User:Averageuntitleduser/Mother Solomon

Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon
Born	November 1816 (1816-11) Owl Creek, Marion County, Ohio, U.S.
Died	August 18, 1890(1890-08-18) (aged 73) Sandusky River, Ohio, U.S.
Resting place	Wyandot Mission Church
Other names	Mother Solomon
Occupations	Nanny Christian missionary
Spouses	David Young ​ ​ (m. 1833; died 1851)​ John Solomon ​ (died 1876)​
Children	8
Signature

Margaret "Mother" Grey Eyes Solomon (November 1816 – August 18, 1890) was a Wyandot nanny and Christian missionary.

Early life, education, and family

Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon was born in November 1816 in Marion County, Ohio, along the banks of Owl Creek. The oldest of at least four siblings and two half-siblings, her father was the Wyandot chief John "Squire" Grey Eyes, and her mother was named Eliza. Following tradition, Eliza pierced Solomon's ears a few days after birth, and as they healed, inserted chicken feathers in place of future jewelry. Solomon only received her given name upon the Green Corn Feast held in August. Later, an uncle recounted to her the history of their "Grey Eyes" surname. When Solomon was four, she and her father traveled 50 miles to Hancock County on a hunting trip. They camped one night at Fort Findlay in a blockhouse built by president William Henry Harrison. That year, Squire also accompanied Solomon to the Olentangy Indian Caverns. She was too afraid to explore them, but realized the importance of visiting such sites where her ancestors had held meetings or hid from enemies. She and her family, busy hunting and trading along village footpaths, relocated to a small cabin in the Big Spring Reservation two years later.

Methodist missionaries were prominent in the area and informed the theological practices of many Wyandots; Squire was among a group of chiefs that requested the Methodist Episcopal Church to build a mission school in neighbouring Upper Sandusky. Upon its opening in 1821, Solomon was one of the first students to be enrolled. She became the "little charge" of Harriet Stubbs, who taught her hymns, and a pupil of John Stewart. She learned to read and write English and, alongside the other schoolgirls, to cook, sew, assemble fibers for knitting, and housekeep. Still, her family spoke Wyandot at home, where she recited traditional teachings to her dolls in the language. At school, a religious vigor instilled itself within Solomon. She began frequenting the services of the adjacent Wyandot Mission Church by age eight, eventually befriending each of its pastors. Growing up, she continued to attend the school, all the while its number of facilities increased. A Wyandot peer, David Young, began dating her after receiving permission from Eliza, and on February 4, 1833, the couple were married in the mission church by the priest Thomas Simms.

Wyandot removal to Kansas

President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act, calling for Indigenous communities to move west of the Mississippi River, passed in 1830. The Wyandots faced mounting pressure as treaty commissioners, spurred on by federal government, began enticing removal within the region, and nearby Lenapes and Shawnees signed their own treaties. However, Wyandot scouting parties out west in 1831 and 1834 rejected their proposed land tracts. Tensions peaked when, in the fall of 1841, two white men murdered the head chief Summundewat, rendering Solomon uncertain as to her community's future. She tried convincing her leaders to valedict their homeland; her father, Squire Grey Eyes, only conceded when a Wyandot council voted two-thirds in favor of removal. Having secured 25,000 acres within Kansas City, Kansas, the Wyandots signed a treaty in March 1842.

On July 9, 1843, hundreds gathered at the Wyandot Mission Church, Solomon included, to "sob their last farewells", disperse flowers across the adjoining graveyard, and hear Squire's Wyandot language parting speech. She and her husband, David Young, had two children of their own buried in the cemetery. After packing their bags, they embarked with their remaining children on July 12. About 664 Wyandots arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, after a week of travel by wagon, horse, and foot. Before boarding two steamships, they were harassed by whiskey traders. They learned that their land had been reneged upon setting foot in Kansas, forcing many to camp in the flooded lowlands. Blinding eye inflammation, measles, and severe diarrhea were widespread, and 18% of the initial Wyandot fleet had died by 1844.

Having endured the traumatic journey, Young began work as a ferryman while Solomon tried to recuperate with her family. She had a few more children, totaling to three boys and five girls, but alongside the remaining ones, these died in infancy. Upon the death of her two-year-old son in 1848 and another son to fever a year later, she only had three living daughters by 1851. That year, Young contracted fatal tuberculosis, and in 1852, another daughter died. By the end of the decade, Solomon had buried her entire family side by side in the Huron Indian Cemetery, which, by then, had replaced the mission school and church as the community's bastion.

John Solomon circa 1870

Further, a gray horse, bay horse, and brown mare, worth $195 combined, were stolen from her in September 1848, of which she attributed to Oregon emigrants. Further thefts occured that fall to 30 of her pigs, worth $90 in total. A friend of hers, Catherine Johnson, corroborated that possessions totaling $580, including oxen and horses, were stolen from her across 1855–1859. In one case, an housekeeper named James Cook fled after taking $225 of gold coin from a chest owned by her brother. However, in 1858 or 1860, Solomon reportedly "found new happiness" when she married the Wyandot sheriff John Solomon. He was likewise a widow.

Return to Ohio

Margaret was struck by homesickness after marrying John Solomon. A longing formed for her old memories, as well as her children buried by the Wyandot Mission Church. This compelled her to address a letter to the government requesting permission to return to Ohio. After being accepted, she convinced John and her nephew, Jimmy Guyami, to join her. In October 1862, her and John's two-acre land tract on the south end of Tauromee street was put up for auction, and in 1865, the three arrived at Upper Sandusky. Upon arrival, Margaret and John became members of the Belle Vernon United Brethren Church, whose services were held in a schoolhouse. John also took up a job as a tailer. New shops, hotels, and a large courthouse now stood downtown, but they settled along the Big Spring Reservation in her prior small cabin, whereupon much of the village had deteriorated. Notably, the village council house burned down in 1851, and the roof and walls of the mission church had begun to collapse. Still, its graveyard was steadily groomed, and a few houses had remained. Slightly west was the brick home of the Parker family. They were the namesake of the Parker Covered Bridge built in 1873, which Margaret and John frequently wandered across during their trips to Upper Sandusky.

John died on December 14, 1876.

Death and legacy

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References

Bibliography

• Neely, Ruth, ed. (1939). Women of Ohio: A Record of Their Achievements in the History of the State. Vol. 1. S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. OCLC 1012031260.
• Littlefield Jr., Daniel F.; Parins, James W., eds. (2011). Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-36042-8. OCLC 720586004.
• Marvin Jr., Ronald I. (2015). A Brief History of Wyandot County, Ohio. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-62585-535-0. OCLC 951076427.
• Labelle, Kathryn Magee (March 2021). Daughters of Aataentsic: Life Stories from Seven Generations. McGill–Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-228-00688-6. OCLC 1200316007.

Further reading

• Marsh, Thelma R. (1984). Daughter of Grey Eyes: The Story of Mother Solomon. OCLC 11815829.