Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III, Part 84

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Henry Howe & Son
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 84

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other white men contributed toward the un- pleasant occurrence. I could not help but admire the genuine philosophy and good sense displayed by men whom we call savages in the transaction of their public business ; and how much we might profit in the halls of our legislatures by occasionally taking for . our example the proceedings of the great Indian council at Sandusky.

Upper Sandusky in 1846 .- Upper Sandusky, the county-seat, is on the west bank of the Sandusky, sixty-three miles north of Columbus. It was laid out in 1843, and now contains 1 Methodist church, 6 mercantile stores, 1 newspaper printing office, and about 500 inhabitants. In the war of 1812 Gen. Harrison built here Fort Ferree, which stood about fifty rods northeast of the court-house on a bluff. It was a square stockade of about two acres in area, with block-houses at the corners, one of which is now standing. One mile north of this, near the" river, Gov. Meigs encamped, in August, 1813, with several thousand of the Ohio militia, then on their way to the relief of Fort Meigs. The place was called " the Grand Encampment." Receiving here the news of the raising of the siege of Fort Meigs, and the repulse of the British at Fort Stephenson, they prosecuted their march no farther, and were soon after dismissed.

CRANE TOWN, four miles northeast of the court-house, was the Indian town of Upper Sandusky. After the death of Tarhe, the Crane, in 1818, the Indians transferred their council-house to the present Upper Sandusky, gave it this name, and called the other Crane Town. Their old council-house stood abont a mile and a half north of Crane Town. It was built principally of bark, and was about 100 feet long and 15 wide. Their last council-house, at the present Upper Sandusky, is yet standing near the river bank. It is a small frame structure, resembling an ordinary dwelling .- Old Edition.

On the bank of the river, half a mile above Upper Sandusky, is a huge syca- more, which measures around, a yard from its base, thirty-seven feet, and at its base over forty feet. On the Tyeniochte, about six miles west, formerly and perhaps now stands another sycamore, hollow within, and of such generous pro- portions that Mr. Wm. Brown, a surveyor, now residing in Marion, with four others, several years since, slept comfortably in it one cool autumnal night, and had plenty of room .- Old Edition.

The big sycamore at Upper Sandusky is yet standing, perhaps the largest live tree east of the Rockies. Our correspondent writes : " A measurement taken in the fall of 1889 gave its girth at the base forty-one feet, and a few feet above thirty-nine feet ; it has reached its summit of stateliness and glory. The fact is it is now in a state of decline. It has seven branches which start out from some twelve feet from the ground. I believe it would make forty cords of wood, though it is a mere guess."

The big sycamore is about fifty feet from the river. Just before his decease in 1885 the then owner of the land, being a stringent Methodist, was shocked by the oft gathering of the young men of the town, on Sundays, under its branches, to play cards. To remove this temptation he girdled the tree, and hauled brush and piled it around, intending to burn it down. The girdling was not sufficiently deep to destroy it, and then he was taken sick and died before he could effect its destruction by fire.

This tree has had its equals elsewhere in the valleys of the Scioto and Muskin- guımı (see Index).

It was to this county that the celebrated Simon Kenton was brought captive when taken by the Indians. We have two anecdotes to introduce respecting him, communicated orally by Maj. James Galloway, of Xenia, who was with him on

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Wickenden, Photo., 1886.

THE BIG SYCAMORE, UPPER SANDUSKY.

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WYANDOT COUNTY.

the occasion. The first illustrates the strength of affection which existed among the early frontiersmen, and the last their vivid recollection of localities.

In January, 1827, I was passing from Lower Sandusky, through . the Wyandot res- ervation, in company with Simon Kenton. We stopped at Chaffee's store, on the Tye- mochte, and were sitting at the fire, when in stepped an old man dressed in a hunting- shirt, who, after laying his rifle in a corner, commenced trading. Hearing my compan- ion's voice, he stepped up to him and in- quired, "Are you Simon Kenton?" He replied in the affirmative. "I am Joseph . Lake," rejoined he. Upon this Kenton sprang up as if by electricity, and they both, by a simultaneous impulse, clasped each other around the neck, and shed tears of joy. They had been old companions in fighting the Indians, and had not met for thirty years. The scene was deeply affecting to the by-

standers. After being an hour or two to- gether, recalling old times, they embraced and parted in tears, never again expecting to meet.

