{"nrhp_refnum":"76001552","name":"Wyandot Mission Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Upper Sandusky off Church St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Upper Sandusky","county":"Wyandot County","state":"OH","lat":40.83624635500007,"lon":-83.27852002399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-01-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story cut limestone church built in 1824 on a stone foundation, set within a cemetery off Church Street at Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, Ohio. It is the only surviving building of a Methodist mission complex.","why_significant":"The church came out of the first successful and continuing Methodist mission to Native Americans in the United States, begun in 1816 by John Stewart, a free Black Ohioan. It is the only physical remnant of the mission that served the Wyandot until the 1842 treaty forced their relocation.","narrative":"Built in 1824 of cut limestone, this single-story gable-roofed church at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, is the last surviving piece of a Methodist mission to the Wyandot people. The mission grew from the work of John Stewart, born in 1786 to free Black parents in Virginia, who began preaching among the Wyandot in 1816. He received a preaching license in 1819, when the first official Methodist mission to Native Americans was established, and he and Rev. James Finley ran a school and farm there. Stewart died in 1823, and the church was erected the next year using $1,333.30 in government funds owed to the Indians. The 1842 treaty forced the Wyandot to relocate, and the mission closed. The building decayed until the Methodist Church restored it in 1889, enlarging the windows and replacing wood shakes with slate. The interior keeps exposed stone walls, plank floors and hewn benches, and summer services continue.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored by the Methodist Church in 1889 and cared for since; services are held in the church during the summer months.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.076977-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/76001552.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001552/bb2fb5a16f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001552/bb2fb5a16f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wyandot_Mission_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wyandot_Mission_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992082","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyandot_Mission_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8039452"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/wyandot-county/wyandot-mission-church-76001552/"}