Stockbridge Indians
Mormon use of the “Lost Book” Legend
Consider the following quotation from the post-1839 editions of Mormon Elder Parley P. Pratt’s classic work, A Voice of Warning:
http://solomonspalding.com/SRP/saga2/sagawt0c.htm
There is a tradition related by an aged Indian, of the Stockbridge tribe, that their fathers were once in possession of a “Sacred Book,” which was handed down from generation to generation; and at last hid in the earth, since which time they had been under the feet of their enemies. But these oracles were to be restored to them again; and then they would triumph over their enemies, and regain their rights and privileges.
JOURNAL OF HISTORY
APRIL, 1909 Published by Reorganized Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man, and all this for the salvation of Zion.”
EDITORS
Historian Heman C. Smith, Frederick M. Smith of the First Presidency, and Assistant Historian D. F. Lambert.
CONTENTS
Stockbridge Indians—Autobiography of Charles Derry—Brief Glimpses Into a Century of the Past—Settlement at Mount Pisgah—Local Historians and Their Work—Biographical Sketch of the Life of Elder Thomas Dobson— George Miller — Anglo-Jewish Association — Church Chronology—Contributors
PUBLISHED BY BOARD OF PUBLICATION
OF THE
Reorganized Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints
Lamoni, Iowa
JOURNAL OF HISTORY
Published Quarterly.
January, April, July, and October.
Subscriptions should be sent to Herald Publishing House, Lamoni, Iowa, and matter intended for publication to Heman C. Smith, Lamoni, Iowa.STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS.
In 1837, Elder Parley P. Pratt, one of the early defenders of the church, wrote a work entitled, “A Voice of Warning,” which has been published in many different editions in Europe and America. In the edition of 1885, published at Lamoni, Iowa, page 82, there is a quotation from Mr. Boudinot, which reads as follows:
Mr. Boudinot in his able work, remarks concerning their language: “Their language in its roots, idiom, and particular construction, appears to have the whole genius of the Hebrew; and what is very remarkable, and well worthy of serious attention, has most of the peculiarities of the language, especially those in which it differs from most other languages. There is a tradition related by an aged Indian of the Stockbridge Tribe, that their fathers were once in possession of a ‘Sacred Book’ which was handed down from generation to generation, and at last hid in the earth, since which time they have been under the feet of their enemies. But those oracles were to be restored to them again, and then they would triumph over their enemies and regain their. ancient country, together with their rights and privileges.”
Some criticism was made upon this passage in 1894 by some of the elders of the church, in which two points supposed to be errors were raised. First, that such a quotation was not found in Mr. Boudinot’s Star of the West, the book supposed to have been referred to by Elder Pratt; and second, that there was no such tribe of Indians as the Stockbridge Tribe.
The error in the first case seems to be in the publication of 1885 edition, and may appear also in other editions. We have before us an edition of 1841, published in England, in which the passage reads (pages 171, 172) as follows:
Mr. Boudinot, in his able work, remarks concerning their language: “Their language in its roots, idiom, and particular construction, appears to have the whole genius of the Hebrew, and what is very remarkable, and well worthy of serious attention, has most of the peculiarities of that language; especially those in which it differs from most other languages.” There is a tradition related by an aged Indian, of the Stockbridge tribe, that their fathers were once in possession of a “Sacred Book,” which was handed down from generation to generation; and at last hid in the Earth, since which time they had been under the feet of their enemies. But these Oracles were to be restored to them again; and then they would triumph over their enemies, and regain their rights and privileges.
Observe the quotation marks, and it will be readily seen that Elder Pratt dpes not quote all this from Mr. Boudinot, but the quotation ends with the word languages. And the statement regarding the Indian of the Stockbridge Tribe is the statement of Elder Pratt himself. That disposes of the first objection.
In regard to the second, we have satisfactory evidence that there was such a tribe as the Stockbridge Tribe, located in an early time in Massachusetts, removed from there to New York, and subsequently a portion of them went to Indiana, thence to Wisconsin, and there the remainder of the tribe left in New York united with them, and they were located at two different points in Wisconsin, as the following extracts will show.
In the year 1900, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin issued a book under the title of, Early Presbyterianism in Wisconsin, containing a sketch of Cutting Marsh, by John E. Chapin, D. D., also containing documents relating to the Stockbridge Mission. In this sketch of Cutting Marsh, the author introduces his subject as follows:
On the first day of May, 1830, the Reverend Cutting Marsh, a young man lately graduated from the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, landed at Green Bay, then in the Territory of Michigan. His destination was Statesburg, twenty miles up the Fox River from Green Bay, and in near vicinity of what is now South Kaukauna. Here was the Grand Kakalin (Big Rapids), the Indian name from which Kaukauna is derived. Here were situated the Stockbridge Indians, a tribe among whom the Brainerds and Jonathan Edwards had labored in Massachusetts before the War of the Revolution. The Stockbridges were transferred from Massachusetts to the state of New York, and lived in Onondaga County until 1821, when they were removed to this point on the Fox River. A church had been organized among them in 1818, and in
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1825 we find the Reverend Jesse Miner establishing a home among them as their pastor, under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. He had come on first without his family, had labored very successfully, and then returned East, and brought his tamily into the wilderness; but just as he was completing a house and barn for them, he died, November1 22, 1829. His grave is still to be seen on the high-bank of the river above Kaukauna.
It was to supply this vacancy that young Marsh came to Green Bay in 1830, both as minister and physician. We see from Marsh’s diary and correspondence at this time, that he was the product of the sober, thrifty, self-reliant, and stalwart life of New England; the son of a pious home, and the pupil of that truly high education which leads a man to covet usefulness rather than treasure, and to rejoice in sacrifice rather than in ease.
On reaching the field he found a settlement on the southeast side of the Fox River, and stretching along its banks some four or five miles, and from a mile and a half to two miles back from the stream. The Stockbridges had opened farms, lived in log cabins, raised corn and wheat, and owned live stock. They had a church building and a schoolhouse. But there were only two white people in all the region, except at Green Bay, where were a garrison of United States troops and a few settlers, mostly French-Canadians. The whole number of the Stockbridge Indian settlement at and near Kaukauna was 225 souls, with 39 church members.
Mr. W. W. Wight, then secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, now its president, adds the following foot-note on the history of Mr. Cutting Marsh. In both the body of the work, and in this foot-note, the Stockbridge Indians are frequently mentioned; they are also said to have been a tribe of Indians before the war of the Revolution:
Cutting Marsh, son of Samuel White and Sally (Brown) Marsh, was born in Danville, Vermont, July 20, 1800. His given name was derived from his paternal grandfather’s maternal grandfather, Cutting Moody. The early years of our subject were passed upon his father’s farm. From 1819 until 1822 he spent in preparation for college at Phillip’s Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1826 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1829. On April 22, 1829, he was licensed to preach by the Andover Association of Congregational ministers; and on September 24, 1829, was ordained as a foreign mission
‘Cutting Marsh, in his annual report for 1831, says that the Reverend Jesse Miner died March 22, 1829. See page 48. H. C. S.
ary at Park Street Church in Boston. In October, 1830,1 he departed for his field of labor among the Stockbridge Indians of the Northwest, as a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Reaching Detroit on his way to Green Bay November 1, 1830, [1829,] he found that the last boat for the season had been gone for two months. Accordingly he went to Maumee, Ohio, where there was a mission among the Ottawas. There he spent the winter. In the ensuing spring he started for Green Bay, which point he reached Friday, April 30, 1830. Upon the very next day (Saturday) he traveled by boat up the Fox River to the station of the Stockbridges at the Grand Kakalin, then called also Statesburg and now known as South Kaukauna. Although he reached his destination late at night and very weary, he preached the next day (Sunday, May 2, 1830,) his first sermon to his new charge.
The mission house of the Stockbridges which became his residence, “was in those days almost the only house of entertainment between Green Bay and Fond du Lac.”—Wis. Hist. Colls., 12, p. 189, note.
When, in consequence of the treaty of the United States with the Menominee Nation of October 27, 1832 (7 U. S. Statutes at Large, 405), and of the acceptance of the new cession, proposed by said treaty, by the Stockbridges and other New York Indians (ibid., 409), the Stockbridges removed to their new lands, Marsh accompanied his people. His new home was therefore at Stockbridge, in what is now Calumet County, east of Lake Winnebago. At the time of this removal, and down to 1840, there were but three whites residing within the present Calumet County, of whom Marsh was one. The period of the removal of the Stockbridges from Statesbury to their new home, which they named Stockbridge, is not exactly given. Doubtless it was in the early spring of 1834. Certainly the removal was practically complete early in June of that year. On June 12, 1834, Marsh and his five Stockbridges started on their missionary visit to the trans-Mississippi Foxes and Sioux, the report of which is contained in the letter edited in the present volume, poet.
On November 2, 1837, Marsh married at Stockbridge, Eunice Osmer of Buffalo, New York, born in 1798 at Whitestown, New York. She had taught among the Ojibways at Fort Gratiot from 1821 to 1824; and from 1824 until about the time of her marriage, as a teacher in a mission school at Mackinac. A daughter of this marriage, Sarah E. Marsh, resides (1900) in Chicago.
Marsh’s labors for the Stockbridges continued until the American Board discontinued its work among them in 1848—he preached his final sermon under the Board, at De Pere, October 29, 1848. Marsh reported frequently of his work and of the condition and characteristics of his
3If he arrived at his destination in 1830, as both Mr. Chapin and Mr. Wight assert, he must have started in 1829. H. C. S.
Indian charge to the American Board and also to the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, of Edinburgh, Scotland, which latter Society also gave aid to the Stockbridge mission.
From 1848 for about three years, Marsh was a home missionary in Northern Wisconsin, with Green Bay as his home. In 1851 he removed to Waupaca, situated on an Indian reservation, the land of which had just been opened for settlement. The country was new and for several years he had appointments for preaching at different places every Sunday, some of them being twenty miles from his home. He died at Waupaca, July 4, 1873. His wife, who had been his wise and faithful helper, died December 27, 1855. A cut of this self-denying and devoted preacher faces p. 116 of Davidson’s In Unnamed Wisconsin.—W. W. Wight.
In the documents relating to the Stockbridge Mission, pages
39 and 40, we find the following agreement:
GRANT OF STATESBURG MISSION SITE.
This agreement made the 6th day of April 1825 between the Chiefs & Peacemakers of the Stockbridge Tribe of Indians in behalf of their nation of the first part and Reverend Jesse Miner Missionary to said Tribe of Indians of the second part witnesseth That the said Parties of the first Part for the consideration herein after mentioned do agree to convey & confirm to the said Jesse Miner and hereby do convey & confirm to him all right and title to the Mission House & Barn and the other improvements on the piece of Land attached to them agreeably to a Deed given by Elijah Pye to our former Missionary Reverend John Sargeant. and the said party of the second part doth hereby agree & bind himself to & with the said parties of the first part that when the said piece of Land shall be sold to the State, on condition the said House Barn & other improvements, on their appraisal, shall be accredited to the said party of the second part, he will then pay to the said parties of the first Part or their Agent within one year the sum of money at which said House Barn *& other improvements shall have been appraised.
