Some Background of Early Baptist
Missions in Kansas, Based on Letters in the Pratt Collection of
Manuscripts and Documents by Esther Clark Hill. Kansas Historical Quarterly, (February,
1932 Vol. 1, No. 2), pages 89 to 103. Transcribed by lhn; HTML
editing by Tod Roberts, digitized with permission of the Kansas
State Historical Society.
A PACKAGE of letters, some of
them nearly a century old, that have lain in the vault of the Kansas
Historical Society for almost twenty-five years, are an integral
part of the foundation of the Baptist church in Kansas, if not its
very corner stone. These letters belong to what is known as the
Pratt collection, and those of the first decade (1837-1847) are
mostly from the families and friends of the two young missionaries,
John Gill Pratt and his wife, Olivia Evans Pratt. [1] All are of a
deeply religious nature, but there is in the letters of Amos Evans,
father of Mrs. Pratt, and Elizabeth Pratt, mother of John Gill
Pratt, a keen note of parental solicitude that in places rises to
real anguish in their contemplation of the perils and privations of
the far-distant new country which seemed to have swallowed up their
children.
At the time these letters
were written the Indian missions were still in the pioneer stage in
the United States. They had only a bare foothold in the Indian
country to which the eastern tribes were being removed under the
authority of the act of May 26, 1830. This location, selected by
Isaac McCoy and two other commissioners for such tribes, lay west of
Missouri and Arkansas, and between the Platte and Red rivers. Of
emigrant tribes, the Shawnees had been the first to come, settling
south of the Kaw river, just over the western Missouri boundary,
directly after the treaty with the Kanzas and Osages in 1825. The
*Delawares followed them, locating in the fork of the Kaw and
Missouri rivers some five years later; and the Sac and Fox tribe,
about the same time, took up land
1. John Gill Pratt was born
September 9 1814, at Hingham, Mass., and after a period in Wakefield
Academy, Reading, he graduated from Andover Seminary 1836,
completing the entire course, including the theological. On March
29, 1837, he married Olivia Evans, of South Reading, and they almost
immediately started for the Indian Territory, where Pratt was to
succeed Jotham Meeker as missionary-printer at Shawanoe Baptist
Mission. In 1844 he left that point to take charge of the
Stockbridge Baptist Mission, which was abandoned in 1848, Pratt
going directly to the Delaware Baptist Mission. He was made United
States Indian agent to the Delawares in 1864, serving until 1868,
when the tribe removed into the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
Mrs. Pratt was closely associated with all his missionary work, and
after his death, April 23, 1900, she survived him only two years.
(89)
90 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
north of the Delawares. The
Kickapoos came in 1832 and held their ground between the Delawares
and the Sac and Fox. And the Pottawatomies, coming in 1837, were the
new settlers in what is now Miami and Linn counties (removing in
1846 to the lands northwest that have shrunken to their present
holdings in Jackson county). This was the distribution of the more
important tribes, up to about 1840, in what is now northeastern
Kansas.
It was in 1817 that Isaac
McCoy, at his own request, had been appointed the first Baptist
missionary to the Indians. [2] His first charge was among the Miamis
in Indiana, and later the Carey and Thomas stations among the
Pottawatomies in Michigan. During his missionary years he had drawn
to himself a group of younger men who, under his direction, were to
lay the groundwork of the Baptist missions in the Missouri valley.
The Shawanoe Baptist mission, opened July 7, 1831, was in charge of
Johnston Lykins. [3] It was a log structure and stood about five
miles of the west of the Shawanoe Methodist mission (built about the
same time) in Johnson county, and an almost equal distance from the
Shawanoe Quaker Mission, established in 1834, a mile southeast of
Merriam, Kan.
In 1837 Ira D. Blanchard
founded the Delaware Baptist Mission, where the town of Edwardsville
(on the interurban line between Kansas City and Lawrence), in
Wyandotte county, now stands. [4] (This mission building was swept
away in the flood of 1844 and was rebuilt in 1848, by John G. Pratt,
on higher ground.)
2. Isaac McCoy, government
surveyor, missionary, preacher, was born June 13, 1784, in Fayette
county, Pennsylvania. He married Christianna Polke, October 6, 1803,
and she was ever after that associated with his missionary life.
After his first years as missionary to the Miami's and other tribes
in Indiana he entered the service in Michigan at the Carey and
Thomas stations leaving them to establish missions in the newly
opened Indian Territory in the Missouri valley, after the passage of
the act of May 26, 1830. It was McCoy's idea to give the Indians a
permanent home in the territory, with a seat of government and
eventually ask for admission of the territory as a state. He was
known as "the Apostle Paul of the Baptist denomination to the
Indians of Kansas Territory"and his work among them continued until
the last four years of his life, which were spent in editing a
Baptist magazine at Louisville, Ky., where he died, June 21, 1846.
3. Johnston Lykins was born April
15, 1800 in Franklin county, Virginia, and his association with
Isaac McCoy began when he was 19 as teacher among the Weas and
Kickapoos on the Wabash river. He followed McCoy into Michigan and
married Delilah McCoy, February 27, 1827. She lived but a few years.