While travelling through the Sandusky plains Kenton recognized at the distance of half a mile the identical grove in which he had run the gauntlet in the war of the Revo- lution, forty-nine years before. A further examination tested the truth of his recollec- tion, for there was the very race-path still existing in which he had run. It was near a road leading from Upper Sandusky to Belle- fontaine, eight or ten miles from the former. I expressed my surprise at his remembering it. "Ah !" replied he, "I had a good many reasons laid on my back to recollect it."

UPPER SANDUSKY, county-seat of Wyandot, sixty miles northwest of Colum- bus, and sixty-four miles southeast of Toledo, is at the crossing of the P. Ft. W. & C. and C. II. V. & T. Railroads. County Officers, 1888 : Auditor, Samnel J. Wirick ; Clerk, Anselm Martin ; Commissioners, Caspar Veith, James HI. Barnt- house, John Casey ; Coroner, J. A. Francisco ; Infirmary Directors, Christian Barth, John Binau, Matthew Orians ; Probate Judge, Curtis Berry, Jr. ; Prose- cuting Attorney, James T. Close ; Recorder, Jacob P. Kaig; Sheriff, Henry J. Shumaker; Surveyor, William C. Gear; Treasurer, Andrew H. Flickinger. City Officers, 1888 : Joel W. Gibson, Mayor; W. R. Hare, Clerk ; Nicholas Grundtisch, Marshal ; D. D. Hare, Solicitor ; Frand Keller, Treasurer ; Joseph Keller, Street Commissioner. Newspapers : Wyandot Chief, H. A. Tracht, editor and publisher ; Wyandot Union, Democrat, R. D. Dumm & Son, editors and publishers; Die Germania, German Democrat, Jacob Schell, Jr., editor ; Wyandot County Republican, Republican, Pietro Cuneo, editor and publisher. Churches : 1 Catholic, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 1 German Lutheran, 1 English Lutheran, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Evangelical, 1 German Reformed, 1 Universalist. Banks: First National, S. Watson, presi- dent ; Jas. G. Roberts, cashier; Wyandot County, Lovell B. Harris, president ; Ed. A. Gordon, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees .- Ingard & Smith, planing mill, 5 hands ; Kerr Brothers, flour, etc., 4; Jolin Shealy, planing mill, 13; Agerter, Stevenson & Co., general machine work ; S. Bechler, lager beer, 4; Jacob Glocser, tannery; 3; W. S. Streby, flour, etc., 1 .- State Report, 1888.

Population in 1890, 3,568. School census, 1888, 1,170; W. A. Baker, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $135,000. Valne of annual product, $143,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.

The Methodists sustained a mission among the Wyandots for many years. Previous to the establishment of the Methodists a portion of the tribe had been for a long while under the religious instruction of the Catholics. The first Protestant who preached among them at Upper Sandusky was John Stewart, a mulatto, a member of the Methodist denomination, who came here of his own accord in 1816, and gained much influence over them. His efforts in their behalf paved the way for a regularly established mission a few years after, when the Rev. James B. Finley, at present (1846) chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary, formed a church and established a school here. This was the first Indian mission formed by the Methodists in the Mississippi valley.

The mission church building was erected of blue limestone about the year 1824,

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WYANDOT COUNTY.

from government funds, Rev. Mr. Finley having permission from Hon. John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, to apply $1,333 to this object. The church stands upon the outskirts of the town, in a small enclosure, surrounded by woods. Connected with the mission was a school-house, and a farm of one mile square.

WYANDOT MISSION CHURCH AT UPPER SANDUSKY. Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

The following inscriptions are copied from monuments in the grave-yard, at- tached to the mission church :

BETWEEN-THE-LOGS, died December, 1826, aged fifty years.

REV. JOHN STEWART, first missionary to the Wyandots ; died December 17, 1833, aged 37 years. SUM-MUN-DE-WAT, murdered December 4, 1845, aged 46 years. Buried in Wood county, Ohio.

The remains of Sum-mun-de-wat were subsequently reinterred here. He was, at the time of his death, on a hunting excursion with his family in Hancock county. In the evening three white men with axes entered their camp, and were hospitably entertained by their host. After having finished their suppers the Indian, agreeable to his custom, kneeled and prayed in his own language, and then laid down with his wife to sleep. In the night these miscreants who had been so kindly treated rose on them in their sleep and murdered Sum-mun-de-wat and his wife with their axes in the most brutal manner. They then robbed the camp and made off, but were apprehended and allowed to break jail. In speaking of this case Col. Johnston says that, in a period of fifty-three years, since he first came to the West, he never knew of but one instance in which a white man was tried, convicted and executed for the murder of an Indian. This exception was brought about by his own agency in the prosecution, sustained by the promptness of John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, who manifested an interest in this affair not often shown on similar occasions in the officers of our government.

