The Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor Training School
By Thomas P. Barr
Winter 1977 (Vol. 43, No. 4), pages 377 to 431
THE POTTAWATOMIE Indian treaties of 1846, signed on June 5 and 17, led to the establishment of the second Baptist Pottawatomie station in Kansas which came to be known as the Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor Training School. Native American tribes affected by these signings included those which were a part of the Pottawatomie nation. These were the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies of the Prairie, of the Wabash, and of Indiana. Principal tribal representatives which either affixed their mark or signed the treaty included Mi-au-mise, or Young Miami, Abraham Burnett, Shau-bon-ni-agh, Wah-bah-Kose, Francis Bourbonnai, Jas N. Bourassa, Jude W. Bourassa, and other head men and chiefs. Commissioners of the United States government who attended the singing included T. P. Andrews, Thomas H. Harvey, and Gideon C. Matlock, with the witnesses being R. W. Cummins, Robert Simerwell, J. Lykins, and Wah-n Bossman (Beauchemie, Boachman, Bushman). These treaties were finalized at the agency on the Missouri river near Council Bluffs and at Pottawatomie creek near the Osage (Marais des Cygnes) river. Essentially, the treaties ceded the old reservation and in turn the principals involved received 576,000 acres adjoining the Shawnees and Delawares, on both sides of the Kansas river.
In the following year, the American Indian Mission Association noted in its annual report that the Pottawatomie mission on the Osage (Marais des Cygnes) river had a total of four people who were associated with the mission compound. Johnston Lykins held the position of physician and teacher. Robert Simerwell was the blacksmith, and Mrs. Simerwell and Elizabeth
378 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
McCoy were identified as teachers. At this point there were only 12 students on the average with Miss McCoy conducting classroom exercises in addition to a Sabbath school and female prayer meetings. The report also related that:
The Pottawatomies are still in an unsettled state, and of course, our efforts are thereby somewhat retarded; it is expected, however, that they will be permanently located sometime during the coming year, when buildings will be required, and an increase of Missionary force; then we hope to see more gratifying results attending our labors for their moral improvement. 1
Isaac McCoy, during his second exploring trip into Kansas, related, “a degree of unhealthiness attends all large water courses in the western country” and that this applied to the area “in the immediate vicinity of the Kanzas river.” Of the region, McCoy noted that the greatest observable defect was the scarcity of timber, however, wood was available immediately adjacent to the Kansas river. That region, coupled with the numerous timbered smaller streams, would be sufficient to sustain tolerably a dense population to the distance of eight or ten miles from the river. Of the natural resources adjacent to the river systems, timber was the most abundant, with oak, ash, walnut, hickory, and mulberry predominating. In addition to the timber resources, McCoy was concerned with deposits of coal which might be in this new area. He was unable to locate any deposits, however, due to the short period of time that his party remained in the area which was to become the second reserve for the Pottawatomies. 2
This Kansas river region was later described by John Guthrie as being situated in a rich fertile country, much of it covered with forests and heavy undergrowth of shrubbery and wild grass. “A beautiful brook of pure water coursed over the pebbles and stones across the area where the future training school was to be located and the fruits in their season consisted of pawpaw, grape, plum, raspberry and strawberry. . . .” 3
The commissioner of Indian affairs noted in his report for the same year that the “united nation of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowatomies . . . were allowed two years from the 23d of July, 1846, within which to remove from their separate residences, near Council Bluffs on the Missouri, and on the Osage river, to their new country, purchased of the Kanzas where they are all again to be united and live together.” However, through
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 379
the efforts of the agent for the St. Louis Superintendency, Richard Cummins, they were induced to agree to remove in the fall of 1847, “provided the monies stipulated in the treaty to enable them to do so were sent out in season.” The payment was made and
they have carried, or are carrying out their promises in good faith—those from the Bluffs having at the last accounts, advanced a considerable distance on the route, and those from the Osage having either started, or were about starting. It is confidently expected that, with the exception of a small band which determined to remain and hunt on the headwaters of the Des Moines, as has been their practice heretofore, all will arrive in their new country in season to make the requisite arrangements for their comfort during the winter, and be prepared to commence their farming operations with the opening of the spring. 4
Subagent A. J. Vaughan, in a November 17, 1847, letter written from his Pottawatomie creek headquarters related “That the Sugar creek and Pottawatomie creek Indians, in council, had agreed to move; that some have gone, others will be off in a day or two; the rest were pledged to leave in a body on the 29th, if sufficient teams could be procured;” and he planned to get some 15 wagons from Missouri for this purpose. “The subagent also noted that Topenebee (the principal chief), who had been at the point of death for a fortnight, was making a rapid recovery.”
