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The first settlement: Gnadenhutten
(Huts of Grace) was settled five months after Schoenbrunn on October 9,
1772. Joshua, a Moravian Mohican Elder, brought a large group of Christian
Mohican Indians from Pennsylvania to this location. Thus the second Indian
village was settled--Delawares at Schoenbrunn and Mohicans at
Gnadenhutten. This settlement grew rapidly and soon there were between fifty
and sixty cabins. The group worked hard and prospered, their standard of
living was high for that era on the frontier, their cabins had glass
windows, they used pewter household utensils, they were adept in crafts and
art work, and loved music. The community had a spinet piano and one member
played and led the singing. They soon developed gardens and had droves of
cattle, hogs, and horses. Both the men and women worked which was shocking
to the Indians of the other tribes. Present day Gnadenhutten had its
beginning in 1798 when John Heckewelder returned to this area sixteen
years after the brutal massacre of ninety Christian Indians in 1782. The
government had set aside three tracts of land, 4,000 acres each, for the
Indians. When it was learned that they could not use all the land, the
Gnadenhutten Tract was opened for white settlers. Many Moravian families
from eastern Pennsylvania came to this area to live.
John Heckewelder built the first house in the new settlement in 1798.
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It was here that the Roth child was born, July 4, 1773, who was the first
white child born in this territory. All went well until the Revolutionary
War began and the English at Detroit wanted all Indians to fight against
the Americans. The local Indians refused. Conditions were fairly quiet for
a few months, but again the British and the Indian Tribes to the west
tried to persuade them to leave. When they would not, in September 1781
troops and Indian warriors rounded up all the Indians living in New Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten and Salem and took them to Captives town. The
trip was a terrible
experience as they were mistreated and their clothes and valuables were
taken from them. During the winter in the captive town many died of
diseases brought on by the lack of food. By late winter in 1781,
conditions became so bad that some of the Indian leaders asked permission
to go back to their homes in the Tuscarawas valley and bring back whatever
food they could carry. Permission was granted to 150. They arrived back
home in February 1782 and were gathering food and belongings, when they
were surrounded by Pennsylvania Militiamen under Colonel Williamson. Their
weapons were taken away and they were told they would be killed in the
morning. They were accused of raiding the American Settlements in
Pennsylvania, giving aid to and comfort to parties of warriors, stealing
horses and other articles from Americans and that they had a dress that
belonged to an American woman who had been killed in a raid in
Pennsylvania, etc. 
the 1970's excavation work
revealed the sites of the two buildings where the Indians spent the night
before their death by the hands of Colonel Williamson and his American
militiamen. Those buildings, the Mission House and Cooper Shop, have been
restored and are located on their original sites. 