And the said parties of the first part further agree to grant to the said party of the second part so far as in their power peaceable possession of said piece of Land & the improvements untill said Land shall be sold to the state
In testimony whereof the parties to these presents have hereunto interchangeably set their hands & seals the day & year above written. Signed sealed & delivered in presents of
Hendrick Aupaumut. Thomas T. Hendrick John Metoxen.
his John W. Quinney.
Jacob X Aaron Solomon U. Hendrick.
mark Jesse Miner.
A foot-note to this document, by the editor, gives a sketch of each of the signers in behalf of the Indians, which reads as follows:
Captain Hendrik (Aupaumut) was a soldier in the American army, in the War of the Revolution, and is said to have received a captain’s commission from the hands of Washington. In 1792, when the Stockbridges visited President Washington, Secretary-of-war Henry Knox commissioned him to undertake a mission to the Western tribes. His great influence with these tribes was thrown against Tecumseh, and he actively assisted Major General William Henry Harrison in the campaign which ended in Tecumseh’s defeat. He is said to have favored the plan in 1808-10, for forming settlements of all the Eastern Indians, in the White River country in Indiana, where, by 1818, there had been gathered about 800 of the Stockbridges. From here they were invited by the Outagamies to settle in the valley of the Fox, in Wisconsin. Later, they joined forces with the Munsees, Brothertowns, and Oneidas; and August 8, 1821, signed a treaty which entitled them to a strip of land about five miles wide, at Little Kaukauna. Hendrick Aupaumut’s remains were buried at Kaukauna.
John Metoxen was the head chief of the Stockbridge Christian party which left White River, Indiana, in the late summer or autumn of 1822, to take up their new lands in Wisconsin. It was the following year before the Stockbridges who had been left in New York, reached Wisconsin. Metoxen, who had been educated in the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was an orator of rare power, and frequently preached to his people. He died April 8, 1858, aged 87 years, and lies buried in the old Indian cemetery at Stockbridge. See Biographical sketch in Wis. Hist. Colls., 4, pp. 303-305.
Quinney was born in 1797, and received an English education at a high school in Yorktown, New York. Attaining the chieftancy of the Stockbridges in Wisconsin, he was largely employed by his people, during thirty years, in the negotiation of treaties with the government of the United States. He died at Stockbridge July 21, 1855. See biographical sketches in Wis. Hist. Colls., 4, pp. 305-311; also Quinney’s speech and memorial, ibid., pp. 313-333.
The son of Hendrik Aupaumut, [Solomon U. Hendrik,] and himself a chief of the Stockbridges. He was one of the negotiators of the treaty of 1821, which secured the Wisconsin lands for his tribe.—En.
In a foot-note on page 53, the editor says, “David Brainerd was a celebrated missionary among the Stockbridges, in Massachusetts. He commenced his work in 1743.” This gives an early date to the existence of the Stockbridges.
In Marsh’s report to the Scottish Society, in 1831, page 58, Marsh says: About one hundred of the Oneida tribe which left the state of New York last summer have joined the Stockbridge Indians, settled down upon the Fox River, two or three miles above them, built convenient houses and some of them have begun to clear up farms in a business-like manner.
In Marsh’s report to the same society for 1832, in speaking
of the Sacs, he gives the following:
They were at peace with the Stockbridge tribe, but their object was to destroy white people & the Menominies with whom they were at Mar, and many of them resided in the vicinity of Green Bay. After I lay down upon my pillow with the impression upon my mind, that it was possible before the morn[ing] light I might be aroused by the war whoop, & rise to seek safety by flight or else fall into their barbarous hands a prey; such feelings were indescribably painful: but then I sought support & relief & trust that I found it in his precious promise who said “Lo I am with you always even to the end of the world.” And the Lord remembered us in great mercy & blessed be his holy name forever, for the enemy were not permitted to come against us or even “shoot an arrow here.”
Since then those Sacs have been mostly slain by the Am[erican] force & other friendly Indians.
It is now quite probable that the Stockbridge Indians will remove in the course of two years to a place about 15 miles distant on the E. side of Winnebago Lake (a small L[ake] in t[he] Fox river about 40 miles from its mouth). An arrangement has been made betwixt them & the U. S. in wh[ich] they together with two other tribes are to recejve 3 Townships of land on that side of the Lake, and pay for all their improvements on their present location. As this arrangement is connected with another in wh[ich] a reservation is to be set off on the W. side of Fox r[iver] for other N. Y. Tribes, and has not as yet been assented to by the Menominies it is possible they will refuse consent. Provided they should accede to the proposed arrangement betwixt the U. S. & the N. Y. Indians, then the Township will be confirmed to the Stockbridges & other tribes by an act of the Senate and Pres. of the U. S. I have lately explored this tract of land and find the soil of a quality far superior to their present location, generally well watered with excellent streams of pure water, & some of them large enough for mills, well timbered and suited to purposes of agriculture. In addition to this they will be farther removed from the means of intoxication. I have little doubt but the removal will eventually improve their condition altho for a few years they will have to struggle hard to get along.—Pages 71, 72.
In Marsh’s report for 1834, he speaks of the Stockbridge
Indians as follows:
I believe that I have in former communications mentioned that the Stockbridge Indians were expecting to remove from the lands they now occupy to another place 15 or 18 miles distant on the East side of Lake Winnebago a small Lake in Fox river about 40 miles from its mouth. They have made an amicable & satisfactory arrangement with the govt of the U. S. in which they agree to relinquish two Townships and pay for all of their improvements not to exceed a sum of 25 thousand dolls. Notwithstanding the terms on the part of the Indians are quite advantageous, and they receive improvements, still the effects and consequences of removal will be very disastrous, and will be felt for years, besides the operations of the mission, giving religious instruction—of the school &c are and will be very much interrupted.—Page 94.
It will be seen by the foot-note by W. W. Wight, quoted above, that Cutting Marsh in 1834 started on a mission to the Foxes and the Sioux, and that there were five Stockbridge Indians accompanying him. These Indians doubtless had become Christians, and were doing missionary work among other tribes in connection with Mr. Marsh. As indicated by Mr. Wight, the account of this expedition is published in the same book, commencing at page 104. Mr. Wight in another foot-note on this page says the original of this letter is still preserved in the record room of the American Board in Boston. Mr. Cutting Marsh commences this report of the expedition, as follows:
Stockbridge, Mar. 25th, 1835. To Rev. David Greene, Missionary Rooms, Boston, Mass.
Dear Sir—I feel it a duty to make some apology for so long a delay in communicating to the Board the result of my tour last summer with the Stockbridge Indians. But my peculiar situation, building, removing to the New Settlement, visiting the sick, together with the duties connected with my calling &c. must be my apology.
The following extracts from this report will be interesting,
not only regarding the subject of the Stockbridge Indians, but
also the traditions which were found among other Indians
visited by these missionaries:
When we arrived at Rock I. we heard that the Sacs &c. were just setting out to make their summer-hunt, a part having already gone and that Ke-o-kuck would doubtless be before we could reach his village. After some consultation amongst themselves the Stockbridges concluded to remain until the Sacs returned which would be about 40 days. I then took a steamboat and went down the river to the Lower Yellow Banks to overtake Dr. W. having one of them in company but he returned in two or three days to Rock I.
After a few days the Stockbridges met with the Stabber who is considered by the Sacs as head chief but not by the white people. Fearing that it would be sickly when the hot weather came on they began to wish to return and they proposed to the Stabber to make the intended visit to his people &c. At first he objected as his people were out hunting and besides they had not provisions, he said, to receive them; at length however he consented after they told him that they had provisions of their own. Accordingly they went and staid there about five days but having no interpreter could converse but little with each other and so the Sacs understood but little the object of their visit. Still I had reason to believe from what I afterwards ascertained, that a favorable impression was made upon their minds by the visit. After this the Stockbridges set their faces towards home and it was not until some weeks after they had left that I heard of it. I had gone down the river to visit one of the most remote bands upon the river Des Moines, intending to return and accompany them when they went to meet them in council &c.
The deportment of the Stockbridge delegation during the whole tour was such as to do honor to themselves and the cause of missions. Many white people where we went had never seen a civilized or Christian Indian before, and the Stockbridges were almost as much a curiosity to them as Indians would be in many parts of the N[ew] E[ngland]. —Pages 113, 114.
- Ke-o-kuck’s,8 the principal village of the Sacs is situated upon the S. S. Eastern bank of the Lower Iowa river about 12 miles from its mouth where it empties into the Mississippi. It contains between 40 & 50 lodges, some however are 40 or 50 feet in length, constructed of bark and in the form of houses. As it respects the exact number in each village it is extremely difficult to find out, as no census is taken by themselves, they are constantly coming and going and the chiefs often do not know their number provided they were disposed to tell. This was the case with Ke-o-lcuck’s village. There were probably as many as four or five hundred souls in it.
This village is situated at the northern extremity of a vast and delightful Prairie, extending for many miles south and west. From the appearance of the grass and soil it seemed as though it would abundantly reward the labors of the husbandman, having an easy and natural communication with the Mississippi where a ready and excellent market would be found for every kind of produce; but now this luxuriant soil affords only a scanty subsistence for a part of the year, for a single band of Indians.
- Doubtless the Keokuk of history for whom “The Gate City” of Iowa was named. H. C. S.
It was towards eve. of the 29th of August when I visited this village. As I approached from the west having the prairie on the right and the river on the left, the sun was now going down and shed a mellow brightness over the landscape whilst all nature seemed to smile around and speak in silent accents of the goodness and wisdom of God. The natural scenery so pleasant and cheering served only to make the contrast still more striking and painful to- think that none but pagan eyes and pagan feet roved over these beautiful plains. Upon entering the village which is formed without any regard to order or taste my attention was particularly attracted by Black Hawk’s lodge at the upper end of it. This was enclosed by a neat fence made of poles embracing an area of four or five rods square in a circular form. A little gate led into it, and all around the inside melon vines had been planted and cultivated in the nicest manner. Between these and the lodge which was also constructed in a circular form and of peeled bark there was an aisle in which a weed was not to be seen. As I entered the lodge I was received very politely by the children of Black Hawk, himself and wife being absent at the time, and such a specimen of neatness and good order I never before witnessed in any Indian’s lodge. Although made of bark it was perfectly tight excepting a small hole at the top for the smoke to pass out at. As there was no floor a layer of clay had been spread over and trodden down which was almost as hard, and at the sides places were built up about three feet from the ground all around, and mats spread over upon which they usually sat and slept. It was also furnished with some dining-chairs, a thing which I saw at none of the other lodges in the nation.
Although Black Hawk has been imprudent and acted rashly in times past, still he had just cause as I conceive for dissatisfaction and complaint which led to those hostile movements. He has been degraded and is not permitted to hold any office amongst his people, yet he has a very respectable band who follow him and are much attached to him, and it is questionable whether even at the present time he is not quite as much respected as the haughty and high-minded Ke-o-kuck who now holds the reins of government in his own hands.
Winding my way to Ke-o-kuck’s lodge which was about 50 feet long, I found him sitting with prince-like dignity in one corner of it surrounded by his young men and wives, which were no less than five. He appeared very distant and not at all disposed to converse, but treated me with politeness and hospitality, and ordered his young men to put out the horses and supper to be prepared. I found him entirely unwilling to Jisten to any suggestions whatever respecting the object of my visit as was also the other chief, Pah-chip-pe-ho or the Stabber. There was the same unwillingness to hear anything respecting the subject of religion, and all made light of it when mentioned in the presence of the latter chief. But I was not at all at a loss to account for such a state of feeling.
- Wah-pel-loV village, the head chief of the Foxes is also situated upon the Lower Iowa and about 10 miles above Ke-o-kuck’s. This is considered to contain about 30 lodges. As only a part of his band resided at the village at the time, most of them being at their cornfields I did not go to them as Wah-pel-lo himself was absent and I had seen him before. He is himself a notorious drunkard and his influence is not great over his band. In respect to intoxication his band follow the example of their chief.
DREADFUL EFFECTS OF JEALOUSY.
At this village I learned that a man in cool blood murdered his wife a few days before and then cut off her nose and ears. The Indians are exceedingly prone to be jealous of their wives, and if at such times an Indian cuts off the nose or ears of his wife as is sometimes the case, no notice is taken of it; for they have no laws for the punishment of any crime, and even murder may be expiated by money or presents to the friends, which seems with them to answer all things. - Pow-we-sheak’s! village is situated upon the Red Cedar, a branch of the Iowa, and about ten miles from its mouth. Pow-we-sheak is second chief among the Foxes. This village contains about 40 lodges and 4 hundred souls as P. informed me. There are more in it than in Wah-pel-lo’s. It is not more than 12 or 15 miles west of the Mississippi, consequently upon the U. S. land. It will doubtless be removed in the course of one or two years further up the river and upon their own land. The Red Cedar is a very beautiful and rapid stream of 25 or 30 rods in width and the soil where they raised their corn of an excellent quality. With comparatively little labor they might raise corn and vegetables in great abundance but alas they are indisposed as a general thing to alter their mode of life.
INTERVIEW WITH POW-WE-SHEAK. When I arrived I found him and his people preparing for a sacred feast at his lodge which was about 30 feet long. He sent one of his young men to inform me that I could stay at his lodge if I wished; and assigned me a place in it according to Indian custom. After the feast was over which together with the usual ceremonies lasted between two and three hours I sought an interview with him. P. is about 40 years of age, thin and savage in his appearance and very much debased as well as all his band. Still he was much more willing to converse than either of the chiefs before mentioned. I inquired first about the instruction of his young men. He replied that he should like to have two or three educated for interpreters, &c, but he did not want schools
‘This was no doubt the chief for whom the County of Wapello, Iowa, was named. H. C. S.
5 Poweshiek County, Iowa, was probably named for this chief. H. C. S. for he wished to have his young men warriors and they did not like to be confined in a house. I inquired if he should not like to have his men make farms &c. He answered they could work the ground with the hoe and did not want a plough; and besides they did not wish to raise more corn than they wanted, but chose rather to hunt for a living than cultivate the ground. In a few years said I, there will be no game, by the time your little children grow up. Ans.—We shall all be dead before that time. But this will not oe the case if you change your mode of life. Ans.—But our way is best. The Great Spirit has made us to fight and kill one another whenever we are a mind to. I replied, this is not pleasing to him, but to live in peace. P.—If we should now change our life it would displease the Great Spirit and we should all be sick and die off. Ans.—If so how does it happen that those nations of Indians who change in this manner as I have proposed live longer, and besides the Great Spirit gives them a great deal more than they had before and they do not have to go hungry &c? Evasion.—P.— Two made the earth and all the people, viz.—We-sa-kah and the Great Spirit, and the latter made the red man different from the white man. Ans.—But how different? The red man has a body and soul as well as the white,—he eats, sleeps and wears clothes just as the white man does and how is he different? Evasion.—P.—After a person dies we carry victuals to the grave for him to eat. Ans.—At death the body turns to corruption, and the soul being a spirit can not eat. No reply. P.—The Great Spirit has given us our Me-shaum. How do you know this? Ans.—It is made known to us by dreams when we fast. But can not the bad spirit speak in this way as well as the Good? Ans.— But we know when the good and when the bad spirit speaks. A great while ago, says he, all of the nations leagued against us and we were almost all cut off, only a few lodges remained (referring to the wars they had when in the region of Green Bay) and our Meshaum was all that saved us. Afterwards, finding it to little purpose to talk with him I spoke to him respecting Jesus Christ, his suffering and dying for sinners &c. P.—When that God died was it the time when all the ground shook?* But Jesus Christ will come again I remarked. And by means of a picture I explained to him the scenes of the last day,—the resurrection of the dead—the separation of the righteous and wicked and where the latter would be sent, &c. He then said to my interpreter that he did not wish to have me say any more for it made him afraid, —afraid that he should dream about it.
I have quoted this interview with Pow-we-sheak at length, not only because it contains the views and feelings of those Indians generally
‘Had the Rev. Mr. Marsh been acquainted with the account of the ground shaking at the time of the death .of Jesus Christ as related in Book of Mormon, (see 3 Nephi, 4th chapter) he could have made an intelligent answer. H. C. S.
upon other subjects, but because it may be considered as a fair expression of the feelings of the Fox chiefs upon the subject of civilization, &c.
Where he speaks of not wishing to raise any more corn than they wanted, he meant any more than they had been in the habit of raising; and that is but a small quantity besides what is eaten before they set out upon the fall hunt, which is the first of Sept.
After the conversation with P. some young men gathered around me to whom I showed some specimens of O-jib-wa writing with which they were much pleased. I inquired if they should like to learn, and they replied, that they had no one to teach them. Should you like to have some one come and teach you? Ans.—No: we do not want to learn for we want to kill Sioux. An old man afterwards came along with whom I had had conversation before. I then told him something respecting the Bible and whilst we were conversing it was reported that there were some Sioux camped near and in the morning they were going to have a fight. He then inquired provided they went out to fight and carried that good book if it would help them?
A drunken frolic followed that night and the village was disturbed during the whole of it by the sound of revelry and intoxicated Indians passing frequently thro’ the lodge where I kept. My horses were also stolen and rode during the night and considerably damaged but returned the next morn, about sun-rise. About this time also P. entered the lodge to which they had just brought the liquid poison, having remained sober during the night, and partook of it with the rest. The Foxes appear generally more addicted to drinking than the Sacs and consequently more debased.
INTERVIEW WITH A FAMILY AT THE CORN-FIELDS.
On my way to this village I did not reach the cornfields which were at some distance from the village until a late hour in the eve. The owners from the village were now encamped in them, harvesting the corn, drying, shelling and putting it up in sacks for winter. The family with which we put up received and treated us kindly and hospitably, as Indians are accustomed to do to strangers, setting before us dried Buffalo meat for our supper. The old woman was a half-breed and quite intelligent. Seeing some ears of corn hung up having the husks very carefully adjusted and tied at the top I inquired what they were for? Ans.—For the boys to eat during the winter after they had been fasting. Sometimes they fast six days and then four rows of the corn are given them to eat. But why do they fast, I enquire. Ans.—That the Great Spirit might love them and make them good warriors. They have to do this on account of their enemies, the Sioux, for they are often killing their people. Do the boys pray when they are fasting? Ans.—No: for they have none to teach them how to pray. Do you (speaking to the old woman) ever pray? Ans.—No: for I have never been taught and I do not know how; if some one would come and teach me I should then know how.
After this I made some inquiry respecting cultivating the land and living as white people do. They replied they should like it but perhaps their chief would not. At the close I spoke of Jesus Christ and his gospel, and she made answer that she Lad never heard of these things before.
Bones of the Mammoth have been discovered in the Red Cedar in a state of petrifaction near P’s village. I saw a piece of tooth supposed to be about one third of it which weighed seven lbs. and was 6 or 7 inches long. As the Indians were very superstitious about letting ;t be known where the bones were I was unable to see them. They relate that they are constantly shifting their position; that a man has been drowned where they are; and that another raised some of the bones out of the river but not thinking it quite right to retain them went and buried them in the Prairie and died in about two days afterwards. They therefore think that there is something very mysterious about them and hold them in great veneration. A woman who had obtained a piece of a tooth kept it in the most careful manner for medicine and would not part with it on any account. A man who visited the village soon after I did was attacked with a kind of bilious colic, they immediately prepared some herb-drink tea and scraped in some of the celebrated tooth, and required him to drink it, which was thought to be a certain remedy. - Ap-pen-oor-es’ village, called Ah-taum-way-e-nauk, (Perseverence Town).
This is situated upon the south side of the Des Moines (Monk) river and about 125 miles from its mouth. It consists of eight lodges, was commenced in the spring of 1834 and has about 250 souls in it. The location is delightful being upon the bank where it is very high, and having a large and fertile prairie extending 7 or 8 miles in a southerly direction and about two miles wide.
Near this village there is a salt-spring and within a mile and a half excellent mill privileges, and a sufficient quantity of timber in the vicinity for building and other purposes.
This is the most eligible place which I met amongst the Sacs and Foxes for a missionary establishment. In addition to the natural advantages it is removed at a greater distance from the white settlements than any other of their villages, being by water about 90 miles. It is quite probable also that the Sacs will concentrate at this place or near. All their hunting ground is upon this river and old Ke-o-kuck had come to the determination, it was said last fall, to sell his Reservation on the lowa consisting of four hundred square miles because as he said “he was too near the whites.”
The Des Moines which the Indians call Ke-o-sha-quah* is a rapid and
‘This was probably Appanoose whose village was near where the city of Ottumwa is now situated. H. C. S.
‘Probably the same as now spelled Keosauqua. The name of the county-seat of Van Buren County, Iowa. H. C. S.
beautiful river, remarkable for uniformity in width, it being generally about 40 rods wide. According to the Indians’ account of it, it is eight hundred miles long and heads above St. Peters on the Mississippi. The water is clear and good except when swollen by rains, and there are in most places an abundance of excellent springs of water breaking out from the banks and bluffs. It is said that steamboats might ascend it for a considerable distance in the spring when the water is high which begins to rise the fore part of April and continues to in the following month also. In the fall Mackinaw boats can ascend but it is with difficulty on account of the low stage of the water.
About 25 miles from its mouth I took passage in a canoe and ascended to the village above mentioned; much of the way the bottom of the river was a solid bed of lime-stone. In some places the shores are bold, but in others the bluff is a half a mile distant and the shore hard and sandy. In its banks and bluffs coal is found in great abundance. Coperas and other minerals no doubt abound upon the tributaries of this river. The fine, rolling prairies, covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and flowers of every hue, which everywhere skirt its borders present to the agriculturalist a powerful inducement to search for the treasures hid in their bosom. This whole region seems to have been formed by nature for agriculture and I have little doubt but that before another generation shall pass away those delightful fields and plains will be covered with flocks and herds. But alas! what will become of the poor Indians? - There is also a small village upon the Mississippi about 40 miles below Rock Island, of Foxes and Winnebagoes consisting perhaps of a dozen lodges. To the latter band the prophet belongs who dreamed so fatally for Black Hawk in 1832. These Winnebagoes as well as almost all the rest are notoriously thievish and troublesome to their neighbors, the Foxes. Amongst the Foxes who live at the lower end of the village I passed a Sabbath. They were now harvesting their corn and treated me with great hospitality, but when the holy Sabbath dawned upon them seemed to be entirely ignorant of it and of everything relating to the concerns of the soul, accordingly they went on with their work as usual; and when I spoke to them of eternal things they only “made light of it.”
Having secured my horses as I supposed and committing them to the care of my interpreter, I retired to the woods in order there to unite my supplications with the children of God who were assembled in the sanctuary. This I felt to be indeed a blessed privilege although I was as a sparrow alone upon the house-top. But my interpreter being unfaithful suffered the horses which were much troubled with flies to get out and go off. As soon as I found it out I made search as I felt it a duty being amongst strange Indians. After some hours’ search they were found just in time to save them, for the Winnebagoes had taken them up and were upon the point of taking them across the river. luis appeared quite providential as I should doubtless in a short time have seen no more of them.
Towards eve, a friendly chief of the W’s came down and told the Foxes to look out for their horses as an Indian was going to leave that night and was intending to steal a horse. The Foxes all took up their horses and prepared themselves to kill the W., provided he came, but to my great joy he did not, as I had no doubt they would have done as they said, considering their horses as of more consequence than the life of a fellow-creature.
The next morning early I set out in company with the old man with whom I had been so kindly entertained, and some others for Rock I. After a short ride came to the Winnebago lodges. As I approached the prophet came out to meet me and shake hands.
When I reminded him of having seen him on his tour with Black Hawk he assented with a half suppressed smile which seemed to indicate that, the recollection of the past was to him unwelcome. There was a peculiar air of melancholy resting upon his countenance, and his whole demeanor seemed to show that there was lurking within a mingled feeling of humbled pride and disappointed hope. Then he lives in richly merited obscurity and is remembered only for his past mis-deeds.
Besides the villages now enumerated there are a number of others which hardly seem worthy of the name scattered round in various places consisting of three, four or half a dozen lodges perhaps, some of which I visited; and others I did not think it worth the while.
In addition to the Sacs & Foxes now described there is a village of 20 lodges upon the Missouri river near the Black Snake Hills and about 40 miles below Fort Leavenworth.
DISPOSITION TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION.
They are generally strongly attached to their pagan rites and superstitions and guard with jealous care against any change. The great object of their pursuit is war and hunting, in the former they glory, and it is a distinction highly enviable, to which the young and ambitious thrive to attain, to rank among the braves so as to be able to wear the pole-cat’s tail upon the calves of the legs and the Shau-no-e-hun (small bells) and strike the post in the war-dance and tell over the number of enemies which they have killed or wounded in battle. To this there are some exceptions however. One of the most striking is Ap-pen-oore the chief of the village upon the Des Moines. He is young and aspiring, and possesses more independence of mind and fortitude than any of the rest of the chiefs. In addition to this he has far more patriotism than any of the rest of the chiefs excepting Black Hawk. The other chiefs are exceedingly jealous of him, but he is fully aware of it and as he is young stands in some fear of them. Ap-pen-oore from time to time has expressed a strong desire to have something done for the improvement of his people. This was a great disideratum with his father Ta-ma, who was a much respected chief. A. is at times anxious himself to receive instruction. He possesses naturally an excellent, inquisitive mind and is one of the most kind and gentlemanly Indians that I ever met with. But he is a great drunkard, and my not succeeding to gain his consent to have a school established at his village I attribute in a great measure to a drunken frolic which took place just at the time appointed to bring the subject before him. After he became sober he seemed far less inclined to do anything upon the subject than before.
Could an influence of the right kind be exerted over him he would soon, I have no doubt, be willing to have schools established and his people instructed. As yet, however, most of the influence which has been exerted over him by the white people has been of the worst kind. (But more of this hereafter.)
Old Ke-o-kuk has in years past manifested a strong desire to have one of his sons educated but of late his mind has been changed and for a very obvious reason. He is altogether under the influence of the traders of the A[merican] F[ur] Com[pany] who are exceedingly hostile to missionary operations. (See also Mr. Metoxin’s interview with Black Hawk.)
At a council held with the Sacs &c. whilst I was in the region Col. William Davenport, Commanding Officer at P. Armstrong, (Rock I.) strongly urged upon the chiefs and head men of the two nations to have missionaries, &c. They replied, “They did not want missionaries.” He then spoke of the advantages of forming an education and pointed them to the house and farm of the Interpreter across the river, and says “in a few years you also might have good houses and farms—it costs Gov’t a great deal of money to hire teachers and now you may have them for nothing.” To this no reply was made.
RELATION TO OTHER TRIBES.
The Sacs &c. are in a state of perpetual warfare with the Sioux. Their hunting ground joirts on the N. W. and there are mutual complaints of encroachment which is one great cause of hostility. The Sacs &c are more warlike than the S. and more than a match when equal numbers meet in battle, but the Sioux are the most numerous by far, so that they live in constant fear of each other. They are also in a state of hostility with the Winnebagoes and Menominies. I have heard, by the way, that there has been a massacre of some Menominies the winter past by the Sacs. With all of the other neighboring tribes I believe they are upon terms of peace & friendship.
FACILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF DOING THEM GOOD.
With regard to difficulties in the way of doing them good, some I have already enumerated, viz:—Opposition from white men,—very superstitious and attached to their rites, &c. To these may be added their vices, indolence and roving habits.
Provided the Sacs concentrate upon the Des Moines as it is expected that they will either where Appenoore has his village or in the vicinity; and if they could be induced to receive teachers &c. and locate in a few years under the influence of the gospel they might become independent. Because then almost every natural advantage might be enjoyed. The country is healthy, the soil excellent, timber for building &c. near, an excellent place for erecting mills within a mile and a half of A’s village and a salt spring close by. Their produce could most easily be carried to the mouth of the river where there is always a good market during the whole season that steam-boats ply upon the Mississippi. It would not be difficult at all to make a road by land from the M. to almost any point upon the Des M. They appear more tractable and not so phlegmatic in their temperament as Indians further north.
In respect to the plan of a mission, the kind of laborers, &c. I would remark, that it should be small at first, so as not to excite their prejudices, still suitable buildings should be erected for the sake of an example. The kind of laborers is of the greatest importance. They ought to possess more than an ordinary share of firmness, patience and perseverence. The Sacs are very shrewd observers of white people; missionaries should therefore possess a good degree of knowledge of human nature; should be circumspect yet affable and have much of the milk of human kindness. With all they must be persons of faith and prayer, so that they may take strong hold of the promise “Lo, I am with you always,” and confidently expect in “due time to reap if they faint not.”
Could a native teacher be procured who understood their language, and was capable of instructing them in reading, writing and farming, I have no doubt but that he could gain access amongst them at once. But such a person I know not. We have none in this tribe of the right stamp.
(To be continued.)
LIFE AND DEATH.
If death be final, what is life, with all
Its lavish promises, its thwarted aims,
Its lost ideals, its dishonored claims,
Its uncompleted growth? A prison wall,
Whose heartless stones but echo back our call;
An epitaph recording but our names;
A puppet-stage where joys and griefs and shames
Furnish a demon jesters’ carnival;
A plan without a purpose or a form;
A roofless temple; an unfinished tale,
And men like madrepores through calm and storm
Toil, die to build a branch of fossil frail,
And add from all their dreams, thoughts, acts, belief,
A few more inches to a coral-reef.
—Christopher Pearse Cranch.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DERRY.
(Continued from page 28.)
[At this point in the biography of Elder Derry we introduce a letter written by him for his family describing the first stages of his journey. The reader will bear in mind that this was not, when written, intended for the public ear, but simply to be read by the loved ones of the home circle. It is, however, these things that show the true character of men. It is not the photograph that man poses for that represents him, but the “snap shot” that catches him unawares that represents him as he is.
So with private letters not written with a view to public criticism, they show the real sentiment of the inner man. We are always glad to have the privilege of using and studying them. H. C. S.]
On the 6th of December, 1862, I bade farewell to my wife and children and started for England. My feelings are partially described in my journal which I have sent home. I arrived at Edwin Briggs’, was treated kindly; preached in Nephi on the 7th. Slept at Father Pack’s. Visited among the Saints a little on the 8th, but was mostly confined to writing. My health is not good yet.
On the 9th Father Pack took me to Plum Creek Branch. I preached there and got assistance for my journey. On the 10th I went to the Gaylord settlement, preached there, got further help, and on the 11th Elder Pack brought me on to Manti. We stayed at Bro. Wilcox’s. I preached at night. Bro. Pack left for home on the 12th. He gave me two dollars. Bro. Wilcox gave me two dollars. This day I visited some of the old Saints, and at evening met Bro. Blair. It was a joyful meeting. He preached that night. We slept at Bro. Redfield’s who kindly entertained us. On the 13th we visited Father Cutler, and again stayed with Bro. Redfield. On the 14th Elder Blair preached in the morning and myself in the evening, and stayed that night with Bro. William Matthews, who also treated us very kindly. On the 15th we visited Mr. Sherman, Bro. Baldwin, Mr. Sperry, and in the evening Elder Blair preached. We stayed all night with Bro.Wilcox. Clark Stillman gave me one dollar.
On the 16th Elder Blair left for the Plum Creek Branch. He blessed me, and we had a season of prayer in Bro. Redfield’s house. The friends present were Bro. and Sr. Redfield, George Redfield, William Matthews, Samuel Wilcox, Bro. Blair, and myself. We felt keenly the pang of separation. I sent home two letters to my wife, one by post written some days, and one by Bro. Blair, with six dollars to help them. I have been kindly treated by all. This day I left on the stage in company with George Redfield and William Matthews. Arrived at Clarinda about nine o’clock at night. Put up at the tavern. A number of fellows were conversing about a sermon they had heard; they “thought the preacher was a smart man, had his sermons learned, but had a good delivery.” He was good at painting hell; could do it about as well as some can paint secession. If hell was as he painted, they thought some would rather be secessionists. We stayed here all night.
