Heckevrelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus, a dis- tinguished Moravian missionary among tlic Indians of North America, bom at Bedford, England, ^Nlar. 12, 1743, where his father, who had fled from IMoravia for the sake of religious liberty, was engaged in the service of the Church. On the 2d of April, 1754, young Ilecke- welder came to America with his parents. At the age of nineteen years (17(32) he accompanied Christian Fred- erick Post, an Indian teacher and colonial agent, to the Tuscarawas Valley, in Ohio, where they attemi)ted to establish a mission among the natives. This enter- prise proving a failure, Heckeweldcr labored for some time as the assistant of David Zeisberger, on the Sus- quehanna. In the spring of 1771 he joined this illus- trious evangelist at Friedenstadt, on the Beaver Creek, Pa., and for the next fifteen years shared all the hard- ships, sufferings, and triumphs of the Indian mission, at its various stations in Ohio and Michigan. See Zeis- berger, David. In the com-se of this period he mar- ried Miss Sarah Ohneberg (July 4, 1780), at Salem, Ohio, which was probably the first wedding ever solemnized in that state. Having severed his connection with the mission (October, 1786) on account of his wife's feeble health, he was appointed (1788) agent of the " Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen" [see Ettwein, John], and made
HEDDING
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repeated but unsuccessful attempts, in consequence of the Indian War, to survey a tract of land in the Tusca- rawas Valley, granted to the Christian Indians by Con- gress as an indemnification for their losses in the Revo- lution. In 1792 and 1793 he was twice appointed as- sistant peace commissioner by the United States gov- ernment, and was active in aiding the other commission- ers to bring about a pacification. These humane efforts, however, proved abortive, and the war continued, end- ing in the total defeat of the Western tribes. In 1801 he settled at Gnadenhiitten, Ohio, and devoted himself to the duties of his agency until 1810, when he resigned. The rest of his life he spent at Bethlehem in literary la- bors, producing two works, namely, .1 n A ccotint of the Histonj, Maimers, and Customs of the. Indian Xations tvhn once inhabited Pennsijlvunia and the neighhorinr/ Stales (Plilladelphia, 1818; transl. into French by Du- ponceau, Paris, 1822, 8vo) ; and A Narrative of the Misr sion of the United Brethren among the Delaware andMo- hegan Indians (Philadelphia, 1820). He died January 31, 1823. General Cass criticised his writings in the North Am?r. Review, vol. xxvi. See also Rondthaler, Life of Ileckewelder (Phila. 1817. 12mo). (E. de S.)
Hedding, Elijaif, D.D., a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Pine Plains, N. Y., June 7, 1780. Trained religiously by a pious mother, he was converted on the Vergennes Circuit, Vermont, in 1798, and in 1800 was licensed to preach. His early labors in the itinerant ministry were fidl of toil and privation, and he often met with fierce persecution ; but powerful revivals followed his ministry, especially in Vermont and New Hampshire. On the 16th of June, 1801, he was admitted on trial in the New York Annual Conference, and appointed to Plattsburg Circuit; in 1802 to Fletcher; in 1803 to Bridgewater Circuit, New Hampshire ; after which his work as a preacher lay wholly in New Eng- land. In 1807 he was made presiding elder of the New Hampshire District. The country was mountainous, newly settled, and poor ; and Jlr. Hedding's whole re- ceipts for the first year were $-1 25, besides his travelling expenses. In 1808 he was elected a delegate to the General Conference held at Baltimore. A plan for a " delegated" General Conference was discussed by this body, and at first rejected; a rupture seemed immi- nent, but a reconsideration was brought about, largely througli Hedding's influence, and the plan Avas finally adopted. In 1809 he was appointed to the New Lon- don District, and in 1810 he married. In the ten years, before his marriage he travelled 3000 miles a j-ear, and preacheil nearly every day. His pay for this time avfrau,-,'! v i't per annum. "The circuits were large, (ittiu r, i|uiriiig three to five hundred miles to complete one mini, and this round was completed in from two to six Avceks, during which a sermon was to be preached and a class met daily; and often three sermons and three classes to be attended on the Sabbath. The joiu-- neys, too, were performed ... on horseback, through rough and miry ways, and through wildernesses where no road as yet had been cast up. Rivers and swamps were to be forded. Nor coidd the journey be delayed. On, o'.i, must the itinerant press his way, through the drenching rains of summer, the chilling sleet of spring or autumn, and the driving blasts or piercing cold of winter ; and often amid perils, weariness, hunger, and al- most nakedness, carrying the Bread of Life to the lost and perishing. And then, when the day of toil was end- ed, in the creviced hut of the frontier settler, the wearj- itinerant, among those of kindred hearts and sympathies, found a cordial though humble place of repose." .... "For twenty-four years before his election to the epis- copacy he received his annual appointments at Confer- ence, and prosecuted the duties assigned him on circuits, and stations, and presiding elders' districts. The fields of his labor lay, after the first few years, wholly in the New-England States; and when the New-England Con- ference was separated from New York, he became iden- tified with that work. In the introduction and estab-