Wyandot Mission Church

The Wyandot Mission Church is an early 19th century Methodist church in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Its single room contains dark, log pews as well as paintings of the missionary John Stewart and Wyandot converts. The church is surrounded by trees and a cemetery and is often described as peaceful.

After joining Stewart among the Wyandots, Reverend James B. Finley directed the construction of the church. He built it of blue limestone. The Wyandots used the church until their removal to Kansas in 1843. That year, they met there and deeded its land to the Methodist Episcopal Church. The site became abandoned within multiple years and was only restored by Methodists in 1888. Ongoing summer services began in 1970, and the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Description
The Wyandot Mission Church is located on East Church Street in the northern outskirts of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. It is surrounded by a cemetery and considered the first U.S. mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Its single room is adorned with portraits of the missionary John Stewart and prominent Wyandot converts, as well as paintings of its services during the 19th century. At the front is a raised platform and pulpit. As of 2009, the platform bore Christan and American flags alongside a Wyandot flag with a turtle, whose back they believe the world was created upon. On both sides of the platform are gray wooden doors with white crosses. The church has hand-hewn, log benches, pews of a dark walnut color, and a potbelly stove.

Henry Howe reported in 1847 that the Wyandot Mission Church was encircled by forest and stood in a small enclosure, and Ron Simon of News-Journal wrote in 1973 that it was sheltered by "old and graceful" trees. He thought the church "enjoy[ed] a quiet, almost melancholy setting". The Marion Star Lucy Wood thought this atmosphere enticed meditation, as well as "simple and sincere" ways of worship.

History


In 1816, John Stewart, a Methodist son of slaves, traveled north of his home in Marietta, Ohio, after purportedly hearing a commandment from God. He met the Wyandots of Upper Sandusky, whom he began preaching and singing to in 1819. Many Wyandots respected him and became his converts, including some influential chiefs. Reverend James B. Finley joined him soon after. Stewart died in 1823.

The Wyandot Mission Church was built in 1824 under Finley's direction. He had traveled to Washington, D.C., with two chiefs to obtain its funds from the federal government. John C. Calhoun, a secretary of war, granted him permission, and the government gave him $1,333. President James Monroe suggested he used materials of such strength that it would stand long after their deaths. The Wyandot Mission Church was built of blue limestone quarried from the Sandusky River and hauled by carts and oxen, while the wood of its interior was cut from the Indian Mill a few miles away. Many Wyandots worshipped and learned within the church over the two following decades.

In 1843, as a result of the Indian Removal Act, the Wyandots were forced west into Kansas City, Kansas. That July, hundreds tearfully met at the church to place flowers across its graves and hear the chief Squire Grey Eyes give a farewell speech. Among the 109,000 acres of Ohian land the Wyandots sold, they deeded the three acres where the cemetery sat to the Methodist Episcopal Church, requesting its protection from desecration. Methodists used the church and tended to its graves until 1847, but it was then abandoned, and eventually, its roof fell in and its walls crumbled.

In the 1870s, Reverend Nathanial N. B. C. Love became enamored with the Wyandot Mission Church. In 1888, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church allotted $2,000 to its restoration. Construction began the following year, to which he took part. The church was rededicated in September 1889. Elnathan C. Gavitt, a staff during the early 1830s, and General William H. Gibson were among the various ministers who gave speeches, and N. B. C. Love displayed a historical sketch. Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon, nicknamed "Mother Solomon", was the only departing Wyandot to be present, having returned to Ohio in 1865. She sang a Wyandot translation of the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".

The General Conference of the United Methodist Church designated the Wyandot Mission Church a historical shrine in 1960. That decade, the local historian Thelma Marsh initiated tours of the church. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and is now maintained by the John Stewart United Methodist Church (JSUMC). Services have been held there each summer since 1970. Until the 1973 season, which featured a JSUMC preacher, there were never less than 50 attendees, and there was once 135. Tourists explored the church every day and usually after services; the 1972 season saw 5,000 in total. Services in 2009 drew between 30 and 96 people, the donations during which served as maintenance funds. The Wyandot Mission Church also received a few hundred dollars annually from the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. In 2019, the church and its three acres of land were formally deeded back to the Wyandotte Nation.