Sum-mun-de-wat is frequently mentioned in the Rev. Mr. Finley's interesting history of the Wyandot mission, published by the Methodist Book Concern at Cincinnati. The following anecdote which he relates of this excellent chief shows the simple and expressive language in which the Christian Wyandots related their religious feelings :

"Sum-mun-de-wat amused me after he down. 'I met,' said he, 'on a small path, not far from my camp, a man who ask me if I could talk English.'' I said, 'Little.' He

came home by relating a circumstance that transpired one cold evening just before sun-

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WYANDOT COUNTY.

ask me, 'How far is it to a house ?' I an- swer, 'I don't know-may be ten miles-may be eight miles.' 'Is there a path leading to it ?' . No-by and by dis go out (pointing to the path they were on), den all woods. You go home me-sleep-me go show you to- morrow.' Then he come my camp-so take horse-tie-give him some corn and brush- then my wife give him supper. He ask where I come. I say, 'Sandusky.' He say, ' Yon know Finley ?' 'Yes,' I say, 'he is my brother-my father.' Then he say, 'He is my brother.' Then I feel something in my heart burn. I say, 'You preacher ?' He say, ' Yes ; ' and I shook hands and say, 'My brother !' Then we try talk. Then I say, ' Yon sing and pray.' So he did. Then he say to me, 'Sing and pray.' So I did ; and I so much cry I can't pray. No go sleep-

I can't-I wake-my heart full. All night I pray and praise God, for his send me preacher to sleep my camp. Next morning soon come, and he want to go. Then I go show him through the woods until come to big road. Then he took me by hand and say, 'Fare- well, brother; by and by we meet up in heaven.' Then me cry, and my brother cry. We part-I go hunt. All day I.cry, and no see deer jump up and run away. Then I go- and pray by some log. My heart so full of joy that I cannot walk much. I say, 'I can- not hunt.' Sometimes I sing-then I stop and clap my hands, and look up to God, my heavenly Father. Then the love come so fast in my heart, I can hardly stand. So I went home, and said, "This is my happiest day.' "'

The history of the mission relates an anecdote of Rohn-yen-ness, another of the Christian Indians. It seems that after the conflict of Poe with the Indians the Wyandots determined on revenge.

Poe then lived on the west side of the Ohio river, at the mouth of Little Yellow creek. They chose Rohn-yen-ness as a proper person to murder him, and then make his escape. He went to Poe's house, and was met with great friendship. Poe not having any sus- picion of his design, the best in his house was furnished him. When the time to retire to sleep came he made a pallet on the floor for his Indian guest to sleep. He and his wife went to bed in the same room. Rohn-yen- ness said they both soon fell asleep. There being no person about the house but some children, this afforded him a fair opportunity to have executed his purpose ; but the kind- ness they had shown him worked in his mind. He asked himself how he could get up and kill even an enemy that had taken him in and treated him so well-so much like a brother ? The more he thought about it the worse he felt ; but still, on the other hand, he was sent by his nation to avenge the death of two of its most valiant warriors ; and their ghosts would not be appeased until the blood of Poe was shed. There, he said, he lay in this con- flict of mind until about midnight. The duty he owed to his nation, and the spirits of his , departed friends, aroused him. He seized

his knife and tomahawk, and crept to the bedside of his sleeping host. Again the kindness he had received from Poe stared him in the face ; and he said, it is mean, it is un- worthy the character of an, Indian warrior to kill even an enemy, who has so kindly treated him. He went back to his pallet and slept until morning.

llis kind host loaded him with blessings, and told him that they were once enemies, but now they had buried the hatchet and" were brothers, and hoped they would always be so. Rohn-yen-ness, overwhelmed with a sense of the generous treatment he had re- ceived from his once powerful enemy, but now his kind friend, left him to join his party.

He said the more he reflected on what he had done, and the course he had pursued. the more he was convinced that he had done right. This once revengeful savage warrior was overcome by the kindness of an evening, and all his plans frustrated.

