On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Eric Sterner about the Gnadenhutten Massacre, the murder of ninety-six Delaware Indians—men, women, and children—at a Moravian Mission settlement in Ohio by Pennsylvania Militia and settlers in 1782. A complex and tragic story that embodies the prejudices, cultural clashes, and brutality of the western frontier during the American Revolution.
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2 Comments
The Gnadenhutten site in Ohio is a little hard to find, in a rural area, but it has a very nice monument and park set aside to honor the event.
I visited the town with family last year, accidentally arriving in the middle of the Independence Day parade. (It wasn’t the 4th.). GPS got me to the town just fine, but there weren’t a lot of obvious markers pointing me to the cemetery or museum. Folks were super friendly, though, and happy to give us directions. Someone even came by after the parade was over and opened up the museum for us.
I highly recommend visits to the area for folks interested in frontier history, especially during the Revolution. The reconstructed missionary village of Schoenbrunn is just a shirt drive to the north and the small village of Goshen has a tiny missionary cemetery in it, which holds the graves of a fascinating man, David Zeisberger, as well as that of Delaware Chief, Gelelemend, who converted to the United Brethren and received a commission in the continental army. Fort Laurens is also a short dive North on I-77. The area also has some beautiful countryside.