Known as Mahican/ Mohican Abraham, he was a Sachem (Chief) of the Mahican tribe.
Journeyed through Hampshire County near Loudon County, Virginia (now Hardy County, West Virginia), meeting with the Delaware in Coshocton County, Ohio, then to Moravian Mission in Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. One of the first converts to Christianity at the Moravian mission in northern Pennsylvania, he was baptized and given the name ABRAHAM.
His tribe, assimilated with that of the Ohio Delaware by 1793, also had villages in upper Sandusky and at Mohican John's Town in Ohio. After returning from the Sandusky village in early March, Chief Mahican Abraham was the FIRST to die in the massacre at Gnadenhutten and was buried in a mass grave along with the rest of his people.
Here in Gnadenhutten a massacre took place on the 8th of March, 1782, which, for cool barbarity, is perhaps unequalled in the history of the Indian wars. George Henry LOSKIEL, who, from 1802, was for nine years a presiding Bishop of the American Moravian Church, and wrote the "History of the Moravian Mission among the North American Indians," says: "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which the brethren, and the other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for slaughter. They declared to the murderers that though they could call God to witness that they were perfectly innocent, yet they were prepared and willing to suffer death; but as they had, at their conversion and baptism, made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto Him, and endeavor to please Him alone in this world, they knew that they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave his mercy and pardon. This request being complied with they spent their last night here below in prayer and in exhorting each other to remain faithful unto the end. ABRAHAM, who for some time past had been in a lukewarm state of heart, seeing his end approaching made the following public confession before his brethren: ‘Dear brethren, it seems as if we should all soon depart unto our Saviour, for our sentence is fixed. You know that I have been an untoward child, and have grieved the Lord and our brethren by my disobedience, not walking as I ought to have done; but still I will cleave to my Savior, with my last breath, and hold Him fast, though I am so great a sinner. I know assuredly that He will forgive me all my sins, and not cast me out.'
The Tuscarawas county history gives the following account of ABRAHAM's death: "ABRAHAM, whose long, flowing hair had the day before attracted notice and elicited the remark that it would ‘make a fine scalp,' was the first victim. One of the party, seizing a cooper's mallet, exclaimed, ‘How exactly this will answer for the business!' Beginning with ABRAHAM, he felled fourteen to the ground, then handed the instrument to another, saying, ‘My arm fails me; go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.'
The Slaughter — With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or a moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within—all, save two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race. Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, WILLIAMSON and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoenbrun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with them fled for a time the hopes of the missionaries to establish a settlement of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization were apparently lost.
* The evil party of Williamson and his men set fire to Schoenbrun which was later rebuilt at Goshen,see "Indian
Cemetery" in Tuscarawas County for all known Interments actually located at the location of Goshen.
Journeyed through Hampshire County near Loudon County, Virginia (now Hardy County, West Virginia), meeting with the Delaware in Coshocton County, Ohio, then to Moravian Mission in Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. One of the first converts to Christianity at the Moravian mission in northern Pennsylvania, he was baptized and given the name ABRAHAM.
His tribe, assimilated with that of the Ohio Delaware by 1793, also had villages in upper Sandusky and at Mohican John's Town in Ohio. After returning from the Sandusky village in early March, Chief Mahican Abraham was the FIRST to die in the massacre at Gnadenhutten and was buried in a mass grave along with the rest of his people.
Here in Gnadenhutten a massacre took place on the 8th of March, 1782, which, for cool barbarity, is perhaps unequalled in the history of the Indian wars. George Henry LOSKIEL, who, from 1802, was for nine years a presiding Bishop of the American Moravian Church, and wrote the "History of the Moravian Mission among the North American Indians," says: "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which the brethren, and the other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for slaughter. They declared to the murderers that though they could call God to witness that they were perfectly innocent, yet they were prepared and willing to suffer death; but as they had, at their conversion and baptism, made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto Him, and endeavor to please Him alone in this world, they knew that they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave his mercy and pardon. This request being complied with they spent their last night here below in prayer and in exhorting each other to remain faithful unto the end. ABRAHAM, who for some time past had been in a lukewarm state of heart, seeing his end approaching made the following public confession before his brethren: ‘Dear brethren, it seems as if we should all soon depart unto our Saviour, for our sentence is fixed. You know that I have been an untoward child, and have grieved the Lord and our brethren by my disobedience, not walking as I ought to have done; but still I will cleave to my Savior, with my last breath, and hold Him fast, though I am so great a sinner. I know assuredly that He will forgive me all my sins, and not cast me out.'
The Tuscarawas county history gives the following account of ABRAHAM's death: "ABRAHAM, whose long, flowing hair had the day before attracted notice and elicited the remark that it would ‘make a fine scalp,' was the first victim. One of the party, seizing a cooper's mallet, exclaimed, ‘How exactly this will answer for the business!' Beginning with ABRAHAM, he felled fourteen to the ground, then handed the instrument to another, saying, ‘My arm fails me; go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.'
The Slaughter — With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or a moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within—all, save two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race. Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, WILLIAMSON and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoenbrun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with them fled for a time the hopes of the missionaries to establish a settlement of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization were apparently lost.
* The evil party of Williamson and his men set fire to Schoenbrun which was later rebuilt at Goshen,see "Indian
Cemetery" in Tuscarawas County for all known Interments actually located at the location of Goshen.
Known as Mahican/ Mohican Abraham, he was a Sachem (Chief) of the Mahican tribe.
Journeyed through Hampshire County near Loudon County, Virginia (now Hardy County, West Virginia), meeting with the Delaware in Coshocton County, Ohio, then to Moravian Mission in Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. One of the first converts to Christianity at the Moravian mission in northern Pennsylvania, he was baptized and given the name ABRAHAM.
