USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 10
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THE WYANDOTS' VERSION OF THE CREATION.
"In the beginning, the people were all Wyandots. They lived in Heaven. Hoo-wah-yooh-wah-neh, the Great Spirit or mighty chief, led them. His danghter, Yah-weh-noh, was a beautiful virgin. She be- came very ill and could not be cured. At last the chief medicine men of the tribe held a council. They said: 'Dig up the big apple tree that
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stands by the lodge of Hooh-wah-yooh-wah-neh. Have the beautiful virgin laid on a bed of boughs near it, so that she can watch the work. She will then be cured.'
"The strongest warriors of the tribe dug all around the roots of the tree, when lo! it fell through. The spreading branches caught Yah-Weh-noh and carried her with the tree down through the hole it left. Below all was water. Two swans saw the beautiful maiden fall- ing. One of them said: 'I will catch her.' The two swans then called a council of all the swimmers and water tribes to decide what to do with the beautiful young woman. The turtle finally agreed that if some of the others would bring up from the bottom some earth and put it on his back he would carry the young woman. The earth was brought up and put on the turtle's back. Immediately a large island formed and became what is known as North America, which was to the Wyandots all the earth. The great turtle carried the island on his back. Occasionally he became tired and tried to shift his great load. which caused the island to shake and vibrate. Yah-weh-noh, in wander- ing about the island, found an old woman in a hut. She stopped with her and twins were born to Yah-weh-noh. They were boys. One was good and the other was all that was bad. The good one was called Made-of-Fire. The bad one was known as Made-of-Flint.
"When the boys grew to manhood they enlarged the island and agreed to people it with the things of the earth. They separated each to do half, according to his ideas of the fitness of things. Made-of-Fire made everything just as the Indians desired, for his heart was full of love. All the animals were kind and gentle and did not fear the Indians. Made-of-Flint. however, made the rough mountains and monster animals, and everything he made was abhorrent to the Indians' mind. When they had done, each, by agreement, inspected the other's work to modify it. Neither could completely destroy the other's creations. Each was dissatisfied with the other's work. Made-of-Fire because his brother's was all bad, and Made-of-Flint, because the other's was all good. Each changed the other's work as much as possible, which made all things have drawbacks as well as advantages.
"Made-of-Flint put the evil spirit into the water so that it would drown the Indians. Made-of-Fire had made the water so that it was harmless. In all the rivers and creeks the current ran up-stream on one bank, and on the other side it ran in the opposite direction, so that the Indian would never have to paddle his canoe exeept from one side to the other. He would go one way as far as he desired, then paddle to the other side and float back. This arrangement appeared to be particularly distasteful to Made-of-Flint. It aroused him to great anger. He dashed his mighty hand into the water and rolled it, and mixed the currents, so that they ran with double swiftness and strength all one way, thereby making it great labor to paddle the canoe against
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the stream. Made-of-Fire also made the Indian corn-plant grow with- out cultivation, but his evil-minded brother changed this also and made it hard to cultivate and uncertain in coming to a head, thus entailing much work on the squaws.
"After changing each other's works the brothers again met and agreed to people the world, each creating half of the people. Made- of-Fire, the good brother, created all Wyandots and no others, while he of the evil mind, created all other persons.
"Made-of-Flint's people were so bad and overbearing, repeatedly breaking their agreements, that a great war broke out between them and the Wyandots. All the works created by the brothers were destroyed so that Made-of-Fire was compelled to put all his people into a great cavern in Canada. while he re-created the works destroyed. He had to make them just as they were before the destruction. When he was through he returned to the cavern, but his people had to wait there a long time, until the sun had ripened the new world, and made it habitable. When it had ripened he went out through an opening, but the people had to burrow through the earth to get out, like the seven- teen-year locusts. After much trouble the Wyandots came out of the ground north of Quebec. They found Made-of-Fire there and some of the other people were there also."
This story suggests many of the incidents of the Book of Genesis in the creation and destruction of the world. In it the Indian's love of idleness and his accounting for the eause of hard work are brought out plainly.
THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO THE FRENCH.
