Missionaries | Page 15 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 5, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ABCFM Early Missions

“The Board was instituted in June, 1810; and was incorporated, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, June 20, 1812. Its beginnings, as is well known, were small, and the anticipations of its supporters not remarkably sanguine:”

“but its resources and operations have regularly increased, till, in respect to the number of its patron – the amount of its funds – and the extent of its influence, it is entitled to a place among the principal benevolent institutions of the earth.”

“The American Board of Foreign Missions, however, can neither claim, nor does it desire exclusive patronage. There are other Foreign Missionary Societies, for whom there is room, for whom there is work enough, and for whose separate existence there are, doubtless, conclusive reasons.”

“Christian charity is not a blind impulse but, is characterized in Scripture, as ‘the wisdom from above’, such wis – as is in heaven, – which is ‘pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.’”

“The system of operation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions may be considered under two divisions, – its Home Department, and its Foreign Missions.”

“The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw; at the Sandwich Islands and in Western Asia.”

In 1812, the ABCFM sent its first missionaries – Adoniram and Ann Hasseltine Judson; Samuel and Roxana Peck Nott; Samuel and Harriet Atwood Newell; Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice – to British India.

When they reached Calcutta in June 1812, they and their fellow missionaries Adoniram and Ann Judson, Gordon Hall, and Samuel and Rosanna Nott, were ordered to leave by the British East India Company.

Samuel Newell sailed to Ceylon, where he spent a year preaching and investigating mission opportunities. Learning that Hall and Nott had succeeded in establishing residence in Bombay, he joined them in 1814, inaugurating the first American mission station overseas. (Boston University)

“Mission at Bombay”

“This mission became fixed in 1814. It was commenced by Messers. Hall, Newell, and Nott. Messers. Bardwell, Graves, Nichols, and Garrett, joined it at different periods since that time. … The mission has three stations – Bombay, Mahim, and Tannah.”

“The missionaries are engaged in three principal objects – the translation of the Scriptures, the superintendance of schools; and the preaching of the Gospel.”

“Mission in Ceylon”

“The mission is established in the district of Jaffna, which is in the norther extremity of the island if Ceylon, October 1816. The original missionaries were Messers. Richards, Warren, Meigs, and Poor. … The mission has five stations – Tillipally, Battcotta, Oodooville, Panditeripo and Manepy.”

“The Mission Among the Cherokees”

“On the 13th of January, 1817, Mr Kingsbury arrived at Cbickamaugah, since called Brainerd, and commenced preparations for an establishment there. ‘’The weather was extremely cold for this climate,’ says Mr K, ‘and I felt the want of comfortable lodgings, having only a skin spread upon the floor, and a thin covering of blankets; but my health was kindly preserved.’”

Messers Hall and Williams soon after joined him. Several have been united to this mission, and, for various reasons, have left, whose names do not appear in this survey. his mission has three stations, Brainerd, Creek-Path, and Taloney.”

“Mission Among the Choctaws”

The mission among the Cherokees being in successful operation, Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. Williams left Brainerd, about the first of June, 1818, for the Choctaw nation.”

“They selected a scite for their station, and about the 15th of August, felled the first tree. ‘The place was entirely new, and covered with lofty trees; but the ancient mounds, which here and there appeared, shewed, that it had been once the habitation of men.’”

“The station was named Elliot, in honor of the ‘Apostle of the American Indians.’ – The mission has now four stations, – Elliot, Mayhew, the French Camps, and the Long Prairies.”

“Mission Among the Cherokees of the Arkansaw”

“Commenced in 1820. There is only the station of Dwight – On the west side of Illinois Creek; four miles north of the Arkansaw river, 200 miles above the Arkansaw Post; and 500 miles from the junction of the Arkansaw with the Mississippi.” (Missionary Herald, January 1823)

“Mission at the Sandwich Islands”

(“One of the principal events which seems to have led to the establishment of this mission was the religious education of Henry Obookiah (‘Ōpūkaha‘ia,) a native of Owyhee, by the Rev. S. J. Mills, a zealous friend of missions. (Barber))

“Established in April, 1820. It has two stations – Hanaroorah and Wymai. Hanaroorah – On the island of Woahoo – Rev. Hiram Bingham and Rev. Asa Thurston, Missionaries; Messer, Daniel Chamberlain and Elisha Loomis, Assistant Missionaries; and Thomas Hopoo and John Honooree, Native Assistants.”