On the 17th we started on our journey. Passed Hollyville, [Hawleyville], Memory, Bedford, Platville, Mount Ayr, Meritts, Decatur, and stopped at Leon, at which place we arrived about two o’clock on the morning of the 18th. This has certainly been a rough day’s ride. I could see but little of the country, but on the whole I could see it was better timbered than the more western part. We had three hours’ sleep, and on the 18th we started again. We traveled all day and all night, and arrived at Eddyville about seven o’clock on the morning of the 19th, after riding two nights and two days and part of another night; and the last hundred miles and over was a miserable ride indeed. A good deal of this time seven of us were crowded into a hack where only four could sit with any comfort at all; but the passengers were generally agreeable; but at Centerville a lady with a child got in, and she blustered about very much before she was seated, and peremptorily demanded all the men to sit aside and make room for her and her child. This did not have a good effect; the men did not seem willing to sacrifice their little comfort for her. One man, a doctor, told her he had paid for his seat and he did not feel willing to resign it. I then quietly told her if she would be good-tempered we would do what we could to make her comfortable, but if she got mad we might do the same and then she would not get along so well. This appeared to have its effect and she calmed down. We made her room as well as we could, and she became very chatty. All were then willing to assist her and contribute to her comfort.
We learned from her that she was a soldier’s wife, that her husband was sick in the St. Louis hospital, and she was going down to see and comfort him. He had been sick some time, and had been at Keokuk, in the hospital, but on recovering a little he was sent to St. Louis. There he heard from his wife of the death of the second of his children that had died during his absence. This so afflicted him that he had a relapse of his sickness and was sent into the hospital. Only one little babe now remains to him out of the three he kissed when he left his home for the bloody battle-field. His wife is taking that to him that he may once more gaze upon one of his children before he passes away from earth. She is a tolerably good-looking woman; but her fiery black eye bespeaks a like fiery temperament; yet I have no doubt she feels like a wife for her husband, but seems to lack self-government. But then the anxiety to go to her husband and the trouble she had seen during his absence would have a tendency to make her more irritable. Every one of the men now took an interest in her welfare, and we assisted her at every stage. A father also was with us on his way to St. Louis to look after two of his boys who were sick in the hospital; he, too, was going to afford so far as he could, a father’s comfort.
It is reported that the Federals have been defeated at Fredericksburg, in Virginia, and ten thousand have been slain on our side. Who shall supply the places of these brave men in the hearts of their fathers, mothers, lovers, and wives and children? Who shall cheer those sad, sad hearts that weep around those desolate hearthstones where those beloved ones will never sit again? Great God! What sacrifices are made daily! and all to satisfy the sordid, ambitious cravings of a few that have made power, lust, and gold their gods, their object, and their end. Truly this nation has sown wind and is reaping the whirlwind. It has refused the bread of life and is now feeding upon empty chaff. Well may we exclaim, Great God, thy judgments are just!
I can not remember all the places we passed through while in the stage, but the principal places after we left Leon, were Corydon, Centerville, Moravia, Albia, and then to Eddyville. The country in general is a very fine country, pretty well timbered, and rich land. After we get to Corydon we find the people burn stone coal, and I could smell it as we got near to a town. They burn it in stoves but not like ours. The stoves are in the form of a flower-vase, and they have pipes like our stove-pipes. They say coal is cheaper than wood. I found all the people at the various taverns where we had to stay manifesting a very great eagerness to get a few cents from the travelers; but I concluded that I would live as cheap as I could, so I bought a few crackers and I had a little sweet cake, so that I did not buy many suppers at the taverns.
I and the two brethren with me, namely, William Matthews and George Redfield, took the cars at Eddyville Station. I paid two dollars and thirty-five cents to go to Belfast. The railway cars here are superior to those in England. The car in which I rode was about sixty feet long and about twelve feet wide, contains two rows of seats about four feet in length, each of them. They are well cushioned and the backs of them are made to work upon a kind of hinge, so that you can turn them (the backs) over and have the seats to face each other, or you may have them like the pews of a church. The seats are a fixture and can not be moved. Between these two rows of seats is an aisle the full length of the room. A stove is placed in the center of the car. . . . There are several mirrors in the car where you can see to arrange your toilet, etc. A boy comes around with apples and cakes and pies to sell, also a newspaper, but it is truly a meager one, containing but little news. This car serves for rich and poor, there is no distinction made. The railway goes down through the Des Moines River Valley to Keokuk. Several towns are found on its banks. We got off at Belfast after riding seventy-two miles in six hours.
I inquired for a man by the name of Haskin. I found him about a mile and a half from where we got off the train. He is a farmer and has a very pretty place, and plenty of firewood and so forth; for here they find it cheaper to burn wood than coal. He had been just patching up his chimney, hence had no fire. He seems alive in the work and was just reading the November number of the Herald. He received us kindly. He requested us to go to his son’s and warm until he had done his chimney. I did so. The boys went to see some relatives they have around here. I went to young Bro. Haskin’s; he was not at home. I did not tell who I was. The lady invited me to warm. I did so. … I talked but little, in fact I was thinking of the loved ones I had left behind me. At length her husband came home. He had heard of my coming and saluted me accordingly. He seemed like chatting, I did not; and in a little while I left and wandered through the woods, drew from my- pocket the likeness of my wife and family, raised my prayer to heaven on their behalf, and looked forward to the happy, happy day, when my Father will permit me to return to their sweet society again. Those likenesses afford me unspeakable pleasure.
That soft blue eye, like the azure sky,
So beautiful to see,
With radiant smiles my heart beguiles,
As I think loved one of thee.
I returned to the old man’s house. They had lighted a fire, and soon a brilliant one warmed the old log cabin. I gazed around. It had an air of neatness. Home-made clothing, home-made bedding, etc., was the order of the day. Now the old man’s wife appears, a fine appearing old lady, with an intelligent countenance. She had read my name in the Herald she told me; was very chatty. My lonely feelings passed away and I entered into conversation as well as I could. But I was weary. I had had but one night’s rest for the last two hundred and fifty miles, and the warm fire soon sent me to sleep. The old lady told me where I should find my bed; and after making them acquainted with my wife and children, and assuring them that those were the only earthly jewels I had, I retired for the night. Need I say that my last thoughts were with my wife and children? Will any one upbraid me for it? If they do let them have to part with one of earth’s best daughters, given them for a wife, and two loving children, perhaps not to gaze upon them for years, around whom the cords of life and love have tenaciously entwined themselves, and for whom every life-pulse has learned to beat; whose smiles have been their sunshine when worse than Egyptain darkness has enshrouded their hearts (for there is a darkness which light of the natural sun can not disperse), and then the bitterness of their rebuke will pass away, and they will as I, feel that every mile further from home susceptibly stretches the heart-strings and tries the strength of those love-cords that bind and endear him to his family. But, thank God, every step I take from my home proves that these cords of love and endearment are stronger the more they are stretched, or probably it would be more proper to say, the natural strength of these cords is more fully developed the further I wander from home. Yesterday I saw a poor soldier in the train whose downcast looks told that he left perhaps a father and mother, brothers and sisters, or perhaps a lover behind him, that he might never behold again. Oh, how keenly he felt the separation; but different motives it may be prompted his leaving. Maybe it was the love of country, or it may be as it is with many, the love of office, the dazzling brilliancy of fame, or the lust for gold. But however this may be with him, now the time of reflection has arrived. The old homestead has faded from his view. His parents only pass in imagination before him. The voices of his brothers and sisters are only heard in the past; and the sweet angelic tones of his lover are only sounds which fond remembrance recalls to mind. And he is human—for a moment honors fade, fame is a tinselled bauble, and gold loses its value when weighed by the considerations of parents, friends, and lover. He feels with Solomon, “Better is a dinner of herbs,” in the society of those you love than all the warlike fame and honor and wealth a world can give, without them. It may be when he loses these friends he has no earthly hopes of happiness left, and his heart is a barren waste. It is not so with the soldier of the cross, the battler for truth and righteousness. The objects he fights for are the glory of God, the eternal welfare of humanity, and the establishment of truth and righteousness upon all the face of the earth. Having secured these he will have gained an unfading crown, an immortality with God, a fame that can never die, and the society of those loved ones he leaves behind him throughout eternal ages in the bright effulgence of untainted bliss. These hopes are mine; and hence when I gaze upon the forms of my wife and children, my mind is full of hope and my heart is strengthened by the faith that God will work all things for our mutual good, and God will not deprive me of them nor them of me until we have filled the measure of our creation, if we prove true to God and ourselves, and then we shall enjoy all the blessings of eternal union.
We have had good weather ever since I left Manti. I have felt but little of the cold. I drink no hot drinks of any kind. I wash in cold water and drink cold water, hence the cold does not affect me so much as it would if I drank hot drinks and washed in warm water, because my pores are not opened so much. The weather is rather cloudy and cold. I am now in the vicinity of the String Prairie Branch.
December 20. I am very well, my cough is nearly gone. I think some lozenges did me good that I got on the way called “Brown’s bronchial troches.” . . .
THOUGHTS ON MY LITTLE BOY.
George Nephi, what is he doing? Is he a good boy to his mother? Is he kind to his sister? I have just taken a peek at his features, just as he looked when he sat in the Daguerrean car, while the artist copied his likeness and that of his sweet sister. I can not see anything evil in those looks; they are mild, good-natured, and loving, at least his father thinks so. Yet I see a little mischief in those blue eyes; but that is natural; “he is a chip off the old block,” as my grandmother used to say. But I hope he will not cultivate that mischief, lest it might grow to wrong-dealing. Well, what is he doing? Is he studying his lesson that he may be a man by and by? Is he studying how to write an elegant hand without mistakes so that he may write a letter to his father, informing him of his thoughts, what he has learned, what he has done, and what he intends to do? Is he practicing writing that he may tell father how he reads the Bible and Book of Mormon, and how pleased he is with the history contained in them? that he may tell him how he loves God and his Savior, and how he intends to imitate his Savior? Is he studying how to read that he may read his father’s letters and profit by them? that he may read those good books before mentioned, and thus pass away many an hour that would otherwise be idly spent, and at the same time amuse and instruct his mother and sister while they are sowing and knitting, or so forth? Is he studying arithmetic that he may be enabled to transact all kinds of useful business, and thus make himself a man? Is he doing all these in the proper time and season? If so, when I see him again I shall see a well-educated boy, a boy prepared to play a noble part in life’s drama. But above all, does he pray? Does he reflect for himself and observe everything that passes before him, that he may be wise in human nature, wise in the things of life and wise in those things that pertain to his eternal welfare? Does he pray to God for wisdom that he may know himself which is the most important thing that he can possibly learn? Is he looking into his own heart and trying to find out all the evil that is rooted there? And is he trying to root out all the evil that it may not sink him into degradation and woe? Is he trying to cultivate every virtue, such as love, kindness, goodness, truthfulness, industry, patience, meekness, and humility? If he is, when I see him again I shall see what will please me most of all to see, a boy loving God, loving his mother, sister, and everybody else. In fine, I shall see a boy that is trying to be like the blessed Jesus. A faithful son, obedient in all things even to death. Surely my little boy in whom I have always delighted, and for whom I have offered so many earnest, anxious prayers, will not prove an idle, ungrateful, careless fellow, like some that I have known in in my life. No, he will not! I have confidence in his little confiding, loving soul, that he will be a man, a credit to his father and mother, and an ornament to the family of man. That little boy that so loves his father and mother, can not be so ungrateful to them as to be undutiful to his parents or unkind to his sister, or unfaithful to his God. But Satan will tempt him every day to make him naughty. But if he will pray for strength he will overcome all temptation.
Does he love his mother? Yes, to be sure he does! He can not fail to love that angel form that took him in her loving arms more than eight years ago, and printed a motherly kiss on those pale lips, while her beaming, loving eye dropped a warm, sympathetic tear upon his death-like cheek. Can he forget her who pledged herself to be a mother to him when he was a motherless, helpless babe? No, that little, kind, loving heart can not forget the thousand kindnesses she has shown him. She that has been the greatest earthly blessing to him that God could give him. She that watched over him in his sickness and anticipated all his wants, and offered up for him a mother’s prayer when his own sweet mother was sleeping in the silent tomb. No, it is impossible for him to forget her. And in his remembrance of her kindness he will bless her in return, by anticipating her wants and his ready compliance with her every wish; yes, he will make his father’s heart glad by loving obedience to his mother. And for this the rich blessings of heaven shall rest upon his youthful head, and he shall have that peace of mind that is only given to the true, the kind, the good and obedient. May God grant that his Holy Spirit may inspire him to every virtue, that his name may be enrolled in the Lamb’s book of life.
This evening I left Father Haskin’s house. The old lady washed me a shirt and pair of socks. Poor old woman! She has had the misfortune to lose one leg. Father Haskin pilotted me down to Father Dungan’s, the president of String Prairie Branch, the distance about three miles. It rained all the way. Father Dungan seems a very intelligent old man. His wife seems a good, kind woman. She is his second wife. He has one boy at home, just returned from California, a young man about twenty-three years of age, apparently, and two stepdaughters constitute his family. There I was feasted upon apples; a rich treat! I wish I could send some to the loved ones at home.
Sunday, 21st. Elder Shippy came; I preached twice in the schoolhouse on String Prairie, made the acquaintance of the Saints; they seem a good people and alive in the work. We had large meetings. I supped at Bro. John Lake’s. Father Duty Griffiths lives here, an old man eighty years of age, hale, hearty, straight, and strong; his mind clear and comprehensive. I recollect a conversation with Bro. Dungan in which he stated that he did not believe that it was true that we must be once a man and twice a child. We agreed that if we improved our minds and took proper care of our bodies we might retain our mental powers as well as Moses and Jacob and others of the ancients.
I slept at Michael Griffiths’.
On the 22d, I and Elder Shippy and Brn. Matthews and Redfield started for Nauvoo. String Prairie is a delightful country, well wooded, and filled up with excellent farms. We passed through Boston, called at John Shippy’s house. . . .
On descending the bluffs down to the Mississippi River I beheld Nauvoo for the first time in my life. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. A beautiful location indeed! One prominent thing to be seen is a portion of the temple that is left, and can be seen very plain for quite a distance up and down the river. Here we see on every hand fine apple orchards, in fine, the people live her. We passed through Montrose. This city is opposite Nauvoo on the western bank of the Mississippi; but is not so favorably located as Nauvoo. We visited Sr. Timins. She is an elderly lady and lives on the bank of the river. She is a good old woman to all appearances. I was interested in seeing the old lady bring out a portrait of a son that is in the army. He was the idol of her heart. But he was exposed to the chances and horrors of war. This grieved her soul. Her aged eye brightened, a tear stood there, a monument of the fond, undying affection of a mother’s heart. A bereaved mother alone could tell her feelings; yet there was pride in her heart, a mother’s pride, as she spoke of him as being a good boy. There was also a hope there to which she fondly clung, and that hope was that he would yet return. For this she prayed day by day, and God has pledged himself not to turn a deaf ear to the widow’s prayer.
We dined at Bro. John Oman’s. The skiff has now arrived; we have a mile and a half of water to cross; but this river is not so rough and turbid as the Missouri River. There seem to be no snags in it as far as I can see. I raise a prayer to God for our safety and enter the little skiff with Bro. John Shippy and the brethren from Manti. My fears subside after sailing, or rather rowing, a hundred rods, perhaps, I took my miniatures from my pocket, gazed once more on the features of my wife and family, offered up a prayer, and plied our way to Nauvoo. We land all safe and thank God. We called at Bro. Austin’s. They were all glad to see us. They had been on Beaver Island, but escaped from the same and now received the gospel. His son-in-law and daughter are with them. They have also a daughter about seventeen years of age, perhaps; a beautiful girl and a sweet singer. Sr. Moore, the married daughter of Bro. Austin, gave us an outline of the dark, nefarious deeds of Strang and his associates. We visited the mansion. The wife of the martyred Joseph lives here, with David, and Alexander and his wife and their little child. They keep travelers and boarders here. Sr. Emma is just such a woman as I thought she was. A woman of staid appearance, very intelligent, in fact she appears to come as near being a good woman in every sense as you will generally meet. She has been hand’some, and to-day she is a very good looking woman for a woman of her age. She will be sixty years of age next June. David, her youngest son, is tall and slender, was eighteen years of age some time last November, I think. He is a very intelligent young man, of light complexion, blue eyes, of a warm temperament, quick perceptive powers, rather impulsive I should judge, but kind, generous, enthusiastic, and, I understand, very obedient to his mother. He is a natural poet, very gifted indeed, and he is truly entitled to the epithet, of “Sweet singer of Israel.” My acquaintance with him yet is limited.
This evening I and John Shippy had a short debate about the offices of prophet, seer, and revelator and translator. He contended that the blessing spoken of in the sixteenth paragraph of the one hundred and third section of Doctrine and Covenants [later editions 107: 18] was not necessarily to be given to Joseph, but thought those blessings were to be divided among all his brothers, because it mentions his posterity. I contended that all these blessings were to be vested in one, and that one the eldest son, because it says the blessing shall be put upon the head of his posterity, and the oldest of course is the head. And Jacob said it should be upon the top of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. Again in the third section and forty-second paragraph [later editions 104: 42] we are told that the duty of the president of the office of High Priesthood is to be a seer, revelator, a translator, and prophet. Now, it could not be the duty of any one to be this if God did not make them this. The fact that a duty is enjoined upon us implies the power to act in that duty; and no man can fulfill that duty unless God has made him what is expressed in this paragraph. Hence, if Joseph is president of the church, he must also be a prophet, seer, revelator, and translator, or he can not perform his duty.
Sr. Emma and David and several other Saints came in and they sang some of the songs of the “Sweet singer of Israel,” and verily they did my soul good. I wished my family were here to listen to the same. I slept with Bro. John Shippy at the mansion.
December 23. Very drizzly, wet day. I wrote a letter to my wife that would make her heart rejoice; also a short one to the Glenwood Branch. Joseph is now come home. He was away yesterday, and to-day until eleven o’clock. I dined with him. He had received a letter from Carson Valley, from an Englishman, formerly a Baptist, requesting that the gospel be sent to his friends in England and Australia. It breathes a noble spirit. He says he has pledged himself and his earnings to the work of the Lord. He expects by next summer to have five thousand dollars, and to spend it in the work. John Shippy received a letter from Canada, and a mighty miracle God has wrought there by healing an old, decrepit man, and making him to leap with the agility of a man of twenty-five, and it was by the power of God through the gift of tongues and interpretation. Praise God all ye his Saints.
Nauvoo is to be built up again; so says the Spirit through the gifts enjoyed here.
This afternoon I witnessed the baptism of the two brethren that came with me from Manti. They were immersed in the “Father of Waters,” (i. e., Mississippi,) by President Joseph Smith. We held a meeting in the house occupied by Bro. Austin. I spoke a little and John Shippy preached, after which we confirmed the two brethren.
I am aware that borrows a great deal of trouble;
and I fear is not so wise as he should be for the position he occupies. I am sorry to learn that there is considerable influence against him here, even among the Saints. His forwardness in trying to gain favor for Zion by persuading young men to enlist in the war, has closed up the hearts of mothers and sisters against him, and they feel that they owe their bereavements to him. I thank God that no mother mourns a son, no wife a husband, nor any child a father through my counsel or influence. I believe if any man thinks the Saints ought to enlist in this war, he should himself set the example. I understand that up to this time the brethren that have enlisted are preserved. I slept at the mansion with Bro. Shippy.
December 24. The Manti brethren are leaving to-day for home. Brn. Joseph Smith and Alexander Smith rowed them over the river in their skiff. I went along with them. On the Montrose shore I saw John A. McIntosh. Poor old man. He heard I was at Nauvoo and had watched every skiff that crossed to see if he could see me. He heard my voice when I was away on the water, before I knew him, and knew me at once. I was glad to see him. I stopped on the Montrose shore with him. I went with him to Nashville and preached in the schoolhouse. He also spoke. We slept at Elder William Anderson’s.
December 25. We ate a splendid Christmas dinner at Sr. Hemenway’s, of Nashville. It is within sight of Nauvoo. It rained very hard all day. Sr. Hemenway presented me with a ten dollar gold piece. I wish Lizzie was here that I might “wipe her eyes with it.” If that would not dry them, my presence would do it. I wonder where my loved ones are eating their Christmas dinner. I think the branch is all together at one table. They talk about Charles, and Lizzie’s eye is moistened with a tear; but that tear is sanctified by a fervent prayer for me. My Alice and George remember me, too, and they join in the heartfelt wishes that linger on every lip around that well-filled table, for my prosperity. To-night I preach in Elder Anderson’s house. The people seemed loath to leave, and when they did leave, young and old must shake my hand and wish me the protection of God, although they were not in the church. I slept at Elder Anderson’s, close by the river side, in a good stone house. Every one admired the likenesses of my loved ones at home. I have eaten piles of apples this Christmas.
December 26. William Anderson and John A. McIntosh went with me to Montrose and over the river to Nauvoo. Here I met Davis H. Bays and wife on their way home. She met with a very cold reception from her relatives, and all in consequence of Mormonism. And Davis thought of leaving her among the Saints and fulfilling his mission; but I advised him to. take his wife home. I saw she was cast down and longed for home. He promised me he would if it was her wish. I know it was her wish, and that was Joseph’s mind, too. They started home to-day. I went with Bro. Joseph through Nauvoo. I visited the ruins of the temple. Only one small fragment is standing, and that stands in bold relief above all the other buildings. It is magnificent in its desolation, even. I went to the post-office, but there was no letter from my Lizzie. Twice I had been disappointed. Why does it tarry so long? Has Lizzie forgotten to write? No! Sooner will her heart forget to beat than she will forget to write to her Charley. Is she sick? Are my children sick? No, I trust not; but the mail tarries. It knows not that a husband’s and father’s anxious heart is longing to be comforted with the precious tidings it bears, and hence it tarries, and I still impatiently wait. To-day I dined with Joseph. They expected me yesterday. Joseph has encouraged me with fresh hopes of soon again clasping my family to my bosom. He tells me as soon as I find that I am going to stay long in England, and can get the means, or the church can find the means, I have the privilege of fetching or sending for them. out and lead the church instead of Joseph. This hurt David much; and he told him to his face, it was false, and he must never utter the words again.
