Q
S
POOR LO!
EARLY INDIAN MISSIONS,
BY WALTER N. WYETH, D. D.,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Hundreds of men lie dying, dead;
Brothers of ours, though their skins are red;
Men we promised to teach and feed
O, dastard nation, dastard deed!
H.H.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
W. N. WYETH, PUBLISHER,
3920 Fainnount Aveiiue.
1896.
Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year 1896, by W. N. WYKTH,
in the Office of the Librarian of
Congress, at Washington.
Electrotyped, printed and bound by
C. J. KRHHBIEL & Co.,
602 Walnut Street,
Cincinnati, O.
To MAY AND FANNIE,
RETBESENTING THE FAMILY OF OTHER YEARS.
Very affectionately,
THEIR FATHER.
NUMBER SEVEN is now offered to the reader. It con-
tains sketches of men and women who gave the
best, if not all, of their working years to the needy Red
Men. The native Indian, rescued and consecrated to his
Savior in earnest service, particularly the higher type, is
also introduced. The field before the writer was very en-
ticing, and he trusts that his] gatherings will engage the
attention of the public, and increase individual sympathy
for Christian work and the lowly subjects of it still roam-
ing through the West.
It is hoped that these annals will be found faithful to
the facts; though the principal events and the main char-
acters only are made prominent, while they contain but
little of history later than 1850. -Another volume may
follow.
For the great favor the series has thus far received, the
author presents his thanks.
W. N. W.
3920 Fairmount Ave.
PHILADELPHIA, PA., April i, 1896.
PAGE.
I. THE NORTH AMERICAN IN HIS NATIVE WILDS;
SEEKING HIM; EARLY HEROES, 7
II. THE CHEROKEES EAST AND SOUTH ; FIRST EFFORTS
AND TROPHIES; "FOUR WAGONLOADS OF MISSION-
ARIES," 15
III. THE CHEROKEES CIVIL COMMOTION; MEASURES FOR
REMOVAL ; THE MARCH OF DOOM ; A MOVING AND
GROWING CHURCH, 26
IV. PRINCES, WHITE AND RED EVAN JONES; ELIZA-
BETH L.JONES; JOHN B. JONES; JOHN WICKLIFFE;
OGANAYA; JESSE BUSHYHEAD; OUCHALATTA, 49
V. THE CREEKS, OR MUSKOGEES IN THE EAST; RE-
MOVAL; FIRST CHURCH IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY;
INDIAN MISSION ASSOCIATION ; GREAT AWAKENING ;
JOSEPH ISLANDS, 64
VI. THE CHOCTAWS BEGINNINGS; VOYAGING; THE
"ARK"; HORRORS OF REMOVAL; STARTING IN THE
WKST; PHENOMENAL PROGRESS, 84
VII. THE SEMINOLES FEATURES; RESISTING REMOVAL;
FRIGHTFUL FIGHTING ; OSCEOLA AND " BIG KNIFE ";
IN THE WEST; JOHN JUMPER; NOTES BY DR. G. J.
JOHNSON AND DR. J. S. MURROW, 96
VIII. THE FIVE NATIONS, STOCKBRIDGES, AND DELA-
\VAHKS-CAREDFOR; MOVING WEST; AMONG THE
WYANDOTS; CHIEF JOURNEYCAKE, FAMILY AND
CHURCH, 115
IX. THE"0" TRIBES OTTAWA; MISSIONARY ASSAILED.
OJIBWA ; ABOUT THE LAKES. OSAGE ; CHARACTER
AND DESTINY. OTOES; MR. AND MRS. MERRILL.
OMAHA; HOPE DEFERRED, 134
X. THE SHAWANOES FIRST EFFORTS; FRIENDS TRY;
MR. AND MRS. ROLLIN; MR. AND MRS. BARKER;
DAVID GREEN, NATIVE; CHIEF BLACKFEATHER ;
HOPE REALIZED, 152
XI. THE MIAMIS IN INDIANA ; TREATIES ; REMOVAL
WEST; HOME MISSIONS; FRANCES SLOCUM'S HIS-
TORY, 165
XII. THE PUTAW ATOMIES ORIGIN OF THE MISSION; SET-
TLING THE INDIANS; J. LYKINS, R. SIMERWEI.L,
ELIZA McCoY; ENTERING INTO THEIR LABORS, 174
XIII. THE WEAS MR. AND MRS. D. LYKINS; Miss S. A. OS-
GOOD; HIGH TRIBUTK, 186
XIV. INDIAN OLIO JAMES A. RANALDSOTS- ; SAMFKT, MAST
MAN; HONOR TO WHOM HONOR; A Ilci-i:i n. CATSK;
A CHRISTIAN CHIEF; ENDS OF THE EARTH MEET,... 192
The graves of Harriet Newell and Mrs. Judson are hal-
lowed as the shrines of the saints, and their memory made a
watchword among Christians; yet the Western valley is full of
green and nameless graves, where patient, long-enduring
wives and mothers have lain down, worn out by the privations
of as severe a missionary field, and "no man knoweth their
sepulchre." HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
POOR LO!
i.
HIS NATIVE
WILDS; SEEDING HIM; EARLY HEROES.
people named Indians are the original Amer-
icans. History does not trace an earlier living
race on the Western Continent. They were met by
the early settlers of the " New World " as the real and
only inhabitants of it, but with whose type of charac-
ter they were not familiar. They found them disposed
to be friendly ; willing to divide their coarse fare, their
shelter and fire in time of extremity, and to aid in re-
covering children or others astray in the deep wilds.
There was no ground for suspicion with either party,
except as it was created by false or unwise steps ; and
then safety was assured only by strictest vigilance or
careful conciliations.
In large and small tribes the Indians were spread
over the country, from the Atlantic ocean to the Pa-
cific. They were quite numerous ; much more so than
they have been since. Their domains have been dimin-
ishing continually, until, instead of being considered
the proper inhabitants of North America, as formerly,
they are mentioned as remnants of the aborigines, shut
within very limited territories, and treated as wards, if
not as prisoners. Some of them are met in various
towns or cities, appearing as lost or strayed.
7
8 POOR L,O !
They are not " Indians " in any proper sense,
though this early name is the one by which they are
known. They are "Savages," and for great periods
were so called, though by reason of association with
civilized people they have put away many of their
barbarous habits. Their nature is toned down, partly
through consanguinity, but more by the hand of cul-
ture applied to them. They recognize the superiority
of the " white face," and readily incline to accept his
friendly proffers of guidance into better ways ; more
so as the years pass. In the classification of races
they are named "North Americans"; the other, the
dominant race, " Europeans."
The encroachment of the newcomers upon their
possessions, however far from leaving them destitute
of hunting grounds, and of room for all the tribal
expansion of which they were susceptible, eventually
excited jealousy, fear, and animosity, with every dan-
gerous element of their nature. They wished to hold
the forests, streams, and hills to which they had be-
come accustomed, with the graves of warriors and
sires, rather than to remove to unfamiliar regions.
They knew the courses of the game, with the lairs
and the " licks " it frequented. And these were their
cherished possessions, acquired by discovery, and held
by right of undisputed inheritance.
How many centuries of untroubled dominion over
the primitive wilds of our country the Indians enjoyed
there is not much means of ascertaining. But the
time came for others' fires to glow in the forests ;
other and improved huts and hamlets to spring up
in the wilderness, and a race to occupy them that
A MEMORIAL. 9
would " see God in the clouds, and hear Him in the
wind," in a better sense and to greater benefit than
they had been able to do that knew the Great Spirit
in reality, and would worship Him in spirit and in
truth. Whoever else may have landed on the coast,
these were not here for conquest, and were only too
glad to impart liberty rather than to take it away
the inalienable right of the human soul to life, and
the pursuit of good, with freedom to worship God.
The loss to the Indians by what they supposed
to be trespass was, in part, compensated for by a bless-
ing of which they had no conception. Though hav-
ing the universal belief of nations and races in the
existence of a God, whom they ignorantly worshiped,
if at all, they had only the faintest idea of the way in
which He revealed Himself to men, and knew not
how He became to them wisdom, sanctification, and
eternal redemption. The way to the traditionary
" Happy Hunting-ground " had not been shown to
them.
Language was a medium of communication not to
be left out of the necessary means, and when learned
it opened 'the way to a knowledge of the Indian's
religion, and laid the learner under the law of char-
ity toward him to disabuse his mind of false views,
and to teach him saving truth.
The early endeavors to rescue the perishing In-
dians of New England are among the most credit-
able to be found in the entire history of missions.
They furnish a record of fortitude and privation rarely
exceeded in Christian annals, while the fruits testified
that Ihey were not in vain in the L,ord.
10 POOR 1,0!
It is stated by unquestioned authority that " the
first settlement of New England was a missionary en-
terprise. The Pilgrims had escaped persecution by
retiring to Holland. They left Holland and came to
this continent for the sake of preserving their rights
as Englishmen by settling under English jurisdiction;
of preserving their descendants from the contagion
of false doctrines and corrupt examples ; and, above
all, of extending the Redeemer's kingdom in lands
where Christ had not been named. . . . Efforts for
the conversion of the natives were not delayed. . . .
It was, indeed, impossible, during a few of the first
years of their contest with hardships and privations,
to make such public and systematic efforts for the
conversion of the Indians as were desirable, but indi-
viduals, both ministers and laymen, appear to have
seized such opportunities as they could command, to
make known and recommend the Gospel to their *
heathen neighbors, and in this way much was done
toward diffusing a knowledge of Christianity and pro-
ducing an impression in its favor. A few of the
natives even gave satisfactory evidence, living and
dying, of real conversion to God."
This endeavor began very soon after the settle-
ment of New England, at Plymouth Colony, in 1620.
As early as 1621 it was reported to friends in Eng-
land that " many of the Indians, especially of their
youth, were found to be of a very tractable disposi-
tion, both to religion and humanity" a statement
that could not have been made if the subject of re-
ligion had not been brought to their attention.
After the initial years (in 1636) the influence of
A MEMORIAL. II
Christianity and its adaptation to the needs of the
Indians were found to be such that "the govern-
ment of Plymouth Colony enacted laws providing for
the preaching of the Gospel among them." And after
ten years more (in 1646) the legislature of Massa-
chusetts passed an act for the same purpose ; and in
the same year the celebrated John Eliot, who had
been studying the native language for five years, be-
gan his labors at Nonantum, now Newton.
Earlier than Eliot, however (1643), labors were
begun by Thomas Mayhew, who, after three years of
successful work, sailed for England to solicit aid, and
the ship was lost in the voyage. His father (same
name) was proprietor and governor of the island on
which the son had labored Martha's Vineyard and
taking up the missionary work he prosecuted it for
many years, and until his death, which occurred at
the ripe age of ninety. During Eliot's time a number
of men, not less than ten, gave themselves to the cause
of the Red Man, and their service entitled them to be
mentioned, as they were, "with distinguished honor."
By the close of the century, or with the dawn of
A. D. 1700, the religion of Christ was pervading large
sections, as was also the spirit of civilization. There
were twenty-five to thirty churches, with about as
many native preachers, and, perhaps, two thousand
"praying Indians." And the incidental benefits at-
tending Christian labor were many and important.
The men became farmers ; the women learned to spin
and weave, to sew and knit ; children were gathered
into schools and taught by educated Indians. Early
in the new century the work spread into Connecticut
12 POOR 1,0 !
and Rhode Island, though some effort had been made
previously.
In 1734 a notable movement was made by Mr.
John Sergeant, a tutor in the Yale College, who re-
signed his position there that he might give the at-
tainments of his young manhood to the ignorant sav-
ages. He began a mission at Stockbridge, Mass., in
behalf of the wandering Mohegans, who thereafter
took the name of Stockbridge Indians. He soon ob-
tained a strong influence over them, greatly improv-
ing their habits and vocations, thus causing a great
increase of material good, and elevated them greatly
by means of churches and schools. " In about three
years he was able to preach in the Mohegan language,
into which he afterward translated nearly the whole
New Testament, considerable parts of the Old, and
some religious works." He was removed by death in
his prime, after fifteen years of such great usefulness.
" The Indians, who had learned to love him as a father
and a friend, thronged around his deathbed, where he
reminded them of his past instructions, and charged
them to remember and practice what he had taught,
that they might meet him in peace in another world."
He had a helper in the educational work, a Mr.
Woodbridge, who took charge of the mission tempo-
rarily. Then came to the field a great man, Jona-
than Edwards, who was not without sympathy for
the object of the mission, but whose mind was so
thoroughly enlisted in intellectual pursuits as to pre-
vent attention to the details of the Indian service,
and thus to limit his success. It was here that he
wrote his treatises on Original Sin, and Freedom of
A MEMORIAL. 13
the Will strange birthplace for such scholastic pro-
ductions ! After six years he was discovered in the
solitary wilds he had chosen, and was taken and made
president of Princeton College, New Jersey. Among
the successors another John Sergeant, son of the one
named above, entered the field ; and in time the war
of the Revolution came on, and the Mohegans were
divided and scattered, and the mission was tempora-
rily suspended.
In this period appeared the wonderful David Brain-
ard, whose brief career was signalized by a self-denial
and a devotion to the work that have few parallels in
the whole range of Christian endeavor. If there ever
was " madness in the missionary enterprise," it was
manifested by him. And if there ever was " romance
in missions," it may be found in his peculiar life. Four
years of service, only, were allotted to him, but these
were filled with marvelous experiences, and he made
an ineffaceable impression upon the tribes scattered
through New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.
The crowning of his earthly career took place in
the home of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton,
Mass., under circumstances romantic and religious
in a high degree. He had returned, " by easy jour-
neys," from the Indian country, conscious of his in-
ability longer to survive the ordeal, and was cordially
welcomed, with hands and heart, by the one with
whom he had hoped to unite his life in the Indian
service Jerusha Edwards, second daughter of the
distinguished divine. He felt that he must visit
Boston to secure some recruits for the work he could
no longer prosecute, and his affianced accompanied
14 POOR 1,0!
him as his sole companion and nurse an evidence
of her brave and generous love. A biographer, Dr.
Thomas Brainard, says :
The two on horseback, everything to each other,
wending their way over hills and valleys for one hun-
dred miles to Boston, would be a fine subject for a poet's
pen or the painter's pencil. The tall, attenuated, yet
striking form of the missionary ; his brilliant eye but
blanched cheek; his worn features, on which labor and
suffering had put at the age of twenty-nine the stamp of
years ; his hallowed reveries ; his deep spiritual com-
munion; his pensiveness, often interrupted, checked and
humanized by the conscious presence, the blooming cheek
and radiant eye, the musical voice and cheerful bearing
of the healthful, hopeful, and affectionate being at his
side what a scene for canvas ! what a theme for poetry !
But, perhaps, poet and painter have shrunk back in de-
spair at their inability to depict earth's highest hopes
paling and dying under the brighter gleamings of Heav-
en's nearing glory.
The youthful hero accomplished his object, but
his disease increased. After six weeks he was re-
ceived again to the Edwards home, with the added
assistance of a young brother in traveling, having
averaged sixteen miles a day. Death came, but it had
no sting. Then the grave in the old graveyard at
Northampton, marked by a plain monumental slab,
and found by means of a well-worn pathway yet in
the resurrection it will be seen that it had no vic-
tory. And the multitude of saved savages that have
felt the missionary impulse of his warm heart, trans-
mitted through the generations, will join him in as-
criptions of praise to the L,amb.
A MEMORIAL. 15
II.
(&hev0kee# EAST AND SOUTH;
FIRST EFFORTS AND TROPHIES;
"FOUR WAGONLOADS OF MISSION-
ARIES. 1 '
THE Cherokees, with musical name, formerly had a
home in the southern part of the United States ;
and there, also, resided the Choctaws, Creeks, and
Chickasaws the four" C " tribes that are usually as-
sociated in Indian history. The territory of the Cher-
okees embraced sections of southern Tennessee, north-
ern Georgia, and western North Carolina, a few hun-
dred miles square, at the junction of those States. Like
the tribes of the great Mobilian nation, farther south,
they gave names and memories to the regions they
inhabited and the places of their exploits.
Where the Cherokees came from, and why they
settled in the locality mentioned, like other questions
as to the origin of the Indian race, can not be an-
swered. But their history, so far as traceable, con-
tains matter of much interest, particularly that part of
it relating to their religious interests. Christian people
were not behind the Government in caring for them.
They, rather, went before, and were the means of se-
curing relief from the Government, in the adoption of
measures for their benefit, while they gave to them
1 6 POOR I,O!
such missionary labors, in material and spiritual
things, as resulted in greatly improving their condi-
tion for time, and in saving the souls of a great many
of them.
In 1 80 1 a Moravian mission was established at a
place afterward called Springplace. " And," said Dr.
Rufus Anderson, in 1825, " very commendable exer-
tions in support of a school among the Cherokees
were also made for a few years subsequent to 1803,
by the Rev. Gideon Blackburn. Excepting these ef-
forts, there was, until the year 1816, nothing done for
the Cherokees by the Christian Church ; nothing by
the civilized world. They inhabited a country which
is described as susceptible of the highest cultivation.
But most imperfect was their agriculture. They pos-
sessed a language that is said to be more precise and
powerful than any into which learning has poured
richness of thought, or genius breathed the enchant-
ments of fancy and eloquence. But they had no lit-
erature. Not a book existed in the language. The
fountains of knowledge were unopened. The mind
made no progress,"
From the same high authority it is learned that in
1816 Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury was sent to the Chero-
kees by the American Board, with an offer to estab-
lish schools among them. The offer was favorably
received, and thus was begun the first of extended
efforts by that Board for this interesting people. An
institution was started, named Brainard, for the dis-
tinguished missionary.
Information concerning this new movement was
rapidly spread, and, reaching a bright young woman
A MEMORIAL. I'J
of the tribe, living one hundred miles from the school,
it stimulated her ambition, and created in her mind
an intense desire to have its advantages. Obtaining
consent from her parents, she entered the school, July,
1817, when about seventeen years of age. She was
very prepossessing, comely and modest, yet was char-
acteristically fond of dress and ornaments. Knowing
God only as a being existing somewhere in the sky,
and with no knowledge of a Savior, she came slowly,
yet surely, into possession of the truth concerning
them, and after six months from the time of her en-
trance to the school she was a devout believer, and an
assistant in religious work for others. In the same
period of time she had advanced from ability to read
in syllables of three letters to ability to read well in
the Bible and other books.
Her advancement in religion was equally rapid.
She established and conducted evening prayer with
the girls in the school, after only ten months of ex-
perience in a religion of which, before, she had never
heard. And such was her conscientiousness that the
" profusion of ornaments in her ears," of which she
had been fond and proud, was reduced to a single
drop in each ear ; and, moved by the good example
of pious women of whom she had heard, she devoted
the rest to the missionary cause. Her activity in be-
half of souls was such that afterward, when she was
teaching and living with her parents, she was per-
mitted to see her father and mother, a brother, and
two or three sisters, with others, publicly profess faith
in Christ.
This case is brought forward to show that the
1 8 POOR IX) !
possibilities for good, found in the white race, are
found also in the Indian, and that the work of the
Spirit is the same. Her moral character previously to
her conversion was irreproachable. " This is the more
remarkable," says her biographer, "considering the
looseness of manners then prevalent among the fe-
males of her Nation, and the temptations to which
she was exposed when, during the war with the Creek
Indians, the army of the United States was stationed
near her father's residence. . . . Once she even
forsook her home and fled into the wild forest to
preserve her character unsullied." She remained
away until the danger was over. General Jackson,
who commanded in this war, remarked to Dr. Ander-
son that "she was a woman of Roman virtue and
above suspicion."
The impression she made upon others was not
only positively good, but deep, and widely felt. In
her school work the soul's interests were supreme.
Such a heavenly character, rising from her own bar-
barous race, became an object of wonder and admira-
tion. When her earthly work was finished, the ad-
miration and love continued. In a final journey to
Huntsville (or Limestone), to obtain aid from her
loved physician, it was necessary that she be borne
upon a litter to the Tennessee River, six miles, con-
veyed by boat down the river to Trienna, forty miles,
and thence on a litter about five miles to her desti-
nation.' Added to "a general and loud lamentation"
at the place of starting, was the demonstration of af-
fection along the way. " Small groups of her acquaint-
ance were frequently seen on the road, waiting her
A MEMORIAL. 19
approach. When she arrived where they were, they
would hasten to the side of the litter, take her by
the hand, and, often, walk away without speaking a
word, the tears all the while rolling down their
cheeks." She did not live to return.
Thus, after some weeks, " the mission was bereaved
of this valuable assistant, CATHARINE BROWN, the
first fruit of its labors, and, perhaps, the idol of the
mission and its patrons." Her life and character,
with the circumstances, were thought of sufficient in-
terest and importance to justify a memoir of her; and
a small volume was prepared by the secretary of the
American Board, Rev. Dr. Rufus Anderson, quoted in
this brief account. It is evident that this memoir
was read by Sarah B. Hall, at that period in her
youth when she entertained a special interest in the
Indians, and hoped to become a missionary to them.
How much it did toward preparing her to become
the wife of Geo. Dana Boardman, and, afterward, of
Adoniram Judson to be a consecrated Christian and
a missionary may not be known in time. To learn
its immediate effect, peruse her tender verses on
" Catharine's Grave," found in the second of the Mis-
sionary Memorials, entitled " Sarah B. Judson," page
174. One great, or good, life acts for the improve-
ment of another, both in character and usefulness,
when properly brought before the mind. The piety
of even the "lone Indian" in western wilds bears
fruit in the deeper wilds of the East.
In 1810 the Cherokees numbered 12,395. They
had large flocks and herds, and many industrial im-
plements and establishments, their advantages having
20 POOR 1,0 !
rapidly increased after the introduction of educational
labors by Mr. Blackburn. Partaking of the spirit and
habit of their latitude, they were owners of negro
slaves, as were many other Indians to the time of
the Emancipation. They intermarried with the whites,
to some extent, as they always have done, but did not
practice the vice of mixing their blood with that of
the Africans. Under these conditions they gave an
example of an increasing population, and would have
sustained it ' had favoring conditions continued. The
necessity for national decay was imposed upon them.
" Among this people Mr. Kingsbury commenced
the first mission of the American Board to the In-
dians of this continent. At first food was purchased
in Tennessee, and transported with great labor and
expense, some for forty or fifty miles, to the mission.
To obviate this inconvenience, and to teach the pu-
pils the arts and habits of civilized life, a farm was
purchased on the Chicamauga creek." The station
was Brainard. This beginning was followed by con-
stant and varying endeavors, both east and west, by
a large number of laborers, and with gratifying re-
sults. It dates from January, 1817. After nine or ten
months the Baptists enter the same field, and to their
toils and triumphs attention will be directed, as the
main object of this narrative.
Rev. Humphrey Posey has the honor of the first
appointment, by the Baptist Board, to the Indians of
the South, as Rev. Isaac McCoy has to those of the
North. Each entered the work at his own door in
his own State, thus giving to it the benefit of an ante-
cedent knowledge and sympathy. And the appoint-
A MEMORIAL. 21
ing of the two occurred in the same autumn McCoy,
September 5, 1817, and Posey, October 13, 1817.
Mr. Posey proceeded at once to his work in North
Carolina, his native State, where thousands of Chero-
kees lived and thrived. Having established a few
schools, he felt called to do some exploring in the
regions west of the Mississippi, doubtless with a view
to locating his work there. His protracted absence
caused a loss of interest in the schools ; also a nec-
essary suspension of them. On his return, early in
1820, he established a missionary station at Valley
Towns, on the Hiwassee river, just within the south-
ern line of the State. About eighty acres of land were
inclosed for a mission farm, and put under cultiva-
tion. Mr. Thomas Dawson was appointed assistant.
Three buildings were erected for the schools, the
family, and farming purposes. Ere long forty chil-
dren were under daily instruction in the Scriptures,
in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the practical duties
of civilized life. They were fed and clothed also.
Soon a day-school was started at Tinsawattee, sixty
miles southeast from Valley Towns, in the State of
Georgia. Successful labor in that part of the country
by Georgia brethren, and their aid in this enterprise,
gave assurance of success. The pupils were docile and
amiable, and gave evidence of improvement. Some of
them said to the stay-at-homes, " You will be of no
account if you do not go to school."
In September of this year, 1821, a number of mis-
sionaries were sent out to reenforce the mission at
Valley Towns. They were Thomas Roberts, super-
intendent, Isaac Cleaver, a blacksmith, and Evan
22 POOR LO !
Jones, teacher, with their wives and families, and John
Farrier, farmer and weaver all from the old, historic
church of Great Valley, Pa., west of Philadelphia.
They were "set apart by prayer and other solemni-
ties," in the Sansom Street Church, Philadelphia, Sep-
tember 21 ; and with them Elizabeth Jones, Mary
Lewis, and Ann Cleaver " excellent teachers." In-
cluding the children, there were twenty-five persons
in the company ; " four wagonloads of missionaries,"
wrote Dr. Staughton, the secretary.
The Latter-Day Luminary, a quarterly, published
in Philadelphia by a committee of the Board of Man-
agers of the General Convention of the Baptist de-
nomination in the United States, gave a report of this
occasion that brings up the age of romance and rigor-
ous reality in missions. It states :
" Ten or twelve ministering brethren led the serv-
ices by singing, prayer, and exhortation. The instruc-
tions of the Board were publicly read, and an affec-
tionate farewell taken by the shaking of hands of the
ministers and missionaries. The meeting was power-
ful and melting ; every eye seemed to say, ' the I^ord
is in this place of a truth.'
",The following morning, at 1 1 o'clock, the mission-
aries collected themselves, by appointment, at the Cen-
ter Square. Four or five hundred brethren and sisters
from the different churches met them. There, under
open sky, the praises of God were sung, for the growth
of the empire of the Messiah. The missionaries were
again, by prayer, commended to God and the word of
His grace, when, amid a thousand wishes for their pros-
perity, they ascended their wagons and departed."
A MEMORIAL. 23
%
The first news from this interesting embassy of the
churches to the Cherokees was written by Mr. Roberts,
dated near Newbern, N. C., October 27, one month
after the departure. It was full of notes of .continued
health and good cheer "cheerfulness depicted on
every countenance, and the missionary flame burning
brighter every day."
Prosperity attended the mission, though amid diffi-
culties. Liberal assistance was granted the school by
the Government, for erecting buildings and supporting
the native children ; also by Christian women in Balti-
more and New York, in contributions^ clothing and
other articles. In the coldest weather a valuable dona-
tion of clothing reached the station from New York,
and the necessity compelled a distribution of it on
the Sabbath, after the public worship. The smiles and
tears of children that were well-nigh perishing beneath
a garment of tow, or with less, were calculated to bring
gratification to the benevolent, and to melt the hearts
of the selfish.
A letter from Mr. Roberts, dated August, 1822, spoke
of the school as still increasing, and as awakening in-
terest and receiving supplies. The Latter-Day Lumi-
nary, published in Philadelphia (" five numbers a year ;
profits sacred to the cause of missions "), was very
helpful in creating sympathy. In midsummer of this
year another school was commenced at the town of
Nottle (or Nottley), sixteen miles southwest, where
Mr. Roberts had been preaching once a month. He
also wrote :
f " We are now engaged in translating " The Philadel-
phia Sunday-School Spelling-Book," and, if health be
24 POOR 1,0 !
o
spared, we hope to have it ready for the press in six
weeks. As this excellent book contains nothing but
the pure word of God we may reasonably hope that
the same divine blessings which followed its progress
through cities and villages inhabited by the whites
will not be withholden from the humbler dwellers of
the cabins and wigwams. " *
A remarkable and important circumstance occurred
in this period. It was the invention of an alphabet
for the Cherokees, and by one of their own number.
George Guess (Sequoyah), a half-breed, born in 1770,
and living to be seventy-three years of age, enjoys
this unequaled honor among his people. Though
without education and a knowledge of any language
except his own, his genius enabled him to form a
"syllabic Cherokee alphabet," "solely from what he
had heard of the ' talking leaf of the white man."
He applied it to writing, with unparalleled success.
It contained eighty-five characters, and by it young
Cherokees learned in three days to write letters to
their friends. " Many hymns were composed in the
language," says Gammell, " which the Cherokees com-
mitted to memory and delighted to sing, both in their
own lodges and at the meetings for public worship ;
and in 1825 the New Testament was translated and
written out according to the alphabet of Guess, by
* Mr. Roberts resigned after about three years, and for some time
was employed to raise funds for the mission. He baptized Evan Jones,
who will have a prominent place in these sketches ; was copastor with
Rev. David Jones, of Great Valley Church, and then its pastor. Also,
after returning from the Indian country, he was pastor of Lower
Dublin Church, Pennsylvania, and of Middletown Church, New Jersey.
He died at Middletown, September 24, 1865, aged eighty-four years.
A MEMORIAL. 25
David Brown, then deemed the. best-educated man in
the Nation." It was brought to maturity in 1826 ;
and two years thereafter a newspaper, called The
Cherokee Phoenix, was established and published in
Cherokee, with an English translation.
" When Guess first announced his discovery his coun-
trymen were incredulous; but repeated and careful ex-
periments soon convinced them of its reality. Many
came to him to be instructed; one who had learned
taught another; the art spread rapidly through the Na-
tion, and in the course of a very few years a majority of
adult Cherokees had learned to read their own language;
and, though elegant penmen are scarce everywhere, yet
everyone who can read can, by taking pains enough,
write so that others can read his writing."
26 POOR
III.
-CIVIL COMMOTION;
MEASURES FOR REMOVAL; THE
MARCH OF DOOM; A MOVING AND
GROWING CHURCH.
THE Cherokee country at the beginning of this
century was much larger than it was afterward.
It was reduced by sales to the United States, for the
benefit of the State of Georgia, from about eleven
thousand square miles to about eight thousand square
miles. It was well watered by living springs in the
mountains on the north, which had the appearance of
natural, elevated reservoirs, and beautiful streams in
the fertile and wooded plains of the south part. Herds
and flocks of domestic animals, of all the principal
kinds, and in great numbers, were raised and put to
all the ordinary uses by the Indians, proving their
tendencies to the ways of civilized life, while the ex-
tensive products of the soil, and the exportation of
cotton of their own raising and in their own vessels,
showed their capacity for commercial pursuits. They
manufactured cotton and woolen goods, and cultivated
the mechanic arts. They had public roads, villages, tav-
erns, and other accommodations, and presented well-
laden tables to the hungry.
A MEMORIAL. 27
This, in brief, was the general condition of a nation
of " savages " when enjoying the right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. It was well organized,
with a legislature and laws guarding it against cor-
ruption by white people who were near by and to
some extent among them. The whites had privileges,
except those of voting and holding office, but were
denied the right to bring in spirituous liquors, and
to marry the Cherokee women otherwise than accord-
ing to local law, which prohibited polygamy and the
inheritance of the wives' estates. A fundamental law
provided that no land should be sold to white people
without authority of a majority of the Nation ; the vio-
lator to be punished with death.
The Cherokees, from the earliest days of the Re-
public, were treated by the United States as an in-
dependent nation ; yet, though situated in the very
bosom of the Republic, and numerically weak, no effec-
tive measures were taken to protect them against in-
trusion. And their prospects were blighted by the
avarice of the stronger, after they were well prepared
to live. A recital of the circumstances of the ruin of
the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi seems
necessary to a full interest in the missionary work per-
formed in their behalf.
The State of Georgia, which had been aided by
the Government of the United States in obtaining a
considerable part of the territory of the Cherokees, be-
came greedy for the remainder. It tried to induce the
Government to adopt measures for a forcible posses-
sion of it, and, failing in this, undertook to gain it
in a more direct way under cover of law ; itself mak-
28 POOR LO !
ing the laws for the purpose. It ordained that " all
the laws of Georgia are extended over the Cherokee
country"; also, that all Cherokee laws, usages, and
customs are null and void, and that not one of the Na-
tion " shall be deemed a competent witness or party
to any suit in any court where a white man is a de-
fendant."
By thus reaching around the Indian Nation it could
arbitrarily strangle it in its offensive coils; having
taken pains to make laws to which it could not sub-
mit. The action was in violation of the Constitution
of the United States, and intended to extinguish an in-
nocent people's title to home and native land. Filled
with alarm, the Cherokees remonstrated against their
oppressors in the strongest terms, and were met with
the contempt which the strong naturally feel for the
weak. They took the case to the Supreme Court, with
Chief Justice Marshall on the bench, and obtained a
unanimous verdict in their favor. It was maintained
by William Wirt that Georgia, after cooperating with
Christian zeal for the intellectual and moral elevation
of that people, found in their improvement a ground
of alarm, and accused other states of interfering with
its sovereignty by raising up an independent govern-
ment within its chartered limits by means of mission-
ary work.
The Nation numbered at this time about eighteen
thousand. A party spirit arose, in spite of the decision
of the Supreme Court, promoted if not originated by
designing persons favorable to Georgia. And some
Indians on each side thought it expedient to sell out
completely and seek a new home in the West. Kach
A MEMORIAL. 29
party had its leader; one, Mr. John Ross, 'possessed of
good talents and education, with broad views upon
many subjects, making him prominent; the other,
Major Ridge, popular but not gifted with the stamina
requisite to a patriot.
