Furnished by Gerald Finney
The history and heritage of Tuscarawas County are a mixture
of exciting chronicles united by common threads of courage and
determination. For example, the mysterious mound builders. . .
their mounds lying quietly near Bolivar and sprinkled throughout
Tuscarawas County. Their presence alone is over whelmingly
awesome. People come and stand, staring at them wondering who?
Why? and When? Thousands of years ago a people had a dream.
Today, they are a mystery.
Our modern Ohio history began just prior to the Revolutionary
War. Stirrings and conflict in Europe had a great influence on
Ohio Territory, thousands of miles away. Devoted and determined
Europeans looking for a better life and refusing to compromise
turned their backs on comfort and security and searched for
freedom in a "new" land safe from monarchies and
tyranny. Nowhere was this more evi dent than in Switzerland where
the Amish movement was taking place. in 1693, amid strong
persecution by other faiths, an aggressive, young Swiss Brethren
bishop named Jakob Ammann began applying pressure for strict
conformity. He urged plain dress, full beards for men and
shunning as punishment for any Brethren members who breached the
rules, married outside the faith or joined another church.
Ammann's crusade split the Brethren, and some congregations
followed him to America. By 1727, communities started in
Pennsylvania. Eventually, some Amish ventured west to Ohio and
Indiana.
In 1772, David Zeisberger, a Moravian minister, settled the
village of Schoenbrunn ("Beautiful Spring"), attracting
a large group of Indian converts to Christianity. Here they built
the first church and school west of the Ohio River. After a time,
the Christian Deleware Indians departed to build another
community called Gnadenhutten, which means Tents of Grace.
The troubled years of the American Revolution saw the destruction
of both villages. The Indians Of Schoenbrunn, fearing for their
safety, abandoned their settlement in 1777 and moved south to
Lichtenau Mission in what is now Coshocton County. The Delawares
at Gnadenhutten and Salem were less for- tunate. In 1782, they
were attacked and murdered. Only two boys were said to have
escaped . . . one without his scalp.
New Philadelphia was founded in 1804 by John Knisely who first
visited the Ohio area while deer hunting with his son. Admiring
it, he returned to his home in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, sold
his possessions and made preparations to move his wife and ten
children. He persuaded 33 others to join him, and they started
west in the spring of 1804. At Gnadenhutten, Knisley purchased
3,554 acres of land from Godfrey Haga through John Heckewelder, a
missionary and land agent for eastern land owners. That acreage
embraces most of present-day New Philadelphia. Its carefully
planned checkerboard pattern was adapted from that of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1806, a young bachelor named Christian Deardorff arrived in
Ohio Territory with his brother-in-law, Jesse Slingluff, a
Baltimore merchant. The pair purchased 2,175 acres for $4,622.00
and began planning a town that eventually became Dover. In 1807,
Deardorff filed the plat in Zanesville and returned to a cabin he
had erected on a hillside near Sugarcreek. The plat provided for
256 lots arranged in a square. Land at the center was designated
for a courthouse and public offices in anticipation that Dover
might become the county seat. However, that honor was won by New
Philadelphia. The settlement of Zoar tells yet another story. In
the spring of 1817, about 200 German peasants arrived in America
seeking religious freedom. Among them was Joseph Bimeler, a
young, intelligent and resourceful man. With assistance from
friendly Quakers in Philadelphia, he purchased 5,500 acres of
land on credit in Tuscarawas County and led the band of peasants
to a settlement named Zoar. Arriving too late to plant and
harvest many crops, they faced the coming winter with
insufficient food. They survived only through the intervention of
a stranger who sent provisions enough to last the winter. The
identity of this stranger remains a mystery.
At first, the settlers of Zoar tried to live independently. When
this was unsuccessful, they joined together to establish a
commune. Each resident renounced private ownership and became an
equal owner in everything within the community, right down to the
clothes worn! Everything earned went to meet common needs and to
buy land.
When the Ohio Canal passed through Zoar, women of the community
helped dig and haul away the dirt. The money they earned went to
buy more land. Soon the community became wealthy. The commune
owned 9,000 acres of rich land, a large hotel, tannery, iron
mill, saw mill, flour mill, cabinet shop, blacksmith shop,
bakery, cider mill and a variety of livestock. In addition, they
had money in the bank and all were equally prosperous.
Toward the end of the century, the youth of Zoar grew tired of
the lifestyle. They wanted to be free to do as they pleased, earn
money of their own, buy clothes of their own and purchase their
own land and property. Because of this unrest, in 1898, the
community was dissolved and property divided. For some, poor
management soon left them destitute. For many, however, this was
an advantage and they lived on as before.
Construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1825 brought people
and progress to the Tuscarawas Valley. Communities along the
canal like Dover and New Philadelphia prospered on the trade of
agricultural produce and livestock. The canal thrived until the
coming of the railroads in the mid-1800's when it gradually faded
and eventually was abandoned. It was completely destroyed by the
flood of 1913.
Today, Tuscarawas County lives on with the same strengths those
early settlers displayed. The cities of Dover and New
Philadelphia and the communities of Dennison, Uhrichsville,
Strasburg and Newcomerstown flourish with business and industry.
Communities like Goshen, Tuscarawas, Port Washington, Midvale,
Stone Creek and Mineral City present picturesque, small town
environments. Towns like Bolivar, built near the sites of the old
Indian village of Tuscarawi and Fort Laurens, a fort of the
Revolutionary War period, still thrive.
Although the mission settlement of Gnadenhutten is gone, the
village of Gnadenhutten, plotted in 1824, still remains,
preserving elements of the mission in a museum. Many of the
original buildings of Zoar are fully restored and visitors are
welcomed. The log buildings of Schoenbrunn are partially restored
and preserved as a state park and memorial.
While driving along the many country roads in the area it is easy
to imagine what the region was like when it was the western
frontier. It has been many years since European settlers first
came to Tuscarawas County, but their heritage is found
everywhere.
The area was easily accessible, first by road, then river, canal
and then by railroad. The many roads that crisscross the area are
remnants of older roads that led to the western frontier.
Progress has changed Tuscarawas County, but not its spirit.
Courage and determination are still here. In the area surrounding
the town of Sugarcreek and stretching into neighboring Holmes
County live the Amish. . . a quiet rural people who remain fairly
isolated within their communities. Some Amish do leave the faith,
but virtually no outsiders enter it. These "plain
people" continue their humble way of life as they have done
for decades past, letting the modern world pass by unnoticed.
In this unique atmosphere, the old and the new blend in a
harmonious and appealing way of life.
Furnished by Gerald Finney