December 27. Bro. Moore very kindly took me, in company with Bro. David and others, with his team around Nauvoo. It has occupied, or rather covered an area of some three or four miles square. Many excellent buildings are crumbling down for want of occupation; and where there was a population of twenty thousand people nineteen years ago there are but about fifteen hundred now. Truly this is one of the waste places of Zion, and as truly as God has spoken, it will again blossom as the rose and bloom as the Garden of God. I think of settling here when I return from the East; for I have never seen a place more deserving of the appellation of “Beautiful” than this down-trodden Nauvoo. In passing by the temple ruins, David remarked there were only three pillars standing in perfection, and one that was broken off. So there are but three brothers of us and one is dead, Frederick; Joseph, Alexander, and David Hyrum alone remained. Says he, “There are three stars left, and there are three missionaries going to England.” I replied, “One of the stars has one of its points broken. The other is all broken and only one remains in perfection.” I must here add that I have- not heard anything either from Bro. Jason or Samuel Powers, at all. Lizzie, will you not pray that I may not become a broken or obliterated star; but that I may shine brighter and brighter until the perfect day? The other evening David came over and sang and played some of his pieces for us. He is all life, full of poetry, of a very sensitive nature, but I notice that he studies his mother’s wish in all things. He is passionately fond of Joseph. The other day he remarked, “Who is there that can live a year with Joseph and not love him? Bro. Jens Gorgenson (a Danish man) has been teaching that David will come
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This evening I went up into Joseph’s music-hall to hear the Nauvoo Eagle Brass Band play. They are not Mormons. Joseph enters freely into conversation with all classes of men, and I very frequently hear the familiar remark, “Good morning, Joe”; “Good evening, Joe”; or, “Well, Joe, how are you”; not in derision, but in a friendly, familiar manner by all. He bears the best name of any man in Nauvoo. He is justice of the peace, and as such wields a wholesome influence over the community. He makes no parade about religion or anything else, but keeps on the even tenor of his way. His religion consists in acts more than words.
Sunday morning, December 28. Three weeks from home and no letter yet; and I must not wait for another mail, as it only comes in three times a week. Oh, how I wish to hear from home! But I will not borrow trouble. I left them in the care of my Father, and he will preserve them from all harm, and there will nothing happen to them but what will work for their good. They are preparing for meeting, and when they are in meeting with the dear Saints, I shall be assembled, too; but not personally with them, but our prayers will mingle before the same bright throne, and God will hear and answer us. Yesterday I bought me a new pair of gray flannel drawers, and Sr. Austin washed my old ones. These people are very kind to me and I want them remembered by my loved ones at home. We have lovely, warm weather, a little frost at night, and all the people say they never knew such a mild winter in this country. John Shippy brought me eleven dollars and thirty cents from the String Prairie Branch for the mission. Joseph says he would be glad if some good, exemplary people would come and settle in this place and around here; but he thinks it would not be wisdom for people who are suitably fixed to break up their homes until the word of the Lord comes to that effect. He would advise all to improve their property so as to make themselves comfortable. And I think this is good policy. The faith of the Saints in this region is very strong that God will soon bring back Zion and cause her waste places to be built up. Amen.
Afternoon. Bro. Joseph gave me a letter to a friend in Sing Sing, New York. He also gave me a letter of recommendation to all Saints. I preached in Bro. Austin’s house. Bro. Joseph bore testimony. This branch is small, numbering eighteen, but is onward and upward in its progress. The sun is sinking behind my Lizzie’s home. May peace be there. Alexander Smith is not so tall as David, nor so heavy as Joseph. Is of light complexion, free and sociable, intelligent, and takes a great interest in the work. His wife is a pretty, neat little body, and in the church. All three of them are working men, but David also goes to school. I never saw a family pay more respect to their mother than all three do. Joseph’s wife is a very good-looking woman, and apparently possessing a good share of intelligence, kind-hearted, and also a little proud, and appears to care but little for the truth. Joseph never agitates her mind on the subject, but leaves her to think for herself. She is no doubt a good wife, and she treats the Saints well.
I leave here in the morning, and my heart again feels lonely. I form new attachments and must now leave them, and this calls to my mind my leaving of home, and always makes me feel sad and heavy. I am going further from my home, but duty calls, and the God I serve will restore me to their arms again, and not a link of our family chain will be broken. My mother, God bless her! I think of her. She has no doubt looked across the prairies many times for me; but mother, duty has called me other ways, and I must wander as one of the swift messengers to the nations of the earth, and may never see thee more on earth, but hope to meet thee in the land where the weary rest, where all is light, life, peace, love, and eternal joy. Yet something whispers me we may meet again on earth. A respite from my labors may be granted me; if so, then I will see my mother. May heaven’s peace and joy be in thy soul, and make thy last days thy brightest and best on earth.
Sunday night. I have just returned from a pleasant visit to Sr. Emma, at the Nauvoo Mansion. We had some good singing. She is a good singer. David showed me his drawings. They are really good, and evince a large share of genius in the artistic line. They seemed pleased with my visit. Emma blest me with her hearty God-speed. I wished my family were here to enjoy their society. I can not think how men can be so base as to misrepresent a woman as the Brighamites have misrepresented her. A woman that has trained up her children in honest industry and virtue, so that none that know them can bring the first accusation against them, could not be otherwise than a truly noble, god-like woman. And let their cursed lies fall into the bosoms of those that have defamed her. The people of Nauvoo hold her in the highest esteem, and it only requires acquaintance to prove it to all.
Monday morning, December 29. I have bidden adieu to the people in Nauvoo. I have taken the last look at the ruins of the Nauvoo Temple. The people here have treated me with kindness, and they are sorry to part with me. I have been among them a week. They are good people, but not blessed with much of this world’s goods. Bro. Joseph is taking me out to Colchester in his wagon, the distance of thirty miles. We have some interesting conversation. He does not believe his father ever practiced polygamy, and he gives good reasons for it. He says there were several young women lived at his father’s house, but they were destitute of homes. They were not his father’s wives. If they had been it is probable some evidence would have been visible, especially as we are told that polygamy was instituted to bring forth a holy seed, and surely no means would have been taken to have prevented this result. But he knows that none of these females had children until 1846, which was nearly two years after Joseph’s death. As for Eliza Snow, it is reported that she had a child by Joseph; but he knows that she never bore children while she was in Nauvoo, which also was about two years after Joseph’s death. The Brighamites claim that Joseph has a son in Utah, but this is equally false.
The weather is very cold this morning. Farewell, Nauvoo; farewell, friends; but my mind wanders farther west than this, and I gaze upon the beauteous features of my Lizzie and our children and say, Farewell, ye loved ones; further still I wander from you, having received no news from you since I left twenty-four days ago; but I have made provisions for it to be sent on to me at Bishop Rogers’ when it arrives here. The roads are very muddy. The lands hold the wet so much longer here than in Western Iowa. Not a speck of ice is to be seen in the Mississippi River. We have traveled ten miles. We stopped, to dine at the house of some English people by the name of Stevenson. We have had a good dinner, and an oldfashioned English pork-pie was done justice to, also some apples. The people are not willing I should leave to-day, so I have to stay here and preach to-night. I and Bro. Joseph preached. It stormed, so that but few people attended.
December 30. We went to Colchester, or Coal Chester. We dined on the way at Joseph’s cousin’s, a man named Salisbury. Coal Chester is so named from the fact of its being a coal country. The land is more rolling than it is about ten or fourteen miles from Nauvoo. But the roads are very bad indeed, and the snow (for it snowed to-night for the first time on my journey from home,) made it very bad traveling. We slept at Mr. Milliken’s in Coal Chester. The man’s wife is a sister of the Martyr Joseph, and looks much like the portrait I have seen of her mother, and she is called by the same name, Lucy. They have a little child that has been burnt lately; they have to nurse it night and day.
December 31. This morning about five o’clock I bade farewell to Bro. Joseph and took the cars for Sandwich, about one hundred and fifty miles distant. But I have forgotten to say that a Scotchman by the name of Archibald Morton came to see us in Coal Chester, told Joseph he wanted to be baptized when it was convenient, and he gave me two dollars to help me on the way.
I was now alone again, wending my way from those I love. I stole a look at their portraits, and the look of love that I saw there cheered my lonely heart. It was filled with joy, and a prayer for their welfare from its sacred altar went up to heaven.
This country is a beautiful country indeed. More thickly settled than Iowa. It is necessary that a traveler should understand that there were various class carriages which vary in their prices. I did not know this, and had to pay fifty cents more than I should have done. There was no distinction made on the cars in Iowa, but there is here. I arrived in Sandwich about two o’clock in the afternoon. I heard that Bishop Rogers was in town. I found him. I bought me a new Bible for eighty-five cents,1 and a pocketbook for one dollar. Went home with the Bishop, who was right glad to see me. His heart is right in the work; but he had been cast down because he had learned that it was very doubtful whether Jason W. Briggs and Samuel Powers would go to England or not, on account of their temporal affairs. But his heart rejoiced when he found I was bent upon going unless the Lord stopped me, or permitted the Devil to do it, which I do not think he will do. I left home intending to go, and by his help I will go ere I return home, and he has answered my prayer hjtherto and opened my way before me, although I have never asked for a cent or even the privilege of a ride. My expenses to this place in toto are nineteen dollars and thirty-two cents; and I have now left thirty-two dollars and twenty-five cents; besides six dollars that I sent home by Bro. Blair. This was private gifts by strangers and a few known friends. Then surely the Lord has blessed me. But everybody wants me to stay; but I tell them my course is onward. If I was going to stay long on this side the ocean I would soon be at home. Duty calls me onward, and I must go, in order that I may soon return to my family or have them with me. When I have filled my mission Joseph
‘Some years ago Elder Derry presented us this Bible, and it is now before us, preserved as a much-prized memento. On the fly-leaf, in the well known handwriting of Elder Derry, is the following:
“Charles Derry’s Bible, December 31, 1862. Sandwich, Illinois.” Pollowing this in Pitmanic shorthand is the following verse, doubtless the composition of Elder Derry.—Editor.
Companion of my lonely hours,
Instructor of my soul,
I love to cull those fruits and flowers,
That in thy borders grow.