Georgia proceeded to enforce its wicked laws, in
the face of the decision of the Supreme Court. And,
finding the Indians very stubborn in their resistance,
choosing to suffer rather than lose their country, they
resorted to corruption of some of the chiefs with
money. The clamor and confusion were such that
Government, represented in Gen. Jackson, President,
who was favorable to removal, made an attempt to
treat with the Indians for their emigration. The
President's agent, Mr. Schermerhorn, went to their
country and with difficulty obtained a hearing with
the chiefs, but utterly failed in his mission, for they
would not treat for the sale of their home-land.
An attempt was then made by the agent to in-
fluence some of the chiefs with money, and, by mak-
ing a treaty with them, to bind the rest. He suc-
ceeded in forming the treaty, by which "the whole
country was to be given to the whites within two
years from the time it should be ratified by the Sen-
ate of the United States." But the Nation rose in its
might and majorities, and met the proposition, when
it appeared at Washington, with an astounding memo-
rial, protesting in the strongest terms against it, as
false and not authorized. Yet the treaty, with little
variation, was published as the act of the Cherokee
Nation.
To prevent a ratification of the treaty twenty
30 POOR LO !
picked men of the Cherokees proceeded to Washing-
ton to meet those favorable to it. It became appar-
ent there, that if they would not sell their country
for what it was the pleasure of the Government to
give, they would be driven from it without anything ;
therefore all that was left for them to do was to get
the best terms they could. And it was finally agreed
by the authorized delegation that they would abide
by such an award as the Senate might make for their
lands, provided that when it should be laid before the
Indians it would be consented to by them. The
"award" was rushed through at midnight, as the
Senate was finally adjourning its annual session, and
was not very definite in its terms.
The delegation laid the matter before the Nation,
and the award was unanimously rejected. But Gen.
Jackson, seeing some reason for the removal influ-
enced, too, it may be, by his own experience with In-
dians in war had determined that it should be ac-
complished. When he found the mass of Cherokees
reluctant to accept the terms, his giant will rose to the
occasion, and he instructed the Secretary to inform
them that " no propositions for a treaty would here-
after be made more favorable than those now offered.
The sum of five millions of dollars was fixed upon by
the Senate as an ample equivalent for the relinquish-
ment of all their rights and possessions ; that most
assuredly the President would not sanction any ex-
pectation that more favorable arrangements would
hereafter be held out to them ; that this was the last
proposition the President would make them while he
was President, and they might abide the consequences;
A MEMORIAL,. 31
that they need not expect either branch of the Govern-
ment would ever do any more, and that, therefore, they
need not expect another dollar." The House of Rep-
resentatives consented by a bare majority to what the
Senate and President had determined to do, and an-
other state paper, giving instructions to the command-
ing general sent to effect the removal, completed the
Executive's formalities in the case.
The Cherokees had agreed that if ever they sold
their lands, or any part of them, it should be to the
United States; an agreement, however, that did not
oblige them to sell at the option of the other party.
In 1802 they owned 7,152,110 acres of land within
the limits of Georgia; and afterward ceded to that
State 995,310 acres. This disposition of territory nat-
urally stimulated emigration, and many voluntarily
moved to Arkansas. But meantime it stimulated the
greed of Georgia, which desired a more rapid removal
and full possession of the departing people's lands.
While action of Government was pending, the
representative Cherokees made various deliverances
which, in strength of utterance and depth of pathos,
have few equals. Thus, in closing their memorial,
they say : " It is not for us to vindicate or attempt
to vindicate our great Father, the President. He does
not need an Indian's aid nor an Indian's eulogy. But
however we are bound to love him, yet it is due to
justice to state that we have been often pained, and
especially of late, at the earnestness with which he
has pressed upon us the subject of ceding our lands.
Why he has acted thus, we are at a loss to conceive.
We are not ignorant of the nature of the Convention
\
32 POOR LO !
of 1802. We know every one of its promises. If,
however, these are to be violated, and the fell war-
whoop should ever be raised against us, to dispos-
sess us of our lands, we will gratify the delegation of
Georgia, in their present earnestness to see us re-
moved or destroyed, by adding additional fertility to
our land by a deposit of our body and bones ; for we
are resolved never to leave them (the lands) but by
parting from them and our lives together." " Such
was the resolution of the Cherokees at this period,"
says the historian Drake. " But fifteen years of suf-
fering overcame them, and they were compelled to
submit to a fate they could not avert."
There had been a difference among the Chero-
kees in respect to the pursuits of life, some prefer-
ring the hunter's roving habits and others the settled
life of farmers. A partition of their country was talked
of, the former to take the hill country and the latter
the plains.' Eventually some four or five thousand of
the lower-town natives emigrated to Arkansas, where
they led a miserable existence, some being swept off
by disease and others in wars with the Osages, while
a few got back to their old country.
Such results of testing a new country quieted those
of a roving disposition in the upper towns, and ren-
dered it impossible for commissioners to treat suc-
cessfully with any of the tribe as to their removal.
And so all attempts in that direction ceased for some
years.
The agitation was very perplexing to the admin-
istration of James Monroe, President (1817-1825).
Georgia was pressing for extinguishment of all In-
A MEMORIAL. 33
dian titles to lands within the borders of that State ;
and while Mr. Monroe recommended removal and
civilization of the Nation, he declared that an attempt
to remove by force would be unjust.
Meantime the State of Georgia made a bold at-
tempt to exert an authority that it did not possess,
and to wrest from the Indian domain its possessions.
Answering a clamor which came from a certain coun-
ty, an injunction against the Indians was granted,
commanding them to desist from digging gold within
their own limits. Some were fined and imprisoned
for continuance in working the mines, after being
subjected to seizure and destruction of tools and ma-
chinery, and conducted fifteen, and even seventy-five,
miles to court. At the same time thousands of in-
vaders, unmolested, were engaged in robbing the
mines and thus defrauding the owners.
The administration of John Quincy Adams, Pres-
ident (1825-1829), was characterized by the upright-
ness for which, personally, he was noted. Georgia
assumed to put things in readiness for a complete
seizure of the Cherokee country by appointing com-
missioners to make a topographical survey of it.
This course being against the express will of the
Cherokee council, and without an order from the
Secretary of War, brought on a wordy conflict of the
general Government with that of the State. But the
latter, being informed that its high-handed act would
not be tolerated, subsided, until Mr. Adams' honor-
able official career had closed. He had spoken, in
his message of 1827, in the following exalted strain:
34 POOR LO!
It is my duty to say that if the legislative and execu-
tive authorities of the State of Georgia should persevere
in acts of encroachment upon the territory secured by
solemn treaty to the Indians, and the laws of the Union
remain unaltered, a superadded obligation, even higher
than that of human authority, will compel the Executive
of the United States to enforce the laws and fulfill the
duties of the Nation by all the force committed for that
purpose to his charge.
In 1831 eleven persons were arrested and tried
for the crime of living among the Cherokees with-
out taking an oath to obey the laws of Georgia. All
were found guilty, and all pardoned on taking the
oath, except two missionaries of the American Board.
These, Messrs. Worcester and Butler, would not con-
fess and accept pardon, and were committed to the
penitentiary, where for one year and four months
they performed " hard labor "among felons. Prison
clothes were put upon them, bearing about the waist
the initials of their names in large red letters. The
Supreme Court of the United States cited the offend-
ing State to appear for trial. It ignored the call. The
case was argued, however, and Chief Justice Marshall
pronounced a decision in favor of the missionaries,
declaring the laws of Georgia extending jurisdiction
over the Cherokee country to be repugnant to the
constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States,
and therefore null and void. " State rights " were
then asserted, and the complication seemed to in-
crease; but, a mediator appearing, each party, the
State government and the two prisoners, withdrew
proceedings and the missionaries were released and
again went about their Master's business.
A MEMORIAL. 35
The story of the Cherokees, with its many shades,
can not fully be told in this narrative. It is mainly
one of success on the side of the stronger, and con-
sequent loss to the weaker. Georgia, understanding
the advantage it had over a limited nation shut within
its lines, and knowing that the chief executive, An-
drew Jackson, who had succeeded Mr. Adams, had set
his iron will for removal, became very confident of
success, as well as unscrupulous as to the means of
attaining* it. Its perseverance in pushing the Indians
was only what might have been expected ; while the
weakening of their resolution naturally accorded with
their circumstances.
The treaty was very offensive to the Cherokees
generally, and their delegation hovered about Wash-
ington endeavoring to secure a substitute or modifi-
cation. They felt and declared that they could not
emigrate under its provisions. And^Government, see-
ing their sullenness, prepared to execute it by force.
Georgia was glad to cooperate. It had already laid
its lawless hand upon The Cherokee Phoenix, the
first newspaper published by them and influential for
good in all directions, and silenced its voice because
it would not uphold the wicked course of that State.
, During the winter of 1838-9 thousands of United
States troops were sent into the Cherokee country,
and in the spring Gen. Winfield Scott was sent to
command them, for the removal of the natives. On
arriving, the General issued his proclamation, entreat-
ing the Cherokees to yield without resistance, and
spare him the painful necessity of shedding blood.
The 23d of May was the day fixed for starting. The
36 POOR
army began its operations in small detachments, mak-
ing prisoners of one family after another, and gather-
ing them into camps. The manner of the proceeding
gave no ground of complaint.
Through the good disposition of the army, and the
provident arrangement of its commander, says a histo-
rian, less injury was done by accidents or mistakes than
could reasonably have been expected. By the end of June
nearly the whole Nation were gathered into camps, and
some thousands commenced their march for the West.
The extreme heat of the season prevented any further
emigration till September.
Meanwhile Mr. John Ross, an intelligent chief, and
other principal men returned from Washington, and ar-
rangements were made for conducting the remainder to
their new home in a manner more satisfactory to them-
selves. They were to go in successive detachments of
about one thousand each, under leaders selected from
among themselves, attended by physicians, with wagons
or boats for supplies and for conveying the infirm.
On the i pth of August, which was the Sabbath, the
church at Brainard (American Board) gathered for the
last time in that place around the Lord's Table. Soon
after, the whole Nation, amounting to about sixteen thou-
sand people, were on their march in fourteen companies.
One was conducted by Evan Jones, of the Baptist mis-
sion ; another by Mr. Bushyhead, a Baptist native preach-
er; another by Stephen Foreman, native preacher in the
service of the American Board ; another by Mr. Taylor,
member of the Brainard church. Several missionaries of
the Board accompanied them on their way. Their jour-
ney of six hundred or seven hundred miles was per-
formed in four or five mouths.
The best arrangements for their comfort appear to
A MEMORIAL. 37
have been made, and they received many acts of kind-
ness from those in whose vicinity they passed ; but in
such a work suffering and death were unavoidable. In
the ten months which elapsed from May 23, when the
work of their removal commenced, to the time when the
last company completed its journey, more than four thou-
sand persons more than one fourth of the whole number
sunk under their sufferings, and died.
The following statement is found in their history :
"On the 3ist of October, 1837, as the steamboat Mon-
mouth, with six hundred emigrating Indians, was as-
cending the Mississippi, it was run into by another
vessel, and three hundred and eleven of those miser-
able creatures drowned ! That such a number should
have been crowded into one boat is incredible, and
we are informed that the boat was an old, condemned
vessel. It was probably hired cheap by the contrac-
tors for removing Indians."
Such is the brief account of this sorrowful bit of
history, compiled chiefly from the published and un-
published accounts of the American Board of Com-
missioners for Foreign Missions, which was vitally
interested in the whole affair.
Turn to the records of the Baptist mission, which
was immediately concerned in the same tragic events.
The work had prospered. The school at Valley Towns
had been as full as it could have been, and many ap-
plicants for admission were necessarily disappointed.
Additions to the church were frequent, and some of
the converts became successful preachers. Nothing
seemed necessary to an extensive work of grace ex-
cept liberty to plan and labor without interference.
38 POOR 1,0!
The school at Tinsawattee also continued to prosper,
but was removed to Hickory L,og, about ten miles;
the little church at that place continuing to receive
the care of its faithful pastor, the teacher, Rev. Dun-
can O'Bryant.
In 1831 the congregations of the two places, em-
bracing about eighty families, removed to the Arkan-
sas Territory, and persuaded their minister to accom-
pany them. They settled near the northern line of
that Territory, in a rich and abundantly productive
district, and promptly provided themselves with means
to a comfortable living. "A sawmill and gristmill
were soon erected on an unfailing stream of water.
The missionary was equally thoughtful for their spirit-
ual welfare. Before he had finished his log house he
opened it on the Sabbath, and collected the little con-
gregation for religious worship. ... In the course
of the year a house for worship and the use of the
school was built. ... In 1834 Mr. O'Bryant died,
after an illness of eleven days. He was a zealous
missionary, and possessed the confidence of all who
knew him." He was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Al-
drich, from Cincinnati, Ohio, who died after one year
of service. Whisky could be procured on the Ar-
kansas line, two miles distant, and therefore became
an obstacle to the progress of the Gospel.
The work under Rev. Evan Jones, at Valley Towns
and vicinity, widened and deepened ; at no previous
time so manifestly as in the summer of 1831, when
there were seventy-eight professed Christians. The
revival then enjoyed was long continued, and it dif-
fused its salutary influence throughout the Indian
A MEMORIAL. 39
Nation. " The Christian Indians were diligent in en-
deavoring to extend the knowledge of the Gospel ;
and numbers in remote places, who had never heard
a sermon, became anxious for their salvation." Re-
quests for visits from the missionary came twenty,
and even forty, miles.
For four years the record was one of progress and
thanksgiving. The native disciples were temperate,
and organized into temperance societies; they main-
tained family worship, and met on the L,ord's Day for
public worship when without a minister ; they erected
hewn-log sanctuaries a novelty in the forests with-
out suggestion from a white man ; and a native min-
istry arose Jesse Bushyhead, John Wickliffe (Kanee-
da) and Oganaya, in particular, through whom much
was accomplished. The baptisms at Valley Towns
had reached the number of two hundred and sixty,
and the net membership in 1835 was two hundred
and twenty-seven.
" During the year 1834-5, the minds of the In-
dians were increasingly agitated by the measures of
the United States Government in relation to their
removal. Many had acquired a competent property
by their own industry; they were a community of
farmers, possessed of all the necessaries and many of
the conveniences of life. Notwithstanding their dark-
ened prospects, and the continual provocations they
were obliged to endure, they were patient toward all
men. The revival still continued, and though there
were fewer conversions than in the three previous
years, almost every sacramental occasion witnessed
the addition of some to the church."
40 . POOR u>!
In the trying ordeal to which the Indians were
being subjected by the unauthorized treaty which
ceded all their lands to the United States, the cause
of morals and religion declined. Bushyhead and
Oganaya were out of their loved employ as preach-
ers of the Gospel for six months, having been in
Washington for that time as members of the delega-
tion for the adjustment of difficulties with Georgia.
The letter of the former, from the capital, bewailing
the depression that had come upon his people, moral
and spiritual, is very affecting, while his intelligent
view of Providence and grace, in all human expe-
rience, is not less touching. On his return, though
a bearer of sad news to his countrymen, he lifted up
his voice in the wilderness with his old-time evange-
listic fervor. Taking into the fellowship of work a
young native preacher, Beaver Carrier, a circuit of
about two hundred and forty miles was formed, over
which they traveled and labored with marked suc-
cess.
The excitement concerning the removal was reach-
ing its height (1836), and Rev. Evan Jones and his
interpreter, Stephen Foreman, were arrested by the
United States troops, and compelled to leave the
Cherokee country. Mr. Jones found a retreat in Ten-
nessee, and from it continued to visit the churches.
He visited the principal places in rotation, preaching,
conversing with inquirers, receiving members and
regulating the discipline of the churches, touching
minor places in going and returning; .and one day
in the week he gave to instructing the native preach-
ers. The attendance upon this circuit work was of
A MEMORIAL. 41
the rousing sort. The natives traveled thirty to ninety
miles to be present, and some of them returned as
"baptized believers." Hospitality corresponded, the
preachers being principal givers rather than receiv-
ers of it. Mr. Bushyhead, a public man and of noble
type, on one occasion fitted up his large barn with
seats and pulpit, and otherwise provided liberally for
the people. Sixty or seventy were entertained at his
own house during the series of meetings. Wickliffe
and Oganaya also entertained great numbers who
came from a distance to attend their meetings. Many
were baptized on these occasions, and the hearts of
the laborers were so filled with joy that their perse-
cutions had but little effect to disturb their minds.
They did not cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ
in any circumstances. Some of the Cherokees became
mediators for peace between the United States and
the Seminoles in Florida; and when the latter had
been thrust into prison at St. Augustine unjustly,
while under a flag of truce, Mr. Bushyhead took oc-
casion to preach to them the Gospel of love and
mercy.
A council was held in this year (1837) at Red Clay,
in which the Indians took a firm stand against the
treaty of New Echota, disposing of their lands. And'
notwithstanding the excitement which such an occa-
sion must have created, the council was conducted
with decorum, and religious worship maintained.
Morning worship was attended daily in the council-
house, and preaching almost every evening. On Sun-
days congregation convened three times, thousands in
number ; no disturbances except such as were caused
42 POOR to!
by the whisky of the white smuggler. A discourse
by Mr. Jones, translated into Cherokee by Mr. Bushy-
head, is described as moving the translator, and
through him the vast congregation, as preaching sel-
dom moves the hearts of men. Their hymns, the old
songs of Zion in Cherokee, were sung with remark-
able correctness and effect. The words and tunes
had been learned from the missionaries, and practice
in public and private had given them great power in
song. In the midst of trouble they were in a constant
state of revival, and souls were added unto the Lord.
In May, the month in which the removal was to
begin, Mr. Jones visited the Christians of the moun-
tain region. He found them " calm, devout, and more
than ever interested to hear the truths of the Gospel."
They set apart the i6th as a day of fasting and prayer,
and meetings were appointed in nine different places
in the mountains, in view of their sad destiny. But
they did not forget the spiritual welfare of those around
them. In one place the members entered into a sys-
tematic plan for visiting the destitute, establishing
meetings in their behalf.
On the 23d (or 24th) " the Indians were obliged to
quit their pleasant homes, their fields of corn, their
cattle and horses, and most of their movable property
for anyone who might choose to take possession. In
many instances individual rapacity forbade them to
take even their money, or anything but the clothes
they wore. One thousand and one hundred com-
menced their sad journey together on June 17, to
join four thousand more who were collected at Ross'
Landing. They offered no resistance, but quietly
yielded to their oppressors."
A MEMORIAL. 43
A report from Camp Hetzel, June 16, states: "The
Cherokees are nearly all prisoners. They have been
dragged from their houses and encamped at the forts
and military posts all over the Nation. In Georgia,
especially, multitudes were allowed no time to take
anything with them except the clothes they had on.
Well-furnished houses were left a prey to plunderers,
who, like hungry wolves, follow in the train of the
captors. These wretches rifle the houses, and strip
the helpless, inoffending owners of all they have on
earth. Females, who have been habituated to com-
forts and comparative affluence, are driven on foot
before the bayonets of brutal men. Their feelings
are mortified by vulgar and profane vociferations. It
is a painful sight. The property of many has been
taken and sold before their eyes for almost nothing
the sellers and buyers, in many cases, being com-
bined to cheat the poor Indians. . . . The poor
captive, in a state of distressing agitation, his weep-
ing wife almost frantic with terror, surrounded by a
group of crying, terrified children, without a friend to
speak a consoling word, is in a poor condition to make
a good disposition of his property, and is, in most
cases, stripped of the whole at one blow. And this
is not a description of extreme cases. . . .
" These savages, prisoners of Christians, are now
all hands busy, some cutting and some carrying posts,
plates, and rafters, some digging holes for posts, and
some preparing seats for a temporary place for preach-
ing tomorrow. There will also be preaching at an-
other camp, eight miles distant. We have not heard
from our brethren in the mountains since their cap-
44 POOR LO !
ture. I have no doubt, however, but the grace of
God will be sufficient for them, and that their confi-
dence is reposed in the God of their salvation. My
last accounts from them were truly cheering. In a
few days they expected the victorious army to sweep
them into their forts, but they were going on steadily
in their labors of love to dying sinners.
" The principal Cherokees have sent a petition to
General Scott, begging most earnestly that they may
not be sent off to the West till the sickly season is
over. They have not received any answer yet. The
agent is shipping them off by multitudes from Ross'
Landing. Nine hundred in one detachment, and seven
hundred in another, were driven into boats, and it will
be a miracle of mercy if one fourth escape the expo-
sure to that sickly climate. They were exceedingly
depressed and almost in despair. . . .
" The work of capturing being completed, and
about three thousand sent off, the General has agreed
to suspend the further transportation of the captives
till the first of September. This arrangement, though
but a small favor, diffused universal joy through the
camps of the prisoners. . . .
" Brethren WicklifFe and Oganaya, and a great
number of the members of the church at Valley
Towns, fell into Fort Butler, seven miles from the
mission. They never relaxed their evangelical labors,
but preached constantly in the fort. They held church
meetings, received ten members, and on Sabbath, by
permission of the officer in command, went down to
the river and baptized them. They were guarded to
the river and back. Some whites present affirm it to
A MEMORIAL. 45
have been the most solemn and impressive religious
service they ever witnessed.
" As soon as General Scott agreed to suspend the
transportation of the prisoners till autumn, I accom-
panied Brother Bushy head, who, by permission of the
General, carried a message from the chiefs to those
Cherokees who had evaded the troops by flight to the
mountains. We had no difficulty in finding them.
They all agreed to come in, on our advice, and sur-
render themselves to the forces of the United States.
"On our way we met a detachment of thirteen
hundred prisoners. As I took some of them by the
hand, the tears gushed from their eyes. Their hearts,
however, were cheered to see us and to hear a word
of consolation. Many members of the church were
among them. At Fort Butler we found a company
of three hundred, just arrived from the mountains,
on their way to the general depot at the Agency.
Several of our members were among them, also. I
believe that the Christians, the salt of the earth, are
pretty generally distributed among the several detach-
ments of prisoners, and these Christians maintain
among themselves the stated worship of God, in the
sight of their pagan brethren, and of the white hea-
thens who guard them."
Amid this dire distress and confusion the Gospel
made advances unprecedented in the history of the
Cherokees. At a place near to Columbus, Tenn., Mr.
Jones and Mr. Bushyhead, as a result of a sudden out-
pouring of the Spirit, baptized fifty-five in one day, and
followed the ordinance with a commemoration of the
Savior's death, for the last time in that country.
46 POOR 1,0 !
Mr. Jones says : " In making arrangements for
maintaining religious exercises in the journey, the
brethren acted with entire disinterestedness, and cheer-
fully left their friends and connections to go into the
detachments in which we thought they were most
needed and could be most useful. Brother Beaver
Carrier left the detachment embracing his neighbor-
hood, and went on to overtake one which had already
started, in order to preach to them on the journey
and after their arrival at the place of their destina-
tion. Brother Bushy head also left the detachment
comprising his own vicinity, and all the friends and
associates of his family, with whom they would have
been much more comfortable, for the double purpose
of conducting a detachment in the vicinity, of which
there was no one competent to take the charge, and
to accompany that portion of the members of the
Valley Towns church who resided on the ValleyRiver
and among the mountains of Dseyohee, north and east,
to the North Carolina line."
These examples had many imitators. Mr. Jones
himself was forward to lead and endure privation for
the general good. He separated from his family, leav-
ing them in Tennessee, while he accompanied the
Cherokees to the Indian Territory. Crushed hearts
were fragrant with piety ; heartless treatment did not
quench zeal for God ; and Christian history may be
searched in vain for better illustrations of the Chris-
tian graces in bearing calamities, when only the most
barefaced injustice of man was the cause of them.
The track of these emigrants was by the way of
Nashville, Tenn., in the vicinity of which city they
A MEMORIAL,. 4f
were detained two or three days. There were four
detachments, with seven others behind, each number-
ing about one thousand. In the two parties con-
ducted by Mr. Jones and Mr. Bushyhead there were
upwards of five hundred Baptists. The leaders and
several others were received by their brethren of the
city, at the churches, and by their public addresses
and private interviews added much to the interest in
missions to the Indians. By their songs in the Cher-
okee tongue, and tears of sympathy for their poor
countrymen, the hearts of the hearers melted.
The company under Mr. Bushyhead left the old
country on October 5, and reached the new on the
23d of February. The winter season was less favor-
able to some epidemics, yet it presented an ordeal of
suffering in other particulars. This detachment was
detained one month at the Mississippi by the ice.
Eighty-two qf the company died on the way. Sixty-
six were Baptists, and of this number two were se-
lected to keep up regular worship during the journey.
These did so by holding prayer meetings and exhort-
ing the brethren on evenings during the week and
on Lord's Day, whenever the weather would admit
of it. The company rested every Sunday, except
that on one it traveled five miles to get forage for
the teams. The rule of rest was due to Christian
leadership. The statutes and promises of the Lord
were the songs of that dreadful pilgrimage.
The religious interest existing when these Indians
were made prisoners continued throughout the hard
jaunt. Attention was given to the Gospel messages,
and some were baptized by the way. The church at
48 POOR to!
Valley Towns considered itself to be in organized
form a veritable church in the wilderness and it
observed the ordinances with due propriety. It con-
stantly sought the salvation of sinners, and was re-
warded in welcoming some to its fellowship, while
some passed on to the church above, dying in the
full triumph of faith. Where in the annals of the
church militant may be found another example of
evangelism like this?*
Temporary accommodations for the churches were
at once provided. Mr. Bushyhead wrote with explicit-
ness and clearness as to the situation and necessities.
He said: " Books are greatly needed among the Cher-
okees. The progress of the Gospel and the course
of providential discipline through which they have
passed, have given such a stimulus to the mind of
the people that they manifest increased eagerness for
information, and it is all-important that the knowl-
edge they receive should be of a healthful kind."
Stimulus was also given to the powers of evil, and
vicious habits had been introduced ; yet the soldiers
of the Cross felt no fear as to the ultimate result of
the war against sin.
*It seems that another church, the Amohee, was also represented
in this detachment, and shared in the responsibilities and privileges of
membership. The two moved as churches, and were finally located
apart, a great distance.
A MEMORIAL. 49
IV.
anfc |Ufc EVAN JONES ;
ELIZABETH L. JONES; JOHN B. JONES;
JOHN WICKLIFFE; OGANAYA; JESSE
B USHYHEAD ; O UCHALA TTA.
(JEtmn |tjcrn*#
EVAN JONES is a name that will not fade from
the annals of an intelligent and grateful Chris-
tian denomination. The man who bore it was a
Welshman by birth and rearing, but an American by
choice and sympathy. He espoused the cause of the
original American, the Aborigine, and for fifty years
bated not in consecration to his interests.
He was born in Brecknockshire, Wales, May 14,
1788, and was educated in the Welsh and English
languages preparatory to mercantile pursuits. At the
age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a linen-draper,
and spent a number of years in the store. It was
there that he became acquainted with the young
woman also a clerk whom he chose for his wife,
and who responded with a choice of his companion-
ship for whatever circumstances Providence had for
them. After some years, and with a little family, they
came to America. Early in 1821 they arrived at Phila-
delphia, and settled in the village of Berwyn. At the
50 POOR LO !
close of their first summer they were fully prepared,
by conviction,' to offer themselves for membership to
the Great Valley Baptist Church, in the vicinity. Their
reception was cordial, and occurred at the time when
the pastor, Rev. Thomas Roberts, and others were
preparing to enter upon a mission to the Cherokee
Indians in the South.
This mission, with but one Baptist missionary pre-
ceding, and no records of heroism to inspire, appealed
with great power to Mr. Jones' sympathetic nature.
He had left the formal Church of England, had been
quickened by union with English Methodism, and had
satisfied his conscience by becoming a Baptist. He
was then ready to do, to dare, and to suffer for Christ.
His zeal for God was consuming. Only one month
remained before the departure of the missionaries,
but he was ready to be numbered with them the
most ready man of the company, as events proved,
for he held out by far the longest. While his pastor
took the office of preacher, another man the occupa-
tion of blacksmith, and another that of farmer and
weaver, he modestly assumed the duties of a teacher,
with some devoted women to occupy this and other
spheres. Teaching the untutored Indian was thought
to be a matter of minor difficulty, and requiring but
little ability in the teacher ; yet he was willing to con-
secrate himself to the lowly " children of Nature," and
accept the hardships of frontier life in order to do it.
The experience of this missionary band continued
with fair success for about three years, when all re-
tired from the work except Evan Jones and his wife.
With almost unexampled fortitude the greater be-
A MEMORIAL. 51
cause their solitariness was intensified by the loss of
associates they girded themselves to t"he task of sus-
taining all departments of the mission. The teacher
began to preach ; he labored for the salvation of his
pupils, and in the conversion of a few the utter moral
night of the benighted Cherokee seemed to be passing
away. Still, in the few spindlings of dawn he saw how
sweet must be the full day, and, by contrast, how deep
the darkness going before and even then hanging
upon the people.
Mr. Jones had succeeded in teaching quite a large
number of the youth to read and write, and in giving
them some knowledge of the English language. Yet,
after six years of faithful schoolwork, only a very few
of them and a few white people had made a profession
of religion. He felt that another plan, more in accord-
ance with the Great Commission, was necessary for
him, and, having given the school into other hands, he
went everywhere preaching the Word. "As he had
not a thorough knowledge of the language of the na-
tives, he took with him one of his pupils as interpreter,
and with him he rode in all directions over mountains
and through forests and across streams preaching
Jesus and Him crucified to men and women into whose
minds the light of the Gospel now, for the first time,
began to dawn." His son, J. B. Jones, thus quoted,
further says : " That was the turning point in favor of
success in one of the most successful missions ever
planted among the Indians of the American continent.
He traveled from village to village, and visited them
from house to house, talked to them one by one or in
groups about their eternal salvation. He ate with
52 POOR 1,0 !
them in their cabins, and slept upon his bearskin.which
he carried with him. Sometimes, for weeks together,
he would get nothing but such fare as they gave him
in their wigwams. Soon he succeeded in gathering
them into small congregations under the shade of the
trees, and there he preached unto them ' Jesus and the
Resurrection.'"
Mr. Jones proved to be admirably adapted to the
Indian work to which he found himself fully com-
mitted]without the customary time for preparation, and
without expectation of becoming a leader in spiritual
things. His nature was full of sympathy, a trait which
the suffering race very readily appreciated. He entered
into their trials with the heart of a woman, and their
secular concerns with the mind of an interested busi-
ness man. His usefulness was many-sided. He
framed their laws and treaties, and aided Chief John
Ross in his arduous duties; identifying himself with
the business of removal to the new country, and the
settlement of their difficulties after arrival. Nor did
he forsake them during the War of the Rebellion, but
only sought to save himself and his family while the
tempest was passing.
In personal association he conversed freely in their
tongue, but for the truest impression in preaching he
invariably spoke through an interpreter. In common
with others of his years, who do not incline to perfect
themselves in languages not their own, he did not cul-
tivate the natives dialect. And yet, cherishing the de-
sire found in the hearts of many missionaries to fully
identify their children with the interests of the people
whose cause they have espoused, he spared no pains to
A MEMORIAL. 53
have his son John trained in the use of the Cherokee.
It became to him a " mother tongue," and from the
time he was thirteen years of age he interpreted his
father's sermons, and made various translations of
Scripture and standard writings. The two conducted
the valuable little bi-monthly called The Cherokee Mes-
senger, which was read with avidity by the natives,
though destroyed in the time of the war.
Evan Jones and son were sent by the Nation to
Washington in 1861, and also in 1866, to aid in obtain-
ing a new treaty, which resulted in securing Cherokee
annuities, and was a lasting benefit to several tribes.
In grateful recognition of this service, the Indians gave
to them and their heirs, citizenship, and to Evan Jones
three thousand dollars in money. Father and son
served as chaplains in the first and second Indian regi-
ments through the war. In 1870 the father, over four
score, and no longer able to work, went to live with his
son, and united, so far as possible, in loving service for
the people of his former charge. He had a large fam-
ily, most of whom passed away before his death. A
daughter-in-law makes this tender reference to him in
closing a brief account of his life :
" I always loved father Jones, he was such a dear,
good man. He and mother Jones were very good to
me, and I had the care of both of them as they passed
joyfully away to their home.
" I have the honor to be the widow of John B.
Jones, whose last words were ' O, how glorious! ' "
54 POOR LO !
Mr. Jones was bereaved of his noble wife, Elizabeth
Lanigan, February 5, 1831. She was the companion
of his youth in Wales, and of his young manhood in
crossing the ocean ; the participant in the joy attend-
ing their accession to the Baptist ranks, and immediate
consecration to the welfare of the Indians ; the cheer
of the tedious wagoning to the South, and the
helpmeet of his home in the wilderness ; the mother
of a mighty man of valor, John B. Jones, and superin-
tendent of the mission school at Hiwasse, from its es-
tablishment. " She was a woman of good judgment
and education, and possessed an eminently devout and
benevolent spirit. Her labors, and often her priva-
tions, were very severe, but she 'endured as seeing Him
who is invisible.' " Except in the matter of time, it
might be questioned whether her toils and sacrifices
were not equal to those of her more distinguished
husband. Ten years of service in the Indian cause,
longer than the average term, and continuance in the
country until removed by death, proved her faithful-
ness. What might not have been her record had she
been spared to her husband during his term of fifty
years !
John Buttrick Jones is a strong character in the
history of western missions and civilization. He was
identified with the Cherokees as completely as the
place of his birth and a long and useful career among
them could cause him to be. He was a son of Rev.
Evan Jones, whose eminence in the Indian cause was
A MEMORIAL. 55
shared by him, and was born at Valley Towns, Chero-
kee County, North Carolina, December 24, 1824, about
three years after the parents entered the Indian mis-
sion. At twenty years of age he was baptized by John
Wickliffe, native preacher. In his twenty-third year
he went to Madison University, New York, and after
the academic course and one collegiate year there, he
entered the University of Rochester, graduated in 1855,
and was ordained in that city July 14, 1855. He was
married to Miss Jennie M. Smith, and in October fol-
lowing entered the Cherokee mission and labored with
his father, under the Missionary Union.
His birth and early life among the Cherokees nat-
urally imparted to him their language. A knowledge
of it, with a good university education, qualified him
for the literary work which he felt called to perform.
He edited a magazine in their tongue, called The
Cherokee Messenger, corresponding to The Cherokee
Phcenix, which had been published in the country
east of the Mississippi. Also, he translated into the
Cherokee language a large part of the New Testa-
ment, a part of the Old Testament, " Pilgrim's Prog-
ress," portions of " Parley's School History," sermons,
and tracts. At the same time he preached in almost
every part of the Cherokee Nation, and aided his
father in the instruction of native preachers.
Thus he continued to the time of the breaking
out of the war, when he was compelled to leave the
Nation on account of his Union sentiments. His feel-
ings were not bitter, yet a tone of disappointment
and grief is manifest in the calm survey of the situa-
tion which he gives, as quoted by The Baptist Beacon :
56 POOR 1,0!
In the year 1855 I entered the service of the mission.
I knew all about the difficulties and the dangers into
which I was going, but I could not shrink back ; for
duty to God and man seemed to require me to labor
among the Cherokee people. It was the field to which I
had been looking for many years, and it seemed that I
was better fitted for that work than anyone else. I could
speak their language as my vernacular, and was ac-
quainted with the people and their customs.
So I entered upon my work of preaching Jesus and
Him crucified, to the children of the forest. I said just
as little about slavery as our opposers would let me. But
I rode into all parts of the Nation, and preached where
there were churches and where there were not ; where
we had members, and where we had none. During inter-
vals of preaching I was engaged in instructing our native
preachers, and young men would gather around to have
difficult passages of Scripture explained. We also had a
printing press, and I spent part of my time translating
portions of the Bible, " Pilgrim's Progress," sermons, etc.
But the wealthy people among the Cherokees, instead
of being rejoiced because the poor of their people were
being enlightened, grew more and more jealous, and their
opposition to the Baptists became hotter and hotter.
It is stated that bills were frequently introduced in
the council to break up the mission, and banish the mis-
sionaries from the Nation. Taking advantage of the
absence of members, such a bill was passed, but it was
vetoed by the chief. Evan Jones had been cited by the
Indian Agent to answer the charge of propagating abo-
lition sentiments, and the affairs of the Nation were in
commotion. John B. Jones fled to Illinois, and fixed
his residence at Upper Alton. His journey was one of
A MEMORIAL. 57
much severity, requiring, first, a jaunt of two hundred
and fifty miles through the wilderness to a railroad.
While settled at Upper Alton, in the atmosphere of
Shurtleff College, he spent six months in continuing
his translations. Then he removed to Jefferson
County, New York, and took charge of two churches,
and in the second year of the war entered the Union
Army as chaplain of the Second Indian Regiment of
Kansas. He was of special service in winning the
Cherokees from the Confederate to the Union Army,
and, finally, in unifying them, and continued in the
service of his country to the close of the war.
Dr. G. J. Johnson, in a graphic description of his
visits to the Cherokees, and of the work accomplished
for their salvation, pays tribute, incidentally, to this
noble man. After a ponyback ride of thirty miles in
six hours, on a hot afternoon in June, he was called
upon to preach at a Cherokee camp-meeting. He says :
I preached that night to several hundred well-behav-
ing, taciturn and sober-faced Indians, Brother Jones inter-
preting for me as I proceeded, sentence by sentence, into
their language. The Gospel never seemed more precious
to me than that night. Ten inquirers presented them-
selves for prayers, of whom several found hope. The next
day I was permitted to baptize four of these new disciples
one an old man, tall and straight as an arrow, a lad, and
two young women. A procession was formed at the camp-
ground, and marched, two and two, to the sweet rolling
strains of a Cherokee song, about a quarter of a mile dis-
tant to a beautiful stream ; and there, under the shade of
the trees, and after a prayer by Brother Jones, offered
while all were kneeling upon the bank, I administered
58 POOR 1,0 !
the ordinance. It surely seemed as though that Trinity
that attended upon John's honored administration in the
Jordan, eighteen centuries before, was also present here.
It is due here to say that the Cherokees owe much,
and appreciate too, their indebtedness to Rev. J. B. Jones,
whose life has been devoted to their evangelization. Born
among them, the Cherokee is his vernacular, and he is
said to be the most correct and intelligent speaker of the
language now living. And, withal, he loves his Nation,
and has laid his all, a willing sacrifice, upon the altar for
their salvation. But we fear our brother's work is nearly
or quite done. His health has broken under the load of
labor of love he has long carried, and he is now contem-
plating, unless there is an early change, as a last resort
for his declining health, a removal to Colorado.
Glorious have been the fruits that have followed the
labors of these two Joneses, to whom, probably, more than
to all the rest of the world beside, the Cherokees are in-
debted for their Christianity and their civilization.
Rev. B. F. Stamps, editor of The Baptist Beacon,
Muskogee, Indian Territory, who has aided the author
in obtaining material for these sketches, gives the
following items touching the close of this career of
consecrated, conspicuous service to God and man :
John B. Jones secured a transfer of the mission site
from the old Baptist Mission to Tahlequah, where, in
1867-8, he secured one hundred and sixty acres of valu-
able land reaching almost to the heart of the Capital
City.
Here he built the present mission-house, contributing
seven hundred and fifty dollars out of his own funds for
that purpose. During the time he lived in the building
he paid rent on it to the amount of twelve hundred dol-
A MEMORIAL. 59
lars, while working on salary as Indian Agent, and all the
time doing missionary work, preaching the Gospel "with-
out charge."
In 1875 he resigned his position as Indian Agent, and
went to Denver, Colorado, for his health. There, on the
morning of June 13, 1876, as he lay upon his bed, his dy-
ing eyes fell upon the first rays of the rising sun as they
touched his window fit symbol of the Sun of Righteous-
ness. And as he gazed upon the spot with rapture he ex-
claimed : " Oh, how glorious ! " and Jesus took him to him-
self.
The native ministry became a very important ele-
ment of power at an early stage of the work. Con-
verts, from time to time, proved the oneness of Chris-
tian experience in all nations by having first given
themselves to the Lord, and then to his commissioned
men to be led into ways of special usefulness. They
could but speak the things which they had seen and
heard. When Evan Jones had fully separated from the
school work, that his heart's desire to evangelize might
be satisfied, he was obliged to employ others to inter-
pret his sermons to the natives. John Tinson, the first
Indian converted (1823), acted as interpreter, and he
and his wife, who also became pious, proved to be very
valuable helpers. He was able to conduct a meeting
with much profit, and was frequently trusted to do so.
In 1829 a most interesting case of conversion came to
view ; that of another Cherokee, with his wife, who
had been awakened by hearing preaching on the suf-
ferings of Christ, and the perusal of a little book con-
taining hymns, and a few chapters of the Bible in Cher-
60 POOR LO!
okee. Both were received by the church at Hiwassee,
N. C., after a year of experience.
Mr. Jones was ordained pastor of this church but a
few years previously. He became greatly interested
in the man just mentioned, and soon enlisted him in
his service as an interpreter and assistant; and such
was his character, he gave him the name of John Wick-
liffe, by which he was known for the rest of his days.
He took him into his plans, taught him the way of the
Ivord, and made him a preacher of power in his Nation.
They traveled together on long preaching tours, and
made themselves remembered for what they accom-
plished, both east and west of the Mississippi. Mr.
Wickliffe (Kaneeda, his original name) was the first
native preacher among the Cherokees, and a great
credit to them. He sustained his good name and per-
formed ministerial service for twenty-six years, when
he died, November 22, 1857.
Another, named Oganaya, to whom no patronizing
name was given, belonged to the same period, and bore
similar honors. He was regarded as " a man of much
influence, deep piety and great usefulness." He had
returned from Washington as a delegate of his Nation
on some important business' with the Government,
and being taken with cholera at Jefferson City, Mis-
souri, he there died. A missionary from the States
wrote : " I am afraid it will be a long time before one
can be found to fill his place." The tidings of his
death produced deep sorrow among the churches.
And another, likewise deeply lamented, dying just
afterward, bore the name Dsulasky.
"Jesse Bushyhead learned Christianity from the
A MEMORIAL. 6l
teachings of the Bible alone, and apart from all other
instructors had embraced the salvation which it offers,
with an intelligent conviction and earnest faith, which,
combined with his own superior understanding, ren-
dered him a Christian of no ordinary stamp. He was
baptized by a minister from Tennessee in 1830, and it
was not till he had collected a large Christian con-
gregation at Amohee, the place of his residence, that
he became acquainted with the missionaries at Valley
Towns. In the spring of 1 833 the mission was visited
by Hon. Heman Lincoln, of Boston, the treasurer of
the General Convention; and during his visit John
Wickliffe and Jesse Bushyhead were ordained to the
Christian Ministry."
In a very sickly season Mr. Bushyhead died. Mr.
Gaminell, quoted above, says he was " the ablest and
most successful of the native preachers, and one of
the ablest and most energetic men of the Nation to
which he belonged. He was one of its earliest pio-
neers in civilization, and one of the noblest exempli-
fications of Christian character it has ever produced.
With the interest of an intelligent patriot in its for-
tunes, he engaged earnestly in attempting to avert
the troubles which threatened it, and participated in
many of the most important negotiations relating to
its removal beyond the Mississippi. In addition to
his services as a missionary he was also appointed
Chief Justice of the Cherokees after their settlement
in the new territory, and in this station, which he still
held at the time of his death, through many trying
periods of national affairs, he was always distinguished
for his wise administration of evenhanded justice. His
62 POOR 1,0 !
memory will long be cherished in the Nation'with the
respect that is due to a highminded counselor and
magistrate, and a faithful minister of the Gospel."
Another, having full knowledge, wrote of him as
" one of the noblest-looking men, and noblest-souled
men that ever lived. He was a chief of the Chero-
kees, and at the time of his death Chief Justice of
their Supreme Court." He died July 12, 1844, aged
about fifty.
Lewis Downing deserves mention as among the most
useful native preachers. He and D. M. Foreman, na-
tive, were helpers of Rev. Evan Jones, and partook of
his spirit of sacrifice for the salvation of their race.
The tidings of their success were very cheering; often
very affecting. Crowds attended upon their ministry.
Mr. Downing and Oganaya accompanied Mr. Jones to
the Anniversaries of 1852, held in Pittsburg, Pa., and
were seen and heard with supreme gratification. The
report on Indian Missions, on that occasion, was not
only encouraging, but even jubilant. It made mention
of the entire extinction of the evil and guilt of slavery
in the churches of the Cherokee Mission.
On his latest visit to this tribe, in which he had
the company of preachers and United States officials,
Dr. Johnson was prominent in the ordination serv-
ices of another eminent member of it, of whom he
speaks as follows:
Chief Ouchalatta (English, Charles Thompson) is a
full-blood native Cherokee, well framed and of medium
size, and about fifty years of age, distinguished for integ-
rity of character and eloquence said to be the most elo-
quent orator in his tribe, though he can not understand
A MEMORIAL. 63
nor scarcely speak a word of English. He has just been
elected chief, after a spirited contest between contending
parties, and has succeeded already in restoring peace and
harmony throughout the Nation. He was, years ago, con-
verted and baptized, and for several years has been a
licensed preacher, and probably would long since have
been ordained but for the prejudices that existed against
him because of his profession as a practitioner in law.
But now, as he proposes to give himself to the ministry,
in connection with his duties as chief, his brethren were
all earnest and hearty that he should be ordained.
The usual examination was conducted through an in-
terpreter, and, though necessarily brief and imperfect, was
entirely satisfactory. Ten ministers laid the ordaining
hands upon him, eight of them Indians; and Major G. W.
Ingalls, U. S. A. Indian Agent, a Baptist, made a lengthy
and impressive address, followed in brief by a Presbyte-
rian gentleman and by the Chief himself. The entire serv-
ices, which included a call for and attention to inquirers,
and a general hand-shaking at the close, held all attentive
for nearly four hours. A sumptuous dinner in an adjoin-
ing apartment was " the last of the feast," and about one
hundred partook of it.
64 POOR
V.
REMO VAL ; FIRST CHURCH IN
THE INDIAN TERRITORY; INDIAN
MISSION ASSOCIA TION ; GREA T A WAK-
ENING; JOSEPH ISLANDS.
THE Creeks (Muskogees) were one of the confed-
eracies of the great Mobilian Nation, which once
stretched along the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Mississippi River, and spread northward
to Ohio. Their name is said to have been given to
them by the English, on account of the number of
streams found in their fertile country parts of the
States of Georgia and Alabama. They were adopted
as subjects of missionary labor by recommendation of
prominent Baptists of the South. The Mission Board
of the Georgia Baptist Association, on December 17,
1819, resolved to attempt to establish a mission in
the Creek Nation.
The tribe had suffered greatly, and been much
diminished by war with the white people. It perished
by the sword which it drew, having encountered Gen-
eral Jackson in many a bloody battle. But its mis-
fortunes tended to increase Christian sympathy in its
behalf.
A MEMORIAL. 65
In 1822 Rev. L,ee Compere, of South Carolina,
founded a mission on the Chattahoochee river, the
line between Georgia and Alabama, and continued it
until 1829. It was named Withiugton, in remem-
brance of a liberal giver to missions. " The Creeks,"
we are told, " were far behind their neighbors, the
Cherokees and Choctaws. The darkness in which
the missionary found them was Egyptian. Their firm
attachment to the customs of their fathers, their ex-
treme mental apathy and physical indolence, their
mutual quarrels and bitter animosities all combined
to present a formidable barrier to the introduction of
religion and the improvements of civilization. Added
to this was the disastrous influence of whisky-traders
and other designing whites, and the depressing state
of their relations with the Government of the United
States."
Mr. Compere's school was fairly prosperous, and
a few were converted. The Agent for Indian Affairs,
on visiting the station, "expressed his decided ap-
probation of the method used by Mr. Compere for
the benefit of the Indians, and his conviction of the
fitness, both of the missionary and his family, to exert
a good influence upon the natives." One of the con-
verts, John Davis, became a preacher of some note,
and an interpreter for Mr. Compere in his round of
duty. He emigrated with his people to the West, and
in 1830 received an appointment as missionary. The
mission at Withington was relinquished in 1829, owing
to the unpromising state of public affairs. The emi-
gration of fourteen hundred of the tribe, westward, at
this time, included some of the lads who had been
66 POOR 1,0 !
pupils in the school, and who retained the good habits
they had acquired.
A large proportion of the Creeks had been removed
by the year 1832. Their situation was more favor-
able to their improvement than it had been in the
East, though the whisky-dealer and various opponents
of religion still attended them. "Mr. Davis for three
years was their only religious teacher. Not being
ordained, he made no attempts to gather a church,
but held meetings regularly at four different places,
taught school three days in the week, and visited and
conversed with the Indians at their homes. He en-
gaged in his work with great zeal and discretion, and
' the common people heard him gladly.' " He con-
tinued under the Board until 1839, faithful and true,
and died two or three years later, loved and lamented.
The time for organizing a church was at hand,
however. The arrival of an ordained minister from
New York, as missionary to the Creeks, with other
favoring circumstances, justified its formation, which
took place in September, followed by a good acces-
sion of more than fifty before the close of the year.
The Sunday-school numbered seventy-four, and the
congregation on the Sabbath three hundred. A meet-
inghouse, schoolhouse and other buildings for the
mission were erected the next year, and the station
was named Ebenezer. The site was three miles north
of the Arkansas River, and fifteen west of Fort Gibson,
in the midst of a dense Indian settlement.
The great pioneer, Isaac McCoy, was permitted to
be present at the formation of this, the first Baptist
Church in the Indian Territory, which occurred Sep-
A MEMORIAL,. 67
tember 9, 1832. How deeply he was affected by the
joyous occasion is learned from his own words : " We
retired from our meeting, not only with solemn coun-
tenances, but many faces, both black and red, were
suffused with tears, and every heart seemed to be
filled. For myself I felt like seeking a place to weep
tears of gratitude to God, for allowing me to witness
a Gospel church formed under such auspicious cir-
cumstances in the Indian Territory, towards which
we have so long directed our chief attention with deep
solicitude."
The mission was reenforced in 1833 by the com-
ing of Rev. David B. Rollin and family, with two
assistants, who brought it out of a decline caused by
a blighting sickness, and made the vine to flourish
again. But disturbances arose, and they were advised
that it was not safe for them to stay in the Nation,
though they were finally freed from the charges pre-
ferred against them. Indians came from the East in
large numbers. " Chiefs and warriors, old and young,
were chained in couples until they reached the west
side of the Mississippi. This was done by hostile In-
dians, aided by the whites." The descendants of the
notorious Creek warrior, William Mclntosh, were jeal-
ous of the new people, and in asserting their own
supremacy declared that they had no right in the
country. In such circumstances it was difficult to
save the mission from extinction, especially as the
Creek council declared by vote that it was inexpe-
dient. And yet, in 1838, Rev. Charles R. Kellam, un-
der government appointment as teacher, settled at
Ebenezer, and was enabled to promote the growth of
the church.
68 POOR LO !
By " poetic " or other justice, three of the sons of
Gen. Mclntosh became Baptist ministers. This was
an honor he did not deserve, yet it might have been
much greater had they found in him that sympathy
for their calling which encourages young preachers
to do well.
Rev. James O. Mason, D. D., accepted an appoint-
ment of the Board in 1838, and was useful in many
ways ; very acceptable to the native Christians, but not
to the chiefs, who had become opposed to all mission-
aries in their country. As early as January, 1840, " the
enmity of a portion of the Creeks resulted in an at-
tempt upon the life of Mr. Mason. While walking
at a distance of two hundred yards from his house, he
was approached by three or four Indians, one of whom
discharged a gun at him. The ball passed through his
clothes within two inches of his heart. Another In-
dian rushed toward him with a bowie-knife. He es-
caped them, and immediately made the affair known to
the Agent, and through him to the chiefs, who denied
all previous knowledge of it. Having no security for
himself or his family for a single hour, Mr. Mason made
arrangements for an immediate removal from the Na-
tion. Thus nearly came to a martyr's end one who
was afterward prominent in the ministry for fifty years.
Some apology for the hostility of the Creeks may be
made on the ground of their serious and almost anni-
hilating defeats in battles with the whites, particularly
in encountering General Jackson. The disposition of
the Aborigine, individual or tribe, when soured is not
soon sweetened.
Great interest in the Ebenezer church and station
A MEMORIAL. 69
was felt by the Board, and in 1842 Rev. Evan Jones
was requested to visit it. He was "received with
great affection and joy. They said they had long
hoped their fathers in the East would not utterly for-
sake them, and that they believed this visit was in an-
swer to prayer. The religious meetings," Mr. Jones
adds, " are conducted by two black men, both slaves.
The oldest, Jacob, is ordained, and has the reputation
of a devoted Christian, both in the family to which he
belongs, and in the country generally. The other,
called Jack, is also a steady man, and bears a good
character. He is a blacksmith, and is employed as a
public smith. He and Brother Jacob are allowed one
day in the week to support themselves and families in
food and clothing. These days they devote to the serv-
ice of the church, and hire the working of their little
corn and potato patches. I found Brother Jack to be
a good interpreter, and had the pleasure of ready and
free communication with the people through him."
Thus Ethiopia stretched out its hands to help, rather
than be helped.
The Council of the Nation was almost unanimously
opposed to the preaching of the Gospel within its
bounds, the feeling having been embittered by the
whites ; yet one of the chiefs declared to Mr. Jones that
he had not the least objection, and that popular feeling
was not unfavorable. So, in 1843, another visiting
missionary, Mr. Kellam, reported work performed, and
a revival in progress from the commencement of the
year, which had spread nearly through the Nation.
About one hundred had been baptized by Jacob.
" Red, white, and black attend the meetings," it was
yo POOR 1,0 !
reported. " Jake preaches in the morning in English,
Jack in the afternoon in Indian, and James Marshall
at his own house in the evening; then there are
prayer meetings in various parts. At the north fork
Canadian River a meeting is held almost every night.
Some twenty ' doggeries ' are shut, we hope forever."
About two hundred were baptized during the year.
Jacob was ordained by Messrs. Kellam and Mason ;
James Ferryman, interpreter, also ordained. A church
of one hundred and seventeen members was organ-
ized, of such as first met approval ; two thirds of the
number, native Creeks.
A little later the Creeks held a national council, and
enacted a law that no Indian or negro should preach in
the Nation on penalty of whipping, and that no white
man should preach except by express permission.
This greatly distressed the Christians, but they said
that " they hoped they should pray on, and that none
could rob them of their religion without taking away
their hearts." Rev. Eber Tucker, experienced as In-
dian teacher, and appointed missionary to the Creeks
about this time, held several meetings just outside of
the Creeks' country. He wrote : " There are two places
in the Cherokee country, near the line of the Creeks,
where missionaries can be located so as to take the
supervision of the two Creek churches, and another
location in the Seminole country. The Seminole
agent said that his people would not consent to the
law passed by the Creek Council."
Mr. Tucker made a second tour to the Creeks, oc-
cupying twenty-six days, and traveling four hundred
and thirteen miles, during which he did much and
A MEMORIAL. !
learned much. There was a considerable awakening
on the subject of religion, and " the people had built a
meetinghouse twenty feet square, with a good chim-
ney, convenient seats, and a preacher's stand." He
had the consent of the principal chief, Roily Mclntosh,
and none molested. A number of the influential men
assured him that they would use every lawful means to
secure the passage of a law admitting the free preach-
ing of the Gospel. " In the event of refusal, they say
they will build houses in the Cherokee Nation, ad-
jacent to the line, at their own expense, if the Board
will send them missionaries; and the Cherokees say
they will give permission."
The opposition continuing, and Mrs. Tucker's
health declining, Mr. Tucker thought it advisable to
retire from the field. His work was productive of
great good. Two churches had been organized, Ebene-
zer and Canadian River; the first containing about one
hundred members, and the second two hundred and
twenty. The last year of his appointment he baptized
twenty in the Nation, and as many in the adjoining
country. The Board stated that the prospects of use-
fulness were inviting, but that the state of the funds
did not admit of immediate reinforcement. The oppo-
sition would not have stood before a vigorous, onward
movement by the Lord's hosts, and it is painful to state
that the work was suspended, especially as the final
word in 1845 was: "The progress of religion in the
Nation is cheering. Five individuals have been cruelly
scourged, but abide faithful." The school funds of
the Nation at this time amounted to four thousand
dollars a year, with land resources, the income of
72 POOR 1,0 !
which would have been as much more, and which the
tribe proposed to appropriate in the same direction.
This means the Creeks desired some society to aid
them in managing.
The story of missions to the Creeks does not end
here. The privations of missionaries and the scourg-
ings of submissive saints were had in remembrance on
High, and were not to be without their reward and
fruit. Though the church was in captivity in the
wilderness, yet deliverance was provided in another
quarter. The Canadian River alone separated the
Creeks from the Choctaws, and to the latter there
was free access. The missionaries crossed the river,
and, perhaps, having acquired the Indian habit, hov-
ered along the border of the country they wished to
subdue for Christ. Great meetings were held, and
numbers were baptized.
Yet a strong though silent movement, destined to
bring great things to pass, was starting in a distant
State. The unforgetting and unforgotten hero, Isaac
McCoy, had seemed to retire from the Indian country,
but only that he might organize a new effort for its
redemption. Finding a welcome in the locality from
which he went out, in his early manhood, he chose
the city of L,ouisville as a strategic point, and there
garrisoned his force. First, an informal meeting in
that city to consider the advisability of organizing an
association which should have for its exclusive aim
an evangelizing and civilizing movement among the
Aborigines ; then, the presentation of its conclusions
to the notable gathering in Cincinnati, known as the
Western Baptist Convention, in October of the same
A MEMORIAL. 73
year (1842). The organization was effected on the
latter occasion, and Mr. McCoy made its chief execu-
tive Corresponding Secretary and Agent and Louis-
ville, Kentucky, its seat.
The field-marshal of twenty-five years, known in
the seaboard cities, familiar at the seat of Govern-
ment, and recognized by his denomination as the un-
tiring friend of the helpless Indians, was the man to
administer, in connection with a sympathizing Board,
the important affairs of the American Indian Mission
Association. His own hardships assured in him a deep
sympathy for every missionary, while his knowledge
of the Indians aided him in forming plans for their
relief and formulating appeals to the public in their
behalf. The Association was willing to assume the
Indian mission work of the Indian Territory, operated
by the Baptist General Convention of the United States,
and the most of it was transferred to it.
It began the list of appointments with the names
of Rev. Johnston Lykins, who already had been in
the Indian mission for twenty-five years, and his
wife Delilah, daughter of the secretary, Mr. McCoy,
and one of his earliest gifts to the cause. Mrs. Ivy-
kins was also the first of the Association's missiona-
ries to be released from earth. The Master received
from her renewed evidence of fidelity to the cause of
the lowly, in one more year of consecration, then
bade her enter into His rest. She went to Louis-
ville, seeking recuperation in the arms of her parents
and by the aid of physicians, and when it became ap-
parent that she was incurable, nothing could deter
her from hastening back to the Indian country, that
74 POOR 1,0!
she might make her grave with those for whom she
had cherished a pitying interest from her childhood.
The next appointment was for the benefit of the,
Creeks and Choctaws ; that of Rev. Sidney Dyer, Ph. D.,
widely and favorably known in the denomination. He
was received with remarkable favor, traveled long dis-
tances, and preached to large assemblies ; " but, owing
to the ill health of himself and family, he left after a
residence of a few months." The people were widely
scattered, and many of them came twenty miles to
the worship ; came on Saturday and camped.
The church on Canadian River had two preaching-
places, and was thriving. At one of these places wor-
ship was first held in an evacuated storehouse. An
opposer to religion, though living a mile from it, said
"they made so much noise in worship that it hurt
his ears," and he pulled down the rude sanctuary.
But one brother remarked that "the sky was very
large, and they could worship under it " as they did,
with only a shade made of bushes.
There was a great awakening among the Creeks
at North Fork Town, about thirty miles distant,
which had been considered the very worst settlement
in the Nation. An old colored man, named Jesse,
was the righteous one for whose sake it was saved
from perdition. Through him an evil spirit, a fiddler,
who led in wickedness, was converted, broke his fiddle,
and spent his time in warning others. Many were
converted by his influence; the whisky shops were
closed, and instead of Harry's fiddle were heard the
songs of the redeemed.
Mr. Dyer, visiting and aiding in this meeting }
A MEMORIAL. 75
makes notes as follows : "I preached twice at Broth-
er Islands'. As it was the season when they hold
their annual Green Corn Dance, it was thought not
prudent to excite their passions by assembling in
great numbers in their immediate vicinity. So we
crossed over into the Choctaw country, and built a
camp by the side of a pond sufficiently deep for a
baptistery ; and here on Friday the people assembled,
about two hundred in number. We held a prayer
meeting and retired for the night. But soon the
heavens grew black and poured forth incessantly
their streams of fire; then followed the howling
storm and drenching rain. Having no shelter, we
were compelled to receive it on our crouching forms.
It rained during the night very severely. Sleep, of
course, was out of the question, but the nature of the
objects on which the mind dwelt enabled me to pass
the night very pleasantly."
Next day twenty-two were received for baptism.
On Sunday, with a greatly increased crowd of four
nationalities, and after three sermons, by the aid of
two interpreters, the ordinance was administered to
the above, adding one to the number an old African,
said to be one hundred and twenty years of age. A
church of the baptized was then constituted, called
the North Fork Baptist Church.
Subsequently Mr. Dyer visited the Creek Nation
again, and held a two-days' meeting. The natives
faced the danger of persecution, so earnest were they
for the soul's welfare. Some came a distance of sixty
miles. The camp, composed of five hundred or six
hundred horses, a large number of tents, and a great
76 POOR 1,0 !
concourse of people, was a wonderful spectacle to the
sons of the forest, many of whom united in the wor-
ship of God. On Sabbath forty-four were baptized,
thirty of whom were added to North Fork Church, now
numbering fifty-four, six weeks after its formation.
The remaining fourteen were added to an old church at
Tuckabatchee, twelve miles above, on the Canadian
River ; another instance of an organization that sur-
vived removal from the country east of the Mississippi.
It was constituted by Rev. Thomas Mercer in 1817, and
though the ordinances had not been administered the
organization had been maintained. Its members came
to the meeting with its original articles of faith in
hand, and returned with approval of the brethren, and
recruits for the membership. What a witness to the
Lord's watchcare is such a little church in the wilder-
ness!
One of the first persons converted in this meeting
was Joseph Islands, native Creek, who became eminent
for usefulness among his people. He immediately
began to preach the way of life as he had learned it ;
without a teacher he took the Bible in hand, praying
for divine guidance, and for another to come and
administer the ordinances. Imagine his joy when
Mr. Dyer appeared ! He was repeatedly forbidden to
preach Jesus, and threatened with whipping and the
destruction of his goods if he did so. Yet, testified
Mr. Dyer, he gave full evidence of his courage, zeal,
self-denial, and piety. He did not cease to warn men
day and night to flee from the wrath to come. He
moved out of a good house into a small log cabin, and
filled the former with seats, that he might have a place
A MEMORIAL. 77
to seat the people when he called them together. He
performed the main duties of a successful ministry for
two years before he had an opportunity of being bap-
tized. He declined to accept a draft of fifty dollars
from the Board, because of a well-grounded fear that
a knowledge of it would prejudice the natives against
his work, and begged that, instead, he might be pro-
vided with " some books that would bring me (him) to
the knowledge of the Gospel." And when Mr. Dyer
left the field he begged the Board to " send some other
man some man who is not afraid to die for Christ's
sake." He was ordained, the books furnished him, and
tw r o years later he was mentioned in the report of the
Board as " one of the most devoted and self-denying
men living."
In his peculiar, ingenuous fashion he describes
the proceedings of a general council of the Nation,
at which the law against " praying people " was pro-
claimed by one of the principal chiefs, the council
being hastily dismissed without giving the people an
opportunity to speak ; then adds: " We have had great
persecution here, which Brother Smedley has informed
you. Brother Jesse received fifty stripes, and Broth-
er Bitly received the same ; and Brother O-Sah-he-
na-hah, a native, received fifty stripes. These three
brothers belong to our Church. One colored man, a
member of the Methodist Church, has received fifty
stripes, and one native sister, of the same, received
fifty stripes, and it was supposed that she would die,
for they whipped her until she fainted, but she re-
covered. They commenced with the intention to whip
all we leading ones, saying that would stop all the
78 POOR
rest of them. They said we were the ones that's
causing all the people to pray. They wanted to whip
me and brother Harry; and on one Saturday the
opposing chief sent out and gathered his people to
come to our meetinghouse on the Sabbath to whip
us ; but God restrained their wrath, and some feared
to come upon us ; and from that time they never
whipped any more."
All legal objections to religious proceedings were
finally removed, and the Gospel continued to pre-
vail. Brother Islands was minister of the North
Fork Church and general evangelist. Yet his career
was short. In 1847 he attended the annual meeting
of the Indian Association at Nashville, Tenn., and
" excited much interest by his modest piety and warm
addresses in behalf of his people. His worn and at-
tenuated form too plainly gave evidence that his work
on earth was nearly done." He visited L,ouisville, and,
like David Brainard at Boston, obtained the assurance
that one would take his place, and returned to his
home with the glad intelligence. His successor, Rev.
A. L. Hay, from Georgetown College, promptly fol-
lowed, and found that his work was already finished.
He thus speaks of his last sufferings and triumph :
Patiently he bore his afflictions. His religious enjoy-
ments were as great as at any period in his Christian his-
tory ; his pains, however great, did not lessen the deep
interest he took in religion. When I returned from
church meeting he immediately inquired if any were re-
ceived for baptism. When religious papers came he was
anxious I should read to him whatever I thought inter-
esting ; would inquire whether there were any revival
A MEMORIAL. 79
intelligence from the United States or from any other
land. When writing a letter for him to Brother Potts,
our fellow laborer, he wished me to say, " I am wholly
devoted to the cause of Indian*Missions."
