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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

Lost-Without Shadows
The Rise and Fall of Protestant Missions
in the Western Great Lakes Region
leoo-lasu

presented by

Lynne Adams Deur

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

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Major professor

October 30, 1991
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Lost—Without Shadows
The Rise and Fall of Protestant Missions

in the Western Great Lakes Region
1 8 0 0 - l 8 5 4 '

By
Lynne Adams Deur

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of English - American Studies
1991

623/- 3487

ABSTRACT

Lost—Without Shadows
The Rise And Fall Of Protestant Missions
In The Western Great Lakes Region
1800-1854

By

Lynne Adams Deur

The purpose of this thesis is to bring together under one cover the data concerning
Protestant missions and missionaries in the Western Great Lakes region in the first half of
the 1800s—or until the last removal in 1854. These dates are not artificial, since the
establishment of missions followed the westward movement of the frontier. In most cases
the missions were closed as treaties and removal policies forced native people from their
lands. Although many missions as far west as Minnesota are included, the study
encompasses only the missions established among Eastern Woodland tribes. Missions to
the Sioux are not treated in this work.

The paper concludes that the Protestant missions in the western Great Lakes region
were relatively shortlived and generally unsuccessful. Yet while some of their histories
seem almost inconsequential, they reflect the religious spirit of the age and Americans'
perception of the nation they were shaping. The missionaries who directed them varied
from unbending managers to empathetic souls struggling with the consequences of empire-
building. In every case they were ethnocentric, lost in a culture they did not understand

and facing the moral dilemma larger than any Goliath. It was a battle they could not win.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Dr. David Baily and Dr. Keith Widder for their
direction and assistance in this project.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter I - The Mission Enterprise ............................. 1
Chapter II - The Missions of Northwest Ohio ................... 17
Chapter III - Michigan Missions and Missionaries ................ 32

Chapter IV - Missions on the Wisconsin and Minnesota Frontiers. . 59

LIST OF FIGURES

Protestant Missions in Ohio ................................... 24
Protestant Missions in the Michigan Region .................... 45
Protestant Missions in the Wisconsin Region ................... 67
Protestant Missions in the Minnesota Region .................... 74

Chapter I

The Mission Enterprise

In 1814 two young men published A Correct View of that Part of the United
States Which Lies West of the Allegheny Mountains With Regard to Religion
. and Morals. A firsthand view might have been a better term. The men, Samuel
J. Millls and John F. Schermerhorn, had just returned from a long journey into
Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. Their motivation was religious.
Burning with missionary zeal. .they hoped to prove that the frontier was ripe
for missionary work.

Schermerhom was especially concerned with the Indian population in
the western Great Lakes area. He concluded that there were about 19,220
native "souls" east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio River to the Great
Lakes. These included, "Wyandots, Shawnoes, Putawatamies, Delawares,
Miamies, Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, Piorras. Winebagoes, Menomene, and
Chippeways." 1

Mills concentrated on the work of various denominations on the frontier.
He felt that the Presbyterians had the most intelligent and educated
missionaries in the western Great Lakes area, and not surprisingly, were "the
most ready to support schools."2 At the opposite pole were the Baptists. at least
according to Mills. Not only were Baptist preachers and missionaries on the

frontier generally uneducated. they belittled education. Utmost to them was

 

1A Correct View included Schermerhorn's special report "for propagating the
gospel among the Indians." His listings of the tribes included numbers and
locations. See his report in John F. Schermerhorn's and Samuel J. Mills' A
Correct View of the Part of the United States Which Lies West of the Allegheny
Mountains With Regard to Religion and Morals (Hartford, 1814), 4 ff.

2Schermerhorn and Mills. 37-38.

that their people be led by the Holy Spirit, something that certainly could be
done without any formal training.

In the middle of the road were the Methodists. Mills saw the Methodists as
being generally uninformed about doctrine. But these people, he felt, had the
best system of domestic mission in America. A Methodist missionary would
gather a core of people and start a church. The natural leaders would be left in
charge of the church, while the missionary rode on to establish another group
in another place. From time to time, he would return and visit the churches
begun. Thus, the Methodist preachers or missionaries were circuit riders,
ministering to small churches in an often extensive region.3

Although some Protestant missionaries worked among settlers and Indians
before 1814, Mills and Schermerhorn's report marked the beginning of a
flurry of mission work by Protestant societies among the Woodland Indian
people of the western Great Lakes area. Schermerhorn noted, in fact, that the
Moravians and Quakers had missions in Ohio and Indiana respectively, and
that Presbyterian missionaries had "met with considerable success" with the
Wyandots in northwestern onio.4 But after the War of 1812 to about 1854 when
the majority of Indian people had finally been removed to lands further west,
a number of Protestant mission societies worked vigorously to bring
Christianity to the 19,000 souls in Schermerhom's report. In addition to the
denominations mentioned by Mills, these missionaries were sent by
Episcopalian, Congregationalist. or Lutheran societies, or by interdenomi-
national groups such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign

Missions and the American Missionary Association.

_

3 For a colorful explanation of the Methodist circuit rider system, see Jerald C.
IBBI‘auer, Protestantism in America (Philadelphia: The Westminister Press. 1953).
8-139.
Schermerhorn & Mills, 4.

To a great extent the establishment of missions in the Indian lands of this
western Great Lakes area spread geographically from east to west and chrono-
logically from the early 18008 to the 1850s. In the early 18008 most of the
Protestant missions were located in northwestern Ohio and lower Michigan. By
the 18308 and 18408 these missions were closing, however, and most of the
missionary activity was located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, and
northeastern Minnesota. By ‘1850 mission work was confined only to the
northernmost areas. Altogether, various Protestant missionary societies
established and subsequently closed more than thirty missions in this western
Great Lakes area in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The rise and subsequent fall of the missions kept pace with the opening
and closing of the western frontier. As settlers clamored for lands, thousands
of Indians were forced to reservations west of the Mississippi River. The
Indian people of northwestern Ohio which included Delaware. Seneca, and
Wyandot or Huron peeple who had already been driven from their homes in
the East, were forced west again. By the 18308 the Ottawa and the Potawatomi of
lower Michigan were forced north or westward, and the Ojibwa of northern
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota gradually lost their lands in the 18408
and 18508. Missions, as a result, were often short-lived simply because white
settlers arrived, took Indian lands, and pushed the Indian people on. Indian
missions could not exist where there were no Indians.

What motivated the Protestant denominations to engage in the business of
establishing missions in a region where Christianity had been preached only
by French priests?5 One explanation is that missions were a natural outcome

of renewed religious vigor in American Protestant churches in the early

 

5 Jesuit priests first came to the western Great Lakes area in the mid-16008 and
continued their work for more than a century.

18008. Churches urged their members to exercise their faith by trying to
convert the unconverted. At the same time, the newly converted were given a
charge to bring others to the faith. There was, in short, a new emphasis on a
Christian's responsiblity to save the lost.

The idea that Christians must "do something" about their own and others'
salvation worked at all levels of society. The revivals and camp meetings of the
period dealt largely with the uneducated on a purely emotional level. But the
leaders of those meetings were spurred by religious thinkers in the eastern
seminaries.

William Sweet credits Samuel Hopkins as the "father of American
Missions."6 Believing that Christ died for all men, Hopkins concluded that
holiness came not from placing one's own happiness as one's goal for life, but
from becoming involved in "disinterested benevolence," or concern with the
greatest good and happiness of the whole. The theology of disinterested bene-
volence, Sweet says, "perhaps more than any other furnished the incentive
for the formation of the first organized agencies to lead the advance against
the powers of ignorance and darkness throughout the nation, particularly on
the frontier. . .."7

Samuel J. Mills was one of the young theologians inspired to lead such an
advance. On a sultry day in the summer of 1806 a thunderstorm in Massa-
chusetts sent Mills and a small group of his young college friends scurrying

for shelter under a haystack. While waiting for the storm to subside, they

¥

6 Hopkins was a Yale-educated theologian whose career extended from 1743 to

1803. A prote’ge’of Jonathon Edwards, Hopkin's docrtine, Hopkinsianism, was a

Simpler version of Edward's Calvinism. Henry Warner Bowdin‘, Dictionary of

ginerican Religious Biography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1977).
7-218.

7 William Warren Sweet, Religion in the Development of American Culture,

1765-1840 (New York: Charles Scribners' Sons. 1952), 235.

talked about the possibilities of spreading Christianity among the heathen
peOple of the world. Together they prayed and vowed in secret to devote their
lives to missionary work.

When Mills and his friends graduated from college, most went on to
Andover Seminary. There they met several others who shared the same
fervent desire to spread the Christian message of salvation in heathen lands
where people would perish without the knowledge of the Christian gospel. In
1810 the Andover students met with the General Association of Massachusetts, a
group of evangelically-minded Congregational ministers, urging the forma-
tion of a foreign mission society and offering themselves as missionaries. The
result of the meeting was the founding of the American Board of Commis-
sioners for Foreign Missions, or ABCFM.

Although the ABCFM began with an eye toward foreign missions, it also
came to include missions among the American Indians. With their study, A
Correct View, Mills had a part with Schermerhorn in convincing the
organization to direct some of its efforts to Indians.8 But it is the contention of
R. Pierce Beaver that many Protestant leaders were ready to consider mission
work among Indians in a way they had not been possible before. Since the
threat of Indian attack was now only a vague memory in the minds who lived
in the settled East, it was easier to muster compassion for the natives whose
lands had been confiscated. The guilt from the wrongs inflicted upon the
. Indians was beginning to weigh on the minds of thoughtful Americans.

Giving them Christianity, according to Beaver, was to give them restitution.9

;

8 Mills' dream, like most young missionaries of the time, was to go to some
foreign land. Poor health forced him to stay at home, however, and he thus
turned his interest to missionary work in America.

9 R. Pierce Beaver, Church, State, and the American Indian (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1966), 62.

While religious leaders built the spiritual foundation for missions,
government officials began to see the practical value of such missions. Henry
Knox, Secretary of War under George Washington, also envisioned a civiliza-
tion program for Indians that would be carried out by Christian missions. In a
report to President Washington, Knox said that the missionaries "should be
made the instruments to work on the Indians. . .. They should be their friends
and fathers. Such a plan, although it might not fully effect the civilization of
the Indians, would most probably be attended with the salutary effect of
attaching them to the interest of the United States."10 Knox did not endorse,
however, teaching Christianity in schools that might be set up by the
government.

Because of battles with the Indians in the Northwest Territory and the War
of 1812, there were few attempts to establish a working policy between the
United States Government and mission societies until 1816. At that time Cyrus
Kingsbury, a ABCFM missionary. convinced President James Madison that the
establishment of schools would be a way to repay some of the wrongs done to
the native people. Kingsbury's plan asked that the federal government
provide funds for buildings and farm supplies only. Missionary teachers would
not receive any wages for their work—at least from the government. Over two
decades later, Kingsbury began the partnership with the government that
Knox had once planned.

A formal, far-reaching policy that united missions and government took
place with the passage of the Civilization Fund in 1819. The bill appropriated
$10,000 to responsible agencies who would engage in the education of the
Yndians. responsible agencies being mission societies who had to some extent

‘

10 Knox in Beaver, 64.

already begun the work. Government monies, of course, provided a great
impetus to various plans of mission societies. From the government point of
view, it was an economical way to hire honest, devoted, and enthusiastic
workers.

Although the greatest number of missions established and those most often
referred to were among the Southeastern tribes, the Civilization Fund did help
the growth of missions in the western Great Lakes area. Nearly all the missions
in northwestern Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota benefitted from
government monies. At the same time the missions also suffered from
government policy, as the removal policies established by President James
Monroe in 1825 and heightened by Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Bill of
1830 made any kindness shown by missionaries seem hypocritical. In the
words of Beaver, "the government set out to destroy with its left hand all that it
had sought to achieve with the right. The cause of civilization, so loudly
acclaimed, was retarded by removal."11

But while the partnership was at its peak, the cooperation of missionaries
and government symbolized strong forces at work—the partnership of religion
and government. In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville was struck
with how political theory and religious doctrine were interwoven in America's
democracy. British colonists, Tocqueville said, "brought with them into the
New World a. form of Christianity which I cannot better describe by styling it
democratic and republican religion. This contributed powerfully to the
establishment of a republic and a democracy in public affairs: and from the

beginning, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been

‘

11 Beaver, 90.

dissolved."12 In short, it was not only a very practical idea for missionaries to
work with the government, it was a natural union philosophically.

In the same way, many Americans believed that Christianity was an
integral part of the civilizing process which the native people must undergo.
They would, of course, have to give up their unsettled lives of hunting and
fishing and become farmers. As early as 1793 Congress authorized President
Washington to give Indians farm animals and farm tools by passing a Trade
and Intercourse Act. It was believed, according to Roy Harvey Pearce, that
civilization would come naturally as Indians settled into farming. "Americans,"
Pearce said, "had always felt that the process of acculturation . . .would be
relatively simple. To be civilized the Indian would have merely to be made into
a farmer. . .. Christianization would follow inevitably; perhaps Christianization
itself was the way to civilization." 13

Methodist missionary John Pitezel who worked in Michigan's Upper
Peninsula fervently believed that Christianization and the civilizing process
must go hand in hand. He reminded his readers that there was more to
bringing the Gospel to Indians than saving souls. "One other motive should
prompt us to duty here," Pitezel said. The Indian "must be elevated by means of
a Christian civilization, or he must become extinct at no distant day. His
fisheries are monopolized by others, and his hunting-grounds have been
mostly destroyed. He can live but little longer by the chase. He never can

become truly civilized without the entering wedge of Christianity."14

 

12 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, V. I (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1945). 300.

13 Roy Harvey Pearce, The Savages of America (Baltimore: The John Hopkins
Press, 1965), 66.

14 John Pitezel, Lights and Shades of Missionary Life (Cincinnati: The Western
Book Concern, 1857), 419.

Thus, the missionaries who set out to the western Great Lakes region to
bring Christianity to the old Woodland families had lofty goals before them.
They were working for God and country and a race they believed was nearing
extinction. They were part of a grand nation that had extended its boundaries
all the way to the Pacific Ocean and had proved its sovereignty once and for all
by defeating Great Britain in the War of 1812. No doubt caught in the nation-
alistic spirit of the day, they were helping the government carry out a
civilization plan that would improve life for all peOple. On a humanitarian
level, they were reaching out to a people who had only one road left to them—
the road of civilization and Christianity. Spiritually, the missionaries were
working for the glory of God. reaching out to souls who not only had suffered
gross mistreatment at the hands of Americans, but who were bound to suffer
eternally without the knowledge of Christ.

