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 ievf 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 he 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 constituteid. 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 httle band some of the best blood of the coun- 

 try, and it enrolled many men of highly cultivated minds and ex- 