On December 9, 1847, Jotham Meeker of the Ottawa Baptist Mission, wrote that the Pottawatomies had commenced moving “last week;” and Dr. Johnston Lykins, government physician and Baptist missionary, had accompanied them. Meeker was referring to the Indians of Pottawatomie creek “who were under Baptist or Methodist influence. . . .” 5
Commissioner Medill described the new home of the Pottawatomie in his 1846 report to the secretary of war. The reservation contained 576,000 acres and was 30 miles square, being situated to the north of the Sac & Foxes and west of the Delaware and Shawnee lands. An 1856 map of eastern Kansas illustrates with clarity how the reserve was situated on both sides of the Kansas river with the greater percentage being north of it. Its eastern boundary lay two miles west of Topeka and 62 miles west of the Missouri river. In accordance with the treaty of 1846, the Pottawatomie paid the sum of $87,000, deductible from $850,000, the purchase price of all their former lands in Iowa and Kansas.
The financial stipulations of the treaty generally followed the pattern of Indian treaties of the time. The government paid the
380 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
[Map]
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 381
Caption: Left, a general view of eastern Kansas in 1856, including the Pottawatomie Reserve and showing its relation to the road systems and Indian reservations. Map by E. B. Whitman and A. D. Searl, published by J. P. Jewett and Co., Boston, in 1856. Above, an enlargement of a portion of the map, showing the 30-square-mile reserve as prescribed by the treaty of 1846.
382 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
actual expenses incurred in the removal; a subsistence allowance of $40,000 was allotted for the first 12 months residence in the new home, and an added sum of $50,000 was advanced at the first annuity payment following the ratification of the treaty. The latter sum was issued to enable the Indians to pay their debts and have compensation for the losses suffered in leaving developed properties. 6
Prior to the movement of the Pottawatomies, Johnston Lykins in November, 1847, after a quarter of a century of missionary service with the Board of Indian Missions, retired, “he will, however, remain in the Indian country as a physician to the Putawatomies, among whom he will, we have no doubt, continue to exert an influence for good.” 7 Another principal who was to continue as a teacher at the new station on the Pottawatomie reservation was Elizabeth McCoy who in a letter to the mission board dated November 13, 1847, related in part that, “As you have already been informed, streneous efforts have been made to compel the Indians to move this fall, but what will be the final result remains uncertain; but most probably part will go and a part stay.” 8
Robert Simerwell was scheduled to leave the following week and Elizabeth was directly concerned about her status due to the fact that no accommodations were at hand. The board directed her that until the Pottawatomies were settled in their new home, she was to remain at the Wea station. Simerwell was an apt choice of the board for the new station in that he was already a veteran of 24 years service to the Pottawatomies. His career started in 1824 at the Carey Mission in Michigan where he was directed and supervised by Rev. Issac McCoy. 9
Eleven years later Simerwell and his family arrived from Michigan territory and eventually took up quarters at the Shawnee Baptist mission in May of 1834. From this mission he and his family in October, 1837, established the first Baptist station for the Pottawatomies in southeastern Franklin county on the south side of a stream known as Pottawatomie creek. 10
In 1838 Simerwell was officially appointed by the Boston board as a teacher to the Pottawatomies and in January of the following
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 383
Caption: Robert Simerwell (1786-1868), educator, minister, and government blacksmith to the Pottawatomies; and Mrs. Simerwell (1789-1855), teacher during the early and late phases of the school’s operation when it was under the jurisdiction of the American Indian Mission Association.
year a day school was initiated with seven boys being instructed. In 1840 a female school was inaugurated, named the Shields Female Academy, taught by Mrs. Simerwell and Mrs. Elizabeth Stinson. 11
That same year both schools suspended their operations, although the Simerwells and Miss Stinson continued to work among the Pottawatomies. According to Joseph Francis Murphy, school records between 1840 and 1845 are lacking due to the school being transferred from the Boston board to the newly organized American Indian Mission Association in Louisville, Ky., which was brought about by the efforts of Isaac McCoy. Dissolution of the school by Baptist board was in April, 1844; four months later the Simerwells were appointed missionaries by the newly created board in Louisville. 12
384 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Elizabeth McCoy, a niece of Isaac McCoy, had joined the staff in the autumn of 1844. After her arrival, the day school for the Pottawatomies was reinitiated and her official report for 1845 listed three staff members in addition to herself: Robert Simerwell, his wife, and Johnston Lykins. Miss Stinson was not mentioned in this report to A. J. Vaughan of the Osage subagency.
Dr. Johnston Lykins and his family first arrived in “Kansas” on July 7, 1831, to establish a mission among the Shawnees but the Baptist board was unable to provide the necessary funding for the building of a new facility. In June, 1832, money did become available and Lykins’s work among the Indians began in earnest. This was the first—and principal—station of the American Board of Foreign Missions in “Kansas.” While at the Shawnee Baptist Mission, Lykins became the editor of the Indian language Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun), printed by Jotham Meeker.
Apparently, Lykins’s first intensive contact with the Pottawatomies occurred in the summer of 1837 when he served as an assistant agent for them. 13 His primary connection with the Pottawatomies began when the first permanent station was established in southeastern Franklin county on the south side of a stream named Pottawatomie creek.
On December 1, 1842, the “connexion of Mr. and Mrs. [Johnston] Lykins with the [Shawnee Baptist] Mission ended this day, following months of dissension and conflict, between Lykins and his fellow missionaries at ‘Shawanoe’.”
On February 2, 1843, the (Baptist) American Indian Mission Association appointed Lykins and Delilah (McCoy) Lykins, his wife, as missionaries. In June of the following year, he was appointed “Physician for the Potawatomies” of the Osage (Marais des Cygnes) river subagency—i.e., the approximately 2,000 Pottawatomies in “Kansas.” Delilah Lykins died September 23 of the same year apparently at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission on Pottawatomie creek, present Franklin county, with her husband and three children surviving. 14
Lykins’s appointment as a physician and Simerwell’s as a blacksmith are listed by the Indian department for the Osage river subagency from 1844 through 1847 while they were located in Franklin county and during the Pottawatomies’ first relocation movement to the Wakarusa river.
Authorization of funds amounting to $1,500 was granted by the board in Louisville to contract for new buildings in May, 1847.
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 385
Medill in the office of Indian Affairs informed the board that money was not available at the present, and the board suggested that Lykins attempt to obtain funds for the manual labor training school through the influence of the chiefs. The first structure utilized for a school was an old Indian log house located near the center of Shawnee county on a site selected by Lykins and Agent R. W. Cummins. 15
Early in March, 1848, Agents Cummins and A. J. Vaughan chose a location for “the smith & traders for the Potawatomies.” Vaughan in a March letter reported, “I have accordingly stuck my stake and christened it union town. . . .”
