ZEISBERGER, tsis'berg-er, David. Ameri can Moravian nussionary aniong the Indians: b. Zanchonthal, Moravia, II April 1721; d. Goshen. Ohio, 17 Nov. 1808. Educated in Saxony, he emigrated to Georgia in 1738 and in 1740 went to Pennsylvania, where he was one of the founders of the towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth. In 1743 he became a missionary to the Indians, and labored until the breaking out of the Indian war in 1755 among the Dela ssares at Shamokin (Sunbury, Pa.), and the Iroquois at Onondaga. In the time of the Pontiac ermspiracy. he assisted in ministering to the Indians for whom the governor of had provided a refuge at the barracks at Philadelphia. Peace having been concluded, he led the remnant of these Indians to Wyalusing, on the Susquehanna, in Bradford County, Pa. In 1767 he penetrated through the wilderness to Goshgoshunk, on the Allegheny, in Venango County, and established a church among the Monseys. He removed with his flock in 1770 to the Beaver Creek, and began another station, called Friedenstadt, in what is now Lawrence County; two years later he ex plored the Muskingum region, in the present State of Ohio, and laid out an Indian town, Schoenbrunn, on the Tuscarawas. After a time he was joined by all the Moravian Indians of Pennsylvania, whom the march of civilization drove westward. Two more towns were built, a number of other missionaries entered the field, and many new converts were added. In 1782 the Wyandots fell upon the settlement of the Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten and mas sacred many of them. This was a death blow to the Moravian mission among the Indians. With a small remnant Zeisberger built an Indian town, in what is now the State of Michigan, but in 1786, at the head of a small band of followers, he returned to Ohio, and in the following year commenced a new settlement, which he called New Salem, in Huron County. In 1791 the hostility of other Indians obliged them to emi grate to Canada, where they founded Fairfield, on the river Thames. In 1798 the United States
Congress havinggranted to the Moravian In dians the tract of land in Ohio upon which they had formerly been settled, Zeisberger returned to that country with some of his converts, and near the ruins of their once flourishing towns established a new station, to which he gave the name of Goshen. There he preached the re maining 10 years of his life. His published works are a 'Delaware and English Spelling Book' (1776) . • 'A Collection of Hymns in Delaware' (1803); 'Sermons to Children,' in Delaware (1803). In recent years have ap peared his 'Dictionary in German and Dela ware' (1887) ' • 'Diary of David Zeisberger 1781-98' (18813); and 'Essay toward an Onon daga Grammar' (1::•:). Consult Schweinitz, 'Life and Times of David Zeisberger' (1870).
=ISE, tsi'se, Heinrich, German poet: b. Altona, Schlesnig-Holstein, 19 April 1822. He was an apothecary successively in Altona and Copenhagen, and from 1863 to his re tirement in 1875 was proprietor of a chemical manufactory at Altona. He finally settled in Grossflotbck, near Altona. During an extended journey through Norway, Sweden and Den mark, he familiarized himself with Scandinavian literature, and subsequently he translated the writings of Oehlenschlager, Andersen, Hoist, Jorgen, Moe and others, and works of natural history by Schouw and Oersted. Zeise's origi nal verse is often careless in diction, but has generally a pleasing quality, and reaches a stirring note in his patriotic songs, many of which are among the more valuable in his col lection of 'Deutsche Kriegs- und Siegeslieder' (1864) Among his volumes are 'Reiseblitter aus dem Norden' (1848) ; (2d ed. 1852); 'Neuere Gedichte' (1850), 'Kampf- und Schwertheder' (1849); Kleine (1871); 'Aus dem Lehen und den Erinnerungen eines Nord-lreutschen Poeten) (1M8); and 'Natur und LebenstAIder' (1892).