The Moravian mission at Shekomeko was founded in 1740 by Christian Henry Rauch to convert the Mahican Indians in eastern New York.

Following almost total destruction in the Thirty Years' War and Counter Reformation, it had been revived in the 1720s under the guidance of Nicolas Ludwig Zinzendorf on his Herrnhut estate in Saxony.

Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg sent Christian Henry Rauch to New York City in 1740 on a mission to preach and convert any native peoples he could find.

Rauch arrived in New York on July 16, 1740 and met with a delegation of Mahican Indians who had come to the city to settle land issues.

The Mahicans were a native Algonquian tribe and branch of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Nation populated the east bank of the Hudson River in what is today eastern Dutchess County, New York, and western Connecticut.

In late January 1743, Martin Mack and his wife moved to the Mahican settlement of Pachgotgoch, across the border in Connecticut.

[5] False rumors of atrocities were spread, some fearful settlers had left their farms and the authorities were petitioned to intervene.

The Moravian missionaries exposed traders illegally selling alcohol to the natives and provided legal advice that kept them from being cheated.

The Moravian mission was finally doomed when the provincial assembly adopted a law on September 22, 1744 that required anyone choosing to live among the Indians to take an Oath to the Crown, obtain consent of the council and obtain a license from the Governor to do so; Moravian religious principles forbade taking oaths.

Then on December 15, 1744, the sheriff and three peace officers of Dutchess County appeared at Shekomeko under orders from Governor Clinton to give the missionaries notice to cease their teachings.