The Wyandots sided with the French until the close of Pontiae's unsuccessful war for the extermination of the English. When the territory so long occupied by France passed into the control of the English they were divided into clans, mere fragments of their once great and powerful nation, and were settled along the lakes in Ohio and Michigan and across the Detroit river in Canada. Their last head chief, Tooh-dah-reh-zook, who gave the confederacy of Indians its greatest power and influence in the War of the Revolution, died in Detroit in 1788. No longer were the tribes of the Wyandots united as a nation.
In the War of 1812 a few of the Wyandots in Michigan and on the Canadian side of the Detroit river supported the British, but the Ohio clan refused to have a part in it. They maintained a strict neutrality, although their sympathies were with the Americans. That was a for- ward step for the Ohio Wyandots.
Vol. I-5
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THEIR WARS AT AN END.
Weary and worn with the wars of more than two centuries, first with their brother red men, and later against the whites, they were ready to discard their weapons and devote themselves to the arts of peace. And ardently did the Wyandots apply themselves to this high and noble purpose. At the close of the War of 1812 the majority of the Wyandots who had remained faithful to the United States moved to a reservation which was granted them on the waters of the upper Sandusky river in Wyandot (it is still spelled the old way) county, Ohio. This reservation soon became the center of Indian eivilization, . the influence of which was to extend to all the other Algonquin and Iroquois tribes.
The teachings of the early Jesuit missionaries had made lasting impressions on the Wyandots and many primitive religions ideas had been cast aside. They were believers in a Great Spirit, a God of the Forests, that ruled supreme.
Then commenced the labors of the missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal church. It is recorded that at Upper Sandusky, among the Wyandots, was established in 1817 the first Methodist mission in the world. Among the Indians at that time were some sineere Catholics who would not accept the Protestant version until William Walker had compared the two and pronounced them the same in effect. In 1819 Dr. Charles Elliott was appointed by the Ohio conference as the first regular missionary of the Wyandots. He commenced reducing their
language to writing. From that time, and as long as the Wyandots remained in Ohio, the conference sent men, many of them afterwards distinguished, to preach and to teach. In the long list appear the names of John C. Brooks, James Gilruth, Russell Biglow, Thomas Thompson, S. P. Shaw, S. M. Allen and James Wheeler, the latter assuming charge shortly before the Wyandots were to come to Kansas. Russell Biglow also was a presiding elder of the conference several years. Adam Poe, related to the poet, was a presiding elder in the time of the Wyandots.
BECAME A CIVILIZED NATION.
The wives of the missionaries were good housekeepers and were motherly, refined women. Their influence had much weight in smooth- ing to a civilized plane the wild habits of the Indians. At first the women of the Wyandots rode their steeds in manly fashion, and the nation decked itself in all the flaming colors of semicivilized fashion. Bnt in a few years feminine influence changed all. The Wyandot women were transformed into neat, intelligent and often well edneated members of society. The men, with only a few exceptions, became industrions workmen, most of them farmers.
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Some of the Wyandots were noted for their refinement and elo- quence, especially in their chosen field of religion. Particularly was this true of Manonque, an hereditary chief. One writer says that Henry Clay, in attendance on the general Methodist conference, at Baltimore in 1824, after listening to Manoneue and observing his gestures and general bearing upon the platform, pronounced the Wyandot Indian the greatest orator in the United States His personal appearance was magnificent, and it is said those who were able to understand him, pro- nounced his eloquence of language equal to his impressive bearing.
The Ohio reservation of the Wyandots, which was ten by twelve miles, was highly improved. It was estimated that previous to their departure for their lands, at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, over one hundred and twenty thousand dollars had been expended on the Upper Sandusky reservation. Colonel Kirby was appointed a commissioner to appraise the value of the improvements on the part of the United States and John Walker on the part of the Wyandot nation.
CHAPTER VII.
COME TO THEIR PROMISED LAND.
WYANDOTS PURCHASE A HOME FROM THE DELAWARES-FOUNDED THIE VILLAGE OF WYANDOTTE-ROMANCES OF OLD WYANDOT FAMILIES-THE HEROISM OF ELIZABETH ZANE-CAPTAIN PIPE.
