300px, Royce labeled the tracts as numbers 4, 5 and 6 in this map Moravian Indian Grants were three tracts of land in

Tuscarawas County, Ohio Tuscarawas County ( ) is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 93,263. Its county seat is New Philadelphia. Its name is a Delaware Indian word variously translated as "o ...

granted by the federal government in the eighteenth century to a group of Christian Indians. In the nineteenth century, these natives moved west, and the government sold the land to white people.

Background

In 1772, Moravian missionaries established communities in the

Tuscarawas River The Tuscarawas River is a principal tributary of the Muskingum River, 129.9 miles (209 km) long, in northeastern Ohio in the United States. Via the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining a ...

valley in present-day

. Three communities of Christian converts from the

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and Mohican Indian peoples were established. In May, 1772 came Schoenbrunn, followed by Gnadenhutten in October that year and Salem in 1780. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, they found themselves between British-allied Indian tribes to their west and American

settler A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settl ...

s to their east. On March 8, 1782, American

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

men came to Gnadenhutten, rounded up the Indians and executed 96 men, women and children in the

Gnadenhutten massacre The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 pacifist Moravian Christian Indians (primarily Lenape and Mohican) by U.S. militiamen from Pennsylvania, under the command of David Williamson, on March 8, ...

. When it was learned in the East that these victims had not participated in massacres on settlers as previously thought,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

acted to provide reparations to them.

Legislative action

The Land Ordinance of 1785 established a procedure for sale of government land in what is now

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It read in part:

And be it further ordained, That the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrun, and Salem, on the Muskingum, and so much of the lands adjoining to the said towns, with the buildings and improvements thereon, shall be reserved for the sole use of the Christian Indians, who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society, as may, in the judgment of the geographer, be sufficient for them to cultivate.

The surveys never made it west to the Tuscarawas Valley, so this act had no practical consequence. In September 1788, the congress modified the ordinance to direct that a town of 666 and 2/3 acres in a tract of 4000 acres around each of the three towns should be surveyed as quickly as possible and then title should be vested in the Society of the United Brethren in trust for propagating the faith among the Indians. Again nothing happened. The Act of June 1, 1796 established the

United States Military District The United States Military District was a land tract in central Ohio that was established by the Congress to compensate veterans of the American Revolutionary War for their service. The tract contains in Noble, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Muskingum ...

in the Tuscarawas Valley and elsewhere. It also provided in section 5

That the said Surveyor General be, and he is hereby, required to cause to be surveyed three several tracts of land, containing four thousand acres each, at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten, and Salem; being the tracts formerly set apart ... for the society of the United Brethren for the propagation of the gospel among the heathen; and to issue a patent or patents for the said three tracts to the said society, in trust ...

Retrocession

On February 24, 1798, a patent was issued to the Society for the tracts, but few Indians chose to live there. The Moravians also expended large sums on improvements. In March, 1823, Congress directed that arrangements should be made to purchase the title from the Indians. On August 4, 1823 at Gnadenhutten, Lewis Cass for the United States, and

Lewis David de Schweinitz Lewis David de Schweinitz (13 February 1780 – 8 February 1834) was a German-American botanist and mycologist. He is considered by some the "Father of North American Mycology", but also made significant contributions to botany. Education ...

for the Moravians reached agreement on a sale. Cass also made agreement with a number of Indians at Detroit on November 8, 1823. Congress accepted the agreements on May 26, 1824, and directed the tracts be divided into lots and sold. The lots were surveyed in 1825 by F. Wampler, Deputy Surveyor. The lots were sold at the courthouse in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and unsold lots later sold at the land office in

Zanesville, Ohio Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. It is located east of Columbus and had a population of 24,765 as of the 2020 census, down from 25,487 as of the 2010 census. Historically the state capita ...

. The Christian Indians received $400 per year, and the Moravians received enough to repay their debts from improvements.

Surveys

The tracts were not surveyed with the usual rectangular survey system of the

Public Land Survey System The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is the surveying method developed and used in the United States to plat, or divide, real property for sale and settling. Also known as the Rectangular Survey System, it was created by the Land Ordinance of 178 ...

. They were independent of the survey of the surrounding

Notes

References

* * *

External links

* * {{Ohio-Lands Pre-statehood history of Ohio Former American Indian reservations in Ohio Geography of Tuscarawas County, Ohio History of the America (North) Province of the Moravian Church Christian missions in North America Settlements of the Moravian Church