This man became one of the most pious and devoted of the Indian converts. Although a . chief, he was as humble as a child. He used his steady influence against the traders and their fire-water .- Old Edition.

The foregoing concludes our original account of the Indian mission. We extend this history with other matters of interest.

HISTORIC AND BIOGRAPHIC MISCELLANIES. WYANDOT MISSION.

JOHN STEWART, the first preacher among the Wyandots, found living with them a negro, Jonathan Pointer, who acted as his interpreter, as Stewart could not speak the Indian language. Pointer was an unbeliever, and did much to nullify the effect of Stewart's preaching by remarking after the translation of a sentence into the Wyandot tongue, "That's what the preacher says, but I don't believe it," etc. Notwithstanding this Stewart made many converts.

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WYANDOT COUNTY.

When REV. JAMES B. FINLEY came to the mission in 1821, he built a log- mission and school-house-the first Protestant mission in America.

In this mission house the Indian maidens were taught to cook, bake and sew, while outside, in field, at anvil and at bench, the young men learned the trades of civilization. Thus was started the first industrial school on the continent.

The number of converts continued to increase rapidly, and soon a special place of worship was needed. Through the aid of the government the stone mission, church was built. It was finished late in 1824, and for nearly twenty years the Indians met for worship in it, and buried their dead within the shade of its sacred walls.

In 1842 a treaty was effected by which the Wyandot Indians were removed to a reservation west of the Mississippi, the United States government agreeing that the mission church and the ground around it containing the graves of its dead congregation should remain forever consecrated to the purpose for which it was

OLD MISSION CHURCH, 1888.

MOTHER SOLOMON.

originally designed. "In order, therefore," the agreement read, "that the object of the aforesaid reservation may be secured and carried out, we request that the Methodist Episcopal Church take possession thereof and appoint trustees over the same according to its rules and regulations."

For a time after the Indians left, the church and graves were kept up, but they were soon forgotten, and the roof decayed and fell in, and the walls crumbled.

In 1888, however, the General Conference of the M. E. Church determined to make amends, and appropriated $2,000 to restore the church. Work was begun and finished in 1889. The church has been restored as nearly as possible to its original appearance.

Probably the most interested spectator on this occasion was an old woman who lived alone in an humble home north of Upper Sandusky, on the banks of the Indian's beloved Sandusky river. She was a full-blooded Wyandot Indian, the daughter of John Grey Eyes, a noted chief. She was born in 1816, and when in 1821 Rev. Finley opened his mission school, Margaret Grey Eyes was the first little maiden who was brought to be taught. When the Indians went west in 1843 she went with them, but some years ago, after her husband, John Solomon, died, she returned and bought the home where she lived quietly and alone. Of all the Indians who parted from their beloved church in 1843 she was the only

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MONONCUE. A Christian Wyandot preacher.

BETWEEN-THE-LOGS. A Christian Wyandot preacher.

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WYANDOT COUNTY.

one who was present at its restoration, being the only one of the tribe living in Ohio-the last of the Wyandots.

Mother Solomon, as she was known in the vicinity of Upper Sandusky, died August 17, 1890.

Two of the Christian Indians of the Wyandot mission are deserving of special mention, Between-the-logs and Mononcue. The latter was a man of great native eloquence, and of great service to the mission as a local preacher, exerting much influence among the people of his tribe. He was a cheerful and ready worker," and a man of warm affections. Rev. J. B. Finley speaks of him as " my faithful Indian friend and brother."

Between-the-logs was born about the year 1780, his father a Seneca and his mother a Wyandot of the Bear tribe. He took part in battle with the Indians when they were defeated by General Wayne, became a chief in his tribe at an early age, and on account of his retentive memory and ability in discussion was constituted chief speaker of the nation.

He spent a year with the Shawnee prophet, Tecumseh's brother, and returning to his tribe convinced them that the prophet's pretensions were destitute of truth. He also detected the fallacy of the Seneca prophet's pretensions.

As head chief of the Wyandots in the Indian council at Brownstown, he rejected all overtures to join in war against the Americans. He and his warriors left the council and joined the American cause. When General Harrison invaded Canada, Between-the-logs, in company with a party of Wyandot chiefs and war- riors, accompanied him.

After the war he settled permanently near Upper Sandusky. He became in- temperate, and in a drunken fit killed his wife. When sober the horror of this deed caused him to measurably abandon the use of ardent spirits.

When Stewart, the colored missionary, went among the Wyandots Between-the- logs was the first man converted. He became a regularly appointed exhorter in the church, was a regular attendant upon the annual Ohio conference, at which lie Når made some of the most eloquent and rational speeches delivered. Rev. James B. Finley, from whose "Autobiography " this sketch is derived, says of this Indian chief :

" Between-the-logs was rather above the common stature, broad and thin built, but otherwise well proportioned, with an open and manly countenance.

" Through his life he had to contend with strong passions, which through grace he liappily overcame in the end. His memory was so tenacious that he retained every matter of importance, and related it, when necessary, with a minute correct-' ness that was truly astonishing. And such were his natural abilities otherwise that, had lie received a suitable education, few would have exceeded him either as a minister of the gospel or as a statesman or politician."

THE MATTHEW BRAYTON MYSTERY.

In the fall of 1825 the disappearance of Matthew Brayton, a child of seven years, from the home of his parents in Crawford township, Wyandot county, aroused the sympathy and interest of the pioneers throughout a wide extent of territory.

William Brayton, Matthew's elder brother, had started with him in search of some stray cattle ; after proceeding some two or three miles they were joined by Mr. Hart, a neighbor, and as the search promised to be a protracted one, Matthew was told to follow a path through the forest to Mr. Baker's house, some sixty rods distant, and there await his brother's return. At the close of day William Bray- ton called at Mr. Baker's residence, but found Matthew had not been there. He hastened to his home, informed his parents, and a hunting party set out at once to search for the missing boy. His tracks were traced for a little way along the path he had taken and then lost. All the next day the search continued, the

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WYANDOT COUNTY.

hunting party increasing in number as the story of the lost boy spread through- out the region, but the day closed, and no further trace of the boy found. The second day the woods were filled with searching parties that came in from all di- rections to show their sympathy and lend their aid to the distressed parents.

The Indian villages were examined, but the Wyandots not only expressed ig- norance of the boy's movements but joined in the search with great zeal. It was learned from them, however, that a party of Canadian Indians had passed north'. on the day of the boy's disappearance, but they did not know whether the boy was with them or not.

The search continued for many days, the settlers for miles around participating, but nothing further could be learned of the boy, and the search was finally abandoned.

Years passed by and the story of the boy's disappearance became one of the unsolved mysteries of the past. The parents, however, never gave up hope of recovering their lost child : every vague rumor was followed up without avail, until, after a lapse of sixteen years, the mother died of a broken heart, in her last moments weeping for her lost child.

Thirty-four years after the boy's disappearance the Brayton family learned through a weekly newspaper of an Indian captive, then in Cleveland, who did not know his own name, but in his youth had been stolen by Canadian Indians from some place in northwestern Ohio, had been taken into Michigan, and after thirty-four years of captivity had returned to Ohio to find his parents.

William Brayton at once started to see the "captive." Previous to setting out he had been instructed by his father to look for two scars by which his brother might be identified-one on his head, and the other on his great toe of the right foot, resulting from the cut of an axe. The returned " captive" was examined and found to have these sears on his person just as represented by the father. Word was sent to the Brayton family that the long lost child had been found after many years, and was on his way home. The news spread throughout the region, and for many miles from his home multitudes of people gathered at the railroad stations to see the man whose experience had been so remarkable. Among them were many old men who had searched for the lost boy ; aged mothers whose hearts had ached in sympathy for the bereaved parents; young men and maidens who had heard the story of the lost boy related by their parents at the fireside.

The meeting at the family home was extremely touching, but the season of re- joieing was of short duration, for it soon transpired that it was not the long lost. son and brother returned, but the child of other parents, and no tidings of Matthew Brayton ever reached his family.

It was conclusively proven that the " captive " was William Todd, and he was restored to his parents in Michigan. At the outbreak of the rebellion he enlisted in the cavalry service, and died in Nashville, Tenn. The foregoing account is abridged from the Wyandot County History.

AN IMMIGRANT'S EXPERIENCES.

The career of Mr. Pietro Cuneo, as given in the Wyandot County Republican, is such a striking, instructive example of the result of industrious perseverance in a high purpose and its possibilities under the institutions of American govern- ment, as contrasted with the conditions of life under foreign governments, that we are constrained to make a few extracts therefrom for the education of the youth of Ohio.

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Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III, Part 84

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Henry Howe & Son Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Henry Howe & Son
Number of Pages: 1200