HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 37

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS.

The earliest actual settlement made within the present limits of Lorain county, though short-lived, was effected by that zealous but persecuted sect known as Moravians, at the mouth of Black river in 1787. We deem it but just that a short chapter be devoted to this interesting people, and believe no one will deem the space we accord them as unwisely granted.

The sect had its origin in Bohemia. Always insignificant as to numbers, and none of them remarkable for wealth, position or learning, no Christian ,people have shown more zeal or enthusiasm in extending their Master's kingdom. Considering their meager numbers, it may be confidently asserted that no other denomination of Christians has done so much for the missionary cause. Without extraordinary skill or ability in elucidating abstruse or difficult problems of belief, they have sought not to make proselytes among those already well-grounded in the cardinal doctrines of Christian faith, but to teach the elementary gospel religion to those peoples and tribes who had not yet been converted to christianity. To the prosecution of this work they have freely devoted their lives and fortunes, and no country has been too remote, no shore too forbidding or inhospitable to prevent their planting there the banner of the cross and seeking to bring under its folds the most savage and degraded of mankind.

In 1732, while their numbers were less than four hundred, they began their missionary work, the first station established being at St. Thomas in the West Indies.

In 1740 they established a mission among the Indians at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; but as the Indians were being gradually driven westward, a permanent location was impossible.

The efforts of the missionaries to civilize the Indians were not wholly successful. Their contact with the whites was always corrupting in its influence upon the red men. For the missionaries to have success it was necessary for them to keep in advance of the wave of emigration.

In 1768 a new location was sought near Oil City, Pennsylvania, and in 1770 they removed to the Beaver river, where they remained a year or more, and then turned their steps westward to the valley of the Tuscarawas, near New Philadelphia, Ohio. Here, in this pleasant and fertile valley, they thought themselves so far in the wilderness that they hoped they might forever remain undisturbed. They built cabins, cleared

38 - HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY

away the forests, worshiped God in peace and happiness. Their numbers increased by conversions from the Indians until the settlement contained three villages named Schoenbrunn, Salem and Gnadenhutten.

Though they exercised only the arts of peace and kept aloof from war and strife, patiently submitting to wrong without seeking to bestow punishment, they could not escape persecution and martyrdom. They were distrusted by both the British and the Americans. The former took steps to break up their mission and bring the inhabitants to Detroit as prisoners.

It was a sad blow to the peaceful Christians to be forced to leave their homes and ungathered crops,, and in a long journey through a pathless wilderness, suffering indignity, cruelty and untold hardships.

The following spring, 1782, a few of them by permission returned to harvest their corn; but no sooner were they arrived than a detachment of Americans came among them, and, seizing a favorable opportunity, rushed upon the defenceless Christians and slaughtered them in cold blood: It was one of the most cruel, unprovoked and bloody deeds known to the annals of border warfare.

Those that had remained at Detroit sought a home in Canada; but, after dwelling a few years among the Chippewas, their hearts yearned for their old home in the Tuscarawas, and in 1786 they started thither.

Reaching a point on the Cuyahoga in Independence township, known as Pilgrims' Rest, they received intelligence that made them shrink from going further. They halted and remained here about one year and then journeyed westward until they reached the mouth of Black river (in 1787), and here they made a settlement. Their hope was to found here a permanent colony and to labor among the Indians, endeavoring to civilize and Christianize them. This cherished wish, however, could not be realized. But a few days had elapsed when the chief of the Delawares sent them a message commanding them to depart. This may be termed the first actual settlement effected within the limits of Lorain county. Though these Moravians tarried but a few days, they had actually chosen a spot where they fully intended to permanently remain, and their withdrawal was obligatory, not voluntary.

Driven from Black river, these valiant Christian soldiers next sought for themselves an asylum on the banks of the Huron, about two miles north of the present village of Milan, in Erie county. Here they dwelt for five or six years; but, after suffering many persecutions, they were again driven away, and returned to Canada, settling on the river Thomas.

In 1797, Congress, mindful of their past wrongs, made grants to them of their old lands on the Tuscarawas, whither a • portion of them returned and prosecuted their missionary labors. However, their success was retarded by the influence of the white settlers, which was ever demoralizing upon the Indian, and some of them returned again to Canada, while others, among them Charles Frederich Dencke, came to the Huron river and established there a mission. This was in 1804. Here they continued to dwell for five years, until the Fire Lands, having been surveyed, the white settler began to claim the lands upon which their cabin homes were erected. Then the missionaries and their Indian adherents sought their brethren in Canada.

The mission village on the Huron was called Pequotting, or Paynothing, and consisted of a chapel, mission house and a score or more of Cabins, some of which were afterwards used by the white settlers.

Their labors consisted in teaching the Indians not only religion, but the rudiments of education, and were successful in inducing them to a certain extent to procure their food by cultivating the soil, to live in cabins, and to leave off their paint and feathers and to clothe themselves in more civilized garbs.

Among the most noted of these missionaries may be named Charles Frederich Dencke, who was born in Iceland, his father being a missionary to that country. Tradition states that he had a library which filled a space of not less than ten feet in length by six in height, and occupied nearly the whole of one side of his log cabin at Pequotting. Surely the man who took the pains to transport these books from place to place under so many difficulties, could not have been uncultivated and unlearned.

These men were not the heroes of battles nor winners of renown in the noisy triumph of civic strife. They cared not for the applause of man, but in a humble way, through years of hunger, toil, weariness and loneliness, sustained by an unwavering trust and faith, they sought out the rude savage of the forest and strove to elevate him to a higher, truer manhood. Is it not fitting that History spares, then, a page. whereon to transfix their names and deeds?