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SCHOENBRUNN VILLAGE
Ohio

Location: South edge of New Philadelphia, off U.S. 250 and Ohio 16, Tuscarawas County.

Schoenbrunn Village was founded in 1772 by a group of Moravian missionaries and Indian converts from Pennsylvania, and was the first white settlement in what is now Ohio. The War for Independence spelled the end of the prospering little community of 60 cabins, church, school, and cemetery. The Moravians had of course renounced war and refused to bear arms for either side, and they suffered by raids from both sides. Rev. David Zeisberger, the leader, decided in 1777 to abandon Schoenbrunn and concentrate all the Ohio missions elsewhere. Members of the Moravian Church relocated the forgotten village in the present century by means of a map preserved by the mother church at Bethlehem, Pa. The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society acquired the site in 1923 and soon reconstructed a number of buildings on their original sites.

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http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/colonials-patriots/sitee13.htm
Last Updated: 09-Jan-2005