As promised on Facebook, I'm making my first foray into Carbon County with this article, but also keeping with the Moravian theme of the last one. Gnadenhütten (or Gnadenhuetten if you write it without the umlaut) is a German word literally meaning "huts of grace," and this was the name given to many settlements established by the German Moravian church.
Two such settlements by this name were formed in North America, both of which came to unfortunate ends. "The Gnadenhütten Massacre" specifically refers to the incident in Ohio, in 1782. But a few decades earlier, here in Pennsylvania, there was a similar but smaller massacre in what today is known as Lehighton.
Edited 2/23/2024: This blog post is now available as a podcast episode! Learn even more facts about Gnadenhütten by downloading the episode today at Audio.com, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
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| The sign is not located at the cemetery itself, but rather on nearby East Penn Street, at the Lehighton Public Works Department; additional signs direct visitors to the site |
I first ventured into the Lehighton Cemetery, near this marker, on a completely different mission. My mother had been informed by Ancestry.com that one of our ancestors, John Holder, is buried there, and she wanted to know whether he was one of the victims of this attack.
The Moravians, as indicated when I talked about the Moravian Cemetery in Bethlehem, had quite a bit of success in evangelizing to slaves and also to the Native Americans when they came to what eventually became the United States. As such, it became necessary to establish more and more settlements where the faithful could live and worship together. One of these was Gnadenhütten. More accurately, there were three Gnadenhüttens in the same general vicinity, two of which eventually grew into the community of Weissport; these two were known as "New Gnadenhütten." The other one, which came first, stood where this marker now is.
David Zeisberger was a Moravian missionary who frequently traveled back and forth between Gnadenhütten and Bethlehem. At the time of the attack, he was once again traveling between the two settlements when he heard the sounds of gunfire - but he didn't think anything was wrong. I can only imagine how he must have felt when he learned otherwise. Another narrow escape was that of Anna Lawatsch, whom you may remember from the Moravian Cemetery article, and her husband; they had been visiting New Gnadenhütten, but left a day or so ahead of the tragedy.
What happened was this.
The French and Indian War had been going on for about a year and was gaining steam, pitting the British colonies against those of "New France." In July of 1755, a British officer named Edward Braddock was killed in a skirmish against the French (a fight in which a young up-and-comer named George Washington took part), and this triggered a lot of Native raids against frontier settlements. Many of the Natives who hadn't converted to Christianity were pulling back from their allegiance to the English, taking the side of the French instead, and they wanted to pull the converted Natives out of the Moravian settlements. Some were convinced to leave, but many stayed. The thing that didn't help the Moravians was the fact that they simply tried to stay out of the conflict, with the result that pretty much nobody trusted them.
On November 24th, there were just sixteen people in Gnadenhütten; the majority of the converted Native Americans staying there had moved across the river to New Gnadenhütten. While these sixteen were at supper in the mission house, a group of non-converted Native Americans attacked the building and burned it to the ground. Most of the people inside were shot by the Natives, who had been given weapons and stirred to action by the French. A few managed to escape; one woman, Susanna Nitshmann, survived the attack, but was taken prisoner by the attackers and later died in captivity. In all, eleven of the sixteen residents at the mission house lost their lives. The invading Natives then burned the remaining buildings at Gnadenhütten and left the scene.
The Lehighton Cemetery is the equivalent of a few blocks from the Gnadenhütten marker. It's on a sloping hill, like many cemeteries, and the resting place of the massacre victims is easy to find - there seems to be a sign at the end of every path directing visitors to the place. It's marked with a flat engraved stone, with a small field of stones covering the extent of the mass grave. It's blocked off by a low metal barricade; unusually for the Moravians, the large pillar in the southeast corner is the original grave marker, perhaps in a nod to the unusual circumstances.
The youngest victim of the attack, Johanna Andres, was a little over a year old. Moravian children were separated from their parents once they were weaned and sent to a nursery, which is why Johanna's two older brothers survived the attack; they were in the church nursery in the settlement at Nazareth, more than twenty miles away. Johanna, however, was still too small to be taken there, and so she died with her parents in the fire.
