Editing Tuscarawas County, Ohio (section)

==History==
For years, European-American colonists on the East Coast did not know much about the territory west of the [[Appalachian Mountains]] except for reports from a few explorers and [[fur trade]]rs who ventured into the area. In 1750, [[Christopher Gist]] of the Ohio Land Company explored the Tuscarawas Valley. His report of the area hinted at some natural riches and friendly [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]].

In 1761 [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] [[missionaries]] set out from [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], to set up a mission in the Tuscarawas Valley.  [[Christian Frederick Post]], [[David Zeisberger]], and [[John Heckewelder]] met with Chief [[Netawatwees]] of the western [[Lenape|Delaware Indians]], also known as the "Lenape". He invited them to the tribal village he had founded, Gekelemukpechunk (present-day [[Newcomerstown, Ohio]]). He granted the missionaries permission to build a cabin near the junction of the Sandy Creek and [[Tuscarawas River]], in present-day [[Stark County, Ohio|Stark County]] and begin [[evangelism|evangelizing]] the natives. While they were successful in [[baptism|baptizing]] dozens of converts, they were forced to abandon the mission in 1763 during the [[French and Indian War]] (part of the [[Seven Years' War]]).

Again, at the request of Chief [[Netawatwees]] in 1771, [[David Zeisberger]] returned to found additional missions in the Tuscarawas Valley. In the spring of 1772, near the present site of [[New Philadelphia, Ohio]], Zeisberger, along with five converted Indian families established the mission of [[Schoenbrunn, Ohio|Schoenbrunn]] (beautiful spring), also known as Welhik Tuppeek (best spring). They built a school house and a chapel. In August of that year, John Heckawelder brought an additional 250 converted Christian Delawares into the village.

In late summer 1772, they established a second settlement, roughly {{convert|10|mi}} away from Schoenbrunn, called [[Gnadenhutten, Ohio|Gnadenhütten]] (cabins of grace). On October 17, 1772, Zeisberger conducted the first religious service at Gnadenhutten. In 1776, Chief Netawatwes donated land for another settlement, [[Lichtenau, Ohio|Lichtenau]] (meadow of light), near present-day [[Coshocton, Ohio|Coshocton]], then the principal Delaware village in the region.<ref>'''Guide to Tuscarawas County''', ''Federal Writers Project of Ohio Work Projects Administration'', F.C. Harrington, Florence Kerr, Carl Watson, 1939</ref>

[[File:Fort Laurens plaque.JPG|left|thumb|Built in 1778, [[Fort Laurens]] was the only military fort built in the state of [[Ohio]] during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], located on the west bank on the [[Tuscarawas River]] near the town of [[Bolivar, Ohio|Bolivar]].]]

The American Revolutionary War brought the demise of these first settlements. The Delawares, who at the time populated much of eastern Ohio, were divided over their loyalties, with many in the west allied with the British out of [[Fort Detroit]] and many in the east allied with the Americans out of [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]]. Delawares were involved in skirmishes against both sides, but by 1781 the American sense was that the Delawares were allying with the British. In response, Colonel [[Daniel Brodhead]] of the American forces led an expedition out of [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]] and on April 19, 1781, destroyed the settlement of [[Coshocton, Ohio|Coshocton]]. Surviving residents fled to the north. Colonel Brodhead's forces left the Delawares at the other Moravian mission villages unmolested, but the actions set the stage for raised tensions in the area.

In September 1781, British forces and Indian allies, primarily Wyandot and Delaware, forced the Christian Indians and missionaries from the remaining Moravian villages. The Indian allies took their prisoners further west toward Lake Erie to a new village, called Captive Town, on the Sandusky River. The British took the missionaries [[David Zeisberger]] and [[John Heckewelder]] under guard back to [[Fort Detroit]], where the two men were tried (but eventually acquitted) on charges of treason against the British Crown.

[[File:Gnadenhutten monument to the Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs.jpg|thumb|right|Monument commemorating the [[Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs]] who were massacred in 1782 at the mission settlement of [[Gnadenhutten, Ohio|Gnadenhutten]].<ref name="StewartGallup1899">{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=G.T. |title=The Firelands Pioneer |last2=Gallup |first2=C.H. |date=1899 |publisher=Firelands Historical Society |page=246 |language=English |quote=In the village cemetery, where lie the dead of a century, stands a huge granite monument. This graceful shaft marks the resting place of ninety Christian Indian martyrs whose ruthless butchery furnishes one of the darkest pages in American history.}}</ref>]]