With such goals before them, it is easy to understand that a missionary's
work was a heroic effort to say the least. "Yes, I say, we are indebted to these
men for this reformation," wrote James Gilruth after observing a mission in
Ohio in 1826. From Gilruth's perspective the missionaries had already "not only
taught the poor bewildered Indians the way to God, but by their example
taught them the way to live. To these men, under God, the praise is due. . 15

A doctor in northern Wisconsin clearly saw this heroic status in
missionary Lenorad H. Wheeler who served in that area. "His primary object,"
the doctor wrote about Wheeler, "was to preach Christ, but he saw clearly that
the Indian must be civilized or exterminated. When unscrupulous and
grasping men were to rob and wrong the Red men, his watchful eye and sound

judgment saw the danger and, like the old cavilier [sic] without fear and

 

15 The Methodist Magazine, v. 1x, (New York, 1826) 19s.

10

without reproach, he raised his voice and used his pen for their defence [sic].
His intercession in their behalf was usually productive of essential good, for
those that knew him knew that truth and justice were at his back, and that it
was not safe to take up the gauntlet against 80 unselfish a champion. It was not
for himself that he pleaded but for those who could not defend themselves."16

In evaluating an earlier Moravian mission in Michigan that had not been
successful, John E. Day still saw the heroism in its failure. If we were to judge
the Moravians by what they accomplished, he tells us, "we shall arrive at an
unjust and altogether unsatisfactory conclusion, for the results of their efforts
were meagre in the extreme, only a few of the old men and squaws yielding to
the influence of their teaching. But if we think of the grandeur of the attempt
to plant christian civilization among the Indian inhabitants of the wilds of
Michigan, under the most unfavorable conditions, and a a most unpropitious
season. . .we shall arrive at a more just estimate of the nobility of the enter-
prise and what it cost."17

The Moravian mission did not last, like the other Protestant missions that
followed. They often closed, as was stated earlier, because the Indians were
forced from the region. But the missions also failed, even in the eyes of their
staunchest supporters. They failed in their attempt to plant Christian
civilization, as Day had said.

While Day saw a certain glory in a failed mission, not everyone shared his
point of view. Their inability to bring about marked changes among the
Woodland people held tremendous disappointment for some missionaries. If

they left a mission with a sense of failure, they did not seemed to be inclined

 

15 J. N. Davidson, In Unnamed Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1895), 1965.

17 John E. Day, "The Moravians in Michigan," Michigan Pioneer and Historical
Collections V. XXX, 44.

11

to view the stituation as one where they personally were not well-suited for
the task. Neither did .they seem to wonder if the entire Indian question needed
to be reevaluated with new approaches developed. Rather they often blamed
the native people themselves for being too lazy or too savage.

Some missionaries blamed their lack of success on the influence of "bad"
whites. Baptist missionaries such as Isaac McCoy, for example, fervently
believed that Indians should be moved far from white civilization to be
protected from evil whites. (McCoy's ideas are discussed in more detail on pages
33 and 34.) Reverend Abel Bingham recorded his conflict with Chief Red Jacket
and a white lawyer who defended the Indian leader's right to keep
missionaries from Indian lands. "Here again we can see," Bingham
reminisced. "how readily educated infidelity and heathenish paganism can
unite their forces against evangelical Christianity."18 Other missionaries, in
exhaustion, simply gave up and went on to different and more fulfilling
fields—often leaving a mission to deteriorate and close.

The missionaries failed in their attempts for reasons they were likely
unable to discern from their perspective. They expected to convert the Indians
to Christianity and turn them into civilized American farmers simply and
quickly. But what they found was. a native people deeply rooted in their own
religion and way of life that had served them long and well. The Indians did
not convert to Christianity in large numbers, and those who did convert often
tended to blend the new teachings with their old beliefs. They did not view the
missionaries' arrival as a golden opportunity to change of lifestyle, including

language, dress, and division of labor. The missionaries' expectations of such a

 

18 "Sketches of the Life of Rev. Abel Bingham," Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Collections V. II, 151.

12

cultural transformation were both arrogant and naive.19 Making the Indians
fulltime farmers was again unrealistic. While some native people did create
farms, farming simply was not a viable way to earn a living in the northern
parts of the region.20

Another contributing factor to their lack of success was the Protestants‘
disunity at the national level. In the beginning of the century, Protestants
made noble attempts to work together in a number of areas, including
missions. The Plan of Union formed in 1801, for example, made it possible for
Presbyterians and Congregationists to be connected to each other. and for
congregations to be served by ministers of either denomination. The American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, begun by the Congregationalists
in 1810, had members from Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches by
1816. The United Foreign Missionary Society of 1816 included Presbyterian,
Reformed, and Associate Reformed, while the American Home Missionary
Society, begun in 1826 largely by Presbyterians to help weak churches on the
frontier, was soon helped by Congregationalists. It seemed to many that the
mission field was so immense that only through cooperation could the church
hope to reach the many souls in need.

The cooperation did not last. Gradually the Presbyterian denomination was
plagued by controversy. On one side were the conservative members who
clung to a strict Calvinistic philosophy. The other side consisted of members

influenced by the Congregationalists and the liberalizing elements of frontier

 

19 One of the best and most quoted studies on this subject is Robert F.
Berkhoffer, Jr., Salvation and the Savage (Lexington: The University of
Kentucky, 1965).

20 Keith Widder's "Together As Family" (Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University,
1989) portrays the dilemma of a people well suited to the fur trade, a business

that was morally harmful from the missionary point of view and deteriorating
from an economic standpoint.

13

churches. In 1837 the problems came to a head and the old school Presby-
terians denounced the Plan of Union, the American Home Missionary Society,
and the ABCFM and established a mission society composed only of
Presbyterians with old school beliefs. Further dividing the Presbyterians was
the issue of slavery that began to be debated regularly by the 18308. The new
school Presbyterians were divided again between congregations in the North
and South. Another disruption came from a group of New school Presbyterians
and Congregationalists at Oberlin College in Ohio. Those missionaries
influenced by the "Oberlin theology" formed the American Mission Associa-
tion which established missions in northern Minnesota.

The spirit of c00peration that marked the beginning of the century had all
but disappeared by the 18308. Rivalry was intense among Protestant denomi-
nations, and the idealism that sent many missionaries into the field sometimes
was overcome by the competition to win souls. At times the Indians seemed to
be important to missionaries only as scores on some imaginery salvation
scoreboard that pitted Lutherans against Methodists against Presbyterians. The
denominations often represented class divisions which even Indian converts
reflected.21 "Natives," says Martin Marty, "reproduced some of the subtler
features of Christian disunity. Mixed-bloods of better education and moderately
high status became part of the upper-class church groups while full-bloods
and those who had had fewer Opportunities to advance themselves joined the
simpler, ore primitive, lower—class white churches."22 In short, the

Protestants seemed to lose sight of the noble causes that once inspired them.

 

21 For a discussion of these divisions see Colin Goodykoontz, Home Missions on
the American Frontier (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Press, 1939), 232.

22 Martin E.Marty,Righteous Empire (New York: The Dial Press. 1970) 10-11.

14

Also plaguing Protestants on every front was their fear of Catholicism.
This fear was spurred in the 18308 with an influx of Catholic immigrants
began taking place. The spreading "popery" threated every Protestant sect.
S. F. B. Morse warned: "We must make an immediate and a vigorous, a united, a
perservering effort to spread religious and intellectual cultivation through
every part of the country. Not a village, not a log-hut of the land should be
overlooked."23

The Indians of the Great Lakes area were vulnerable to popery. Visited by
priests since the 16008, it was likely that Catholicism could win the race for
Indian converts in the 18008. Protestant missionaries again turned their
attention from pure mission efforts to the competition from Catholic priests.
The celebrated Father Frederic Baraga particularly set Protestant missions into
chaos by his success with native peoples.“

It is not surprising that near the close of the nineteenth century the
Protestant missions and missionaries who built them were viewed by
commentators in less romantic ways. In describing the McCoy mission in Niles,
Michigan, Franklin Everett was unequivical about its failure. "The school at
Niles was admirably conducted, and the teachers were zealous; but missionary
and teacher were ashamed of their pupils, soon after they left school. There
was scarce an exception to the general rule—no good came of it. They tried to
make civilized men and women of those who could have no place among the
civilized, and none among the savage."25

In the more objective approaches of twentieth century history, the

Protestant Indian missions, particularly in the western Great Lakes area,

 

23 S. F. B. Morse in Home Missions on the American Frontier, 233. Goodykoontz
has an informative discussion of the threat of Catholicism on pages 221-234.

24 A discussion of Baraga's competition will follow later in the paper.
25 Franklin Everett, Memorials of the Grand River Valley. (Chicago, 1878), 275.

15

received little mention, . And by the early 19708 the work of missionaries
working among the Indians could be viewed almost solely as an example of
blatant ethnocentricity, much to the embarrassment of Protestant scholars.
Better that these missions, and their missionaries, remain lost —their
shortcomings buried.

With the emergence of Native American viewpoints in recent years,
Protestant missions and missionaries have also had to endure retribution from
Indian writers. Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree contains heart-
breaking experiences endured by him- at the hands of missionaries who could

not tolerate the young Indian "bastar . Other novels, both juvenile and adult.
show mission schools of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as
uncaring, rigid places run by rigid people.26

Gerald Vizenour records a less condemning, yet pointed observation, in
his book, The People Named the Chippewa. An elderly Indian woman recalled
the work of the Reverend and Mrs. Sherman Hall in northern Wisconsin in
the mid-18008."The two of them." she said, seemed to be lost, without shadows,
with no humor to throw at the weather. Their isolation turned into a dedication
to convert the tribes. Sometimes. we whispered, it was the missionaries who
needed to be saved. . .. Some of our friends think it is strange to find pale, weak
and shadowless, individual church heroes, in the middle of old woodland
families." 27

The missions sites of the western Great Lakes area are not places where

tourists flock in their visits to historic places. The names of Protestant

missionaries of the period would not be recognized by most. Yet somewhere

 

25 Some of these are Scott O'Dell's Zia, Victor Bamouw's Dream of the Blue
Heron, and Margaret Craven's I Heard the Owl Call My Name.

27 Gerald Vizenour, The People Called the Chippewa (Minneapolis: The
University of Minnesota Press, 1984), 46.

16

between the romantic characterizations of the past and the seering portraits
of the twentieth century lies the work of the missionaries and the missions
they established. These peeple may have been lost, without shadows and
humor, or driven, inspired, arrogant, adventuresome, or truly humanitarian.
Their missions, also lost for the most part, were utopias, rigid reformatories,
casual farms. or struggling centers in the wilderness.

Scholars such as William McLoughlin and Keith Widder remind us that
there were many dilemmas, then as always. What to do with a people who had
been conquered, shamefully set aside, was an immense problem. No mission
station, whether academically oriented by the Presbyterians or spiritually led
by the Baptists, could create an example—the spiritual or physical solution to
such a problem.

Lost, with very little influence on their localities or the native people, the
stories of these missions are. nevertheless worth recovering. They are ideal
symbols of the interplay between the religious spirit in America and
Americans' perception of the nation they were so fervishly working to shape.
They portray the tragic effects of Eurocentricity and paint the moral dilemma
of a people grappling with the consequences of empire-building. The words of
Methodist missionary John Pitezel capsulize the feelings of a large number of
thinkers and leaders of the day: "The Indians have been the sufferers, and the
only recompense we can make them is to give them the joy, the undying hope,

imparted by the Gospel." 23

 

28 Lights and Shades of Missionary Life. 419.

Chapter II

The Missions of Northwestern Ohio

The missionaries who came to the northwest area of Ohio in the early 18008
were not religious trailblazers in the region. A handful of Moravian
missionaries had preceded them, setting an example of devotion and even
martyrdom for their beliefs. No doubt the new missionaries. whether
Methodist, Congregationalist, or Presbyterian were well aware of the gripping
story of the Moravians who had once worked in the region.

The Moravians, a Protestant group originating in Germany and noted for
their missionary zeal. had established several small missions across northern
Ohio in the last half of the eighteenth century.1 Under David Zeisberger, John
Hechenelder, and several others, the Moravians preached peace, urging the
Delawares and other Indians with whom they worked to remain neutral during
the American Revolutionary War. But caught between the British and
Americans, the Moravians and their group of praying Indians seemed
suspicious to both sides. When the British Colonel Arent DePeyster demanded
that Zeisberger and others be taken captive and marched to Detroit where he
could personally determine their political leanings, a group of American
soldiers invaded the fields where Moravian Indians were harvesting corn and

murdered nearly one hundred of them.

 

1 The Moravians established missions in Schonbrunn, Gnadenhutten, Salem,
and Lichtenau. Zeisberger is credited with founding Ohio's first settlement at
Schonbrunn.

l7

18

After the massacre, DePeyster offered his Moravian missionary captives
land near Detroit where they could carry on their mission work with some
protection from the British. Naming their mission New Gnadenhutten, the
Moravians remained for four years in what is now Mount Clemens. As John
Day said. their Michigan mission was something of a failure, with few Indian
converts. At the close of the war the Moravians had to give up their land, with
some returning to Ohio and others to Canada.

The Moravians had established a small mission at Goshen near Ohio's
Tuscarawas River when a newly converted Methodist named John Stewart
arrived there in 1815. Stewart's conversion was a dramatic one. Troubled by
alcoholism, Stewart was converted at a camp meeting and shortly after heard
voices while he was praying. The voices seemed to be calling him to set out in a
northwest direction and find a place to preach the gospel. At the Moravian
mission he learned of a Wyandot Indian community to the northwest at Upper
Sandusky.

With staunch determination to answer the call, Stewart journeyed on to
the Wyandot lands in northwestern Ohio. There he met Mr. and Mrs. William
Walker, Sr., government subagents who were part Indian, and Jonathan
Pointer, a Negro who could interpret the Wyandot language. With their help
and encouragement, Stewart set about to convert. the Indians.

From all reports John Stewart, who was part Indian and black, was quite
well-received among the Indians. Success, of course, was based on the number

of converts, and Stewart apparently had an unusual number. The fact that he

19

was not white no doubt helped him be accepted by the native people. But
Stewart also had a beautiful voice that captured the attention of his audiences
and a creative spirit that gave life to his services. He freely mixed his songs
with sermons and prayers. Without being licensed by his Methodist brothers,
he performed baptisms and marriages.

By 1819 Stewart had the attention of those who directed Methodist
Episcopalian missions. They reviewed his work, found him too successful to
discipline, and licensed him as a minister. In addition, other Methodist circuit
preachers in the area volunteered to help Stewart at the Wyandot mission.
Among them were James Montgomery, Anthony Banning, Samuel Hitt, Martin
Hitt, Robert Miller, Thomas Lansdale, Joseph Mitchell, and Moses Henkle.

