AURORA - An eminent anthropologist finally made his mark on the Finger Lakes area as Masons installed a New York State Historical Marker in his honor. The very sign originally intended to honor him mysteriously disappeared two decades ago, and he remained relatively unknown to area residents.
On Saturday afternoon, Lewis Henry Morgan, “Father of American Anthropology,” (1818-1881) had a historical sign placed near his birthplace, now a barn on Route 90 near Ledyard Road in Aurora.
“His study of Native Americans put a lot of fable and legend into proper perspective,” Judy Furness, Historian for the Town of Ledyard, said at the sign ceremony. “He got rid of Indian lore and got into the science of the American Indian.”
A lawyer, Morgan defended the Senecas in a land grant case and was adopted by the Hawk Clan, who called him Tayadaowuhkuh, or “one bridging the gap.”
Morgan's father, Jedediah, was a Mason, so Masons from Scipio Lodge 110 erected the sign. Ed Maassen dug the hole while Chuck Menster and Richard Lyon mixed the concrete and inserted the pole for the sign with Scott Mathieson, Stephen Zabriskie, Richard Lyon and George Peter also on hand.
Once the pole was set, Robert Gorall, former president of the Lewis Henry Morgan chapter of the New York State Archeological Association, sprinkled some Seneca tobacco on the cement surface. Morgan, who had a great sense of humor, would have enjoyed that, he thought. Gorall's wife, Muriel, an “avocational archeologist,” also attended, as did present owner Kate Graham, her son, Mateo Diz; Thierry Torea, and former Cayuga County historian Tom Eldred. Graham's dog, Mr. Footz, also joined the event.
Eldred actually had to order two cast-iron signs for the site. Former property owner, Joan Irving, had hoped to have the first one installed in memory of her husband, Don.
“In order to get them put up, we had to give them to the public works people in Ledyard,” Eldred said. “The first one was made in 1982, but when the town finally decided to put it up, the town historian said they couldn't find it. God knows where the first one is.”
One 75-pound sign cost about $350 initially, but when Graham moved in, a second sign was ordered for $500. Graham became interested in the sign after many passers-by stopped at her home at 1810 Route 90, thinking it was Morgan's birthplace.
“He was born in a house that was eventually converted into a barn,” she said. “It was moved and turned.” A cluster of trees marks the original site of Morgan's home near a well, a short walk from the newly placed marker off Route 90. The outer shell of the original building rests behind Graham's house between two other barns.
The second sign, ordered in 1999, was later “found” in the Cayuga County barn on Genesee Street in Auburn. That sign was installed on Saturday.
“It took more than 20 years from the time the first sign was made until now to have it installed,” Graham said.
“The key thing about Lewis Henry Morgan is that, when teaching at Cayuga Lake Academy, he would bring Indian students in from the Buffalo Creek Reservation,” Eldred said. “His prize pupil, Grant's orderly, Eli S. Parker, ended up actually writing out the terms of surrender at the end of the Civil War and was appointed Director of Indian Affairs.”
Morgan formulated evolutionary theory in addition to collecting cultural data beginning with his study of the Iroquois.
As an early evolutionist, he represented the first efforts to establish a scientific discipline of anthropology. He frequently corresponded with the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Darwin. Even Karl Marx found similarities in Morgan's findings to his own theory of social evolution.
Morgan established kinship and marriage as central areas of anthropological inquiry. He was preoccupied with kinship terminologies as the key to kinship systems. His evolutionary theory of human family structure, ranged from promiscuity to monogamy, and he believed that the “most civilized” family structure was patriarchal monogamy, with descent recognized in the male line.
Believing societies develop according to one universal order of cultural evolution, he was fascinated with comparing Native American Iroquois culture to other societies, eventually distributing questionnaires to missionaries and travelers to collect data from people all over the world. His best-known work, “Ancient Society,” divides human cultural evolution into savagery, barbarism, and civilization.
