Dublin Ohio's ghost is mentioned more in the spring than the fall.
Ghosts and witches are usually more Halloween than May or June but the spirit of a Native American who lived where Dublin has been for almost 200 years now is often blamed for rain during the Memorial Golf Tournament at Muirfield.
The Dublin Historical Society shares three stories about Chief Shateyaronyah who was called Chief Leatherlips by the white settlers.
Some would say the Wyandotte Chief known as Leatherlips haunts Dublin. The Dublin Historical Society has an excerpt from an Associated Press newspaper article in 1997 that tells of the "Curse of Leatherlips" and says "Though there is no evidence that it is true, local lore has it that the course was built on an Indian burial ground."
Kind of silly really. Muirfield is far away from the Leatherlips Memorial and Chief Leatherlips was a friend of the white settlers.
Not a fan of golf?
The traffic during the tournament can be wild but the land along the Scioto River in Western Franklin County almost 200 years later has changed a lot from the land the Native American Chief lived on.
Leatherlips a .pdf of three stories from the Dublin Historical Society.
Two earlier renditions of the story of the execution of Chief Leatherlips by another Wyandotte Chief say the Native Americans believed Chief Leatherlips was a witch. Chief Leatherlips stayed and was friends with the white settlers and honored the Treaty of Greenville. Other Wyandottes retreated north to the Sandusky area and blamed their illnesses and hardships in their new home on Chief Leatherlips.
"The Death of Chief Leatherlips" was published in 1929.
"Execution of a Witch Doctor" was "An actual account of Leatherlips’ execution has been taken from an article in a literary magazine called The Hesperian of the West. Otway Curry, who was one of the editors, wrote the article which was published in 1838."
Dublin Ohio's ghost - history
The historical information on the Dublin Historical Societies website is from the book "From Leatherlips to Microchips" writtten by Scott T. Weber. Weber grew up in Dublin.
The Leatherlips monument is on Riverside Drive in Dublin, close to where he is believed to have been executed by Wyandotte Indians. Leatherlips was executed in 1810, the same year white people from Franklinton started the settlement which would become Dublin.
Dublin's Bicentennial - 2010
Worthington's Native American History - ancient Native Americans
Photo Credit: The photo is from hickr's Flickr photostream.