A Methodist missionary who made a particular impact on the Wyandot
community along with Stewart was James B. Finley. Well-known for his
preaching and his firm stand on Indian rights, Finley first presided as an
elder over the area of Ohio that included the Wyandot reserve at Upper
Sandusky, often referred to as the Grand Reserve. He convinced Wyandot
chiefs to allow their children to attend a missionary school for both Indians
and whites at Camp Meigs on the Maumee River. But the chiefs wanted a
mission school on their own lands. In 1821 they sent a message to a Methodist
missionary conference in Ohio requesting the Methodists to create such a
school. They eloquently added that the schoolmaster should be a minister. "We

would further let the conference know, that we wish our teacher to be a

2O

preacher, that can teach and baptize our children, and marry our people; a
man that loves our nation, that loves us and our children. . 2

The Methodists responded by creating a permanent mission near Upper
Sandusky with Finley in charge. The missionary began the work by building a
log cabin for his family — a building that was also to be used as a classroom for
Indian children until a school could be built. Late in 1822, however, the school
became a reality when a log building, 48 feet long and 38 feet wide, was
completed.

After a short absence from the mission due to illness, Finley returned to
Upper Sandusky and applied for government funds to expand the mission.
After he had secured them he directed the construction of three more
buildings and a second schoolhouse where children were boarded. Under
Finley's direction, the mission boasted a church membership of two hundred
and twenty Wyandots and fifty-one Indian children enrolled in the mission
school. The mission lands included eighty acres of fenced pasture and fifty
acres of rich, cultivated farmland which included an orchard. Themission's
crops of corn, potatoes, and vegetables were the envy of white settlers in the
area. Not far down the river from the mission were a grist mill, a blacksmith
shop, and sawmill which had been built by government funds according to
treaty requirements. In 1824 a stone church, thirty by forty feet, was built

with blue limestone from the bottom of the Sandusky River.

 

2 Wade Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Part One: Early American
Methodism 1769-1844 (New York: The Board of Missions and Church Extension
of the Methodist Church, 1950), 119.

21

Along with overseeing the practical matters of the mission, such as the
supply of beds and blankets for the boarding school, Finley did not neglect the
Spiritual work required by his position. He preached a sermon each Sunday
and held a class. Once a week there was a prayer meeting for him to direct.
Helping him in the church and school were Charles Ellicott,3 who directed the
mission during Finley's illness, William Walker, Jr., and Lydia Barstow.
Especially popular with the Indians was Harriet Stubbs, whom her peers called
"the idol of the whole nation."4

Just when the Wyandot Mission seemed to promise to be a model for all
missions, problems began to arise. Although Stewart had continued his work
there, his health was bad and he died in 1823. The charismatic mulatto
preacher was sorely missed. Friction also developed between Finley and the
government subagent at the Wyandot reserve, John Shaw. A major rift,
however, began to take place between the Wyandots themselves. Some felt the
reserve should be divided into independent farms, while others did not. There
was also rivalry between the Christian Wyandots and the pagan Wyandots, as
the non-Christian Indians were termed by the missionaries.

When Finley returned from a spring missionary conference in 1824, he
was upset to find that the Wyandots had been dancing, a custom he strictly
. forbid. Finley blamed Shaw for allowing the Indians to revert to native ways,

and the discord between the two men widened. As a result, Secretary of War

 

3 He may have been Charles Elliot, since sources do not agree on his name.
4 Barclay, 120.

22

John C. Calhoun dismissed Shaw and appointed Finley as. the government
subagent for the reserve.5

The new duties as a subagent proved to be too much for Finley. In 1826 he
was replaced by Charles Cass, brother of Lewis Cass. Finley continued his work
at the Wyandot mission, however, until 1828.

Finley's departure from Upper Sandusky to resume his previous job as
presiding elder of the district, was the beginning of the end of the Methodist
mission there. A few years later, the mission became part of a circuit, which
meant it was only visited by missionaries who could not begin to do the work
required to keep the community as prosperous as it once had been. At the same
time the government began moving tribes west, and the missionary
conference felt that the Wyandot's chances of remaining on their lands were
poor. The conference did not wish to become involved in the politics of
removal, although Finley himself was outspoken in his opposition to removal.6

Some of the Wyandots felt abandoned when they were no longer a focus of
missionary activity. One Indian leader said, "The minds of our people [are] in
a constantly unsettled state, and many have been induced to believe that their
friends and the former patrons of the mission had become discouraged, and

were about to abandon them to their fate." 7 The mission continued to be

 

5 A thorough study of this dispute has been made by Robert E. Smith, "The
Clash of Leadership at the Grand Reserve (Ohio History, V. 89, Spring 1980),
181-205. '

5 Barclay, 124.
7 Barclay, 112.

23

visited by Methodist missionaries, however, until the Wyandots moved to
Kansas in 1843, the last Indian group in Ohio to do so.

The Methodists also created a small branch mission at Big Spring, a
Wyandot reserve located about thirty miles north of the Grand Reserve. This
mission consisted of one building which served as a meeting house and a
school. The strength of the mission also suffered when the Methodists decided
to make the missions part of a circuit. Then, in 1832, the Wyandots there gave

up their land and moved to the Grand Reserve.

Other missions and missionaries in northwestern Ohio

By the early 18008 all Indian missions except the few Moravian settlements
were located in northwestern Ohio. This was not a coincidence, since Ohio's
Indian population had been forced to cede nearly all of their land except that
in northwestern Ohio. This area, then, became the home for Wyandots, Ottawa.
Seneca, and Shawnee, as well as the center of Protestant missionary work.
John Stewart was not first missionary in the area, for a few Quakers,
Congregationalists. and Presbyterians preceded him and the Methodist mission
at Upper Sandusky.

Because it was largely a matter of individual conscience that sent Quakers
to Indian villages and not formal missionary, organizations, the names of these
missionaries are difficult to trace. The most well-known Quaker mission in the
Western Great Lakes area was at Wapakoncta among the Shawnees. Isaac

Harvey and his family started a mission school for Shawnees at Wapakoncta in

24

 

 

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Protestant "lesions in Ohio

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1807. In 1811 the Harveys and other Friends built a gristmill and purchased a
sawmill for the community.

The War of 1812 disrupted the Friends' mission work at Wapakoncta. The
Shawnees, however, asked for their return when the war was over. The
mission was revived and continued successfully until the Shawnee's removal
in 1832 and 1833. Native men were taught to farm, with a number of families

acquiring their own farms. while native women were taught domestic skills.

25

Some of the other Friends mentioned in this mission work included George
Ellicott. Gerald T. Hopkins, and Henry Harvey.

Quaker records reflect the mutual love and respect between the Friends
and the Indians. "We have been brothers together with you the Quakers for a
long time," said one Shawnee as his people prepared to leave their lands in
Ohio. "You took us by the hand and you held us fast. We have held you fast
too."8 Missionary Henry Harvey talked about the sadness of the removal. "All
had to leave at the bidding of the white man; sick or well, prepared or
unprepared, this people—who were once a free people—had now to obey their
masters."9

Presbyterian records are more explicit and show that Reverend Joseph
Badger was a major figure working among the Wyandots. Under the
Connecticut Missionary Society Badger traveled and preached in the northern
Ohio area for several years. Then, in 1806, he made arrangements with the
Western Missionary Society, a Presbyterian society based in Pittsburgh, to
open a mission on the Sandusky River at Lower Sandusky. Starting a mission at
that particular settlement was difficult, since many of the Wyandots there
were influenced by Tenskwatawa, often referred to as The Prophet, and
Tecumseh, who were trying to unite the tribes of the Northwest Territory to

hold back the influx of white settlers.

 

8 Errol T. Elliot, Quakers of the American Frontier (Richmond, Indiana: The
Freinds United PRess, 1969). 246.

9 Elliot, 246.

26

Joseph Badger worked among the Wyandot for a number of years, building
a mission house, a school, and some "necessary buildings" for farming.10
The missionary taught farming and elementary school, and Green reports that
the mission "went on in a very prosperous way" until the War of 1812. 11 At
that time buildings were burned, and although the Presbyterians made some
attempt to rebuild and revive, the mission was eventually suspended for lack of
success.

While Badger was working at Lower Sandusky he also traveled to other
Wyandot settlements, including Maguago, eight miles south of Detroit. In
addition, he preached frequently to a settlement of blacks near Upper San-
dusky and used a black couple as interpreters.12 When the War of 1812 broke
out, Badger was called to serve as a chaplain for General William Harrison's
forces. Van Tassel lists Reverend Elisha Macurdy as Badger's successor, but
Macurdy's work may have involved the unsuccessful efforts to revive the

mission after the war.13

 

10 EB. Welsh, Buckeye Presbyterianism (United Presbyterian Synod of Ohio,
1968). 137.

11 Ashabel Green, Prebyterian Missions (New York, 1839), 36.

12 Most sources mention blacks working with both Presbyterians and
Methodists in northwestern Ohio. These people evidentally lived near the
Wyandots at a place called Negrotown and had good relations with the Indians.
One of them, Jonathon Pointer, had been brought to the area as a boy by the
Indians who raided the farm where he worked.

13 Charles S. Van Tassel, The Story of the Maumee Valley Toledo and the
Sandusky Region, V. 1 (Chicago, 1879), 719. Macurdy served on the board of the
Western Missionary Society and was sent to see "whether another school can
be established among the Indians" in 1816. See documents in William Warren
Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier 1783-1840, VII, The Presbyterians
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936), 614.

27

Other Presbyterian missionaries working in the area before the War of
1812 were Reverend Thomas Hughes and James Satterfield, sponsored by a
Virginia synod. Reverend David Bacon from the Connecticut Missionary
Society also worked on the nearby Maumee River, ministering to Ottawa
Indians who lived there. No missions were built by these men, although their
preaching very likely helped the later work of both the Presbyterians and
Methodists.

Presbyterian records of their mission at Lower Sandusky indicate that
their work there was not free from conflict. In 1808 the Wyandots complained
about Badger to Governor William Hull a complaint that apparently had
something to do about money. Both Hull and Badger contacted the Western
Missionary Society which made an investigation into the "conduct of Mr.
Badger" and decided "to let out Missionary Farm at Sandusky on the shares. .
”"14

If an investigation suggests that there was some wrongdoing at the
mission, other sources do not substantiate it. In an extensive history of the
Sandusky area, Charles Van Tassel portrays Badger as an honest man, a true
missionary who would give up material comforts for a life devoted to bringing
the gospel to the native people. The historian makes reference to Badger's
contempt for wealth and worldly possessions.15

Badger himself blames traders for starting rumors about the missionaries

among the Indians. "This has been one of the strategems of the traders to

 

14 Sweet, 611.
15 Van Tassel, 720.

28

persuade them [the Indians] that we were to do their work and they do
nothing. . . .At other times they [the traders] have alarmed them [the Indians]
with the idea that their land would all go to pay me for what I was doing, if
they permitted me to stay."16 Welsh, too, states that English traders tried to
break up the mission.” The traders. of course, had little good to say about
missionaries who encouraged farming instead of hunting among the tribes
and usually worked fervently to stop the use of alcohol among the native
peoples.

Late in the fall of 1822 the Presbyterians of Pittsburgh opened a new
mission on the Maumee River between Perrysburg and Grand Rapids. At an
attractive location named Station Island, the Reverend Thomas Hughes
mentioned earlier worked to educate and convert Ottawa and perhaps some
Wyandots to Christianity. Other missionaries at the station were Reverend
Isaac Van Tassel and his wife Lucia, Isaac Van Tassel II, and Abigail Wright.
The mission existed for twelve years during which time it was transferred to
the United Foreign Missionary Society, a mission society of the Presbyterian
and Dutch Reformed churches, and then to the American Board of Commis-
sioners of Foreign Missions.

Another Presbyterian working among the Indian people in northwestern
Ohio was Reverend Alvin Coe. In 1821 Coe. who had begun an Indian mission
school in Greenfield Township, Huron County, attempted to get the support of

the Western Missionary Society. Not long after he had received their support,

 

16 Van Tassel, 718-719.
17 Welsh, 137.

29

board members decided that Coe should dismiss his school at Greenfield and
move on to a new station being established on the Maumee River. Coe's
relationship with the board never seemed to be a good one, and on two
occasions board officials denied his requests to take time off to study the
Indian language. Coe was formally dismissed from the Western Missionary
Society in 1823.

The site chosen by the Western Missionary Society for mission work
among the Indians in the early 18208 was along the Maumee River. The site lay
between Perrysburg and Grand Rapids, at the mouth of Tontogany Creek on
the Maumee River. Mission lands included a section along the creek and river
as well as an island about a mile and one half in length on the Maumee. A
white woman who attended the mission school wrote this description of the

area:

The founders of the mission had an eye to the beautiful
in selecting this place, as a more picturesque spot can
not be found in the valley. The river here is about a mile
wide between the high banks. It has a moderate current
and an average depth of about eight feet in low water.
What is known as the Station pond is about two and a half
miles long between the rapids. Within the pond are four
islands. The missionary or large island, containing about
230 acres, extends about half way up the pond. About
midway up the pond Tontogany Creek enters from the
south, forming a deep narrow valley. It was here the
mission buildings were located on an eminence over-

looking the pond, the land descending toward the river on

30

the west and toward the creek on the south.18

The mission opened in November, 1822. The building first constructed was
a log structure sixteen by sixty feet. The main mission, thirty by eighty feet,
was two stories high, with a one story annex of two thousand square feet. At
least one other two-story building was also constructed at the site, making the
Maumee Mission a sizeable complex. During its existence the mission boasted of
a fine apple orchard south of the buildings and mulberry trees with a
successful silk industry on the island, often referred to as Station Island.

Although the mission seemed to have plenty of workers, the superin-
tendency and ownership of the mission fluctuated in its early years. The board
of the Western Missionary Society first chose Reverend Thomas Hughes who
had missionary experience in that area to be superintendent. When Hughes
declined, the board chose Reverend Samuel Tait to begin the work at Maumee.
Tait served only seven months until Reverend Ludovicus Robbins was
appointed to the position. But Robbins resigned in 1825, just before the mission
was transferred to the United Foreign Mission Society. In 1826 the United
Foreign Mission Society consolidated with the American Board of
Commissioners of Foreign Missions, again giving the Maumee mission ‘new
administrators. The main missionary at Maumee at that time was Reverend
Isaac Van Tassel.

Charles Van Tassel provides interesting specifics about some of the

workers and their duties at the Maumee mission.19

 

13 An unnamed writer quoted in Van Tassel, 727.
19 Van Tassel, 724-727.

31

Reverend Samuel Tate* Temporary superintendent
Mrs. Tate Cook
Reverend Leander Sackett Farmer
Mrs. Sackett Cook

John McPherson Carpenter
Mr. Straight Blacksmith
Hannah Riggs Housekeeper
Rev. Barnes

Rev. Isaac Van Tassel Teacher
Lucia Badger Van Tassel Teacher
Rev. Alvin Coe Teacher

*Most sources refer to him as Reverend Samuel Tait

When ABCFM closed the mission in 1834 because of the removal of the Ottawa
Indians to lands west of the Mississippi, Isaac and Lucia Van Tassel remained,
conducting a boarding school for white children. They were aided by Van

Tassel's nephew, Isaac Van Tassel II, and Abigail Wright.

_ Chapter III

Michigan Missions and Missionaries

The Baptists move into Michigan Territory

With the Chicago Treaty of 1821, the United States secured most of the land
in what is now southwestern lower Michigan from the Ottawa and Potawatomi
people. Under the direction of Territorial Governor Lewis Cass, the govem-
ment agreed to give them a cash annuity, to be followed by annual payments
for a blacksmith, teacher, and agricultural instructor. Within this framework
entered a Baptist missionary named Isaac McCoy and his wife Christiana. Isaac
McCoy had been working with Indians in Illinois and Indiana and had already
secured money and food for his school at Fort Wayne from Cass. In 1822 Cass
appointed McCoy to help see that the terms of the Chicago treaty were carried
out.

According to Franklin Everett, McCoy was given a set of instructions from

Cass:
1. Give the Indians, young and old, such instructions as are
suited to their condition.
2. Wean them from their allegiance to any other government.
and try to attach them to the United States.
3. Contend against whiskey.
Watch the traders.

5. Encourage agriculture.

32

33

6. Show the Indians the best way to spend their income.
7. In general, work for the good of the Indians. 1

In the fall of 1822 McCoy moved his family and some of his Indian students
from Fort Wayne to a site which later became Niles, Michigan, on the St.
Joseph River. The Carey Station, which McCoy named the mission, was one
hundred and eighty miles from any white settlement. After a difficult
beginning with insufficient provisions. the mission seemed to prosper.
Together the Indians and the white teachers and assistants cultivated two
hundred acres of crops. They also raised peach and apple trees and built a
flour mill.

Some interesting comments by a A. B. Markham verifies that the mission
and farm did appear prosperous. But Markham states twice in his writings that
the Indians were not particularly happy with the missionaries. "I went among
the Indians, and learned that they were not so well pleased with the
missionaries as some would suppose. I dined with the missionaries. They had
Indians as servants or helpers. All these helpers could speak English, and were
very polite." 2

If we can believe Markham, the Indians had little to be thankful for. They
learned English, constructed buildings, and farmed the land without pay. It

seemed to them as if the missions were only for the benefit of the missionaries.

 

lFranklin Everett, Memorials of the Grand River Valley (Chicago, 1878), 299-
300. '

2 AB. Markham, "Early History of the Township of Plymouth," Michigan
Pioneer Collections, VI], 1878, 565.

34

The excessive work, the English language, and a strange religion were hardly
compensation for their land.

With the Carey Station underway, McCoy set out to help establish a second
mission among the Ottawa Indians in what is now Grand Rapids. Although the
Ottawa were especially angry with whites because of the Chicago Treaty and
had opposed the government teachers and blacksmiths, an Ottawa leader called
Nawequageezhik finally gave his support to the establishment of the Thomas
Station late in 1824. Although the mission was first run by a government
teacher and blacksmith, it was taken over early in 1827 by Leonard Slater and
Mary F. Ide Slater who stayed for approximately ten years. Over that time
Slater, his assistants. and the Indians built log houses, a farm, a sawmill, a
blacksmith shop, and a building used for both school and worship.

Leonard Slater's work at the Thomas Station received mixed reviews. From
the outset, the relationship between Slater and McCoy was not a good one. and
as early as 1829 McCoy reported the Thomas Station to be in disarray.3 Some
years later Father Frederic Baraga noted that a certain Protestant missionary,
most certainly Slater, had worked in the Grand River Valley for nine years and
had converted fewer Indians than Baraga did in a much shorter time with
much less financial support.4 But local histories do not verify the views of
McCoy and Baraga. Fisher's History of Grand Rapids and Kent County paints a

more positive picture of Slater as does Franklin Everett's Memorials of the

 

3 Robert Bolt, "Reverend Leonard Slater in the Grand River Valley," Michigan
History Ll.3 (Fall 1967), 247.

4 Bolt. 248.

35

Grand River Valley. in is) important to take into account that competition
between Protestant and Catholics was keen at this time, and the number of
converts seemed to outweigh all other matters. Slater also worked to learn the
Ottawa language, an idea not embraced by all missionaries or missionary
societies at that time.

Meanwhile, Isaac McCoy developed a plan to which he devoted the rest of
his life. Like many of his peers, McCoy felt that the whites with whom the
Indians were acquainted had a negative impact on the Indians. Many were the
outcasts of eastern American and in the missionaries' eyes, had low moral
standards. The Indians, whom the missionaries hoped would become Christians
and good Americans, needed mentors of the highest caliber. In McCoy's mind,
the solution was to create a separate Indian nation further west where the
native people supposedly would not rub elbows with questionable whites. "At
this time," which was about 1823, " I formed the resolution that I would,
Providence permitting, thenceforward keep steadily in view, and endeavor to
promote a plan for colonizing the natives in a country to be made for ever
theirs, west of the State of Missouri, &c., and from that time until the present I
have considered the promotion of .this design as the most important business of
my life." 5

From that time on, McCoy's energy was directed far beyond the Carey or
Thomas Stations in Michigan. He took his ideas to Cass, to the Baptist Board of

Missions, and finally to Congress and President Monroe. In his ardent support

 

5 Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions (New York: Johnson Reprint
Corporation, 1970 - 1840), 197.

36

for removal of Indians, however, McCoy saw a definite place of power for
himself. He would rule in this Indian land, which would be a Baptist haven—a
great missionary state.6 In 1830 McCoy eagerly accepted a government post to
survey possible reservations lands and relocate Indians west of the Mississippi.
Although he still promoted Baptist missions, the remainder of McCoys' life was
devoted largely to politics and writing. His dream of a great Indian state
obviously was not realized. And as Robert Berkhofer, Jr. has pointed out, after
a career as a missionary and Indian advocate, McCoy showed very little
knowledge of Indian culture or genuine love and respect for the people he
proposed to lead.7

The Carey and Thomas Stations were closed in 1830 and 1836 respectively.
While McCoy went on to work at a national level, Leonard Slater disassembled
his chapel and moved it to Prairieville in Barry County. There he established a
new mission, Slater Station, where he continued to work with Ottawa people
until 1852.

Why did Slater leave the Grand River Valley? One might conclude from
some sources that Father Baraga did create more competition in the area than
Slater could stand. In People of the Three Fires James McClurken contends that
the Baptist-Catholic conflict widened a gulf that already existed among the
Ottawa inthat area .8 But wherever Baraga went, as he did later in northern

Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, he set Protestant missionaries on edge.

 

5 Berkhofer in McCoy. v.
7 Berkhofer in McCoy, xxvi.

8 James McClurken, et al, People of the Three Fires (Grand Rapids: Grand
Rapids Inter-Tribal Council, 1986), 26.

37

Even without intertribal conflicts there was no love lost between Protestants
and Catholics, with each side counting Indian converts to Christianity like
marks on a scoreboard. Still another local history source contends that neither
Baraga or Slater could cope with the drinking problems among the Ottawa.9

It is McClurken who gives the most recent and plausible reason for Slater's
move—the politics of removal. The Treaty of 1836 was requiring the Ottawa to
cede their lands in the Lower Peninsula and a section in the Upper Peninsula.
They did have a right to use the land until Americans wished to buy it,
however, and the government gave them yearly annuities along with schools,
missions, equipment, and other goods. But the Ottawa along the Grand River
were expected to move immediately, since there land was already in demand by
white settlers. McClurken tells us that several Ottawa families gave Slater
money to buy land for them near Bradley. 10

This gives us another view of Leonard Slater. One of his differences with
McCoy was apparently over removal. And although he had not achieved a
great following, some Ottawas trusted him enough to allow him to secure a new
home for them. At least he was not so objectionable that they could not take
advantage of his position to help them relocate in a nearby area. When Slater
finally left the Ottawa, he worked with blacks in the Kalamazoo area and
ministered to injured soldiers in Tennessee during the Civil War. We could

conclude from these aspects, then, that even if Slater had not run the Thomas

 

9 Mary M. Lewis Hoyt, "Life of Leonard Slater," Michigan Historical and
Pioneer Collections, X, 151.

10 McClurken, 30.

38

mission to McCoy's liking or converted Indians in the same measure as Baraga,
he had the heart, soul. and commitment of a man who believed what he

preached.

Baptist work in the Upper Peninsula

Before McCoy left Michigan he encouraged Reverend Abel Bingham and
his wife Hannah to leave their work among the Seneca Indians in western
New York and come to the Michigan Territory. But Bingham did not join
McCoy. Instead the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions sent him to Sault Ste.
Marie to work with the Ojibwa, or Chippewa Indians there. Reverend and Mrs.
Bingham arrived at the Sault in 1828 where he took over the instruction of
Indian students with whom Reverend Alvin Coe had worked with for a brief
time. On Sundays Bingham preached to whites at Fort Brady and then again to
Indians.

The Binghams stayed at the Sault for a remarkable twenty-seven years. For
some years Reverend Bingham held both school and church services on the
second floor of their home. Later, a separate school building was constructed.
Bingham was noted for his travels by canoe, dog sled, and snowshoes to remote
Indian villages in both the Upper Peninsula and Canada. He also brought
home at least one Indian orphan whom the Binghams adopted.11 An
Episcopalian missionary from Canada, James D. Cameron, became Bingham's

very capable assistant. working with the Indians of the Upper Peninsula and

 

11 Stanley Newton, The Story of Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa County (Sault
Ste. Marie: The Sault News Printing Company, 1923), 136.

39

marrying an Indian woman. Cameron eventually became an ordained Baptist
minister.

From the time of his arrival at the Sault, Bingham was deeply troubled by
the drinking habits of both white and Indian residents. In a letter to a Mrs. E.

A. Sheldon in Detroit he talked of the problems of alcohol abuse:

"When I commenced my labors here, intemperance was a vice
exceedingly common, and prevalent among almost all classes. . ..

In the garrison, the commissary was dealing out a gill of whiskey
a day to the enlisted men, and they were allowed to purchase another
gill at the suttler's store. . .. The Indian agent, also, on certain
occasions, used to deal out whiskey to them; and when an Indian
began to drink, he must have a thorough time of it before he could
go into business again; and there was nothing to hinder him from
getting what he pleased, for our place was flooded with it, and a
white fish could buy enough to keep him drunk all day. . .. It seemed
to me that they might at that time in truth, most emphatically be
called a nation of drunkards. The state of things was exceedingly
discouraging, and it was manifest, that, unless something could be
done to check so free and general a use of intoxicating liqueur in
the place, no reasonable hope could be cherished of any great

success attending the most faithful missionary labors.12

It was perhaps a temperance movement more than missionary work that
occupied Bingham's attention for many years. And he seems to have achieved

at least some degree of success. He claimed to very easily secured the pledges of

 

12 Abel Bingham, "The Early Mission at Sault Ste. Marie." Michigan Historical
and Pioneeer Collections, XXVIII, 523.

4O

important men at Fort Brady and eventually those of traders and Indian
leaders. The sale of whiskey at Sault Ste. Marie, according to Bingham, was
reduced from 15,000 gallons a year to no sales at all. This dry spell in the Sault's
history lasted several years.

By the mid—18308 Bingham was only one of several missionaries at Sault
Ste. Marie. Churches, too, were beginning to be established. Reverend
Jeremiah Porter, a Presbyterian minister, opened a church, while a
Presbyterian missionary, William Boutwell, came to the area to study the
Ojibwa language. The Methodists established a mission in 1834, and like Slater,
Bingham had to compete with Catholic missionaries. The rivalry among the
Protestants and the Catholics for Indian converts became so intense by 1844
that Robert Stuart, Acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the area, sent a
letter of reprimand to all missionaries. Had they forgotten that their missions
were ones of peace and goodwill?13

In 1855 the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions closed their station at Sault
Ste. Marie, and the Binghams ended their years of missionary work. In all his
years the missionary did not deliver his sermons in the Ojibwa language. He
was considered by some missionaries’ to be ineffective and dull. Francis
Parkman regarded him as ignorant.l4 Others found Bingham to be a caring
man who shared his goods freely with the people to whom he ministered.

Perhaps his fault was one common to many of the missionaries of the time—the

 

13 John Cumming, "A Puritan Among the Chippewas," Michigan History LI.3
(Fall 1967), 223.

14 Cumming, 225.

41

presentation of a God who could accept them only if they denied their native
religion, their culture -— indeed their entire way of life. One can almost hear

the echoes of the frightening demands of such missionary messages.

The mission at Mackinac

In 1817 a young man named William Montague Ferry entered Union
College in Schenectady, New York. It was Ferry's goal to become a missionary
to heathen in non-Christian nations—to work with the same zeal as the young
Samuel J. Mills, who with other young seminary students such as Adoniram
Judson, Samuel Newell, and Samuel Nott, Jr., had inspired the formation of the
American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions in 1810.

While Ferry waited to be sent to Jerusalem by the ABCFM, one of his
mentors informed him of another call from the United Foreign Missionary
Society. Five of Ferry's peers had turned down a request from Mrs. Robert
Stuart, the wife on an agent of the American Fur Trading Company, for a
preacher and teacher on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Since most young
missionaries felt that greatest work lay in foreign nations, it was perhaps with
some personal disappointment that Ferry answered the call. He did not wish to
be unresponsive to his former teacher who was enthusiastic about the work in
Mackinac, but he had really dreamed of Jerusalem.

Ferry went to Mackinac Island in 1822 to begin to lay the groundwork for
the mission. Then in 1823 he and his bride Amanda officially began their work

there with the help of Betsey McFarland. One of the goals of the mission was to

42

train young Indians to be interpreters and teachers at other missions which
would be built further west. In addition to teaching and preaching to the
Indians, Ferry served as chaplain at Fort Mackinac. Through his years there
he had many able assistants, including Amanda, a bright woman who had a
good education and was also a close friend of Mary Lyon.

While the Ferrys served at Mackinac, the mission changed ownership. In
1826 the ABCFM took over control of the mission and began many years of
work in the Lake Superior region. The mission began primarily as a school for
Indian children. It was the goal of Ferry and his sponsors to educate these
young peeple and sent them to teach and become interpreters for other
missionaries who would go further west. Classes were held in homes until a
mission house was built in 1825. The mission house served both as a school and
a home for the missionaries.

Ferry's work at Mackinac included both teaching the Indians and holding
church services for island inhabitants. Ferry is said to have led a revival in
the winter of 1828-29 that inspired the church members to build a church. A
mission report of October 1830 described the committment of the residents.
"The expense of erecting the church has been borne almost entirely by the
people of the village and the traders of the interior, who, on this as well as
other occasions, have shown much friendship for the mission and truly
Christian liberality towards other benevolent objects."15 Reverend Williams

recorded that the congregation was composed of the missionaries and their

 

15 Rev. Meade C. Williams, "The Old Mission Church of Mackinac Island,"
Michigan Pioneer Collections, XXV/ll, 192.

43

families. the teachers and their pupils, Indian families. fur traders, and many

others. "The military post, too, used to be represented. . .. The soldiers would
stack their guns outside in front of the church. . .with one man detailed to
stand guard over the arms. . 16

The mission at Mackinac had other buildings in addition to the Mission
house and church. Several other structures were built to serve as workshops.
Here Indian boys learned trades such as carpentry and blacksmithing. Girls
learned to sew and do housekeeping. Teachers came to the mission from
eastern states and taught five and a half days a week for four twelve-week
terms. In addition to the academics and trades, they taught Bible passages and
hymns. Like the missionaries, these teachers were inspired to work at the
mission out of their belief that they should help the Indians and spread the
Christian message. "They were allured," says Williams, "by no wordly
ambitions in coming out from their homes to this remote pioneer point."17

After twelve years of work at Mackinac, William Ferry decided to set aside
his missionary career. He had been troubled by illness, but he was also well
aware that other careers might be more satisfying and bring in more money
to help raise his growing family. After resigning from the ABCFM, he traveled
in Michigan with his friend, Robert Stuart, and eventually founded the town
of Grand Haven, the First Presbyterian Church of Grand Haven, and became a

well-to-do businessman.

 

16 Williams. 193.
17 Williams. 194.

44

The Mackinac mission did not continue long after the Ferrys departed. The
minutes of a 1835 ABCFM meeting tell of a revival taking place at the mission
and town under the direction of a Mr. Stevens. But by 1837 the minutes reveal
that the mission has been closed, since "the population around Mackinaw had
so entirely changed, and the resort of Indians to that place for purposes of
trade had so nearly ceased, that it was no longer an advantageous site for an
Indian mission." 13 For ABCFM missions, the center of activity had moved to

La Pointe in what is now northern Wisconsin.

Other Presbyterian and Congregational missions in Michigan

About the same time Isaac and Christiania McCoy established Carey Station
in the southwestern corner of the present Lower Peninsula, another mission
was established in the eastern Lower Peninsula at the southern tip of Lake
Huron. Mr. and Mrs. John Hudson and Eunice Osmer were sponsored by the
Northern Missionary Society, an upstate New York Presbyterian group. The
trio left Buffalo on the famous steamboat.Walk-in-the-Water, which
unfortunately was wrecked at the beginning of the voyage. Undaunted, the
missionaries bought a team of horses or oxen and made their way slowly across
Canada to Michigan.

The mission established by the Hudsons and Miss Osmer is referred to as

the Fort Gratiot mission. There is very little mention of it in Presbyterian or

 

18History of American Missions to the Heathen (Worcester, 1840), 289.

45

 

 

  
   
 
   
   
    
 

 

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local histories. For two years it evidentally existed as a small Indian school

until its teachers were transferred to Mackinac.
One of the most persistent missionaries among Michigan's Indians was
Reverend George N. Smith, a Congregationalist minister. Along with others in

western Michigan, Smith took a special interest in the Indians' welfare as

46

various removal acts forced Indians to new locations and formed the Western
Society of Michigan to Benefit Indians. Like Slater, Smith was in a position as
a minister to help Indians buy land, serve as their teacher, and help them gain
funds and services provided by the government. With very little money or
provisions. Smith moved his family to Allegan to start a mission project.

It was not long after Smith had created a church and school for Indians in
Allegan, that he secured a more permanent place to settle with his group near
the present city of Holland. In 1838 Old Wing Mission was built, along with a
house for the Smiths. But life was not easy. From the beginning of Smith's
mission assignments the writing of Arvilla A. Smith portrays the agony of a
woman whose husband was so obsessed by his desire to help the Indians that
he ignored the suffering of his family. "A union called the Western Michigan
society for the benefit of the Indians pledged to erect a building and support a
teacher and missionary, and a bitter cup I had to drink when the sad news
reached me of his appointment! My children! What was their future? Tears and
pleadings were nothing."19 Mrs. Smith was not being overdramatic in her
response. Much like Christiania McCoy, she was expected to follow at a
moment's notice, provide for extra people even when there was insufficient
provisions or accomodations for her own family, and survive if George Smith
had left on a journey without giving thought to his family's welfare. Along
with the monumental chores of daily existence, came the heartbreak of their

children's death. Both Mrs. McCoy and Mrs. Smith buried children in their

 

19 Mrs. A. A. Smith, "A Pioneer Woman." Grand Traverse Herald, 1892 (Lansing,
Michigan: Joanna B. Smith, 1981), 3.

47

husband's absences. There were, in fact, five graves behind the Smith's house
at Old Wing.

The arrival of the Dutch colonists in Holland in 1847 created a problem for
Smith and his Indian followers. It was not long before the immigrants had
infuriated the Indians, taking everything from kettles to crops, and Smith's
group decided to move again—as far as possible from such white settlers. This
time the Smith's, along with four remaining children and two other white
families. followed the Indians to what was to become Northport on Grand
Traverse Bay. On a site overlooking Lake Michigan, Smith reestablished Old
Wing Mission. He also held many offices in the new town, from justice of the
peace to coroner.

The Smith's spent the rest of their lives in the Northport area. In 1872 he
withdrew the Old Wing Mission from the Congregational board and united with
the Presbyterian board. "A Pioneer Missionary," written by adopted daughter
Mrs. Etta Smith Wilson near the turn of the century, paints a George Smith
who was intelligent, kind, and good—something of a saint. She describes the
grief of the Indians at Smith's funeral who came long distances in "great

numbers:"

Tall and rugged Chieftains, followed by their dark-faced wives,
advanced in single file to the casket wherein reposed the remains
of their faithful leader. Bending low and gazing intently as if to
fix forever upon their memory the features of their dead, each

one in turn pressed his lips reverently to the pale forehead. And

48

when they turned away tears were coursing down their cheeks.20

Perhaps George Smith was a hero. But in contrast to the romantic
sentiments expressed by Mrs. Wilson is the writing of Smith's wife.
Straightforward and totally unaccusing, Arvilla Smith unwittingly suggests
that her husband was a fanatic, fulfilling his own demanding needs through
the lives of a struggling people. Absent are the views of the people he
attempted to serve.

Also in the Grand Traverse area was a missionary named Peter Dougherty
who had been sent by the Presbyterian Board of Missions to take advantage of
removal treaties that provided money for mission work among the Indians in
northern Michigan. Dougherty arrived at Mackinac Island in 1838, with the
task of finding a good location for such a mission station. Reverend Ferry
advised Dougherty to go to Grand Traverse, but it was some time before
Dougherty found a place agreeable to him and the Indians who lived there.
After building a house near the mouth of the Elk River, Dougherty moved to a
site on the north side of the peninsula extending into Grand Traverse Bay
where a farmer and carpenter were being assigned by the government to help
the Indians. By 1847, six years after Dougherty's beginnings at Old Mission, the
mission site included a mission house, a school, twenty log cabins, and about
two hundred acres of cultivated land.

For thirty-three years Dougherty worked among the Indians in the Grand

Traverse area. During that time he had two Indian assistants and thirteen

 

20 Etta Smith Wilson, "Life and Work of the Late Rev. George N. Smith, A
Pioneer Ministry," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, X, 211.

49

assistants sent by the society, although many stayed only for brief periods.
Doughtery himself did whatever type of job needed to be done. He taught,
preached, doctored, farmed, and cooked and baked when his wife was away.
The Indians referred to him as Mickoos, or Little Beaver, because of the
amount of work he accomplished.

Doughtery was perhaps most successful in his school. In 1858 he reported
having more than forty Indian students, although like most missionaries, he
lamented that average daily attendance was usually far below enrollment
figures. During his career Dougherty also wrote a A Chippewa Primer,Short
Lessons in the Ojibwa Language, and Easy Lessons in Scripture History in the
Ojibwa Language .Easy Lessons was written with the help of Daniel Rodd, a
teacher at Old Mission.

Two of the major problems that faced Dougherty in his years at Old Mission
were the excessive use of alcohol among the Indians and the problems of
removal of Indians from their land. When the Indians at Old Mission traveled
to Mackinac to collect their annuity payments, he went with them and pitched
his tent among them to discourage them from getting drunk. Although the
Grand Traverse area Indians were not forced westward, they eventually had to
give up their land at Old Mission. The church was moved to the west side of the
bay at Omena in 1852 and shortly after a boarding school was also begun there.

In 1871 the mission at Omena was given up by the Presbyterian board and
the Doughertys moved to Wisconsin. Before he left, Doughtery reviewed his

work for the Board.

50

I will briefly state some facts that show the work of the
Board among these ignorant and degraded people has not
been without many good fruits. Instead of heathen bands—
ignorant, indolent, intemperate, clothed with a filthy
blanket and living in smokey wigwams—we now see
civilized families in comfortable houses, with farms and
teams, industrious and exercising all rights and duties as
citizens, reading the Testament, family prayer, social
meetings of prayer, regular attendance on the house of

God, and many giving pleasing evidence of heart piety.21
Markedly absent from Doughtery's testimony, were traces of love or respect
for the peeple he had served—people, one suspects, greatly inferior to the
educated, hard-working missionary.

Today a replica of the first Old Mission stands near its original place on the
peninsula, and the name Old Mission is used for a lighthouse, bay, and road. Yet
the name of Peter Dougherty is uncommon. The Protestant missionaries,
unlike the Jesuits before them or even the legendary Baraga, simply were not

destined to carve a similar niche in the Great Lakes past.

The Methodist missions in Michigan

Not far behind the Baptists and Presbyterians in establishing Indian
missions in the Michigan area were the Methodist preachers. Barclay suggests
that there may been more Methodist missions than are recorded. A church or

small groups of churches, he says, often carried on missions without

 

21 Drury, Clifford Merrill. Presbyterian Panorama (Philadelphia: Board
of Christian Education, 1952), 141.

51

consulting or reporting with the Missionary Society of the Methodist
Church.22 But removal of Indians to the West in the 18308 made it more
difficult and expensive for these churches to support missionary work. Since
most missionary work was carried out by large societies after that time, better
records of missions are available.

In 1823 the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopalian Church sent
James B. Finley and interpreter Jonathon Pointer into the Michigan Territory
to explore the possibilities of establishing a mission among the Ojibwa. Some
discussion took place about a mission in the Saginaw area. Finley and Pointer
were discouraged, however, because of turmoil within the band there. No
further attempt was made to open a mission in that area until 1832 when
Bradford Frazee was sent to create a mission school. After a year, however, the
project was abandoned. The Ojibwa and Ottawa people did not stay in one place
long enough, the missionary reported, to make a school practical.

The Methodists were able to create a lasting mission for the Ojibwa at Sault
Ste. Marie, however, in 1833 under the direction of Reverend John Clark.
Clark's assistants at the mission school were Lydia Gardner and Julia Baylies.
One of the things that impressed Clark was the variety of work involved in
missionary life. He wrote about the physical work of building a school so that
classes could be moved out of the rented house that was the residence of the

Clark family as well as Gardner and Baylies. Miss Gardner did not stay long,

 

22 Wade Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Part One: Early American
Methodism 1769-1844 (New York: The Board of Missions and Church Extension
of the Methodist Church, 1950), 117.

52

Clark wrote sarcastically, since she did not find "the opening for usefulness
such as met her views of duty. . .."Z3 The duties of a missionary were,
evidentally, more varied than Miss Gardner could accept.

Like Abel Bingham, John Clark ministered to whites at the Sault as well as
to the Indian population. On Sundays he preached to white citizens and
officers at 10:30, Indians at 12:30, and soldiers at 3:30. Every evening except
Monday he held prayer meetings or Bile classes.

Clark also worked to create other missions in the Upper Peninsula. One was
established at Missionville, a few miles from the Sault at an Indian settlement
there. Missionville reportedly had thirteen houses as well as a school and
mission house. Another was located in the Indian village of Kewawenon, now
L'Anse, on Keweenaw Bay. John Sunday, a native exhorter, had already been
invited to preach to the Indians there, who Barclay describes as "degraded,
drunken, quarrelsome."24 As the Methodists were inclined to do, Clark used
unordained Indian assistants, John Sunday, Thomas Frazer, and Thomas McGee,
to run the Kewawenon mission. In 1834 Reverend Daniel Chandler was sent to
the mission with Indian assistants George Copway and John Taunchy. Another
recruit, Milton Boume, was appointed to help Clark upon the departure of Julia
Baylies.

In 1836 Clark left the Sault for an assignment in Illinois. By the time of his

departure the mission schools at the Sault and Missionville had twelve and

 

23 Barclay, 155.

24 Barclay, 155. These are not Barclay's words. but it is unclear whose they
are—possibly Clark's.

53

thirty-eight students respectively. Both had active Sunday schools. The school
at Kewawenon had twenty-seven pupils. Clark was succeeded as supervisor of
the Sault and Kewawenon missions by Chandler and two years later by William
H. Brockway. Several ministers worked under Brockway, including a native
preacher Peter Marksman.

Brockway had come from another Indian mission in the Lower Peninsula.
He began his missionary career at the Huron Mission at Flat Rock, a station
originally established by Finley. The mission at Flat Rock was a natural
outgrowth from the Methodist mission at Sandusky, since some of the Wyandot
had settled there. With the teaching of young Brockway and the preaching of
a supervising circuit minister, James Gilruth, and a junior minister, E. C.
Gavitt, the mission had a few years of success. But mission work there probably
ended about 1838, since activities were no longer recorded after that time.

One of the most interesting figures among the Methodist missionaries was
Reverend John H. Pitezel, perhaps because he wrote a book about his years in
the Lake Superior area. Lights and Shades of Missionary Life. Pitezel began his
missionary work at the Sault under Brockway. In 1844 he was transferred to
Kewawenon and late in 1846 was in charge of both the Indian mission there
and to provide some sort of worship services for the copper miners on the
Keweenaw Peninsula. For a time Pitezel was appointed to a mining mission at
Eagle River, but in 1848 he became superintendent of the Upper Peninsula

Indian missions in place of Brockway.

54

In Lights and Shades, Pitezel tells the readers succinctly, and quite
eloquently, the reasons for missionary work among the Indians. "The claims of
the Indians upon the Christian sympathies are great beyond measure," Pitezel
says. "Christianity makes us the debtor to these people. But added to this, we
are the inheritors of their once vast forests, broad rivers, and lakes."25
Pitezel continues rather adamantly about the wrongs done to the Indians,
although he feels some government action was well-intended.

Pitezel, like others of his time, felt that the only choice for Indians was to
become part of the mainstream civilization or to perish. It was not an
unreasonable conclusion. Game had been seriously depleted by the fur trade,
and neither the climate or soil of the Lake Superior country made for
productive farming. At times fishing was bad or impossible because of the
weather, or wild rice crops were poor. Missionaries were personally familiar
with these hardships of the country along with the annual end of winter
supply shortages. With such a background, it is not difficult to understand that
Pitezel and and others felt that the Indian might become extinct.

Explicit in Pitezel's book was the idea that if Indians were to become
civilized, they would need to be Christian. It didn't demand a fervent mission
spirit for many at that time to agree with Pitezel that an Indian could not
"become truly civilized without the entering wedge of Christianity."26 But
unlike many of his time, Pitezel argued that this was not an overnight process.

His book, in fact, was in many ways an argument to the statements of the day

 

25 John H. Pitezel, Lights and Shades of Missionary Life (Cincinnati, 1857), 419.
25 Pitezel, 419.

55

that Indian missions had proved a failure. Comparing the number of early
Christians with the population of the world, he pointed that the number of
Christians was exceedingly small, but "the world was bettered by the
introduction of Christianity, before a millionth part had actually tested its
virtue." In the same way, the Indian nation would be benefitted.‘ "Christianity
has been introduced among them—it is the leaven hid in the meal, and must
affect, more or less, the entire lump. Its work must be slow and gradual, but it
must go on and increase."27

But Pitezel's book portrays a man true to the missionary ideals that sent
him to the frontier. On one hand we can understand the energy and practical
knowledge any missionary needed for survival. Pitezel gives us an excellent
picture of many adventures, hardships, and household duties, such as making
shoes for his wife and daughter. Perhaps most welcome in his account is a
sense of humor that assures us that missionaries were, after all, just people
who sometimes bumbled the job and could laugh about it.

What Pitezel managed to do was to uphold the ideal of trying to undo some .
of the wrongs done to the Indian people without falling into self-
righteousness, being hypocritical, or competing with other missionaries
simply to gain souls. His writing reveals a man who is thoughtful, athletic,
resourceful, and compassionate—mindful of the hardships his wife must

endure and appreciative of her important role in the missions. He gives us

 

27 Pitezel, 415.

56

hope that some missionaries did help establish a better relationship between

Indian and whites in some way, if only by quality of their own lives.

Other Protestant missions in Michigan

Both the Episcopal and Lutheran churches created missions in Michigan
that have been noted by historians. Reverend James Selkrig was the founder
and pastor at an Episcopal church in Niles when he was placed in charge of an
Indian colony, the Bradley mission, in northeastern Barry County in 1839.
Selkrig stayed at the mission, preaching to Ottawa, Potawatomi, and ‘white
people until his death in 1878. Another minister, Reverend Henry Jackson,
joined Selkrig at the mission. Jackson was an Ojibwa from Canada who was an
excellent speaker. Besides preaching, Jackson gave lectures about Indian life
and customs to white audiences in the state's cities.

For two decades the German Lutherans in the Saginaw Valley also worked
with Indians and established several missions. Friedrich August Craemer
believed that Indians should be brought into white settlements for their
religious training, and with this philosophy he worked unsuccessfully to
create an Indian mission in his town of Frankenmuth. Craemer's recruits to
the Indian mission project were’more successful.

One missionary appointed by Craemer was Edmund Baierlein, who
practiced a slow, indirect approach to win Indians to Christianity. Baierlein
gave the Indians time to observe the results of his farming and building skills

before he tried to teach them new ways. Instead of teaching in English,

57

Baierlein learned the Ojibwa language. Within three years his Bethany
mission had a membership of forty adults. In 1851, however, Baierlein was
called to a mission station in India. He was replaced by E.G.W.‘ Mieszler, who did
not have the former missionary's leadership abilities, and the work at Bethany
declined.

Other Lutheran missions for Indians were established at Sebewaing and
Shebahyonk. Missionaries there were Johann Auch, J. F. Maier, J. E. Roeder,
and others. The Lutherans generally began to believe that their work among
the Indians was too little and too late. The Methodists had already made some
inroads in the area, so the Lutherans believed that they not only had to reach
those Indians who had not been exposed to Christianity, but change the faulty
doctrinal beliefs of Indians converted by the Methodists! One Lutheran
missionary declined to work among the Ojibwa since he believed they were on
the verge of extinction and any missionary work would be comparable to
holding a requiem for a dying people.28

TheLutheran work in the Saginaw valley illustrates the unfortunate
aspects of Protestant missionary work in the western Great Lakes area in the
mid-18008. Although Craemer was extreme in his views that Indians should be
uprooted from their communities to join white communities, there was little if
any respect for the Indian culture or sympathy for the people who were

expected to undergo an extreme cultural change in less than a generation. It

 

23 Roy A. Suelflow, "Lutheran Missions in the Saginaw Valley." Michigan
History LI.3 (Fall 1967). 238-239.

58

was simply assumed by missionaries that the Indians would naturally and
quickly welcome the improved way of life offered by white civilization.
Secondly, the attempts made by Protestant missionaries in the region were
often marred by interdenominational rivalry. Even the more progressive
Baierlein saw little hope for Lutheran missions because of the stronger
Methodist influence in the area. The work of missionaries quickly loses it
_ luster when it becomes apparent that making more Lutherans or Methodists or
Presbyterians is a primary goal. Adding anti-Catholicism to the formula clouds
the missionary attempts even further. Each makes the Ojibwa or Ottawa or

Wyandot souls, something to be confiscated—much like the land.

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Chapter IV

Missions on the Wisconsin and Minnesota Frontier

Missionaries among the New York Indians

Several of the Protestant missions in the southern part of Wisconsin in
the first half 18008 were established as various Indian peeple from the East
were resettled in the Wisconsin area. Samuel Stambaugh, Indian agent at
Green Bay, reported that "the country allotted by the agreement between the
United States and the Menominie Tribe for the New York Indians lies on the
west side of the Fox River and Green Bay. It contains, as near as I can compute.
. .five hundred and seventy thousand acres."1 Among the tribes who settled
here were the Stockbridge Indians, who were first moved from Massachusetts
to New York, the Oneida, and the Brotherton.

The new Stockbridge settlement. called Kaukauna, was located on the Fox
River about twenty miles south of Green Bay. Over the years the Stockbridge
people had been accustomed to having Protestant ministers preach to them,
including the famous Jonathon Edwards and David Brainerd. Their exposure to
white civilization and religion, then, made them seem to be a group with whom
missionaries might be successful. In 1825 the American Board of

Commissioners of Foreign Missions sent Reverend Jesse Miner to work among

 

1 Samuel Staumbaugh, "Report on the Wisconsin Territory," Wisconsin
Historical Collections, XV, 409.
‘ 59

6O

them. Within a few years Miner sent for his family to join him at the mission,
but he died just as he completed building a home for them.

Reverend Cutting Marsh was sent to Kaukauna as Miner's replacement in
1830. His wife was Eunice Osmer who had been a teacher at the Mackinac
mission. Cutting and Eunice Marsh worked with the Stockbridge people for
eighteen years. Since there were only about two hundred and twenty-five
Indians at Kaukauna, thirty-nine whom were church members, Marsh's job
was to extend to neighboring tribes of Menominee, Brotherton. and
Winnebago. But there was plenty of other activity to occupy Marsh's time. The
settlement was shaken by the Black Hawk War in 1832, and on several
occasions threats of attacks by Sac and Fox bands sent the Stockridge and their
missionaries hurrying for protection at Fort Howard (Green Bay). At the war's
end, Marsh began searching for better land for the Stockbridge, land farther
from white settlers. In 1834 me group moved to what is now the village of
Stockbridge on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago.

Near the close of Marsh's ministry among the Stockbridge he reported that
there were fifty-one members in regular standing, only a few more than
when he had come. Three, he reported, were "under censure." "As I become
more and more acquainted with the native character," he wrote to a Scottish
board who sent financial support, "I am more deeply convinced that my first
impressions were erroneous, and that any individual upon a slight

acquaintance will form erroneous conclusions. I mean that a person by long

61

acquaintance sees and feels more deeply the hidden, withering effects of
paganism long after its outward forms have seemingly passed away—." 2
Marsh had discovered after 18 years of service that one simply does not come
to a settlement, even a small settlement like Kaukauna, and change the
spiritual and cultural heritage of a people, labeled paganism by the
missionaries, to a new way of living, speaking, and worship—as superior as it
may have seemed to the changer.

If it was not enough to work at the task of changing the Indians' entire
way of life, missionaries such as Marsh had government policies and treaties
with which to contend. In several annual reports Marsh blamed his low
church membership and lack of spiritual progress on the actions and
inactions of the government. "Some of them [problems] are inquestionably
inseparable from the Indian state growing out of the frequent Treaties for the
purchase of land and the oftentimes gross neglect on the part of the officers of
the general government to carry into effect promptly treat stipulations. Often
these are not only neglected but violated, which perplexes the Indian, and
destroys his confidence in the white man."3

The division among the Stockbridges on whether to move west as a tribe or
become individual citizens and stay on their farms split the settlement and

ended the work of the ABCFM. With some moving and some remaining, Cutting

 

2 William Ward Wight, "Documents Relating to the Stockbridge Mission, 1825-
48," Wisconsin Historical Collections, XV, 197.

3 Wight, 175.

62

and Eunice Marsh ended their work at Stockbridge. They remained in
Wisconsin, however, with Cutting ministering to white settlements through
the American Home Missionary Society.

The Oneida Indians came to the Wisconsin Territory with their own
Episcopal missionary, Reverend Eleazer Williams, who had helped arrange for
land for the New York tribes. The main Oneida settlement was located at Duck
Creek on the west side of the Fox River south of Fort Howard. A small settlement
of Oneida, most who had interrnarried with the Stockbridge, lived near the
Stockbridge at Kaukauna.

Williams, who himself was Indian and white, became a colorful figure in
Wisconsin history. He had hoped that in their new Wisconsin home he would
become a Christian chief not only for the Oneida, Brothertown, Stockbridge,-
but also for the Winnebago and native Menominee. Williams' plan failed, but
about that time H. D. Eastman of Green Bay wrote a novel about a boy raised by
Indians who turned out to be the lost son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
Eastman modeled his character after Williams, who was well-educated and
refined. Being the lost Dauphin seemed like a good idea to Williams, and in 1849
he announced that he was indeed the son of Louis XVI. When that proved to be
false, Williams became a target of ridicule and returned to New York state. His
actual work among the Oneidas has been obscured by the lost Dauphin story.

Other Episcopalian missionaries and teachers worked with the Oneidas in

addition to Williams. Reverend Richard Fish Cadle ran an Indian mission

63

school from 1829 to 1834 which was recorded as having fifty children in 1831.4
Most of the children were part Indian and white. The school very likely had
several teachers or missionary assistants. One of them mentioned was Albert
Ellis, a man who later founded a newspaper in Green Bay.

Like the Episcopals, the Methodists also had missionaries working among
the Oneida before their move to Wisconsin. Two of their most effective
missionary teachers were Daniel Adams, a Mohawk, and Electa Quinney, a
Stockbridge, who also made the Wisconsin move. But the Oneida also asked the
Methodists for an ordained mininster, and Reverend John Clark answered that
call in 1832. Together Clark, Adams, and Quinney established a school at a
Oneida-Stockbridge settlement on the east bank of the Fox, twenty-five miles
south of Green Bay. A8 in many missions, a log mission house served both as a
school building and a church. Thirty-five to forty people attended church
services, and Quinney also held a Sunday school for children and adults. The
Oneida then moved to Duck Creek, taking the Methodist school with them.

At Duck Creek another log mission house was built along with log houses
for Indian families. In 1837 Salmon Stebbins, a presiding Methodist elder in
the region, reported that the Indians were "opening farms, building houses

and barns. . .. Their piety is equally as good."5

 

4 This school may have been located in Green Bay.

5 Wade Crawford Barclay, The History of Methodist Missions, V. [I (New York:
Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Church), 151. ’

64

Clark soon was placed in charge of Indian missions in Green Bay.
Kewawenon, and Sault Ste. Marie, the latter of which became his head-
quarters.Assisting him at Duck Creek was Reverend George White, Rolla H.
Chubb, Etherlinda Lee. When Clark gave instructions for the establishment of
a second school north of the settlement, the Indians objected, destroying the
school within days of its opening.

Another missionary at Duck Creek was Daniel Poe who had come to the
Oneida settlement in 1836 and soon found himself a wife who was working in
another Indian settlement in the Green Bay vicinity. "I found her," he wrote
proudly to a Methodist missionary conference, "among the Brothertown
Indians alone, teaching the children in the wigwams of the distant West."6
Jane Ingram was a woman devoted to the cause of helping Indian people.
After marrying Poe, she donated three hundred dollars she had saved earlier
from teaching in Michigan toward a school at the Oneida settlement. The
couple remained at Duck Creek until 1839 when they left to become
missionaries in Texas. Tragically, both died within an hour of each ether in
1844, leaving three small children orphaned.7

Methodist work among the Oneida continued until all the Indians of the
area were forced to move West as a tribe or become citizens with private lands.

One of the leading missionaries in the final years at Duck Creek was Reverend

 

6 William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Methodist Pulpit (New York,
1861). 788.

7 The sketches in Sprague refer to a fever causing the Poes' deaths, perhaps
malaria.

65

Henry R. Colman. During Colman's tenure the settlement had good farms and
comfortable houses. But even though his peers considered him successful,
Colman felt the Oneidas did not live up to his hopes and expectations. Like
Cutting Marsh of the ABCFM, Colman felt the government treaties kept the
Indians in an unsettled state. He also came to believe that the Indians had lived
so long without restrictions in their society, that they simply could not be
restrained enough to form a civilized community.8

The Brotherton Indians established a settlement on the east side of the Fox
River, about twenty miles south of Green Bay. This was not agreeable with the
Menominee, and they moved close to the Stockbridge Indians on the east
shores of Lake Winnebago. Records show that Baptists worked with the
Brothertons for approximately seven years. under the direction of Thomas and
Deborah Dick. When Thomas Dick died in 1841, the Methodists seem to taken
over the work with missionary Jesse Halstead. In 1842 Hiram W. Frink was
appointed to take Halstead's place, apparently until like the Stockbridge and
Oneida, the Brotherton moved East or assumed private ownership of their
farms.

