Ohio History Journal

"THE WYANDOT'S BRIDE."

 

 

N. B. C. LOVE, D. D.

The poem, "The Wyandot's Bride," written by Rev. L. B.

Gurley, about seventy years ago, is an epic of over two hundred

lines. It is in blank verse. It describes:

 

The Sandusky River rolling outward into the Lake:

 

"'Mid leafy groves, and prairies bright with flowers."

 

On this River the Wyandots,

 

"A remnant of an ancient nation dwelt"

 

Which in its waning glory,

 

"Was proud of its old name, 'Wyandot.'"

When the poem was written many old chieftains lived:

 

"To tell of noble deeds and feats of war;

But the scenes of war had passed away."

 

They delighted to sit by their council and wigwam fires and

by word and pantomine fight their battles o'er again while the

hatchet and pipe of peace:

 

"Were pass'd around and foes were true friends made."

 

The poem is connected with an important event that occurred

in 1816. John Stewart, the pioneer missionary of the Methodist

Episcopal Church, inspired of God, came from Marietta, Ohio,

to Upper Sandusky "to seek the lost sheep in the wilderness."

His efforts were successful, and the work became too great for

him, and he sought assistance in 181₉ from the old Ohio Con-

(182)

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The Wyandot's Bride.                     183

ference of the M. E. Church and missionaries and teachers were

sent him. A log school building was erected out of hewn logs,

on the banks of the Sandusky a half mile north of the town.

And later in 1824 the United States Government caused to be

built the stone mission church near and west of the school

building. The poem speaks of these buildings:

 

"Upon the verge of a grove-framed prairie,

Glorious with bright and beautiful flowers

God's temple rose, the mission school was there."

The landscape of this locality is picturesque to-day, and

must have been more so ere it had lost its primal appearance.

One of these missionaries in the vigor of his manhood, and

popular in Ohio as an orator, was sent here to teach. His oldest

child Lucy was ten years old. While he did not feel this to be

his, even providential work, yet at bidding of one of the "chief

pastors," the bishop, he came and did all he could for:

 

"These uncultured children of the wild.

He was a man,

So good, so wise, noble, and yet so kind,

So peerless that beneath his glowing strains,

Of what seemed more than mortal eloquence,

The minds of giant strength, and culture high,

Would bend and bow as trees beneath the storm."

This missionary without a peer in the pulpits of southern

and eastern Ohio, contrary to the wishes of the white people,

who by the thousands had listened to him:

 

"Came with his wife, and little ones to dwell,

In that secluded spot; his eldest child

Was young and beautiful, and surpassing fair;

Of her I sing, and how her future life

Was so strangely linked to this native band."

"Ten summers o'er her head had rolled their suns.

On her fair brow and ivory neck

Flated her auburn tresses- her blue eyes

Were like the deep blue sky, so deep they seemed

Reaching the very fountains of the soul,

And mirrored back the sunshine floating there.

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184        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Her dewey lips were clothed with winning smiles,

On her cheeks the summer roses bloomed,

Sweet rang her merry laugh among the bowers,

That skirt the verdant lawn, and flowery plain-

She was so beautiful, so angel like

That savage eyes were charmed her face to see,

Proud chieftains bowed to kiss her childhood brow

And praise the angel Lucy good and fair."

The ingathering of the Wyandot children is graphically de-

scribed:

"To the mission brought and taught and clothed."

It was paying the Indians some of the debt owed them by

the whites.   The   Wyandots from     their defeat--with    other

tribes -by Gen. Wayne in 1794, had been true and unflinching

friends of the Americans.    Gen. W. H. Harrison fully relied

on them in the War of 1812 and he had no reason to regret it.

For this service the Government failed to compensate them.

They were wronged in the forceful deprivation of their homes

on the Sandusky, and:

 

"Culture and toil were the hope of the tribe."

 

To the hewn log mission house the children came:

 

"From wigwams rude and forests old and grand.

Coarse were their scanty robes and wild their sports,

Yet their young hearts were merry and their songs

Echoed amid the emerald groves around.

Fair Lucy mingled in their childish plays,

Caught their wild tongue and sang their wild songs

And taught their wild tongue to say, 'Our Father.'

Among these youths was White Star, lovely boy,

Of mingled blood."

 

His proud father was of one of Old England's best families,

and when a young man came to the Sandusky Valley:

 

"And for a spouse a queenly daughter took

Of a chieftain, White Star was their only son."

 

The boy at this time was thirteen years:

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The Wyandot's Bride.                   185

 

"His raven hair shaded a noble brow,

While deep beneath lashes dark and long,

Reposed two brilliant eyes, and fit he seemed

To be the leader of that happy band."

 

The poem tells us of the happy and natural life of the chil-

dren of the mission school and that White Star and Lucy the

happiest of all, were often found together with environment of

the rippling waters of Sandusky River, the crystal water of the

big spring flowing out into a brook, in the meadow, in which

wild flowers bloomed. For a year they were friends with the

unconscious and unknown tie of pure love uniting their artless

souls.  They were children but mature children's love of each

other early and true. Their acquaintance lasted less than two

years, and then they had to part:

 

"Love was not named.

The noble youth saw tears in Lucy's eyes,

And scarce represt those gathering in his own."

The years passed. The separation seemed complete. She

with her father to a rural home in central Ohio, near Mansfield,

and he continuing with his father at Upper Sandusky, where his

time passed divided between study in his home, his father, an

educated man teaching him, and the work, the amusements and

the hunting of the Wyandot boys in their "teens;" but:

 

"White Star and Lucy

Met again where learning lights the lamps

In classic halls and culture's hallowed bowers.