Cummins on March 12 wrote: “The point selected by us on the south side of the Kansas [‘on high ground near the river’] . . . & very nearly in the center of their [the Pottawatomies’] country, east & west & as nearly so north and south as good timber . . . could be had. . . .” 16
Also, in the same month, the Indian Advocate reported that “we are happy to be able to state, that a large portion of the Putawatomie tribe have become settled in their new home on the Kansas river; and that Brother Simmerwell and Sister McCoy have gone among them, and the school has been resumed; and from last accounts things are assuming an unusually encouraging aspect.” 17
A letter from Johnston Lykins, who at the time was also acting as the agent for the Indian board, to Maj. Thomas H. Harvey, the superintendent of Indian affairs in St. Louis, was directed toward the type of school that was to be established and who was to manage the institution. 18 When the Baptists worked among the Pottawatomies in Michigan, their institution was patterned on the manual labor school principle. Upon giving background data relating to the Baptist influence among the Pottawatomies, he mentioned that Elizabeth McCoy had resumed her teaching on the Kansas river site and was in the process of organizing a small boarding school for girls. Lykins wrote that,
. . . in behalf of the Indian Mission Board, I respectively ask, that the management of a Manual Labor School among the Putawatomies [Pottawatomies] be assigned to us, under the hope that your request will be kindly acceded to. . . . From my long acquaintance with the Putawatomies & knowledge of their present condition, & temperament, I cannot forbear to express the opinion,
386 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
that their interest would be best subserved, by an equal assignment of their educational funds, to the three Societies who have hither to labored among them. 19
Of the three societies, Lykins named only the Methodist, with its influence being “strictly American.” Undoubtedly, the unnamed society was that of the Catholics who had a station among the Pottawatomies on Sugar creek in Linn county. However, the Indian agent, Richard Cummins, writing to Thomas Harvey the superintendent of Indian affairs in St. Louis on June 7, 1848, was of the opinion that the Pottawatomies were divided into four parties: the Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, and those who were in favor of a government school without regard to sects.
Cummins related that the Methodists did not ask for anything but the Catholics and Baptists each wanted a school.
The catholick [Catholic] party appeared to be unanimous in favor of a catholick school & Mission on the north side of the Kansas River. The Baptist party with Topenebe . . . at their head, expressed great desire to have a Baptist School & Mission on the south side of the Kansas River. . . . I think a large portion of the Pottawatomies, particularly those form the Bluffs, incline to the catholicks I would therefore recommend that their wishes be complied with, and that a School and Mission be placed under their charge on the north side of the Kansas river. . . . I would also recommend that the wishes of the Baptist party be complied with and that a school and Mission be placed under their management on the south side of the Kansas River. . . .
Cummins was quite in earnest for a manual labor school to be operated by the Baptists. This is reflected in his correspondence to Thomas Harvey:
I think the Baptist were the first to establish a Mission & School among this tribe [in 1822] and I have no doubt that they have contributed largely by their influence in securing their education funds, the once promising character of their efforts, at the Carey Mission, their publication of the scriptures, & other elementary works, the existence of a partiality, for them by many of the Potawatomies, they being the first to open a school now being taught in their new country, on the Kansas river, their unabated interest in their welfare and their strong desire to continue their labors among them are all considerations, in favor of assigning the management of one of the Manual labor schools to that Society. 20
Thomas Harvey concurred with the opinions set forth by Cummins and the wishes of the Pottawatomies in a communication to William Medill on June 16, 1848, in regard to the two schools, the Baptist and Catholic, with no facility being offered to the other two parties. He also called for immediate action in regard to the establishment of these schools and expressed dismay concerning contract work conducted by the government in Indian country:
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 387
From the wretched manner in which work has been done in the Indian country by contract with the government ( . . . Osage school improvements and Beach’s agency improvements), I am of the opinion that the work should be carried on by the missionaries who will be personally interested in having the work well done. 21
The selection of the Baptists for the establishment of a school was acknowledged by the American Indian Mission Association on July 24, 1848. To W. Medill’s letter of July 14 regarding management of the proposed manual labor training school for the Pottawatomies with government aid, Sidney Dyer, corresponding secretary for the board, responded by relating that “. . . I am instructed by the Board to inform you, that they not only desire but are very anxious to engage in the enterprise.”
