Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus (1743-1823)

Pioneer in the North American Moravian Indian missions

Born at Bedford, England, of a Moravian family, Heckewelder was educated in Moravian schools there and went to America with his family in 1754. He lived in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Moravian community until 1762, when he accompanied Christian Frederick Post to Ohio on the first Moravian mission venture in the Northwest Territory. Though unsuccessful in establishing a settlement, he continued his work with the Indian missions and was the first schoolmaster at Schönbrunn, Tuscarawas Country, Ohio, in 1772. He became fluent in the Delaware tongue and produced works on the history, customs, and manners of the Delaware Indians among whom he lived.

From 1777 to 1810 he served as agent for the Moravian Society for Propagating the Gospel. For many years, Heckewelder was chief assistant to David Zeisberger and was ordained at Lititz, Pennsylvania, in 1778. In 1780 he founded and became resident missionary at Salem, Ohio, where he married Sarah Ohneburg. The couple had three daughters.

In 1781 Heckewelder and Zeisberger were tried in Detroit for treason but were exonerated. For the next 32 years Heckewelder traveled continuously in the work of the Indian missions and his denomination, journeying over 30,000 miles between 1754 and 1813. In 1798 he refounded the settlement at Gnadenhütten, Ohio, as a white congregation. He was employed as assistant peace commissioner at Vincennes (oldest town in what is now Indiana) in 1792 and at Detroit in 1793. Heckewelder retired to Bethlehem, where he died.

Albert H. Frank, “Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 286-7.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Texts

Heckewelder, John. A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians from the year of its commencement in the year 1740 to the close of the year 1808. Philadelphia: n.p., 1820.

_____. History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States. New and revised ed. Philadelphia, PA: Publication Fund of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1881. Orig. 1876.

Loskiel, George Henry. The History of the Moravian Mission Among the Indians in North America from its Commencement to the Present Time with a Preliminary Account of the Indians Compiled from Authentic Sources. Translated by Christian Ignatius La Trobe. London: T.Allman, 1838. Orig. London: John Stockdale, 1794.

Rondthaler, Edward. Life of Heckewelder: A Vindication of Mr. Heckewelder’s History of the Indian Nations. Philadelphia, PA: T. Ward, 1847.

Zeisberger, David. Diary of David Zeisberger, a Moravian Missionary among the Indians of Ohio. Translated by Eugene F. Bliss. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1885. vol. I.

Zeisberger, David. Diary of David Zeisberger, a Moravian Missionary among the Indians of Ohio. Translated by Eugene F. Bliss. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1885. vol. II.

Primary

Heckewelder, John. “Women’s Life Among the Delaware.” In Early American Women: A Documentary History, 1600-1900, edited by Nancy Woloch. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1992.

Heckewelder, John and Don Heinrich Tolzmann (ed.). The First Description of Cincinnati and Other Ohio Settlements: The Travel Report of Johann Heckewelder (1792). Lanham: MD: University Press of America, 1988.

Secondary

Gray, Elma E., and Leslie Robb Gray. Wilderness Christians; the Moravian mission to the Delaware Indians. New York: Russell & Russell, 1973. Orig. 1956.

Hamilton, J. T. and K. G. Hamilton. History of the Moravian Church: The Renewed Unitas Fratrum, 1722-1957. Bethlehem, PA: Interprovincial Board of Christian Education, Moravian Church in America, 1967.

Holmes, John Beck. Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen, from their Commencement to the Year 1817. London: n.p., 1827.

Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Hutton, J. E. History of the Moravian Church. London: Moravian Publication Office, 1909; Boston: IndyPublish, 2009.

_____. A History of Moravian Missions. London: Moravian Publication Office, 1922.

Rondthaler, Edward. Life of Heckewelder: A Vindication of Mr. Heckewelder’s History of the Indian Nations. Philadelphia, PA: T. Ward, 1847.

Schattschneider, David A. “Moravians Approach the Indians: Theories and Realities.” In Unitas Fratrum, 21/22 (1988): 37-48.

Tolzmann, Don Heinrich. The First Description of Cincinnati and Other Ohio Settlements: The Travel Report of Johann Heckewelder (1792). Lanham: MD: University Press of America, 1988.

Sensbach, Jon. “Searching for Moravians in the Atlantic World.” In Self, Community, World: Moravian Education in a Transatlantic World, edited by Heikki Lempa and Paul Peucker, 35-53. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 2010.

Wallace, Paul A. W. “The John Heckewelder Papers.” Pennsylvania History 27 no. 3 (July 1960): 249-62.

_____. Thirty Thousand Miles with John Heckewelder. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958; Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods Pub., 1998. Also published as The Travels of John Heckewelder in Frontier America. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985.

Westmeir, Karl-Wilhem. “Becoming All Things to All People: Early Moravian Missions to Native North Americans.” In International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 21 no. 4 (October 1997): 172-6.

Zeisberger, David. Schoenbrunn Story: Excerpts from the Diary of the Reverend David Zeisberger, 1772-1777, at Schoenbrunn in the Ohio Country. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1972.

Links

“John G. Heckewelder“, Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005. A brief biographical article in an online encyclopedia of Ohio history. Includes sketched portrait of Heckewelder.

ExplorePAhistory.com offers a few images of painted and sketched portraits of Heckewelder along with other images related to his life and legacy (including the Peace Medal he was awarded by President Jefferson). Excerpts from his writings are also included.

Portrait

Rondthaler, Edward. Life of Heckewelder: A Vindication of Mr. Heckewelder’s History of the Indian Nations. Philadelphia, PA: T. Ward, 1847. Opposite title page.