Red Jacket, lithograph by Corbould from 1835 painting by C.B. King, printed by C. Hallmandel, via Wikipedia Commons
“Against Red Jacket Club,” blared the 1910 headline.1 Marking the beginning of the end, it referred to the exclusive Canandaigua social club that defined elite prestige in grand, well-appointed fashion for two decades. Everyone who was anyone sought an invitation to its annual party, which the group limited to 100 guests.
By 1910, its days were numbered. Unlike the earlier move to disband in 1908, this would be the final nail in the organization that had formed in 1888. The financial burden of operating with dwindling membership and maintaining the nearly century-old Federal-style mansion on the corner of Main and Gorham proved to be too heavy.2 Trustees representing the bondholders had no choice but to sell everything.
“All of the personal property of the famous Red Jacket Club, once the ‘swell’ organization of this village, was sold at auction… the club possesses among its relics a silver medal presented by President George Washington to the famous Indian chief, Red Jacket…”3
But the story of that shiny token goes back much further, well before the Club first laid eyes on it.
Inherited from her grandfather, Captain Jasper Parrish, Elisabeth M.J. Meagher gifted the item to the society.
Parrish, an icon of Canandaigua, was held captive by the Iroquois for much of his childhood during the Revolutionary War. After his release, George Washington appointed Parrish to serve as interpreter during negotiations between our fledgling nation and the Six Nations. Parrish forged a strong friendship with Red Jacket. In recognition of his role as “protector and best friend,” the renowned Seneca orator gave the medal to Parrish.4
Elisabeth Meagher felt strongly that the relic should be returned to its rightful place – Canandaigua. In early February 1891, she wrote to the Hon. James C. Smith, President of the Red Jacket Club. In part, her letter said, “I request your club to be the custodians of Red Jacket’s Medal for the people of this State… It belongs to your part of New York. In Canandaigua its authenticity cannot be doubted. There only, can its verification be complete. I am most happy to return it to those who have a local interest in it.”5
And that’s where the mystery deepens.
It turns out there was another, larger “Red Jacket Medal” owned by General Ely S. Parker. Parker, “the leading Seneca sachem” and former staff officer to General Grant, claimed a larger emblem”6
With Parker offering a compelling argument, Western New York historians began their own research into the matter. Judge Thomas Howell claimed to have seen both medals: the smaller one shown to him in 1820 by Steve Parrish, son of Jasper Parrish; and the larger one worn by Red Jacket himself just two years later in 1822.7
Others attested to seeing both medals in the possession of their respective owners. The question becomes, which was the authentic medal granted by George Washington?
At the time, the prevailing consensus sided with Parker, agreeing that the larger medal was the real thing. Howard Fielding speculated that the smaller medal might have been a forged copy made when Red Jacket pawned his medal.8 Howell himself proposed that the medal received by Parrish was actually the one given to Farmer’s Brother, another Seneca Chief who died in 1814.9 Parker, in a letter to George Conover, noted rival claims, including one from the Pennsylvania Historical Society and still another from Texas, but his larger emblem held sway.10
Several years later, in 1897, the American Journal of Numismatics began to explain things. The article suggested multiple “familiar early medals struck at the Mint for Indians, with which the name of Red Jacket has chanced to be associated, from the well-known fact that he was one of the first chiefs to be decorated by our Government.”11
Ah, these numismatists must have done their research. Others had established that multiple medals were distributed. These gifts embodied honor, diplomacy, and legacy for Seneca chiefs like Red Jacket. In 1851, Lewis Morgan wrote in his The League of the Iroquois:
“The Government has long been in the habit of presenting silver medals to the chiefs of various Indian tribes at the formation of treaties, and on the occasion of their visit to the seat of government. These medals are held in the highest esteem. Red Jacket, Corn Planter (sic), Farmer’s Brother, and several other distinguished Seneca Chiefs have received medals of this description.”12
A couple of decades later, J.F. Loubat’s The Medallic History of the U.S. of A., 1776-1878 indicated that “similar ones were given during his [Washington’s] administration to different Indian chiefs” and “these medals were of three sizes.”13 To boost his prestige, could Red Jacket have claimed a larger token originally given to another chief?
Now, a clearer picture begins to emerge. There were multiple medals minted of varying sizes. We know that many Seneca Chiefs received medals during their meeting with George Washington in March/April 1792. At the time, there were 14 states in the Union (Vermont was added on March 4, 1791). It would make sense that the medals issued a year later, when the consensus agrees Red Jacket received his medal, would have fourteen stars, like the medal Parrish gave his granddaughter. The larger medal, purported to be the actual Red Jacket Medal, has only thirteen stars, suggesting it was given away earlier than the 1792 meeting.
But to whom?
