Last updated: August 5, 2024
Article
Timeline of the Moravian Lenape at Pilgerruh
National Park Service
Without chronology, history would be nothing more than unconnected facts. Dates help us understand the process of cause and effect. Putting events in their proper order provides context and allows for a deeper understanding of the past.
That is true of the history of Pilgerruh, a temporary settlement in the Cuyahoga Valley. For 10 months in 1786-1787, a group of Moravian Lenape temporarily settled along the Cuyahoga River near Tinkers Creek. These Christian Delaware were fleeing the violence and turmoil of the American Revolution that spilled into the Ohio Country.
This timeline begins with the 1772 Moravian settlements in the Tuscarawas River valley. These are located about 90 miles south of Pilgerruh, at the southern edge of the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area. The timeline continues to the present day as rangers, community members, archeologists, historians, and descendants from the Delaware Nation of Moraviantown explore and reflect on these events.
1772 – Moravian settlements, including Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten, are established in the Tuscarawas River valley by Christian Lenape led by missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder.
1781 – Both sides distrusted the Moravians’ neutrality during the Revolutionary War. When tensions flared, a pro-British war party forced the Christian Lenape to relocate with few possessions. Captain Pipe (Hopocan) and his band of Lenape escorted the Moravians to Wyandot land along the Sandusky River, near Lake Erie.
March 1782 – After a winter of hunger, a group of the Christian Lenape left the Upper Sandusky River area to return to Gnadenhutten and harvest crops.
March 8-9, 1782 – The Christian Lenape at the settlement of Gnadenhutten are attacked by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for the killing of White Pennsylvanians, allegedly by Lenape. These pacifists had nothing to do with those killings. The Gnadenhutten Massacre results in the murder of more than 90, a third of whom were children.
1782-1786 – British authorities in Detroit allow Zeisberger to establish New Gnadenhutten, a settlement of Christian Lenape northeast of Detroit.
May 20, 1785 – Land Ordinance of 1785 is adopted by the United States Congress of the Confederation. It includes grants of land to Christian Lenape as reparations for the Gnadenhutten Massacre.
April 28, 1786 – The Christian Lenape and Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder leave the Detroit area to resettle in the Muskingum River area of the Ohio country.
June 6-8, 1786 – The Lenape safely arrive at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River after delays due to bad weather.
June 8-14, 1786 – The Christian Lenape camp along the Cuyahoga River close to Lake Erie, near present-day Cleveland. Problems with their food supply lead to hunger.
June 15-16, 1786 – Heckewelder and Zeisberger lead groups up the Cuyahoga River, traveling five to seven miles a day.
June 18-19, 1786 – The group decides to make a temporary settlement, later called Pilgerruh, on the site of a former Ottawa Indian town. They forego travel to the Muskingum because of the lateness of the spring planting season and their lack of food. They set up a camp site with temporary huts on the east side of the Cuyahoga River. On the west side, they pick an area to plant corn and other vegetables.
June 21, 1786 – Traders transporting provisions from Pittsburgh to Detroit visit Pilgerruh and sell flour to the settlers. This helps curb their hunger.
June 24, 1786 – The Lenape finish clearing the fields on the west side of the Cuyahoga and plant corn.
June 30, 1786 – The only death of a Pilgerruh settler occurs. Thomas, a Lenape who survived being scalped during the Gnadenhutten Massacre, was found dead in a nearby stream, probably from drowning.
Summer/Early Fall 1786 – Heckewelder draws a plan of the settlement sometime during this period. The map shows Pigerruh located on the banks of the Cuyahoga River.
September 1786 – Zeisberger writes to the Christian Lenape who stayed behind in Sandusky. He asks them to join the settlement at Pilgerruh.
Early October 1786 – Twelve members decide to leave Pilgerruh because they fear an attack by Whites. Heckewelder leaves for Pittsburgh with his family due to his wife’s health problems.
November 10, 1786 – The first church service is held in a new chapel at the center of Pilgerruh.