The Wyandots by a treaty of 1842, sold their Ohio reservation to the United States and a few months later they sent forth emissaries to locate them on a new reservation in the promised land, on the banks of the Missonri river. Silas Armstrong and George I. Clark, with their fami- lies, and Jane Tillies, who had been reared in the Armstrong household, were the advance agents for the Wyandots. On his arrival Mr. Arm- strong established a trading store for the tribe at Westport. The young men of the tribe, led by Matthew Walker, bought horses and came overland. The rest of the tribe went to Cineinnati and engaged two steam-boats, one of which was the "Nodaway," and set out on the long journey down the Ohio river to Cairo, up the Mississippi to St. Louis and thenee up the Missonri river to Westport Landing.
The long journey ended July 22, 1843.
The Wyandot nation was originally divided into ten tribes, but soon after their migration to the west two of these tribes became extinet. Those who emigrated from Upper Sandusky, about seven hundred in all, were governed by a council consisting of one head chief and six councilmen. At the time of their coming west, Francis A. Hicks was the head chief.
Great disappointment spread among the Wyandots. No lands were open to them here, although by the terms of their Ohio treaty they had been promised one hundred and forty-eight thousand acres west of the Mississippi river. The Delawares were occupying the good lands on the north side of the Kansas river at its mouth, and the Shawnees were located on the south side of the river. So the Wyandots camped on a narrow strip of river bottom lying between the Missouri state line and the Kansas river, which now is a part of Kansas city. Kansas, and covered by a net work of railroad tracks and yards, packing houses, stock yards and mannfactories. This strip of land had been reserved for a fort by the United States after the expedition of John T. Long. But when Colonel Henry Leavenworth came there in 1827 he
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found the land was too low for a fort. He passed on np the Missouri river and Cantonment Leavenworth-now known as Fort Leavenworth- was established on the hill overlooking the Missouri valley above the site of the present city of that name.
The Wyandots then realized that they must purchase lands from some of the tribes that had already migrated to the west. While in Ohio they had made a treaty with the Shawnees, whose reservation was then a strip adjoining the state of Missouri along the south side of the Kansas river, a portion of which should have been given to the Wyandots. But the Shawnees repudiated their treaty. The Wyandots complained that when the Shawnees were homeless they, the Wyandots, had spread the deerskin for them to sit upon, and had given them a large tract of land ; and now, when the Wyandots were without a home, the Shawnees would not even sell them one. The Wyandots complained that it was base ingratitude.
PURCHASE A HOME FROM THE DELAWARES.
The Wyandots at once turned to the Delawares. The negotiations with them resulted in the immediate purchase of thirty-six sections of land, with three sections as a gift, all lying in the fork of the Missouri and Kansas rivers and extending west to a line that runs from near Muncie on the Kansas river due north to the Missouri river. For this land, a little less than twenty-five thousand aeres, the Wyandots paid approximately forty-eight thousand dollars. The agreement in writing between the Wyandots and Delawares, was dated December 14, 1843. It follows :
"Whereas, from a long and intimate acquaintance and the ardent friend- ship which has for a great many years existed between the Delawares and the Wyandots, and from a mutual desire that the same feeling shall continue and be more strengthened by becoming near neighbors to each other: Therefore, the said parties, the Delawares on one side, the Wyandots on the other, in full council assembled, have agreed, to the following stipulations, to-wit:
"Article 1. The Delaware nation of Indians, residing between the Missouri and Kansas rivers, being very anxious to have their uncles, the Wyandots, to settle and reside near them, do hereby donate, grant, and quit-claim forever, to the Wyandot nation, three sections of land, containing six hundred and forty acres each, lying and being situated on the point of the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.
"Article 2. The Delaware chiefs, for themselves and by the unanimous con- sent of their people, do hereby eede, grant, quit-claim, to the Wyandot nation, and their heirs forever, thirty-six sections of land, each containing six hundred and forty acres, situated between the aforesaid Missouri and Kansas rivers and ad- joining on the west the aforesaid three donated sections, making in all thirty- nine sections of land, bounded as follows, viz: Commencing at the point at the junction of the aforesaid Missouri and Kansas rivers, running west along the Kansas river sufficiently far to include the aforesaid thirty-nine sections; thence
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running north to the Missouri river; thence down the said river with the meanders to the place of beginning; to be surveyed in as near a square form as the rivers and territory ceded will admit of.