“Wymai – On the island of Atooi. Messers. Samule Whitney and Samuel Ruggles, Assistant Missionaries; and George Sandwich, Native Assistant.”

“On the 19th of November, Rev William Richards, Rev Charles S Stewart and Rev Artemis Bishop, Missionaries, Dr Abraham Blatchley, Physician; Messers Joseph Goodrich, and James Ely, Licensed Preachers and Assistant Missionaries; Mr Levi Chamberlain, Superintendant of secular concerns and Assistant Missionary; and four natives of the Sandwich Islands – embarked at New Haven, Con. To join the mission at the islands.”

“Mission to Palestine”

“The first missionaries, Messers Fisk and Parson, arrived at Smyrna in January, 1820. Rev Pliny Fisk and Dev Daniel Temple, Missionaries. … Rev William Goodell and Rev Isaac Bird, Missionaries, embarked at New York, in the early part of last month, for the mission in Western Asia.” (Missionary Herald, January 1823) (The image shows the Caravan, leaving Salem MA for India, February 19, 1812.)

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The Judsons, Newells, and Luther Rice set sail for India from Salem, MA on the Caravan-Feb 19, 1812

December 31, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Melton Mowbray

They called it Melton Mowbray (and referred to as “a favorite song of Zion;”) it is generally known as ‘Head of the Church Triumphant’.

Hiram Bingham & Asa Thurston of the Pioneer Company spontaneously broke into singing this song at:
• Ordination of Bingham and Thurston at Goshen (Sep 29, 1819);
• Receiving Instructions from the ABCFM at Park St. Church (Oct 15, 1819);
• Parting Address delivered by Asa Thurston at Park St. Church (Oct 16, 1819);
• Long Wharf, Boston Harbor on the day of their departure to Hawaiʻi (Oct 23, 1819) and
• Kawaihae, shortly after the arrival of the Pioneer Company (Apr 1, 1820)

Ordination of Bingham and Thurston at Goshen

At the ordination of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston, “A larger assembly than had ever congregated here thronged the old meeting-house. There were many outside who could find no accommodation within.”

“Nearly all the Foreign Mission School were present; as also several students from the Andover Seminary, who afterwards became missionaries. Strangers, too, from a distance were here, the honored and the excellent.”

“‘The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey, who had been a theological pupil of Mr. Hooker in this place, and was afterwards President of Amherst College, from the words: ‘And there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.’ (Joshua xiii: 1.) It was quite in advance of the general spirit and sentiment of the times.’” (Hibbard, History of Goshen)

“ Without previous intimation the two consecrated young men stepped into the broad aisle, and with clear, strong, ringing voices — Thurston, tenor; Bingham, bass; sung Melton Mowbray (‘Head of the Church Triumphant’).’”

“‘The effect was electrical. Those young missionaries were looked upon as martyrs. Some pictured them as finding their graves in the bottom of the ocean; some as meeting with death at the hands of savages; some as the welcomed heralds of glad tidings to isles waiting for God’s law, and for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Enthusiasm rose to the highest pitch. There are junctures when nothing but the voice of sacred song can either lift the soul to heights unattained before, or give utterance to its exalted emotions.’” (Hibbard, History of Goshen)

Receiving Instructions from the ABCFM at Park St. Church

“The mission received the public instructions of the Prudential Committee given by Dr. Worcester, on the evening of the 15th of Oct., at Park St. Church, when one of these pioneers preached ” on the grand design of the Bible to promote benevolent action.”

“Many churches, in different parts of the country, moved by the same spirit, engaged in special, earnest prayer for the success of this mission, and many a heart began to anticipate the happy result of the enterprise.” (Bingham)

Parting Address delivered by Asa Thurston at Park St. Church

“The next morning, Saturday, October 16, at 10 o’clock, Mr. Thurston delivered a farewell address in the same church to a large congregation of friends of missions from various parts of New England.

