WOOD COUNTY, OHIO - 169 CHAPTER XIX. EARLY MISSIONARIES ON THE MAUMEE-VARIOUS MISSIONS-NAMES AND DATES OF MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL WHO PERFORMED THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY FROM 1830 TO 1852-CONCLUSION. THE establishment of a colony and fort at Detroit, July 21, 1701, when Pere Nicholas Bernardine Constantine Delhalle was commissioned chaplain, and Pere Francis Valiant du Gueslis, missionary to the Miamis and other Indians of Michigan, may be reasonably considered the introduction of Christianity along the western shore of Lake Erie. These priests as well as their successors, and, before them, the missionaries of the first Detroit colony, knew the inhabitants of the Miami and Huron countries down to 1744, when it was written of the Ohio shore of Lake Erie-" All this side of Lake Erie is but little known." The coming of English speaking traders may be said to have ended the influence of the missionaries over the savages, and to have changed their character in toto. About the year 1791, Rev. Edmund Burke (a cousin of the British statesman of the same name), an Irish priest, who was acting as professor in the Seminary of Quebec, saw with regret that no steps had been taken to revive the missions in the western country, which the hostility of the House of Bourbon to the Society of Jesus had annihilated. By the aid of Archbishop Troy, of Dublin, Ireland, he called the attention of the Sacred Congregation to the wretched condition of the country on-the Great Lakes. The British authorities had at first made it a positive point that the Jesuit Fathers were not to continue the Indian missions. Father Burke was favorably known, and, with the concurrence of the English Governor, he was selected by Bishop Hubert to proceed to the West, and carry out the views of the Propaganda. Before the close of the year, he was officiating at Raisin River, which he had been specially commissioned to attend. There, he dedicated the church of St. Anthony of Padua. Meanwhile, Wayne's victories over the Miamis had caused the Indians to waver in their adherence to England. Father Burke then proceeded to Fort Miami, a post erected by the British on the northwestern bank of the Maumee river, opposite the site of Perrysburg. His house was on the bank of the river, within a few miles of the fort. There he began to fit himself to direct the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatamies, by a study of their language-the English Government, which maintained the missionary, giving him the distribution of provisions to these tribes. In 1795 he removed to Detroit, leaving to others the care of the few Christian natives on the Maumee. Father Gabriel Richard may be called the successor of Father Burke, as pastor of the parish of Detroit. From the close of the Eighteenth century to 1832 he visited throughout the great parish, which was co-extensive with original Wayne county. The work of the Protestant missionaries on the Maumee may be said to have begun in 1801 or 1802, when Rev. D. Bacon, agent for the Connecticut Missionary Society, arrived, and hired William Dragoo as his interpreter. On coming to Maumee he saw, near the mouth of the river, a number of drunken Indians, among whom was Little Otter, the principal chief. Next day, May 5, accompanied by Dragoo, he proceeded from Fort Miami to Fort Industry, met the semi- 170 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. drunken head chief, and, obtaining a promise from him to assemble the tribe, returned to the Indian dancing ground; but the tribe was not convened until May 14, when Mr. Bacon addressed them. His logic, however, made little impression, the Indians objecting that his religion was not good for them; that it would bring on them the same tribulations suffered by the Indians who had embraced the Moravianism of Heckewelder, and that it was useless to their nomadic life. The missionary furnished them as much tobacco as they could smoke, with the object of winning their attention, and did succeed in this object, but did not succeed in having them think exactly like he did. On May 15 Little Otter replied to Mr. Bacon in the following style: "Our white brothers, when they make speeches, are very lengthy, but it is not so with your red brothers. When you were talking you kept looking up, and said a great deal to us about the Great Spirit. We understand that you want us to raise plenty of corn and wheat, horses and cattle, and all other things and creatures that you raise, and that you want us to live like the people that wear hats. Now, brother, if you and your friends wish to make us happy, why don't you stop your people from settling so near us. If you do this we might have game enough, and do very well. We know what you say