Chapter 26

It was here I found the book Falcons of France. It was by Nordoff and Hall who had served in the American volunteer group the Lafayette Escadrille. They went on to write the Mutiny on the Bounty. The flying book had pictures from the time period and really told the story of those airmen in the early days of World War I.

It also held a copy of Olaf Stapleton’s First and Last Men the grandest look at mankind’s future ever written. It spread across two billion years and eleven distinct stages of man, we being the first. I read and reread that book. Before I found it, it hadn’t been checked out since 1937. The card in the back will show I checked it out three times from 1955 to 1958.

I was hoping to find something in this stack of forgotten works. I was surprised when I realized there was another person down there sitting at one of the work tables. I recognized Janet Rupert immediately. I used to deliver her newspaper. Mrs. Rupert had several books out and was taking notes.

She said, “Hello Ricky what brings you to the dungeon?”

I had never thought of it as a dungeon, a treasure vault was more like it.

“I would like to learn more about the Indians of this area especially Chiefs Blue Jacket and Blackhoof.”

“You came to the right place. Did you know I am working on a book that covers the Indians of Ohio?”

“It is about a young American settler by the name of Oliver Spencer. He was held captive by the Indians, finally set free and became a lifelong friend. He knew Blackhoof very well and helped the Quakers set up the Indian farms near Lewistown and what is now St. Johns. I have a working title of “Howling Wilderness, the Indian captivity of Ollie Spencer.”

“Is it going to be published?”

“I certainly hope so, but I’m just getting a good start.”

“Would you please guide me, I don’t even know where to look.”

“Why don’t you start with some original material?”

“What is that?” I enquired.

“Material which was generated in that day and age.”

“They would have that here in the library?”

“Let me show you.”

She then proceeded to show me something I had never noticed before. On top of one of the cabinets were large books. They were only a couple of inches thick with hardbacks but they were huge.

As a matter of fact, they were bound newspapers. In the 1930s there was a project to preserve the old newspapers they had on hand. It had continued to this day. Each book had its dates embossed in gold. Some of those newspapers I had delivered.

The book she showed me was not the Bellefontaine Examiner but the Bellefontaine Gazette from 1832. I had just found many more hours of browsing.

She explained to me that they had to be handled very carefully. I should bring white cotton gloves in the future. They were trying to convert them to microfiche but hadn’t raised enough money yet. I asked how much they still needed.

It would cost five hundred dollars to convert everything pre-1900.

“How much for the entire collection,” I asked?

“It would be two thousand dollars upfront and two hundred dollars a year every year thereafter. I am on the library board and we can’t figure out how to raise the funds. If we could get half of it the state would match the rest,” she told me.

“So you would need one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to start and one hundred dollars a year after that.”

“That would do it, are you going to write a check,” she asked with a cheeky grin.

“Let me think about it, I may be able to help,” I replied.

I was so proud this decision could wait! I would think about it, talk it over with my parents and if we all agreed it was a good idea I would write that check.

‘Oaky we will be waiting.”

The way she said it she must have thought it was going to be a really long wait, like until something froze over.

When I started reading the Gazette one of the first stories was an obituary for Chief Blackhoof. He had died late the year before 1831 and this was dated January 1832 so it was a good lead story. It turns out there was a debate about how long he lived. Some accounts had him one hundred and ten years old, but most others thought he was ninety when he died.

He was really entwined with early American expansion. He fought against the British in the French and Indian war. He decided that the Indian way of life could not stand against the Americans.

He negotiated with President Jefferson in Washington and allied with William Harrison, who would become a President of the United States, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers against Chief Tecumseh. This victory ended the Indian’s chances in Ohio.

It was the same as every time a hunter-gatherer society met a farming society. The farmers didn’t need as much territory. Another grim fact the farmers would outbreed the hunters.

The hunters would starve to death in the winter. Birth rates would be low in a starving population. This is why there were so many whites kidnapped by Indians. They were trying to replace their population.

Blackhoof was smart enough to see how events would proceed, so he allied with the new American Nation. He met with then-President Jefferson in 1802. Since Blackhoof was a Principle Chief of the Shawnee. Jefferson ordered that Blackhoof was to be presented with a large Peace Medal.

This would have been made out of silver and be four by six-inch oval to be worn about the neck. The Gazette had an article that described the medal in great detail. For some reason, it was of great interest to them at the time.