It was difficult to photograph the actual grave marker with the names, as I didn't feel entirely right crossing that little fence. I did the best I could. Unlike the original pillar marker, whose faded epitaph says something about 'furthering the remembrance of the martyrs,' this newer stone lists the names of those buried in the mass grave.
It reads as follows:
From what I've seen, "clerk" was not part of Christian Fabricius's name - it was his job. He was a teacher and a scribe. As I noted in an earlier paragraph, Susanna Nitshmann was not outright killed that day (although her husband was), but she was taken prisoner during the whole mess and died later. I'm not sure if her body was recovered and placed in the mass grave or not, but they included her in the memorial since her death was a direct result of the attack.
The five survivors were four men and one woman. The youngest of these was 17-year-old Joseph Sturgis, who had just recently come to Gnadenhütten from Macungie; he escaped the burning mission house through an upstairs window. Later he relocated to the Moravian settlement at Lititz (Lancaster County), where his descendants founded Julius Sturgis Pretzels and, later, Tom Sturgis Pretzels. George Partsch was a linen weaver, and Joachim Senseman was a tailor; at 36 and 48 respectively, they were the oldest survivors. They managed to escape and get to Bethlehem, and returned the next day to search for survivors. The only woman survivor was Partsch's wife, Susanna, who managed to avoid capture by hiding inside of a hollow tree. The fifth survivor was Peter Worbass, a carpenter, who was not of German descent but an immigrant from Denmark. He, Senseman, and the Partsches all relocated to Bethlehem, where the widowed Senseman eventually remarried. They're all buried in the Moravian Cemetery.
The deaths of so many of the faithful innocent rocked the Moravian community. Those converted Native Americans who were at New Gnadenhütten were devastated by the situation. The following spring, Benjamin Franklin himself arrived in New Gnadenhütten, and began to lay out the plans for his 'chain of forts' to help keep anything like this from happening again. This 'chain' included Fort Allen, Fort Everett, Fort Lebanon, and the short-lived Fort Franklin.
So I didn't find John Holder; I'll have to make a return trip to the Lehighton Cemetery sometime and see if I can locate his stone. But it's been a fascinating search nonetheless.
Lehighton Cemetery at FindAGrave.com
Ebbert, Lamont, and Gordon B. Ripkey. Images of America: Lehighton. Arcadia Publishing, 2013.
Gnadenhuetten at the Historical Marker Database
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
The Moravians, as indicated when I talked about the Moravian Cemetery in Bethlehem, had quite a bit of success in evangelizing to slaves and also to the Native Americans when they came to what eventually became the United States. As such, it became necessary to establish more and more settlements where the faithful could live and worship together. One of these was Gnadenhütten. More accurately, there were three Gnadenhüttens in the same general vicinity, two of which eventually grew into the community of Weissport; these two were known as "New Gnadenhütten." The other one, which came first, stood where this marker now is.
David Zeisberger was a Moravian missionary who frequently traveled back and forth between Gnadenhütten and Bethlehem. At the time of the attack, he was once again traveling between the two settlements when he heard the sounds of gunfire - but he didn't think anything was wrong. I can only imagine how he must have felt when he learned otherwise. Another narrow escape was that of Anna Lawatsch, whom you may remember from the Moravian Cemetery article, and her husband; they had been visiting New Gnadenhütten, but left a day or so ahead of the tragedy.
What happened was this.
The French and Indian War had been going on for about a year and was gaining steam, pitting the British colonies against those of "New France." In July of 1755, a British officer named Edward Braddock was killed in a skirmish against the French (a fight in which a young up-and-comer named George Washington took part), and this triggered a lot of Native raids against frontier settlements. Many of the Natives who hadn't converted to Christianity were pulling back from their allegiance to the English, taking the side of the French instead, and they wanted to pull the converted Natives out of the Moravian settlements. Some were convinced to leave, but many stayed. The thing that didn't help the Moravians was the fact that they simply tried to stay out of the conflict, with the result that pretty much nobody trusted them.