Kawaihae, shortly after the arrival of the Pioneer Company

When the American Protestant missionaries first arrived in the Islands, they broke into song. Hiram Bingham notes that on April 1, 1820, off Kawaihae, Kalanimōku came onboard their boat.

“The chiefs, on this occasion, were rowed off with spirit by nine or ten athletic men in each of the coupled canoes, making regular, rapid and effective strokes, all on one side for a while, then, changing at a signal in exact time, all on the other.”

“Each raising his head erect, and lifting one hand high to throw the paddle blade forward beside the canoe, the rowers, dipping their blades, and bowing simultaneously and earnestly, swept their paddles back with naked muscular arms, making the brine boil, and giving great speed to their novel and serviceable sea-craft.”

“These grandees and their ambitious rowers, gave us a pleasing indication of the physical capacity, at least, of the people whom we were desirous to enlighten, and to whose necessities we rejoiced to know the Gospel to be adapted.”

“As they disappeared, the sun sank to his western ocean bed towards populous China, and the full orbed moon, brightly reflecting his light, rose majestically from the east, over the dark Pagan mountains of Hawaii, symbolizing the approach of the mission Church, designed to be the reflector of the sun-light of Christianity upon that benighted nation.

“Then, ere the excitement of the chiefs’ visit was over, Mr. Thurston and his yoke-fellow (Hiram Bingham) ascended the shrouds, and, standing upon the main-top (the mission family, captain and crew being on deck) …”

“… as we gently floated along on the smooth silent sea, under the lee of Hawaii’s dark shores, sang a favorite song of Zion (Melton Mowbray), which they had sung at their ordination at Goshen, and with the Park St. Church choir, at Boston, on the day of embarkation.” (Bingham)

New Musical Tradition with Harmony and Choral Singing

When the missionaries first arrived at Kailua-Kona in 1820, King Kamehameha II and his entourage came aboard the Brig Thaddeus and listened to the hymns sung by the missionaries. “Happy to show civilities to this company, at our own table, we placed the king at the head of it, and implored the blessing of the King of kings, upon our food, and on the interview.”

“All assembled on the quarter-deck of the Thaddeus; and the mission family with the aid of a bass-viol, played by George P. Kaumuali‘i, and of the voices of the captain and officers, sang hymns of praise.”

“Apparently pleased with this exercise, and with their interview with the strangers, our royal visitors gave us a friendly parting aloha, and returned with favorable impressions of the singular group of newcomers, who were seeking among them an abode in their isolated territories.” (Bingham)

“Our singing, aided by the bass viol, on which G. P. Tamoree (Humehume) played, was pleasing to the natives, and will probably have a salutary influence in winning them to approve and to engage in Christian worship.” (Journal of the Mission, Missionary Herald, May, 1821)

“One of the oldest residents, Mr. H—, at the sound of the songs of Zion had the tears upon his furrowed cheek. He had heard nothing of the kind for more than twenty years. He is a native of Mass. O, that it might appear that the gospel is not sent to him and others, after this long voluntary banishment from it, in vain.” (Sybil Bingham)

It has been stated that formerly there was no word in the Hawaiian language for singing as we know it. The modern term is hīmeni an adaptation of the word hymn. The native Hawaiians first obtained an idea of real melody from the hymn singing of the missionaries. (Roberts)

The Pioneer Company of missionaries (April, 1820) introduced new musical traditions to Hawai‘i – the Western choral tradition, hymns, gospel music, and Western composition traditions.

They brought strophic hymns and psalm tunes from the late-18th century in America. The strophic form is one where different lyrics are put to the same melody in each verse. Later on, with the arrival of new missionaries, another hymn tradition was introduced was the gospel tune with verse-chorus alternation. (Smola)

Once established in the Islands, missionaries used songs as a part of the celebration, as well as learning process. “At this period, the same style of sermons, prayers, songs, interrogations, and exhortations, which proves effectual in promoting revivals of religion, conversion, or growth in grace among a plain people in the United States was undoubtedly adapted to be useful at the Sandwich Islands. … some of the people who sat in darkness were beginning to turn their eyes to the light”. (Bingham)

This is a summary; click HERE for more on Melton Mowbray.

