Hillsdale College inducted Joseph “Joe” Manus, 1895, into its athletic Hall of Fame in 2001, but his plaque reads “1871 – Unknown,” leaving his life somewhat a mystery, until now.
The 1892-’94 football teams’ left guard died June 27, 1920, at the age of 49 due to Bright’s Kidney Disease and is buried in the Tahlequah Cemetery in Oklahoma, according to his great-granddaughter Dinah Myers.Manus was the first Native American to attend Hillsdale College, Hillsdale historian and former history professor Arlan K. Gilbert said.
“His children were fiercely proud of Joe because he got a college education and came back to Tahlequah to become a leader for the Cherokees,” Myers said.
In addition to football, Manus participated on the track and field and wrestling teams where he excelled as an athlete. In 1893 the Hillsdale football team won its first ever Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship, one year following the team’s creation. Additionally, in May 1894, Manus won first place in the 16-pound hammer throw, the 16-pound shot-put, and heavyweight wrestling. Due to Manus’s accomplishments, the college posthumously inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2001.
“It’s done to honor our past, highest-accomplished individuals and teams,” Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations and Event Management Brad Monastiere said. “A school like Hillsdale, which has athletics that go back so far, it’s a great way to recognize and respect those who have contributed so much to our athletics history, and it’s also neat to share the story of what people have done after their time at Hillsdale. They’ve gone to live a life of distinction outside of this campus and contributed to society. Having a Hall of Fame is a must-have and something that must be handled with care, professionalism, and must accurately represent each era across all sports.”
While his Hall of Fame plaque reads he was a “full-blooded” Cherokee, Myers said Manus’s grandfather was white, and in the 1910 National Census, he reported being three-quarters Native American.
As a student, Manus thrilled audiences as he shot arrows over Central Hall, sang songs in his native tongue, and taught children to make bows and arrows, according to Gilbert.
“Joe was extremely proud of his Cherokee heritage, and he encouraged getting an education and then putting it to use to help make positive changes,” Myers said.
When Manus returned to Indian Territory, he was “an example of a man trying to serve his people,” Gilbert said.
Oklahoma became a state Nov. 16, 1907, and Manus was elected Cherokee county’s Democrat representative in the state’s first legislature beginning Dec. 2, serving as chairman on the Committee of Engrossment.
“Long live Hillsdale, where I got what education I have!” Manus wrote in a letter to the school in 1907. “It is due to this that the people here have said they would trust me to represent them in their legislature.”
Growing up in Indian Territory on a farm seven miles from its capital, Tahlequah, Manus lived in a community where fewer than 200 of 5,000 adult males were educated in a profession and only half spoke English, according to Gilbert.
Manus’s mother died three weeks after his birth, and his father sent him to school at a small Flint District public school in Oklahoma, later moving onto the Cherokee National Male Seminary, where he learned subjects from science and arithmetic to Latin and Greek, Myers said.
From the counselor of Manus’s third institution of education, Muldrow Presbyterian mission school, Mr. Holdren, a Grand Rapids missionary, informed Manus of Hillsdale. Holdren encouraged Manus to attend because of its nondiscriminatory policy, high academics, and affordable tuition.
Manus started at Hillsdale in September 1891, studied in the classics program, and spent one additional year in the Theological Department, graduating with honors.
After his completion of college, in 1896 Manus married Effie May Peterson, who worked at Worthing & Alger Tannery in Hillsdale, and they had six children together.
“My great-grandmother lived to be 94 years old, so I was blessed to know her,” Myers said. “When May was seven, she was orphaned when her mother died in childbirth. It kind of tugs on your heart that these two ‘orphans’ met in Michigan and married.”
Furthermore, the interracial couple were challenged with criticism.
“As an American Indian, he experienced racial prejudice,” Myers said. “When he married May, there were some people that took issue with an Indian marrying a white woman. May said there were some that looked down on them, and after they moved to Oklahoma, some of Joe’s family would not accept May because she was white.”
Manus planned to go into ministry, according to the Fort Gibson Oklahoma Post in 1897, but instead he interpreted for the Cherokee Supreme Court, farmed, and taught, Myers said.
“Joseph Manus is one of the best, if not the best educated young man in the Cherokee Nation, having recently graduated from Hillsdale College,” the Post reported. “He is a young man of good principles and with his fine education ought to be a useful man among his people.”
Manus remains remembered for his leadership and mission.
“All my life I have heard stories of what he strived to do,” Myers said. “I have a letter written in 1909 from May to Joe in which she called herself a ‘grass widow’ because he was gone so much dealing with Indian and Oklahoma government issues. I have poems and notes that my grandmother wrote about how loving her father was. I am inspired by my great-grandfather in overcoming difficulties to become a happy, productive person that sought to make a difference with his life. It is good to know Hillsdale College continues to honor and respect those that have gone before you.”