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     Abelard Guthrie was born five miles north of Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, March 9, 1814. He was of Scotch-Irish extraction, and was possessed of all the persistency and tenacity of purpose of that hardy people. His parents were born in Pennsylvania, and were among the early emigrants to Ohio. They were closely related to the progenitors of the present Todd (or Tod) family of Ohio and Kentucky.
     The following genealogical information concerning Mr. Guthrie's family was kindly furnished me by my friend, J. V. Andrews, Esq., the wealthy banker, of Kansas City, Kansas. It is taken principally from "Pennsylvania Genealogies,"chiefly of the "Scotch-Irish, and German," by William Henry Egle, M. D., M. A.; Harrisburg, Pa., 1896.
     John Andrews came from Londonderry, North Ireland, to Pennsylvania, in 1737. He located on the Manada, Hanover Township, Lancaster County. His name appears on the first Assessment, for the "East End of Hanover." He married Miss Jane Strain of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Among his children were Hugh, Robert, John, and James. John was a physician; he had charge of the Philadelphia Hospital; died unmarried.

     Captain Hugh Andrews was born August 31, 1764. He married Ann Speer, who was born October 2, 1764, and died June 25, 1797. Their children were four in number -- 1. Isabella; 2. James; 3. John; 4. Margaret.
     Captain Hugh Andrews was married a second time, to Miss Elizabeth Ainsworth, who was born August 31, 1780. They were married September 10, 1799, and moved to Dayton, Ohio, where be bought property. He bought, also, two thousand acres of land on Mad River, five miles north of Dayton. He improved this tract of land and built a house on it in which he lived, and where he died May 17, 1811.
     Elizabeth Ainsworth was the daughter of John Ainsworth, and the granddaughter of Samuel Ainsworth - all born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The children of Hugh and Elizabeth (Ainsworth) Andrews were: 1. Nancy Speer, who married David Shaw; 2. Samuel Ainsworth, who married Miss Margaret Ramsey; 3. James, who married Mary Cornelia Van Cleve; 4. Eliza, who married Alexander Stephens; 5. Hugh, who married Phoebe Cook.
     James Andrews and Mary Cornelia (Van Cleve) Andrews had eleven children, six of whom grew to manhood and womanhood, among whom were John Van Cleve Andrews of Kansas City, Kansas, the banker above mentioned, and who married Miss Mary E. Hill of Lincoln, Nebraska. He lived ten years in Pueblo, Colorado; four years in Topeka, Kansas; then moved to Kansas City, Kansas.
     Mrs. Elizabeth (Ainsworth) Andrews married James Guthrie, April 22, 1813.
     James Guthrie was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, August 19, 1784. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who came early to Pennsylvania from the North of Ireland. He came to Ohio in 1809, and engaged in teaching school in and about Dayton. He was an energetic man of somewhat eccentric character, but held in high

esteem for his industry, public spirit, and genuine worth. His wife Elizabeth (Ainsworth) died September 1, 1850. He was married a second time; this second marriage caused him and his children much trouble. He died August 3, 1860. He and his first wife are buried in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio, with other kindred.
     The children of James Guthrie and his wife Elizabeth (Ainsworth) were: 1. Abelard, born March 9, 1814; 2. Eloisa, born June 19, 1817; married Jacob Light; 3. Margaret, born May 19, 1819; married Isaac Strohm.
     Abelard Guthrie was married early in the year 1844, in what is now Kansas City, Kansas, to Miss Quindaro Nancy Brown, a Wyandot-Shawnee girl, of the Big Turtle Clan of the Wyandot Tribe and the Turtle Clan of the Shawnee Tribe. Miss Brown was born in Canada West, and was the daughter of Adam Brown, who was the son of Chief Adam Brown, who bought Governor Walker's father from the Delawares. Miss Brown's mother was a Shawnee. Mrs. Guthrie was, at the time of her marriage, said to be the most beautiful girl in the Wyandot Nation. She was tall and of faultless form. Intellectually she was a superior woman. She was a faithful wife, a devoted, Christian mother. She died at her home on Russell's Creek in the Cherokee Country, Indian Territory, April 13, 1886, and is buried in the cemetery at Chetopa, Kansas.
     Four of the children of Abelard Guthrie and his wife Quindaro Nancy (Brown) lived to maturity, two sons and two daughters: 1. James; married Grace ----- ; they have four children: 1. Lucy; 2. Percy; 3. Hugh; 4. Ray; Lucy is Matron of the Government School at Wyandotte, Indian Territory.
     2. Abalura; married Charles Graves; died, leaving one son, Clarence Graves.
     3. Norsona; married Edward S. Lane, brother of Hon.

