Christian Frederick Post

Background

He was born probably in 1710 in Conitz, East Prussia (now Germany).

Education

There is no information about his education.

Career

He was a cabinet maker by training, but fell under the influence of the Zinzendorf movement and in 1742 came to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His early work was as an itinerant missionary to the various German groups in Pennsylvania. He tried to bring about the union of those people in a church federation, but his impulsive habits did not fit him for this task.

The next year he went with Christopher Pyrlaeus, Martin Mack, and Joachim Senseman, to take charge of the Indian converts in the "Oblong" between New York and Connecticut, just east of Poughkeepsie. Here his sympathetic insight into Indian character and his rapid acquisition of the Mohican language made him very useful, and the mission prospered remarkably. The Indian wars of 1744, however, made the settlers of New York and Connecticut very suspicious of the Moravian workers and they were arrested, ordered out of the state, and warned not to return.

Along with David Zeisberger, Post was then sent to the Iroquois country to live among the Six Nations and learn their language. Here they were again arrested, taken to New York, and imprisoned for about seven weeks. He took up residence in the Wyoming Valley on the banks of the Susquehanna near Wyalusing. As a frontier mission scout here, he maintained a close contact with the Indians for two years.

In 1751 he went to London in order to join the first mission to Labrador. Here his party was set upon by the natives, several were murdered, and the survivors were forced to man the vessel in order to escape. He again occupied his cabin in Wyoming in 1754, attempting to counteract the threatened alliance of the Delawares with the French. In the fall of 1755 he hurried to Bethlehem to warn the colony of the impending raids planned by Tedyuskung and his Shawnee allies, but the warning came too late, and a band of blood and fire was drawn across the colony in November.

At the request of the governor and council of Pennsylvania in 1758, Post and Charles Thompson met Tedyuskung and two Indian chiefs in the Wyoming district and arranged for a later and more largely attended conference to be held on the Ohio River. At that time the Forbes expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne was in preparation and if the French alliance with the Indians could be broken, the French would lose their hold on western Pennsylvania.

Post's patience finally won the Indians over to a British alliance, and the French abandoned Fort Duquesne. Immediately after his report to the governor had been accepted and the fort occupied by the British, he penetrated into the Ohio country and gathered a group of Indian converts to begin a settlement near the present town of Bolivar. For a time he was assisted by youthful John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder.

Later he proceeded on his own responsibilty to extend mission work down the Ohio River, and in 1762 left the Moravian service and disappeared into the West. In 1764 he was to be found hard at work among the Mosquito Indians of eastern Nicaragua. In 1767 he visited Bethlehem once more, but the Moravian authorities refused to accept the offer of his services. He was given a cordial letter of recommendation to the Anglican Church, however, and under the supervision of this body he returned to the Mosquito Shore.

In 1784 he retired to Germantown where he died during the following year.

Achievements

• Christian Frederick Post played a brief but significant role in Colonial diplomacy, he undertook an embassy in behalf of the Pennsylvania Colony to the Delawares and Shawnees in Ohio. Three of the fields in which he was a pioneer later became fruitful areas of Moravian effort, and his successful parley with the Indians in 1758, leading to the abandonment of Fort Duquesne, was of great significance in opening the West to British occupation.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Second Journal of Christian Frederick Post: On a Message From the Governor of Pensilvania to the Indians on the Ohio (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Second Journal of Christian Frederick Po...)

  • Two Journals of Western Tours (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Two Journals of Western Tours In 1764, the...)

Personality

His eccentric and impatient habits of mind gave him no rest even when he was engaged in executing his own plans.

Connections

In 1743 Post married Rachel, a Wampanoag, declaring that such a connection would assist the progress of his work. Two years after the death of his first wife in 1747, he married Agnes, a Delaware convert. His second wife died in 1751. On August 27, 1763, he had married Mary Margaret (Miller) Stadelman (or Hadelman) Bolinger, who died in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1810.

He had four half-breed children all of whom died in infancy.

Spouse:

Agnes Post

Spouse:

Rachel Post

Spouse:

Mary Margaret (Miller) Stadelman (or Hadelman) Bolinger

coworker:

John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder

coworker:

David Zeisberger