt
spring, and that he was led by his
Indian guides, not up the north branch, named
296 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
coal;31 it lies there like a
wall of bricks, and not mixed with soil or other
stones, as I have seen it in other
places on the Ohio. This wall was 500
ells [1050 feet] long. Here another kind
of scenery begins, while up to
this point it had continued as
previously described. Now rich bottoms and
good land presented themselves, and the
farther we journeyed the more
pleasant did it become.32 The
river here took a different course, which
gave us hope to meet our Brethren soon,
because previously we seemed
to have traveled farther away from them
all the time.33
The 29th. We had to pass three
bad rapids, which gave us much trouble
because we had to tow up our canoes.34
The 30th. At noon we arrived at
the Shawnee Town which had been
visited by Brother David last fall.35
Some of our Brethren went into the
town, but they found only a few people
at home, who received them with
kindness; most of them had already moved
away. Thereafter we passed
Salt Creek on modern maps, but up the east
branch, which today is called Buffalo
Creek. The particular spot where, at
Chandlersville, Sikhewunk was situated has
been found by this writer in the Plats
and Surveys of U. S. Lands in the Auditor of
State's office at the state capitol,
Columbus (Vol. I [1798], Range 12, Twp. 13,
Section 13). The location, clearly
marked "Salt Spring," is drawn in at a point on
Buffalo Creek where Lepage Run comes in
from the south, that is, at present-day
Chandlersville. That here we have
Sikhewunk is further confirmed by the fact that
the survey plat shows the Salt Spring at
the crossing point of several early pioneer
roads, likewise drawn in, which clearly
follow aboriginal trails that converged in
the same important spot: Sikhewunk. Evidently, the
distance given by Heckewaelder
of "about ten miles up this
creek," from the mouth of Salt Creek to Sikhewunk, was
estimated rather than measured; by
today's county road, probably likewise an Indian
trail, through Blue Rock State Forest,
the measured distance from Chandlersville to
the mouth of Salt Creek is 7.1 miles,
although the original trail through the woods, in
1773, may have been a mile or two
longer.
31 See preceding note.
32 This description perfectly fits the
scenery about, and north of, Duncan Falls.
33 The general direction of their
journey so far could indeed give them the im-
pression that they had been traveling away
from their destination--the mission of
Schonbrunn--rather than towards it:
first, on the Beaver and Ohio rivers, going south
and southwest; then, from the mouth of
the Muskingum, following the tortuous
course of that river as far as Salt
Creek. From there on only did they begin to
feel that they were actually bound for
their destination.
34 The fact that they had to pass these
rapids shortly after having broken camp
at the mouth of "this creek"
on the 29th, is indirect evidence (1) that "this creek"
indeed was Salt Creek, Muskingum County;
and (2) that the "three bad rapids"
were Duncan Falls, as they were named
not long afterwards; the rapids retained
this name "until the slack-water
improvement on the Muskingum obliterated the
rapid at this place." Hildreth, Pioneer
History, 221. It evidently took them the whole
day to haul their twenty-two canoes over
the falls; their total progress on the 29th
was about 1 mile.
35 This was Woaketammeki, a Shawnee town
on the Muskingum on the site of
present-day Dresden. According to the
Schonbrunn Diaries, Zeisberger's visit had taken
place on October 13-15, 1772.
A
Travel Diary of John Heckewaelder 297
another [Shawnee] town, and made camp.36
Today we had a stretch of
bad channel, and most of the men became
very much fagged out.
The 1st of May, at noon, we
rested again close to a Shawnee town. The
inhabitants of this town moved about
among our people and showed
friendly feelings for us. Meanwhile I
visited a white man who is living
there and who has a white wife; she had
been a prisoner and cannot talk
anything but Shawnee. After that we
journeyed on and were received
very kindly in a town where Delaware and
Monsey are living; they showed
us great hospitality and were not
satisfied until we all had eaten enough.
They would have liked us to stay with
them for the night, but as we did
not want to lose any time, we traveled
on for a few more miles.
The 2d. We had to wade again in
the water a great deal, towing our
canoes over rapids and shallow places.