about the whisky white people make is very true. Indians don't know how to make it, and have nothing to make it of. If your people did not make it and bring it to us we would not have it. Brother, since it is so, why do you not stop your people from bringing it among us ? We understand that you were sent out to visit the Indians in order to find out their minds about the Great Spirit. You have seen but few Indians yet. If you were to go and see them all, it would take you two or three years. We think you had better go and talk with them all and see what they think of it, and if they will agree to have such as you among them, we will also agree. This is all the red brothers have to say to you." Mr. Bacon left the doomed tribe on June 2, 1802, en route to Mackinaw, where he arrived June 29. His nephew, who came here with him, hired a canoe, and, accompanied by an Indian, set out for Massachusetts via the lakes and the St. Lawrence river, his taste for adventure in the West being fully satisfied. Rev. Joseph Badger, a missionary, sent to Ohio by the Connecticut Missionary Society, arrived below the Rapids of the Maumee September 1l, 1801, and under that date made the following entry in his journal: " Rode through the Black Swamp to the Shawanee village on the Maumee. George, our Indian boy, took us to the island, just below the rapids, to see his aunt. Soon after we were seated we were presented with a bowl of boiled corn, buttered with bear's grease,. As the corn was presented, the old woman said: ' Friends, eat-it is good; it is such as God gives Indians.' " This was a pleasing reception to the traveler, more in keeping with the traditions of the Indian before tobacco took the place of kinnikinnick, and whisky that of water. It was an experience which won for the place the admiration of the missionary at the time, and his citizenship in the neighborhood subsequently. Very different was that accorded Rev. Mr. Bacon, who came on a similar errand in May, 1802, and left the Indian town forever in June of the same year. The Presbyterian Mission on the Maumee may be said to date back to October 27, 1822, when Rev. Isaac Van Tassel arrived. On November 6, that year, there were present Rev. Samuel Tate, his wife and son; Rev. Alvin Coe and wife; Isaac Van Tassel and wife; Leander Sackett (the mission farmer) and wife; John McPherrin, the carpenter; Straight, the blacksmith; Sabina Stevens and Hannah Riggs. The farm was situated nine miles above Fort Meigs, being the east I of southwest 21 of the section, at the mouth of the Tontogany. The island opposite the farm, one and one-half miles long, and about a half mile wide, was also the property of the Missionary Society. When the missionaries arrived at their destination the body of a hewn-log house, 16 x 60 feet, was found there, and to the completion of that structure Mr. Van Tassel gave attention first. The few necessaries which the Mission folks brought with them were almost invaluable to the settlement. For years the only saddle in the settlement was one owned by Mr. Van Tassel. He had also been provided by the Presbytery with a store of medicines, a thumb lance for bleeding, and a turn-key for tooth pulling, and if any were sick they got either bleeding or a dose of Moffett's pills, and, if the case were bad, senna and salts. It is not surprising that the Indians did not like all the regulations of civilized life, for they too, when sick, had to be treated at times by white medicine men. The regular work for which the persons named were designed, commenced November 26, 1822; but it was not until later in the winter that Mrs. Sackett opened the school for Indian children, and taught the red urchins for a few weeks, when she retired from that department of the work. Mrs. Lucia B. VanTassel taught there for a year, and was followed WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 171 by other teachers who saw a class of half a dozen increased to thirty out of fifty enrolled pupils. D. W. H. Howard, himself a pupil, speaking of the enterprise, in 1879, says: Rev. Isaac VanTassel was the principal of the Mission. Mr. Sackett and Rev. Mr. Coe were assistants, with their wives and several maiden ladies as teachers. These, together with a few mechanics and laborers, formed the community of white people who established and carried forward the enterprise successfully for many years; in fact sustained it in its work of christianizing and civilizing the Indians until the tribes were moved to Missouri and Kansas." Mrs. Van Tassel, writing in 1872, tells us that these children were fed and clothed, and that, as a result of the kindnesses and teachings they received, no less than thirty young savages were led into Christianity and died in the faith. In 1826 the Mission was taken in