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Show LEHIGHTON----MAHONY VALLEY----GNADENHUTTEN. 51 our right hand we had at first the steep wooded mountain, where Rubus odoratus and other beautiful plants grew amongst rude rocks. The mountains then recede, and fields, meadows, and detached dwellings, succeed. We came to Lehighton, where the sign of the inn was conspicuous afar off. Lehighton is situated at no great distance from the opening of the Mahoning Valley, from which the Mahoning stream flows. This valley is wooded, has many settlements, and is.well known from the destruction of Gnadenhiitten, a small establishment, founded there by the Moravian Brethren. Some Delaware Indians, instigated, it is said, by neighbouring colonists, who were hostile to the Brethren, attacked the settlement, which they burnt, and killed eleven persons. Only four of the fifteen who composed the little colony escaped.* Mr. Bodmer, who followed us from Wilkesbarre, visited the spot. He found among the bushes the tomb-stone which covers the remains of the victims, and made a drawing of it. The following is the inscription :- OF GOTTLIEB AND CHRISTINA ANDERS, WITH THEIR CHILD JOHANNA*, MARTIN AND SUSANNAH NITSCHMANN*, ANN CATHARINE SENSEMANN; LEONHARD GATTERMEYER) CHRISTIAN FABRICIUS, CLERK; GEORGE SCHWEIGERT; JOHN FREDERIC LESLY; AND MARTIN PRESSER; WHO LIVED HERE AT GNADENHUTTEN, UNTO THE LORD, AND LOST THEIR LIVES IN A SURPRISE FROM INDIAN WARRIORS, NOVEMBER 24th, 1755. " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints." psalm cxvi. 15. 1788, AND. W. BOVER, PHILADELPHIA. On the lands at Gnadenhiitten, which still belong to the Brethren, several farmers reside, among whom there is a singular female of no ordinary education, and, as it is said, of high rank, * Loskiel, in his history of the Indian Missions (pp. 415 and 416), gives the following account of this affair. "On the 24th of November, 1755, the house of the Indian Missionaries in Gnadenhiitten, on the Mahony, was attacked in the evening by hostile Indians, and burnt. Eleven persons perished : viz., nine in the flames, one of the brethren was shot, and another cruelly butchered, and then scalped. Three brethren, and one sister (the wife of one of them), and a boy, escaped by flight; the woman and the boy, by a fortunate leap from the burning roof. One of those who escaped, the Missionary Sensemann, who, at the beginning of the attack, had gone out of the back door to see what might be the cause of the violent barking of the dogs, and who of course was not able to return to those whom he had left in the house, had the affliction to see his wife perish in the flames." |