V. J. Lane, the veteran editor of the Herald, of Kansas City, Kansas. They have two sons; 1. Marsh; 2. Vernon.
     4. Jacob; married Dora -----; they have two children 1. Wade Abelard; 2. Robert.
     When Abelard Guthrie married Miss Brown he was adopted into the Bear Clan of the Wyandots, and given the name Tah-keh'-yoh-shrah'-tseh, which means the twin brain, or the man with two brains. The name was given to denote his recognized ability. He was supposed, by the Indian system of name-giving in this particular instance, to possess, after his adoption, the brain of the white man and the brain of the Bear (i. e., the Indian).
     He died suddenly in Washington City, of heart failure, January 13, 1873. He was there at the time urging upon Congress the justice of some long neglected claims of the Wyandots and himself, and the Shawnee claim of his wife and family. II.

     Abelard Guthrie was not a large man. In his Journal, February 28,1862, he gives his height as five feet, nine and three-fourths inches, and his weight as one hundred and fifty-seven pounds. His eyes were blue, his complexion fair, his hair auburn. His features of face were rugged and strong; mouth large, mobile, firm. Until the very last years of his life he wore his hair like the Indians formerly wore theirs - long, and falling over his shoulders. He was a man of strong religious nature and convictions. All through his Journals be speaks of his faith and his trust in God. He even writes some of his prayers. Had it not been for his strong belief in the justice of the overruling providence of God, he says often in his Journals, he could not have survived many of his trials and troubles.
     In his writings little is revealed concerning his early life.

He speaks of having attended school. He was a man of wide experience and extensive information. His mind was rugged and retentive. He was quick to decide and fearless to execute. He was daring, and perseverance was the strongest trait of his character. He was nervously restless and energetic. Compulsory inaction was to him what the cage is to the lion. He was honest, honorable, and direct in business transactions himself, so much so that he was credulous and somewhat lax in binding others to strict performance of their stipulations. This trait caused him to trust unworthy and dishonest men, and the result was financial ruin, and life cut short by disease superinduced by worry.
     For some years he was chief clerk in the office of John Johnston, Esq., Agent at Piqua, Ohio, for all the Ohio Indians. In this capacity he had much business to transact with the Chiefs and principal men of the Wyandots and thus became acquainted with them. He seems to have taken much interest in the welfare of the Wyandots from the first, and to have rendered them important service in the negotiation of the treaty by which they ceded their Ohio lands to the Government.
     In the summer of 1842 President Tyler appointed Guthrie Register of the United States Land Office at Upper Sandusky. He took charge of the office and administered its affairs for a time. No action was had on his nomination until near the close of the year 1843, when it was rejected. His rejection was the result of the political conditions existing at the time, and not of any charge of incompetency or unfitness to administer the office. This was in the unsettled times caused by the death of President Harrison and the demoralization of the Whig party by the action of President Tyler. The Wyandots had already left Upper Sandusky when he was notified of his rejection by the Senate, they having departed in the previous July. His disappointment was keen, and he

was so mortified for the moment that he determined to follow the Wyandots West. He arrived at the mouth of the Kansas River in January, 1844.
     Many years afterward he made the following entry in his Journal: "13th February 1858

