Indian Valley teacher ready to lead Gnadenhutten Museum and Historical Site
GNADENHUTTEN ‒ The Gnadenhutten Museum and Historical Site will have a new curator this year.
John Heil, who has held the post for well over a decade, has decided to step down. He will be replaced by Andy McMillen, a teacher at Indian Valley High School.
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"It just seemed like a good time to change directions and go a different way," Heil said. He will remain on the board and be as active at the museum as he can.
Heil said he has enjoyed his time as curator.
"I enjoyed it. I like the history. You get to meet so many different people. It was an awesome experience," he said.
Among the people he has met were Gerard Heath and Theresa Johnson, members of the Delaware Indian nation who had ancestors who were killed in the Gnadenhutten Massacre. Together, they put together the annual Day of Remembrance event on March 8, which is the anniversary of the massacre.
On March 8, 1782, Pennsylvania militiamen killed 96 peaceful Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten, a Moravian mission town. Their remains were left unburied for 15 years until missionary John Heckewelder interred them. The site of the grave was lost for many years until Rev. Sylvester Wolle accidentally discovered them while digging for parched corn in 1842, according to the 1884 History of Tuscarawas County.
The next year, an association was organized to build a monument in honor of the massacre victims. It took years to raise the necessary funds for the project. The completed 35-foot monument was dedicated on June 5, 1872.
What's at the Gnadenhutten museum?
Today, the historic site includes the museum, the monument, the burial mound where the victims' bones are interred, and two reconstructed cabins.
The museum has an extensive collection of arrowheads from the Gnadenhutten area, as well as old Moravian Bibles, tools and a medical display. Visitors can watch a movie that tells the story of the community.
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In addition to the Day of Remembrance, the museum sponsors Pioneer Days and Apple Butter Days each year.
McMillen, a Harrison County resident who teaches a class on local history at Indian Valley High School, was named curator on March 16. He has been a member of the museum board for about five or six years. He is in his 20th year as a teacher at Indian Valley.
He said he has two goals as curator. First, he wants to preserve the museum.
"For being a small town, I think it's a pretty remarkable museum, a very interesting collection of different items that I want to do my best to preserve for future generations. Once that falls by the wayside, it's never coming back," he said.
Second, he wants to revitalize the history society that operates the museum. His ideas include using social media, starting a quarterly newsletter and bringing in speakers to talk on different subjects.
McMillen is still working out details on these items.
Need for volunteers
Both Heil and McMillen agree that the museum needs more volunteers.
"The hardest thing is to keep the place open," Heil said. "You need a lot of volunteers, and right now we just have a handful and we can only be open for a certain amount of time. We'd like to be open at least from Wednesday through Sunday. But you've got to have people involved. We only have six or eight, and most of them are elderly."
He is encouraging village residents and young people to get involved. Anyone interested can call Heil at 330-691-1474 or by email at cjheil61@gmail.com,
Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Andy McMillen to replace John Heil as Gnadenhutten Museum curator