December 6, 1786 – Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Harmer of the US Army sends a letter to Pilgerruh. He says that the Christian Lenape would be welcomed back on the Muskingum River due to the Moravian Land Grants.
December 31, 1786 – Zeisberger provides a census of Pilgerruh in his diary: 107 Christian Lenape plus six Moravian Germans (three missionaries and their wives) for a total of 113 in the original settlement. This count includes a dozen who only stayed from June through early October.
Fall 1786-Early Spring 1787 – The Pilgerruh community has trouble getting enough food to sustain themselves. They also learn the United States plans to build a fort at the mouth of the Cuyahoga which could bring them into potential conflict with Whites.
Winter/Spring 1787 – Zeisberger advocates for a return to the Tuscarawas River valley, despite threats of murder and enslavement by both White militia and non-Christian Indians.
April 19, 1787 – The group holds its final service at Pilgerruh’s chapel and abandons the settlement. They settle along the Huron River (Ohio), creating the Moravian Indian village of New Salem which lasts several years.
May 1791 – War breaks out between Indians and settlers in the Ohio Country. The Christian Lenape relocate up the Detroit River near present-day Amherstburg, Ontario.
April 1792 – The Christian Lenape continue to fear for their safety as fighting continues on the frontier. They move farther into British territory, creating a new settlement along the Thames River.
May 1945 – Canada designates Fairfield on the Thames as a National Historic Site. This recognizes the original 1792 village founded by the Moravian Lenape who fled Ohio for Ontario. The village was destroyed during the War of 1812 and rebuilt in its current location across the river.
1792-93 – Heckewelder and Moravian Indians travel up the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers. Heckewelder mentions seeing the remnants of Pilgerruh in his trip report.
1796 – Heckewelder creates a map that includes the location of Pilgerruh.
1872 – A 25-foot-tall monument is dedicated on the site of the Gnadenhutten Massacre before a crowd of 2,000 people. Several Moravian Lenape from Canada attended the ceremony.
1880s – Picnics are held on a farm near Tinkers Creek to commemorate Pilgerruh.
1892 – Judge Charles C. Baldwin of the Western Reserve Historical Society finds Heckewelder’s original map in the Moravian Archives. It has been slightly modified by someone drawing lot lines on the map in pencil.
1930s – Local history enthusiasts propose a different location for Pilgerruh but it does not match first-hand accounts.
1936 – David Sanders Clark of the Western Reserve Historical Society conducts the first formal investigation to locate the site of Pilgerruh. An archeological dig yields some artifacts. Clark believes that much of the site was destroyed during construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal.
Summer 1971-Fall 1975 – Dr. David Brose challenges Clark’s proposed location of Pilgerruh. His archeological excavations unearth many artifacts from the late 1700s. This still does not settle the matter.
2003 – The Ohio Bicentennial Commission, Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Ohio, and The Ohio Historical Society erect a historical marker at the site of the Gnadenhutten Massacre, titled “A Day of Shame.”
2018 – Cuyahoga Valley National Park installs a new wayside exhibit panel about Pilgerruh. It is informed by archival research and discussions with the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown.
Learn More
You can visit several key locations in northeast Ohio that are associated with this timeline. The national park has a panel along the Towpath Trail that marks the approximate location of Pilgerruh. In the southern Ohio & Erie Canalway are a reconstruction of Schoenbrunn Village as well as the Gnadenhutten Museum and Historical Park. The museum and the Delaware Nation hold an annual Day of Remembrance ceremony on March 8 honoring the Gnadenhutten Massacre victims.
John Heckewelder’s narrative of his time with the Delaware Indians is available online. Several different versions were published after his death. The 1796 Heckewelder Map is in the Western Reserve Historical Society archives. This hand-drawn document shows the early Indian paths, towns, and missions.
The Delaware Nation at Moraviantown maintain records of their history.
In 2024, the Historic Moravian Bethlehem District in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was selected to be included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage List.