     To-day I have been overhauling a large number of old letters and papers. How much I could say on the subject! These silent mementoes of the past, how many reminiscences and associations do they call up! and what a picture of the meanness, the treachery and the falsehood of man do they present! Not one of these correspondent's now even writes to me and how full are all these letters of the warmest professions [of] friendship. And it is not the most agreeable circumstance that these friends were the most numerous and the most punctual when any good fortune sprang up in the way. For instance when I was appointed Register of the Land office at Upper Sandusky by the President of the United States many old friends who had been oppressed with cares to such a degree that they had ceased to write any but business letters, now found leisure to renew their correspondence with me; but after my rejection by the Senate and my exit to the Indian Country, their cares and embarrassments again compelled them to drop me until I was sent to Congress by the people of Nebraska, when again I found the affections of my friends as fresh and strong as ever, if not much improved by the few years of oblivion. This momentary gleam of prosperity however soon passed away and disease and poverty compelled me to retire from the field of political strife and my friends in their excess of delicacy were unwilling to obtrude upon my solitude [and] entirely deserted me. Now for two or three years 1 have been struggling with disease and poverty and I have not in that time rec'd one letter from any of my former friends; but misfortune may also have fallen upon them. And it would be another strange coincidence, should my present enterprise be successful, and be followed by a revival of old and withdrawn or latent friendships? Yet I doubt not most if not all of these young men were sincere in their professions of friendship and could not foresee what effect adversity would have upon the growth of this delicate plant. But I believe I can conscientiously say before God that I never dropped or

neglected a friend on account of his misfortunes or want of success. In God I trust and he will sustain me only as I am just."

     When Mr. Guthrie left Upper Sandusky he did not intend to remain for any great length of time in the West. He expected to look over the great prairies and return to Ohio after a visit with his friends, the Wyandots. But how little does any man control his own destiny, or even the actions or events of a brief day of his existence! The vast extent, the beauty, the fertility of the country west of the Mississippi River was a revelation to him. He was impressed with the immense possibilities of the virgin country, the extent of which he now only began to comprehend. His astute mind grasped at once the possibility and to some degree the extent of the development which the resources of this vast domain would reach in the quick-coming future. Like all men of great mind, he was charmed with the thought that he might become a factor in the transformation which he foresaw.
     He had met Miss Brown in Ohio, and, it is said, desired very much to marry her before she came West, but this was opposed by her father, who always bore a strong aversion and dislike to Mr. Guthrie. There is little doubt that he hoped to return with her as his bride to Ohio. In the early summer of 1844 Abelard Guthrie and Quindaro Nancy Brown were married, in what is now Kansas City, Kansas. This was one of the first weddings, if not the very first, in what is now Wyandotte County, Kansas.

III.

     I cannot state positively that Abelard Guthrie was in the Mexican War, although there is every probability that he was. Many Wyandots went into the American Army in this war and fought well for their country. A man of

Guthrie's disposition could hardly resist the temptation to go into the army, under the circumstances then existing.
     Whether he was a soldier or not, he was, in some way and in some capacity, in Mexico in the year 1848. In a manuscript letter, now in my possession, from John Johnston, Esq., Indian Agent at Piqua, Ohio, to Governor Walker Mr. Johnston speaks of the death of his son in Mexico. He says he had the body brought home and buried by his wife. Mr. Guthrie may have performed this service for his oldtime friend and employer. If so it is possible that the following Journal refers to this. It is to be regretted that the Journal ends so abruptly. Why it was interrupted and not resumed cannot now be ascertained: A FRAGMENT OF ABELARD GUTHRIE'S JOURNAL.

     Left Cincinnati Sunday morning at 1/2 past 10 o'clock the 20th Feby 1848, for New Orleans on board the steamboat United States Capt Caldwell and arrived at New Orleans on Monday morning the 28th February.
     Left New Orleans 10 o'clock P. M. Sunday the 5th March 1848 on board the steam ship Edith and passed over the bar of the Balize at 11 o'clock A. M. the 11th March.
     Left Vera Cruz at 8 o'clock A. M. Wednesday 15th March under escort of 350 infantry & 80 horse and a train of 40 waggons, the escort being under the command of Col. Williams of the Michigan Volunteers and encamped the first night about five miles from Vera Cruz the road lies over a succession of barren sand hills; the next 2 miles are over or rather through a constant succession of bills of sandy earth covered with many varieties of acacia and cactus. The road through these hills is perfectly level but narrow and crooked and must either have been once the bed of a stream of water or excavated by immense labor. In any part of this narrow defile twenty resolute well armed men could have driven us back and no more secure biding place for an ambuscade could be wished It would have been impossible for our men to have fought with any effect in a pass so narrow nor could they have pursued a foe through the chaperal so armed is