charge by the American Board of Foreign Missions, and Mr. Van Tassel was appointed superintendent. In 1834 the Mission was abandoned, and Mr. VanTassel, his wife and wards (Alvin Coe, an Indian boy; Sophia Tibault, called Teboo, a three-quarter blood, and Clarissa Moulton, a half blood) moved to a point on the prairie, two miles west of Bowling Green. While end route from Grand Rapids to his home, March 2, 1849, he was thrown from his horse and killed. Mr. Badger, of whom mention is made in other pages, returned to Wood county in 1835, and died here in 1846, aged eighty-nine years From the records of Wood county the following names and dates are taken, showing the names of ministers of the Gospel, who performed the marriage ceremony here from 1830 to 1852: Rev. Isaac Hill, a preacher, was authorized to perform the marriage ceremony here May 4, 1830; Rev. Jacob Crum, May 26, 1831; Rev. Isaac Van Tassel, 1833; Rev. Elijah H. Pitcher, 1833; Rev. Elnathan C. Gavitt, 1833 Rev. William Sprague, 1833; Elam Day, 1834; Rev. John Crom, 1834; Rev. William T. Tracy, 1834; Jacob Martin, 1834; Rev. Stephen I. Bradstreet, Presbyterian, 1835; Rev. Leonard B. Gurley, Methodist, 1,935; Rev. Daniel B. Biddlecone, Universalist, 1835; Rev. Daniel P. Ketchem, Methodist, 1835; Samuel Bomgardner, of the Evangelical Society, 1835; Rev. L. L. Sadler, Universalist, 1837; Rev. Henry Whiteman, 1836; Rev. Peter Sharp, 1836; Rev. Peter Carobaine, of the Catholic Church (of Hamilton county, Ohio), 1837; Rev. Wesley Brock, Methodist, 1837; Rev. Stephen Lillybridge, of the United Brethren in Christ, 1837; Rev. John Janes, Methodist, 1838; Rev. Benjamin Woodbury (came in 1835), 1838; Rev. James H. Francis, 1838; Rev. Leonard Parker, Methodist, 1838; Rev. Adam Minear, Methodist, 1839; Rev. William Barkhimer, of the Evangelical Association of North. America, 1839; Rev. Jeremiah Brown, United Brethren preacher, 1839; Rev. John R. Miller, Evangelical Association, 1840; Rev. Michael Long, United Brethren, 1840; Rev. David Campbell, Regular Baptist, 1840; Rolla H. Chubb, Methodist, 1840; Rev. Leonard Hill, Methodist, 1841; Rev. Jonathan Edwards Chaplin, Methodist, 1841; Rev. Henry Warner, Methodist, 1841; Rev. Barrett I. Needles, United Brethren, 1840; Rev. George Cronewett, Evangelical Lutheran, 1842; Rev. Andrew Hollopeter, 1842; Rev. Ezra Howland, 1843; Rev. Ezra C. Norton, Methodist, 1843; Rev. Amadeus Rappe, Catholic, 1843; Rev. James Miller, 1843; Rev. Epaphroditus Thompson, 1843; Rev. Clark Johnson, 1843; Rev. Philip Start, 1843; Rev. I. J. Killum, Methodist, 1844; Rev. W. H. Baldwin, Presbyterian, 1844; at Weston, Rev. Cyrus L. Watson, 1844; Rev. Joseph Jones, 1844; Rev. Hiram J. Marble, 1844; Elder Thomas Barkdull, Methodist, 1844; Rev. Silas D. Seymour, 1845; Rev. Wesley J. Wells, 1845; Rev. W. Winters, Methodist, 1846; Rev. Robert S. Kimber, 1846; Rev. L. M. Bonham, 184:6; Rev. Thomas J. Pope, Methodist, 1846; Rev. John Davis, 1847; Rev. Thomas Cooper, 1847; Rev. Wesley Harrington, 1847; Rev. George Hammer, 1847; Rev. George Vananran, Presbyterian, 1847; Rev. C. H. Owen, Methodist, 1847; Rev. Edward Williams, 1848; Rev. H. C. Skinner, 1848; Father Philip Foley, of Hamilton county, Ohio, Catholic, 1848; Rev. W. H. Seeley, Methodist, 1848; Rev. Andrew H. Buchtel, 1848; Rev. O. Taylor, 1848; Rev. Lafayette Ward, Methodist, 1849; Rev. David West, German Reformed, 1849; Rev. Robert K. Davis, Methodist Protestant, 1849; Rev. Asa Ellis, of the Predestinarian Baptist Church of Christ, 1849; Rev. John Graham, Methodist, 1849; Rev. Thomas Holmes, Christian, 1850; Father Sebastian Sanner, Catholic, 1850; Rev. George Haily, Evangelical Association of North America, 1850; Rev. James Swaney, Methodist, 1850; Rev. William Matthews, United Brethren preacher, 1850; Rev. Henry P. Stillwell, Baptist, 1851: Rev. Charles Marksheffel, Lutheran, 1850; Rev. James Milligan, Methodist, 1850; Rev. Joseph F. Wade, Christian. 1849; Rev. G. W. Brackenridge, Methodist, 1849; Rev. I. H. Newton, Congregationalist, 1849; Rev. A. W. Jewett, Universalist, 1849; Rev. Samuel Long, United Brethren preacher, 1851; Rev. Samuel Wilson, of the Ohio Central Christian Conference, 1851; 172 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. Rev. James Glancy, a United Brethren preacher, January, 1852; and Rev. James Evans, Methodist, 1852. During the last forty-three years an army of teachers entered Wood county. Some came on trial and remained a day or so, others staid a year, while a few made their homes here for many years. To-day the townships (except Ross) and many of the villages have their churches, and every form of religious belief has its adherents here, as may be learned from the sketches of churches given in the local chapters. RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE