Interesting Anderson History 1801-1806
|
I am staking out my spot in the education forum much the way that the folks in my thread staked out roots here in Anderson in 1801. Well, it wasn't Anderson then, it was 2 miles or 4 miles away, depending on how you chose to travel but is now firmly within Anderson city limits. I plan on learning some of you a few new things in this thread. First, like any good class, we have a text. In this case the text is the 1936 Lawrence Henry Gipson book in the Indiana Histoical Collections XXIII - Moravian Indian Mission on White River. This is a primary text that Mr. Gipson translated from the Moravian church archives. It is in diary form and was sent to the church in Bethlehem PA in quarterly intervals. There exists a shorter diary as well and sometimes the information differs slightly or even outright contradicts each other. I will note where those exist. The thread will be handled in a TODAY IN HISTORY manner. If nothing of interest happened then I may well expound on something else of interest as it relates to he mission. As for any class we have some ground rules. First, I am supreme and always right...well, not really, but there are some rules. 1. This is a religious group doing religious work. It will out of necessity contain religious doctrine and wording. We aren't discussing the merits of those. This is purely a historical examination of the mission. If you want to start your own thread on the doctrine of the Moravian church then feel free to do so. 2. Indians are second only to religion as frequency of topic. If you have a romantacized view of the indians and you think they were completely mistreated by the mean and evil white folks you are going to be sorely dissapointed. The evil that the whites sometimes did to the indian nations does figure largely into this story and comment on it is certainly appropriate. Don't expect a lot of compassion beyond that from me though because the truth is that the Delaware Indians on the White River pretty much sucked. They were a bunch of whiskey drunk, lazy, violent, moochers to put a pretty fine point on it. Still though, they are worth reading about and there are of course exceptions. If no one chooses to participate I will drone on and on for the lurkers sake. If you want me to talk about something then ask. Otherwise you get what I want to give. We'll start with a list of key players for the start. We'll add a lot more as we go along.
First up the away team of missionaries:
The away team has some Indians too: Widower Jacob and his wife Mary Joshua and his son Christian Widow Abigael with her daughter Anna Salome and two grandchildren (unnamed) 13 in total are in the congregation. There is also Ska and Michael, Indians hired to get them to the White River and who make a later apperance.
The home team starts with: Tetepachsit - the elderly Head Chief Hackinkpomska - a witch doctor who is oddly enough encouraging our away team. Natawatwes - dead before our story starts but his last will and testament was that the Indians shoudl accept the Word of God. William Henry - not really important to the story but he is the son of John Killbuck whose father was Natawatwes. Does nothing for the story than answer where the name for the area of Killbuck originates. 
|
All fun aside this sounds intersting.
Like stars across the sky … . E per avvincere ….. Tu dovrai vincere ...
We were born to shine …All of us here because we believe......
Looking forward to more lessons.
PresidentJust a member of ACSC Board of TrusteesTo get you up to speed there are a couple of events you need to know about.
In PA there were multiple missions created by the Moravians. Most were successful to some degree or another but we considerably disrupted by the American Revolution. In 1781 400 of the residents of the settlements were uprooted by hostile Hurons, Delewares and Shawnee led by a British officer. They were set adrift after they were seen as non-combatants. After a particularly nasty winter about 150 of them returned to the settlements in search of unharvested food. At Gnadenhutten there were problems. American colonel David Williamson came to the settlement with a force and was looking for revenge for family that was killed by hostile Indians. He had nothing resembling clear proof or even reason to suspect that these Indians were responsible for the crime but that didn't stop him from killing 90 of them. This single act serves as a painful reminder to the Indians of what happens when trust is placed in the Moravians. It will plague our away team nonstop.
Second is the invitation to come to the White River in the first place. The chiefs were gathering the Indians together and the Delaware were a scattered people in some respects. The invitation was sent to those Indians in the company of the missionaries to come to the area where they may setup a settlement and live as they chose. The chiefs were aware that these were baptized Christians. The invitation was not directly addressed to the missionaries at any time. They simply assumed that the invitation was to them as well. When they inquired they were never told they weren't invited but they weren't ever specifically told they were either.
As catch up, they arrived on May 25, 1801. They settle essentially in the cul-de-sac of Linwood Drive just south of it's intersection with Chesterfield place.
I updated the teams.
Today's history at the mission has something interesting for us.
Friday, the 12th - 1802
Old Sr (sister) Loisa returned from her old home quite sick. She had gone there to gather her corn and bring it here(to the mission). But when she began to work she had such a severe attack of fever that she was prevented from continuing. The Indian cows ate up what she had gathered and what was still standing so that she had nothing and, in Indian fashion, was as poor as could be. When she complained to the Indians whose cow had eaten up her corn and asked them to giver her an indemnity for the same, they threatened her with death if she did not leave immediately. Sr. Loisa knows of many medicinal plants which she hunted at once and gave them to sick Sr. Catherine( who had been very sick since Nov 1). They had the desired effect at once and in a few days she was out of danger and soon recovered nicely.
Sister Loisa was a baptized Indian from the old missions in the east and had previously returned to the White River. She met the missionaries and moved to the village. She will turn out to be a detriment later.
Nice treatment by her fellow brown man eh?
The 1804 entry for today just says that the white bretheren were busy with household duties and writing letters. The brown bretheren are away hunting since Nov 6th. The missionaries note they are glad to be rid of them for a few days since they had been causing problems.
In 1806 they were back in Bethleham Penn.
Tomorrow's entry won't be a happy one at all and will have far reaching implications that none at the little mission could image when they occured.
The "AFP newsroom" (aka my living room) got a call from Oklahoma (where the Delaware Indian headquarters is located) about this thread. Here's hoping that person signs up and adds his thoughts to this interesting thread.
Here is hoping you don't get a letter delivered by fire arrow express......
Like stars across the sky … . E per avvincere ….. Tu dovrai vincere ...
We were born to shine …All of us here because we believe......
Patriot Dan do you study American Indians or just Anderson history?
"If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
Keep it coming PatriotDan ! This is good stuff .