. . . Before his dissolution he wished to leave with
me what he supposed would be his last words. He said :
" I shall soon pass through the dark valley of the shadow
of death, but fear no evil. I am happy, happier than ever
before. You will succeed me in the ministry here." He
then offered a prayer that I might be sustained. " Warn
the people of the terrors of hell ; tell them of the joys of
heaven ; persuade them to flee the wrath to come ; say
to them that I could not meet my sufferings as I do, if it
were not for the grace of God; say to them that I already
enjoy heaven ; and tell them so to live that they may
meet me there."
After much long and intense suffering he died March 8,
1848. The house and yard were thronged; the entire com-
munity were his friends, and the members of his church,
numbering one hundred and seventy, were all here. At the
announcement of his death there was one general burst of
grief, and an Indian's lamentation is mournfully touching.
The " good Indian " was, in this case, the dead In-
dian ; good in Christ, and in the hearts of his country-
men ; freed from persecution and pain, and forever
with the Lord.
Mr. Hay was greatly prospered in the work from
his entrance upon it. In midsummer of his first
year a camp-meeting of four days was held, this being
a method of evangelizing fully approved, and free
from the abuses it often suffers among the " civilized."
There were sixty camps on the ground, and on Sunday
about one thousand people, from five principal tribes.
So POOR I/)!
At sunrise a prayer meeting was held, and preaching
service at eleven o'clock, and in the afternoon and
evening. Twenty united with North Fork Church ;
one of them, Gen. Chilly Mclntosh, the most talented
chief in the Nation, who gave an experience, in the
hearing of the great congregation, which had influence
with the people, while it showed the identity of convic-
tion and conversion wherever realized. This awaken-
ing resulted in many blessings, among which were the
accession to the church, also, of Chief Mclntosh's son,
the father of the lamented Islands, and the conversion
of another chief who had been the ringleader in sinful
amusements.
At this time there were three other churches raised
up in connection with the above, and entirely under
the missionaries of the Association, and they also had
enjoyed refreshing, and received large numbers to mem-
bership. And this was the section where, but three
years before, some of the disciples were beaten with
fifty stripes for presuming to pray, sing, and preach the
Gospel. The Council even opened its doors for preach-
ing, and Mr. Hay was permitted to address the " dig-
nities " with the words of Life. He conducted a
school also, by means of which many became able to
read the Scriptures for themselves and to others.
Mr. Hay and wife retiring from the service, Rev.
Samuel Wallace and wife took the position early in
January, 1850. Mr. Wallace expected to make teach-
ing a specialty, and to organize a manual-labor school,
but the sentiment of the Board having undergone a
change, looking to the giving of greater prominence
to preaching of the Gospel, " as more Scriptural, effica-
A MEMORIAL. 8l
cious, and much less expensive," he turned his atten-
tion to the latter. His labors were at once and greatly
prospered. The North Fork Church, constituted of
twenty-two members, on a rainy Sabbath, in the dark
wilderness, and under the bans of persecution, now
numbered its hundreds, and had within its fold some
of the chief men of the Nation, with freedom to wor-
ship God. Rev. Chilly Mclntosh and Rev. William
Mclntosh were native assistants.
Rev. Sidney Dyer, with some experience as agent
for the Association when it was first organized, and
with considerable knowledge of the Indian cause, de-
rived from actual missionary service, was chosen suc-
cessor to the lamented McCoy, as corresponding secre-
tary, and held the office for several years. The master-
workman had died, yet the work went on.
Rev. G. J. Johnson, D. D., whose privilege it was to
make several tours to the Indian country, and who
has a characteristic and keen appreciation of Chris-
tian work, favors the author with a free use of his
notes of observation ; and from these this memorial
is rendered more informing and animated than other-
wise it would be. Concerning experiences among the
Creeks, he says :
I was present in 1872, with Drs. S. W. Marston, of St-
Louis, and S. L. Helm, of Louisville, Kentucky, at the
camp-meeting in the Creek Nation, when the Muskogee
Association was organized ; and such was the impression
made upon all our minds, as visitors, of the glorious work
of the Gospel accomplished among that people, that we
were astonished that we had known so little concerning
it before, and that so little interest was felt in it by the
82 POOR LO !
outside world. Here were before us the representatives
of something like a score of Indian Baptist churches, and
two thousand members, all of whom, within, at most, a
quarter of a century, had been gathered into the King-
dom of Christ.
But no part of the exercises of the several days' camp-
meeting among the Creeks interested those of us who are
visitors more than their animated, melodious, and uni-
versal congregational singing. These Creek Indians have
peculiarly rich and musical voices ; much more so, I think,
than any other of the tribes I have heard ; and though,
while in their wild and un-Christianized state they never
sing, yet, so soon as converted, they seem intuitively to
understand that singing of holy songs is a part of Chris-
tian worship, and therefore a Christian duty, and hence
they all, immediately upon beginning a Christian life, be-
gin to sing.
My emotions can not be described, as on the Lord's Day
I sat before that vast congregation, numbering fully one
thousand, all closely seated under an arbor, and listened
to song after song rolling heavenward, every voice in the
vast assembly seemingly joining in the grand chorus. I
felt sympathy with the remark made to me just then by
Dr. Helm, who sat at my side : " I feel as though I never
want to hear white folks sing again, after hearing this."
Dr. Johnson comments as follows :
" The prominent agent in accomplishing this great
work among the Creek Indians is Rev. H. F. Buckner,
D. D., who, for most of twenty-eight years, has been a
devoted and untiring missionary among them. It will
be enough to say of him, that so is he appreciated
among the thousands of our denomination, more es-
pecially in the Southern States, where he is better
A MEMORIAL. 83
known, that when the denomination was called upon,
on the recommendation of the two brethren just
named, to build him a house as a testimonial of their
esteem and his usefulness, two thousand six hundred
dollars, in the course of about a year, came flowing in
from all parts of the land, and a beautiful house was
erected for him, which he now occupies, that would
become the suburbs of Philadephia even, or any other
city of our country."
84 POOR
VI.
BEGINNINGS; VOYAG-
ING; THE "ARK"; HORRORS OF RE-
MOVAL; STARTING IN THE WEST;
PHENOMENAL PROGRESS.
THE Choctaws, says a historian, possessed a fertile
country between the Alabama and Mississippi
Rivers, containing fewer brooks and rivers than that
of the Creeks. This circumstance was regarded as a
hindrance to their prosperity, because in war a knowl-
edge of swimming gave great advantage to their ene-
mies. They were Flat-Heads in fact, as some Pacific
Coast Indians now are in name. When a child was
born, the nurse provided a wooden case, or mold, into
which it was placed, prostrate upon its back ; then a
bag of sand was laid on its forehead, in order to flat-
ten the head, and in this situation it was borne about
until the proper shape was assured. The race in-
creased to the time of the outbreak of the civil war
(1861), when it numbered twenty-five thousand. It
was largely consumed in the war ; the facts proving in
this, as in the history of other tribes, that the decay of
the Indian nations is due to the white race rather than
to causes within themselves.
A mission to the Choctaws, under the American
A MEMORIAL. 85
Board, was begun at Eliot, east of the Mississippi, in
1818; Messrs. Cyrus Kingsbury and L. S. Williams,
missionaries, reenforced by a number from New York
and New Jersey. The facilities for transporting sup-
plies disappointed them, and some sickness prevailed.
" Still they persevered without repining, and in their
toils and sufferings laid the foundation of much good
to the people to whom they had been sent."
A school was opened and an unexpected pressure
manifest to enter it ; eight children being brought one
hundred and sixty miles before accommodations were
ready. At the close of the year it contained sixty pu-
pils, of whom sixteen could read the Bible with pro-
priety and ease. The Choctaws made liberal appro-
priations to it, a chief leading with a gift of two hun-
dred dollars from his Nation's annuity ; and a council
of lyower Towns voted two thousand dollars annually
for the support of a school in that district. The report
to the Secretary of War, specifying the reception of
cows, calves, and swine, and the improvements of the
premises within a year, proved that there was great
and increasing interest in the mission, and that the
Indian's appreciation of real benefit, sincerely be-
stowed, is equal to that of anyone.
The hardships of the missionaries were such as
pioneers usually experience. Supplies had to be pro-
cured at great distances ; some so far as fifteen hun-
dred miles. Letters lodged seventy-five to one hun-
dred and fifty miles from their destination. In explor-
ing for another site, in February, Mr. Kingsbury and
his local assistants were frustrated in efforts to reach a
house where they might lodge, and having collected
86 POOR 1,0!
some dry grass for a bed, without food or fire, and
with no covering but the branches of the forest trees,
they took their rest in this exposed fashion ; but God
made them to sleep in safety. And this spot was the
one selected for the mission station. God was in the
place, and they knew it not ; and the pillar that was
set up to commemorate the experience was called May-
hew noted as a missionary center.
A reenforcement of seven, with children, embarked
at Pittsburg in 1820. They chose the waterway the
Ohio, Mississippi, and Yazoo Rivers taking the craft,
then in common use, known as the "ark." " It was
fifty-six feet long, fourteen wide, and six high. The
bottom was perfectly flat, the roof convex, and the
walls at the sides and ends straight and perpendicular.
It had two long oars at the sides, and one at the stern
to serve as a rudder. The inside was divided into three
apartments. In one was a cow; one was a kitchen
and sitting-room ; and in the other, during the three
months of their descent, a school of ten children was
taught." Much good was jlone on the voyage by
preaching to the crews of other arks, holding service
at landings, and distributing tracts. On arriving at
the mouth of the Yazoo (Vicksburg), they took leave
of their ark to undertake an ascent of that river for
about two hundred miles. The company divided.
The first party went through the wilderness in a wag-
on to Mayhew, occupying"about six weeks ; a second
reached Eliot two months later by land ; and the third
ascended the Yazoo in a bateau, accompanied by a man
sent out from Eliot to aid them. After toiling three
weeks at the oar, the eldest son of the family aboard, a
A MEMORIAL. 87
youth of fifteen, became sick, and after languishing a
week, died, being more than one hundred miles from
any human habitation. The trial thus early experi-
enced will be more fully understood when it is stated
that his father was obliged to assist in digging the
grave and burying the body. He peeled the bark
from a large tree to mark the place. After stemming
the current about three weeks longer, with frequent
peril of life, the women taking turn at the helm, the
little band in the bateau arrived at Eliot, its destina-
tion.
The interests of the two stations, Eliot and May-
hew, were so advanced, and drew so large an attend-
ance of native pupils as to make it expedient to estab-
lish a number of others. In this way there would
be less concentration and confusion. Conversions at-
tended labor, and the prospects were bright indeed.
Hope revived among the Choctaws that they would not
be removed, but this was followed by the depressing
intelligence that they must go. They met the inexor-
able fate more calmly than did the Cherokees. They
looked at the religious aspects of the case, and peti-
tioned that the missionaries might be permitted to
accompany them, which was granted.
"Towards the close of the year" (1831), says the
narrator, "the removal actually commenced. The
season was unusually severe, and great suffering en-
sued. In gathering up all the inhabitants of an Indian
town, old and young, sick, lame, and destitute, agd
marching them five hundred miles through forests in
the winter, it could not be avoided. One body of
several hundreds passed through the Chickasaw
88 POOR i/) !
country, and halted a short time near Martyn. The
contractor seemed to do all in his power to render
them comfortable, but it could not be done. More
than nine tenths of the women, it was believed, were
barefooted, and a great majority of them obliged to
walk. One party came to Martyn and begged an ear
of corn for each, to appease their hunger. . . .
" The removal of the Choctaws went on, and the
amount of unavoidable suffering was great. Some, in
crossing the swamps of the Mississippi, were sur-
rounded by the rising waters, from which there were
no means of escape. The captain of a steamboat took
off one company who had been confined six days in
this perilous condition, and were near perishing with
hunger. He saw at least one hundred horses standing
frozen, dead, in the mud. Many persons died of sick-
ness brought on by exposure and fatigue, and many
by the cholera. The Christian Choctaws had morning
and evening worship in their tents or boats, and re-
fused to labor on the Sabbath, or to travel, unless com-
pelled. The captain of a boat that carried one party
remarked that they were the most religious people he
ever had to do with ; another said that ' their singing
and praying made the passage appear like a continued
meeting' ; and an Agent, who had the best opportunities
for judging, said that the trouble of removing those
who had been under missionary instruction was less
by one half than that of removing the others."
The schools naturally ceased to be, and were not
revived, nor were the farming enterprises in the new
country for several years. Some missionaries retired
from the service, and the government annuity was re-
A MEMORIAL. 89
linquished. The Nation was broken up. The two
missionaries longest in the Choctaw mission remained
in the old country to settle its concerns, and dispose of
the property that remained. The children were gone,
and there was no school ; yet one of the missionaries
labored in preparing a grammar and dictionary, and
the native Christians who still lingered about Mayhew
were cared for. Early in the autumn of 1833 the last
company of Choctaws departed for the West. The
whole number removed was about fifteen thousand.
Some remained in the old country, but only as indi-
viduals scattered among white people, and estimated
at three or four thousand.
Their territory in the West, lying just north of
Texas, was divided, politically, into three districts. On
their arrival from the East they divided, religious^
into two parties one favorable to Christianity and
one opposed. Rev. Charles E. Wilson, from Lower
Dublin Church, Philadelphia, began the Baptist mis-
sion to the latter in 1832, with Rev. Sampson Burch,
native Choctaw, as preacher. Locating at the Agency
on Arkansas river, Mr. Wilson opened a school, but,
on account of an epidemic, relinquished the position,
and gave himself to house-to-house work, caring for
the sick and for the needs of the souls about him.
After two or three years he left the work, and it was
taken up by Rev. Joseph Smedky and wife, and by
Rev. Eber Tucker and Dr. Alanson Allen, a little later
all under appointment of Government, yet holding
advisory relation to the Board of the Triennial Con-
vention. Ramsey D. Potts and wife, elsewhere men-
tioned, were also in the Choctaw work at this period,
90 POOR Lo!
as teachers, sustained, as were others, by the United
States. Mr. Potts was ordained in 1837, and made a
good record, as did his consecrated wife, of Indian
extraction, and already in the service when he entered
it. A fatal rage of smallpox in 1839 interrupted all
mission effort, and, though emigration from the East
continued, the actual number of inhabitants dimin-
ished.
An interest arose under the labors of Mr. Potts at
a station ten miles west of Fort Towson and five
miles north of Red River.' He had been ordained; and a
week afterward, October 15, 1837, a church was organ-
ized at that station, consisting of four members. It
was the first Baptist Church in the Choctaw territory,
and was named Providence. It soon increased to a
membership of eight. Miss lyucy H. Taylor, of Water-
ville, New York, entered the field as teacher, and in-
cluded instruction in needlework and music.
Hope seemed to have dawned, yet the Dayspring
from on High was the special need of the wilderness,
and, to secure this, missionaries were required who
could devote their time exclusively to the spiritual
wants of the community. The chariot of the L,ord
moved slowly, and for some years little appeared to
result; yet early in 1841 there occurred what Mr.
Potts gratefully acknowledged as a " glorious display
of the grace of God." " While at the water side, bap-
tizing, the Holy Spirit came down with power. The
stoutest hearts were subdued, the tear was seen in
every eye." About eighteen were thought to have
been converted, yet, baptism not being hastily admin-
istered, the church at the close numbered but sixteen.
A MEMORIAL. 91
In their joy the workers felt that the number of the
disciples had been greatly multiplied. God caused
the hope of the righteous to be gladness, and after a
few months Mr. Potts reported the baptism of twenty-
one at Providence and in the State of Texas, near
by, where he established a branch. A church had
previously been formed under his labors in Texas,
and another was constituted in the Territory, thirty-
five miles distant, making four. To all these he min-
istered, riding forty to ninety miles and preaching
three to six times every week, leaving an invalid wife,
besides teaching at the home station.
Under the circumstances his appeal to the Board
for laborers was quite pathetic, his sincerity and con-
secration being evinced by an offer to "throw his sal-
ary (as U. S. teacher) into the common stock." And
a committee of Choctaws seconded the appeal with a
strong one of their own, in which they expressed the
fear that they would be left destitute unless the Board
came to their rescue. The appeal closed with these
urgent words: " There is an increasing anxiety among
our people to be taught the truth of the Gospel ; and
we believe that if we had sufficient laborers the Gospel
would spread throughout the Choctaw Nation. We
wish you could know how much good has been done
within a few years past, and how much would be done
in the future. We believe if you knew our situation
here you would not hesitate to send help immediately."
In 1843 the number of the Providence church and
its branches was eighty-three ; and two native mem-
bers had been licensed to preach. The school con-
tained twenty pupils ; eleven of them boarded by Mr.
92 POOR 1,0 !
Potts, and five of the same at his expense. The work
of evangelizing enlarged upon his hands ; an assistant
teacher was procured, and he gave himself wholly to
it, with the help of the native preachers, Holmes and
Worcester, who were very zealous and successful. He
had made a tour to the eastern states, and having re-
turned with renewed encouragement he performed
more religious labor than before. He made long tours
among the Indians, hundreds of miles each, traveling
four of every five weeks, and witnessing a deep relig-
ious interest. " Four years ago," he reported, " this
place was a wilderness ; now the song of redemption is
echoing through woodland and prairie. . . . Pres-
ent number of the church, ninety-eight ; the number
of preaching places, twelve." Later: "The improve-
ment of the people for the last few years is great, in
industry, temperance, cleanliness, thrift, etc." Whole
number of members in the two Indian districts, Poshe-
mata and Arkansas, about one hundred and sixty.
It was in the period of these cheering successes
that the American Indian Mission Association was
formed. And within the Indian Territory the Choc-
taws and Chickasaws became merged in one, under
the title of the Choctaw Nation. They adopted a con-
stitution of civil government similar to the Constitu-
tion of the United States. And Mr. Potts, recognizing
the prosperity of mission work and the greater open-
ing at this time presented, desired an additional ap-
propriation that the Board did not feel prepared to
grant. By unanimity on the part of all concerned, he
and Mrs. Potts were commissioned at once by the
new Association.
A MEMORIAL. 93
The Choctaws (the united Nation) were estimated
as numbering 16,500. Their settlements indicated in-
dustry, comfort, and prosperity, while their civil, so-
cial, and literary institutions were in a high degree
creditable to them, above those of the original race
in North or South America ever before known. A
few years later they were reckoned at twenty thou-
sand, and half civilized, with eight Baptist missionaries
lifting them still higher in the scale of being.
The church called Canadian River had sprung into
existence through the persecution of the Christians in
the adjoining Creek Nation. It first had the services
of Rev. Joseph Smedley, but only for a short time,
when his children became motherless by the death of
his wife, requiring his removal to a more favorable sit-
uation in the State of Arkansas. But he was teacher
and missionary there a sufficient length of time to win
the highest regards of the natives. After ten years,
the Indian Association invited him to return to that
church and settlement. Interest seemed to have cen-
tered there, which was very gratifying, in view of the
opposition previously manifested toward the " uptalk-
ers," as Christians were called.
Mr. Smedley made Pleasant Bluff his home and
center, and resumed the work with great zeal, or-
ganizing it into four or five important preaching sta-
tions, and adding visits to the Creeks, Cherokees, and
whites. And after a year he reported interest in edu-
cation as " ten times greater " than when he was first
there, with some special religious gains. The chief of
the district, Peter Folsom, became a worthy member of
the church, and gave his aid and influence to the cause
94 POOR LO !
most cheerfully. He felt a desire to do missionary
work, and expressed a preference for it above the office
of chief. The Board appointed him, and the Yellobu-
sha Association of Mississippi assumed his support.
A year later, Mr. Smedley ascribes to his influence the
conversion and baptism of a number of " full bloods," in
a section where great opposition to the Gospel had
been manifested. This brings the narrative forward to
1852, when the cause was found to be in a hopeful
condition.
In 1844-45 a movement was on foot for establish-
ing an academy in the Choctaw country, and with good
promise of success. The Nation was entitled to an
annuity for educational purposes, which it proposed to
intrust, in large part, to the Association, and the latter
was to supplement it with a considerable amount. A
superintendent, Mr. R. D. Potts, assumed the headship;
prepared and cultivated forty acres of land, and in sub-
sequent years a larger amount, by the aid and for the
benefit of the students. The institution was named
Armstrong Academy, in honor of a government agent
who had favored it, and secured the general respect.
P. P. Brown, Jr., and his wife, with Mr. and Mrs. Potts
and Miss Chenoweth, did the teaching, and Mr. H. W.
Jones operated the farm. All seemed to be interested
in the final aim of the school the salvation and up-
lifting of the natives and worked to that end with di-
rectness and success. L/arge numbers were baptized.
Changes occurred in the teaching force ; some native
assistants were added, and a healthful tone of relig-
ious feeling maintained.
An Indian school was opened in 1818 at Blue
A MEMORIAL. 95
Springs, near Great Crossings, Scott County, Ken-
tucky, called Choctaw Academy, designed to be both
literary and industrial. It was under the superin-
tendency of the Kentucky Mission Society, while Col.
R. M. Johnson, the noted civilian, and the Government
were much concerned in its affairs. The Indians did
not readily become interested in it, because it was not
situated in the Indian country. An agent was neces-
sary to a supply of pupils, and only with persuasion
could they be obtained. The religious element was
effective in leading some to Christ. Its career was re-
spectable but brief. Afterward a school described as
" near the Lead Mines in Illinois, near the Mississippi
River" was understood to be the same.
Some effort was made, as early as 1821, for the im-
provement and salvation of the Chickasaws, once
numbering ten thousand, and dwelling, mostly, with-
in and south of Tennessee. The American Board
took the work thus begun, in 1827 ; and after seven
years of devotion to it the schools were closed and the
mission property sold because removal west was the
order of the Government. The Nation was merged
with the Choctaws. The Baptist Board did but little
in their behalf while they continued east of the Missis-
sippi, and there is no distinct record of effort for them
in the West, except in connection with the Choctaws.
96 POOR 1,0!
VII.
*smin$l*#FATC/XES; RESISTING
REMOVAL; FRIGHTFUL FIGHTING;
OSCEOLA AND "BIG KNIFE"; IN THE
WEST; JOHN JUMPER; NOTES BY
DR. G.J. JOHNSON AND DR.J. S. MUR-
ROW.
THE Seminoles are the fifth and the smallest of
the five Nations now recognized as constituting
the main population of the Indian Territory. In the
days when " the Injuns " were a public plague and a
fright to every home, this tribe was one of the most
notorious and troublesome. It is said to have been,
originally, a vagrant branch of the Creek Nation. Its
euphonious name, and its location among the pines
and everglades of Florida, taken with its tragic his-
tory, excite great interest in the minds of those who
read of it, while believers in missions naturally inquire
what has been done for the souls of this people, and
by whom.
The following description is by Mr. John Mclntosh,
who writes as one of the line of the noted Wm. Mcln-
tosh, Cherokee chief, and of Florida birth : " The Sem-
inoles, or I^ower Creeks, inhabited formerly east and
west Florida. They enjoyed a superabundance of the
A -MEMORIAL. 97
necessaries of life ; contented and undisturbed, they
appeared as blithe and free as the birds of the air, and
like them as volatile and active, tuneful and vocifer-
ous. The visage, action, and deportment of a Seminole
are the most striking picture of happiness in this life.
Joy, contentment, love, and friendship without guile
or affectation, seem inherent iu them, or predominant
in their vital principle ; for it leaves them but with
the last breath of life. On the one hand you see among
them troops of boys, some fishing, some shooting with
the bow, some enjoying one kind of diversion, and
some another ; on the other hand are seen bevies of
girls wandering through orange groves and over fields
and meadows, gathering flowers and berries in their
baskets, or lolling under the shades of flowery trees, or
chasing one another in sport, and trying to paint each
others' faces with the juice of the berries."
In 1705 the Seminoles aided in driving the Appa-
laches from Florida. In 1817 they united with the
Creeks and some negroes, who had taken refuge with
them, and ravaged the white settlements on the fron-
tiers of Alabama and Georgia, plundering plantations,
and carrying off" slaves whom they refused to surrender.
Gen. Gaines was sent to restore order, and having
failed, for want of a sufficient force, Gen. Jackson was
ordered to collect an army and conquer them. Fol-
lowing his own counsels, he made the warfare to
merge in an expedition to capture some of the Spanish
forts in Florida. This he declared to be necessary to
the suppression of the savages. His success led him
to proceed with a high hand, and to make all stand in
awe of him. The Indians called him Big Knife. And
98 POOR
the Spanish Government concluded it would be wise
to make peace with him and his country ; and this it
did by ceding to the United States the whole territory
of Florida, receiving some territorial consideration
therefor.
The Semineles were much affected by this trans-
action with Spain. Having been subdued, they could
easily read their doom on the clouds, or hear it in the
winds that moaned through the pines. "A treaty was
made by which they consented to relinquish to the
United States by far the better part of their lands, and
retire to the center of the peninsula a quarter consist-
ing for the most part of pine barrens of the worst de-
scription, and terminating toward the south in unex-
plored and impassable marshes." The object was to
relieve the white settlers of their depredations and the
fear of them. Yet the expectation was not realized,
for negroes followed and sought refuge with them, giv-
ing constant annoyance to their masters. The Indians
retired peaceably to the territory assigned them, but not
without a council of war, and a show of resistance on
the part of some. The Government made liberal pro-
visions for them, adding gifts of the necessaries of life,
and requiring, only, that they should not harbor ref-
ugee slaves, and should strive to save their owners from
losing them.
Harmony and satisfaction prevailed for some time.
Then the Seminoles were annoyed by much intrusion
on the part of the blacks, and much complaint from the
whites for not sending them back. Difficulties fol-
lowed for several years, then it was determined that
some means should be employed to remove these In-
A MEMORIAL. 99
dians from Florida. "Accordingly, in 1832, on the 9th
of May, a treaty was entered into on Ochlawaha River,
known by the name of the treaty of Payne's Landing,
by which they stipulated to relinquish all their posses-
sions in Florida, and emigrate to the country allotted
to the Creeks west of the Mississippi ; in considera-
of which the Government was to pay fifteen thousand
four hundred dollars on their arrival at their new
home, and give to each of the warriors, women, and
children one blanket and one homespun frock. The
whole removal was stipulated to take place within
three years after the ratification."
Ere long it became apparent that the Indians did
not mean to be removed. The territory of Florida
was in the hands of the United States, and the Gov-
ernor, Mr. Duval, had substituted a chief, Hicks, who
was supposed to be favorable to removal, and who fell
into the hands of the suspicious Indians and was exe-
cuted. His successor, Charles Omathla, shared a sim-
ilar fate for the same reason. Nine warriors came into
the council of the latter, and there shot nine bullets
through his heart. An undoubted character, chieftain
and warrior, was then chosen, named Louis, of known
hostility to the whites.
Gen. Wiley Thompson, Government Agent, con-
vened a council composed of several distinguished
chiefs; one of them the noted Osceola (Sun War-
rior) a half-breed, of warrior build, young, daring,
implacable. After Gen. Thompson had harangued
the council, as to the advisability of removal, point-
ing out the wrongs to which they were then liable,
Osceola bade all to remain firm, and with singular im-
IOO POOR I<O !
pertinence dismissed the assembly. One old chief re-
marked, privately, that " the Great Father's regard for
his red children had come upon his ears, but had gone
through them ; he wanted to see it with his eyes. He
(Great Father) took land from other Redskins to pay
them for theirs, and by and by he would take that
also ; the Whiteskins had forked tongues and hawks'
fingers ; the people in the great city made an Indian
out of paint, and then sent after him and took his
lands " (alluding to portrait paintings in Washington).
He wanted, he said, to sleep in the same land with
his fathers, and wished his children to sleep by his
side.
General Thompson continued to create sentiment
in favor of removal, as he felt authorized to do;
but his course greatly incensed Osceola, who, by
reason of the altercation that followed, was arrested
and put in irons. While in chains the revenge of the
savage nature was fully aroused in him ; he determined
to resist the whites at all hazards. By dissembling
submission, and, with a large number of his people,
signing to that effect, he completely deceived and dis-
armed his antagonist. With a small band he sur-
prised the General and nine others, when dining near
Camp King ; and only one half of the number escaped
with their lives, the General being one of the slain.
As the time approached for the removal to occur,
the Indians made preparations to resist it. Extra
time was granted them to prepare for their journey
and settlement on the Arkansas, and it was occupied
in preparing for a war of resistance. Acts of violence
increased as they contemplated the scenes before
A MEMORIAL. IOI
them ; and thus affairs continued until December, the
month in which the limit of their stay was reached.
Then they were ordered to bring in their cattle and
horses, and surrender them for sale according to the
terms of treaty. The Agent was so confident of their
appearance that he designated the first and the fif-
teenth as days for the sale to take place. But not
an Indian appeared. So far from it, the women and
children had been sent into the interior, and the war-
riors were marching from place to place, ready to
strike for their rights.
Beginning by burning the dwellings of the whites
and shooting all they met, they created intense and
widespread consternation. They furnished themselves
with supplies from the homes and stores they de-
stroyed. The details of the devastation wrought are
among the most shocking in all Indian annals. They
were best prepared, and so had great advantage of the
whites, while their aptness in " surprising " their ene-
mies added to their chances. The defeat of Major
Bade and his gallant command of seven officers and
one hundred and ten men all of whom, except three
horribly mangled privates, were slain in close and ter-
rible conflict forms one of the most tragic pages in
the early history of the country. The battle took place
December 28, 1835, at Ouithlecooche, not far from
the head of Tampa Bay. The bodies of eight officers
and ninety-eight men were recognized and buried,
and a cannon a six-pounder recovered from a swamp
where the Indians had thrown it was placed, verti-
cally, at the head of the grave. Another bloody en-
gagement occurred three clays later, in the same place,
IO2 POOR
with Osceola in the lead of the Indians and Gen.
Clinch at the head of the United States troops. The
latter was triumphant. Gen. Clinch was exceedingly
valiant, and, though his clothing was perforated with
bullets, and his horse shot beneath him twice, he was
spared to his country. Major Bade, equally valiant,
lost his life while leading his men in the hottest of the
battle.
The Seminoles were dispersed, but very desperate.
The war was one of extermination. The white settlers
were pillaged and distressed in every way, making an
appropriation by Congress necessary for their relief.
Attacks and reprisals were constant and fatal. Gen.
Gaines entered the arena of war, and, with the pres-
ence of Gen. Clinch, impressed the Indians with the
might of the white army, causing them to sue for
peace. They, however, were held in doubt. Gen.
Scott, succeeding Gen. Wool, arrived afterwards, with
orders to assume chief command. He directed that
the main campaign be suspended until autumn.
As to success in removing the Seminoles, the fol-
lowing record is found : " There had been about four
hundred Seminoles collected at Tampa, chiefly women
and children of Black Dirt's tribe, who were on the
1 2th of April shipped off for ' beyond the Mississippi '
by Gen. Scott." But such a record is not often met.
The war did not stop, though for a time formal
hostilities were suspended. The Indians made their
cessation temporary, and on account of fear only, for
the fires of their vengeance could not long remain low.
Their leaders, who were implicitly trusted, had a
bravery that would not abate, and they determined to
A MEMORIAL. 103
hold the land of their pride, or fertilize it with their
blood. The United States, on the other hand, did not
think of stopping the contest except by conquest,
which was more difficult to achieve than the Govern-
ment had imagined. There is no sure rule for deter-
mining when an Indian war is ended.
Gen. Zachary Taylor finally came upon the scene
to participate in the tragedy. The amicable treaty of
Fort Moultrie, in 1823, by which the Seminoles were
to retire within certain parts of Florida, embracing five
million acres, and to receive an annuity of five thou-
sand dollars for twenty years, became unsatisfactory to
all concerned, except such whites as intruded for pur-
poses of violence and robbery. The treaty of 1832, at
Payne's Landing, was signed by only fifteen chiefs and
head men, and its validity was to depend upon its rati-
fication after the new country should be visited by a
deputation of competent chiefs. The report from this
" promised land " was to be the basis of action. The
visitation was made, and then the paper drawn up for
them, and, which they signed, was made to express
more than they intended to say. The deception was
exposed in open council with the Government's men,
in 1834. They supposed that they merely expressed
themselves pleased with the country. They saw that
they would be surrounded by hostile neighbors. They
also called attention to the fact of the Government's
agreement of 1823, which was to be in force for twenty
years, but which was now to be displaced by another,
insisting on their removal. Besides, the treaty of 1832
was not confirmed at Washington for two years, and
this delay greatly weakened its validity.
IO4 POOR I,O!
While a few prominent chiefs were willing to go,
the body of the tribe were unchangeable in their oppo-
sition. The Government was planning to put them
with the Creeks, under one Agency. Nothing could
have been more repugnant to them than this method
of obscuring their ancestral glory, and exposing them
to tribal bickerings. In a final large assemblage of
chiefs their spokesmen maintained that they were a
large Nation, and were entitled to a separate nation-
ality, with their own agent, and allowances of men and
materials, to help them on to prosperity ; and that if
these wants should be met they would be content to
go and stay, but if not, not. To these reasonable de-
sires it was replied by the President, Gen. Jackson
(said to have been " very angry "), that it was very pre-
sumptuous to suggest them. He had determined that
they should go, and any new proposition tended to de-
lay, and made him more willful.
For four years from the time when the Seminoles
were to emigrate there were frequent conflicts in differ-
ent parts of Florida, all of the most bloody and barba-
rous nature. There were no laws of so-called civilized
warfare in force. The issue turned upon the greatest
slaughter. The Indians knew no rule except that of
the best chance and any chance to kill. They had no
thought of saving life, and the whites were compelled
to pursue the same policy of destruction. They did
not care to capture Indians, but, rather, wished to ex-
terminate them. Engagements took place in rapid
succession, and with only the formality of border war-
fare, if with any at all..
In 1837 there was an appearance of weakening on
A MEMORIAL. 105
the part of the Indians. The great chiefs, Osceola and
Micanopy, were disposed to confer with the com-
manders of the army, and inferior chiefs said they
would emigrate if their superiors should so direct.
Gen. Jesup, in command, had thousands of them near
by receiving rations, and was confident that the oppo-
sition had been broken. By the middle of May " he
had lying at Tampa twenty-four transports to take off
the Indians ; but, to his great astonishment, on the
morning of the second of June he found that nearly all
of them had fled into their own wilds and fastnesses."
Evil reports and jealousies retarded the movements.
The President was impatient, and the Secretary of War
issued orders for enlisting western Indians to fight the
Seminoles. And within two months thereafter up-
wards of one thousand from the southern and western
tribes were on the field as allies to the whites.
In October of this year Gen. Jesup set a snare for
Osceola, and by a series of approaches and inveigle-
ments through others succeeded in capturing him and
about seventy-five others several of them " principal
chiefs." They were taken with loaded rifles in their
hands, disarmed, and confined in the fort Fort Pey-
ton, several miles south of St. Augustine, where the
stratagem was enacted. .A largC number were cap-
tured and confined at St. Augustine. And the pur-
suit was prosecuted with vigor until, by December,
there were at the various posts in Florida eight thou-
sand nine hundred and ninety-three men. Some, how-
ever, made a successful escape. In the same month
occurred one of the most sanguinary conflicts of the
whole war the battle of Okechobee Lake, under Gen.
106 POOR ix> !
Zachary Taylor. It was one of the many instances of
hommock and swamp warfare, and was disastrous to
both sides.
It being necessary to abbreviate this narrative, the
fate of the notorious, perhaps illustrious, Osceola will
only be mentioned. Shortly after his capture he was
taken to Charleston and confined in the fort in the
harbor, until, with others, he should be sent to the
West. And there, in Fort Moultrie, on January 30,
1838, he died of catarrhal fever. Dr. J. S. Murrow
states that he died of a broken heart. Dead, but not dis-
graced by being " shipped " to Arkansas. His name
will stand in the South as does that of Philip of Poca-
noket in the East a name on which to build a story
of bravery and bloodshed for country and kindred,
scarcely excelled.
This year, 1838, General Jesup and other officers
were beginning to contemplate more seriously the
difficulties in the way of removing the Seminoles,
notwithstanding their own successes; and a com-
munication was addressed to the Secretary of War,
suggesting that they be permitted to remain in that
part of Florida where " no one else could live." The
suggestion met with no favor, and the process of se-
curing squads of m5u, women, and children Indians
and negroes went slowly on. Gen. Jesup was ordered
to proceed with them to the Cherokee country, leaving
Gen. Taylor in command in Florida. Many of the
chiefs had been sent out of the country, and some
were aboard his transports. Of the latter, two did not
live to reach their destination Jumper, dying at the
barracks in New Orleans April 19, and King Philip,
A MEMORIAL. 107
who died on his boat in July, below Fort Gibson. The
former was buried under arms, and with much cere-
mony ; the latter, on shore, with the honors of war
one hundred guns being discharged over his grave. In
October seven thousand regular troops were sent to
Florida, and Gen. Taylor, being authorized, sent to
Cuba for a large number of bloodhounds, to scent
out the Indians, and for Spaniards to manage them.
The expedient was moderately successful, and had its
humorous as well as tragical features.
A more humane method was also tested. A deputa-
tion of those Seminoles who had been living for some
time beyond the Mississippi was sent for, with a hope
that they would be able to persuade their countrymen
to remove to the West. Fourteen chiefs, and others of
high standing, among them the noted chiefs Alligator,
Holatoochee, and Micanopy, representing those who
had been violently opposed to removal, undertook the
hopeless cause. To prove their sincerity, they left their
wives and children and made a march of four days,
one hundred miles, and made the effort in good faith.
Six days were occupied in conferences, without any
known stirring of " bad blood "; then, in the night
and very unceremoniously, all of the Florida Indians
in council left for their old haunts, and their absence
was not discovered until morning. Those from Ar-
kansas were " utterly astonished " at this outcome.
And Gen. Armistead, commanding there (Fort King),
despairing of a successful termination of the war by
pacific measures, immediately ordered the command-
ers of regiments to put their troops in motion.
Slaughter and removal proceeded, as either became
108 POOR LO!
possible, until eight years of the terrible business had
passed, when, it may be said, though with a double
meaning, that the Seminoles were " removed." Hun-
dreds and thousands fell in conflict; a considerable
number fell on their westward journey, and died
without a country, while others became the victims
of disease and crime in their new situation. And
thus all were "removed." Who gained the victory?
Death !
Speaking of " the proper fruits " of evangelizing
among the Indians, Dr. G. J. Johnson, after a personal
visit, says : " When John Jumper, the chief of the
Seminoles, first became a believer and rejoiced in the
Christian's hope, he said ' I want all my children to
know about this '; meaning, by his ' children/ the peo-
. pie of his tribe. And from that time he has been an
earnest Christian, and not only in his private life
done what he could, but as a minister and pastor
also has been somewhat active notwithstanding the
duties of head chief were, at the same time, for many
years required of him." He observes that Indians
build meetinghouses, as the four good ones he helped
to dedicate testify. They do a little in support of pas-
tors, colporter, missionary and Sunday-school work,
notwithstanding their poverty, enforced, in part, by
lack of incentive to labor for permanent homes. As to
credit for these fruits he says :
" The greater credit for this work done in the In-
dian Territory, so far as Baptists are concerned, should
be given to our brethren of the Southern Baptist Con-
vention. They have, more fully than our brethren in
the North, believed in the possibility and hopefulness
A MEMORIAL. lOQ
of Indian evangelization, and have done much more in
supporting missionaries, building houses and aiding
other work there. And this was fit and proper, for a
large proportion of these Indians have always been
Southern in their sympathies ; many of the Indians
were slaveholders in the days of that institution, and
during the War of the Rebellion espoused the cause
of the Confederacy, and some enlisted in its army."
It is through the immediate observation of the
writer of the above that the reader is favored with a
definite and reliable characterization of this illustrious
Seminole. His name will always appear in the Indian
annals, and be cherished by the denomination whose
principles he conscientiously embraced and firmly
maintained. Dr. J. states, in substance :
" John Jumper, a nephew of the old war chief Jump-
er, is a noble specimen of an Indian man, a Christian,
and a Baptist minister. He is a full-blooded Seminole,
fifty-five years old, with slight gray tinging his jet
black hair, six feet and four inches in height, and
weighs two hundred and twenty-five pounds. His
features indicate fair intelligence and strong will, and
yet great benevolence, all of which are said to prom-
inently characterize him. He is earnest and active
as a Christian, and loves the work of the ministry.
Withal, he is somewhat wealthy, and is, therefore, in
his circumstances, as well as by constitution, a natural
leader among the people of his tribe. He has held
the position of head chief of the Seminoles for about
twenty-five years, until a few months since, when he
declined a reelection, that, as he said, he might devote
himself more fully to the preaching of the Gospel
among his people."
no POOR LO!
The above is well sustained in a personal notice
by Rev. J. S. Murrow, D. D., Superintendent of Mis-
sions in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories, writ-
ten twenty years later, and published in The Home
Mission Monthly, viz.: " John Jumper emigrated to In-
dian Territory with the first bands of Seminoles who
came west. He was then about twenty-five years old.
Soon after he was elected principal chief of the semi-
noles, which position he held for twenty-five or thirty
years. He is a man of fine sense, impartial judgment
and excellent administratrive tact and capacity. The
Seminoles, though the smallest of the five civilized
tribes, have maintained a respectable and influential
position, chiefly through Jumper's leadership. He has
been to Washington City several times in the interest
of his people, and always won the respect of the lead-
ing public men of that city."
He became a Christian in 1855, and united with
the Presbyterian Church. Afterward witnessing the
administration of baptism in Canadian River, by Dr.
Murrow, he was led to investigate the subject. The
result was that in 1860 he became a Baptist, and in
1865 was ordained. Dr. Murrow further states: "He
has ever since been a tower of strength to our Baptist
interests among the Muskogees, Seminoles, and the
wild tribes on the western border of this Territory.
John Jumper is a deep thinker. I have heard him
deliver in his own language sermons that abounded
in profound thought; solid truth, delivered in the
most tender and pathetic style. . . . His last days
are being spent in securing a correct translation of
the New Testament into his native tongue, the com-
mon language of the Muskogees and the Seminoles."
A MEMORIAL. Ill
A glimpse of later experiences of the Seminoles
embraces further accounts of their religious history ;
and without this the foregoing would scarcely be satis-
factory to the reader. Still, these sketches, as a whole,
can not be made to reach a point later than the mid-
dle of the century. To do more requires another vol-
ume. The following letter is self-explanatory. The
writer of it, who speaks with modesty, is awarded
special recognition by the friends of missions, for the
important and leading part he has maintained in the
cause of the Seminoles.
ATOKA, INDIAN TERRITORY, March 10, 1896.
Rev. W. N. Wyeth, D. D.
DEAR BROTHER : Prof. W. P. Blake has referred to me
your letter to him requesting a brief history of the mis-
sion work among the Seminoles, with a request that I
reply. I am familiar with the history of that nation, being
almost the father and founder of it. I hastily dictate the
following data.
The Seminoles sold all their lands in Florida in 1832,
and agreed to move within three years to the West. Many
of the Creeks, or Muskogees, had already moved to this
country. The Creeks and Seminoles are one people. The
Seminoles came, 1833 to "36. They settled on Ah-chin-na-
hut-che (Little River) in western portion of Creek Nation.
At that time both these tribes were bitterly opposed to the
introduction of Christianity among them. They brought
with them many negroes, most of whom were slaves.
Among these negroes were a few Christians. The Indians
would not permit these negroes to hold religious meet-
ings. They were watched closely, and when the Indian
light horseman discovered any number few or more in
112 POOR 1,O!
secret Christian meeting, they were severely punished by
being tied to trees or posts, *and whipped fearfully on the
bare back. This gradually passed away. Some of the In-
dians became interested in Christianity. The laws against
" praying " were repealed. Missionaries were allowed to
settle in both Nations, and the Indians and negroes per-
mitted to hold meetings and organize churches.
The Presbyterians were the first to begin mission work
among the Seminoles. Rev. John L,illy and Rev. Robert
Ramsey established a mission on Little River in 1852.
For several years it was quite successful. There was a
good school, and a church was organized. About the
same time Rev. Monday Durant, a negro Baptist preacher
among the Creeks, began visiting and preaching to the
negroes among the Seminoles. He was not a slave; was
an earnest Christian and good preacher. A church was
organized in 1854, at first composed wholly of negroes.
The first Seminole convert was James Factor, quite a
prominent man, a good interpreter, and a warm friend of
the chief, John Jumper. The Seminoles were very indig-
nant. Factor was arrested and brought before a large
council. Some advocated that he be shot; others, that he
be expatriated ; and others, that he be severely beaten and
compelled to renounce Christianity. He remained firm,
and declared that he would never renounce his new-found
joy and hope. Chief Jumper had himself secretly become
interested in Christianity, through the Presbyterian mis-
sionaries, and sought to release Factor. The trial was
put off from time to time, until public indignation was al-
layed, and Factor was pardoned.
Some time after, Jumper was converted, and united
with the Presbyterians. About this time, 1855, Rev. John
D. Bemo, a half-breed Seminole, who had been partially
educated by the Presbyterians in Philadelphia, was sent
out by their Board to ..einforce the work in the Creek and
A MEMORIAL. 113
Seminole Nation. He settled among his own people. Af-
terwards he met Rev. H. F. Buckner, Baptist missionary,
and some of the Creek Baptist preachers, became converted
to Baptist faith and practice, and was baptized and or-
dained.
In 1857 J. S. Murrow was sent out by the Southern
Board, from Georgia, and settled among the Seminoles
on Little River. Bemo and Murrow worked together,
and the Holy Spirit blessed their labors abundantly.
Several churches were organized among the Creeks. In
1859-60 the Seminoles moved sixty miles farther west,
upon a reservation set apart by the U. S. Government.
In this new country, in the spring of 1861, Mr. Murrow
organized the first Baptist Church among the Seminoles.
It was called E-su-hut-che (Ash Creek). Chief John
Jumper was one of the first to unite with it by baptism
after its organization, he having become converted from
Presbyterian ism to Baptist faith and practice. The his-
tory of his conversion is quite interesting. The church
grew rapidly. Baptisms were frequent. But, alas ! the
dark days of war drew near. The Indians were forced to
take sides. Half of the Seminoles chose to remain loyal
to the United States. They removed fled to Kansas with
their wives, children, stock, and all else they could carry.
The warriors of the other half were mustered as soldiers
in the regular Confederate Army. Ere long their families,
too, were compelled to become refugees. They removed
south, towards Texas. The whole country was full of
outlaws. White guerillas from both sides, led by a few
Indians of like lawless disposition, made the Territory a
common raiding ground. Stock of all kinds was driven
both north and south, and sold to the armies. // was an
mi'ful time. Robbery, murder, lawlessness were rampant.
The passions of red and white were given loose rein. Each
side devastated the possessions of the other. Even the
114 POOR LO !
missionaries were divided. Mr. Bemo went north, Mr.
Murrow south. The Seminole church was nearly all with
the southern wing. Churches among all the Indian tribes
were broken up, because all the tribes, except the Choc-
taws and Chickasaws, were divided and had become ref-
ugees from their homes. The Seminole church, however,
continued intact. Mr. Murrow remained with -his people.
There were several thousand Seminoles and Creeks, and
he . was appointed, by the Confederate Government, Sub-
sistence Agent for these destitute Indian women, children,
and old men. He bought large quantities of beef, cattle,
corn, meal, flour, salt in Texas, and distributed the same
to them. .
At the same time the mission work was uninterrupted.
The camps were necessarily moved every few months. The
erection of a large arbor in the center of the camp was usu-
ally one of the first things attended to. Meetings were
held regularly. Only one Lord's Day, during three years
of this camp-life, was there no service. Mr. Murrow bap-
tized over two hundred Indians during those years. Fi-
nally the war closed. Messrs. Jumper and Factor were
ordained, and returned with their people to [their devas-
tated country. Mr. Murrow settled among the Choctaws,
frequently visiting the Seminoles. In 1874 Rev. A. J. Holt,
of Texas, settled among the Seminoles as missionary. He
remained less than two years, and removed to Anadarko,
among the Blanket Indians. There are now four Indian,
and two or three negro churches, with about four hun-
dred members, among the Seminoles. Yours,
J. S. MURROW.
There is an important institution of learning, also,
the Seminole Academy, under the principalship of
Prof. W. P. Blake.
A MEMORIAL. 115
VIII.
CARED FOR,- MOVING
WEST,- AMONG THE WYANDOTS;
CHIEF JOURNEYCAKE, FAMILY AND
CHURCH.
AT the beginning of the last century (A. D. 1700)
there existed in western New York a confederacy
of Indians known as the Five Nations. These were
the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida.
The league seems to have been formed without for-
mality and without a date. It was a growth. The Mo-
hawk, being the oldest and strongest Nation, drew to
itself younger and weaker ones. The Tuscaroras from
Carolina entered the confederacy later, causing it to be
called, also, the Six Nations. It had prominence for
a long period, not s6 much in its federate form as in
its racial character. When Indians were Anakims and
numerous they attracted attention and excited fear ;
but since the white race has multiplied most, and out-
stripped them on all lines of civilization, they are
now neither feared nor followed, and are less and less
estimated as elements of American life. It is barely
known that remnants of those "Nations" still occupy
places in tue State of New York.
n6 POOR 1,0!
But in the early part of the present century (A. D.
1800) they drew from Christian people that regard
which the teaching of Jesus Christ requires. Being
regarded as heathen, efforts for their evangelization
began at religious centers. First, by the New York
Missionary Society, in 1801. Then, in 1807, by the
" L,ake Baptist Missionary Society," having head-
quarters at Hamilton, New York, near the heart of
the State. The latter town was a radiating center of
religious power, and expedients for helping the help-
less were there devised and put into effective use. The
Society was chartered as the " Hamilton Baptist Mis-
sionary Society." It sent the best preachers it could
obtain to the front ; some to the Five Nations.
In the same year (1807) the Spirit that called up-
on the Church at Antioch to separate Paul and Barna-
bas for a mission to the heathen, was inspiring young
men at Williams College to undertake similar work
in the East. There were two centers at which special
acts of consecration were witnessed by the Omniscient
One at about the same time. The one in a meadow
near the above college, and at the side of a stack of
hay, where a few students met to fast and pray, and
consider their duty to the benighted nations of Earth ;
the other, on the brow of a hill where now stands
Colgate University, and where a saint of God bowed
at the side of the first tree felled upon his farm, and
gave himself and his entire possessions, with what he
might acciimulate, to God and to truth. A church, an
institution of Christian learning, a radiating center of
truth, bestowing its blessings upon the darkened habi-
tations of all lands, attended the consecration. The
A MEMORIAL. 117
bended knee upon the cold ground, in both cases, drew
the divine benediction. Eastward and westward flew
the angels of mercy, sent and supported by these
nurseries of piety, upon which came the blessing of
those neglected and ready to perish.
The Five Nations felt the power at Hamilton,
which, in other forms, has continued to this hour.
Though they have lost their national significance,
they are better in every respect by reason of those who
have carried to them the glad tidings ; while numbers,
once identified with them, are, doubtless, shouting
hosannas in the heavenly world by reason of what was
done for them in this. Baptist missions were main-
tained for the Tuscarora and other tribes in northwest-
ern New York for fully forty years 1809-1850. Other
denominations have had a large force of workers on
the same field. The dispersion of the Five Nations,
the ceding of their lands to the United States in the
early part of the present century, and the loss of the
racial ambition represented in the great Cayuga chief,
Logan, and in the Seneca chief and giant, Red Jacket,
resulted in diminutive reservations within the State of
New York, and a lessened missionary zeal in their be-
half.
As early as 1824 a mission was established at Tona-
wanda, New York (not far from Niagara Falls), by the
Genesee Baptist Missionary Society, to benefit a com-
pany of Indians composed of remnants of the Seneca
and Tuscarora tribes. The station was placed just
outside the limits of their possessions, to avoid an ap-
pearance of seeking to gain their lands. Many chil-
dren were supported and instructed. Buildings were
n8 POOR 1^0!
erected and some conversions secured. Abel Bingham
and his wife, and Miss Sophronia L,yncoln were en-
gaged in carrying on the school.
After about ten years, or in 1833, this mission is
observed to be prospering, and under the supervision
of a Board appointed by the Baptist Convention of
the State of New York ; Rev. Eli Stone, Superinten-
dent. Its property at that time consisted of one hun-
dred and twenty-four acres of land, with buildings, in-
cluding a schoolhouse. The church was composed
of thirty members ; besides, the missionary family had
a house and maintained regular worship. From twenty-
five to thirty-five children were usually taught, fed,
and clothed at the station ; many of them being able
to read the Bible with ease and propriety. " Should
this people ever emigrate to the West," wrote Mr.
Stone, " they will carry the Bible and the Savior."
After another decade Rev. A. Warren, preacher
and superintendent, with Mrs. Warren and two other
female assistants the mission seems to have had suc-
cess in leading the Indians to Christ. A good number
had been baptized at the main station, and a still larger
number in a neighboring settlement. Yet Indian
churches do not become large, owing, in part, to the
migratory, or nomadic, life of the natives. The boys
had been taught practical agriculture, and the girls
housewifery ; and there was an increase of industry
and temperance.
The Stockbridge Indians are remembered as a Mas-
sachusetts tribe, and subjects of missionary effort by
John Sargeant, Jonathan Edwards, and others, about
the middle of the eighteenth century. Their "star"
A MEMORIAL. 1 19
.moved westward, of course, and they settled in the
State of New York, where, in 1828, the American
Board met them with a vanguard of missionaries,
whose work is traceable for ten years. In 1838 the
tribe is found, in whole or in part, in Wisconsin. The
annals of Isaac McCoy contain the following interest-
ing facts:
A band of Stockbridge Indians in Wisconsin Territory,
originally from the State of New York, treated with the
United States in September (1838), and sold half their land,
and about one half of them agreed to remove to the West.
These, anticipating the ratification of their treaty by the
vSenate of the United States, emigrated on their own re-
sources, and reached the country of the Delawares in De-
cember. They removed under a belief that Govern-
ment was prepared to give them land, and immediately on
their arrival called on me to ascertain where they could
find a suitable location, when it appeared that in their
treaty there was no stipulation providing a home for them.
They are somewhat related to the Delawares, and they ap-
plied to them for permission to settle on their lands, which
was granted upon the condition that the United States
would add somewhat to their tract. The Stockbridges
then applied to me to endeavor to get an amendment to
their treaty, by the United States Senate, to provide land
as desired by them and the Delawares. The two parties
propose to occupy the same tract in common, and that the
Stockbridge shall become merged in the Delaware tribe.
Among these late immigrants are several who are pious,
and the brethren Lykins, Barker, and Blanchard have estab-
lished religious meetings among them in their encamp-
ment in the wilderness, the exercises of which have been
very satisfactory.
I2O POOR LO !
Henry Skiggett, native assistant in the Delaware
mission, had been visiting the Stockbridges in Wis-
consin, and had met a fellow Christian there, with
whom he united in religious services in their behalf.
And on their journey they had prayers, and other relig-
ious exercises, to which zeal and fidelity may be at-
tributed the conversion of some of them, who, not long
afterward, were baptized, and became members of the
Delaware church. From 1840 Stockbridge became
one of the stations of the Shawauoe mission, which,
on January 31, 1842, was organized, and authorized to
elect officers through whom the Board might transact
business. Rev. and Mrs. J. G. Pratt were authorized
to remove to Stockbridge at the earnest solicitation of
the Indians of that place, taking the printing press and
a lady teacher ; the natives engaging to aid in erecting
a printing office and a schoolhouse. This prospect of
enlargement was clouded, through that peculiar disposi-
tion common to humanity jealousy. The Delawares,
on whose territory they were, professed to fear "lest
the Stockbridges become too wise, and outwit their
great-grandfather, the Delaware chief." Yet Mr. Pratt
continued to visit them from Sabbath' to Sabbath,
thirty miles distant, often accompanied by the teacher,
Miss Jane Kelly. Eventually the way was opened for
settlement there, and it was effected under auspicious
circumstances. The congregations were large, some-
times composed in part of white settlers, and acces-
sions of Stockbridges from Green Bay were fre-
quent. Messrs. Pratt and Blanchard, teachers, were
formally set apart to the work of the ministry. And
it was at about this time that there appeared one of
A MEMORIAL. 121
the most important factors with which the Indian mis-
sion has been favored a Delaware chief, Charles Jour-
ney cake.
The Christians at Stockbridge were constituted an
independent church in 1845, and continued as such, in
good internal condition, though but for a short time.
The claims of the Delaware station were peculiar, and
made it seem expedient that Mr. Pratt and Miss Morse
assume its care. The Stockbridge station was discon-
tinued, and the community declined. Members of the
church there transferred their membership, or church
attendance to Delaware.
The Delawares, one of the most interesting and
prominent of all the tribes, have a mythical and a real
history. The latter, only, is of importance. The orig-
inal name is given as Lenni Lenape, and Lin-nop-pe.
The present name is derived from that of Lord De La
War. They came into general notice while they popu-
lated the region of the Delaware and Potomac Rivers,
once having been the principal inhabitants of the state
of Pennsylvania, and those with whom William Penn
made his treaty. With the advancement of the white
population they, with others, were urged westward,
and are now found in the Indian Territory.
The country assigned them has a peculiar shape.
It lies in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers;
the former coming in from the west, and the latter
from the northwest. The north line, beginning at the
confluence of the two rivers, follows the course of the
Missouri, northward, for twenty-three miles, to Fort
Leavenworth ; then breaks westward. The south line
takes nearly the same course ; and the two, running
122 POOR
parallel from the bend westward, inclose a strip two
hundred and eight miles long and but ten miles wide.
The ordinary rifle, stdfck and barrel, may represent its
shape and proportions, the shoulder piece abutting
upon the Missouri. The inhabitants occupy the east-
ern end, near the confluence ; have good cabins, en-
close their fields, and cultivate them. Though not
the high-spirited, powerful, and war-going people that
their ancestors were, they have the aids and some of
the fruits of civilized life.
The Delaware station was from its beginning a
part of the Shawanoe mission. As early as 1831 a
single woman, Miss Mary Walton, of Massachusetts,
commenced work for the Delawares, and has the first
place on the list of those who, in the West, conse-
crated themselves to their good. She continued her
lonely life among savages for some years, when she
was married to a teacher, Mr. Ira D. Blanchard, and
lived to continue her work during the many years of
his connection with the mission. The missionaries at
Shawanoe had preached for some years to the Dela-
wares, beginning as early as 1833, and on their appli-
cation Mr. Blanchard was appointed by the Govern-
ment, they supervising his work. He began with
forty-four pupils, a large proportion of whom soon
learned to read on the new system. A year later,
1835, an arrangement was made, with the positive
approbation of the chiefs, for the permanent establish-
ment of an English school. This was entrusted to
Miss Sylvia Case, and Mr. Blanchard devoted a large
part of his time to a new translation of a Harmony of
the Gospels, or L,ife of Christ, first translated by Mr.
A MEMORIAL. 123
David Zeisberger, Moravian. Native teaching pros-
pered wonderfully. Those who learned to read im-
parted the benefit they received, by sitting in compa-
nies and reading " Jesus' Word " to their parents and
friends. In a short time an hundred Indians could
sing all the hymns contained in a small book that
had been prepared.
Miss Elizabeth S. Morse, Concord, Vermont, entered
the mission in 1837 as assistant teacher. In 1851 she
wrote a descriptive account of the station location,
buildings, and daily occupations in which it was
stated :
**
Instruction was given to adults from books in the
native language, the teacher passing from settlement to
settlement, here teaching a little group and there a sin-
gle individual, as the unsettled disposition of the people
afforded opportunity. At the expiration of the first year
twenty had learned to read their native tongue. In the
course of a few years this mode of itinerant instruction
was superseded, in part, by the opening of an English
boarding-school of ten pupils, open to either sex.
The site of the Delaware station was originally one
mile from the Kansas River, on its northern bank, and fif-
teen from its junction with the Missouri. It was deemed
desirable, after a course of years, to remove the station
from its low, damp, river bottom, to high, airy prairie.
The site selected is seventeen miles from Fort L,eaven-
worth, the headquarters of the United States military
operations in the Northwest, and hear the great thor-
oughfare to those inviting regions which stretch along
the Pacific shore. New buildings were erected, and in the
spring of 1848 the interests of the station were committed
to the present incumbents.
124 POOR 1,0 !
The new premises were named " Briggsvale School,"
"intended," in the words of Miss Morse, "as a com-
pliment to the president of the Missionary Union,
Governor Geo. N. Briggs, whose unfaltering interest
in its designs of love and mercy has won for him our
highest esteem." A pictorial sketch represents them
as very attractive ; a cluster of five buildings, of which
the largest one is frame, fifty-six feet square, situated
on fenced and cultivated grounds. There, quiet from
the fear .of evil, except from the white man, the pupils
were led into habits of early rising and morning wor-
ship, housework and needlework, reading and mem-
orizing the Old and New Testaments, with drill in the
various common-school branches and attention to re-
creation and manners.
A year later Miss Morse had occasion to deplore
the ravages of disease, and the paganism manifest in
the views of it taken by many who suffered it, while
she rejoiced that all the believers were passed over
by the angel of death, and remained firm in the faith
of the Gospel. " Each year," she added, " our con-
viction deepens, that Indian youth possess natural
ability to go as far in intellectual pursuits as their
neighbors of fairer skin. Suitable opportunity is un-
questionably the only thing wanting. . . . Out of
school hours the scholars attend to work adapted to
their years. The girls make and repair their own and
the boys' garments, so far as time will permit. They
use the needle with much skill and neatness. . . .
Month after month, and year after year, I go on,
hoping to aid in fastening some right principles in
young minds, or to induce some of these prairie chil-
A MEMORIAL. 125
dren to love and praise the L,ord Jesus, thus uniting
their hosannas with those in the Temple, whose joy-
ful praise He accepted in the days of His earthly so-
journ."
Later in the same year she had glad occasion to
mention the larger fruition of her hopes'. A number
of the girls, just becoming young women, became
happy converts, and made a joyful baptismal occasion
for the mission. "Our 'Jordan,' " she wrote, "is by
no means a flowing stream, bearing on its banks the
luxuriant growth of ages of vegetation, but a little
pool in the prairie, canopied only by the sky. We
made our way to the spot through the tall prairie
grass, variegated by beautiful wild flowers, and found
no difficulty in obeying the command of the Savior."
" A valuable man," brother of the interpreter, also
was baptized at this time. And a Wyandot woman
was so impressed by the ordinance and the solemni-
ties of the day as to give herself to Christ, and be
baptized.
The Delawares in 1859 owned a tract of country
sixty miles east and west, and about twenty-four miles
north and south, bounded on the south by the Kan-
sas River, on the east by the Missouri River, or State
of Missouri. The soil, timber, and water are very
good. They depend for subsistence on their farms,
mainly, which are good, and made to produce all the
cereals and vegetables abundantly.
The slow and reluctant migration of the Delawares
from the Atlantic seaboard to the western wilds is a
part of the memorable and sad Indian history. It
required nearly a century for its accomplishment, and
126 POOR LO!
that " a century of dishonor." The familiar complaint
of broken treaties and of distrust and depression of
spirits on the part of the Aborigines forms a doleful
chapter in the life of this famous Nation. It was with
weary feet that their painful march was made from
their old haunts and hunting-grounds on the Poto-
mac, the Susquehanna, the Delaware, and the Hudson,
through mountain regions to a country of which they
knew only what the distrusted white people told them.
They stopped for a time in Ohio and Indiana, con-
taining much of the territory ceded to them by the
treaty. They centered first in three towns, Gnaden-
hiitten being the principal one, all on the banks of the
upper Muskingum, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. But
there was no rest for them there. Being largely Mo-
ravian converts, and having their spiritual guides with
them, they naturally acquired sentiments and habits of
peace. But this circumstance, in a strange way, ex-
cited contempt for them from the white settlers, who
subjected them to terrible outrages, and forced their
removal to Sandusky, Ohio. Some of them, pressed
by want, returned to the Muskingum to secure the
crops from which they had been driven, and there suf-
fered still greater indignities than before. Ninety of
them, it is said, were brutally massacred. Others fled
to Canada.
The settlement on the Sandusky occurred shortly
before Col.' William Crawford's bloody campaign,
which was attended with such dire disaster to his
army and to himself personally. The Christian Indians
who remained there were involved with the mass, and
the consequences of war fell upon them without dis-
A MEMORIAL. 127
crimination. One of these effects was disastrous to both
sides ; the Indians' implacable jealousy and hatred of
the whites acting to prevent Christian labor in their
behalf stopping missionary effort, and shutting them-
selves out of heaven. In the course of years, or at the
beginning of this century (A. D. 1800), a Christrian
Delaware was not to be found in the Sandusky coun-
try.
Time wore away some of the animosity, and changes
occurred. The Methodists espoused the cause of the
Wyandots, who adjoined and mingled with the Del-
awares. A colored freeman, of Virginia, uneducated,
but filled with the Spirit, was led to go northwest and
proclaim the terms of the Gospel ; and, without being
authorized by his denomination, he set out, " not know-
ing whither he went." Finally arriving at a Delaware
town on the Sandusky, " he was conducted to an In-
dian cabin and seated." Not knowing the Indian
language, he could not make himself at all interest-
ing by conversation. A dance was the order of the
evening, and, not familiar with Indian violence, the
gyrations and gesticulations became so frightful as
to alarm him. He was moved, however, to take his
hymn book from his pocket, and sing. This excited
deep attention. When he ceased, one said, in English,
" Sing more." He complied, and then asked for an
interpreter, through whom he delivered a religious
discourse, which drew close attention. Then he was
given refreshment and rest for the night. He went on
to Upper Sandusky, and called upon the United States
Sub-Agent for the Wyandots, who thought him to be
a runaway, but afterward took him into his confidence
128 POOR I,O!
and sustained him through a severe ordeal of discus-
sion with opponents. By means of an interpreter he
contended for the truth, against Romanism, Paganism,
and Indian prejudices, and won a verdict for the Bible
and religion, the Agent being umpire. The scene as
described might engage a dramatic pen with great
effect. All attempts upon the unlettered youth were
unavailing. But " his toils, fasting, and fatigue laid
the foundation for a premature death." Such was the
beginning of evangelism among the Wyandots, prior
to 1820, by John Steward, African. Rev. J. B. Finley,
noted Methodist, took charge of the mission, and con-
tinued in it for seven years. It gained a member-
ship of three hundred, and inspired confidence in the
possibility of Indian evangelization. Then, the West !
The West and extinction !
In the Sandusky country, and in the period and
circumstances mentioned, there sprang a Delaware
who was destined to build better than he knew. It
was Charles Journeycake. His mother could speak
the English and several Indian dialects, and became an
expert interpreter. When the Methodist mission re-
ferred to came into existence, in such a 'singular man-
ner, and after several attempts made in the usual way
had failed, she served it as interpreter. The mission-
aries were invited to hold meetings in her home, and
the Scripture learned while in their service proved to
be seed sown on good ground. She is said tb have
been the first Christian among the Delawares in this
country. She immediately adopted Christian customs
and stated times of family devotion.
When the time came for removal to the reserva-
A MEMORIAL. 131
the change with their people, only a few of whom ac-
cepted the offer to remain and hold lands in sever-
alty. It was then that their tribal existence ceased.
They became identified with the Cherokees. Their
chieftaincy was extinguished, and he who bore the
honor with such credit until he was fifty years of age
became a private citizen, and bore the dignity of a
worthy Christian and useful minister to the end of his
days.
A Baptist Church was organized and a house of
worship erected near his home, in which he felt the
deepest interest. It became very prosperous. The
first house was destroyed by a tornado, and another
built, he paying a large part of the cost. Being adapt-
ed to leadership, both by nature and by grace, his or-
dination to the ministry was called for, and, after much
reluctance on his part, it took place. He assumed the
pastorate of his home church, and held it to the end
of his life, though in his later years its duties were
discharged by missionaries, and others, in great degree.
His influence, which was powerful and widely felt, was
due to his sterling integrity, sound judgment, calmness
in deliberation, and deep interest in the cause of the
Red Men. He was uniformly selected to visit the
city of Washington in behalf of Indian interests. The
love of hunting, riding, and driving remained in him to
the last. Yet, after the death of his good wife (a full-
blood, like himself), who had been his trusted coun-
sellor and sympathizing companion for fifty-six years,
he pined and had a far-away look, as if expecting soon
to go to her. And thus it proved. Within one year
of her death he departed January 3, 1894 leaving
132 POOR i/> !
a large, hospitable home and a wide domain, with the
church he loved to the end, and the legacy of a life
which those might covet who consider the only good
Indian to be a "dead Indian."
The testimony of the friend heretofore quoted will
add interest to this chapter :
As we intimated in a previous letter, the Delawares,
who number about one thousand, also reside in the Cher-
okee country, and are citizens of that Nation. They are
the little remnant of that once vast and powerful tribe
that originally had their home on the banks of the river
from which they take their name, and thence were spread
out over the wild country reaching toward the Hudson
on the north, and the Potomac south, and with whom
Wm. Penn made his celebrated treaty two hundred years
ago. Driven before the advancing wave of civilization,
they first removed into Ohio, then into Indiana, and at
length to the wild territory beyond the Missouri, now
Kansas. Here they long rested, but eight years ago they
again gave place to the white man, and crossed over to
another new home in the Indian Territory.
The occasion of my third visit to the Territory was
in the autumn of 1872, to attend the dedication of a new
house of worship, erected by the Delaware Baptist Church
a house that had cost about one thousand three hun-
dred dollars, and at that time was much the best meet-
inghouse in the Territory and the ordination of Bro.
Charles Journeycake, familiarly known as " Charley Jour-
neycake," as pastor of the church. Bro. Journeycake is a
remarkable man, probably sixty-five years of age, tall in
stature, and of amiable and intelligent looks.
In 1838, when Rev. J. G. Pratt was sent out from Bos-
ton, by the old Triennial Convention, as a missionary
to the Delawares beyond the Missouri River, Journey-
A MEMORIAL. 133 (^ J
cake was then a young man, and knew nothing of Christ.
His little girl attended the mission school and learned to
read, and he, while holding his child in his lap, learned
his letters from her, and finally became able to read, and
developed a passion for reading and knowledge. He was
soon converted and, continuing to advance, has finally be-
come intelligent and somewhat wealthy. He is the sec-
ond chief in his tribe, as well as pastor of the Baptist
Church the only church among his people. G. J. John-
son, D. D.
134 POOR
IX.
tt*nm; MISSIONARY
ASSAILED. fUmm; ABOUT THE LAKES.
CHARACTER AND DESTINY.
-fl/ff. /IMP ;W?S. MERRILL. ma-
lm; HOPE DEFERRED.
Ottawas were made an object of missionary
-*- exertion as early as 1823, by Rev. Isaac McCoy.
They were then in Michigan, in the region of the pres-
ent city of Grand Rapids. There they received kind
and helpful attentions from William Polke, Rev. and
Mrs. Leonard Slater, Rev. and Mrs. Jotham Meeker,
Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Potts, and others, and were much
improved mentally, materially, and religiously. Mr.
Slater organized a second mission, Richland, about
fifty miles northeast of Thomas, the first one, which
was maintained for about eighteen years, and brought
up to a very satisfactory state. Meantime Mrs. Slater
died (June 24, 1850), after a useful service among the
Indians of twenty-four years. The Thomas station
was discontinued in 1836, the Indians having ceded
their lands to the United States ; and the other ceased
in 1854, because the chief and many others had re-
solved to join their tribe west of the Mississippi, ex-
pecting that their appropriation from Government
A MEMORIAL. 135
would be continued there. The number of Ottawas
in Michigan had diminished from five thousand to four
thousand in twelve years ; though, previously, they
had increased, in thirty years, from two thousand eight
hundred to about double this number. Thus, again it
appears that the Indian need not have been a diminish-
ing race.
The territory of the Ottawas in the West was, in
1840, about seven miles square, thirty miles west of
the State of Missouri, and immediately south of the
Shawanoes. The mission was one of the cluster
named " Shawanoe Mission." Mr. Meeker settled
there, forty miles south of Shawan.oe station, where he
received a welcome on account of acquaintance formed
with the same people, the Ottawas, in Michigan. He
printed, at Shawanoe, a Reader in the Ottawa dialect,
which created much interest, followed by increased at-
tendance upon all the appointments of the mission.
In the early part of that year (1840), and while the
religious interest flourished, and baptisms were quite
constant, opposition arose. The principal chief, Ot-
to wukkee, took offense at " the boldness of Peter and
John," missionary and native assistant, and measures
were taken to break up the mission. The chief sent
calls throughout the entire tribe, and to the Ojibwas,
to meet in council at once at his house, where he lay
sick. On the day of the council Mr. Meeker was sum-
moned to appear. The ground was swept clean, out-
side the house, and the natives seated thereon in a
ring, with the chief lying on a bed, and Mr. Meeker
opposite. Two American flags had been hoisted to
impart dignity to the proceedings, and the counte-
136 POOR 1,0!
nances of all betokened serious business. Chief Ot-
to wukkee was able to arise, and introduce the subject,
but being too sick to speak he called up one Komp-
chaw, who proceeded to attack the missionary, saying
that it was never the wish of the Indians that he
should build and settle there; that he was doing great
mischief by separating families and friends, following
this statement with an enumeration of various crimes
of which he was reported to be guilty.
The accuser having finished his remarks, Mr.
Meeker made his defense, without an interpreter, occu-
pying about an hour in considering and refuting the
several points, producing the authority of the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs for his residence in the Nation,
and closed with a discourse on the nature and doc-
trines of Christianity. The chief interrupted, and also
followed him in a defiant air, claiming the right of the
Indians to do as they pleased in their own country,
and reiterating the charge of fraud as practiced on
them by the whites. Kompchaw again spoke, modi-
fying his charges against Mr. Meeker, and entered an
abusive complaint against the native assistant, David
Green (Shong-gwesh Mink}, who replied with re-
markable skill and courage. His accuser then admon-
ished the Indians to not listen to anything calculated
to create disturbance, and to do all they could to
maintain their old customs. The council then closed
a failure, except as the mission was vindicated in its
proceedings. Wawindossunk, a new convert, said that
he was all the time praying to the Great Spirit for the
missionary.
The Chief became more ill, through the excite-
A MEMORIAL 137
ment of the council, and in a few days died, having
thrown man}' of his conjuring enchantments into the
fire, and declared that if he should recover he would
pray as long as he lived. Conversions were taking
place continually, and numbers were baptized in the
Osage River, while the meetings were largely attended.
The work progressed during the summer following,
and in August Mr. M. could write as follows :
Although opposers are almost constantly threatening
to destroy our property, to injure our persons, and to drive
us out of the country, still the killing of about a dozen
hogs is all the injury they have done us. The cause of
the Redeemer is gradually advancing ; the native brethren
are all increasing in zeal and holiness of life, our meet-
ings are full and interesting, and we have reason to hope
that the good work of the Lord will still go on. The
Christians have nearly all learned to read in their own
language. ._
The Ottawas have taken surprising interest in edu-
cation. An influential member, an Ottawa by adop-
tion, Rev. John Tecumseh Jones, was prominent in the
councils which established the University of Ottawa,
Kansas, and for which they showed great liberality in
a donation of lands. They declared a desire for the
education of their children; a "unanimous and earn-
est wish that when they grow up they shall assume
the habits and customs, and be able to discharge the
duties of American citizens."
The Ojibwas, now Chippewas, inhabiting a region
a little distance southeast of Lake Superior, attracted
the special attention of Government in 1827. An an-
nuity of one thousand dollars was proffered toward
138 POOR 1,0 !
their education, provided a missionary could be ob-
tained to establish a mission, locating the work at
Sault de Ste. Marie. Rev. Isaac McCoy had interested
himself in the matter, and being in Washington and
learning anew of the wish of the Government, he
made another application for the occupancy of the
place, promising to continue the work. It was grant-
ed, and also the privilege of locating a mile square of
land for the public school. The Board in Boston,
though unable at first to avail itself of the offer,
after one year took Rev. Abel Bingham from his post
as teacher of the school at Tonawanda, New York, and
placed him there. Besides teaching, he performed min-
isterial duties to all classes ; establishing three serv-
ices for the Sabbath in order to be all things to all
men. In the morning he preached to the Indians by
means of an interpreter ; in the afternoon to the sol-
diers and families connected with the garrison ; and
in the evening to the French population.
In 1829 Mr. Bingham removed his family to the
station, Sault de Ste. Marie, and his work was re-
enforced by the accession of Miss Cynthia Brown, as-
sistant teacher. The farming interests usually belong-
ing to Indian missions did not exist in this case, yet
the missionary's duties were very arduous, including
visitations in the hospital, and the soldier's private
apartments, among citizens in their homes and In-
dians in their lodges. In 1830 two other assistants
entered the mission Miss Mary Rice, of Boston, who
served nine years; and Miss Eleanor Macomber, of
L,ake Pleasant, New York, who, for her health, soon
resigned this position and accepted an appointment
A MEMORIAL. 139
to Burma, where she completed her career in four
years of loving devotion to the Karens.* A similar
instance was that of Miss Harriet H. Morse, of Massa-
chusetts, who entered the Chippewa mission in 1842 ;
retired on account of health, and entered the mission
to Siam in 1847 ; went to Singapore seeking health in
1855, and, returning to the United States same year,
entered the Indian service again as matron of the Del-
aware school. The annals of missions show that the
missionary spirit will lead one from America to the
East, or from the East back to the wilds of America,
according to circumstances, and will not admit of put-
ting off the harness so long as one can work in it.
A church was organized of six persons, and shortly
afterwards a temperance society, which proved a means
of sobering the natives, making them thoughtful, and
thus preparing the way of the Lord. The Sabbath-
school became increasingly interesting ; a library was
provided, and deep seriousness came upon the people,
followed by what was felt to be a "great revival of
religion." Forty became members of the church,
most of them soldiers, and others not Indians. Among
these was a missionary of the Episcopal Board, Mr.
James Cameron, who, on being baptized, became assist-
ant to Mr. Bingham. The school, also, was unusually
prosperous in both boarding and day departments.
Dr. Edwin James, a surgeon in the army, who long
had felt a deep interest in the improvement of the In-
dians, translated the New Testament in the Chippewa
* For an account of the life and character of this consecrated young
woman, see No. 5 of this series of Missionary Memorials, entitled "A
Galaxy in the Burmau Sky."
140 POOR 1,0!
dialect in an approved manner, and a revision of the
translation was printed under his supervision in
Albany, New York, in 1833. A similar service was
rendered by Mr. Cameron, who wrote two dozen Chip-
pewa hymns, and translated Mark and L,uke into the
same tongue.
Rev. A. J. Bingham, son of Abel Bingham, became
a teacher. He was succeeded by Miss Mary Leach,
Augusta, New York, whose health soon failed. The
school then was discontinued, but was organized a
year later, with Charles D. Foster as teacher, and with
Miss H. H. Morse, Miss Bingham, and Miss Warren
as instructors, successively. Miss Lydia Lillybridge
entered the school in 1846, and same year sailed for
Burma in company with Dr. Adoniram and Emily C.
Judson.
Outstations were planted, and the work judiciously
and prosperously conducted at Tikuamina and Michi-
picaton, each one hundred and twenty miles from the
Sault. Another school was established at Pendill's
Mills, twenty-five miles distant, and a service at Nea-
wike. In 1855 it was intimated that Government ap-
propriations were about to cease, and Mr. Bingham re-
moved, after a service of nearly thirty years, with the
school at its full average prosperity. But Mr. Came-
ron continued, aided by a native, until near the close of
1857, when, on account of sickness, it was suspended.
The missionaries and teachers were devoted to the
work they undertook, and may be said to have " fin-
ished " it ; continued so long as it seemed expedient to
sustain it. It prospered under their well -adapted
methods. The military post, at which the mission
A MEMORIAL. 141
was located, was at the falls of the river St. Mary, on
the Michigan side. On the Canada side was the trad-
ing post of the British Hudson's Bay Company ; and
though there was much promise to work there, on ac-
count of the prohibition of ardent spirits to the Indi-
ans, they extended their efforts to that shore only oc-
casionally, it being beyond their appointed bounds.
With good insight of the disposition of the natives,
they maintained such intercourse with them as was
calculated to win their esteem. They went with them
in their fishing and hunting excursions, sometimes for
nearly one thousand miles, and on the way opened to
them the Scriptures, and testified to the character and
laws of God. Mr. Bingham, on a tour among the In-
dians on the islands, accompanied by an assistant and
an interpreter, was drawn with them by a train of four
dogs. " They camped at night in the snow, spent the
evenings in religious conversation, singing, and prayer,
and slept by their fire in the open air. The Indians
gave them a kind welcome, and assembled in their
largest lodges every evening, and sometimes in the
day, to hear preaching. They had not yet learned to
make their farming a source of supply through the
year, and had been unsuccessful in their hunting and
fishing, and many of them were extremely poor; so
that, instead of sharing their food, Mr. Bingham often
supplied their necessities by giving them a portion of
the provision for his journey. . . .
"He continued his tours among the Indians scat-
tered on the islands and borders of the lakes, Huron
and Superior, and endeavored not only to impart relig-
ious instruction, but also to teach them how to provide
142 POOR LO!
for the support of their families. Their improved
habits of labor, and consequent increased success in
farming, together with proportionate improvement in
morals, were rendering them much more comfortable."
The Ojibwa mission, less conspicuous than some
others of longer continuance, left its impress upon the
generation of Indians for whom it was established. In
a cold region the workers had to contend with ice and
snow, and make their journeys like Laplanders, or in
fragile boats. They were diligent and fearless, well
qualified in a knowledge of God's Word, and skillful in
teaching it. Mr. Bingham educated a son and a
daughter at Hamilton, New York, who entered the
mission as teachers. There was less suspiciousness of
the whites, among the natives, than was experienced
from other tribes. Mr. Cameron made himself strong-
er among them by marrying a daughter of the native
assistant, Shegud, and confidence in the missionaries
was very general.
The abiding faith of the first native convert im-
parted great satisfaction to the toilers. Mr. Bingham
found her at the point of death, eighty years of age, at
her home some miles up the river from the mission.
It was her request that the meeting to occur be held at
her lodge, so that she might hear the Word. Accord-
ingly an awning was made of the sails of the boat, be-
fore the door, and the exercises were conducted there.
" Her pathway brightened as she drew near to her
journey's end. A little before her death, a candle
standing not far from her to give light in the lodge,
she said to her daughter, ' you may move that candle,
for I have light enough from above.' "
A MEMORIAL. 143
The Osage Nation also received the attention of
missionaries in an early day. It is said to be a part
of the Dacotah division of the Aborigines, and its his-
tory places it west of the Mississippi. Its character is
represented as being of a lower order than that of the
average tribe. Dances and buffalo hunting are the
occupations in which the Osages specially delight,
while taking and displaying scalps of their enemies
seems to be their glory. They are obedient to their
chiefs and principal men, subservient to traders, and
readily managed by the United States Agents.
In the Annual Register of Indian Affairs Mr. Mc-
Coy made reference to their friendless and deplor-
able condition, and the importance of a mission to
them. The statements reached some benevolent wom-
en of Wilmington, Delaware, who had been liberal"
in promoting Indian missions, and who instantly re-
solved to make a contribution to that object. Some
efforts in their behalf had been made, and yet these
good women, Miss Martha Shields and her sisters, es-
tablished a mission to be under the supervision of Mr.
McCoy.
He, having visited them and studied their charac-
ter, testified : " I had never before seen Indians who
gave more undoubted evidence of belief in God. In
their speeches they make the references and appeals to
the Great Spirit, common to all Indians on such oc-
casions ; and a devotional exercise is observed among
them which I have never heard existed among any
others. At the opening of the day the devotee retires
a little from his camp, or company, and utters a prayer
aloud."
144 POOR LO !
In 1820 the United Foreign Missionary Society be-
gan a mission for them which in 1826 was transferred
to the American Board C. F. M. At the latter date
there were among the Osages of the Neosho River
two stations, with fourteen missionaries and assistants.
These natives were without fixed habitations, the com-
forts of civilization, and even the necessaries of life.
After excessive labor and privations on the part of
the missionaries, considerable land had been brought
to a state of cultivation and made to yield quite boun-
tifully. But disaster destroyed the crops, and fear of
neighboring tribes caused a stampede to the prairies,
and elsewhere, interrupting, yet not breaking up, the
mission. Another interruption occurred later, when,
by the removal act of the United States, the Chero-
"kees came in like a flood and claimed the land. The
station was removed and school work went on, but
there were no conversions for fifteen years. Teach-
ing and preaching were ultimately discontinued by
this Board, and whisky came in and reduced the
Osages to poverty and wretchedness. They are now
" scattered and peeled."
The Otoes, who inhabited the fork of the Great
Platte and Missouri, south of the former and west of
the latter, attracted attention of missionaries as early as
1830. Their character was strongly marked; they
were more active, energetic, and kind, and less suspi-
cious than many of the Aborigines. They worshiped
the sun, moon, some of the stars, the earth, and some
bodies of water. They lived in circular huts of un-
usually large size, made of bark, limbs of trees, or mud,
and without apartments ; and each was occupied by
several families.
A MEMORIAL. 145
In 1 833 the first religious effort in their behalf was
made. In that year, one who proved to be a very serv-
iceable and eminent missionary entered their country,
with his efficient wife and a good lady teacher. The
company consisted of Rev. and Mrs. Moses Merrill
and Miss Cynthia Brown. They had journeyed from
the East to Sault de Ste. Marie, under appointment of
the Board to labor in the region of Lake Superior.
But it soon appeared that effort there, with unsettled
Indians, could not yield profitable results, compared
with what was to be expected from an equal outlay of
strength in the Indian Territory. Accordingly the
Board sent them on, farther west. They reached Sha-
wanoe in July (1833) .where they tarried, for perfecting
arrangements, until October following. The Govern-
ment, through Mr. McCoy, sent Mr. Merrill a commis-
sion as teacher, and the humble trio of brave souls set
out for the unbroken wilderness and untried service.
The distance to their station from Shawanoe was about
two hundred miles, requiring travel for twenty-four
days. " The nights, of course, were spent in the open
air, without the roof of a house, and the journey was
attended with the usual hardships and privations of
such tours in the wilderness."
The missionaries found buildings for their accommo-
dation at a place which had previously been occupied as
a trading post, where they remained about a year and a
half. At this place resided a few Frenchmen with Indian
families, and one family not related to the Indians. From
these families the missionaries collected a small school.
They had, also, a Sabbath-school and a Bible-class, and at
the same time public exercises were duly attended to.
146 POOR LO !
The village of the Otoes, Bellevue, was at that time
about thirty miles from the station, but a smithery for
their benefit having been established at the latter, many
were attracted thither, so that the missionaries were fa-
vored with opportunities for imparting religious instruc-
tion. They very properly directed their attention, as far
as practicable, to the acquisition of the Otoe language,
and, having prepared some Scripture lessons by the help
of an interpreter, Mr. Merrill visited their village and read
to them at suitable opportunities.
The village consisted of about fifty houses, of earth,
which were circular, and from twenty-five to forty feet in
diameter. The wall narrows to a point at the top, and
presents the form of a cone, and is sustained by wooden
posts and poles within. The smoke escapes through an
aperture at the top, which answers the double purpose of
window and chimney. Within there is neither chair,
table, nor bedstead. Isaac McCoy.
In 1835 the mission was moved a few miles to a
more eligible site, buildings were erected and a large
school was gathered, which was taught in the Otoe
language. Two disadvantages were felt the regular
absence of the people on their buffalo hunt for one
half of the year, and the supposition prevalent among
nearly all Indians, at first, that to patronize a mis-
sionary school was to confer a favor on those who con-
ducted it. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill, to allay this feeling,
gave a dinner once a week, inviting the chiefs. Prog-
ress was made. Books, prepared by Mr. Merrill in the
Otoe language and printed at the Shawanoe mission,
were eagerly read school books, hymn books and
parts of the New Testament. The Otoes sang the
hymns with great delight, and often.
A MEMORIAL. 147
The natives were cordial to the missionaries, but ^f
the great obstacle interposed by their fondness for ar-
dent spirits was almost insurmountable. They would
take their best furs a hundred miles on horseback, and
dispose of them, and, perhaps, their horses, guns, and
blankets also, to obtain whisky; and immediately
afterward beg for food, and complain of starvation.
This obstacle caused the missionary family to spend a
part of every Saturday in fasting and prayer. " The
Upper Missouri Temperance Society " was organized,
and proved a means of staying the evil. The station
was moved to the new Otoe village, on the Platte
River, eight miles distant. One half of the tribe
pitched their skin lodges there soon afterward, and
put up thirty houses in one month. The other half
went off for their winter hunt, after burning their vil-
lage, in expectation of joining their .people at the new
village in the spring.
By the opening of 1837 Mr. Merrill was able to
preach without an interpreter, and held services in
Otoe and English alternately, same day. Also finished
a translation of a part of the New Testament, and pro-
cured the printing of it at Shawanoe.
The Otoes had a summer and a winter hunt. Mr.
Merrill sometimes accompanied them on their expedi-
tions, to learn their language and customs, and to have
opportunity to impart to them religious instruction.
Men, women, and children went eight hundred at one
time traveling hundreds of miles, with horses loaded
with provisions and skin lodges. They traveled about
twenty miles a day, and slaughtered hundreds, often a
thousand or more buffaloes in a single season, taking
148 POOR LO !
them by bow and arrow while running at full speed.
They dried the meat without salt, and packed it in
bales, which were transported on the backs of horses
and women sometimes of men, even !
Mr. Merrill had the confidence of these Indians, not
excepting the chief, with whom he was invited to
lodge. They often listened in little companies to his
readings and explanations of the Scripture, and he
was invited to minister to the sick. Yet the priva-
tions and exposure of a long jaunt of two or three
months impaired his delicate constitution, and brought
on disease of a permanent character.
He left a lasting impression on the rude Otoes, and
is remembered as one of the noblest heralds of the
Cross on western plains. With marked generosity he
applied his salary, and a considerable part of his pri-
vate property to th,e support of the mission. His la-
bors were protracted and arduous, after the progress of
the pulmonary disease he was suffering dictated cessa-
tion from them. This perseverance was due, in part, to
the longing he had for someone to take his place, and
the hope he cherished that another missionary would be
sent. But none came. He stayed on the field, and
with the Indian cause till God took him. He gave a
farewell address to the Otoes in favor of the religion of
Jesus, exhorting them to seek it. " You see," said he,
" it makes me so happy in the near approach of death."
One of the most impressive seasons of prayer, near
the end of the struggle, was that in which he begged
that he might live until he had heard that another mis-
sionary was on the way to supply his place. He had
proposed that if means were wanting, he would divide
A MEMORIAL. 149
his own with the one who should be appointed. This
supreme devotion to their good was observed by the
natives, and it deeply affected their hearts. He was
known among them by two names.: one signifying, He
who always speaks the truth, and the other, The patient
man. After his decease they visited Mrs. Merrill, ex-
pressing their condolence, and inquiring if he had not
a brother of similar character and kindness who would
take his place.
" On the 6th of February, 1840, ' without a struggle
or a groan,' he ceased to breathe. On the following
day assistance was obtained, and his body conveyed
about ten miles, to the opposite side of the Missouri
River, where it was interred upon the lands of the Put-
awatomies." A Baptist Church at Plattsmouth, Ne-
braska, was named in honor of him.
Rev. S. P. Merrill, of Rochester, New York, a wor-
thy son of this noble man, makes the following state-
ment: "I have the only copy of my father's trans-
lation of Scripture into the Otoe language. It is a rare
book indeed. I also have a copy of his hymn book in
that language. It is a small pamphlet of some twelve
pages or so. My father and mother established the
first school, first temperance society, and my father
had the first baptism, and organized the first church
and Sunday-school in Nebraska. He married the first
couple there also. The chimney of one of the mission-
houses and the foundations of two others are still
to be found on the Platte River. A memorial church
at Plattsmouth is dedicated to his memory, in which I
had a fine bell placed, with his name upon it. He
acted as physician, as well as minister and teacher, and
as helper of the Indian Agent."
150 POOR L,o!
Mrs. Merrill was a fit companion to her heroic hus-
band. After conversion, which took place in her
twenty-fourth year, " her mind was at once turned to
the subject of missions. A life of active Christian use-
fulness alone seemed to satisfy her desires." She first
gave attention to teaching, then to the founding of an
orphan asylum, both in Albany, New York. After
marriage and removal she did some teaching in Mich-
igan and northern Indiana, while her husband per-
formed missionary service in those regions. In the
Indian country her experience was identified with that
of her husband, as narrated, except that she survived
him, and continued her efforts for the good of others.
"The journal record of hardships, losses, dangers
and narrow escapes with life, give reasons enough for
the quick termination of this mission by the death of
its leader. And the scenes of lust, drunkenness, law-
lessness and murder, amid which the wife of this mis-
sionary employed herself in teaching these savages,
were enough to start the stoutest mind from its true
center." But Mrs. Merrill survived her bereavement
and the wreck of missionary hopes ; went east, and
soon engaged in her favorite work of teaching, mak-
ing another effort, also, to realize her former desire to
establish an orphan asylum. Returning to the West
with a son, her missionary ardor again took control
of her mind, and, besides teaching, Sunday-school
labors, and giving liberally of her earnings for relig-
ious and educational purposes, she girded herself
anew, and devoted another year, at her own charges,
to the good of the Indians. She lived among them,
became a member of their church, and aided them in
A MEMORIAL. 151
building a meetinghouse. After various other changes
she died at Rochester, New York, November 12, 1882,
aged eighty-two.
This character, though better brought to view
than others, is but one of many equally interesting
women, on the western mission field, who lie in name-
less graves. By it, however, it is learned that while
many break down early, some have a long and useful
career, and, as it would seem, through the very deter-
mination to live long and serve to the last.
The prayer of the dying missionary was not en-
tirely without an answer. In October Rev. Ambler
Edson and wife, went on from Vermont as far as to
St. Louis, and finding it impracticable to complete the
journey in the closing months of the year, sojourned
in the vicinity of that city and proceeded to Bellevue
in the spring. They labored under much discourage-
ment, and after two years and three months withdrew,
and the mission was discontinued. The Otoes seem
to have lost their identity, being no longer enumer-
ated.
The Omahas and Puncahs were associated with the
Otoes, under the oversight of Mr. McCoy and Mr. L,y-
kins. For six years they endeavored to establish a mis-
sion among the Omahas, and when they had reached
the point of success, as they supposed, the hope failed.
The only man appointed, Rev. Chandler Curtiss, de-
layed his entrance upon the work, and did not con-
tinue in it long. The Puncah is a small tribe of the
Omaha family long neglected. Both were settled on
the Missouri, some eighty miles above its junction
with the Great Platte.
152 POOR
X.
FIRST EFFORTS,-
FRIENDS TRY; MR. AND MRS. ROL-
LIN; MR. AND MRS. BARKER; DA VID
GREEN, NATIVE; CHIEF BLACK-
FEATHER; HOPE REALIZED.
^T^HK Shawanoes (Shawnees),as first known in this
-- country, came from the South, and were sub-
dued by the great Iroquois Nation, over two hundred
years ago, and assigned lands in the region of the
Susquehanna River. At some subsequent time they
disappear in the East and are settled on a tract of
their own, bounded on the east by the State of Mis-
souri, and on the north by the Kansas River, meas-
uring twenty-five miles north and south, and one
hundred east and west. They became an agricultural
people, and the improvements upon their farms re-
sembled those upon the farms of the whites in a new
country. Rev. Francis Barker, missionary to them,
later, relates the following amusing circumstances at-
tending first efforts in their behalf:
" The Society of Friends were the first among the
Christians who interested themselves, especially, in the
condition of the Shawanoes after their allegiance to
the United States. They were then a wild and fero-
A MEMORIAL. 153
cious people, relying upon the chase for the means
of subsistence. The Friends sent men to mingle with
them in their daily life and to incline them, if pos-
sible, to place their children under their instruction.
Among other acts of kindness they built for them a
mill, to encourage them more largely in the cultiva-
tion of their corn patches.
"The progress and immediate results of these
efforts were somewhat amusing. After understanding
that the mill was erected to be for them instead of a
corn-pounder, they commenced bringing in their grists,
consisting of a pint or a quart of corn, wrapped in a
piece of deerskin. On finding it inconvenient to grind
so small quantities they became impatient, and, in the
absence of the miller, succeeded in starting the mill ;
and with a larger grist gathered from mother earth, of
pebbles and rocks, they spoiled the mill and captured
its rigging, converting it with much hilarity to a more
appropriate use, in their estimation, for strings to their
bows to be employed in the chase. A similar fate at-
tended the blacksmith shop built for them about the
same time by the United States Government. The
iron of it was converted into arrow points and the
tools stolen away. Similar scenes accompanied the
first gift of cattle by government agents, for the pur-
pose of plowing and raising stock. No sooner were
these agents out of sight than they commenced slaugh-
tering them and preparing them for food, which they
devoured in joyous circles, accompanied with the
whoop, the drum, and dance, after the custom of In-
dian festivals."
Mr. Johnston L,ykins and family went from the
154 POOR 1,0 !
Carey mission in Michigan, and commenced one west
of the Mississippi in 1831. Other missionaries were
added, and a church was organized. A school was
opened ; the children living at home, but taking their
dinner at the missionhouse. The pupils learned
rapidly in their own language, and adults were inspired
to learn. A considerable number also learned to write,
and became extremely fond of the use of the pen.
A printing press, added to the facilities of the mis-
sion, became the curiosity and pride of the natives.
Books were published on "the new system," in the
various dialects of Shawanoe, Putawatomie, Otoe, Choc-
taw, Creek (Muskogee), Osage, Kauzau, Wea, Ottawa,
and others. These were hymn books, Life of Christ, and
portions of some of the Gospels ; the new system be-
ing adapted to the several Indian languages. During
the year ending with February, 1838, the publications
in the several languages were reported to contain two
hundred and thirty-six thousand four hundred pages.
And thus the Shawanoe station assumed a promi-
nence, and, by its superior advantages, imparted sub-
stantial benefits to the tribes. The valuable writings
of Mr. McCoy on Indian interests were likewise pub-
lished here, with many schoolbooks. Yet the object
of most exciting interest, perhaps, was the little month-
ly newspaper named Shawanowe Kesauthwau Sha-
wanoe Sun the first ever published entirely in an In-
dian language. It exalted the natives, as they felt,
because they could read a newspaper. Some wrote for
it ; several, at times, for a single number.
In 1835 a most cheering report was given by the
Board of the Convention, concerning this interesting
A MEMORIAI,. 155
mission. Mr. McCoy and family resided at the station,
adding greatly to its influence among the natives.
The church grew, and extended its usefulness across
the line to the Delawares, many of whom were re-
ceived to its membership. Capt. Blackfeather, a Sha-
wanoe chief, had been impressed with the importance
of the Gospel message for several years, and had de-
clared his decision to renounce all Indian ceremonies,
and become acquainted with the Christian religion ; at
same time asking for a handshake in recognition of a
promise to receive instruction. He encouraged six
others to follow his example, and thereupon attention
to religious worship greatly increased. In the house
of Blackfeather and other chiefs preaching and teach-
ing were conducted, and also instruction given from
house to house in reading, writing, and singing.
