Friedensstadt
North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Founded 1770 by Christian Delaware Indians brought from upper Allegheny by the Rev. David Zeisberger. Settling on the eastern river-bank on May 3, they moved to the west side about three months later.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1770 the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger led a band of Christian Delaware (Lenape) converts down from the upper Allegheny to found Friedensstadt — 'City of Peace' — on the Beaver River. Arriving on the eastern bank on May 3, the community soon shifted to the west side, seeking a stable home for a mission that tried to carve out a place of refuge for Native Christians amid the pressures of the frontier. It was one of a chain of Moravian Indian towns whose fortunes rose and fell with the turbulence of the era.
Why it matters
Friedensstadt reflects the fragile world of the Moravian Indian missions, where Christian Lenape sought sanctuary between colonial powers and a rapidly closing frontier.
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Related people
- · David Zeisberger
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Friedennsstadt - PLAQUE
North Beaver Township, PA · est. 1922
This stone marks Friedensstadt, or "City of Peace," a mission village of Christian Delaware Indians founded here in the early 1770s under the guidance of Moravian missionaries. Many of its people had followed the same faith from earlier settlements at Wyalusing and along the Allegheny, moving repeatedly to stay clear of the mounting violence of the frontier. The community's long westward journey eventually carried it to the Moravian missions of Gnadenhütten and Schoenbrunn in the Tuscarawas Valley of Ohio.
Friedensstadt
North Beaver Township, PA · est. 1948
By April 1773 the Christian Delaware of Friedensstadt, guided by the missionary John Heckewelder, abandoned their Beaver River town and resettled on the Muskingum River in what is now Ohio. There tragedy overtook them: on March 8, 1782, Pennsylvania militiamen murdered scores of these peaceful, unarmed converts at Gnadenhütten in one of the darkest atrocities of the Revolutionary frontier. The marker traces the thread from this quiet Pennsylvania mission to that infamous massacre.
Kuskuskies Towns
Taylor Township, PA · est. 1948
The Kuskuskies Towns were an important group of Native villages on and near the site of present-day New Castle. First home to the Seneca, after about 1756 they were settled chiefly by Delaware (Lenape) migrating westward from eastern Pennsylvania under mounting colonial pressure. The towns remained a significant Indian center until they were abandoned during the upheavals of the Revolutionary War.
C. Frederick Post
Taylor Township, PA · est. 1968
In the autumn of 1758, during the French and Indian War, the Moravian missionary Christian Frederick Post carried out a delicate diplomatic errand: winning Native allies of the French over to the British side. Holding councils at the Kuskuskies towns from August to November, his negotiations helped erode French support among the region's Indian nations. Combined with the advance of General Forbes's army, that pressure led the French to abandon and burn Fort Duquesne at present-day Pittsburgh on November 24, 1758.