The Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1740Fries, Adelaide L. (Adelaide Lisetta)
History
The Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1740
Fries, Adelaide L. (Adelaide Lisetta)
Moravians -- Georgia
On August 9th, Mr. Ingham went to the Moravians with a new plan. Gen.
Oglethorpe had agreed to build a schoolhouse for Indian children, near
Tomochichi’s village, with the idea that it would give opportunity also
to reach the older men and women with the Gospel message. The house
was to contain three rooms, one for Ingham, one for the Moravian
missionaries, and one to be used for the school, and it was suggested
that the Moravians undertake the erection of the building, the Trustees’
fund to pay them for their labor. The proposition was gladly accepted,
and preparations were at once made to send the necessary workmen.
On Monday, the 13th, Toeltschig and five others went to the spot which
had been selected for the Indian Schoolhouse, usually called ‘Irene’.
The site of this schoolhouse has been considered uncertain, but a
short manuscript account of “the Mission among the Indians in America”,
preserved in the Herrnhut Archives, says distinctly that it stood “a
mile above the town (of Savannah) on an island in the Savannah River
which was occupied by the Creeks.”
When the carpenters arrived the first act was to unite in prayer for a
blessing on their work, and then they began to fell trees and cut down
bushes, clearing the ground for the hut in which they were to live while
building the schoolhouse. The hut was placed on the grave of an Indian
chief. “The Indians are accustomed to bury their chiefs on the spot
where they died, to heap a mound some 24 feet high above them, to
mourn them for a while, and then to abandon the spot,” and this little
elevation was a favorable site for their hut. Until the hut was finished
the men lodged with the Indians, Tomochichi himself taking charge of
their belongings. Toeltschig returned the same day to Savannah, going
back later with a supply of provisions. The Indians made them heartily
welcome to their neighborhood, and the Moravians, even in the midst of
their building operations, began to teach them the English alphabet, at
the same time putting forth every effort to learn the Indian tongue, in
which Rose was rapidly becoming proficient.
By the 20th of September the schoolhouse was finished, and Ingham and
the Moravians held a conference to plan the future work, and decide what
duties each should assume, as he proposed to move thither at once, and,
with the approval of the lot, Rose and his wife were to do the same.
Morning and evening they were to read the English Bible, accompanied by
silent prayer; morning, mid-day and evening an hour was to be given to
the study of the Indian language; and Rose and his wife were to have
an hour for their private devotions. Mrs. Rose was to teach the Indian
girls to read, and the boys, who had already begun to read, were to be
taught to write. In their remaining time they were to clear and plant
some land, that they might not be too long dependent on the Congregation
at Savannah, and on the friendly Indians, who were giving them much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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