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| This secondary marker is located northeast of the PHMC marker |
The Lehighton Cemetery is the equivalent of a few blocks from the Gnadenhütten marker. It's on a sloping hill, like many cemeteries, and the resting place of the massacre victims is easy to find - there seems to be a sign at the end of every path directing visitors to the place. It's marked with a flat engraved stone, with a small field of stones covering the extent of the mass grave. It's blocked off by a low metal barricade; unusually for the Moravians, the large pillar in the southeast corner is the original grave marker, perhaps in a nod to the unusual circumstances.
The youngest victim of the attack, Johanna Andres, was a little over a year old. Moravian children were separated from their parents once they were weaned and sent to a nursery, which is why Johanna's two older brothers survived the attack; they were in the church nursery in the settlement at Nazareth, more than twenty miles away. Johanna, however, was still too small to be taken there, and so she died with her parents in the fire.
It was difficult to photograph the actual grave marker with the names, as I didn't feel entirely right crossing that little fence. I did the best I could. Unlike the original pillar marker, whose faded epitaph says something about 'furthering the remembrance of the martyrs,' this newer stone lists the names of those buried in the mass grave.
It reads as follows:
To the memory of
Gottlieb & Christina Andres
with their child Johanna,
with their child Johanna,
Martin & Susanna Nitshmann,
Ann Catharina Sensemann,
Leonhard Gattermeyer,
Christian Fabricius clerk,
George Schweicert,
John Fredrick Lesly and
Martin Presser
who lived here at Gnadenhutten
unto the Lord
and lost their lives in a surprise
from Indian warriors
November the 24th
1755
Precious in the fight of the Lord
is the death of his saints
Psalm CXVI 15
From what I've seen, "clerk" was not part of Christian Fabricius's name - it was his job. He was a teacher and a scribe. As I noted in an earlier paragraph, Susanna Nitshmann was not outright killed that day (although her husband was), but she was taken prisoner during the whole mess and died later. I'm not sure if her body was recovered and placed in the mass grave or not, but they included her in the memorial since her death was a direct result of the attack.
The five survivors were four men and one woman. The youngest of these was 17-year-old Joseph Sturgis, who had just recently come to Gnadenhütten from Macungie; he escaped the burning mission house through an upstairs window. Later he relocated to the Moravian settlement at Lititz (Lancaster County), where his descendants founded Julius Sturgis Pretzels and, later, Tom Sturgis Pretzels. George Partsch was a linen weaver, and Joachim Senseman was a tailor; at 36 and 48 respectively, they were the oldest survivors. They managed to escape and get to Bethlehem, and returned the next day to search for survivors. The only woman survivor was Partsch's wife, Susanna, who managed to avoid capture by hiding inside of a hollow tree. The fifth survivor was Peter Worbass, a carpenter, who was not of German descent but an immigrant from Denmark. He, Senseman, and the Partsches all relocated to Bethlehem, where the widowed Senseman eventually remarried. They're all buried in the Moravian Cemetery.
The deaths of so many of the faithful innocent rocked the Moravian community. Those converted Native Americans who were at New Gnadenhütten were devastated by the situation. The following spring, Benjamin Franklin himself arrived in New Gnadenhütten, and began to lay out the plans for his 'chain of forts' to help keep anything like this from happening again. This 'chain' included Fort Allen, Fort Everett, Fort Lebanon, and the short-lived Fort Franklin.
So I didn't find John Holder; I'll have to make a return trip to the Lehighton Cemetery sometime and see if I can locate his stone. But it's been a fascinating search nonetheless.
Sources and Further Reading:
Lehighton Cemetery at FindAGrave.com
Ebbert, Lamont, and Gordon B. Ripkey. Images of America: Lehighton. Arcadia Publishing, 2013.
Gnadenhuetten at the Historical Marker Database
If you've enjoyed this, please leave a comment!
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Very interesting as I live in the area and relocated from Bethlehem 45 years ago. My daughter just rented a house across from the cemetery, which stirred an interest in the history. Thank you for this post!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
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