These several circumstances prove that under condi-
tions in the least favorable the elevation of the Indi-
ans, rather than their destruction, might have been ac-
complished.
During this period an excitement unfavorable to
missionary exertion was created among the Creeks.
They had been persuaded by Indian traders to sign a
a memorial containing charges against the mission-
aries, making it unsafe for them to remain with that
tribe. The Shawanoes derived a benefit from this dis-
turbance, in the person of Rev. David B. Rollin, who,
though cleared of all charges in an open council of
chiefs, took advice and came to this tribe. His fare-
well service, remembering the prosperity attending
his labors there, showed his character and fitness as a
missionary. He wrote : " My own heart was dis-
156 POOR IX)!
solved, and the assembly were melted into tears as I
bade them adieu. An order from the Agent, Wm. Arm-
strong, bids me depart, and I feel it duty to obey.
And while I regret leaving these dear sheep and lambs
of Christ's flock here in the wilderness, in the midst of
wolves, for whom the sympathies of my soul have
often been drawn forth, I rejoice that the great Shep-
herd still cares for them, and will preserve them safe
unto his heavenly Kingdom." His journey to the
Shawanoe missionhouse, through the wilderness, occu-
pied more than four weeks.
Mr. Rollin began his labors, impressed, but not
depressed, by the contrast in the number who waited
on his ministry, in the two countries. On his first
Sunday among the Shawanoes there was but one
native present, besides the interpreter. But the audi-
ence increased immediately. His hopeful and enlarg-
ing work was terminated in 1839 by his death, though
the department which he had manned was assumed
by his associate, Rev. J. G. Pratt.
Mr. Rollin had previously been employed at Tona-
wanda, New York, and had now filled out a period of
five years in behalf of the Indians of the West and
these were years of great good to them, gratefully re-
ceived. " His labors among the Creeks, though in-
terrupted by frequent attacks of disease, were blessed
to the conversion of many souls, and at Shawanoe
the fidelity and plainness of his ministrations and his
pious example were not without some signal tokens
of the divine approbation." For months afterward
" Indians who knew and felt his worth continued to
inquire, with anxious solicitude, for their spiritual
teacher."
A MEMORIAL,. 157
He was highly valued by his missionary associates,
one of whom, Mr. Pratt, speaks of the interest he im-
parted to their religious conferences, and the uplift
he gave to the faith and hope of others, and adds:
"In his labors as a missionary, his plans for doing
good were always subjects of much reflection, and,
when matured, were prosecuted with the confidence
and zeal of one who was conscious of being in the
path of duty ; nor could he be turned from his pur-
pose till convinced he was wrong, or that the object
was of no importance. In his intercourse with In-
dians he was ' apt to teach,' and the results show that
his labors were blessed, in the improvement of the
Indian character and the conversion of many." He
did not give up until faced by certain death ; and
then, with his family, he was barely able to remove
to Michigan, where, in the town of Commerce, he died
May 12, 1839. Let the graves of such self-denying
missionaries receive loving attentions until broken by
the resurrection call.
Though the workmen die, the work goes on ; for
the fall of one is the signal to another to rise and
enter the ranks. Rev. Francis Barker, of Hanson,
Massachusetts, under appointment, reached the station,
and entered upon his duties as successor to Mr. Rollin,
eight days after the latter's death. Miss Elizabeth
Churchill, Kingston, Massachusetts, arrived and began
work in the same month, and afterward was married
to Mr. Barker, making the domestic status of the
mission what it had been. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt, who
had been absent for their health, returned from
Boston, bringing, as a recruit, Miss Abigail Webster,
158 POOR i/> !
and a font of Cherokee types, in Guess characters,
and additional English types, with other apparatus for
the printing department.
The " Mission to the Shawanoes " embraced labor
for several other peoples, and the spiritual part of
the work became very prosperous. The congrega-
tions were large, and the little church was strength-
ened by the accession of Blackfeather, the principal
war chief, and the attendance and influence of the
civil chief. But Satan came among them, and the
mission was sorely tried and even endangered. On
one or more occasions the missionaries were ordered
away, on peril of their lives. "And that their ex-
pulsion was not effected is to be ascribed to the good
providence of God in conducting to Shawanoe, at
the very crisis of the difficulty, the Rev. J. S. Bacon,
whom the acting Board had especially deputed to the
mission in view of its distressed condition." (Report
of Board, 1843.)
The next year the mission was reported increas-
ingly prosperous. Mr. Barker extended his labors to
the out-settlements, and the boarding-school was re-
sumed and carried on with success.
An incident of rain and flood shows to what this
as well as other Indian mission stations was subject.
The Osage River, on the bank of which the mission-
house stood, swelled beneath the rains, ran over its
banks, and around and into the house, driving the
family to an adjoining hill, where they pitched tent.
The consequences in part, were, the loss of stock,
beehouse and contents, hennery, stable, crib and corn,
fencing, crops, and even the soil, with the table and
A MEMORIAL. 159
cooking outfit, leaving the dwelling and office naked
and alone. It was late in the season, game scarce,
and an appeal for help necessary, with dire distress as
an outlook. In the great calamity the Ottawas, gener-
ally, were involved, making sympathy from the mis-
sion a necessity.
A brother, recently baptized, went out with a canoe
when the flood was at its highest stage, to try to save
something from his house. In crossing the river, the
current dashed him against a tree and upset his canoe.
He swam to a small tree and cried for help. He was
heard, but, it being about sunset, and there being no
other canoe in the neighborhood, nothing could be
done for him. He could not hear the voices on shore,
on account of the roaring of the water. He called for
about an hour ; no relief coming, he requested that a
canoe be found and relief be sent in the morning,
though he feared that he could not hang on so long.
The sapling shook in the water, which was about
twenty feet deep. He then sang, distinctly, in Indian :
" Father, I stretch my bauds to Thee
No other help I know,"
and continued about an hour in prayer, when all
was silent. He was found at early dawn, still hang-
ing to the tree, with no clothing on him, except a
shirt. His coat and everything he brought from his
house had gone with his canoe.
In 1845 the boarding-school was reported as in-
creasingly prosperous, and the spiritual interests as
encouraging. A church had been formed, composed
of resident Ottawas and Shawanoes, and soon nuin-
160 POOR LO!
bered twenty-two. Increased harmon}' among the
Indians prevailed; caste was giving way, and the
prospect of the prevalence of Christian principle was
cheering. By the middle of the year the membership
of the church had doubled in number.
But death had knocked at the Indian huts quite
frequently, and in one case with most painful conse-
quences. David Green, a Christian for seven years
and native assistant, was drowned on June 26th, while
trying to swim a creek to attend a prayer meeting.
So shining an example of fidelity and usefulness de-
serves the tender and affectionate words of one of the
leading missionaries, Mr. Meeker, viz.: " There is no Ot-
tawa whose death would have given such a universal
shock in the Nation as the death of this brother.
There is no one who has done so much as he in
reforming the Nation. He has been looked up to as
the main acting man in all their councils. All lov-
ers of good order and righteousness loved him, while
evil doers feared him more than any other man. He
originated the adoption of laws in the Nation, stood
in charge of the laws, and, until his death, held the
highest office the Nation could give. He was the
first Indian who attended our religious meetings ; was
the first ever baptized in the Osage, which was May 6,
1838; has acted as my assistant in translating a book
of eighty-four hymns, and the Gospels by Matthew
and John. He has been, for some years, and was un-
til his death, publicly recognized as an assistant mis-
sionary. There is, I think, no house nor family in
the Ottawa Nation where he has not repeatedly made
religious visits; no adult person whom he has not
A MEMORIAL. l6l
warned of the consequences of continuing in sin and
unbelief, and whom he has not directed to the Sav-
ior. Many of the members of the Ottawa church
were first awakened through his instrumentality, and
can now bless God that they were permitted to hear
warnings and invitations from him.
" On the last Sabbath of his life he made very ap-
propriate remarks at the close of my sermon from
' Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your
Ivord doth come,' and then selected and sang the
hymn translated from ' On Jordan's stormy banks I
stand.' On the last night of his life he slept none, but
spent the whole night in reading and explaining the
Scriptures to a cousin of his an irreligious man, ex-
horting him, with all the powers of his soul, to be
religious, and praying with and for him.
" On the 2 yth I assisted the brethren, as also on
the previous day, in hunting for the body of our de-
parted brother, while the rain descended in torrents,
and at about ten o'clock we found it in twenty feet
of water, near where he sank. I then assisted in dig-
ging the grave, preached the funeral sermon, and
committed his remains to the silent tomb."
This bereavement was succeeded by another,
though not immediately, which so well indicates the
possibilities of Christianizing the savage, even to a
high degree, that a statement of it will add interest to
this narrative. It is that of the death of Chief Black-
feather (Ealammatahkah), venerable and illustrious.
He was considered the successor of the celebrated Te-
cumseh, and was the first convert baptized by Rev.
Francis Barker, missionary to the Shawanoes. With
J
162 POOR LO!
but eight years in which to exemplify the religion of
Christ, he developed a high-toned character, though
obliged to struggle manfully against his besetting sins,
particularly intemperance, which he fully conquered.
" He was triumphant in his death. There seemed
to beam upon his brightened vision the glories of the
upper world. He spoke in his last hours of the great
assurance he felt of the truth of the doctrines he had
embraced, and continued recommending them, exhort-
ing, entreating, and encouraging to the last. As
wearied nature would again revive a little after a period
of exhaustion, again his lips were filled with the
praises of God. At the last religious meeting he at-
tended he spoke with his usual energy until, fainting,
he fell upon the floor ; and then reviving, he com-
menced again, and finished his discourse. On the
morning of his death he gave to each of his weeping
relatives the parting hand. He wished them not to
mourn for him, but for themselves ; and then, request-
ing them to sing the hymn in his own language ex-
pressive of the feelings of the dying Christian, he
closed his eyes, and just as they finished he fell asleep."
The protracted meeting, established and relied up-
on for evangelistic work, became one of the most hope-
ful opportunities for inculcating divine truth. The
wilder part of the population attended, forming a strik-
ing contrast to the regular worshipers, in being decked
in the wild man's costume, and often painted, giving a
grotesque appearance to the congregation. The meet-
ing carried with it the idea of camping. The services
were held in the house, while, for want of dwellings
in sufficient number, the comers abode in tents. A
A MEMORIAL. 163
blanket and a tent were among the indispensables of
the occasion ; and the interested ones carried offer-
ings of coffee, sugar, hominy, meat, vegetables, etc.,
with which to appease the appetites of not only them-
selves, but likewise those whom they wished to win
for Christ and Heaven.
Cholera visited the station, and the population
generally, this year (1849), as it had done before, but
the shafts of death did not fall upon the mission. The
boarding-school was sustained with encouragement,
though amid some interruption by the epidemic. The
parents of the pupils had come to see the benefits of
the school, and were more helpful than previously.
Translations of Scripture had been circulated, and
both the local service and neighborhood prayer meet-
ings maintained. Influences unfavorable to Christian-
ity soon began to decline. Paganism, organized into
worship, limiting its beastly performances to the day-
time, discontinued its nightly orgies in deference to
the Christians, and through the power of their religion.
The report of the Board for 1850 says: "The re-
sults of the labors of our missionaries connected with
the Shawanoe mission are an illustration of the supe-
rior advantages of mission labor in the Indian Ter-
ritory. The people are advancing in the knowledge
of civilized life, and of the Christian religion."
About two years later Mr. Barker speaks of the
Shawanoe station as gradually extending its influence
among the less favored portions of the tribe. The
principal employments of the people were farming
and lumber business. A few of the younger men were
engaged as teamsters to Santa Fe. The nearness of a
164 POOR L,O!
portion of the tribe to the white settlements exposed
them to the "liquid fire," but the Spirit of the Lc*rd
raised up a standard against that flood of iniquity.
He also says, as to the Indian character :
" Very indefinite, not to say erroneous, ideas pre-
vail respecting the character and condition of the
Indians. To anyone sufficiently acquainted with their
language to hold conversation with them much is
disclosed worthy of admiration. The milder affections
are active, especially in their domestic relations, and
their hospitality to strangers is proverbial. Parental
love is strong to a fault, and the death of a child is
not unfrequently the occasion of extreme agony,
though proportionally brief. . . . Most of the
Shawanoes live comfortably in houses built by their
own hands, and many of them enjoy the conveniences
and some of the luxuries of life obtained by the cul-
tivation of the soil. The more enlightened manifest
a commendable zeal in extending a salutary influence
over those who adhere to evil habits."
A MEMORIAL. 165
XI.
IN INDIANA; TREATIES;
REMOVAL WEST; HOME MISSIONS;
FRANCES SLOCUM'S HISTORY.
THE Miamis were once a numerous and powerful
tribe, composed of the Weas, Piankashas, Peorias
and Kaskaskias. These branches of the great family
are not conspicuous in history, except as bands. In
the explorations and settlement of the West they
are mentioned individually, but not as having the
strong position and prevailing power once possessed
by the united Nation, when east of the Mississippi.
The relation of the Miamis to the United States
was essentially like that of other tribes ; treaty after
treaty having been made, followed by trouble. The
body of the Miamis settled in Central Indiana, and
received annuities from the Government to 1882,
when its responsibility for their support expired by
limitation. Mr. Thad Butler, of Wabash, was the Gov-
ernment's Agent in making the final settlements, and,
having closed the business, he gave an account of
their early and later history that must be regarded of
much value by historians. The author takes pleasure
in acknowledging, on behalf of the reader, his indebt-
edness to him, for the following facts :
166 POOR LO!
Two hundred years ago, when the Great West had
hardly known the presence of a white man, the Miami In-
dians occupied a scope of country extending from the lakes
and forests of Michigan on the north to the Ohio River on
the south, and their scattered wigwams were to be found
from the Scioto River on the east to the country of the Illi-
nois savages on the west. The Miamis were of the Algon-
quin family the tribe which welcomed the Pilgrim Fathers
on the wild New England coast. A common language
testified to their common origin. The Algonquins possessed
the greater part of the continent east of the Mississippi and
south of the lakes, and from the earliest known history of
the aborigines the Miamis were a leading and powerful
tribe of that mighty family. In 1658 their warriors were
estimated at from eight to ten thousand, and they main-
tained long wars with both the Iroquois and Sioux, and
were, says Bancroft, the most powerful confederacy of the
West.
After ages of wandering through the Ohio Valley coun-
try the Miamis finally made their headquarters near the
present state line of Ohio and Indiana, and their council
fires were held between the headwaters of the Maumee and
the Wabash.
Over fifty treaties were entered into between the
Government and the Miami Nation between the years 1795
and 1840, one of which (the treaty of 1826) was made with-
in the limits of the present city of Wabash, at what is
known as Treaty Springs. These springs were called the
" King Com-e-ong Springs" by the Miamis, signifying the
" Springs of Paradise." In the treaty of 1818, at St. Mary's,
O., the Indians retained what is known as the " Thirty-Mile
Reserve." This reservation began at the mouth of the
Salamonie, where it empties into the Wabash, and ran due
south thirty-six miles, and due west with the Wabash the
same distance to the mouth of Eel River. Afterward, in
A MEMORIAL. 167
1826, the Indians were permitted to reserve six miles east
and south of the forks of the Wabash " for quantity."
When the treaty of 1826 was made, the United States,
in consideration of a settlement of certain annual moneys
due the Indians, agreed to pay the Miatnis a permanent
annuity of twenty-five thousand dollars so long as they
should exist together as a tribe. A treaty was made at
the same time with the Pottawatomies, by which they
were to occupy certain assigned territory north of the Eel
River.
In 1838 the Miamis made another sale of lands, re-
taining only some individual reserves in Wabash, Grant,
and Miami Counties, and in 1846, according to the terms
of a treaty made in 1840, a portion of the tribe, with
their families and possessions, were removed to hunting-
grounds beyond the Mississippi. In this treaty it was
stipulated as a reward for not following other Indians in
taking sides with the British against the United States
that the families of Richardville, Godfrey, and Me-shin-
go-me-sia, together with the brothers of the latter, might
remain upon reservations assigned them, and receive their
annuities in Indiana. Their descendants are the Indians
still residing there.
One more treaty was made with the General Govern-
ment after the treaty of 1840. In 1854 a delegation of
both eastern and western Miamis visited Washington, the
eastern delegation headed by Me-shin-go-me-sia, and the
western by Nah-wah-lin-quah, or " Big Legs." George W.
Manypenny was then the Indian Commissioner. By this
treaty it was stipulated that $221,257.86 should be paid
to the eastern Miamis at the expiration of twenty-five
years, in lieu of the permanent annuity, the Government
to annually pay five percent interest upon that amount,
in the form of annuities, until the principal sum became
due and was paid. These annuities were paid regularly
1 68 POOR LO !
for twenty-six years, except during the first year or two
of the war, and the principal was paid in 1882, when the
Miami ceased to be the ward of the United States and be-
came a citizen.
The removal of the Indians to their western homes, as
agreed upon in the treaty of 1840, was not accomplished
until 1846. Alexis Coquillard was the Government Agent
for this purpose. As the time approached for their depar-
ture, the Indians flatly refused to corhply with the terms of
the treaty, and it was necessary to send troops to gather
them at the appointed rendezvous, which was at Peru.
Many ran away ; others claimed relationship to the favored
bands of Richardville, Godfrey and Me-shin-go-me-sia, and
were .permitted, when the claim was recognized, to re-
main in Indiana. There are yet old citizens living who
speak of their departure as a scene of inexpressible sad-
ness. About five hundred Miamis, with their possessions,
were loaded on canalboats. The route was up the Wa-
bash Valley to Fort Wayne, thence to Toledo and Cincin-
nati, and then beyond the Mississippi. Stoical as the race
is, the air was rent with lamentations of the women, while
the men moodily gathered their blankets about them, and,
looking the picture of despair, watched from the decks of
the boats the receding forests which for ages had been the
homes of their ancestors.
Of the five hundred Miamis who were sent west in
1846 not ten are alive of the original number, and the
Western Miami tribe, residing in Qua Paw Indian Agency,
under the care of Colonel D. B. Dyer, does not now number
fifty (1882). Taken by force from the forests, their native
country, and transplanted to the wild prairies of the West,
heart-sick and weary, they never became reconciled to
their lot, and many met death gladly. A few returned to
Indiana despite the Government, and these were, in 1858,
permitted by act of Congress to remain.
A MEMORIAL. 169
A point of interest in Miami history is the forks of the
Wabash River, near Huntingdon. As early as 1805 the
Quakers of Maryland established a mission here, under the
control of Dr. William McKinney. Twenty-five acres of
land were cleared, and a row of double log cabins erected.
The mission was backed by liberal support, and a judi-
cious opening seemed to have been made for the work
of civilizing the Indians. In the war of 1812, however,
a detachment of troops burned the houses, devastated the
fields, and destroyed the mission. No attempt was ever
made toward its reestablishment. The same site was
famous for many years as the payment ground, and be-
came the favorite resort for traders and others who lived
by traffic with the Indians. The village was regularly
laid off, forming nearly a perfect square. The stores, bake-
shops, gambling-dens, etc., were on one side of the square,
and the stabling for the accommodation of the Indian
ponies on the other. The buildings were not pretentious, '
and were constructed of small, round logs, covered with
clapboards. Puncheons served as flooring, when any was
laid. For weeks prior and subsequent to the payments
there was always a lively trade, the rude, improvised struc-
tures containing stocks of merchandise, each valued at
from one thousand to five thousand dollars. Not less
than six well-filled stores were running at one time, and
everything that would contribute to the comfort and lux-
ury of the Indians was to be had not at nominal prices,
however. The national chief, Lafontaine, built a trading
post after the forks ceased to be known as the payment
ground, erected a good farmhouse and other buildings,
and until the removal of Indians to the West it was a
place of importance. Now the site is simply a farm resi-
dence. The twenty-five-acre cornfield of the mission-
ground is the homestead of Colonel I,. P. Milligan, of Sons
of Liberty notoriety during the War of the Rebellion,
1861-5. Thad Butler.
170 POOR LO!
The State of Indiana has been an arena of Indian
missions as of Indian wars. The Indian Mission Asso-
ciation, having headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky,
derived support from it, and within the northern half
of the State was organized a society to conduct mis-
sions among the Miamis. This tribe, reduced by the
removal of 1846 to about three hundred, occupied the
Reserve on the Mississinewa River. The mission was
named " Frances Slocum Mission," for that character
whose life presents the finest combination of enchant-
ing story and hard fact to be found in western an-
nals. Property was purchased and otherwise secured,
including a building and some land located southeast
of Peru. Here various persons labored, with the usual
discouragements and encouragements, principally Rev.
4 C. J. P. Babcock and Rev. James Babcock, who had
the Miamis' confidence in an eminent degree.
Mission work in their behalf had some immediate
fruit. Thirty-three were reported as converted in a
single year among them the renowned Bruriette,
who became a Baptist preacher of great power. His
tall form, like the forest tree, that was his pride and
his symbol, towered impressively in the midst of his
tribe, and added a weird effect to his eloquence.
The General Association of Baptists in the State
ultimately took the mission into its care, and after
some years discontinued it. Yet labors for the
Miamis continued. They came under the care of in-
dividual ministers and churches, and numbers have
been added unto the Lord in common with the white
people among whom they have lived. The member-
ship of two or three existing churches was once com-
A MEMORIAL. 171
prised mainly of them ; but with the downward course
of their destiny their proportion has become smaller,
until it has but little significance. Poor L,o has be-
come a poor, lone Indian, and feels that he is of " no
account," even among the people of God.
* locum** St*tov\t.
The story of Frances Slocutn is familiar to all readers
of history. She was the daughter of a Quaker who lived
in the Wyoming Valley during the Revolution. She was
stolen from her home when but five years of age, in 1778,
by a band of marauding Delaware Indians, and the last
sight her mother saw of her was when she was in the arms
of a brawny savage, struggling, and calling piteously upon
her parents to come to her rescue. Although her father
was dead, killed by the Indians, the mother and her sons
diligently sought for the stolen child through long years.
The mother died in 1807, but the brothers never relin-
quished inquiry. As in the case of Charley Ross, the
search brought numbers of stolen children to light, but
nothing was heard of Frances Slocum.
In 1835 Colonel George W. Ewing, a gentleman con-
nected with the Indian service, stopped over night at the
Deaf Man's Village (sometimes called the Village of the
White Woman), on the Mississinewa. The household con-
sisted of a venerable woman and a number of children, all
of whom treated her with the greatest of deference. The
Colonel noticed particularly the color of her skin and hair,
and, becoming convinced that she was a white woman,
opened conversation with her. His surmises were correct.
She said that she was stolen by the Indians when a very
small child, and remembered the name of her father, which
was Slocum. The Colonel knew of her abduction, and,
when he reached Logansport, wrote letters for print, which
a
172 POOR Lo!
finally reached her friends at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A
scar upon one of her arms, bared for work, was noted by
the visitor, it having been mentioned by the bereaved
family as one of the means of identifying the child. The
brother of Frances and one of her sisters came to see her,
and made themselves known, but all entreaties to return
to civilization were unavailing. They made a reception
for her at Peru, hoping that they might interest her in a
better life, and wean her from her associations. She was
present, but indifferent to the festivities, and by reposing
upon the floor of the veranda, on her blanket, showed
that her Indian habits were unyielding. Frances had be-
come an Indian in every essential except birth; had mar-
ried an Indian warrior by the name of She-pay-con-na, and
borne him four children. One of her daughters married
Wah-pop-pe-tah, alias Peter Bondy, whose name appears
as one of the makers of the treaty of 1854. Another
married Tah-quac-yaw, a half-breed Pottawatomie, better
known as Captain Bruriette, who was drowned in the Wa-
bash River. Frances died in 1847, at her home at the Deaf
Man's Village, and her descendants still live upon a por-
tion of the land reserved for her by special act of Con-
gress, a bill for that purpose having been introduced by
John Quincy Adams about 1840. Her Indian name was
Ma-co-za-quah, signifying the " White Female Bear." It is
supposed that this name was given on account of the mo-
rose temper caused by her distressed situation.
The Miamis still have an individuality as a Nation,
though greatly reduced and obscured. They have not
been entirely neglected, as missionary records show.
But whether they have received benevolent labor as
Miamis, or under some other name, is not altogether
clear. Rev. A. J. Essex, late general missionary in the
Indian Territory, made the following reliable statement
in 1892, in the Home Mission Monthly.
A MEMORIAL,. 173
" The Miamis have fifty thousand acres or more of
land allotted in the northeastern part of the Territory.
The land is all valuable, and they are opening farms,
and building good houses, and raising grain and stock.
The Peorias lie adjoining, having nearly as much land,
and are allotted and improving their lands. The Ot-
tawas are adjoining also, on the south, and are allotted;
they have many valuable improvements, and all these
fragment tribes speak English, but about ten persons.
The Qua Paws have also, northeast and adjacent, a val-
uable reservation allotted, but are mainly Catholics,
and are behind the other tribes.
" There is quite a number of Baptists among the
Miainis, and some also among the Peorias and Otta-
was. The Ottawas have a little church, but there are
very few members, and they are very weak. Once in
a while there is a sermon at the Peoria schoolhouse,
which was built large to accommodate preaching ; and
the Miamis have meetings semi-occasionally at some-
body's house, or at a schoolhouse."
1 74 POOR 1,0 !
XII.
ORIGIN OF THE
MISSION; SETTLING THE INDIANS;
J. LYKINS, R. SIMERWELL, ELIZA
McCOY; ENTERING INTO THEIR
LABORS.
THE Putawatomies first come to notice, in mission-
ary annals, as inhabitants of southern Michigan
and northeastern Illinois. A peculiar character, Me-
nominee, had sprung up among them, and through
some unknown impulse become a religious leader,
without any human guide or adviser. His teaching,
however, was in the line of morals only, yet very in-
fluential for good a voice in the wilderness, prepar-
ing the way for more complete and saving instruc-
tion.
This interesting person was mentioned to Isaac
McCoy, not long after his settlement at Fort Wayne,
by an Indian trader ; and he sent a message to him,
with an invitation to make a visit at the mission.
This was done by leader and followers in company,
resulting in some words of commendation from the
missionary, in writing. Menominee greatly rejoiced
and declared that he would preach all his life to his
people, telling them " My father says that I tell the
truth."
A MEMORIAL. 175
A desire to visit the Putawatomies naturally grew
from this interview, strengthened by earnest and re-
peated solicitations from them, that he would do so.
The tour of one hundred and twenty miles was made,
occupying about two weeks, and involving much hard-
ship, yet creating in him a greatly increased interest
in that part of the great Indian family. In parting
with Menominee, after he had walked half a mile
with him on his homeward way, begging a continua-
tion of friendship, and avowing his determination to try
to please God and do right, he could but voice the sym-
pathetic exclamation : " Oh, compassionate Savior !
didst not Thou expand thy bleeding arms upon Cal-
vary ? And is there not room in Thy bleeding bosom
for these dear people ? And will not this desert soon
begin to rejoice?"
The Carey mission, in Michigan, founded by Mr.
McCoy in 1822, was among the Putawatomies. It
was very prosperous for six or seven years, when a
treaty, of date September 20, 1828, looking to a re-
moval of the tribe, and assignment to it of lands
west of the Mississippi, caused an interruption of
labor. Mr. McCoy was the prime mover in this great
plan, but only for what he felt to be for the larger
benefit of the Indians. His exertions were varied
and unwearied, with the powers at Washington es-
pecially, and deprived him of the supreme privilege
of immediate and exclusive attention to the spirit-
ual interests of the natives. He hoped to improve
their circumstances and the missionary's opportunity.
After the suspension of labor at Carey some of the
missionaries there devoted their time to benefiting
176 POOR LO!
other neighboring tribes, while Mr. and Mrs. Robert
Simerwell took charge of affairs at the station. And
in time the "treaty of Chicago," made in 1833, be-
gan to have force. By it the Putawatomies agreed
to move westward, accepting an extensive tract of
country on the northeast of the Missouri River, above
the State of Missouri. In 1834 a delegation conducted
by a United States officer visited an unappropriated
tract on the upper branches of the Osage River, ad-
joining some of their allies, and chose that as the
most desirable place for their residence. In 1835 an-
other delegation visited the country assigned them,
northeast of Missouri River, but without receiving
satisfaction as to it. As a consequence a general dis-
pleasure arose, and a decided aversion to settling in
it. A band of about four hundred migrated with the
Kickapoos, from the East, and continued with them
for a considerable time, surly and unsatisfied. Later,
about seventeen hundred came, and also remained in
a wretched condition, waiting to be gratified in their
selection of a home.
The Shawanoe mission station became a center
for the missionary force, located in the usual entrance-
way to the farther West, and having Westport, Mis-
souri (Kansas City), as its postoffice. The workers
at Carey stopped there. One of these, Mr. Simerwell,
while waiting adjustment of affairs, wrote some small
books, and they were printed in the Putawatomie dia-
lect. And in the same language he taught the na-
tives by visiting their settlements.
A large part of this disaffected tribe finally quieted
down, without being settled, on the northeast of the
A MEMORIAL. 177
Missouri, nearly two hundred and fifty miles from the
country designed for them. The other part settled
in the latter, according to their wishes a region at the
sources of the Osage and Neosho Rivers, now in cen-
tral Kansas. It commenced sixteen miles west of the
State of Missouri, and extended westward two hun-
dred miles, with a width of twenty-four miles. To
this country Mr. and Mrs. Simerwell removed in 1837.
There they found the people among which they first
labored in Michigan, so prosperously, and some of
whom were connected with the Carey station. Mr.
L,ykins, looking backward, and forward to the new
circumstances, writes hopefully : " We hope now to
be able to collect into settlements many of our former
pupils, now fathers and mothers of families ; and could
we have an additional missionary for the station, we
think that the prospects for lasting usefulness would
be better than they were in the days of the most
successful operation of the mission in Michigan."
The Putawatomie station became one of four
known as the Shawanoe mission, and progress was
made in material and spiritual things. The disposi-
tion to cultivate the soil increased, and teaching was
successfully done. Mr. Simerwell accepted appoint-
ment from the Government, as teacher, in the hope that
the appropriation of the Board for missionary service
would be granted to another person, and the general
interests thus advanced. The Board failed to accept
the opportunity, and ultimately sundered the nominal
relation sustained to him, acknowledging his " mis-
sionary fidelity." Subsequently he held an appoint-
ment from the American Indian Mission Association,
178 POOR LO !
and we trace him as an influential friend of the In-
dians and dwelling among them for about thirty years.
He was a gift of Blockley Church, Philadelphia, Pa.
A new interest was created in Indian missions by
the formation of the new Association, which did not
come too soon. It arrested the decline of zeal which
had taken place while the demand for it was increas-
ing on account of the extraordinary Indian migration
westward. About ninety thousand, belonging to many
tribes, were already west of the States of Arkansas and
Missouri. A disposition to be civilized and cultivated
was generally manifest. Said Mr. McCoy, "A desire
for education is springing up, and the people have
become accessible to the doctrines and teachings of
the Bible ; and about one thousand within the Indian
Territory are in the fellowship of the Baptist denomi-
nation, besides many others who give evidence of
genuine piety, who belong to other denominations of
Christians."
For the first year of its operations it had but two
missionaries and their wives. At the second annual
meeting it could report the employment of fifteen,
three of them natives. Heading the list was Rev.
Johnston Lykins, acting physician and preacher, who
had lived and labored among the Putawatomies, in
Michigan, securing their confidence and love to an
eminent degree. When the state of Mrs. Lykins'
health compelled him to leave their country, they
begged him not to forsake them ; and their impor-
tunities were such that he left his house furnished,
ready for use, and in expectation of returning. But
death intervened, and his affliction required a change
of plan.
A MEMORIAL. 179
One falls and another appears on the scene, that
the work may go on. Mrs. I^ykins, deceased, had wit-
nessed the rising, in her native State, Indiana, of a
near relative, who was fitted and destined to do more
service for the Putawatomies than she had been able
to do. It was a young woman, a cousin, about five
years younger than herself. She had sought such op-
portunities to obtain an education as the time and cir-
cumstances made possible. Respectable seminaries
were within reach, and in two of these, one at Wil-
mington, Ind., and the other at Charleston, Ind., she
spent three or four years in mental discipline. Her
sphere was at once presented, and she entered it with-
out hesitation the care of her failing father and
motherless home, with such teaching as safely could
be added. And, yet, as one sphere may precede and
prepare for another, it so proved in this instance. The
missionary impulse, common to every true Christian,
dominated her life, and ere long led her to a new con-
secration of her cultivated heart and mind.
Her uncle, Isaac McCoy, had a constraining influ-
ence to draw her to a field of high endeavor. He had
succeeded in founding the Indian Mission Association,
and, its meetings being held in L,ouisville, not far from
her home, she found it convenient to learn its aims,
and a joy to partake of its spirit. His appeals in be-
half of the decaying race presented such lofty views of
Christian duty that they reached her loyal nature.
And she responded : " Here am I, send me."
This was Eliza McCoy, one of a number of Mc-
Coys who have stood for righteousness and truth, and
of which she was a cherished ornament. In August,
i8o POOR to!