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Bingham-Thurston

December 14, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Samuel Whitney’s Death

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of the American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i – (two Ordained Preachers, Hiram & Sybil Bingham and Asa and Lucy Thurston; two Teachers, Samuel & Mercy Whitney and Samuel & Mary Ruggles; a Doctor, Thomas & Lucia Holman; a Printer, Elisha & Maria Loomis; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain (and his family.)

On the boat was Humehume, son of Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i. On May 3, 1820, Ruggles and Whitney took Humehume home to Kauai. Whitney primarily stayed on Kauai as a missionary teacher.

Then, “(Samuel Whitney) was taken ill on the island of Kauai, on the 21st of September last (1845). His symptoms, from the first, indicated a disordered liver.”

“After trying a change of air at his summer retreat at Hanapepeluna and employing various remedies, he, with his family, sailed on the 21st of October for Honolulu, where he arrived in three days, very much exhausted by bilious vomiting and diarrhoea, which continued for several weeks to pull down his strength.”

“It then received a temporary check, and for a little while he was better; but soon a renewed attack of vomiting and diarrhoea prostrated him again. From this, however, he partially recovered, and he was induced, by an earnest invitation, to come to Maui, to try the effects of a residence at the cool and elevated retreat of Mount Ball, above Lahainaluna.”

“He and his family (wife and daughter) accordingly sailed for Maui, Dec. 1st, and in less than twenty-two hours were at anchor at Lahaina.”

“When he arrived, he was quite fatigued, and he was ever afterwards confined mostly to his bed. He now rapidly wasted away under the influence of disease, though his friends generally hoped he would soon begin to mend. He seems to have understood better than they the serious nature of his disorder.”

“Almost a week before his death, he said one morning, ‘I am sinking, and if you have anything more to do for me, you must do it during the few remaining days of this week.’”

“On Friday morning, he was distinctly informed that his physician did not think he would recover, and when Mr. Baldwin, who had watched with him the night previous, came to take his leave, he said, ‘I am sinking,’ to which Mr. B. replied, ‘Well, perhaps your work is done, the Lord only knows.’”

“In the course of the day, he sent for his domestics (a man and woman, who had lived with him nineteen years) and said to them in the Hawaiian tongue, ‘The physicians have just told me that I am about to die. Here is my dying charge to you. Take care of her (pointing to his wife); she will act as my successor; obey her as you have obeyed me.’”

“At another time, he requested his dying, affectionate farewell to be given to all his flock, among whom he had labored and over whom he had been placed as a shepherd, to feed and guide them, naming with much tenderness various individuals.”

“Being asked by his wife whether he had any message to send to his surviving brothers and sisters, and to his own dear children in America, he answered, ‘Yes,’ and lying for a few moments apparently in deep thought, he said, …”

“‘Those dear children of Mr. Chamberlain, remember me affectionately to them. I little thought, when I parted with them, that it would be the last time I should ever see them. Dear children! – how I love them!’”

“He had lodged in Mr. Chamberlain’s family, while at Honolulu, and had ever manifested a deep interest in his children. It would seem that the tender recollection of these dear little ones made him forget his own children, or perhaps he was exhausted by the effort he had made.”

“In the evening, his wife said to him, ‘I have often thought that you I would outlive me, but you are about to go first and leave me behind.’ He replied, ‘Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.’”

“She added, she thought it would not be long before she should follow him, and I hoped they should have a happy meeting in heaven.”

“Saturday night, the night previous to his death, the north-east storm, which had been blowing for several days, increased to a gale and filled the air with dense clouds of dust, which added much to his suffering. But within, all was calm and peaceful.”

“After midnight, as the storm was raging, he was told that the Sabbath had arrived. ‘Blessed Sabbath,’ he said, ‘type of the rest above! Here it is dark and stormy; how sweet the contrast there! Peace and joy are there, and no pain, and there I will soon be. Yesterday I had some clouds, but now all clouds are brushed away. All is light and peace.’”

