Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-31
moRpEcAl NOAH.

-. Grand Project For the Establishment
b"s nm Oriental City in the Niagara
River. el
IN tho Goth of October, 1925, was
oel CELEBRATED the opening of the Erie Ca
nol. About a month before, when the
community, eagerly anticipating a con-
lection with Underwater, was excited
With visions of prospective greatness,
and ready for any display, there ar
rived from New York Major Manuel
Mordecai Noah, high Sheriff of the
county of New York. Consul at Tunis,
and seif-styled Judge of Israel. He
came with glittering robes and insig-
MA of Office, to ESTABLISH the city of
Ararat on Grand Island, then covered
With a dense forest. Although a loyal
and devoted son of Abraham, Major
Noah had not succeeded in arousing
enthusiasm in his scheme among those
Of his own faith. AS a shrewd man of
tbe world. an able lawyer, a successful
politician, and the editor of the prin-
ccipal organ of the Tammany party in
New York, and withal sanguine that
the city would prove a mine of wealth
TO it's founders. he had no difficulty in
persuadlng some of his Gentle friends,
among whom was the father Of the late
Gerritt Smith. to buy nearly the whole
of Grand Island, then just surveyed and
offered for sale by the United States
Government.
On this lonely but extensive island,
between the forks of the Niagara.
and lying m dway between Lake Erie
and the Fails of Niagara. he deter
mined to build a city of Oriental
splendor. Already before his arrival
on the scene, a flagstaff bearing
the grand standard of Israeli
had been erected ON the chosen site
and a stone having an inscription in
Hebrew and in English had been
prepared to dedicate with imposing
ceremonies. This stone, al ways known
in local history as '.Mordecafs corner
%stone," was intended rather as a me-
mento of the founding of the mag
niiicent city of the Jews than as the
support of any particular building. In
those DAYS the luxurious steam-ya1hts
Of wealthy citizens, which now pillow
the rapid current of the Niagara, ex-
lSlCl lVU III III uSiS dUlOA VI Ullc
vcriest dreamer; even row-boats were
wanting with which to convey the
crowd eager to behold the specta-
acle presented by the birth of an
Oriental city in the depths of the
forest, The brilliant and audacious
Noah conceived the idea of having the
ceremony celebrated with due pomp
with n the walls of st. Paul's Church
lin Butfalo) twelve miles from the sito
OF his city. To tn S end were invoked
the willing services of all the digni-
taries OF the town, the military and the
Masons, Major Noah, the central fig
ure, appearing as the Judge of Is
racl' in black, wearing jud cial robes
of crimson silk. trimmed with ermine,
and Il richly embossed golden medal
suspended from his neck.
The bright September day opened
with the booming of cannons. The
grand procession embraced the best
that the town could offer. Hating at
the church door, the troops opened
each way, and the pageant entered;
while the band played the grand march
from Judas Maccabeus. the corner.
stone of Ararat, the city of refuge tol
the people who rejected Christ. was
laid on the communion table of a
Protestant Episcopal Church and dedi-
Gated by Hebrew ritual. The Masonic
rites were performed with the typical
corn. Wine and oil, the choir sang 'Old
Hundred" and the rectsr, in full ca
nonicals, pronounced a Christian bone
dictlon.
Mordecai Noah never saw the site O
Ararat, and the Hebrew race disre
garded his grandiloquent proclamation
and the tax levied for it's building; blu
its cornerstone, after many curious
migrations, occupies a conspicuou
place in the rooms of the Buffalo His
torical Society, where relic hunters ar
frequently seen copying its inscription
-Janc NJ. WEIGH, IN Harper's Maya