every thing of the vegetable kind with thorns or spikes that no one can penetrate them without sharing to a certainty the fate of the man who "picked up a briar bush and scratched out both his eyes" The next mile is a rich black sandy soil and indeed all save the first 2 miles is well suited to cultivation. This day the weather was cool and pleasant. I wore woolen clothes and was neither too cold nor too warm.
     16th March. Resumed our march this morning at 6 o'clock. After a march of about ten miles over a most beautiful prairie country of rich yellow soil we halted at a spot where 54 Georgia volunteers & 30 Louisiana volunteers attacked a band of guerrillas about two hund. strong and lost in killed 6 Georgians & 1 Louisianian. The body of the latter was carried away and the others left on the field. It was to collect and bury their bones that we here halted. While searching for the bones two shots were fired at us from a distant hill by guerrillas. One of those killed in this encounter was a waggoner. After the guerrillas were routed Col. Briscoe of the Louisiana volunteers the commander of the escort ordered a retreat directing the waggoners to take each a mule from his wagon and save himself, the murdered man's mule became stubborn and his companions deserted him. So soon as the guerrillas saw the waggons and driver abandoned they returned and took possession of the abandoned property and killed the driver - his body was not recovered. We found the bones of the Georgians and carried them to Cordova for interment. This night we encamped on the west bank of the Solidad a beautiful little river about twenty miles from Vera Cruz at a ranch (farm) called San Diego, owned by a guerrilla Chief named Zanobia; it was deserted as indeed were all the ranches (farms) thus far. This day was warm with alternate cloud and sunshine, but the heat was not oppressive. The Solidad afforded the finest bathing which our men engaged in with a hearty good will. The attack above alluded to under Briscoe was on Saturday the 19th Feb. 1848.
     17th March. About a mile from last night's encampment we found the bones of a wagon master who had been killed by guerrillas about a month before when out upon a scouting party. He was drawn into the danger by mistaking the Mexicans for Americans nor did he discover the error until in the very midst of his foes. He was buried the next day by his companions but his body was torn from its grave

and the grave filled up. This day's march was about 15 miles over hilly prairie of rich black sandy soil but not tillable with the plow because of the great quantities of fragments of stone that lie upon it. In this day's march we saw the remains of ancient walls which in all probability once composed an immense city. Nothing now is to be seen but the innumerable straight lines of stones composing squares of all sizes and frequently so large as to have many partitions marking off rooms of various sizes and forms. This night we encamped at a ranch called Palo Verda (green tree) where we had to carry water 1 1/4 miles and bad at that though we had not seen a drop since morning. Here the beef contractor for the Army killed a cow and calf which I was told belonged to the old lady who kept the ranch but though she demanded pay for it I could not learn that she received anything This was the more outrageous from the fact that we had been treated with great kindness by this woman and her family; she having given us freely a barrel of excellent water which had been brought a distance of two miles and kept in large earthen vessels until it was cold - a most delicious treat after a whole day's thirst. I now learned that our beef killer had contracted with our government to furnish beef to the army at nine cents a pound; a good business certainly on the part of the contractor for as he paid nothing for the beef and paid nothing for the services of the soldiers who were required to assist him in bringing it into camp the profits were very handsome. These contractors are attached to every division of the army whether in quarters or station or on the march. And though I have heard of private soldiers being "bucked and gagged" for taking beef in the same way, indeed I have heard of no instance of private soldiers killing animals for food but were punished for it. I cannot believe our government has sanctioned knowingly a contract for paying a man 9 cents a pound for stealing beef. In the morning the water keg of our kind hostess was missing and she sent a complaint to that effect to Col. Williams but as the train was then in motion he said he could not think of losing the time it would require to search all the wagons but had rather pay for the keg. But I am not aware that he did. This day was warm but for the most part cloudy and in the evening we had a slight shower of rain though in the mountains we could see it pouring down in cataracts and the constant flashes of lightning and peals of thunder showed. that a violent storm was raging there. These mountains have

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