Gnadenhutten, OH

We woke up to pouring rain one joyful morning this week, and it didn't take long to convince Dad and Uncle Bo that The Goobers and I NEEDED to see Gnadenhutten.  Gnadenhutten (that's German for "Huts of Peace") is the oldest extant settlement in Ohio.  It began as a Moravian missionary village, and was the site of the Gnadenhutten Massacre, a heartbreaking chapter in history involving the murder of nearly 100 innocent Native Americans by a vengeful militia.  So.  Rain and blood.  Blood and rain.  Good old fashioned fun, I say, and my Goobs agree.

I first read about Gnadenhutten in one of my absolute favorite books - That Dark and Bloody River: Chronicles of the Ohio River Valley, by Allan W. Eckert.  I've mentioned it before, but I'm going to mention it again because it is just that good.  If you live in the Ohio River Valley you should run out and buy this book immediately, because it's great fun to exclaim, "Hey! That's McCulloch's Leap!" as you're driving through Wheeling.  But it would be a great book even if you live in Colorado.  Read it.

Oh, here we are! There's a museum! I love museums!

Closed! Cousin JimBob said, "What, didn't you call first?" Why, no, Cousin JimBob, I didn't. I checked the website, just like any normal person would do, and trusted that the museum would be open during the stated operating hours. And so I drank the dregs from the bitter cup of disappointment. But such is life in the Ohio Valley.  Folks from the Ohio River Valley are familiar with bitter disappointment, so we all recovered nicely.  Besides, I read the pertinent pages from That Dark and Bloody River to everyone on the way, so we were all caught up. We knew a lot more than what is posted on these signs:

Anemone was so impressed with the story of Gnadenhutten that she wrote a synopsis of it in her journal.  And I am so impressed with her being impressed (she's my "I hate history!" baby) that I am posting what she wrote here.

Gnadenhutten, Ohio: 1782

Colonel Williamson and his militiamen were marching, looking for an Indian killing party that had been terrorizing settlements.  When they crossed the Ohio River, they found Private Robert Wallace's wife, Jane, and their infant daughter, Sarah Jane.  They had been tomahawked, scalped and stripped, and impaled on stakes, face up.  They had probably been left there as a warning to the militia.  The soldiers sadly wrapped the two in a blanket and buried them together.  They made a vow to get revenge.

A few days later, Williiamson sent Captain Charles Bilderback to scout.  Bilderback came across several Indians from Gnadenhutten working in the fields and immediately killed them.  Meanwhile, Col. Williams came to the Tuscarawas river across from Gnadenhutten.  They crossed the river and found a number of Indians working in a cornfield.  He told them that he had been sent there to bring them back to Fort Pitt.  He asked them to put down their weapons, and the Indians agreed.  Abraham, the Indian leader, told Williamson that there were fifty more of his people in Salem.  Williamson told him to send runners to fetch them and bring them back.

Robert Wallace saw that one of the Indian women was wearing Jane's bloodstained dress they got when trading with the war party.  There was a vote to excecute all of the Indians, whether they were innocent or not.  The militiamen tied the Indian's hands and feet together and put the men in one buiding and the women and children in another.  Then the runners came back with the people from Salem, and the militiamen took them and tied them up and put them inside with the others.

Williamson waited until next morning so the Indians, who were Christians, could pray and sing for the rest of the night.  In the morning, each Indian was tomahawked and scalped, even the women and the children.  The night before, two children named Thomas and Abel worked all night to free themselves and sat so the militiamen would think they were still tied up.  Thomas pretended to already be tomahawked, and he was only scalped.  The soldier who tomahawked Abel ran out to throw up and left the door open.  Thomas ran through the door and kept running.

In the other cabin, three children named Adam, Esther and Peter crawled into a cellar.  They tried to open the door to the outside, but it was stuck.  After killing the Indians, the militiamen set the buildings on fire.  The children decided to crawl out a tiny window next to the door.  Adam and Esther went out first, but when Peter tried he got stuck inside it.  The building crumpled, and Peter was buried inside.  Adam and Ester ran to Schoenbrunn to warn the other Moravians there.

Isn't she great?

Here is the burial mound.  There were several bunches of flowers left on the other side.  I want you all (well, just The Man, really) to notice and be impressed by my first attempt at merging two pictures in PSE6, even though it looks horrible.  Seriously.  Tell me how cool I am and buy me the full version of Photoshop as a reward.

Here is a more impressive monument to the Indian dead.  The obelisk reads: 

HERE
TRIUMPHED IN DEATH
NINETY
CHRISTIAN INDIANS
MARCH 8, 1782
GNADENHUTTEN

Jeez. I just noticed Anemone is wearing her favorite shirt. Again. I'm going to start calling it her field shirt. She wore it HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.  Well, she can't wear it anymore because it caught on a nail and tore out at the farm.  I tried to be sorry, but I'm not.  Not really.

This is a strange thing to place a marker for, isn't it?  The building is a recreation of the mission house, but it was as locked up as the museum.  Bummer.

There is also a beautiful old cemetery surrounding the historical park, and we had a lovely time walking through and admiring the headstones.  JellyMan says he wants a crypt when he dies.  I told him he'd better hold off on dying, because if he dies on my watch he's getting a wooden board with "BOY" carved into it.  And that's if he's lucky.

Since we had already come so far, we decided to visit Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten's sister village, as well.  This stupid internet connection makes me reluctant to blog about it, but you can read the sanitized story HERE. 

Homeschool Field Trip to Old Fort Steuben

It's time for another homeschool field trip!

In keeping with our early American history studies, we also took the kids to Old Fort Steuben in Steubenville, Ohio. The government built Fort Steuben in 1786 to house and protect surveyors and to discourage squatters. The fort was named after Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben, who is best known for training Revolutionary soldiers under George Washington at Valley Forge during the American Revolution. The kids first learned of Baron von Steuben from Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution by Benson Bobrick. It is a wonderful book and is great for reading aloud.

Since it was Constitution Week, the museum had a big exhibit on the Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance. The grown ups enjoyed the displays, but the kids thought the best part was signing the copy of the constitution.

We spent the rest of the visit wandering around and looking at the buildings. Occasionaly I made them read a sign or two, but mostly they just played around. A few imaginary Indians were shot in cold blood, and the perpetrators placed themselves under arrest for murder. I didn't mind. I took pictures of all the signs so they could read them later. :D

Homeschool Field Trip to Walnut Grove Cemetery

Since we are focusing on early American history this year, we decided to take the kids to Walnut Grove Cemetery in Martins Ferry, Ohio to see the grave of Betty Zane, savior of Fort Henry in 1782. (You can read her story - plus an account of the Molly Scott controversy - here, but if you're at all interested in the struggle over the Ohio River Valley, I highly recommend That Dark and Bloody River by Allan W. Eckert. It is a fabulous book and I often read aloud from it during our studies.)

The cemetery is in much better shape than it was when I was little. There used to be a funky brick wall where the nice wrought iron fence is now, and the enclosure was full of brush and poison ivy. I don't remember the confederate cannon being there before, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, the Rotary Club has done a nice job with the grounds. We had a good time wandering around and the kids enjoyed hearing the story of the settlers winning the battle against the Indians and British soldiers at Fort Henry.