So great had been the success and prosperity of the two Moravian villages of Schonbrunn and Gnadenhutten, situated on the Tuscarawas river, within the present boundaries of Tuscarawas county, that at the close of the year 1775 it was found their combined population numbered about five hundred; it was therefore deemed ad-
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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY. - 229
visable, after due deliberation, to establish another in the Tuscarawas or 'Muskingum valley. This decision was made by the missionaries in 1776; accordingly Rev. David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder with eight families, numbering thirty-five persons, left the aforesaid village and passing down the valley, looking out for an eligible location, finally encamped on the east bank of the Muskingum river, at a point about two and a half miles below the "Forks of the Muskingum "-now Coshocton-where, upon full consideration, they decided to establish the proposed mission station. This was the 12th of April, 1776. A mission house was soon built, and the prospective Moravian village was called Lichtcuau, that is a "Pasture of Light" a green pasture illuminated by the light of the Gospel interpreted or explained by the Moravians. It is stated by an accredited Moravian authority, the " Life and Times of Rev. David Zeisberger" a work entitled to credit for many facts herein contained-that the location of Lichtenau was made somewhat in deference to the wishes of Netawatwees, a friendly Delaware chief of the Turtle tribe, whose principal village, called Goschachgunk, and which was subsequently destroyed by Gen. Brodhead's command in 1781, was situated at the junction of the Tuscarawas and the Walhonding rivers-now Coshocton the unpronounceable Indian capital occupying the site of the lower streets of the present town of Coshocton, stretching along the river bank below the junction.
The site of Lichtenau is described by the biographer of Zeisberger as a broad level of many acres stretched to the foot of the hills, with an almost imperceptible ascent, the river bank swelling out gently toward the stream in the form of an are, covered with maples and stately sycamores. Material for building abounded, and the rich soil promised abundant crops. Numerous remains showed that the primitive aborigines of America had here had a home.
