The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 126

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

126

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

attention. On May 3, 1772, he arrived on the site
of the proposed mission with a number of Chris-
tian Indian families from Pennsylvania. The total
number in Zeisberger’s party numbered twenty-
eight. At once work was begun on a church,
school, and dwellings. In the summer another
party of Christian Indians arrived from Pennsyl-
vania, accompanied by several missionaries. The
first service in the church, the records show, was
held on September 19, 1772.

Soon a town began to be built around the church
and school, not in a haphazard way, but in accord-
ance with a plan made by Zeisberger. The town
at first consisted of forty lots, each about fifty
by a hundred feet. Each lot was surrounded by
a paling fence, and a palisade was built around the
whole town. In all this work Zeisberger led the
way and swung his ax with as much vim as any of
the others. But whenever curious Indians appeared
upon the scene who had not yet accepted Chris-
tianity, he would lay down his ax and tell them the
story of Jesus and His Father’s love.

Schoenbrunn was unusually prosperous from the
very beginning. The Indians gladly accepted the
catechism instruction of the missionaries and were
also willing pupils of the missionaries in the cul-
tivation of the soil. Each Indian had his plot of
ground and took pride in its proper cultivation.
All the foodstuffs needed were raised in abundance.
The prospects were wonderfully bright and prom-
ising, Pagan Indians who came out of curiosity
were surprised to see the herds of cattle, the flocks
of chickens, and other signs of prosperity. But
most of all the visitors were surprised to see the
Indians working contentedly in the fields.

Schoenbrunn was a model of cleanliness; the
women swept the streets every Saturday. Dancing
was forbidden, and heathenish practises, such as
were common among other Indians, were tabooed.

However, discontent developed among the In-
dians, and some among them wanted to overthrow
the missionaries. Zeisberger, who knew of this, tried
to stem the growing tide, but was unsuccessful.
When he saw that he could do nothing, he called
his faithful adherents together in the church on
April 19, 1777. After the service was at an end,
he ordered his faithful ones to tear down the build-
ing, lest it be desecrated by those who had plotted
against him. After this Zeisberger and his faithful
Indians left Schoenbrunn, taking with them the
herds of cattle, the horses, and the hogs.

‘In a few years the former homes crumbled away
or were removed by other settlers to enable them to

till the soil. Soon the site of the former village
could not be distinguished from the surrounding
fields. But though Schoenbrunn was no more, its.
history continued to live in the annals of Moravian
missionary history as the first site of a Christian
Indian church.

Lately those interested in the early history of
our country have made successful attempts to locate:
the site of Schoenbrunn. The places where the old
chapel and school stood have been ascertained, as.
well as the residence of Zeisberger. A movement
is on foot to restore the whole old town, even to the
replacing ‘of replicas of all the former buildings
on their old foundations. The building to be
erected on the foundation of the old school is to
be a museum, in which relics of the old pioneer
days are to be preserved. F.J.L.

i

The Church the Cannibals Built.

Kabongo, lord of a kingdom just south of the
equator, was a. cannibal in the days when Belgium
first began to rule in the Congo. But under the in-
fluence of the Belgian territorial official he reformed
and passed the zeal for reformation throughout all!
his villages; for his word was law, and he said
that all who practised cannibalism should be made.
prisoners.

About that time a missionary went to Kabongo’s:
village to arrange for the opening of a station. The
chief listened to the white man’s story of what a mis-
sion would do for Kabongoland and decided two:
things: first, that what the white man said was true,
and secondly, that here was a good chance for him
to use his cannibal prisoners.

So the cannibals were set to work building the-
church while the missionary went back to Elisabeth--
ville to arrange for the opening of the station.

Every morning at Kabongo’s village the prison--
ers were lined up, and either the Belgian official or:
the old chief himself lectured them on the sins of .
cannibalism. Then they went out into the jungle to-
get bamboo-poles for the framework of the church.
or to cut grass for the thatched roof.

At the same time that the cannibals were making’
the church, Kabongo’s wives—there are two or
three hundred of them—vwere at work building:
a house of sun-dried bricks in which the missionary’
might live. By the time the new missionaries had-
made the five-hundred-mile trip from Elisabethville-
— by train, by bicycle, and on foot—the mission.