Lykins Founded the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, in the Indian
Territory, in 1831, and later did much translating of the Indian
language. He was associated with Jotham Meeker in the publication of
the first newspaper in Kansas, in the Indian language, the Shawanoe
Sun, which lasted from 1836 until 1842. Lykins was one of the
founders of Kansas City, Kan., building its first mansion" and being
its first full-term mayor. He was a practicing physician at the time
of his death in Kansas City, Mo., August 15, 1876.
4. Ira D. Blanchard first entered
missionary work as a teacher under Isaac McCoy, in the Indian
Territory in 1833. In 1835 he married Mary Walton, a missionary
teacher, and they founded the Delaware Baptist Mission, at Grinter's
crossing of the Kaw river, in 1837. He did a valuable work on the
Indian alphabet and syllabary, and in his translation of the Harmony
of the Gospel, the original compilation of Rev. Zeisberger, of the
Moravian mission farther south. The Blanchards left the missionary
field in January, 1848, and retired to a farm in Iowa.
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
91
Jotham Meeker, [5] who had been a
convert to missions under the preaching of Robert Simerwell [6] in
the East, had arrived with him from Michigan at the Shawanoe Mission
in 1833. Meeker was leaving that station in 1837 to found a similar
one among the Ottawas on the Marais des Cygnes (Osage) river, south,
where the town of Ottawa now stands. But he stayed at the Shawanoe
Mission, along with another Baptist missionary, David B. Rollin (who
seems to have been but a transient there), long enough to welcome
the young Pratts and induct. them into the work they had undertaken.
[7]
They had decided on this
step only after much agonizing heart- searching and prayer, as is
evidenced by their mutual letters. A sense of solemnest
responsibility to God and man attended them. In a letter from
Reading, Mass., dated October 5, 1836, Olivia Evans writes to young
John G. Pratt at Andover Seminary (the same state)
"In regard to the state of
my own mind, since I concluded to go with you to the far west, I
think I can say I have enjoyed great peace."
And on December 21, 1836,
from the Charlestown Female Seminary, a letter from her expresses
the wish that
"that western valley become
indeed the cultivated garden of the Lord. And shall we be the
unworthy instruments of bearing these glad tidings to them? I feel
it to be a glorious privilege to labour for God. I know that if we
would labour among the Indians we must forego the enjoyment of
friends and home, and deny ourselves-take up the cross daily."
No responsive letter from
the sober young student at Andover Seminary appears in the
collection; but her own to him, January 20, 1837, bears witness that
he shared her exaltation:
5. Jotham Meeker,
missionary-printer, was born November 8, 1804, in Hamilton county,
Ohio, and received his training as printer in Cincinnati. In the
summer of 1825 he came under the influence of Robert Simerwell, a
Baptist missionary to the Indians in Michigan, who was touring the
East, and the two were associated at the Carey and Thomas stations
in Michigan until 1833, when they both came to the Indian Territory.
In September, 1830, Jotham Meeker married Eleanor Richardson, a
missionary teacher, in Cincinnati, and the two immediately took up
work at the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, leaving it in 1837 in charge
of the Pratts. In 1832 he began a daily entry in his remarkable
journal, which has survived him, and kept it up until a week before
his death at Ottawa, Kan., January 12, 1855. Mrs. Meeker, whose life
was devoted with his to the cause of missions, survived him until
March 15, 1856. His system of "writing Indian" opened a new world to
those in his charge, and he did much patient translating for them.
6. Robert Simerwell's association
with missions, under Isaac McCoy, began in 1824, when Simerwell came
to the Carey station, in Michigan. On March 17, 1825, he married
Fannie Goodridge, a missionary teacher there. Simerwell was a
practical blacksmith and farmer, and turned his hand cheerfully to
these duties in the missionary field. He spent some time in the
early 1830's at the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, but later devoted his
time wholly to the Pottawatomies, beginning at the mission five
miles west of Topeka, in 1848. This is said to have been the
equivalent of a modern training school. It is claimed the youngest
daughter of the Simerwells was the first white girl born in Kansas.
The family has several descendants in Shawnee county.
7. David B. Rollin and his wife
were workers among the Creek Indians in 1834, and following some
disturbances in that nation they came to the McCoy home in Westport,
November 4, 1836. They spent some time at Shawanoe Mission, being
there on the arrival of the Pratts in 1837. Rollin was then in
failing health and left missionary work in 1839, dying at the home
of his wife's father in Michigan, April 11, the same year.
92 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
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"I rejoice in those feelings
of devotion to [the] cause of God, which you express. I think much
of our usefulness as well as happiness depends upon the state of
feeling with which we enter upon this great work, and how very
important [it is] that we should be entirely consecrated to the
service of God. O how unworthy am I to engage in such a glorious
work. How weak and insufficient am I in and of myself; but God is my
helper."
In the meantime John G.
Pratt had received a letter from Jotham Meeker, which he mentions in
writing to Olivia Evans, January 31, 1837:
"He speaks of the resolution
of the board to release him from his present field of labor on our
arrival, with much feeling. `We thanked God and took courage.' . . .
We [the Pratts] are . . . confidently expected soon.
With all my courage the work
looks big with importance, and full of momentous consequences. I
feel sensibly we shall both of us need divine assistance in every
step of this great undertaking. Sometimes temptations strong and
trying may fall in our way. On account of them shall we abandon the
cause? . . . I hope you remember me at the throne of grace, where
alone our mutual hope of success is centered."
he letter concludes
unemotionally, "Yours in truth."
Before Olivia answers this
serious communication she has received a letter dated December 11,
1836, from Mary Walton Blanchard, wife of Ira D. Blanchard, both in
charge of the Delaware Baptist Mission, which is particularly
illuminative of the missionary situation at that time:
"I have just received an
intimation . . . that it is possible that I may have you for a
neighbor in the spring. I do not know as more cheering inteligence
could be received than that there is a sure prospect of a printer
for Shawennoe, not even that of a much-needed laborer at this [the
Delaware] station, for it does seem altogether wrong that brother
Meeker, after having spent six years of hard labor in acquiring a
knowledge of the Ottawa language, should be kept from them [the
Ottawa Indians] by work that another could just as well perform
while there is probably no man upon earth that can, without spending
much time in conquering an unwritten language, fill his place among
a people with whom he can converse and over whom he has gained an
influence.
"I presume that you are
expecting that it is at a distance from the abodes of civilized
beings, that you must be deprived of all the conveniences and many
of the comforts of life; but it is not so; it is but four miles to
West Port, to which place steamboats commenced running last summer.
When I came here, it was a dense harsh thicket with only two
buildings on the site of the town, one of which was a P. O. I do not
know the number of inhabitants it contains but there are at least
four dry goods and grocery stores, any of which for a draft on the
board are willing to put their goods at 30 per cent advance on their
cost, which brings them to about St. Louis retail prices. The rooms
that Mr. M[eeker] ocopies are a large one below and a small one
(which was fited up for the press but not being large enough for two
to work in, it has
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
93
been moved to the schoolhouse)
and a half-story chamber with a small fireplace. I mention these
things more to gratify your mother than yourself, for I hope that no
such consideration would move you in your purpose, but perhaps you
would like to know what things you cannot obtain here. Among these
are beds and cabinet furniture, except at an enormous price. We have
all procured ours at Cincinnati, but iron and crockery ware are
plenty almost al kinds of clothing will be more easily obtained than
to take more than a present suply as I know by experience that
trunks are a great care in traveling; one thing however is very
scarce woolen yarn I know not what I should have done had not our
Ohio friends suplied us, but the setlers, most of whom are from the
South, are begining to find that our winters are too cold for cotton
or silk stockings, and are trying to raise sheep; our Indians talk
of trying it, but wolves are too plenty, it will not however be so
bad with you as it is here. We are 16 miles from Shawnee and the Kaw
is i/4 mile wide between us, and the feriage for a single person 50
cents and for a wagon 2 dollars yet we are far better situated as to
obtaining supplies than I had expected to be. I should think this
the most healthy place I ever was acquainted with, this is a great
thing for without health we cannot do much. There has been no
regular school either here or among the Shawwenoes since I have been
here but our's is to be commenced very soon. It seems as though
little had been done here but what can one family do alone? Yet
something has been accomplished; many have learned to read their own
language and nearly half of the gospels' is ready for the press and
the rest of it in a state of forwardness . . . . I feel anxious to
see an English school commenced here; but I hardly see how it is to
be kept up; it will be impossible for Sylvia or I to be much in
school as you know that my health is not very good and I have a
babe, and we shall have to cook dinners for all the children and
ought to board at least three orphans children of deceased members
of the church, who will otherwise be left without instruction as the
relitives live at so great a distance that they cannot come daily;
nor would it be satisfactory to the Indians at present for a female
to teach as many who design to attend are young men. If Mr.
B[lanchard] is confined to a school, who shall finish the
translation of the gospel? Who shall visit from family to family as
he has done? he will it is true have some time left for to devote to
these subjects, but each seem to demand all his time. Oh, that some
one of the hundreds of young men who have professed to give
themselves to the Lord might feel it duty and be permited to labor
for the poor Delawares. If they are needed more in other places how
great indeed must be the want of labourers! . . . I have an
opportunity to send to the ofice this morning and think of nothing
but shoes, which you perhaps would think of, I thought I took a good
suply but now have reason to regret I did not take more, there are
plenty to be had, but I will not say of what quality."
Under date of February 8,
1837, Olivia comments happily upon the letter:
"It is indeed gratifying to
hear from one so near the field of our future labors."
And in a very feminine "P.
S." she writes:
94 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
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"The young ladies of the
seminary . . . frequently say `O, I wish I was going with you.'
Yes, say[s] one yesterday,
`My soul exults for your happy fate thus to give all to Christ. Go.
I would not wrest the privilege from you And though Nature frowns
and foes surround, yet it will be sweet to suffer for Christ.'"
From Reading, March 2, 1837,
Olivia writes to John Pratt, still at Andover Seminary. For all its
high courage and resolution there is an undercurrent of youthful
heartache at the prospect of leaving her familiar surroundings:
"Having bid adieu to the
loved ones at Charlestown I have returned to my own dear home. I
felt that the dear friends in C. were bound to my heart by the
strong ties of affection, but I knew not how strong till the hour of
separation arrived. If the ties of nature are stronger than those of
friendship, I know not how painful it will be to rend them. I will
not however, be overanxious about the parting hour . . . . Since my
return, friends and home seem so dear that the wish to always stay
with them has sometimes half intruded itself into my mind. But six
hundred millions of precious souls are perishing . . . and shall I
hesitate to leave friends and home, however dear, if I can in any
way be instrumental to leading any to the knowledge of the truth? .
