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Notable people · Missionary

David Zeisberger

Moravian missionary who worked among the Lenape for about 62 years and founded Schoenbrunn (1772) on the Tuscarawas River. He died at Goshen in Tuscarawas County.

David Zeisberger
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
1721-04-11
Died
1808-11-17
Known as
Missionary
Organizations
Moravian Church

Life story

David Zeisberger was born in 1721 in Zauchtenthal, Moravia, and moved with his family to Herrnhut in Saxony in 1727. His parents later went to the Moravian settlement in Georgia, and he followed in 1738.

He helped build the Moravian community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was ordained in 1749, and began missionary work among the Lenape. He became fluent in Onondaga and wrote dictionaries and religious works in Iroquoian and Algonquian languages.

In 1772 he led converts to the Tuscarawas valley in Ohio and founded Schoenbrunn, an early Christian Native settlement, followed by other mission towns including Gnadenhutten.

The war in the Ohio country tore these towns apart, and in 1782 militia killed 96 Christian Lenape at Gnadenhutten. Zeisberger returned to Ohio later and died in Goshen Township, Tuscarawas County, in 1808.

Timeline

  • 1721-04-11: Born (Zauchtenthal, Moravia) source
  • 1738: Arrives in Georgia (Savannah, GA) source
  • 1749: Ordained; starts mission among the Lenape (Pennsylvania) source
  • 1772: Founds Schoenbrunn (New Philadelphia, OH) source
  • 1781: Arrested and held by the British (Detroit, MI) source
  • 1782: Gnadenhutten massacre of Christian Lenape (Gnadenhutten, OH) source
  • 1808-11-17: Dies (Goshen Township, OH) source

What David is known for

  • Founded Schoenbrunn 1772
  • Missionary among the Lenape for 62 years
  • Zeisberger's Indian Dictionary (published 1887)
  • Essay of an Onondaga Grammar (published 1888)

Honors and things named for them

  • Schoenbrunn Village State Memorial, New Philadelphia, OH

Family

  • wife: Susanna Lecron

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where David Zeisberger was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

  • Disputed: Gnadenhutten is credited to Moravian missionaries and Lenape converts. The sources do not firmly say that Zeisberger personally founded it.

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

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