"Article 3. In consideration of the foregoing donation and cession of land, the Wyandot chiefs bind themselves, successors in office and their people, to pay the Delaware nation of Indians forty-six thousand and eighty dollars as follows, viz: Six thousand and eighty dollars to be paid the year 1844, and four thousand dollars annually thereafter for ten years.
"Article 4. It is hereby understood between the contracting parties that the aforesaid agreement shall not be binding or obligatory until the President of the United States shall have approved the same, and causes it to be recorded in the War Department."
This treaty was not confirmed by the senate until 1848, and in a treaty of the same year (1848) the Wyandots relinquished all claim to the one hundred and forty-eight thousand acres which was to have been given to them by the United States, according to the provisions of the treaty of 1842; and in consideration of this the government agreed to pay them the sum of one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. How- ever, the delay at Washington did not deter the Wyandots in their efforts to locate in their new home. In the month of October of that eventful year, 1843, the Wyandots abandoned the camp below the Kansas river and crossed over into their new lands. A feeling of sadness prevailed among them, for their stay of little more than two months had caused the deaths of sixty of their members by sickness.
FOUNDED THE VILLAGE OF WYANDOTTE.
The Wyandots, having at last reached the land of promise, at once began to provide themselves with comfortable homes and to improve their lands. Soon a village of cabins built of hewn logs, out from the forest that covered these hills and valleys, sprang up here on the site of Kansas City, Kansas. The hitherto rude wilderness over which the Indians had roamed and perhaps fought many battles in the centuries gone by, soon was transformed into a community which bore evidence of civilization and refinement. A house was erected in which the Wyandots held their councils and in which John MeIntyre Armstrong began teaching the first school July 1, 1844, less than one year after their arrival from Ohio. And the Wyandots did not let a year pass before they had provided themselves with a house of worship, for they had brought with them from Ohio the organization of their Methodist mission, and out of it grew the Washington Boulevard Methodist Episco- pal church.
John McIntyre Armstrong is said to have been the first of the Wyandots to erect a dwelling, although he was only a few days in ad- vance of others in completing it. It was built of logs and stood about fifty yards northeast of what is now the intersection of Fifth street
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and Freeman avenne. It was ocenpied by the Armstrong family until 1847. A more imposing residence was built among forest trees on the sloping hillside about one hundred and fifty yards to the southwest of the Fifth street freight depot of the Kansas City-Northwestern Rail- road, and for many years it was the center of culture and religious influence. While John MeIntyre Armstrong was a man of education, his wife, Lucy B. Armstrong- the daughter of the Rev. Russell Biglow, one of the early Methodist missionary preachers in Ohio-was a Chris- tian woman of refinement and influence.
Governor William Walker erected a dwelling on the north bank of Jersey creek about one hundred feet north of Sixth street and Virginia avenue. Adjoining it was a log building that was erected by the Delawares when they owned the lands and it had been used as a pay house in which the Delawares received their annuities from the agent of the United States. The two were joined together and afterwards improved by the man who was to become the provisional governor of the Nebraska territory. Writing of this historie old building and the great man who occupied it, William Elsey Connelly says: "From the beginning it was the center of culture and of the 'Indian Country.' Every traveler and scientific explorer made it a point to visit 'West Jersey,' as Governor Walker called his homestead, and enjoy the bounteous hospitality of its owner and sage. Here he gathered his books about him and led the ideal life of a gentleman of ample means and refined tastes, for twenty years. Such happiness and peace came to him here that when death invaded this delightful home and left him alone, he welcomed death for himself, and died of a broken heart. Of these sad days he wrote : 'Now I stand like a blasted oak in a desert, its top shivered by a bolt hurled from the armory of Jove, and I will say
"' 'Sweet vale of Wyandotte, how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade with the friends I love best; When the storms which we feel in this cold world shall cease, Our hearts like thy waters shall mingle in peace.' "
No greater man has ever lived in Kansas. He was the first man here who devoted himself to literary pursuits. No man can read the delightful journals left by him without being filled with aspirations for higher and nobler things-without being filled with a longing for the simple, beautiful life with books and singing birds and rolling woods.
