OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 100B

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
September 6, 2006

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Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
Tid-Bits - Part 100 B
by Darlene E. Kelley
notes by 
S. Kelly

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Tid Bits - Part 100 B

  " Who put the Hand on the Rock ? "

>From the earliest settlement to the present, the origin and purpose of
the Black Hand  have been subjects of interesting conjecture, and the
effort to account for the Black Hand on Black Hand Rock has give rise to
many legends.
As said before, on the face of this isolated cliff the earliest settlers
found engraved the figure of a large human hand, twice the normal size,
the thumb and fingers distended and pointing to the east. It appears to
have been cut into the rock with some sharp tool, and had become dark in
color by time and natural agencies.

In a paper by Col Charles Whittlesey, entitled " Archaeological Frauds,"
he locates a mound, from which is claimed by David Wyrick to have been
found 
" Moses or the Commandment Stone "  and is said to have been taken, two
miles east of Jacktown and south of the Natinal road. Residents who knew
Davis Wyrick personally, and are familiar with this gentleman, are
familiar with all the facts and assure that this was correct.

Whittlesey investigated and located the mound in which this was
supposedly taken. In the valley of Red Rock, and a few yards distant, is
a circle about two hundred feet in diameter, with an opening to the
northeast, and with a small mound in the center. Southwest from the
circle, near the river, is evidence of a fire pit. Old residents claim
that arrowheads and flint chips were formally abundant in and about this
circle. These, aside from the figure of the hand are the only evidences
of Indians, mound builders, or other prehistoric inhabitants in this
neighborhood of the Black Hand.
This statement of these facts, will not lessen the interest for the
accounts of the Black Hand. The name Black Hand still clings to the
locality notwithstanding the villageof that name has been renamed by the
Post-office Department to the prosaic one of " Toboso."  All the history
and romance and beauty of the locality, however, suggest Black Hand as
the name of both village and community.

Some time during the fifties, articles appeared from time to time under
the  "non-de-lume" of " Black Hand ."  These were devoted to a history
of the boys and girls of 1826. They were pleasing and readable, and were
very lavish in extrolling the attractive traits of character that
adorned the developing womanhood and manhood of that period. 

At the conclusion of his articles he always asked the question " Who put
the hand on the Rock ? " -- for it had the appearance of having been
painted.

Mr. Sheward of the area states that this rock is near the station on the
B & O railroad which bore the name, " Black Hand." It is on the canal
bank on the borders of Muskingum county and Licking county and was a
place of much note as a pleasure resort in my boyhood days. It was a
large rock with a face some eight feet high with a projecting rock of
some feet out and even over the canal. This hand was perfect and he, Mr.
Sheward had taken great pains to trace its history back to 1816 and when
the first traveler found this hand on the rock. The Indians did not use
the open hand as an insignia
to convey or perpetuate events, hence they could not account for the
hand.

To give what Mr. Sheward states " To give what I thought was the best
solution to the question of so much interest, I was disposed to use the
find of David Wyrick and a friend, who had taken advantage of a removal
of a large mound for the stone and dirt it contained by the B & O
railroad, a work of our prehistoric citizens of a time we know not of.
David Wyrick and his friend, who had been deeply interested in the mound
in the years past, and to what it might contain, were determined to
explore to a greater depth than the removal of the accumulations by the
railroad.

They were not long in striking a rock in their descent and finding it
was a single and elogated and continued their work until they recovered
it. They found the top was of the character of a slab, which on removal
revealed the skeleton of what was once a human being. While
decomposition had been perfect, the mound of the covering over the
remains gave evidence of fibers as if the body had been clothed with a
woolen garment. They removed the stone coffin and found beneath it a
stone of a foot and a half in length, that gave evidence of having been
sharpened and upon handling it they found it contained something in its
interior. They, with some trouble, opned it, finding inside a stone
twelve inches long and four inches wide and an inch in thickness. It had
a neck broken off, and in the end was a hole. This gave evience of
having been worn as if a strap had been inserted and it was carried this
way.

They were much astonished to find engraved on one side an outline or
profile of a man in the dress of a Hebrew and on the other side
characters which they could not make anything out of. Living in Newark,
and having the knowledge of the Episcopal minister as a man of fine
education, they went with it to him, and he took the stone and was
greatly astonished to find that the characters were Hebrew, He said he
would see if he could read or decipher it. He did so. Calling to his and
his Hebrew works, he was able to translate nine commandments, one was
left off.

Fearing his translation was not correct, and having a knowledge of Rev.
Matthew Miller, of Monroe Township, this county, who was at that time at
his home from New York, where he had been laboring in his efforts to
convert the Jews, and knowing he was greatly distinguished as a Hebrew
scholar, he wrote him of the find and asked his assistance.

His interest caused his immediate trip to Newark. One of the letters or
characters
was not closed at the top, and for fear tat he should be mistaken in
veiw of this character, he went to Cincinnati to a Hebrew Rabbi, and
presented to him the tablet. His translation was that the same as that
of the other two ministers. His attention beng called to this variation
in the character, he said " This is ancient Hebrew that you know nothihg
about." Rev. Matthew Miller said to me that the dating on the tablet
ante-dated the birth of Christ eight thousand years.

This black hand on the rock pointed to the mound that contained the last
rabbi who minisitered at the altar. Doubtless when his work was done,
his followers gave a burial that would show their love and esteem, in
the mound they raised over his remains and the tablet, that was a guide
to their faith, and then put the hand on the rock, pointing to the place
of his burial.

