Destination: Schoenbrunn Village

After exercising our eyes and brains it was time to exercise our stomachs. Next stop: lunch at the Tusky Dugout in Tuscarora, OH. Yes, the picnic tables are surrounded by cornfields.

Then it was on to Historic Schoenbrunn Village--or at least, what has been recreated of it.

"Step back in time to 1772, where Ohio was the western frontier. David Zeisberger and his Moravian missionaries settled in Schoenbrunn, in German 'Beautiful Spring.' Here the missionaries lived in peace with the Delaware American Indians. Today the Village offers a glimpse into the past with an historic village complete with 17 log cabins including the first school and first church in the State of Ohio. Check out the museum with artifacts from the time period and watch our informational video in our theater to learn more about the village."

The museum is small but well done, trying to balance the perspectives of the Native Americans who were already on this land and the various groups of Europeans and European-Americans who encountered them. The village was founded for Christianized Native Americans; the only whites who lived there were Zeisberger or a few who had grown up with Natives. The reconstructed cabins are all different and tell the stories of their inhabitants: leaders, families, widows, etc.

The text on the cloth draping the table in the photograph above reads, "The sermon was about the words: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. During this the baby girl born to Brother Lucas and Sister Pauline on the 30th of last month was baptized with the name Anne. They had been the first baptized at Lawunakhannek and there is now also the first here." ~ David Zeisberger 

The village only existed for five years, until it was caught in the crosshairs of the Revolutionary War because of its strategic location. The British and the Americans both accused them of spying for the other, so ultimately they decided to abandon the site and burn the church to prevent its "desecration." The group moved repeatedly, including briefly coming back, before largely dispersing westward and northward. There are still Moravians--they founded Moravian College (now University) in Bethlehem, PA.

The center of village life was the meeting house (above and below).

Zeisberger not only learned the Delaware language but gave them an alphabet and taught in the school (below).

Much of the signage expressed how idyllic life was at Schoenbrunn, but I noticed that the display cases with recovered objected included multiple locks, and there was a mechanism for judgment and punishment in the community.

I was particularly interested in the cemetery, sometimes referred to as "God's Acre." In the 1920s, after the site was rediscovered, headstones were carved for the wooden crosses that had been lost, and laid over the bodies, which are segregated by sex, age, and marital status. They are oriented toward the east, where the Savior is supposed to appear according to Moravian tradition.

Finally it was back to Dennison for dinner at "the Yard" (owned by the same Pangrazio family as the previous night's restaurant) and bed in the train car.

Last but not least: Labor Day, on which we did no work!