“Towards morning, on receiving some little attention, he said, ‘How kind you all are! I am under great obligation to you all.’ To which was replied, ‘We esteem it a great privilege to take care of you, on your way to your Father’s house,’ when he said with much energy, ‘Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits.’”

“After getting relief from a severe fit of vomiting, he said, ‘It is hard work to die. This close union of soul and body, which has so long existed, is hard to dissolve.’”

“He bid farewell to his native man, enjoining upon him to prepare to meet him in heaven, saying he wished all his domestics and all the people of his charge to meet him there, that he was going soon, and it had been his desire all night to depart and be with Christ.”

“When his physician, who had attended him with tender solicitude, went to bid him farewell, he grasped his hand and said, ‘Doctor, Jesus Christ is the star of the universe; He is my hope, my life, my all.”

“Thirty-six years ago I set my affections on Him, and nothing has ever made me I swerve. Nothing can separate me from Him. The devil has tried to baffle me, but Jesus Christ is near to help me, Jesus Christ is here.’”

“About an hour before his death, his wife went to his bedside, but as his sight seemed to have failed, he did not at first notice her; but when told who she was, he raised his arms, and clasped them around her neck, and pressed her to his bosom.”

“Our departed friend and brother was blessed with a robust constitution and generally enjoyed good health, which enabled him so constantly to perform the great amount of labor which he kept up during more than a quarter of a century.”

“He also possessed a strong intellect, a well-balanced mind, and a sound judgment, united with firmness of purpose. He never engaged in visionary schemes; his projects were generally wise and well-digested, and with steadiness of purpose carried into execution.”

“He had a warm heart. His friendship was ardent. He was a whole soul man. In whatever he engaged, all his energies were summoned. What his hands found to do, he did with all his might. No trait in his character was more prominent than that of enlarged benevolence – a benevolence bounded only by his ability to confer happiness.”

“It was this that prompted him to abandon friends and country, and all the blessings of Christian society, and cast in his lot with a little band, who purposed to carry the Gospel of Jesus to the darkened savages of Hawaii. It was this which led him so often to strip himself of comforts and bestow them on his friends whom he thought more needy than himself.”

“Few have become acquainted with him, who have not received substantial tokens of his kindness and friendship. Most of the permanent houses of public worship on the islands contain a deposit from his benevolence. Few have been found more ready than he, to deny themselves, in order to do good to others.”

“He embarked in the missionary work as a work of self-denial, and cheerfully adopted the resolution that he would engage in no business for the purpose of private gain.”

“His whole life was an illustration of this resolution, and on his dying bed he charged his wife, saying, ‘You will remember, we own nothing at Waimea. The house, herd, &c., are, all, the property of the American Board.’”

“Confidence in God sustained him amid all the trials through which he passed. He was calm and unmoved, however dark the clouds that overhung the horizon. This confidence was the legitimate fruit of walking with God.”

“He told his daughter, on his dying bed, that from the time that he first covenanted to be the Lord’s, he had never, for a single day, I neglected prayer. That God whom he had honored in secret, rewarded him openly, and took him up from us in triumph to His rest above.” (Alexander; The Friend, January 15, 1846)

Samuel Whitney died in Lahaina on December 15, 1845; he was buried in the Lahainaluna School cemetery.

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Samuel_Whitney,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

December 12, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Church Buildings

“In an old journal of the writer’s father, the Rev. A. Bishop, then missionary at Kailua, is the following: ‘January 18, 1826 – Gov. Adams (Kuakini) and all the other chiefs, together with all the men of the place, left here this morning’ for Keauhou, to cut wood for a new church.’”

“This well illustrates the immense labor and activity with which the chiefs and people zealously united in church-building. The writer, then a child, well remembers in the thirties that immense thatched structure, with its lofty posts and huge rafters.”

“These were all cut by the Governor and his people in the great inland forest, probably six miles from the sea, to which the timbers were hauled by men.”