           ++++++++++++++++++++ 

Another legend states; 

An Indian sat at the door of a settle's cabin and told this story --
Many years ago the red man in the eastern part of the state were at war
with those in the middle and northwestern part. Chief among the former
were the Mingos, and among the latter, the Wyandots. In one of the
stealthy and bloody incursions into the Mingo hunting grounds, a young
chief of great promise was captured and carried back by the Wyandots.
Instead of killing the young Mingo chieftain, as was the usual custom,
he was made a serf and compelled to earn the good esteem and fellowship
of his captors, a fate worse tan death to the young Mingo Indian. The
woes of his captivity, however, were lightened by the kindly attention
of a young Wyandot maiden, the daughter of the chief of the tribe into
which the Mingo had been adopted. Geniune affection know no condition,
or it rises above all environment. The maiden fell in love with the
unfortunate young chief, and though watched by the crafty tribesmen,
they made their affection known to each other and decided to flee to the
Mingo country.
One night they made their escape. At daylight they were missed and was
pursued by a posse of Wyandots. The girl had left behind a tribesman
lover, who burning with passion of a disappointed lover, and aching for
vengence traveled faster than th couple and overtook the at Black Hand
rock. They heard the pursuers behind them, knowing that worse than death
awaited them at captured. With the stoicism of the savage, they walked
to the edge of the precipice and surveyed the flood. Folding the idol of
his heart in his arms, he spang into the boiling waters. The pursuers
were close enough to see the last chapter of the drama. The narriator
says the disappointed pursuers marked the spot as the Caucasian found
it.

     +++++++++++++++++++++++

Another legend is born of the geology of the country, and the trade
conditions of the aborigines. About five miles southwest of Black Hand
is a great outcroping of Chalcedony. The place is known as " Fint Ridge
" and the flint, rare on this continet, was much valued by the Indans
and th mound builders for making impliments of agriculture and war. Like
the pipe stone quarries of the Dakotas, where the inimical Sioux and
Mandan work side by side in apparent peace, hither the tribes came up,
the place being considered sacred to the giver of all good and perfect
gifts. For a radius of five miles around 
" Flint Ridge," rested the blessing of the Great Spirit, or that of the
orb of the day, the divinity worshipped by the Mound Builders. None of
the tumult of war was found within that space. Parties in quest of
flint, coming to the confines of the charmed circle, laid down their
arms for the purpose of mining the necessary stone, for the time
forgetting the traditionary hatred of foes. They came from the Missippi
vlley, probably by water and debarked from their frail craft at the foot
of the rock. The romancer says the spread hand carved on the rock was in
mute appeal and forcibly reminded the wayfarer in a way at once
forcible, as it was poetical, that thus far and no farther should the
waves of unglutted vengence roll. The hand marked the portal of a
sancturary which was sacred to the savage, where lust for blood rose
above
every other consideration in his narrow but intense, isolated but
eventful life.

        ++++++++++++++++++++ 

Many moons ago, long before the pale face came across the Great Water to
this land, here upon the bank of the Pataskala, was the lodge of the
great chief Powkongah, whose daughter Ahyomah was fair as the dawn and
as graceful as the swan that floats on the lake. Her eyes were soft and
shy as the eyes of a young deer, her voice sweet and low as the note of
the cooing dove. Two braves were there who looked upon her with eyes of
love, and each was fain to lead her from the lodge of her father, that
she might bring light and joy and contentment to his own. At last the
chief, her father, " No longer shall ye contend for the hand of Alyomah,
my daughter, Go ye now forth upon the war path, and when three moons
have passed see that ye come hither once more, and then I swear by the
Great Spirit that to him who shall carry at his belt the greatest number
of scalps shall be the given the hand of Alyomah, my daughter." Three
months had waxed greater and grown less ere the warriors returned. Then
upon the pointed day, behold, all the tribe gathered to view the
counting of the scalps. First stepped forth Wacousta, a grim visaged
warrior, who had parted company with the fleet footed warrior, who had
long parted company with fleet footed youth, and walked soberly with
middle manhood. From his belt he took his trophies, one by one, and laid
them at the feet of the chief, while from behind the lodge door Alyomah,
unseen by all, looked fearfully forth upon the scene. With each fresh
scalp the clouds settled more and more darkly upon the face of the
chief's daughter, and her lip trembled as she murmured, " So many! So
many! " then came the second brave, Lohkopis. Youg was he, with the
light of boyhood still lingering in his eyes, but on his head the eagle
feather, telling withal of a strong arm and deeds of bravery. One swift
glance he shot towards the lodge of the unseen maiden, then loosened his
belt, and laid it at the feet of the chief.Scalp after scalp they
counted, while the people bent forward silently, and the little hand
drew aside the curtain from the lodge doorway, and a young face looked
anxiously yet hopefully forth. Slowly, slowly, they laid then down, and
at last, behold there was one more, just one more than in the pile of
Wacousta. The young 
Lahkopis had won! Now strode forth Wacousta, and laid his hand -- the
strong right hand, that failed to win the prize -- laid it upon a rock.
Then lifted he his tomahawk high in the air, and with one swift stroke
severed the hand at the wrist, and flung it high against the face of the
cliff, saying, " Stay thou there forever as a mark of scorn in the eyes
of all men, thou hast let thyself be beaten by the cunning right hand of
a boy! Disgraced thou art, and no longer shalt be numbered among the
members of my fame." And the hand clung to the rock and turned black,
and spread and grew until it was as the hand of a giant; and while the
chief, Ahyomah and the tribe stood silently watching the wonder, the
defeated warrior wrapped his robe about him, spoke no word of farewell
and striding swiftly into the dark depths of the forest, was seen no
more by man.

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Tid bits continued in part 101.