Protestant missionaries did not seem to make any inroads among the native
Menominee or Winnebago people. Any Christian influence within these tribes
was accomplished by Catholic priests who had the benefits of early visits by

Jesuit priests, such as the notable Claude Allouez. The Green Bay area was, in

 

8 Barclay, v. 2, 151.

66

fact, the heart of the Catholic missions with the establishment of the St.
Francois Xavier mission in the early 16708. More effort by Protestant
missionaries in the Wisconsin Territory in the first half of the 18008 was made
among the Ojibwa in the Lake Superior region. Here the ABCFM, the
Methodists, and the American Missionary Society worked to make civilized
Christians out of a people who had spent centuries hunting, fishing, moving

frequently, and occasionally warring with the Sioux.

Ojibwa missions in upper Wisconsin

In 1831 the first Protestant mission in upper Wisconsin was established at
La Pointe, an Ojibwa settlement and headquarters of the American Fur
Company on Madeline Island among the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. The
Protestants were late. One hundred and sixty-six years before the Catholics had
a built a mission station and some Indians were still followed the Catholic faith.
Officials of the American Fur Company, however, welcomed the efforts of the
ABCFM in the region.

The first Protestant mission at La Pointe was founded unofficially by
Frederick Ayer, an unordained missionary teacher who had worked at
Mackinac. Ayer's school began with white children of the settlement, while he
worked to learn the Ojibwa language. In 1831 Reverend Sherman Hall gave the
La Pointe mission its official beginning as he arrived with his wife and an

interpreter, Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell. Meanwhile Ayer explored the region

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68

By 1833 there were a number of missionaries and assistants at La Pointe,
ready to reach out and establish a network of missions in the region. In
addition to the Halls who would head the La Pointe station for many years
were Reverend and Mrs. William Boutwell. Edmund F. Ely, Frederick Ayer and
his wife, Delia Cook, and Sabrina Stevens. The Boutwells, Ayers, and Ely soon
set out to other stations. Even though La Pointe served as something of a hub
for missionaries and traders, Ely found it disappointing, with only about a
dozen bark-covered buildings.9

The Halls managed the station at La Pointe for over twenty years, which
meant operating a school, preaching to both whites and Indians, and super-
vising the outlying missions. In 1835 the ABCFM faced revived competition
from the Catholics with the arrival of Father Frederic Baraga. Fast becoming a
legend in the region, the energetic and charismatic Baraga worked quickly
and built a log church, a house, and a school. He complained that "the
Protestants were deluding the poor Indians of that place into damnable
errors"10 and in a short time claimed to. convert over one hundred Indians.
He then moved on, leaving another priest in charge.

The Halls were indeed the dedicated Christian heroes described by an

elderly Indian woman in Chapter 1.11 Hall preached in the Ojibwa language

 

9 Roy Hoover, "To Stand Alone in the Wilderness," Wisconsin Magazine of
History 49 (Fall, 1985), 268.

10 Edmund Jefferson Danziger, Jr. The Chippewas of Lake Superior (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), 82.

11 See page 15.

69

and translated the Old Testament into Ojibwa. One of his students remembered
that he did care for them, but that when he was displeased with them "two
small muscles would twitch on his face."12 During the Hall's years at La
Pointe, the native peeple were faced with removal. The Ojibwa peeple had
agree to sell their land in 1842, reserving the right of occupancy. But not even
the missionaries or the honest Indian agents who worked to protect the
Indians' rights believed there was any fear for encroachment except for
copper mining. It came as a shock,then, when the government began calling
for removal. Hall traveled to Washington to help convince officials that the
Ojibwa should have the right to stay, but returned unoptimistic. Perhaps it
would help, he apparently told them, if they adopted more civilized habits in
their dress, planted more crops. and became more conscientious in their
school and church attendance. When the government insisted on removal,
however, Hall moved the school and his home to the Crow River along the
Mississippi. He continued to work there until 1854. The interest in the school
dropped and there was talk that the Indians would rather have their share of
the school money than have the school. The Halls retired.

Another ABCFM missionary at La Pointe, Reverend Leonard Wheeler, also
worked to help the Ojibwa retain their right to stay in the region. After he and
his wife Harriet arrived in La Pointe in 1841, Wheeler began to look for a place

where the Indians could farm more extensively. He chose land along the Bad

 

12 Gerald Vizenour, The People Named the Chippewa (Minneapolis: University
of, Minnesota Press, 1984), 46.

70

River, about nine miles from Ashland. He and the Bad River Band, as they came
to be called, named the mission Odanah and built houses and a school. Wheeler
was highly respected by 'white settlers along the Lake Superior shores who
saw him as a great defender of the Ojibwa people.

The Bad River band were determined not to move West and lived for two
years when their annuities were withheld from them. Mrs. Wheeler wrote,
"They are fully determined not to go. . . .I doubt very much whether there is a
band of Chippewas beyond the Mississippi, with all their annuities, that are as
well fed and clothed as ours are."13 The Wheelers shared the Ojibwas' delight
when they finally received payment in 1852 and then again in 1853 when the
fear of removal of this band seemed to be over at last. "The Lord reigns," wrote

a triumphant Wheeler.1 4

Missions beyond La Pointe

During his exploration of Lake Superior country in 1831, Frederick Ayer
visited Sandy Lake and Leech Lake in the Minnesota area with the idea of
eventually establishing missions there. But the following year he and his wife
Elizabeth instead set out to establish a mission at Yellow Lake in northwestern
Wisconsin.

Although Ayer was an experienced teacher, his work at Yellow Lake did

not turn out as he had hoped. The Ojibwa band there had ambivalent feelings

 

13 J. N. Davidson. In Unnamed Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1895),
14 Davidson, 169.

71

about allowing Ayer, the dedicated Elizabeth Ayer, and their assistant, John L.
Seymour, to work there. They approved their work, but with the building of
the school they became fretful about white encroachment on their lands and
told him to leave. Shortly after, they changed their minds, and the school was
built. Still, the situation was not good. Food was scarce, and families scattered,
making it difficult to hold school. Ayer became convinced that the few Indians
who were attracted by what he and his assistants had to offer should be
separated from the rest of the band. When another group of Ojibwa invited
him to come to Pokegama in 1836, he took the group of "praying Indians" from
Yellow Lake and made the move.

Meanwhile, other ABCFM missionaries began working at Sandy Lake and
Leech Lake. At Leech Lake was Reverend William T. Boutwell and his new wife,
Hester Crooks who was part Ojibwa. Although Boutwell had worked at Sault Ste.
Marie and Mackinac in order to learn the language, tried hard to acquaint
himself with native customs, and had even married a woman who was part
Ojibwa, he found he was unable to cope with life at Leech Lake. The Indians
there, a band called the Pillagers, murdered an American Fur Company agent
and poisoned one of his children. They also treated the Boutwells poorly,
robbing their garden and killing their cattle.

Shortly after the establishment of the Leech Lake mission, Edmund Ely
opened a mission at Sandy Lake. The Indians here were less hostile than those

at Leech Lake, and it was not long before the discouraged Boutwells moved to

72

the Sandy Lake mission, allowing Ely to move on and establish a school at Fond
du Lac, which later became an important area for the work of Methodist
missionaries. Ely seems to have stayed at this post for several years, perhaps
until the ABCFM abandoned it temporarily in 1840. During part of that time he
was assisted by Granville T. Sproat.

In 1838 the Boutwells moved to Pokegama Lake and Ayer joined Ely at Fond
du Lac where Sproat had left for La Pointe. But the situation in both places
seem to vary between accepting, then hostile, acts toward the missionaries. At
each station the native people killed cattle to show their displeasure with their
white teachers. When the band at Fond du Lac left to fish, the ABCFM
missionaries there went to Pokegama. Records show that Boutwell, Ayer, Ely,
and another assistant, Sabrina Stevens, were all working in 1840.

One of the missionaries' frustrations was getting the native people to work
in their gardens and plan for the winter ahead. According to Boutwell and
others, the Indians seemed content to beg and starve rather than work as their
teachers were instructing them to do. Boutwell's letters show his frustration

and his need to reevaluate his Christian ideals about feeding the hungry:

Seven winters that I have been in the country I have fed the
hungry, and they are none the wiser, none the more provident.
It's enough! I will feed you no longer. If you choose to smoke and
sleep all summer, you may beg in the winter and get nothing.

I have planted, hood, and dug potatoes with my own hands till

73

I am tired, and if you will not raise them for yourselves you

shan't eat them hereafter.15
Boutwell's policy after seven winters, it seems, was to force the Ojibwas who
begged to do some work for the food, such as cutting his wood. The two
cultures' view of work, however, remained an unresolved source of contention
and misunderstanding.

In 1841 the Ojibwa at Pokegama were attack by Sioux warriors. Since the
Ojibwa had feared an attack, they had camped on an island in the lake. When a
group of men went to shore the next day to talk to some of the Ojibwa warriors
stationed in a different area, they were attacked by some Sioux. The Ojibwa
men escaped to land, but two girls who had come along to bring the canoe back
to the island were killed. Both girls were students of the missionary school, and
their brutal deaths shook the missionaries. After several days of fighting, the
Ojibwa managed to drive away their enemies.

The Sioux attack on Pokegama frightened the Ojibwa and drove them away
from the settlement. The ABCFM missionaries went to Fond du Lac with some of
the Pokegama residents for a time, except Frederick Ayer, who journeyed to
Oberlin College in Ohio to become an ordained minister. In 1843 the
missionaries and Indians returned to Pokegama. hoping to live there
peacefully. But two years later the Ojibwa settlement was abandoned, along
with the mission, since white settlers wanted the land. When the mission work

at Pokegama came to an end, Ely returned to work at La Pointe where Sproat

 

15 Return 1. Holcombe, Minnesota in Three Centuries (Minnesota, 1908), 227.

74

had left a vacancy, and Boutwell gave up work with the Indians altogether and

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The Amerian Missionary Association

In 1843 Reverend Sproat wrote from La Pointe: "Mr. and Mrs. Ayer are
here. They are going on to Red Lake, and with them a reinforcement of
missionaries."16 Ayer's ordination at Oberlin brought another group to the
Lake Superior area to work among the Ojibwa of the region. This new
missionary society, the American Missionary Association, was tied to Oberlin
College. Their first mission was Red Lake, an Ojibwa settlement that Ayer and
David Brainerd Spencer had selected after a long exploration trip a few months
before. Among the first AMA workers to journey to Red Lake were Mrs. David
Spencer, Dr. and Mrs. William Lewis, Mr. and Mrs. P. O. Johnston, Mr. and Mrs.
Alonzo Barnard, and Sela G. Wright.

The members of the AMA, although ,welcomed at La Pointe, were perhaps
considered overly zealous in their racial views by members of the ABCFM.
Members of the Oberlin group were strong abolitionists, as well as people
convinced that they must help the neglected Indians even if it meant giving
their lives for their work. Perhaps stronger than their Christian message,
although that was certainly powerful,was the idea of service to a forgotten and
abused people. The ideas of the man behind the AMA, Dr. Charles G. Finney,

reportedly required "very great modification when reduced to actual practice.

0 so" 17

 

16 Davidson, 163 n.
17 Davidson. 163.

76

The AMA supported a mission at Red Lake for many years. Ayer himself
was part of the work here for some time and translated the New Testament in
Ojibwa. He then left in 1849 and went on to establish a school at Crow Wing
near the Mississippi River. Other workers involved with the mission through
the 18508 were Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Coe, Mr.R. M. Lafferty, and Mr. E. Carver. In
the 18508 the AMA was chosen to take charge of the educational and
civilization funds provided by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The work.
however, proved to be too much. The AMA decided to withdraw from Red Lake,
because of "unreasonable demands of the Indians upon the missionaries for
secular labors and assistance." 13

AMA missionaries went from Red Lake to other stations. Dr. and Mrs.
William Lewis and Mrs. and Mrs. P. 0. Johnson spent two years trying to
establish a mission at Leech Lake where ABCFM missionaries had failed some
time earlier. The Ojibwa band there, the Pillagers, treated the missionaries
badly, killing cattle and threatening them when the missionaries objected to
their begging. The problems became so grave that the station at Leech Lake
was closed in 1845. The Johnsons retired from missionary service while the
Lewises went to Red Lake. The Spencers and the Bamards went to missions
among the Sioux in Minnesota and the North Dakota areas.

Meanwhile, the- Ayers epened an independent school for Ojibwa in Crow

Wing. The school was designed for the more advanced Ojibwa students, and

 

13 Riggs, 159.

77

enlisted support from whites in the area, including traders. The Ayers gained
the help of excellent teachers from both Oberlin and Mount Holyoke and the
school continued for a number of years, although many of its later students
were white. After a long career of missionary work in the Lake Superior
region, Frederick and Elizabeth Ayer moved to the South to help freed slaves.
When Frederick died in 1869, over three thousand people were said to have
come to his funeral. Later a friend wrote about Elizabeth Ayer. "She is a living
embodiment of a well-spent life. . ”"19 He and his wife were undoubtedly

Christian heroes who had dedicated their lives to their beliefs.

Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopalian missions among the Ojibwa
In 1836 Reverend John Clark who headed Methodist missionary stations
from his headquarters in Sault Ste. Marie sent George Copway, John Tounchy,

and Peter Marksman to what is new the Lac Court Oreilles reservation. The
following year a Methodist mission was begun there. Although this and other
Methodist missions are not as easy to trace as those of the ABCFM, it is evident
that these missionaries spent a number of years in the western Lake Superior
region ministering to the Ojibwa. .

In 1837 the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Church. created an Indian
Mission District that included western Wisconsin Ojibwa. In charge of the

district was Reverend Alfred Brunson. Under Brunson's leadership a number

 

19 Schell, 41.

78

of missions were opened. Two of them were at Fond du Lac and Sandy Lake
where the ABCFM missionaries also worked. Another began at Elk River and '
was soon moved to Rabbit River and finally to White Fish Lake, where John
Johnson was in charge.

Sandy Lake mission first shows up in Methodist history in 1840. Stationed
here were Reverend and Mrs. Samuel Spates. with Ojibwa assistants Henry P.
Chase and John Johnson, which indicates that the White Fish Lake mission was
not a long lasting one. Life at the Sandy Lake mission was not an easy. The
settlement was threatened by Sioux raids which caused the missionaries to
withdraw to Rabbit River for some time. There were also food shortages
because of the lack of game and poor wild rice harvests. Mrs. Spate wrote to
Mrs. Pitezel telling of how the missionaries' crop of three hundred bushels of
potatoes was saving many from starvation. She also noted that a poor supply of
rabbits in the area had created a great demand for Clething.20 Just how long
the Methodists continued their mission at Sandy Lake is uncertain, but another
minister, Reverend H. J. Bruce, assisted Spates at the mission.

