66 Mr. Heckewelder. 
Rev. John Heckewelder.—Gnadenhutten was first settled by the 
Moravian missionaries in the year 1772. Another missionary sta- 
tion was formed a few miles below, at Salem, by Mr. Heckewelder, 
in the spring of 1780. Sarah, his wife, here resided with him in 
perfect safety, and in the fullest confidence of security, amongst 
their Indian converts. The 16th of April, 1781, was the birth day 
of their daughter Maria, who it is believed was the first white child 
born within the present limits of the State of Ohio. She is still liv- 
ing in Bethlehem, (Penn.) In the autumn of that year, the Indians 
and missionaries were forcibly removed to Detroit, by the Sandusky 
Indians, leaving all their crops of corn standing in the fields. Hav- 
ing suffered much from a want of food during the winter, a part of 
the Indians returned in March to save what was yet left, at which 
time the massacre took place. While dwelling on the incidents of 
this interesting spot, I cannot refrain from adverting to a singular 
trait in the character of Mr. Heckewelder, that of believing in the 
power of foretelling future events. He had lived so many years se- 
cluded in the deep forests, and had, in the eye of his mind, seen 
the Indians so often at their labors, and his visions had been so often 
verified, that he had insensibly imbibed a belief that the human 
mind may become so deeply impressed with the approach of future 
events, as to predict their arrival with certainty. From certain oc- 
currences, he was led -to believe that he was himself possessed of 
this faculty: whether be acquired it from the dreamy kind of life he 
led in the wilds of the Tuscarawas, or from actual intercourse with 
spiritual existences, similar to those of Swedenborg, it will be diffi- 
cult at this day to determine, but certain it is that many devout and 
pious minds have often been similarly constituted... The following 
singular fact I have from an ocular, and still living witness: During 
the early years of the settlement of the Ohio company at Marietta, 
Mr. Heckewelder was a frequent and a welcome guest. He there 
found men of learning and taste, whose society was congenial, and 
where he could again enjoy the comforts and refinements of social 
life. While many of the early settlements were composed of the ig- 
norant, the vulgar, and the rude, the colony at Marietta, like those 
of many of the ancient Greeks, carried with it the sciences and the 
arts; and although placed on the frontiers, amidst the howling and 
the savage wilderness, exposed to many dangers and privations, there 
ran in the veins of its little band some of the best blood of the coun- 
try, and it enrolled many men of highly cultivated minds and ex- 