“A forward-looking man, Lewis Henry Morgan was a consummate scholar, a lawyer, a New York State assemblyman, a scientist, a master woodworker, an exhaustive correspondent, and a caring friend,” Furness said. “An abolitionist, a temperance advocate, and a believer in popular education, especially for women, serving as the first elected trustee of Wells College, a truly remarkable man who we are finally honoring today, 190 years after his birth.”
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
“His study of Native Americans put a lot of fable and legend into proper perspective,” Judy Furness, Historian for the Town of Ledyard, said at the sign ceremony. “He got rid of Indian lore and got into the science of the American Indian.”
A lawyer, Morgan defended the Senecas in a land grant case and was adopted by the Hawk Clan, who called him Tayadaowuhkuh, or “one bridging the gap.”
Morgan's father, Jedediah, was a Mason, so Masons from Scipio Lodge 110 erected the sign. Ed Maassen dug the hole while Chuck Menster and Richard Lyon mixed the concrete and inserted the pole for the sign with Scott Mathieson, Stephen Zabriskie, Richard Lyon and George Peter also on hand.
Once the pole was set, Robert Gorall, former president of the Lewis Henry Morgan chapter of the New York State Archeological Association, sprinkled some Seneca tobacco on the cement surface. Morgan, who had a great sense of humor, would have enjoyed that, he thought. Gorall's wife, Muriel, an “avocational archeologist,” also attended, as did present owner Kate Graham, her son, Mateo Diz; Thierry Torea, and former Cayuga County historian Tom Eldred. Graham's dog, Mr. Footz, also joined the event.
Eldred actually had to order two cast-iron signs for the site. Former property owner, Joan Irving, had hoped to have the first one installed in memory of her husband, Don.
“In order to get them put up, we had to give them to the public works people in Ledyard,” Eldred said. “The first one was made in 1982, but when the town finally decided to put it up, the town historian said they couldn't find it. God knows where the first one is.”
One 75-pound sign cost about $350 initially, but when Graham moved in, a second sign was ordered for $500. Graham became interested in the sign after many passers-by stopped at her home at 1810 Route 90, thinking it was Morgan's birthplace.
“He was born in a house that was eventually converted into a barn,” she said. “It was moved and turned.” A cluster of trees marks the original site of Morgan's home near a well, a short walk from the newly placed marker off Route 90. The outer shell of the original building rests behind Graham's house between two other barns.
The second sign, ordered in 1999, was later “found” in the Cayuga County barn on Genesee Street in Auburn. That sign was installed on Saturday.
“It took more than 20 years from the time the first sign was made until now to have it installed,” Graham said.
“The key thing about Lewis Henry Morgan is that, when teaching at Cayuga Lake Academy, he would bring Indian students in from the Buffalo Creek Reservation,” Eldred said. “His prize pupil, Grant's orderly, Eli S. Parker, ended up actually writing out the terms of surrender at the end of the Civil War and was appointed Director of Indian Affairs.”
Morgan formulated evolutionary theory in addition to collecting cultural data beginning with his study of the Iroquois.
As an early evolutionist, he represented the first efforts to establish a scientific discipline of anthropology. He frequently corresponded with the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Darwin. Even Karl Marx found similarities in Morgan's findings to his own theory of social evolution.
Morgan established kinship and marriage as central areas of anthropological inquiry. He was preoccupied with kinship terminologies as the key to kinship systems. His evolutionary theory of human family structure, ranged from promiscuity to monogamy, and he believed that the “most civilized” family structure was patriarchal monogamy, with descent recognized in the male line.
Believing societies develop according to one universal order of cultural evolution, he was fascinated with comparing Native American Iroquois culture to other societies, eventually distributing questionnaires to missionaries and travelers to collect data from people all over the world. His best-known work, “Ancient Society,” divides human cultural evolution into savagery, barbarism, and civilization.
“A forward-looking man, Lewis Henry Morgan was a consummate scholar, a lawyer, a New York State assemblyman, a scientist, a master woodworker, an exhaustive correspondent, and a caring friend,” Furness said. “An abolitionist, a temperance advocate, and a believer in popular education, especially for women, serving as the first elected trustee of Wells College, a truly remarkable man who we are finally honoring today, 190 years after his birth.”
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
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