The offer by the government came at an opportune time for the mission board was in the process of enlarging the facility with the erection of new buildings for the accommodation of additional students. Prior to receipt of this correspondence by Medill, a fledgling school had been established by the mission board with 17 pupils being in attendance. Dyer accepted the management of the proposed school and related that the board would follow the terms set forth by the department. One of these was for the accommodation of 90 pupils in the facility once it had been completed. Also, the amount of $4,500 to be appropriated was accepted with the stipulation that the department, “guarantee the expenses of their [the Pottawatomies’] education, including all the items named.” Dyer went on to say that
the Board of our Society having never entered into such contracts with the Dept. are consequently ignorant of the specific amount usually contributed by Missionary Societies, for the erection of buildings, improving of farm, &c. I am, therefore, instructed by the Board to say, that they will cheerfully add to the $5,000 appropriated by the Government for this purpose, whatever sum is usually required in such cases.
We shall be prepared to enter at once upon the labor of erecting buildings, & will pledge ourselves to conduct the whole enterprise with as much energy, & upon as liberal terms as any other benevolent organization.
Dyer pointed out that this phase of the educational program was described in a letter from Superintendent Harvey to Agent Cummins, instructing him to advise both the Catholics and Baptists that “they will be allowed $50.00 for each child they board, clothe, and educate, and a reasonable compensation for day scholars.” 22
At the time of the government’s proposal to the American Indian Mission Association Board, the board was operating four
388 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
manual labor training schools for native American tribes and could boast a total of 127 pupils including seven at the new station on the Kansas river.
Assignment of personnel to the new manual labor school was finalized by the board of the American Indian Mission Association in September of 1848. Rev. J. Lykins, M.D., who had spent 20 years in various capacities with the Pottawatomie was unanimously reappointed as a missionary and was to be superintendent of the school. A second appointment was that of “Brother John M. Ashburn, a recent graduate of Georgetown College, who because of his extensive literary qualifications and urbane deportment would take charge of the literary department at the institution.” Also, “Rev. Ashburn was to serve in the capacities of teacher and preacher and he will be in charge of the male department with the females being assigned to E. McCoy.” 23 However, he was to be employed in the agency by the board for the collection of funds until his services were needed at the mission.
Rev. Noediah Dille and his wife from Oswego, Iowa, were to join “brethern Lykins and Ashburn, and sister Eliza McCoy at the new Pottawatomie manual labor school; and will start their field of labor during the latter part of November next.” Dille was to take charge of the farming and mechanical departments, for which he was well adapted, and also preach. His wife was to be in charge of the domestic department and connected with the female branch of the school. The contract for the Baptist school was forwarded to Reverend Dyer of Louisville on October 12, 1848, by Thomas H. Harvey, superintendent of Indian affairs, and was signed by the board on October 13 for the American Indian Mission Association. 24
The annual report for 1848 elaborated on this new agreement and related that:
Contracts have just been entered into with the government of the United States, for the establishment and conducting of a large manual labor school, for the benefit of this tribe, for the support of which the Government is to make an annual appropriation of four thousand five hundred dollars, and the sum of five thousand dollars for the erection of buildings, agricultural improvements, & etc.
The Board, in consideration of the above appropriations, is to receive and sustain at the Institution ninety pupils, equally divided between males and females.
A portion of the buildings have already been put under contract, and will be ready for occupancy by the setting in of winter; and probably before the next
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 389
annual meeting the whole will be completed, and the school in successful operation. 25
A letter dated December 10, 1848, from Harvey to Wm. Medill provides a progress statement relating to new schools in that “the erection of the two manual labor schools (the Catholic & Baptist) has been for some time in progress, for which funds will be required as early as they can be transmitted.” Also, a request for $2,000 was made in regard to the completed work and further remittances were to be made as the work advanced. 26
The combined Pottawatomies, totaling 3,235 in 1848, were becoming acclimatized to their new homes and their prejudices against the new reserve were fast disappearing. They initially thought the land to be barren, but after being in this country they could see that there was sufficient timber for all purposes. Cummins in his 1848 report to Thomas Harvey stated:
I hope they will not be slow, by a judicious cultivation of the soil, to prove the extreme fertility of some of the finest land of the west. . . . With the advantages secured to them by treaty, and the ample agricultural fund to which they are entitled, they may, coupled with exertions on their part, become a thriving and prosperous people. 27
Blacksmiths among the various tribes, including the Pottawatomies, had been busy during the course of the year in preparation for field cultivation. They were for the most part employed at this time in the manufacture and repair of agricultural implements as well as making other useful mechanical tools.
In a letter sent to R. W. Cummins by E. McCoy on September 25, 1848, she said she wanted to close the vacation which had been in effect since August after a five month session had been completed, as soon as possible in order to open the school in temporary buildings until those for the large annual labor school in contemplation were erected. 28
Due to limited means and accommodations there were 16 pupils at the school, 11 being girls. In addition to the Pottawatomies, there was a full-blooded white girl who was the step-daughter of a Pottawatomie man. Subjects being taught at the school consisted of reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. The pupils were also instructed in domestic duties like sewing and other needle work. Religious instruction and Sabbath school also formed an integral part of the curriculum. A letter from Dyer
390 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to Medill in mid-January, 1849, reported that Reverend Dille and his wife arrived at the station safely as a reinforcement of the laborers of the mission and that enough of the buildings had been completed to commence school operations, and “as soon as the season permits, the work will be carried forward with energy to completion.” 29
The station had grown to a point that wide and varied articles were needed not only for personal use but also for the furnishing of buildings that were completed during the spring of the year. School supplies were also needed. These items were reflected in a merchandise voucher from John Walsh. Walsh was one of the agents licensed by the St. Louis Indian superintendency to trade with the Pottawatomies. His license was received at St. Louis in September, 1848, having been issued by R. W. Cummins, Indian agent. The items listed below represent the goods purchased for the school during its operation. The list is reproduced here to give a better perspective of what was available to the missionaries and their charges.
Voucher No. 1
3d Quarter 1850
The United States To O. I. Harrison & Co.
1849
Dr.
May 10 For the following articles for the Put. Manual Labor School.
| 110 yds sheeting | 12 | 13.20 |
| 302 “ shirting | 8² | 25.6 |
| 90 “ De—s | 12² | 11.25 |
| 56 “ Ticking | 12² | 7.00 |
| 6 “ Oil cloth | 90 | 5.40 |
| 2 ½ doz. Ass. Hose | 150 | 3.75 |
| 11/12 doz. Boy’s do | 150 | 1.38 |
| 2 “ Spool cotton | 55 | 1.10 |
| 1 11 Black thread, No. 30 | 75 | 1.50 |
| 1 “ “ “ “ | 40 | |
| 1 “ White “ “ | 40 | 1.25 |
| 2 Grs Porcelain Buttons | 30 | 60 |
| 2 “ White Bone “ | 30 | 60 |
| 2 “ Black Bone “ | 30 | 60 |
| 1 tt Needles | 2.00 | |
| 8 Pr Blankets | 250 | 20.00 |
| 3 pr Calico 110 yds | 7 | 7.75 |
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 391
| 1 Pr Blankets | 3.50 | |
| 1 “ “ | 2.50 | |
| 2 Doz Plates | 75 | 1.50 |
| 4 sets Tins | 50 | 2.00 |
| 2 Doz Paint Bowls | 2.00 | |
| 6 Dishes | 1.97 | |
| 1 Doz Palm Leaf hats | 2.50 | |
| 4 Doz McGuffee’s 1st Reader | 80 | 3.24 |
| 4 “ “ 2 “ | 165 | 6.60 |
| 4 “ “ 3 “ | 250 | 10.00 |
| 2 “ Mitchell’s Prin Geog. | 350 | 7.00 |
| 1 “ English slates | 2.00 | |
| 1 Ream Paper | 2.25 | |
| 2 Doz Ray’s Arit 1st Part | 70 | 1.40 |
| 1000 Quills | 1.50 | |
| 200 Slate Pencils | 15 | 30 |
| 3 Doz Ink | 125 | 3.75 |
| ½ “ ABC Cards | 24 | |
| 2 “ Primers | 35 | 70 |
| 10 Prs Boy’s Brogans | 83 1/3 | 8.33 |
| 15 “ Girl’s Buskins | 83 1/3 | 12.50 |
| 2 Doz Spoons | 4.80 | |
| 2 Tea Pots | 1.75 | |
| 2 Sugar Bowls | 2.00 | |
| 2 Doz Knives & Forks | 4.00 | |
| 2 Cream Pots | 2.00 | |
| 6 Wash Tubs | 5.75 | |
| ½ Doz Wash | ||
| ¾ “ Bed Cords | 1.88 | |
| ½ “ 6 qt. Pans | 1.50 | |
| ½ “ pint dippers | 63 | |
| ½ “ Wash bowls | 1.50 | |
| ½ “ Sheet Iron Pans | 1.75 | |
| 2 6qt. Coffee Boilers | 40 | |
| Packing &c | 40 | |
| Deducted for Blankets | 2.50 | |
| _______ | ||
| 207 74 |
Received, Louisville Ky. March 23d 1850 of Indian Mission Association Two hundred and Seven 74/100 dollars in full of the foregoing account $207.74