I love to drink thy precious streams
Of life, and light, and love;
And bask within thy heavenly beams,
That light my soul above. •
Oh, may I have that sacred guide,
By Jesus promised here;
And may I in thy laws abide,
And worship in thy fear;
That every truth may be revealed
Into my darkened mind;
And every good instruction sealed,
By his own power divine.
So shall my feet be ever found
In duty’s sacred path;
And my poor heart with joy abound
Through holy gospel faith. wants me to live either at Nauvoo or near it; and unless God orders otherwise I shall do so.
I met with Bro. Lanphear at Bishop Rogers’. I saw his daughter that is lately married to the Bishop’s son. She is a mere girl, about fifteen or sixteen, a very pretty and good girl, but too young for a wife. She will be worn out before she has half filled her days.
Well, I made them all acquainted with my jewels at home. Bro. Lanphear remembered them well; and then I retired to bed.
Thus ends my journal to this place, and thus ends the year 1862. My letters will no longer bear that date. It has passed with all our deeds; and oh, may they not be remembered against us. May God assist us to improve the new-born year. The past has witnessed the parting of myself from my wife and children to preach the gospel in its purity to my fellow men in England. May the present year behold the fulfillment of that mission with honor to myself and especially to the glory of God; and the meeting, happy meeting, that shall take place between me and my loved ones at home! May God bless them all; and may this journal comfort their hearts, and may they have a good New-year; for this I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
January 1, 1863. I am well and hope you are. I have had no letter since I left home. Oh, how I do wish I could get one from you. I have just taken a look at you.
(To be continued.)
I want no monument of stone or marble. Let my children plant at the head of my grave a pecan-tree and at the foot an old-fashioned walnut. And when these trees shall bear let the pecans and the walnuts be given out among the plain people of Texas so that they may plant them and make Texas a land of trees.—Governor Hogg.
BRIEF GLIMPSES INTO A CENTURY OF THE PAST.
NO. III.
https://books.google.com/books?id=4t4WAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA172&lpg=PA132&ots=K6didtt2X3&focus=viewport&dq=There+is+a+tradition+related+by+an+aged+Indian,+of+the+Stockbridge+tribe,+that+their+fathers+were+once+in+possession+of+a+%22Sacred+Book,%22+which+was+handed+down+from+generation+to+generation%3B+and+at+last+hid+in+the+earth,+since+which+time+they+had+been+under+the+feet+of+their+enemies.+But+these+oracles+were+to+be+restored+to+them+again%3B+and+then+they+would+triumph+over+their+enemies,+and+regain+their+rights+and+privileges&output=text#c_top
STOCKBRIDGE — A return of the natives — three descendants of the town’s first settlers — will highlight a special presentation by the Stockbridge Library Association on Tuesday.
The free program, open to the public at 6:30 p.m. in the renovated Main Street library, offers a glimpse of the town’s early history by members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians.
In the 1730s, Stockbridge was known as Indian Town, founded by Mohicans resettled from their Hudson River Valley homelands and known then as the “Stockbridge Indians.”
As European colonists arrived, the tribe was forced to move on, westward bound to the Oneida, N.Y., Indian lands, where they named their settlement Stockbridge. Next stop was the White River Valley of Indiana, where land they had been promised turned out to be occupied.
Arriving on the shores of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, the tribe members also named their newest settlement Stockbridge, but after losing the land, most of them moved to their current home within the Menominee Tribe’s 354,000 square-mile reservation, while others settled in Kansas and parts of Canada.
The Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation was formed in 1856, based in northern Wisconsin.
The federally recognized tribe of blended Mohican and Munsee natives, who are both Algonquian peoples, now includes 1,450 members.
They are governed by a seven-member Tribal Council elected by the community based on a 25,000-acre reservation, about the same size as the original land allotment in Stockbridge.
The tribe operates the North Star Mohican Resort and Casino in Shawano County.
Revisiting the legacy through personal recollections handed down from their forebears will be three tribal council members: Vice President Douglas Huck and council members Joe Miller and JoAnn Schedler, joined by Historic Preservation Officer Bonney Hartley.
“It’s home, you feel your ancestors and it’s a wonderful feeling,” said Schedler in a phone interview from her office at the Wisconsin reservation.
Schedler, who has visited Stockbridge several times, added that “I always want to go back to our homeland.”
Her ancestors include Chief John Konkapot, an original settler of Stockbridge, whom she called “a man of great decision-making, respected by the town, a good man who gives me pride.” He is buried at the town cemetery.
“Many of our ancestors are buried in Stockbridge,” she said, “so we’re very connected to what was our territory. It’s a beautiful place, our ancestors will always be there.”
A retired Army nurse, Schedler will discuss tribal veterans who served with distinction in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and later conflicts.
She will also report on the tribal government’s economic, health and educational support programs for the 550 Stockbridge-Munsees who live on the isolated, rural reservation and other members nearby.
“We’re pretty much a self-sustaining, sovereign nation,” Schedler explained, noting that 380 tribe members are employed by the North Star Casino and Resort. “We’re doing really well economically, but we know we have to work hard to make sure we have jobs for our people.”
Revenue from the casino, hotel, golf course and several other businesses owned by the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe is “a huge economic support for us,” she acknowledged. The reservation’s health center and wastewater treatment facility were funded by the casino, whose revenue “comes back to our land and our people,” Schedler added.
Hartley, a tribe member, is based in the Tribal Historic Preservation Department established last year at Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y., an area of early Mohican settlements.
For at least 9,000 years, Hartley noted, the Mahicans had been based in villages east of the Hudson River. But as European settlers moved into the region during the 1600s, much of the tribe was relocated to the mission town of Stockbridge before enduring forced removals to the west.
Former Stockbridge Police Chief Rick Wilcox has been researching for the tribe by transcribing land deeds from 1750-1818 stored at the Berkshire Middle Registry of Deeds in Pittsfield.
Wilcox said that is a seventh-generation descendant of Isaac Ball, who purchased 100 acres from the Stockbridge Indians for 70 pounds lawful silver money in 1781. Part of that land is now the Chesterwood Museum property.
As chronicled by Hartley, the land deeds include the years when the tribe was “missionized” in Stockbridge, fought in the Revolutionary War and ” was rapidly subjected to pressures yet again to vacate the land to colonists.”
After tribal members were forced from the more than 23,000 acres that had been promised to them,” she wrote, “they signed land deeds as they left the town. The transactions recorded in history in these land deeds make the tribe’s dispossession of land very clear.”
Wilcox, a longtime friend of the tribe, has transcribed about half of the 240 deeds located so far.
Hartley pointed out that the Hudson River was originally named Mahicannituck, meaning “the waters that are never still.” The native American group derived its name from the river as the People of the Waters that are Never Still.
Shedler acknowledged “a sense of loss” by tribe members forced out of their original homelands. “But it happened to all tribal peoples, every tribe on the East Coast especially, between wars, devastation of disease, policies of the government and new settlers.”
“But we are still here today,” she pointed out. “I’m overjoyed about my ancestors, I would not be here without their perseverance, their ability to survive.”
Contact Clarence Fanto at 413-637-2551.
If you go …
What: Stockbridge Library Association annual meeting, featuring a presentation by members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday; free, open to the public, with refreshments
Where: Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives, 46 Main St.
Information: 413-298-5501
THE LIFE PRESIDENT EDWARDS BY S. E. DWIGHT. NEW YORK: Â G. & C. & H. CARVILL. 1830.
“Rev. And Dear Sir,
“After many hindrances, delays, and interruptions, Divine Providence has so far favoured me, and smiled on my design of writing on the Arminian controversy, that I have almost finished the first draught of what I first intended; and am now sending the proposals for subscription to Boston to be printed; with a letter of Mr. “Foxcroft, to send thirty of those proposals to Mr. M’Laurin, with a letter to him; in which I have desired him to deliver half of them
* Sir Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, who had the MS Letters of Mr. Edwards to Dr. Erskine in his possession, while writing his Life of the latter, observes, “It was not, however, till the month of July, 1752, that he [Mr. Edwards] ap”pears to have resumed his studies, on the subject of Free-will; for, on the 7th “of that month, he writes Dr. Erskine, that he hoped soon to be at leisure, to re”s«me his design.” He then adds, ” Whatever opinion may be held, with re”gard to Mr. Edwards’ argument, it must appear astonishing to those, who “are capable of appreciating the difficulty of his subject, that, in nine months ,’from the date of this letter, (on the 14th of April, 1753,) he could write Dr. “Erskine, that he had almost finished the first draft of trhat he originally intend”ed.” The passage, in Mr. Edwards’ letter of Nov. 23, 1752, announcing, that he began to write in August, but was soon broke off; and had not, from that time, been able to put pen to paper, about the matter; and that he hoped, that God, in his providence, would favour him with an opportunity to prosecute the design; obviously escaped Sir Henry’s notice. If he regarded it as astonishing, that Mr. Edwards should have been able to write the work in nine months; what would have been his views of the subject, if, after first reading the details of the Stockbridge controversy, he had then discovered, that it was written, not in nine months, but in four and a half.
“Stockbridge affairs, relating to the Indians are, in many respects, under a very dark cloud. The affair of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, here, is almost at an end, as I have given a more particular account to Mr. M’Laurin. The Commissioners in Boston, I believe, are discouraged about it, and have thoughts of sending and settling a missionary in their own Country. The Correspondents of the Society in Scotland, have also determined to send a missionary there, and have chosen Mr. Gordon, a tutor of the College at Newark, for that end. Mr. Gordon is expected here at the beginning of May, to live at my house with Mr. Hawley, in order to learn the Iroquois language with him. It is probable that he and Mr. Hawley will go up, and spend the summer, in the Iroquois country.
“The Correspondents have also a disposition, that Mr. Brainerd should remove, with his whole congregation of Indians, to settle somewhere in the country of the Six Nations; and he himself and his Indians, are ready for it. ‘Tis probable that something will be done, to prepare the way for it; and at least to see, whether the way can be prepared, or any door opened for it, this summer. Some of these Indians have a great desire, that the Gospel should be introduced and settled in their country.
“Some of the Stockbridge Indians have of late been under considerable awakenings,—two or three elderly men, that used to be vicious persons. My family is now in usual health. My daughter Burr, in New-Jersey, has been very ill, all the winter past. We last heard from her about five weeks ago; when it was hoped there was some amendment.
“My wife joins with me, in respectful and affectionate salutations to you and Mrs. Erskine. Desiring a remembrance in your prayers,
“I am, dear Sir,
“Your affectionate brother,
“and obliged friend and servant,
“jonathan Edwards.”
Mahican Indian Villages
The villages of the Mahican, so far as their names have been recorded, were: Aepjin
Kaunaumeek (Stockbridge)
Maringoman’s Castle
Monemius
Potic
Scaticook (3 villages in Dutchess and Rensselaer cos., N. Y., and Litchfield co., Conn.)
Schodac
Wiatiac
Ailtmeet
Winooskeek
Wyantenuc
- Additional Mahican Indian Resources
Source: Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
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