Construction of the first schoolhouse in Ohio commenced circa 1772 near New Philadelphia, in the village of Schoenbrunn – German for “beautiful spring.” John Heckewelder, born in England to Moravian missionaries, was apprenticed to a cooper before he undertook his own missionary work.
He lived among the Delaware, becoming a student of their language and culture, before emerging as the inaugural schoolteacher in Tuscarawas County. In 1780, he married Sarah Ohneberg, also a teacher in the mission; theirs was the first wedding of a white couple in Ohio.
Heckewelder, a devotee of writing, penned three books about the Delaware between 1818 and his death in 1823.
– Hannah Van Sickle, The Ohio 100