The Indians at Captive Town were going hungry because of insufficient rations, and in February 1782, more than 100 returned to their old Moravian villages to harvest the crops and collect the stored food they had been forced to leave behind. In early March 1782, 160 Pennsylvania militia led by [[David Williamson (Pennsylvania)|Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson]] raided the villages and garrisoned the Indians in the village of Gnadenhütten, accusing them of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. Although the Delawares rejected the charges as they were [[pacifist Christian]]s, the militia held a council and voted to kill them. The next morning on March 8, the militia tied up the Indians, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts. In all, the militia murdered and scalped 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children. They piled the bodies of the Moravian Christian Lenape and Moravian Christian Mahicans in the mission buildings and burned the village down. They also burned the other abandoned Moravian villages in the area.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 13, 2018 |title=1782: Village of Moravian Delaware Indians Massacred |url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/1782-village-moravian-delaware-indians-massacred |access-date=August 21, 2021 |publisher=[[Indian Country Today]] |language=English}}</ref>

[[Image:Greenville Treaty Line Map.png|thumb|The [[Treaty of Greenville]] map of 1795.]]

This action, which came to be known as the [[Gnadenhutten massacre]], caused an outright frontier war to break out between the Delawares and the Americans. After several years of ongoing campaigns by the natives to terrorize and keep out further American settlers, a brutal campaign by [[Anthony Wayne|US General "Mad Anthony" Wayne]] from [[Fort Washington, Cincinnati, Ohio|Fort Washington]] (now [[Cincinnati]]) was carried out in late 1793, eventually resulting in the [[Treaty of Greenville]] being signed in 1795 between the US government and the local natives. The Treaty ceded the eastern two-thirds of current-day Ohio to white settlers and once again opened up the territory for white settlement.

In October 1798, [[David Zeisberger]], the same Moravian missionary who had founded many of the original missions in the 1770s, returned to the Tuscarawas Valley to found a new mission, [[Goshen Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio|Goshen]], from where he continued his work to evangelize the local natives with the Christian gospel. Over the next several years, farmer settlers from Pennsylvania came trickling into the area, and by 1808, the first permanent settlement, [[New Philadelphia, Ohio|New Philadelphia]], was founded near the Goshen mission. After the War of 1812, Goshen declined as a mission until it was disbanded in 1824.<ref>'''Ohio Annals''', C.H. Mitchener, 1876.</ref>

Tuscarawas County was formed from Muskingum County on February 15, 1808.<ref name="howe">{{Cite web |year=1888 |title=''Historical Collections of Ohio'', Henry Howe |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~henryhowesbook/tuscarawas.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119123526/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~henryhowesbook/tuscarawas.html |archive-date=January 19, 2012 |access-date=April 27, 2010}}</ref>

[[File:Geography of Ohio - DPLA - aaba7b3295ff6973b6fd1e23e33cde14 (page 123) (cropped2).jpg|thumb|left|[[Ohio and Erie Canal]] seen in Tuscarawas County from "Geography of Ohio," 1923]]

In the late 1820s, Tuscarawas County was chosen to be on the route of the [[Ohio and Erie Canal]], a man-made waterway linking [[Lake Erie]] (via [[Cleveland]]) to the [[Ohio River]] (via [[Portsmouth, Ohio]]). Construction from [[Massillon, Ohio]] to [[Canal Dover, Ohio]] was completed in 1829. Construction from Canal Dover, Ohio to [[Newark, Ohio]] was completed in 1830.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Timeline &#124; Articles and Essays &#124; Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal &#124; Digital Collections &#124; Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/captain-pearl-r-nye-life-on-the-erie-and-ohio-canal/articles-and-essays/timeline/ |website=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref>  A total of 15 locks were built in Tuscarawas County, entering the county line on an aqueduct north of [[Zoar, Ohio]] on Lock 7 to [[Newcomerstown, Ohio]], exiting the county below Lock 21.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tuscarawas County / 5-79 the Ohio-Erie Canal 1825-1913 / The Ohio-Erie Canal in Tuscarawas County 1825-1913 &#124; Remarkable Ohio |url=https://remarkableohio.org/index.php?/category/1441}}</ref>  In 1848, the feeder [[Sandy and Beaver Canal]] was completed, linking [[Bolivar, Ohio]] to the Ohio River at [[Glasgow, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sandy and Beaver Canal - Ohio History Central |url=https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Sandy_and_Beaver_Canal?rec=797}}</ref>  With the rise of railroads, and a massive [[Great Flood of 1913|flood in 1913]], the canal system was abandoned.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 14, 2020 |title=Ohio and Erie Canal |url=https://case.edu/ech/articles/o/ohio-and-erie-canal}}</ref>  Three years later, the city of Canal Dover shortened its name Dover to 1916.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Postmaster Finder - Who We Are - USPS |url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postmasterfinder/welcome.htm}}</ref>