He with manly form, erect and strong,

And she matured in woman's opening charms."

And thus at Norwalk Seminary their lives were full of

mutual joy, hope and love. But a letter came to Lucy,

 

"Come home, your father is sick and needs your care and help."

Soon after reaching that home amid her tears she saw,

 

"That head within whose walls the thoughts were born

That might test an angel's strength to bear

Was cold and pillowed in the lap of death."

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186        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Desolate indeed was Lucy's heart. How irreparable such

a loss to the Itinerant's wife and children. The orator, mis-

sionary and great pioneer preacher was a martyr to his calling.

 

"The crape was tied to the cabin door."

 

White Star too was sad to hear of the death of his teacher

and Lucy's father. He wondered if somehow they might meet

again.

"She had not said yes, I love,

But he had read it in her speaking eyes

And soft voice, and rich carnation tint

That graced her brow and mantled all her face."

 

But would she consent to be his?

 

"Would she come to his bower content to dwell

Among the rude tenements of the forest wild?"

 

And Lucy too wondered if it were best to indicate her heart

to White Star who longed to know. She remembered:

 

"It was then her heart first love-throbbing felt -

Then she first caught the missionary flame

Which never ceased to glow within her breast.

Then with those children of the forest wild

She past her sunniest days to memory sweet.

And then was he not a man? What though his veins

Bore blood averse to cultured race and thought,

Yet all could in him the white man's blood trace.

In mind he was gifted, learned and kind;

His manly brow glowed with conscious pride,

For he was versed in love, and learning deep,

In law, philosophy, and science and art,

And best of all, the love of Christ had thrown

Its mantle o'er his every thought and life;

Besides he loved her well and prized her most."

The following ends the poem and the story:

 

"It was a summer eve, a rosy tinge

Lingered on the beauteous western sky."

*       *      *       *      *      *

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The Wyandot's Bride.                187

 

"They met once again at her cottage door,

He woed and won and took her to his home,

This passing fair and most beauteous bride."

*      *     *      *      *     *

"Hard by a grove on verge of verdant lawn,

Their wildwood cabin stood where they could see

The Sandusky meandering through the vale."

The facts furnishing the data of this poem are as follows:

Russel Bigelow, a prominent Itinerant Methodist preacher

was sent to the Wyandot Mission in the fall of 1827. Rev. J. B.

Finley was Presiding Elder on Lebanon District, Ohio Confer-

ence. The district embraced one-fourth of the state of Ohio

and reached up into Michigan to Detroit. This year the pre-

siding elder was superintendent of the mission and Bigelow was

assistant. The following year the latter was presiding elder of

Portland District and superintendent of mission. Portland was

called Sandusky City later.

Russel Bigelow had in the settlements and larger towns of

Ohio won the distinguished honor of being the greatest pulpit

orator of the West, and some ministers, it is said, were jealous

of him, and had a pliant bishop send him to the Wyandots.

I have the documentary evidence of this statement. It was

wrong, but Bigelow did a great work in the mission and good

came of it.

After this, his health being impaired, he retired to his home.

He was appointed first chaplain of the Ohio Penitentiary, but

his health was not sufficient and he died in the middle of his

active life. Lucy Bigelow was his oldest daughter.

"White Star" was John McIntyre Armstrong. Mr. Arm-

strong had one-eighth Indian blood. Mrs. Lucy Armstrong

residing in Kansas City wrote me several times in 1887. I

learned many things about her husband.    I can for lack of

space mention briefly only a few.

He was on the white side a grand-son of the scout Zane,

and grandson of Robert Armstrong. His grandmother Zane

was Indian and French and the most beautiful woman in the

tribe. Mrs. Lucy Armstrong claimed that her husband was

only one-eighth Indian blood. Others who knew him, say he

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188      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

partook in complexion and many characteristics of the Wyandot.

He was the attorney for the Wyandots. They had confidence in

his legal ability and honesty. He was a member of their Coun-

cil, and wrote their last constitution. When on his way to Wash-

ington, D. C., 1852, to look after interests of the nation he died

at Mansfield, Ohio.

William E. Connelly of Kansas, a writer of pioneer and

Indian history, and recently president and chief of the Wyan-

dots, speaks of Armstrong in high terms.

Mrs. Lucy Bigelow in 1890 wrote me a number of inter-

esting letters. She was then about seventy years old but de-

lighted in good works. She was Secretary of the W. F. Mis-

sionary Society and Aid Society and W. C. T. U. of Kansas City.

She died a year or two later. To-day the Wyandots maintain

their tribal organization although citizens of the United States.

Their organization is fraternal and social. The Wyandots are

an intelligent and prosperous people. Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong

has two children living, Russell Bigelow Armstrong and a mar-

ried daughter. Both are intelligent and respected citizens.

The late Thomas J. Pope of the M. E. Church, North Ohio

Conference, married Lucy's sister. To them were born four sons,

all of whom became preachers. The oldest, Dr. Russel B. Pope,

died two years since. He was distinguished for his scholarship

and oratorical ability. Two others, Dr. P. P. Pope and Rev.

T. J. Pope, are honored members of the Central Ohio Con-

ference. The former ranks high as an executive officer and

presiding elder, and the latter as a faithful pastor and able

preacher. The other son is, I think, a member of East Ohio

Conference.

Toledo, Ohio.

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