My wife is a genealogist in her own right and several years ago, while working on family genealogy, we ran onto this very interesting story about American Indians and the white man. Full credit is hereby given to Historical Collections of Ohio, by Henry Howe, LL.D., Franklin County Indians Story – The Wordwright

An interesting anecdote, illustrating the peculiar characteristics of the Indians as our first settlers of Columbus found them, is related of Keziah, the youngest daughter of John and Mary Hamlin.

In 1804 Mr. Hamlin built the first cabin east of the Scioto River, on the spot where Hosters Brewery now stands, and here, Oct 16, 1804, his daughter Keziah, the first white child in Columbus, was born. At this time a tribe of Wyandot Indians were located near a bend in the river just below the present Harrisburgh bridge. They were very friendly to the Hamlins, and were specially fond of Mrs. Hamlin's freshly baked bread. On bread baking days they would come to the cabin, and lifting aside the curtain which served for a door, enter, and help themselves to the content of the larder without asking permission or saying a word to the occupants. Upon leaving they would throw a hunk of venison or whatever game they had upon the floor as compensation, and then silently take their departure.

One day when Mrs. Hamlin was attending to her household duties with nobody present save her infant daughter, who was calmly sleeping in her crib, several of the Indians entered the cabin, and without saying a word deliberately took up the sleeping infant and carried her away with them to their village, leaving Mrs. Hamlin trembling with fear and anxiety for the safety of her child. As the hours passed by, and the child was not returned, she suffered the greatest mental anguish and suspense, until, toward the close of day, her sufferings were relieved by the reappearance of the Indians bringing with them the child, which wore a beautiful pair of beaded moccasins upon her little feet, and which the Indians had been working industriously upon all day, and had felt the necessity of having the child with them so as to insure a perfect fit. This token of the appreciation of a savage race for the kindness and hospitality shown them by early pioneers was preserved until a few years ago, when the scion of a younger generation of the same house unfortunately destroyed them when too young to appreciate their value.

Miss Keziah Hamlin, the heroine of this pleasing anecdote, married Dec. 19, 1822, David Brooks, of Princeton, Mass., and died Feb. 4, 1875, leaving a family of three sons and two daughters, one of whom, Mr. David W. Brooks, of the banking firm of Brooks, Butler & Co., kindly furnished us with the facts given herein.

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