Taken by the Indians

After snapping a photo at Big Darby Cemetery for a Find A Grave request, I stopped at nearby Foster Chapel Cemetery to check out the gravesite of Jonathan Alder (b. 1773, d. 1849), the “first white settler in Madison County” (Ohio). That explains why the school district in the area is named for Alder, right?

Maybe so, but the story is a tad more interesting than “first settler.”

When he was eight years old, living in Virginia, Jonathan Alder was kidnapped by Indians. The Indians, a small group of Shawnee from Ohio, brought him back to Ohio where he was adopted by a Mingo chief and his wife, who had recently lost their son.

There is much, much more to Jonathan’s story. Raised by Indians, married an Indian woman, reunited with his biological family, married a white woman, fought in War of 1812.

Hasn’t Hollywood heard of this guy? What a story!