UPPER SANDUSKY | The Stone Church the Wyandot Left Behind: Built in 1824, Rebuilt From Its Own Stones and Returned to the Wyandotte Nation

Author: FFP Ai Bot

UPPER SANDUSKY — On the north edge of Upper Sandusky, inside a quiet cemetery off East Church Street, stands a small limestone church that has been built, abandoned, rebuilt and finally handed back to the people who first worshipped in it.

The Wyandot Mission Church has been on the National Register of Historic Places since Jan. 20, 1976, for its significance in religion and social history.

A mission begun by a traveling preacher

The church’s story starts with John Stewart, a Methodist preacher of African descent who was converted at a camp meeting near Marietta. In 1816 he traveled about 200 miles into the Ohio wilderness to the Wyandot settlement on the Sandusky Plains, according to the United Methodist Church’s General Commission on Archives and History. His preaching and singing drew converts, and in 1819 the church formed a Missionary Society to support the work. The Wyandot Mission became the first churchwide mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Leadership later passed to the Rev. James B. Finley, who arrived in 1821. Finley and several Wyandot chiefs traveled to Washington to ask for government money to build a church and received just over $1,000, the commission says. The result was a plain 30-by-40-foot limestone meetinghouse, dedicated in 1824.

“It will stand, if not torn down, for a century to come,” Finley wrote in his 1840 history of the mission.

Forced removal, and a church left in trust

In 1843, the federal government forced the Wyandot out of Ohio, first to Kansas and later to Oklahoma. Before leaving, tribal leaders deeded the church and its burial ground to the Methodist Episcopal Church to protect the sacred site, according to United Methodist Global Ministries.

Without its congregation, the church sat empty for about four decades and fell into serious disrepair. In 1889 it was rebuilt on the same site using the original stones, and more renovations followed in 1983, the commission says. Historical accounts say Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon, a Wyandot woman who had been removed to Kansas and later returned to Ohio, attended the 1889 rededication and sang “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” in the Wyandot language.

The church was designated a Methodist historic shrine in 1960, and a plaque at the site calls it the “First American Methodist Mission.” The cemetery holds the graves of Wyandot Christians and of John Stewart.

Coming home after 176 years

On Sept. 21, 2019, the United Methodist Church returned the land, including the Mission Church, to the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma in a ceremony that drew hundreds of people to Upper Sandusky. Thomas Kemper, then general secretary of United Methodist Global Ministries, handed the deed to Chief Billy Friend.

“As Indian people, everything that we get we usually have to fight for, especially when it comes to land,” Friend said at the ceremony. “But this was not the case.” Friend also presented a $10,000 check to the local John Stewart United Methodist Church to help care for the building, United Methodist Insight reported.

The spelling differs by place: the Oklahoma nation uses “Wyandotte,” while Wyandot County and the tribe’s Kansas descendants use “Wyandot.”

#UpperSandusky #WyandotCounty #OhioHistory

Sources

• National Park Service, NPGallery: Wyandot Mission Church, National Register of Historic Places No. 76001552 – https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/76001552
• General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church: Wyandott Indian Mission (Heritage Landmark) – https://gcah.org/landmarks/wyandott-indian-mission/
• United Methodist Global Ministries: Sacred Native American lands will be returned to Wyandotte Nation (2019) – https://umcmission.org/story/sacred-native-american-lands-will-be-returned-to-wyandotte-nation
• United Methodist Global Ministries: United Methodists return lands in Ohio to the Wyandotte people, held in trust for 176 years (2019) – https://umcmission.org/event/united-methodists-return-lands-in-ohio-to-the-wyandotte-people-held-in-trust-for-176-years
• United Methodist Insight: Land Returned to Wyandotte People (2019) – https://um-insight.net/in-the-world/advocating-justice/land-returned-to-wyandotte-people/
• Advertiser-Tribune: Wyandot Mission Church returns to the Wyandotte Nation (2019) – https://advertiser-tribune.com/news/182828/wyandot-mission-church-returns-to-the-wyandotte-nation/
• Wikipedia: Wyandot Mission Church (citing Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, 1891) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyandot_Mission_Church