Consider this: Red Jacket and Cornplanter led rival factions within the Senecas. George Washington, an adept diplomat, knew he had to please both sides, so he couldn’t be seen as favoring one over the other. It only makes sense that they would receive similar medals (i.e., the smaller ones with 14 stars).
If Washington did give away the larger one (with 13 stars) to a Seneca chief, it would be to a chief who would not anger the political rivals of either Red Jacket or Cornplanter.
Guyasuta, a war hero chief, was well-liked by Washington. An aging and well-respected neutral figure among the Seneca, he would have been a diplomatic choice to receive the largest medal to avoid inflaming rivalry. George Harris, writing to George Conover, said, “one of the six Iroquois chiefs whom Washington honored with medals, died prior to the Canandaigua treaty of 1794, and the deceased chieftain’s family requested Red Jacket to return his medal to the Great Father of the United States.”14
Cornplanter reported Guyasuta grew seriously ill by February 1784.15 He died shortly thereafter. The Treaty of Canandaigua was signed on November 11, 1794.
Do the math.
Could it have been that Red Jacket was asked to return the (larger) Guyasuta medal to Jasper Parrish during the final conclusion of the Treaty of Canandaigua, as Harris intimates? If so, what might have compelled Red Jacket to swap his (smaller) medal for Guyasuta’s?
We know Red Jacket had a thing about his appearance. After all, he was named after the fine jacket he was given. We also know he wore the medal constantly in public. By the Treaty of Canandaigua, he had supplanted Cornplanter as the leading chief of the Seneca. What better way to emphasize his prestige than wearing the larger medal?
That’s my provocative hypothesis. The famed “Red Jacket Medal” wasn’t really Red Jacket’s at all. It was Guyasuta’s. Red Jacket switched his medal for the bigger one. He gave the smaller one to Jasper Parrish, who gave it to Elisabeth Meagher, who gave it to the Red Jacket Club.
But what became of it after the Red Jacket Club disbanded?
In 1915, the Ontario Historical Society announced “The Red Jacket medal, presented to the old Red Jacket Club of Canandaigua by the late Mrs. Elizabeth M. J. Meagher, a granddaughter of Captain Jasper Parrish, the government Indian interpreter at Canandaigua, is now a treasured possession of the Ontario County Historical Society and is on exhibition at its museum in this city…”16
There it remains to this day. Not on display, but safely stored. And, in doing so, the Society has fulfilled Elisabeth M.J. Meagher’s original wish. “It belongs to your part of New York. In Canandaigua its authenticity cannot be doubted.”
History keeps its secrets close. In Canandaigua, the Red Jacket Medal—perhaps Guyasuta’s—rests, an emblem of diplomacy, rivalry, and truth. It urges us to probe, honor, and preserve our past’s untold tales.
It does not always hand us answers. Sometimes, history leaves us a medal. Not a triumph. Not a token of truth. A participation medal.
And a mystery.
1 “Against Red Jacket Club,” Democrat & Chronicle, Monday, July 11, 1910, p.3, col. 2
2 “Furnishings of the Red Jacket Club Auctioned,” Democrat & Chronicle, Wednesday, October 19, 1910, p.8, col. 2
3 Ibid
4 “Red Jacket’s Medal,” Ontario County Times, Wednesday, February 18, 1891, p.3, col. 4
5 “Red Jacket Medal,” Ontario Repository and Messenger, Thursday, February 26, 1891, p.3, col. 4
6 “Red Jacket’s Medal,” Geneva Gazette, Friday, March 3, 1891, p. 3, col. 5
7 “The Red Jacket Medal,” Ontario County Times, Wednesday, January 4, 1893, p.1, col. 2
8 “Red Jacket’s Medal,” The Brooklyn Daily Times, Saturday, January 24, 1891, p.12, col. 2
9 “The Red Jacket Medal,” Ontario County Times, Wednesday, January 4, 1893, p.1, col. 2
10 “More R J Medal Literature,” Ontario County Times, Wednesday, March 18, 1891, p.3, col. 4
11 “On Indian Medals,” American Journal of Numismatics, and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, Vol. 31, No. 3 (January, 1897), pp. 84-85, American Numismatic Society
12 Morgan, Lewis Henry. The League of the Iroquois. Rochester: Sage & Brother, 1851, p. 123
13 Loubat, J.F., The Medallic History of the United States of America, 1776-1878. New York: N. Flayderman & Co., 1878, p. 114.
14 “The Red Jacket Medal,” Ontario County Times, Wednesday, February 1, 1893, p.3, col. 4
15 Calloway, Colin Gordon. The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation. Oxford University Press, 2018, 443.
16 “Relics of Red Jacket,” Ontario County Times, Wednesday, July 28, 1915, p.3, col. 1
I read that JASPER also had a Cain that had a silver plate on it. Do you remember hearing anything about that. I think it’s in the book I have. The White Mohawk.