On Friday June 26, 2020 at around 5:00 pm we set out on a journey into Southern Ohio. Without too much of a destination in mind, we were hoping to find some interesting towns by aimlessly driving around. Our first stop was based solely off of the name: Gnadenhutten. With a name that interesting, we had to see what was there.

The word Gnadenhutten is actually derived from the German name Gnadenhütten (German: [gnaːdn̩hʏtn̩]), meaning literally “huts of grace” and figuratively “log tabernacle”. Interestingly enough in connection with our name-based decision, Gnadenhutten was declared the “most difficult to pronounce” place name in the state of Ohio by Reader’s Digest. It’s also Ohio’s oldest existing settlement.

We quickly came to learn that Gnadenhutten had quite a great deal of history behind it.

Gnadenhutten was founded in October of 1772. It was the second settlement of German Americans and Lenape Native Americans affiliated with the Moravian Church. The Roth family welcomed a baby boy on July 4, 1773. This baby boy – John Lewis Roth – was the first white child known to be born in the Ohio territory. He was born at the mission house in Gnadenhutten.

As pacifists, the tribes of Gnadenhutten and nearby Schoenbrunn remained neutral during the American Revolutionary War. British forces and their Wyandot and Delaware allies had suspicions however that the Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrunn and Salem communities were helping the revolutionaries. They came into the towns, pushing out the Native Americans and taking them north to “Captive Town” near the Sandusky River. They stripped them of all valuables and left them with little food or care. During the winter of 1780-81 many of the Native Americans died of disease or starved to death. After the British imprisoned Rev. Zeisberger at Fort Detroit, 150 Lenape were allowed to return to their old town. Unfortunately Pennsylvania militia led by David Willaimson had come to the resettled town in March of 1782. They had tricked the Indians into giving up their weapons, and the next morning on March 8th, burned the entire 60-cabin town, and slaughtered all but two of the Lenape boys in the village, who escaped. This event in history is known as the Gnadenhutten Massacre. The incident led to distrust between Native Americans and the settlers.

There were three 4,000 acre tracts reserved for Indians as an act of indemnity. However, in 1783 John Ettwein petitioned congress to open the area to European settlers. The first house was built in 1798 by John Heckewelder from Pennsylvania. Moravians remain in the town today, but few Native Americans remain. They had decided to give up the title in 1823 after seeing improvements made by the Moravians.

The town sat on a major wagon road cross the Tuscarawas River. Seeing a need for better access to markets, it was decided to dig the first Ohio Canal between 1825-1830. This also provided better access to more distant areas, such as Cleveland. A railroad was finally laid through the area in 1853. This railroad further improved access to markets, and allowed more industrial development. Unfortunately the canal was destroyed by a flood in 1915, but seeing as other means of transportation had superseded the need for it, it was never rebuilt.

A monument was erected in 1872 dedicated to the martyrs of the March 8, 1782 massacre. In 1963, a museum was established. The museum interprets the massacre, along with sharing other Gnadenhutten history such as the results of 1970 excavations, having rebuilt the Mission House and Cooper shop, and how they erected a mound containing the martyrs’ graves.In 1988, many Native American and First Nations people gathered at the site to dedicate a peace tree. The State of Ohio later erected a memorial marker in 2003, calling the event a “day of shame.”

Needless to say, Gnadenhutten held an entirely different history than anything we would have thought when entering on a whim as we passed by. After our stop in Gnadenhutten, we set out back onto the highway and were headed towards our next destination: Pomeroy, Ohio.

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