Mother Solomon

Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon (November 1816 – August 18, 1890), better known as Mother Solomon, was a Wyandot nanny and cultural activist. Solomon was born along Owl Creek in Marion County, Ohio, to a Wyandot chief father. In 1822, her family moved to the Big Spring Reservation in Wyandot County, where elders relayed oral tradition to her. She learned housekeeping and English at a mission school and began attending the Wyandot Mission Church. Solomon married David Young, a Wyandot man, in 1833 and had several children with him, some of whom died before 1843. That year, the Indian Removal Act forced the Wyandots to move to Kansas. Illness and poor living conditions were initially widespread in the new community. Solomon had more children in Kansas, though by 1860, her husband and remaining children had died. Solomon became homesick after marrying the Wyandot sheriff John Solomon in 1860. Alongside her nephew, the Solomons relocated to around Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in 1865. When John died in 1876, she began babysitting children, and her village nicknamed her "Mother Solomon". Solomon promoted Wyandot culture and advocated for the restoration of the run-down mission church. During its rededication in 1889, she sang a Wyandot translation of the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and impressed many attendees with her stage presence. Solomon died in 1890. She was a popular local figure, and her death was widely reported in newspapers. The Wyandot County Museum has since displayed her belongings.