His tribe, assimilated with that of the Ohio Delaware by 1793, also had villages in upper Sandusky and at Mohican John's Town in Ohio. After returning from the Sandusky village in early March, Chief Mahican Abraham was the FIRST to die in the massacre at Gnadenhutten and was buried in a mass grave along with the rest of his people.
Here in Gnadenhutten a massacre took place on the 8th of March, 1782, which, for cool barbarity, is perhaps unequalled in the history of the Indian wars. George Henry LOSKIEL, who, from 1802, was for nine years a presiding Bishop of the American Moravian Church, and wrote the "History of the Moravian Mission among the North American Indians," says: "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which the brethren, and the other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for slaughter. They declared to the murderers that though they could call God to witness that they were perfectly innocent, yet they were prepared and willing to suffer death; but as they had, at their conversion and baptism, made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto Him, and endeavor to please Him alone in this world, they knew that they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave his mercy and pardon. This request being complied with they spent their last night here below in prayer and in exhorting each other to remain faithful unto the end. ABRAHAM, who for some time past had been in a lukewarm state of heart, seeing his end approaching made the following public confession before his brethren: ‘Dear brethren, it seems as if we should all soon depart unto our Saviour, for our sentence is fixed. You know that I have been an untoward child, and have grieved the Lord and our brethren by my disobedience, not walking as I ought to have done; but still I will cleave to my Savior, with my last breath, and hold Him fast, though I am so great a sinner. I know assuredly that He will forgive me all my sins, and not cast me out.'
The Tuscarawas county history gives the following account of ABRAHAM's death: "ABRAHAM, whose long, flowing hair had the day before attracted notice and elicited the remark that it would ‘make a fine scalp,' was the first victim. One of the party, seizing a cooper's mallet, exclaimed, ‘How exactly this will answer for the business!' Beginning with ABRAHAM, he felled fourteen to the ground, then handed the instrument to another, saying, ‘My arm fails me; go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.'
The Slaughter — With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or a moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within—all, save two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race. Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, WILLIAMSON and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoenbrun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with them fled for a time the hopes of the missionaries to establish a settlement of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization were apparently lost.
* The evil party of Williamson and his men set fire to Schoenbrun which was later rebuilt at Goshen,see "Indian
Cemetery" in Tuscarawas County for all known Interments actually located at the location of Goshen.
Journeyed through Hampshire County near Loudon County, Virginia (now Hardy County, West Virginia), meeting with the Delaware in Coshocton County, Ohio, then to Moravian Mission in Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. One of the first converts to Christianity at the Moravian mission in northern Pennsylvania, he was baptized and given the name ABRAHAM.
His tribe, assimilated with that of the Ohio Delaware by 1793, also had villages in upper Sandusky and at Mohican John's Town in Ohio. After returning from the Sandusky village in early March, Chief Mahican Abraham was the FIRST to die in the massacre at Gnadenhutten and was buried in a mass grave along with the rest of his people.
Here in Gnadenhutten a massacre took place on the 8th of March, 1782, which, for cool barbarity, is perhaps unequalled in the history of the Indian wars. George Henry LOSKIEL, who, from 1802, was for nine years a presiding Bishop of the American Moravian Church, and wrote the "History of the Moravian Mission among the North American Indians," says: "It may easily be conceived how great their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which the brethren, and the other the sisters and children, were confined like sheep ready for slaughter. They declared to the murderers that though they could call God to witness that they were perfectly innocent, yet they were prepared and willing to suffer death; but as they had, at their conversion and baptism, made a solemn promise to the Lord Jesus Christ that they would live unto Him, and endeavor to please Him alone in this world, they knew that they had been deficient in many respects, and therefore wished to have some time granted to pour out their hearts before Him in prayer and to crave his mercy and pardon. This request being complied with they spent their last night here below in prayer and in exhorting each other to remain faithful unto the end. ABRAHAM, who for some time past had been in a lukewarm state of heart, seeing his end approaching made the following public confession before his brethren: ‘Dear brethren, it seems as if we should all soon depart unto our Saviour, for our sentence is fixed. You know that I have been an untoward child, and have grieved the Lord and our brethren by my disobedience, not walking as I ought to have done; but still I will cleave to my Savior, with my last breath, and hold Him fast, though I am so great a sinner. I know assuredly that He will forgive me all my sins, and not cast me out.'
The Tuscarawas county history gives the following account of ABRAHAM's death: "ABRAHAM, whose long, flowing hair had the day before attracted notice and elicited the remark that it would ‘make a fine scalp,' was the first victim. One of the party, seizing a cooper's mallet, exclaimed, ‘How exactly this will answer for the business!' Beginning with ABRAHAM, he felled fourteen to the ground, then handed the instrument to another, saying, ‘My arm fails me; go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.'
The Slaughter — With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or a moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within—all, save two Indian boys escaped, as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race. Thus were upwards of ninety human beings hurried to an untimely grave by those who should have been their legitimate protectors. After committing the barbarous act, WILLIAMSON and his men set fire to the houses containing the dead, and then marched off for Shoenbrun, the upper Indian town. But here the news of their atrocious deeds had preceded them. The inhabitants had all fled, and with them fled for a time the hopes of the missionaries to establish a settlement of Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas. The fruits of ten years' labor in the cause of civilization were apparently lost.
* The evil party of Williamson and his men set fire to Schoenbrun which was later rebuilt at Goshen,see "Indian
Cemetery" in Tuscarawas County for all known Interments actually located at the location of Goshen.