“That church was probably 100 feet by 50, holding 1,000 people. It was burned in 1835, and replaced the next year by a stone structure still standing.”

“That also was built by the chiefs and people. Men dived for bunch coral to burn for lime with ohia logs carried on their shoulders from the mountain.”

“When we removed in 1836 to Ewa, the adobe walls of a large church were already partly erected by the people under the direction of their chiefs and of Rev. Lowell Smith, our predecessor.”

“Rev. A. Bishop continued the work, and frequently went up several miles into the mountains with the native gangs after roofing timbers, which were hauled to the hilltop with great shoutings. That old church stood until about twenty years ago, when it was replaced by the present wooden edifice and steeple.”

“In 1837, Rev. Lowell Smith induced the building of the old Kaumakapili church with adobe walls and a steep thatched roof, with overhanging lanai, very similar to the old Ewa church. The walls of both churches were well plastered, inside and out.”

“A fine brick church with two steeples, some fifteen or twenty years ago, replaced the old adobes of Kaumakapili. (Adobes are large brick of dried mud and straw.)”

“The great Kawaiahaʻo stone church, still in use after much renovation, was a labor of pride and love by King Kauikeaouli and his royal chiefs, who felt an ownership in it. The corner-stone was laid in 1839. It was dedicated two or three years later.”

The earliest stone church in the Islands was the Waine‘e structure at Lahaina, built by Gov. Hoapili, advised by Rev. Wm. Richards, in 1833.”

“Many other stone churches were erected by chiefs and people during the succeeding fifteen years, at all of the mission stations, replacing the decayed thatched structures. Many of these are still in use.”

“In the work of church-building, the chiefs led the way, both by use of authority and by contributions of money. But the common people eagerly co-operated, both with money, materials and labor.”

“They felt a peculiar pride in creating a fine meeting-house. It has always been easy to raise contributions for church-building, when for nothing else.”

“From 1850 on, the plain square white houses of worship became conspicuous in the larger country villages, long before any dwellings of civilized form were visible.”

“Steeples were not common during the first forty years of the Mission. Lahaina, Kawaiahaʻo, and Kailua stone churches were perhaps the only ones with tower or steeple.”

“Bells began to be procured in the early thirties, and were objects of great ambition to the people. Before they came, the sonorous note of the great conch shell resounded over the hills, calling the people to worship.” (All here is from Sereno Bishop; The Friend)

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First Kawaiahao Church Building-TheFriend-Oct 1925

Mission_House and First_Christian_Church-Honolulu-1822

Fourth_Kawaiahao_Church-1840

Fourth_Kawaiahao_Church-1832

Kinau_returning_from_church_1837

Kawaiahao_Church_illustration,_c._1870s

Kaumakapili-1stChurch-(TheFriend)

Wainee_Church-1840

Mokuaikaua_Church,_ca._1890

November 29, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cherokee Mission

The first of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) on the continent was to the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians of the southeast.

“Other Indian missions were begun shortly after this; in fact the next two decades saw the most widespread efforts of the Board upon the American continent. Many of these missions to Indian tribes were short lived and not very productive but there are three which stand out as of special interest: the mission to the Cherokees. the Oregon mission and the mission to the Dakotas.”

“Only one of these is still continuing, the Dakota work which has been carried on by the American Missionary Association since 1883. The Oregon mission was ended by massacre in 1847 and the general break-up which followed the massacre.”

“The Cherokee enterprise was the scene of some of the most stirring events in the history of our country and also of some of the most tragic and shameful actions. When the tribe was deported to the west in 1838 the mission continued but the great promise of earlier days was never fulfilled and the tribe ceased to be the significant nation that it once had been.”

“When Cyrus Kingsbury went to the land of the Cherokees in 1817 the tribe had already had a long and discouraging experience with the white man.”

“Their land had been taken from them piece by piece, treaties had been repeatedly broken – and that was to continue – and they had been in one way or another involved and had suffered in the wars between the French and the English and between the British and the Americans.”