Governor Walker, among strangers, would be taken for a full white man. He was educated, had been a postmaster in Ohio, and wrote interestingly for newspapers. He frequently delivered lectures of much interest. He was provisional governor of the territory and was a member of the territorial legislature after Kansas was organized. Not only did he speak the Indian language, but conversed in English and French. A perfect gentleman in bearing, he lived here until 1875,
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when he died at the home of a friend in Kansas City. He was buried in Oak Grove cemetery, that city, and no monument of any kind has been erected over his grave.
Matthew Walker, a brother of the governor, lived on a farm in the northeast part of the village. Ilis brick residence stood on an eminence north of Jersey ereek, corresponding to Splitlog's hill south of Jersey creek. He died in 1860. Joel Walker, another brother, died in the fall of 1857.
The Wyandots cultivated farms, builded houses and barns, planted orchards and opened roads. They were seemingly intent on establish- ing those things that are for the convenience of their neighbors, as well as for their own use. They owned and worked a ferry over the Kansas river near its month. Several of the more advanced in civilization and learning engaged in mercantile pursuits in Kansas City and Wyandotte. Among these were Joel Walker. Isaiah Walker and Henry Garrett. John M. Armstrong, the school teacher, was a lawyer, having studied and practiced in Ohio before coming to Kansas. Silas Armstrong, his brother, was well educated, intelligent, and had made a goodly fortune. George I. Clark lived on the north side in what afterwards was Quindaro township. He died in 1857. Francis Hicks, who was head chief, lived about one mile northwest of the mouth of the Kansas river. He died in 1855. Ilis father, John Ilieks, lived a mile further west, and he also died in 1855. Ilalf a mile to the west was the home of Jacob Whiterow who migrated to the Indian territory in 1871. A little south of Whiterow lived Robert Robetaille, who also went to the territory with the tribe. Hle was at one time treasurer of Wyandotte county. Noah E. Zane resided about seven miles west of the mouth of the Kansas river and was chiefly noted for the excellent fruit he grew on his trees. He died in 1887. Charles B. Garrett, a white man who was adopted by the tribe, lived just north of Jersey creek and one half mile west of the Missouri river. Ile died in 1868. Esquire Gray Eyes, the unsehooled but eloquent exhorter of the Wyandots, lived between the homes of George I. Clark and Francis Hicks. Ilis son John was well educated and often acted as interpreter, going to the territory with the tribe. Abelard Guthrie, the delegate to the Thirty-second congress, was a white man, but married Quindaro Brown and was adopted into the tribe. Ile died in 1873. Matthew Mudeater lived two miles west of the mouth of the Kansas river and had a fine orchard.
Mathias Splitlog, an Indian of large business operations, lived on what then was known as "Splitlog's Hill," the house standing near the site of the great St. Mary's stone Catholic church of this day, one of the most magnificent religious edifices in the west. Splitlog was a Mohawk Indian born in Canada, but his wife was a Wyandot, a daughter of Mrs. Hannah Armstrong, who lived on the hill on the north side of the Kansas river valley near the present city park.
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Splitlog was a mechanical genins. Ile had a mill near his honse, in which he ground corn by horse power, built by himself. IIe afterwards erected a saw mill near where the Union Pacific Armstrong shops were built. He constructed the mill and installed the engine himself, and he was his own engineer. During the Civil war Splitlog built a small steamboat for George P. Nelson to ply the upper waters of the Missouri. It carried supplies to the Kansas sufferers while running between Wyan- dotte and Atchison, Nelson serving as captain and Splitlog as engineer. In 1861 the steamboat was pressed into service to carry Colonel Mulli- gan's soldiers down the Missouri river to Lexington. Splitlog and George Shreiner were in the boat-Splitlog as engineer and Shreiner as pilot. The boat landed in Lexington in time to be surrounded by General Price, and Shreiner lost an arm before Colonel Mulligan surrendered.
Many stories are told of the remarkable shrewdness of this Indian in driving a bargain. When the Wyandot lands were divided, Splitlog took his share in the bottoms along the Kansas river. Ile sold his bottom lands to the railroads and they made him the wealthiest Indian in the tribe. With the Wyandots he moved to the Indian Territory, in 1874, and built a fine saw mill and grist mill. He later made invest- ments in southwestern Missouri, platting a town there and ealling it. Splitlog. He also built a railroad fifty miles long running from Neosho sonth. Splitlog was known as the Indian millionaire and lived to be nearly ninety years old.
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