We met an Indian Brother from
Gnadenhutten, who lent us considerable
help.
The 3d. We again passed different
towns, stopped at some and talked
with the inhabitants, who showed
themselves friendly toward us, and in
the afternoon we passed Gekelemukpechunk
and made camp at the upper
end of the town.37 Passing
by, I counted 106 spectators. They greeted us
with their usual shout of joy, but we
were not able to thank them in the
same way. No sooner had we gone ashore
than we had visitors, some of
whom brought food for the hungry.
Meanwhile I went with a few Brethren
to visit Chief Netawatwes.38 He,
as well as others who were with him,
was very friendly toward us, and when we
parted I had this feeling about
him: "You, too, will be of the
Savior's, some day." Then I and another
36 These smaller Shawnee towns near
Woaketammeki are also mentioned in
Zeisberger's travel report in the
Schonbrunn Diaries. Heckewaelder's progress during
the 30th was approximately 30 miles.
37 The
total stretch covered from May 1st until the afternoon of May 3d roughly
corresponds to the course of the
Muskingum and Tuscarawas between a
point
about 3 miles above present-day Dresden
and Newcomerstown (Gekelemukpechunk);
it is about 31 miles long.
38 Netawatwes, near his ninetieth year
in 1773, had been chosen chief of the
Turtle Tribe (Unami) in his early
manhood, while the Lenape nation was still
in eastern Pennsylvania in the basin of
the Delaware River (Lenapewihannok).
Since the Unami were the foremost tribe
of the nation, its chief was regarded, and
respected, as the great chief of the
entire Lenape people; the whites called him
"King" Netawatwes. Although
occasionally wavering in times of political high
tension, he advocated friendly relations
with the colonists and, in particular, with
the Moravian missionaries Zeisberger and
his fellow-workers and strongly advised
his nation to adopt the Moravian faith
and ethics. At the time of his death he may
be safely called a Christian, although
he did not formally join the Moravian
Brotherhood by being baptized. One of
his grandsons, however, still in the old
man's lifetime, became the first member
of the newly founded Moravian Indian
congregation of Lichtenau in 1776.
298 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Brother went to see Killbuck, who, among
other things, asked the Brother
who was with me: "Does this man
really like the Indians?"39 -- "Yes," he
answered, "not only does he like
them, but all the other Brethren who are
with us like them, too. It would not be
necessary for them to live as poorly
as they do; I have seen with my own eyes
how well they live at Bethlehem;
but because they like the Indians, and
want to acquaint them with the
Savior, they are content with their poor
mode of life and are happy when the
Indians become believers in the Savior.
There is nothing else they ask or
demand of us." - He replied:
"Well, well, now I know it."
The 4th. In the morning we again
had many visitors, and our Brethren
every once in a while said a word or two
about the Savior. Then we parted
again. A few Brethren from Gnadenhutten
and Welhik Thuppeek, who
met us halfway, were very welcome to us,
because by now we were all en-
tirely spent. In the afternoon we
arrived at Gnadenhutten, where everybody
had been looking forward to our arrival
and had been busy preparing
food in order that the hungry and weak
might restore themselves. Three
families at once stayed there to live,
and the rest of us, on the 5th, arrived
happily and safely at Welhik Thuppeek,
where we were received by our
Brethren and Sisters in the most
affectionate and loving fashion.40
39 Killbuck's question bears witness to
the deep-seated distrust this son of Chief
Netawatwes harbored against the
Moravians, as he did indeed against all whites.
Killbuck subsequently added to the
worries of both his father and the mission by
heading an anti-white party in the
capital and openly opposing Netawatwes' pro-
Christian peace policy.
40 The final stretch from
Gekelemukpechunk (Newcomerstown) to Schonbrunn,
covered on May 4th and 5th, was about 24
miles. The total distance of 335 miles
was traveled by Heckewaelder and his
Indian converts in twenty-three days (April
13-May 5, 1773), none of which was an
entire rest day. That amounts to a daily
average of slightly over 14 1/2
miles.