Ohio Historical Marker -- Jonathan Alder

JONATHAN ALDER
FIRST WHITE SETTLER IN MADISON COUNTY
(1773-1849)

Seven-year-old Jonathan Alder was captured by a Native
American war party in Virginia in 1781 and taken to a Mingo
Village north of the Mad River in Ohio where he was adopted
by an Indian family.  He remained with the Indians until after
the 1795 Treaty of Greenville ended the Indian Wars in the Ohio
Country.  As white settlers entered the region, Alder frequently
served as an interpreter.  In 1805, he journeyed to Virginia
and was reunited with his original family.  He returned to Ohio
with his new wife, Mary Blont, and built a cabin on Big Darby
Creek.  His cabin is now at the Madison County Historical
Society Museum in London.  Alder is buried in Foster Chapel Cemetery.

OHIO BICENTENNIAL COMMISSION, THE LONGABERGER COMPANY
MADISON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES
THE OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2002

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