About a year after ABCFM missionaries abandoned Fond du Lac, Methodist
missionionaries began their work there. George Copway is listed as serving the
mission from 1841 to 1843. Also listed as working at the mission until 1845 are
Thomas M. Fullerton, Samuel Spates. John Johnson, and Peter Greensky. The

mission was likely abandoned after 1845.

 

20 Pitezel, 396.

79

Reverend Eric H. Day and his family served a group of Ojibwa Indians for a
time, in the vicinity or perhaps at the Fond du Lac mission. Day, who wrote of
his travels in Lake Superior country much like Pitezel, Spent more of his
efforts describing the Indians habits, the landscape, and his adventurous
travels on Lake Superior than in chronicling the details of his mission work.
He was later sent to Eagle River where he established a mission for copper
miners.

The Episcopals, too, established some schools among the Ojibwa bands of
northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. In the 18508 Reverend James Lloyd Breck
added his name to the list of Protestant missionaries who tried unsuccessfully
to create a mission at Leech Lake. Aiding him were Mr. and Mrs. Charles W.
Rees, Emily West, and Kate Heron. Breck eventually established a mission
school at Faribault. The Episceplians also helped Ayer with his school at Crow
Wing.

The removal of Indians to reservations further West. the breakup of bands
into individual citizenship and ownership of property, and the beginning of
the Civil War ended the flurry of missionary activity in the Great Lakes by
1860. But the end also came within each denomination er missionary society
because of the feelings of discouragement among the missionaries themselves.

The old Indian women who remember Reverend Sherman Clark working

at La Pointe perhaps best described the lack of success felt by the Protestant

80

missionaries. This woman vividly contrasted the two cultures and the spiritual
world 'of the Indian that white missionaries were unable to penetrate.

These missionaries were never loons, never bears, their wives

and mothers were never killdeers on the shoreline. We were

animals and birds, even when we were converted, and that was

the difference between culture and civilization. We once spoke

the language of animals, the missionaries were caught in word

-winds.21

In their dedicated desire to convert, to civilize, and to change the native
people it is unlikely that Hall and others understood that they had entered a
deeply spiritual world.They identified only the outward trappings of
something they termed paganism, and worked fervently to snuff it out. When
no amount of their labor or good works seemed to produce civilized Christian
communities in place of the old Woodland families, the white teachers tried to
intellectualize their disappointment. They did not perceive that they were not
loons or bears in a land of loons and bears. Sent out by their own convictions
and culture to become heroes, they were lost, without shadows, in a world they
could not understand.

The Protestant missionaries who set out to the Great Lakes region may well
have dreamed of missions that would grow to become settlements of whites and
native people—agrarian Christian utopias that proved Christianity and

civilization went hand in hand. But such was not the case. With few exceptions

 

21 Vizenour, 46.

81

of reconstructed churches on Mackinac Island or Mission Point near Traverse
City, there are few traces or shadows of these Protestant missions. Some had
their moments of promise with fine crops or bright young scholars. But
overall, the tiny log mission houses in the forests did not become the leaven in
the Indian nation as Pitezel had hoped. At best, the missions may have been
places where whites and native peoples gained a better understanding of each

other. And they were certainly places where both peoples tried.

APPENDICES

American Missionary Association Missionaries & Teachers at
Indian Missions
Western Great Lakes Region, 1800-1860

Adams Rev. A. B.

Adams Mrs. A. B.

A or Elizabeth Ta lor Red Lake“

A r Frederik Lake“

Barnard Rev. Alonzo Red Lake“

Barnard Sara Philena Babcock Red Lake“
er E. Red Lake
0. A. Red Lake
Mrs. O. A. Red Lake
r R

Fischer Mrs. J. S. Red Lake

Johnston P. . Leech Lak

Johnston Mrs. P. O. Leech Lake

Laf R. M. Red

Lewis Dr. William Red Lake

wis Mrs.William
S Francis F. Red Lake
S cer Cordelia Leonard Red Lake“

8 cer David Brainerd Lak *
Wri Sela G. Red Lake
Wri Mrs. S. G. Red Lake

 

82

Baptist Missionaries

& Teachers at

Indian Missions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wester Lakes Region, 1800-1860
Missionary/Teacher Mission Approx. Years of Service
Baylies. Julia Sault Ste. Marie 1833
Bingham, Rev. Abel Sault Ste. Marie 1828-45
Bingham, Hannah Sault Ste. Marie 1828-45
Brockway. W. H. Sault Ste. Marie“ 1839-44
Cameron, James D. Sault Ste Marie
Crosley, W. M. Carey Station 1825-26
Dick, Deborah Brothertown 1834-41
Dick, Thomas Brothertown 1834-41
Frink, Hiram W. Brothertown 1842-45
Gardner, Lydia Sault Ste. Marie 1833
Gavitt, E. C. Huron Mission
Halstead. Jesse
Jones, Jane Kelly
Lykins, Johnston Thomas Station"

Macomber, Eleanor Sault Ste. Marie 1830
McCoy, Christiana Carey Station 1822-30
McCov, Isaac Carey Station 1822-30
Meeker, Jotham Carey Station

Morse. Elizabeth

Polke. Charles Carey Station

Pratt. John G.

Pratt, Olivia Evans

Purchase, L. Thomas Station

Rice. Mary Sault Ste. Marie

Richardson, Eleanor Thomas Station 1 l/ZJCZU‘S
RichardsongDavid Thomas Station 1 1/2 years
Sears, John Thomas Station

Simerwell, Robert Carey Station

Simerwell, Mrs. Robert Carey Station

Slater. Leonard Thomas Station“I 1827-52
Slater, Mary F. Ide Thomas Station" 1827-52

 

83

 

Lutheran Missionaries & Teachers at Indian Missions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Western Great Lakes Region, 1800-1860
isian hrfi isin rvi

Auch, Johann J. F. Sebewaing 1845-53
Baierlein, Edmund Bethany 1847-57
Cameron, James D. Sault Ste. Marie
Craemer, Dorothea Frankenmuth 1833-45
Craemer, Friedrich Frankenmuth 1833-45
Dumser, Johann Simon Sebewaing* 1846
Flessa, Johann Lorenz Saginaw Valley 1846
Maier, J. F. Shebahyonk 1845-50
Miessler, Ernst Gustav Herman Bethany* 1851-68
Roeder, J. E. Shebahyonk 1851-53
Schmid, Rev. Friedrich Sebewaing“ 1842-45
Schuster, Georg Konrad Saginaw Valley 1846
Sievers, G. E. C. F. BethaM 1853
Sinke. Georg Sebewaing 1845-51

 

84

 

Methodist Missionaries & Teachers at Indian Missions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Western Great Lakes Region, 1800-1860
MIS.Q.I1T -. h issi o -rvi
Adams, DariTel“ Duck Creek“
Allen, S. M. Wyandot 1837-38
Banning, Rev. Anthony Wyandot
Barstow, Lydia Wyandot
Baylies. Julia Sault Ste. Marie
Bigelow, Russel Wyandot 1827
Boume, Milton Sault Ste. Marie
Boydson, B. Wyandot 1830
Brooks, John C. Wyandot 1826-27
Brooks. Mrs. John C. Wyandot
Brown, G.W. Kewawenon 3yrs.
Bruce, Rev. H. J. Sandy Lake
Brunson, Rev. Alfred MN/Wl supt. 1835-39
Bushey, Joseph Sault Ste. Marie 1844-
Cahbeach, JohnM Kewawenon 1834-
Chandler, Rev. Daniel M. Kewawenon 1834-36
Chase. Henry P.“ Sandy Lake
Chubb, Rolla H. Duck Creek
Clark, Rev. John Sault Ste. Marie* 1832-36
Colman, Rev.Henry R. Duck Creek 1840-45
Copway, George“ Fond du Lac* 1840-
Day, Rev. Eric H. Fond du Lac
Elliot, Charles Wyandot 1822
Finley, James B. Wyandot" 1821-28
Frazee, Bradford Saginaw 1832
Frink, Hiriam Sheboygan 1837
Fullerton, Thomas Fond du Lac 1840-
Gardner, Lydia Sault Ste. Marie
Gavitt, E. C. Flat Rock“ 1835-36
Gibbs. Mrs. H. E. Wyandot
Gilruth. James Wyandot“ 1827-28
Greensky, Peter Fond du Lac
Haag. Christianna Wyandot
Halstead. Jesse Brotherton 1839
Henkle. Moses Sr. Wyandot 1819
Hitt, Martin Wyandot
Hitt, Samuel Wyandot
Hooker. Jacob (possibly Hooper) Wyandot 1823-24
Heeper, Jacob (possibly Hooker) Wyandot 1824-26
Hooper, Mamaret Wyandot
Hott, Rev. Joseph Kewawenon 1846
Huddlcston, Rev. Elk River
Jacokes. D. C.** Kewawenon 1841-
Johnson, John** Sandy Lake*
Johnson, Rev. P.O. Sault Ste. Marie
Kavanaugh, Rev. B. F. Elk River* -
King, Rev. David Little Crew 1837

 

 

85

 

 

Kin o **
Lansdale Thomas

Lee Etherlinda
Marksman R v Peter”
Miller Robert

Mit hell e h

Mont ome ames
Parker Jean

Pi zel Rev H.

Poe Daniel
W

Prenti e Libert
inne Electa“
R H W
Ril Jan
abin A bu
Scarritt I aa
Shaw . P.
Simms Them
8 ates Samuel
at . Samuel
lm
teel Rev
w John
Stubbs Harri t

unda John

h h
Thom Th
Van r H
Walker Jesse
Walk r William r
Walker L dia
Wh l m
Whi

K wawenen

W nadot

Duck Creek

Kewawenon“

W andot

W and

W andot

W andot

Kewawenon*
*

Duck C

W an

W andot

Duck Creek
k

W andot

W 11

Salem Mi

W andot

'W andot

Sand L e*
Sand Lake“

W an
W ando

k
K w wen n“

W

t Ste. Marie
Salem Mi on
W an
W and
W it

"Only one of the missions where this person served.

** Native missionary

86

1840-

1840-

1816

1 ~1848

1836-39

182 -2
1835-38
1832

12 ars

1 16-1823

14-44

1830-36

1 42-4
1824-28

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presbyterian/Congregationalist/American Board of Commissioners
of Foreign Missions

Western Great Lakes Area, 1800-1860
ttoissin T h r tloissin .10th Yrs
Ambler. Augustus Stockbridge 1828-1831
Ayer, Elizabeth Taylor Mackinaw*
Ayer,Frederick Yellow Lake“ 1830-1865
Badger, Rev. Joseph Upper Sandusky“ 1806-
Barker, Rev. Abel Mackinaw 1833-34
Boutwell, Hester Crooks Leech Lake"
Boutwell, Rev. William T. Leech Lake“ 1831-46
Brewster, Sidney L. Maumee 1831-33
Brewster, Sarah Withrow Maumee 1832
Campbell, W. R. Mackinaw 1835-37
Campbell, Dolly Farrar Mackinaw 1834-37
Coe, Rev. Alvin Maumee* 1819-21
Cook, Delia La Pointe“ 1825-38
Doughtery, Rev. Peter Old Mission 1838-71
Ely, Catherine Bissell La Pointe*
Ely, Rev. Edmund E. La Pointe'l' 1833-49
Ferry, Rev. William Mackinaw 1822-34
Ferry, Amanda Mackinaw 1823-34
Fleming, Rev. John Old Mission“ 1837-39
Garey, Lucius Mackinaw 1834-37
Gareyg Francis Skinner Mackinaw 1834-37
Goodale, Hannah Mackinaw 1828-37
Hall, Chauncey Mackinaw“ 1832
Hall. Matilda Hotchkiss Mackinaw* 1828
Hall, Rev. Sherman La Pointe 1831-53
Hall, Mrs. Betsey La Pointe
Hearsey, Mason Mackinaw 1834-36
Hgdenburk, 'Huldah Warner Mackinaw 1828
Heydenburk, Martin Mackinaw 1824-33
Homell, George Mackinaw 1828-29
Homell, Mrs. George Mackinaw 1828-29
Hotchkiss, Matilda Mackinaw 1828-37
Hudson. John Fort Gratiot* 1825-30
Hudson, Mrs. John Fort Gratiot“ 1825
Hughes, Rev. Thomas Maumee*
James, Mrs. Woodbridge La Pointe
James. Rev. Woodbridge La Pointe
Leavitt, Jane ' Mackinaw 1833
Loomis, Elisha Mackinaw 1830-32
Loomis, Maria Mackinaw 1830-32
Macurdy, Reverend Elisha Upper Sandusky
Marsh, Rev. Cutting Stockbridge 1830-48
Marsh, Eunice Osmar Mackinaw* 1824-48-
McFarland, Betsey Mackinaw“ 1823-34°

 

87

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miner. Amanda Head Stockbridge 1828-29
Miner, Rev. Jesse Stockbridge 1827-29
Mudgett. Sephia Stockbridge

Newell, Rebecca Maumee 1828-33
Newland, John Mackinaw 1828-29
Newland, Mrs. John Mackinaw 1828-29
Newton, Abel D. Mackinaw 1830-34
Osmar, Eunice (see Marsh) Fort Gratiot“

Parker, Betsey Mackinaw* 1831-55
Quinney, Electa*** Stockbridge

Robbins, Rev. Ludovicus Maumee 1823
Rodd, Daniel Old Mission

Riggs, Hannah Maumee 1827-33
Satterfield, James Maumee

Seymour, John L. Mackinaw* 1833-40
Seymour, Jane Leavitt Mackinaw*

Skinner, Francis Mackinaw“ 1834-37
Skinner, Persis Mackinaw“ 1830-35
Smith. George Old Wing 1838-
Smith, Arvilla A. Old Wing

Specs, Francis F. Red Lake 12 years
Spooner, Abigail La Pointe

Sproat, Florantha Thompson La Pointe 1838-46
Sproat. Granville T. La Pointe 1835-46
Stevens, Rev. Jedidiah D. Stockbridge“ 1829-67
Stevens, Julia Stockbridge 1829-46
Stevens, Sabrina Maumee“ 1828-46
Tait, Rev. Sam Maumee 1822-
Taylor, Elizabeth 1828-49(?)
Town, Joseph La Pointe 1834-37
Town, Hannah Hill La Pointe 1835
Van Tassel, Rev. Isaac Maumee 1833
Van Tassel, Isaac II Maumee

Van Tassel, Lucia Maumee 1822
Warner, Huldah Mackinaw 1828-33
Wheeler, Rev. Leonard La Pointe“

Wheeler, Harriet Wood La Pointe

Woodford, Elizabeth Mackinaw* l833-34(?)
Wright, Abigail Maumee 1822
Wright, Mrs. S.G. Red Lake 5 years
Wright, Rev. Sela G. See AMA 1857-

 

*Served more than one station

88

 

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