. . . The glory of God and the salvation of these poor perishing
souls is infinitely more important than my own personal feelings.
Christ . . . is entitled to my all, and He shall have it. . . I
cannot contemplate this great work upon which we are so soon to
enter .without emotions of deep concern and intense anxiety; its
responsibilities cause me to tremble . . it is arduous enough to
task to the uttermost the noblest energies of man . . . . I have
been told that it is indeed impracticable to go among those cruel
and revengeful Indians who thirst for the blood of the white
man-that it is an insalubrious clime that will surely deprive me of
health and prevent my doing any good . . . that a mother's love is
too dear to be sold for any other . . `yet none of these things move
me, neither count I my life dear unto myself . . . For this glorious
object would I live, for this labor, and for this die." . .
A scant "P. S." only is
devoted to personal matters: "He [father] will attend to the
publishment of our intentions, if you desire it." (Probably the
publishing of the old-time "banns.")
This is the last of the
letters of the collection that passed between Olivia Evans and John
G. Pratt. The diary of Jotham Meeker (May 11, 1837) speaks briefly
of their advent at the Shawnee Mission: "Mr. and Mrs. Pratt arrive
from Massachusetts."
The slip of a girl who, with
the young printer-and-theological student had "left all for Christ,"
was yet to "learn to bear the disappointments and trials of life
with patience," as she had written him, December 27, 1836, and to
find among "the cruel and revengeful Indians" some of the warmest
friends of her after life. She is
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
95
said to have been a most
attractive young woman at the time of her marriage, red-cheeked,
black-eyed and with her hair worn in ringlets, as was the fashion
for many of the young women of that day.
A picture of her that has
come down with the collection shows her as she became in her last
years-the black eyes still sparkling, and with glints of the humor
in them for which she is said to have been noted, though none of it
appears in her letters. The hair that was worn in ringlets on her
wedding day is softly white and parted in the middle, above a face
that all the sorrows of the lean missionary years could not make
less than lovely. For she had borne seven children, at the different
missions, and four of them had died-little Ann, the first, and
Johnny and Eddie, all in childhood; only Lucius, the second born,
had lived to manhood. He married Nannie, the daughter of Charles
Journeycake.
It was June 24, 1837, before
John G. Pratt made an informal report to the society that had sent
him west, as its missionary-printer. Under that date he writes to
Dr. Lucius Bolles, corresponding secretary, describing a fairly
uneventful journey, and then proceeds to affairs nearer at hand:
"We met with a very kind
reception at the mission house from our friends, Messrs. Rollin,
Meeker and their families. Though much disappointed at the
appearance of things in this wilderness and benighted country, it is
agreeably so. The location of the mission buildings is elligible;
being a little removed from the immense Prarie, health must be
retained much better than in the more marshy and timbered lands. I
have found scarcely one object to meet the expectations I had
previously formed, except the great moral destitution. We are
located where the principles of the Gospel are much wanting; and it
is truly painful to us to notice the stupidity of these `sons of the
forest,' in the reception of religious instruction. How was my heart
pained the first Sabbath after we reached this place, to see so few
attend religious exercises; four or five Indians, only, being
present. Their inattention and disregard to the word preached was
lamentable in the extreme. While in the room, instead of listening,
they were diverting themselves with some object, which uniformaly
kept them engaged; and when that ceased to engage their curiosity,
they would rise and walk out of doors a few minutes and then return;
all their actions seemed to say-`We desire not a knowledge of his
ways.' And though faithfully informed of the blessedness of
religion, and the love of Christ, as manifested on the cross towards
others; by actions they replied `we will not have this man to reign
over us.' We have previously felt for the condition of those without
the Gospel, and destitute of its sanctifying influences, but when we
now behold how degraded they are, and how unhappy in time and
eternity they must be, we pity their case; we rejoice that God has
directed our steps to this land of darkness, and pray that as those
who love the blessed Saviour, we may shine as lights amid the
Surrounding midnight; that these poor souls wandering they know not
where,
96 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
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may be induced to embrace the
same Saviour, and become heirs, also, of the kingdom of Heaven. We
feel that there is here abundant opportunity to try the effect of
example; and excellent situation to live religion and show by works
that there is a reality in the doctrines we profess to believe and
teach them.
"In many respects we are
tried, but not discouraged, though so far from home and earthly
friends, we feel to adhere the closer to our friend in heaven, who
we find in truth 'sticketh closer than a brother.' Leaving, as we
have done, at an early age the land that gave us birth, and the
friends and other enjoyments we had ever been accustomed to hold
dear, it may not seem strange to you that we often think, and speak
of what we have left behind; it is hard to realize how great the
distance is which separates us from home, but [we] feel happy in the
reflection that we are no farther from heaven and our kind parent
above. We never for a moment suffer ourselves to be carried away
with reflections on our present condition in comparison with what it
was in Massachusetts; though deprived of many enjoyments we then
possessed, still Christ is ours, and in him all our wants are
supplied, and every needed comfort is granted us from his liberal
hand; so that while health and the prospect of usefulness are ours,
we remain happy and content.
"Brother Meeker left on the
17th for the Ottawa settlement with his family; the man who moved
them has just returned and says they arrived in health and spirits.
The missionaries are generally in health except my wife, who has
been feeble and billious ever since we arrived. We have had for
several weeks past almost daily much rain, accompanied with heavy
thunder; everything is so wet and decaying, fevers are much feared.
Whenever the sun appears, it is so scorching as to be almost
unendurable in the open air. My health has uniformly been good thus
far.
"I have been so much engaged
since my arrival in preparing to fill Bro. Meeker's place, it has
kept me out of the printing office more than was disirable. There
has for some time past, been much work in the office, so that a man
employed by Mr. Meeker before my arrival, is still with me,
assisting in printing Mr. McCoy's Register, which is nearly
finished.
Yrs. JOHN G. PRATT.''
This seems to be the letter
proper; but. there is some additional matter on the last page:
"We have found much
difficulty in preparing to keep house since Mr. Meeker's departure,
every article is exorbitantly high, both of furniture and food. So
that of the money left after paying for our journey we have spent 50
dollars for the house. We have purchased but few articles with the
above sum, as few as we could get along with, and have nearly
exhausted our first half year's salary, still our want of necessary
articles in the house is very great. Much is needed to be done both
in the house and printing office, before the winter months set in,
to make them comfortable. Mr. Meeker feeling unsettled as to his
stay at Shawanoe, has neglected repairs; the buildings all being
made of log and the space in between each log filled with nothing
but mud, the mud has fallen out, leaving large cracks for the
admission even of rabbits. We have already been thoroughly drenched
while in bed at night several times, and it cannot be conducive to
health, especially as slender as is
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
97
that of my wife. It should be
fixed with lime mortar, and in regard to it I hope you will remark,
before winter sets in. The following is the state of my money
affairs with the Board
Received for myself and wife
before leaving Boston.............$115
Do. to defray expenses to this place
.....................................185
Do. of Mr. Smith in Cincinnati an addition
of...........................50
____
$350
Expense of the journey was
...............................................$166
Paid for feathers at Louisville, Ky
..........................................29
For furniture and so forth at his
place......................................50
____
$245
In an unsigned, undated
letter, evidently written about the same time, and to Dr. Bones, the
young missionary speaks of the new field darkly, as "a land
shaddowing with death."
"We are frequently compelled
to lament that so little is or can be done for the religious
advancement of these Indians. We sometimes think our usefulness
might have been greater had we remained among friends at home, but
we do not cherish such feelings; if God has sent us to thin part. of
his vineyard and bid us occupy it, here we desire to remain until he
in his wise providence shall make it plainly our duty to remove. We
do not feel ourselves alone; Bro. Rollin and family are the kindest
of friends; in their society and council we enjoy much. We look to
them as our earthly guides in all matters of doubt, as those who
have been over that part of the path of life which remains for us
yet to travel.
"On the Sabbath, we as
families, have resolved ourselves into a Bible class which we attend
to after the public services are over. We feel happy in our
situation, notwithstanding [we are] away from home and friends. The
health of Mrs. Pratt has not been as good as formerly since our
arrival; and so many persons frequently being with us considerably
increases her labor. Many friends in Mass. have predicted we shall
soon become unreconciled to our condition, because we were young,
this has often been mentioned; but while Christ remains our hope;
while we love him and his cause; while a field of usefulness remains
open at this place we apprehand no disinclination to remain will be
manifested by us."
There is an appealingly
boyish anxiety in the "P. S.": "Will the magazine be sent to us?"
Possibly this was some Baptist periodical.
A letter from the mother of
John G. Pratt is a chronicle of the village happenings since the
departure of the young missionaries, and voices a concern for their
welfare:
"WOBURN, [Mass.] July 31,
1837.
"My Dear With deep feelings
of emotion I now sit down to address an absent Child although Huge
Mountains and deep valies separate us in person yet we have the
privilege of communeicating our thoughts on paper and convey them to
each other but their is another and still greater-we can meet at a
Throne of Grace and there ask those blessings with will stand
98 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
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in dayly need, in wich you share
largely among your friends here. I cannot but rejoice that you have
been permited to arive to your destined station without any accident
after you left we heard of a great many Steamboat disasters wich
caused me some anxiety but learning that most of them started on the
Sabbath I was confident that you were not among them . . . . I will
endeavor to give you an acount of the afaires here as for myself I
have a verry pleasant situation and find Woburn people friendly and
inteligent Louisa is with me yet [a daughter] Harrison [possibly a
son] is still in North Reading has had but little Business . . .
they have a son wich was born the 27 of May Olivia [Harrison's wife]
got along verry comfortable for 2 weeks . . . Harrison at her
solicitation and without the consent of her Nurs prepared and gave
her some Bacon wich distressed her verry much she went into fits and
continued to have them for 24 hours and did not sleep all that time
continually talking upon every subject except religion she would
repeatedly say John [G. Pratt] is Married is he not well I did not
go to his wedding at other times she would say I did not have any of
his Cake. she has since been to W [oburn] and appears very much
herself they have a fine little boy they think of nameing John Gill
or John Harrison I supose you will have no objection . . . . Wee
attended meeting yesterday Saw George Evans [brother of Olivia Evans
Pratt and a strong Abolitionist] he came to W [oburn] to attend an
Antislaverry Lecture by W [endell] Philps he said he had not
received a letter from Olivia he said he suposed you had not got
your lugage yet was one reason . . . as neare as I can learn
Olivia's mother did not break her heart about her [Olivia] leaving
Brother Silas Richardson he called to see me the other day says that
the Printing Business is verry dull. Mr. Gould has dismissed most of
his printers . . . Mr. Clough has no painting . . . he has ben to
Boston to seek imployment but could find none . . . Capn. West has
failed and Esq. Funnall [?] Posted down to Martha's Vinyard to atach
his property but it was all out of his power to find anything . . .
W. O. Johnson your late teacher and principal of the Lattin Academy
is no more . . . . Caleb Shute has resigned the office in the
Sabbath School Depository and ben out of Business for 3 months . . .
I do not know any one that does not Complain of the times Business
of all kinds is stagnated Many that were rich have become poor and
those that were poor have become distressed it verryly [is] serious
times here in a Pecuniary point you are better of [f ] where you are
. . . I have ben thus particular because you wanted to know all the
particulars now I want you in return to tell me all the particulars
and wheather you have got cured of the dispepsia and how Olivia's
health is I feel sometimes that you were to young to go so far to
labour among the Indians wich are so savage and a climate so
uncongenial? I then ask myself the question was it an uncalled for
Sacrifice . . . I have lived nearly 60 years in the pleasantest part
of our Country, but have found it thus far but a vaste howling
wilderness and a desart to the aspiring mind wich believes nothin
true but Heaven.
"Yesterday we attended the
ordination of Mr. Hoper and there I saw your Father and Mother Evans
from them I received a letter to read from Olivia to Emily Mr.
E[vans] said . . . he was verry anxious about you on
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
99
account of your leakey house he
said he should see the board and have Something done
"I will now give you some
information concerning our ministering brethren. Mr. Sayer of South
Reading has ben found guilty of kissing his maidservant it took
place some time since but of late the Editor of the Trumpit was
applied to to publish it he desirous to know the fact aplyed to
Sayer to know the truth of the story he acknowledged it but remarked
that it was more disgraceful than wicked it was not published but
the story is going the rounds amongh the Universalists the Church
However has settled it with him and forgiven . . . Another case is
that of Mr. Harris of Malden he has come out a Universalist and
publickly acknowledged it before his Congregation and the
consequence was that his people dismised him he has got up quite a
flowerishing high Scool in M[alden] has contracted for a valuable
Apperatus for the use of it he has also applied to several young
ladies to become his Wife but has hitherto ben unsuccessful . . .
Amasa [Brown, her son-in-law] is here he thinks much of you and
prays fervantly for you. Louisa [Brown's wife] says she often
imagines herself where you are and looks in to see what you are
doing your Aunt Otterman wishes to be remembered to you with her
best wishes and kind regards she thinks much of you Aunt Shute and
family visited me this summer they tender the same love give my best
love to Olivia and tell her to rite me verry soon I hope you will be
suported under your various hardships and tryals to this end you
must look to God he a lone is able to give you strength eaqual to
your day to him I commend you ELIZABETH PRATT to John G. Pratt."
The faint warning of the
struggle to come a quarter of a century later, in the reference to
Wendell Phillips' antislavery lecture, deepens in tone in the
letters from George Evans himself, several years later. But on the
whole the New England correspondents were more concerned with the
Indian perils to which their young family in the new territory were
subjected. Elizabeth Pratt's letters, in their fidelity to homely
detail, must have somewhat appeased the human hunger for home news;
and for all their rather bleakly maternal note the "deep feelings of
emotion" are there.
A calamitous strain runs
through much of the eastern news, reflecting an economic depression
similar to that of our own times. An undated letter with those of
1837, from Catherine Wellington, contains the intelligence that
"L. Wyman of Woburn has
faild and commenced bisness again at Hudson faild again and tryed to
hang himself B. Brooks in company with Darius has taken the
bankruptcy law and now they are looking him up, so you see we all
have a share."
Another letter of this
period, undated and signed only "M. L. L.," swings away from the
religious line a bit in confessing:
"I suppose that some time
hence I may leave the home of my youth and cast my lot with another,
but do you keep this hint & not let any one know
100 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
that ever I gave it to you. that
person is a relative although a distant one, a person that you never
saw, my friends like him. there may be something to prevent on
further acquaintance, but I hope my heavenly father will direct me."
There is a marginal note: "Burn this." O faithless Olivia!
Another letter from young
Pratt to Dr. Bolles, September 22, 1837, complains of receiving no
word from the Society to which he was responsible, and contains the
news that Mrs. Pratt "has been very sick for some weeks past."
"The disease appears to have
been brought on" he writes "by the change of climate and working
beyond her strength . . . . The labor is too severe for her feeble
constitution and help is not easily obtained `in these ends of the
earth."'
Again the appealing
postscript: "Can we have the magazine?"
Before Dr. Bolles has
answered this, the third of John G. Pratt's letters to him, in the
collection, comes one to his "Beloved Children" from Amos Evans,
under date, Reading, October 23, 1837:
"We have heard some thing
respecting the hostile appearance of the Osage Indians" the anxious
father says. "We hope & pray that the Lord will preserve you from
all harm & restore your health that you may labor for him. But we
ask, if the Indians appear quarrelsome & have lost confidence in the
whites & are not disposed to receive the truth from you or hear your
words, does not prudence & duty require you to leave them? We know
God can preserve us amid the greatest dangers, but can there be any
confidence placed in the specious appearance of friendship of the
Indians, when their jealousies are aroused against our people? . . .
Dr. Bolles read your letter sent to us, said that he did not believe
it was required that you do so much for other missionaries, to
labour excessively & destroy your health, or to continue there for
any considerable time if it is evident you cannot enjoy health in
that climate . . . We hope your house will be made comfortable
should you be directed in the providence of God, & spared to labour
there Mr. Pratt's mother & brother have recently called on us . . .
We all exchange letters which are sent from you
"Business is dull with us,
we think the labouring class of the community anticipate a harder
winter than we have been wont to see. We live in an extravagant
world, & at an extravagant age; and we must now learn by experience
that we do not really need (as you have expressed it in your letter)
so much as we have been in the habit of thinking. And now as to the
little church, you requested me to write all about it. As to our
outward sircumstances the state of business is such that I think we
shall not be able at present to pay the Debt on the Meeting] house,
the notes on those pews which were just sold are now due, & altho 20
per cent was paid at the sale yet some say they had rather give up
their pews than to be compelled to pay the remainder at this time;
for notwithstanding the scarcity of money & the want of employment
every article of food bears a high price. Yet we are waiting for
brighter prospects, & would not repine under these adverse
providences, but pray that. they may all work for our good.
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
101
"I feel I am not half awake,
& that I do not feel a hundredth part as I ought upon the subject
[of religion.] I sometimes think I wish to feel so as to prevent my
usual repose, that I may offer up my supplications with strong
crying & tears to him who is able & willing to answer the prayer of
faith. But Alas, it is too often otherwise with me."
On the same sheet, George
Evans, Olivia's brother, wrote:
"In one of Olivia's letters
she mentioned about Amos [another brother] and me thinking of the
West . . . This emigrating is not what it is cracked up to be. I
have seen a great many from there who do not give very favorable
accounts of the country and the people."
It is in his short letter,
too, that "little Rosetta," a younger sister, makes her first
appearance:
"She says she should like to
slip her hand into a large pan of red plums and I don't doubt it."
On November 20, 1837, Dr.
Bolles, of Boston, writes the long- looked-for letter:
"My DEAR BROTHER-We are
concerned to hear of the sickness of your amiable companion & hope
you will take measures without delay to afford her some relief. If
no faithful assistant can be obtained for her for a time, she must
decline serving others than her own family, as I perceive from her
letters to the friends in Reading, she has accustomed herself to do.
Strangers have no claim to crowd themselves on your hospitality,
when your wife is actually too feeble to serve them, nor shd. you
hesitate under such circumstances to excuse her, & request them to
seek accommodations elsewhere. The house which you occupy must be
made tight & comfortable, & we wish, if it has not been done, that
you will take immediate measures to make it so, when this reaches
you. You will exercise a sound discretion as to the amount of
repairs, & see that they are obtained on the best terms & report the
same to us. For the expense so incurred, presuming it will not be
large, you will be at liberty to draw on our Treasurer."
It must have warmed the
hearts and cheered the failing spirits of the youthful missionaries,
so recently transplanted from New England soil, to know that the
Society in Boston was really concerned for their earthly as well as
their spiritual welfare. Anxiety over the health of Olivia Pratt
spread through both families in the East, as well as to their
friends, and occasioned much perplexity as to what Divine Providence
expected of its young emissaries under the trying circumstances.
That they were both homesick to the genuine impairment of their
health, is apparent. The eastern contingent of the blood might
advise and caution, as they assuredly did in their letters, but
seldom was anything that might be construed as a command to return
ever given. The New England Baptist did not trifle with the Higher
Will, nor question it too rigidly. In spite of the
102 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
very natural forebodings of
Olivia's mother and father, and the mother of John G. Pratt, there
seems to have been a feeling among them all that the very finger of
God was pointing to the west, and that His hand was overshadowing
His bewildered children in "that Western Valley" where young,
untried Olivia Evans (while still in the shelter of Charlestown
Seminary) had expressed herself as willing to "labor" and if
necessary, "to die."
But she lived to see much of
it "the cultivated garden of the Lord" under the ministrations of
John G. Pratt and herself, though not until they had both found in a
welter of hardships and disappointments-and in times of stress when
the Society in Boston seemingly had failed them that "there is no
discharge in that war."
"Our prayer is," Elizabeth
Pratt once wrote to her much-tried son (Nov. 22, 1837), "that you
may come out of the furness as gold tryed in the fire."
They could hardly have done
that had it not been for the wholesome cheer of the home letters,
burdened though they are, for the most part, with deep religious
solemnity in contemplating the ultimate salvation, not only of the
western savages but of themselves. The quaint expression, "indulging
a hope," occurs in almost every letter, even in an undated and
unsigned one: "Sarah Williams has lately spoke of a hope."
The friendly, heart-warming
gossip of Elizabeth Pratt's letters is conscientiously toned down
before their close. On November 22, 1837, she writes:
"Joseph Shute has returned
and appears . . . much improved in his manners at least. I should
think he had returned from an Acadimy instead of a man of Wars
vessel. he bids fair to make a stidey man Ebens wife has become pios
and James wife also I hope their Husbands will soon follow their
example . . . I need tryals and the Lord knows how to try me."
There are but two letters
from Catherine Evans, the mother of Olivia, one a scant half page to
"Ever Remembered Olivia," under date April 16, 1838, after the
arrival at Shawanoe Baptist Mission of little Ann Eliza Pratt, to
whom brief reference is made: "Rosett says you must kiss Ann for she
and Jonas."
But some years later, from
the pen of the same young Rosett (February 13, 1841), we have an
appealing picture of the mother:
"She says . . . I must write
for her . . . She cannot tell you how much she wants to see you all.
when she thinks of you for awhile the great big tears would roll
down her cheeks . . . she hopes she shall see Ann before she grows
so large she shall not know her she has got the little chair all
painted up green ready for her when she comes."
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS
103
From Catherine Evans
herself, in the second letter (September 14, 1843)
"Do write very soon. I feel
as if I could not wait one day longer. How I long to see them little
children [Ann and Lucius] do kiss them for me. Tell Ann she cant
tell how much I do want to see her and ask her if she thinks she
shall ever see me again."
The sweet and shadowy
figures of the two children, especially little Ann, run in and out
of the letters; but sometime before 1848 she fades from the picture;
but not until she had made one or two visits to the East with her
parents, since on March 4, 1844, from Reading, Mary Evans, the
sister of Olivia, writes:
"It seems but yesterday that
I saw Ann in grandma's garden picking posies to carry to meeting."
There is nothing in the
letters more poignant than the picture that simple sentence draws,
unless it is of a contented little Ann sitting by the loving-hearted
Catherine Evans, in the little green-painted chair.
It is to be regretted that
there are so few letters in the collection from John G. Pratt
himself, and none from Olivia Pratt after her marriage. There are
scores of letters from the East; human, wholesome, intelligent, for
all the depressing character of their somberly religious content.
They are valuable as well for the faithful delineation of the sturdy
life of New England in that period, from which so much of the actual
life of Kansas was drawn; and which, in its hard idealism, was no
doubt the mainspring of the fanatical Puritanism of which Kansas
stands accused at times. There is prima facie evidence that the
letters did much to keep alive two valiant young souls who had
chosen the Indian service as their portion until the hardy faith of
the early Baptists, somewhat modified of its primitive sternness,
had taken unmistakable root in the Missouri valley. The Baptist
church in Kansas was founded on a rock, no less that of Israel
because human hands in New England helped in the laying of it.
* * *
There are varying views of the
positive and negative roles of the missionaries in Kansas (and
elsewhere). The fact remains that they played a large part in the
lives of the individuals their "oversaw" in their charges. Some more
than others, as in any other part of life. That they intruded
themselves into Indian "politics" is apparent in many cases. Whether
to the good or bad, they were following the dictates of their
respective consciences and responsibilities. The following letter,
transcribed by Michael Caron
mcaron@sunflower.com , indicates Reverend Pratt's
involvement in the inner workings of the Delaware; his niceness in
staying out of one part of it; and, obviously, a source of
intelligence for the Federal Government, as the job obviously called
for. Then, as now, it is difficult when you mix religious
obligations with public ones:
Delaware, K. T. Jan. 9, 1859
Dr. C.[harles] Robinson.-
Dear sir. No doubt you have been looking for us at Washington for
some time. It has been our expectation for the past two weeks, to
be on the way, but the Chiefs disagree considerably, and numerous
councils have been held. They are not now able to set a time to
leave. This delay results from a suspicion, on the part of some of
the old men, that the delegation may be induced to sell hem out,
and the request of the Commissioner that delegation be supplied
with "full power" to act, has only increased this feeling.
An effort has been made to
cripple the influence of old Sarcoxy, as it was known that he
would favor a treaty. A few others of the delegation were
suspected of entertaining a desire to sell. I was, myself, invited
to go with them, but as Sarcoxy injudiciously told the council he
already had a man in Washington to attend to his business, at the
same time intimating that you were the person referred to,
suspicion then fell on myself and Charles Journeycake. I now think
that it is wiser for both of us to remain at home. My reason for
this conclusion is this - it has become the plan of those opposing
a [new] treaty. [That is]To send an extra delegation specifically
charged to prevent any changes. Now if Charles, and myself,
remain at home this can be prevented, as we are about the only
ones known to be intimate with you. Sarcoxy's party, as the
delegation now stands, is fully represented. With the other
delegates, is Isaac Journeycake, and Charles Ketcham, both
favorable to a change. John Conner, also, has a large tract of
land in Texas, and privately expresses a desire to sell out and go
to it. His brother Jim is the only one likely to be obstinate. He
will, no doubt, go with John, after a slight hesitation. On the
whole the arrangement is better than it would be for Charles and
myself to go - and then be followed by an opposing party.
It will be the policy of all
these delegates to shake their heads at any suggestion for a
purchase, but I know with the one exception mentioned above, all
are anxious to sell. The approach to them should be careful - but
will be, in the end, gladly acceded to.
I hope you will not let
there be an arrangement to treat will [with] them here - there are
a dozen parties seeking to purchase these lands - and if [to be
continued. I seem to be missing the remainder of this letter.
Editor]
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