1844, at the meeting of Bethel Association, Indiana,
she and the special companion pf her school life were
set apart as missionaries to the wild West. The event
was a great one, even in a community accustomed to
pioneering and hardships, though not to voluntary
sacrifice for others, with certain privations, and possi-
ble early death.
The day for separation came, September 24, 1844,
and the two heroines, Misses Eliza McCoy and Sarah
A. Osgood, boarded a steamboat for Westport, Mis-
souri, bearing commissions from the Society, and the
King Himself. It was a great undertaking for defense-
less women dangerous boating on western rivers,
amid wicked passengers and crew, for three weeks,
and a laborious career for and among wild Indians as a
further prospect, with no limit to it except that of the
grave perhaps an early and nameless one.
There were friends at or near Westport, and a brief
stay with them was made before entering the wilder-
ness. And while there they had an experience of
a western tornado, which utterly demolished the
house in which they were staying, wounding Miss
McCoy and others severely, scattering the house fur-
nishings, even to the treetops, and killing a number in
the vicinity a rough introduction to their destined
habitation, and calling for a fresh girding with super-
natural strength. Under the circumstances it was try-
ing for these mutual aids in the heart's needs to part,
but the separation came ; the one going to the Puta-
watomies, the other to the Weas, with hope that their
loss of each other might be gain to those savages.
Their first very thrilling experience, borne through
A MEMORIAL. l8l
life as an ever entertaining " story," was to be suc-
ceeded by another before reaching their work. They
started from Westport together. Arriving at the
station of the Wea tribe, the only lodgment to be had
was the rude cabin of the chief. " A pallet of straw
was provided in a small room, and to that these two
missionaries retired not to rest, but to spend the
night. Without, the wolves kept a continuous howl
all night. Within, homesickness, fear, and dejection
brought bitter tears for their comfort, and dismal re-
pinings for their cheer. Such was the first night
within the circle of their future toil and usefulness."
(McCormick.) That would have been hard fare for
men ; and what must it not have been for two unpro-
tected young women, for the first night on the field of
their lifework !
Miss McCoy was promptly at her station, but not
a moment too soon. Her cousin, Mrs. Delilah Lykins,
already mentioned, finished her course the day before
the recruits left Louisville, and she was much needed
to console the bereaved the mission not less than
the immediate family. Her work lay about fifty miles
southwest of Westport, in behalf of those in the rear
of some other tribes in point of improvement. The
only school among them, except hers, was a Catholic
boarding-school, and, owing to the Indians' hunting-
excursions, which continued several months in the
year, and included entire families, her school was quite
small, and, having but five to twelve scholars, all of
the most primary and primitive description, the lack
of stimulus to her cultivated mind was one of her daily
trials.
1 82 POOR 1,0 !
A severe epidemic of sickness, not unusual in the
forest, interrupted her work during the second year,
and after passing it and completing the school term
she and Miss Osgood returned to Indiana for rest
rest from life among savages. The testimonials of
sympathy and affection they received among friends
were of the simple and sincere sort, so characteristic
of the time when missionaries were few and almost
without facilities. But they chose not to stay amid
cultivated flowers ; they accepted the fragrance of the
wildwood instead, yet only that they might save some
and enter into their Master's joy.
In the year 1847 tne Putawatomies were moved
to a location on the Kansas River, which removed
Miss McCoy also, and placed her about sixty miles
west from Westport. Dr. J. I/ykins, physician under
Government, was also in the mission, as were Mr. and
Mrs. Simerwell, in whose family the two former made
their home. The place was called Kaw. The experi-
ence of " moving " enabled Miss McCoy to tell her
friends a story which the most tried and tempted of
housekeepers could not equal: A snowstorm the
first day, but counted a light affliction ; lodging the
first night in an uncomfortable Indian house. Next
night camped out in the snow ; Dr. I/ykins sick with
chills and fever. The next, were obliged to camp
early, to care for the doctor ; had a wet, " dreary,
dreary place " ; the women sought grass to spread un-
der the bedding ; with watching and nursing they sus-
tained the doctor through the night, when he seemed
likely to die, and resumed travel early in the morning,
reaching their destination in the afternoon. Were
A MEMORIAL. 183
ushered by circumstances into a dirty, dilapidated
house, which the blast penetrated at its pleasure, driv-
ing the inmates from corner to corner, and, betimes,
sifting snow upon their heads and shoulders.
The school gained in popularity, and some of the
pupils embraced the Savior. But the occasion came
for other changes. Miss Osgood died, leaving a re-
quest that Miss McCoy should take the work among
the Weas that she was about to leave. The wish had
all the force of instructions, and was followed for one
year, when Miss McCoy closed her nine-years' career
in the Indian country, bearing to her old home the love
of many who had first received her love. From this
time, 1853, her ministry of good changed in its sphere,
but abated not in its constancy and wise application,
nor in the nobility of the motive prompting it. Hav-
ing been faithful with few things a few untutored In-
dian youth she was accounted worthy to rule over
much, even a large estate, and so to enter into the joy
of her Lord.*
Others entered upon the difficult enterprise of car-
rying the Word of Life to the Putawatomies. In 1848
Rev. J. M. Ashburn, late graduate of Georgetown Col-
lege, Kentucky, took an appointment, but first gave a
period of efficient service in raising funds for the mis-
sion; then, with his wife, commenced the work of
preaching and teaching at the station. Rev. and Mrs.
B. W. Sanders, of Missouri, assumed similar duties.
_ ^
"Her closing years were devoted to caring for those who needed her
ministrations. One, her brother, in dying, committed to her the complete
control of his estate, amounting to $145,795, all of which she disbursed, as
a wise steward, for the good of others, and most especially for the cause
of religion and learning.
1 84 POOR 1,0 !
An interesting appointment was that of Rev. N. Dille
and his wife, of Oswego, Indiana; he to take charge of
the mechanical and farming interests, and she of the do-
mestic, while the higher duties of teaching and preach-
ing, also, were to be discharged. These, with f he labor-
ers already at the station, were thought to be an impor-
tant acquisition. Yet Providence did not fulfill the ex-
pectations cherished. lyate in the autumn Mr. and Mrs.
Dille set off for their destination, but, in a long and
tedious journey, in which Mrs. Dille's feet were frost-
bitten, and severe snowstorms hindered, they were
unable to go farther than to Westport until February.
From that point forward there was a trackless waste
to be passed, with dangers, occupying two days; yet
all, other missionaries having joined them, arrived in
safety.
School was resumed and the mission promised
well, when cholera broke out and discomfited them
for the time being. Mr. Dille was compelled to leave
on account of domestic affliction. The large mission-
building was unfinished, and the work upon it ceased.
Still the remaining missionaries " held on, determined
not to be thwarted in their efforts for the poor Puta-
watomies." The improvements and building were
reported the next year as completed, and faith and
patience rewarded by greatly increased prosperity in
all departments. Dr. J. Lykins was superintendent of
all affairs at the station, and to his faithfulness and
integrity successes were largely due.
The next year another preacher was registered
among the laborers Rev. I. F. Herrick, of Alabama,
with Mrs. Herrick as teacher. And the superintend-
A MEMORIAL. 185
ent was able to give a flattering report of the con-
dition and prospect. The school had grown to near
one hundred pupils, with others seeking admission,
and plowed fields been added to the resources of the
home. But in January the appearance of smallpox
entirely arrested the operations. It seemed that the
Indians were to be redeemed only through much tribu-
lation.
1 86 POOR
XIII.
MR, AND MRS. D. LYKINS;
MISS S. A. OSGOOD ; HIGH TRIBUTE.
THE Weas, one division of the once great Miami
Nation, claimed early attention from the new
Indian Association. On March n, 1843, it was de-
cided to establish a mission for their benefit, and
Rev. David L,ykins and his wife were appointed the '
missionaries. He was a young man, of some expe-
rience among the neighboring Shawanoes, and had
married Miss Abigail Webster, who had served under
the Triennial Board, with the same people, for two
and a half years. The delay in fully occupying the
situation, common in starting missions, was the less
regretted because the services of a missionary were
still urgently needed among the Shawanoes, and these
Mr. L,ykins supplied. The Government had made a
grant of a small, cultivated farm, with buildings, re-
cently occupied by the Agency, on which to establish
the Wea mission. Meantime a piteous demand was
made by the Shawanoes, who were likely to be left
destitute, and Mr. I^ykins continued with them while
Rev. B. M. Adams, under appointment, went to the
Weas.
The Wea mission became one of peculiar interest,
A MEMORIAL. 187
on account of the sacrifice upon its altar of Mrs. Ly-
kins, and the companion of Miss McCoy, Miss Sarah
A. Osgood. A boarding and manual labor school was
commenced, with Miss Osgood as the teacher. It at
once attracted attention, and the applications for ad-
mission were far beyond its capacity, which the
Board had not the means to enlarge. Besides per-
forming strictly school duties, the teacher imparted
religious instruction privately, or at her house, and
by visits to neighboring women. Speaking of the
work of lone women, the Secretary well says : " It re-
quires much grace and devotedness to the service of
God and the good of men, to sustain fortitude to per-
severe under the discouragements and trials incident
to their labors, and their peculiarly trying circum-
stances."
Mr. Adams retiring from the service, Rev. David
Lykins took the post of preacher to the Weas, with
Mrs. Lykins and Miss Osgood also in the mission.
The greater part of the Miami tribes were removing
from Indiana and about to settle with this division
of the one great family, making the mission very im-
portant. A new and commodious school and meeting-
house was erected, and sixteen acres were added to
the farm. Miss Osgood gives a cheering report of
one term of 1847-8:
All have been regular in attendance, and, while sev-
eral have wept over their sins, one has enlisted in the
service of Christ and mingles with us in prayer and praise.
On the first Sabbath in this year Brother Lykins admin-
istered the ordinance of baptism to Amanda. The day
was very pleasant, the waters clear and still, and altogether
i88 POOR LO!
it was a lovely scene. The Indians came early, and filled
our house to overflowing. All were seriously attentive
during divine service, at the close of which our family
and school, to preserve order, repaired to the water in
procession, the Indians quietly following. Many drew near
the water, and others seated themselves on an eminence
to witness the first baptism administered in their streams.
As in all other notes of progress, the " sound of the
going " betokened a deep impression, which, had the
occasion been improved by the denomination, might
have given the Indian cause a place with the most
successful evangelical movements of the century. Not
a sufficient number of laborers was sent to encourage
those who put their lives into the work, and to give
opportunity for ascertaining who could endure the
hardships of a protracted struggle ; while the amount
expended, even upon those actually engaged, was so
trifling as not to awaken in the givers much interest as
to the use made of it. Then the Government's hand,
though appropriating money, was not an advantage ;
at least, not to the spiritual part of the work, nor was
it stimulating to the denomination in charge of the
enterprise.
After another year seven additions were reported ;
among them the head chief of the tribe and his wife,
making a still more impressive baptismal occasion.
The school shared in the fruits. And with Rev. T. L.
Jackson and Miss S. G. Simerwell added to the work-
ing force, the mission was thought to have unusual
prosperity. After mentioning many points of encour-
agement in school and religious activity, Miss Osgood
adds : " More than twenty daily recite passages from
A MEMORIAL. 189
the Word of God, and read every Sabbath in that pre-
cious book." The Commissioner of Indian Affairs tes-
tified as follows : " The influence of this mission un-
der the management of that most worthy man, Rev.
David Lykins, has not only tended to advance the con-
dition of the children immediately under his charge,
but may be found in every wigwam or house in the
Territory. Much credit is also due Miss S. A. Osgood,
who is at the head of the female department of this
school ; she is a most estimable young lady, and is pe-
culiarly well fitted for the position she occupies."
The dial of the century showed high noon. It was
1850, and a good time to make a reckoning. The Bap-
tist Missionary Magazine made the following state-
ment as to the operations of the Indian Mission Asso-
ciation, which had been organized less than eight
years ; with four missionaries in the field, and receipts
aggregating $3,000.35, for the first year, viz. : " Since
1842 the Association has been steadily extending its
operations; the present number of missionaries and
assistants being thirty-two, schools, five, number of per-
sons baptized during the year, one hundred and seven-
ty-four, receipts, $13,493.50." Communicants, about
thirteen hundred.
The year 1852, the time-limit of these sketches,
brought changes and much sorrow to the young and
hopeful Wea mission. Its first teacher, Miss Osgood,
was taken from her loved employ to the Realm of
Rest, January 9th, leaving a large number of admiring
and advancing pupils to wonder why it should thus
be. She proved her affectionate interest in them by
a last request that her tried and trusted friend, Miss
POOR I<o!
McCoy, should take her place, leaving her own sta-
tion to do so. Six days after this sad event came
another of similar sadness, at the same station. Mrs.
Abigail Webster, wife of Rev. David Lykins, entered
into Rest, likewise. In 1840 she left the scenes of
home and sanctuary, in I^owell, Massachusetts, for a
frontier life in behalf of the friendless race, and abode
among them for eleven years ; proving, in both single
and married life, her oneness of purpose to devote
her days to their good.
The United States Agent, in a note announcing
their deaths, and after describing the happiness and
composure with which they met the last trial, was
constrained to say :
I should do violence to my feelings were I to close
without paying a small tribute of respect to the memory
of the deceased. I came into the Indian country the first
of July, in discharge of an official duty, and most of the
time since I have shared the hospitality and enjoyed the
society of the missionary family at this station ; and I ex-
press myself but coldly, when I say that they enjoyed my
highest esteem and confidence.
To a singleness of purpose and devotion to the inter-
est committed to their charge, they united a high order of
capacity and intellectual fitness for their peculiar and most
delicate and difficult duties ; and I fear there must be a
long lapse of time before their places may be filled. They
died at their post in the faithful discharge of their duties,
and their memory should be cherished and treasured by
all the friends of Indian missions.
The cemetery at the Wea mission station, near
Paola, Kansas, will ever have a pathetic interest to
A MEMORIAL. IQI
those who are familiar with this sketch. Side by side
are the graves of these humble toilers, while the dust
of the lowly people for whom they endured and died
has long since mingled with its mother earth, through-
out the region.
i 92 POOR
XIV.
<SHttf JAMES A. RANALDSON;
SAMUEL EASTMAN; HONOR TO WHOM
HONOR; A HOPEFUL CAUSE; A CHRIS-
TIAN CHIEF ; ENDS OF THE EARTH
MEET.
ONE of the earliest missionaries of the Board was
Rev. James A. Ranaldson, who, in 1817, estab-
lished work at New Orleans and vicinity for the bene-
fit of the Aborigines. A most malignant fever in the
city drove him to an adjoining parish for a settlement,
and St. Francisville became his station. His career
was limited in time, but the space over which he trav-
eled, bearing the good tidings, embraced Mississippi
and Alabama, as well as Louisiana; and the report
said : " He has been actively employed in preaching
the Gospel to bond and free, with a success that has
rejoiced our hearts."
Mr. Ranaldson was from North Carolina ; was one
of the founders of the old Triennial Convention, and
received his appointment as missionary at its first tri-
ennial session. It is stated that he influenced the
" Mississippi Society for Baptist Missions " to send
A MEMORIAL. IQ3
Rev. Isaac Suttle among the Creeks, whose labors re-
sulted in the formation of a church among the Creek
colored people, the beginning of the Gospel in that
tribe.
Samuel OBaatntan.
Rev. Samuel Eastman, of New Hampshire, was or-
dained to the work in the Southwest, September 29,
1818, with Natchez as the center of his teaching and
preaching. The services took place in Sansom Street
Church, Philadelphia, where the hand of missionary
ordination was laid upon others in previous and sub-
sequent years. To Dr. Wm. Staughton, secretary,
pastor, and theological professor, and a few others,
were given the joy and the responsibility of " separat-
ing" many for the work to which the Holy Spirit
called them. The rotunda of that much-frequented
church repeatedly echoed the Great Commission, and
heathen at home and abroad received the benefit of
what was done there.
$0tt0r to pUtJcmt $0tt0r.
Rev. John B. Jones, in his lectures on Indian affairs,
delivered in eastern States during his exile from the
Indian Territory, pays high regard to the work accom-
plished by others than Baptists. The American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions began mis-
sions among the Cherokees in 1816-17, and sustained
a larger force on the field than that of any other
society. Its policy called for teaching, to a great ex-
tent, and so resulted in limited spiritual fruits, as com-
194 POOR i/> !
'
pared to the success of those who have maintained
that the Gospel of Christ and its direct promulgation
should be first in all missionary projects. It was this
higher view that called Evan Jones from the tedium
of limited schoolroom routine to the wider sphere of
evangelical duty, and caused him to become the great
man that he really was. His son, seeing the matter in
the same light, followed him and entered into his joy.
He had a fine appreciation of what anyone effected in
Christian work, and hence the following tribute, to
whom it was justly due :
" This Society (A. B. C. F. M.) has constantly kept
a strong force of white missionaries in the field, and
they have always been very active and efficient in sus-
taining schools among the Indians and in translating
and printing portions of the Bible and other useful
matter in the Cherokee language. Their books have
been used by all other denominations, and have proved
one of the most powerful means of civilizing and Chris-
tianizing the people. Their churches have proved a
great blessing to the Nation.
" Besides the preaching at their stations, two of the
missionaries, Rev. Wm. Chamberlain and Rev. Daniel
S. Buttrick, devoted themselves exclusively to preach-
ing. They traveled in various parts of the Nation,
and visited the most neglected, inaccessible, as well as
the more enlightened and favored of the people. Mr.
Buttrick was remarkable in attachment to the Indians.
Few have ever preached to them with a warmer heart,
or a deeper sense of responsibility to God ; and there
are few names that will be longer remembered or more
warmly cherished by the Cherokees than that of this
;
SANSOM STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. PA.
A large circular Sanctuary, ninety feet in diameter, made resonant with
the eloquence of Dr William Staughton, Pastor (181 1-1822),
and Missionary Secretary ( 1 8 1 4- 1 826), and hallowed
by services relating to the departure of
many Missionaries, East and West.
A MEMORIAL. 195
man. He rebuked them sharply, prayed for them
fervently, and pleaded with them in tears, both in the
pulpit and from house to house, and many, both in his
own denomination and in others, are rejoicing in the
hope of heaven, whose hearts were first melted by the
word of truth which he preached. He began his
labors in 1818. He labored hard during the early
history of the mission in clearing up the ground and
sowing the good seed, but was permitted to bring but
a small portion of the sheaves with him. A premature
feebleness of health weakened his energies for years,
and finally God called him home. He was in the field
over twenty years."
As early as 1818 Rev. Humphrey Posey, with only
one year of experience, testifies to the promise of the
cause in the following terms :
" The progress of the Indians surpasses my most
sanguine hopes. I visited one school on the day after
its commencement, and found a number able to show
any letter in the alphabet, and name it. One man and
his wife, in another school, who did not talk English
at all, had learned in about nine days to spell the words
of three letters. Their anxiety appears great to obtain
information; they know there is something in the
Bible to which they are strangers, and they want to
understand it."
The following authentic statement conveys evi-
dence from the best of sources, after fifty years of In-
dian missions ; some of them of an intermittent and
indifferent character :
196 POOR i<o!
" At the second annual Conference of the Board of
Indian Commissioners, held in Washington, in January,
1873, with the representatives of the religious societies
and boards cooperating with the Government, Right
Rev. Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, said, ' My wildest
dream of what might be done for the Indians has been
accomplished. I had never conceived in my heart that
a work could be done for the Indian equal to that
which has been done within the last ten years, and,
more especially during the last four years in which
we have had the cooperation of a Christian Govern-
ment.' Most people, like Bishop Whipple, have been
very unbelieving as to the possibilities and, especially,
the probabilities of Indian evangelization and civiliza-
tion. But what has been done among the Indians of
the Indian Territory, not in four years, but as the re-
sult of missionary work dating back for at least a half
a century, is a rebuke forevermore to all this unbelief.
A work has been done that, in many important re-
spects, as I think, has not a parallel at present on the
globe."
Bishop Whipple further testifies, after years of daily
association with the Indians and devotion to their wel-
fare:
" There is not to be found on the face of the earth
a heathen people who offer so great an encourage-
ment to the work of Christian civilization. The North
American Indian is the only heathen on the face of the
earth who is not an idolater ; who recognizes at once
the fact that there is a Great Spirit ; who believes in
an unseen spirit-world, and who has an abiding faith in
spirit influence. He also feels most keenly that he
belongs to a common race."
A MEMORIAL. 197
And this confirms the testimony of Rev. Isaac Mc-
Coy, who, after nearly twenty years among the In-
dians, engaged with intensest zeal in their behalf,
makes the following declaration:
" No heathen people upon earth ever presented so
few obstacles to the introduction of Christianity, use-
ful customs, and righteous laws, as the Aborigines in
their native condition. The absence of a constituted
mythology left their minds partly as a blank, on which
to write the precepts of the Gospel ; their poverty pre-
pared them for the admission of better customs in
common life, and the equality which prevailed among
all prepared them for the adoption of laws securing
the rights of all."
John B. Jones, in a lecture delivered in the North
and East, in 1874, bore unqualified witness to the
precious fruitage of the efforts in behalf of the In-
dians in preceding years. He said:
" The work among the Indians has been a success.
You do not, indeed, get your pay in a host of strong
churches rolling back their thousands into the treas-
uries of your societies, but you have had your pay, and
are still getting your pay, in the conversion of souls,
obscure and unknown though they be. Many of these
sons of the forest have heard the word of life from a
Bingham, a Meeker, a Pratt, a McCoy, and other mis-
sionaries, as well as from their native preachers.
Though under great disadvantages, many of them
have believed in Jesus, fought the good fight, finished
their course, and gone home to glory. This is the re-
ward of your work of love. I am sustained in this as
the proper reward, by the testimony of some of the
most devout and eminent men.
198 POOR LO !
" I remember a very emphatic expression of this.
One of our Cherokee boys went to Upper Alton, Illi-
nois, to College. He had no money, but labored with
his own hands for board and clothes, working his way
through the Sophomore year, when sickness came
upon him. For many long weeks he lay, gradually
wasting away. But he was a Christian, and held up
his torch through his long sickness among strangers
of another race. His room was a Bethel. The stu-
dents attended him, sang and prayed with him, and
witnessed his joy in Christ. The professors and their
wives and others visited him and prayed with him, and
heard his testimony for Jesus. He went home to glory,
triumphant in Christ. Dr. Reed, president, said to me
after the young man's death, ' If there were no other
reward, the victories of grace in that young man are
worth all the money that the Cherokee mission has
cost.'
" But if Dr. Reed could have been amongst that
people he could have witnessed and known many
other such beds of sickness and deaths quite as glori-
ous. They have been occurring all along from the
foundation of the mission, as from time to time the
voice of Jesus has been calling his redeemed to their
home. This is the pay which God intended you
should have for your missionary work among the
Indians."
A MEMORIAL. 199
31 htrt*tt*u Chief.
In evidence of the undoubted, the saving and sanc-
tifying effect of the Gospel upon the Indian mind, the
following incident is related and well authenticated :
In the autumn of 1839 a company of Delawares in-
vited Charles Journeycake (memorialized in chapter
eight) to accompany them on a trapping expedition in
the capacity of commander. Charles was a talented
young Delaware, who had acquired a knowledge of
reading, and who had become a member of a Baptist
Church. He refused to accept of the office of leader,
or even to join the company, unless all would agree to
attend prayers at camp every night and morning ; to
bring into camp all their traps on Saturday evening,
and to spend the Sabbath in rest and religious exer-
cises. Only one besides himself professed to be pious,
and he was a member of the same church. Neverthe-
less, all agreed to Charles's propositions. They were
in the wilderness about six weeks, during which time
all strictly adhered to their engagement. Morning
and evening prayers were regularly observed, at which
times portions of the Scriptures were read and hymns
sung in the Delaware language ; and on Sundays
Charles read and expounded the Scriptures, and ex-
horted his fellow trappers to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And not even their traps were allowed to re-
main set for catching beaver, lest unhallowed thoughts
should turn towards them, to the desecration of the
Sabbath. That same desert had been frequented by
Indians, from time immemorial, but, perhaps, had
never before resounded with the voice of prayer and
praise.
200 POOR I,O!
&n*0 of the (&avt\
There are pleasant incidents along the devious and
difficult ways of missionary life, and some that thrill
and impress. Not the laborers only, but the sympa-
thetic supporters of them as well, occasionally have
opportunities to receive new and cheering assurance
that all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation
of God. While they have more trial of faith than
those less interested, they likewise have more expe-
rience upon which to build a faith in the final tri-
umph of the Messiah ; a better use of the key to the
future, and, therefore, more satisfaction with the ways
of God, and greater joy in the successes of His king-
dom.
What, for example, more refreshing by the way
than the meeting at Augusta, Georgia, in 1834, of
missionaries from opposite sides of the globe, with
fruits of their labors with them ! It was a " little col-
lection of persons in a private room." From the far
East had come Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Wade, and while on
a tour through the Southern States, taking along some
" stars " in their crown, Moung Swa-Moung, Burman,
and Ko Chet-Thing, Karen, whom should they meet
if not Evan Jones with as many converted savages
from Cherokee land ! There, also, was present the
chief representative of the great organization that
cared for missions in both climes Rev. Lucius
Bolles, D. D. With what intense interest these Chris-
tians must have looked upon each other, as in speech-
less embarrassment they studied such racial peculiari-
ties as were presented, and with wonder and gratitude
A MEMORIAL. 2OI
reflected that the Gospel has provisions of mercy for
" every creature " !
Mr. Jones, on behalf of his people, expressed the
hope " that this evidence of the extended operations
of divine grace among distant and crowded nations,
presented in the persons of the laborers and the
fruits of their toil, will expand our views and stimu-
late us to more unreserved devotedness and vigorous
exertions in our own sphere." He saw that such an
influence was to be expected from the occasion. An-
other who was present observed : " This was one of
the seasons, too seldom in my poor pilgrimage, to be
remembered with soul-refreshing interest while mem-
ory shall last."
In reference to this visit at Augusta, a correspond-
ent of the Tarborough (N. C.) Free Press said : " Here
were hearts united in the fellowship of Christ, whose
voices could not unite in his praise ; hearts, though
tutored in different climes, yet cast in the same mould
and leavened with the same truth ; knees bowing to
the same God, that have bowed to different gods, and,
some, to dumb idols. Is not here enough to awaken
the sympathy of the most unfeeling; to excite to
vigilance the careless ; to call into action all the
feelings of gratitude, and create in us greater anx-
iety for constant labor in the cause of salvation ! It
was by far the most memorable day and season I
ever saw, or ever expect to see this side of Heaven.
I have not a doubt but that it will light on ages' yet
to come, and through the ages of eternity."
r-
202
INDEX.
INDEX.
Academy, Choctaw, 94 ; Blue
Springs, 95.
Adams, J. Q^, message on re-
moval, 33.
Appeal, Indians to Gov't, 31
Ark, the, 86.
Bacon, J. S., visits Shawanoes,
158.
Barker, F., 152; 157.
Binghams, A. and A. J., 138; 140.
Blackburn, Rev. G., 16.
Blackfeather, Captain, 155; 158;
101.
Blanchard, I. D., 122.
Brainard, David, 13.
Brown, Catharine, 16.
Brown, P. P., Jr., 94.
Bushyhead, Jesse, 39; 47; 48; 60.
Butler, missionary, imprisoned, 34.
Buttrick, D. S., 194.
Camp-meetings, 162.
Canadian River Church, 93.
Cherokee, country, 26; pathetic
appeal, 3 1 ; Cherokee Phcenix
suppressed, 35; Christians at
Nashville, 46.
Chickasaws, merged, 92.
Choctaws,84; removal, 87.
Christians, whipped, 7 1 ; 77.
Church, removing, 47; first in
Indian Territory, 66.
Churchill, Miss E., 157.
Clinch, Gen., 102.
Compere, L.,65.
Crawford, campaign, 126.
Creeks, 64; oppose preaching, 69.
Dade, Major, defeat of, 101.
Davis, John, native preacher, 65.
Dela wares, 121; 125; church, 131.
Deputation, peace, 107.
Dille, N., enters the work, 184.
Dogs, Spanish, from Cuba, 107.
Downing, Lewis, 62.
Dyer, S., 74.
Eastman, S., 193.
Ebenezer ? first Church in Indian
Territory, 66.
Education, Ottawa, 137.
Edwards, Jonathan, 12.
" Jerusha, 13.
Elliot, John, 1 1.
Emigration, first, 32.
Ewing, Col. G. W., 171.
Flood, Osage River, 1 58.
Friends (Quakers), efforts, 1 52 ;
with Miamis, 169.
Georgia, seek Cherokee lands, 27.
Great Valley Church, missionaries
from, 21.
Green, David, native, drowned,
160.
Guess, George, alphabet, 24.
Hay, A. L., 78.
Herrick, Mr. and Mrs., 184.
Indian Mission Asscn. formed, 72.
Islands, Joseph, 76.
Jackson, A., on removal, 30; " Big
Knife, "97; 104.
Jesup, Gen., 105, 106.
Johnson, G.J., notes, 81 ; 108.
Jones, Evan, prospered in Indian
work, 38; arrested, 40; life,
49; wife, 54; meeting Asiat-
ics at Augusta, 1 99.
Jones, John B., life ? 54; tributes
to, 57, 58; testimony of, 197.
INDEX.
203
Journeycake, Chas., 128; mother,
128; the Christian chief, 198.
Jumper, Gen., 106.
" John, 108-10.
Kingsbury, Rev. Cyrus, 16; 20;
85.
King Philip, 106.
Lykins, Mr. and Mrs. D., 186;
with Weas, 187; Mrs. D.
dies, 190; tribute of U. S.
Agent, 190.
Lykins, Mr. and Mrs. J., 73; 153;
with Putawatomies, 173;
Mrs. L. dies, 181.
Marshall, Chief Justice, decides
for the missionaries ? 34.
Mason, J. O., tragic experience 68.
Mayhews, the, 1 1.
McCoy, Eliza, 179; return, 182;
goes to Weas, 183.
McCoy, Isaac, testimony to value
of Indian Missions, 097.
Meeker, J., 135.
Menominee, a John the Baptist,
'74-
Merrill, Mr. and Mrs., 145, et al.
Methodists, with Wyandots, 127.
Miamis, 165; history, 166; trad-
ing post, 169; missions to,
170.
Micanopy, chief, 105.
Monmouth, steamer, lost with na-
tives, 37.
Monroe, James, on removal, 32.
Morse, Miss H. H., 139.
" E.S., 118; 123, with
testimony.
Mountain region, Christians of, 42.
Murrow, J. S., on Seminoles, 1 1 1.
North Fork Church, 75.
O'Bryant, Rev. D., removed west
with Cherokees, 38.
Oganaya, 60.
Ojibwas, 137; church, 139; tours
with, 141.
Okechobee, Lake, battle of, 105.
Omathla, Chas., shot, 99.
Osages, 143-4.
Osceola, 99; 105-6.
Osgood, S. A., 180; journey west,
180; with Weas, 187; report,
187; dies, 189.
Otoes, 144; mission, 145; hunt-
ing, 147.
Ottawas, 134.
Ouchalatta, 62.
Persecution, Creeks, 155.
Pilgrims, efforts, 10.
Posey, Humphrey, 20; testimony
of, 195.
Potts, R. D.,89.
Pratt, J.G., 120.
Printing, on new system, 154.
Providence ch., first in Choctaw
territory, 90; enlarged, 91.
Putawatomies, 174.
Ranaldson, Jas. A., 192.
Removal, manner of, 36; begun,
42.
Revival, en route, 43-48; Creeks,
74; under persecution, 137.
Roberts. T., 21 ; 23.
Ross, Chief John, 29.
Rollin, D. B.,67; opposed and re-
moved, 155; dies, 157.
Sansom St. Church, setting apart
missionaries, 21 ; 193.
Sault de St. Marie, 138.
Scott, Gen., sent to remove Cher-
okees, 35; with Seminoles,
102.
Seminoles, 96; aids, 97; treaty,
98; evade and devastate, 101.
Sergeant, John, 12.
Shawanoes, 152; the "Sun," 154;
character, 164.
Simerwell, Mr. and Mrs. R., 176.
Skiggett, Henry, native assistant,
120.
Slater, Mr. and Mrs. L., 134.
Slocum, Frances, 171.
Smedleyjos.,77; 89; pj.
Southern Baptists, credit to, 108.
Spain, war with U.S., 98.
Steward, John, African missionary
to Wyandots, 128.
204
INDEX.
Stockbridges, 1 20.
Taylor, Gen. 103.
Taylor, l.ucy H., 90.
Thompson, Chas., 63.
" Gen. Wiley, 99.
Tinsawattee, 2 1 .
Tinson, John, 59.
Treaties, Schermerhorn, 29; Fort
Moultrie, 103; with Miamis,
166.
Tucker, Eber, 70; 89.
Valley Towns, 2 1 .
Wallace, Rev. S., 80.
Walton, Mary, 122.
Weas, the, 186; commissioner
testifies, 189; magazine re-
ports, 189.
Whipple, Bishop, testimony of,
196.
Wickliffe, John, 39; 60.
Wilson, C. .,89.
Worcester, missionary, im-
prisoned, 34.
Wyandots, 127.
Yazoo River, 86.
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