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![handle is hein.amindian/earmori0001 and id is 1 raw text is: [No. 41-SECOND SERIES- 500.]
INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION,
1305 ARCH STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, PA., May, 1897-
IThis article was originally written in serial form for CITY AND STATE,
Philadelphia, and appeared in that paper July 3o, August 6 and 13, 1896.1
EARLY MORAVIAN INDIAN WORK.
BY HERBERT WELSH.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
I.
A chapter upon the Moravians in The Making of Pennsyl-
vania, contains a paragraph which bears upon one of the most
interesting episodes in the early history of this State. Speaking
of this remarkable body of Christians, the author says : They
were among the first who carefully studied Indian customs; they
formed successful communities among the savages near Bethle-
hem and also as far west as the Ohio. But the coming on of the
French and Indian War destroyed the fruits of all their efforts,
as it destroyed all that Penn and the Quakers had done. The
flourishing Indian community of the Moravians in Ohio became
suspected of being in league with the hostile tribes, and was de-
stroyed by the white settlers. There is chance for a little con-
fusion here, and the statement needs further elucidation. The
community referred to was Gnadenhiitten (Habitations of
Grace), a Moravian Indian village on the Tuscarawas River, in
what is at present the State of Ohio. This was destroyed by a
party of Pennsylvania volunteers, not, as the foregoing para-
graph would lead the reader to infer, during the French and In-
dian War or as a result of it, but at the close of the War of the
Revolution. The precise date of its destruction was March 7,
1782. We wish Mr. Fisher had thrown a little more light on
this massacre of Christian Indians by white men, nominally
Christians, so that the balance of truth might be the better pre-
served, and so that many readers who have been instructed from
childhood in every incident of Indian atrocity which reddens
Reproduction by Permmission of Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Buffalo, NY](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.amindian/earmori0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)