“The Cherokee nation at that time was located mainly in the western and northwestern part of Georgia, in southern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. The pressure of white settlers was increasing yearly especially upon the part of the nation located in the state of Georgia.”

“But if relations with white settlers and governments had been adverse to the Indians there were already established missions, especially that of the Moravians, which gave support and encouragement to Kingsbury and those who soon followed him.”

“Their first station was located on Chickamauga Creek not far from the present city of Chattanooga and was named the Brainerd Mission after the early evangelist to Indians in the north. This became the center of a work that extends into Georgia and Alabama and other stations in Tennessee.”

“Cyrus Kingsbury went through Washington on his way to Tennessee and secured approval for the opening of a mission. President Monroe himself was interested in it.”

“Later after a surprise visit to the Brainerd station he declared himself to be more than satisfied with its program and promised to have means supplied for the building of a substantial frame house to take the place of the log structure then in use, a promise that was fulfilled.”

“Robert Sparks Walker declares that ‘the Brainerd Mission has the distinction of being the first school in North America to give instruction in systematic and scientific agriculture, also trades, domestic science and domestic arts.’ This educational program lay at the root of the ‘civilizing’ the mission felt that it must do.”

“Among tribes that never settled down to a life of work and discipline such as is involved in farming and the trades little progress has ever been made in the teaching which is necessary to the introduction of an ordered Christian life.”

“(T)he Brainerd mission was at once a school, a farm and a place of apprenticeship to such necessary trades as carpentry and blacksmithing. The long day of the Indian students was divided between study and work. … Both boys and girls, in separate schools, made up the industrious community.”

“Some of the test friends and helpers of the mission program were half breeds. One of these, Charles R. Hicks, was a chief of the Cherokees and a Christian.”

“Every one who reported on the progress of his people has called him the best friend of the mission and the most helpful in all dealings with the Indians. Elias Boudinot probably had some white blood in his veins. He studied in the mission school at Cornwall, Connecticut, married a daughter of one of the best families of that town and returned to be a leader of his people.”

“It is of interest to note that the school at Cornwall came into existence largely because of the plea that the Hawaiian, Obookiah, made for an education. Its function was to train both American students and young men from mission fields for the work of the mission.”

“It was closed in 1827 and at least one reason for its abandonment was the Opposition created in the town by the marriage of Cornwall girls of good family to Indian students. One of these students was Elias Boudinot; the other was John Ridge. Despite the opposition of the people of Cornwall both these marriages were successful.”

“The most noted Cherokee, however, was Sequoia, or George Guess as he was known among white people. Sequoia could neither read nor speak English. He was greatly distressed that his own language had no written form.”

“So he proceeded to create an alphabet of eighty-six characters which represented the language phonetically so well that it was soon adopted in preference to one upon which missionaries were at work. This became and remains the medium of all written or printed Cherokee. The Bible, of course, was translated into the language with the use of Sequoia’s alphabet.”

“The achievement of Sequoia’s deserves at least to be compared to the Laubach invention. To honor this Cherokee Indian, Stephen I. Endlicher in 1847, gave the name of Sequoia to the big trees in California.”

“The mission inevitably suffered from the encroachment of the citizens and the state of Georgia upon the lands of the Cherokee nation and their eventual deportation west of the Mississippi.”

“A law was passed by the Georgia Legislature requiring an oath of allegiance to the state by anyone who wanted to live within its boundaries and declaring null and void all laws and customs of the Cherokees.”

“As a result of refusal to take the oath several of the missionaries were arrested and Dr. Samuel A. Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler were sentenced and kept in prison for more than a year.”

“Meantime, the lands of the Cherokees within the state of Georgia were divided up and opened to white settlers and the properties of the missionaries and mission were taken over by them.”

“The end of the mission in Tennessee and Georgia, however, was in sight. In final violation of the rights of the Cherokees as often affirmed in treaties, the whole tribe was transported to the Indian territory.”

“Some had gone west many years before and a mission was begun there in 1821. But the tribe disintegrated and the mission was closed in 1860. A mission to the Choctaws was also discontinued at about the same time.” (All from Hugh Vernon White, Secretary, The Congregational Church)

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