O. I. Harrison & Co.
by CHARLES F. WELLER
I certify, on honor, that the above account is correct, & that I have actually this day, March 23d, 1850, paid the account thereof.
S. DYER
Cor. Sec.
A.I.M. Assn.
392 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Cholera broke out at the station, in the spring of 1849 and the superintendent was under the necessity of dismissing the scholars and sending them home, interrupting the operations of the station. A letter from Dr. John Gallimore, physician to the Pottawatomies, to Dr. Boggs, dated May 30, 1849, related that “we are threatened constantly with cholera and have had several cases but have succeeded so far in arresting in the incipient stage. . . . “ 30 An unknown number of individuals died and Gallimore, himself, became a victim of the disease on June 28, 1849, before it had run its course. The deaths attributed to this disease were to have a direct bearing on the establishment’s operation during the superintendency of Johnston Lykins. On July 18, 1849, Rev. B. W. Sanders and wife made their way to the station, accompanied by E. McCoy. Sanders related that “we found things, as might have been reasonably expected, somewhat out of order, inasmuch as the school has been suspended, and those connected with the Station had left, in consequence of sickness.” He was somewhat bewildered by the situation, but realized that a certain amount of adjustment had to be made until he learned what to do and how to do it. 31
A letter written to Orlando Brown by Johnston Lykins on August 10, 1849, concerned “a $3,000.00 remittance for Building—farm &c.,” at the Pottawatomie Manual Labor School establishment and a plan of the manual labor training school which was in the process of erection, which he related “is of stone; and I hope will be both permanent & convenient.” 32 The plan submitted by Lykins was a rude plan for three floors, but it is the only extant evidence which provides an ordering for the structure. The Pottawatomie Manual Labor School building fronted to the east and was provided with three outside entries on the second floor with three additional equally spaced entrances located on the east elevation of the basement first floor. The basement and the second story have the same basic overall dimensions of 85 by 35 feet with the third story or what Lykins designated as the attic, having overall dimensions of 85 by 20 feet.
The attic formed the most unusual feature of the school and can be classified as a flush-gable monitor. This feature of the school places it apart from nearly all 19th-century institutional struc-
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 393
tures that are known today. A variety of monitor forms had attained currency by the mid-19th century, but these were most commonly used on houses and normally were inset from the cornice, usually surmounting a flat roof. These monitors accommodated an attic or observation space without interfering with the main features of the elevation. The flush-gable form utilized at the school, on the other hand, occupied a quite prominent position in the overall design of the structure—it contributed to the end elevations a distinctive profile, and was made highly visible on the long sides through the employment of a pitched roof over the second story.
The use of the flush-gable monitor at the school may have been prompted by an interest in economy—the monitor afforded a shorter, narrower space for the third-story sleeping chambers. The basic flush-gable form itself, appearing here in the late 1840’s, also has distant associations with the contemporary appearance of a basilical form that was achieving some currency in structures designed in the vein of one or other of the medieval revivals—the old Free Academy in New York in 1848, designed by James Renwick, is an example, although the overall proportions are clearly more vertical than those used at the school. 33
Walls of the basement floor were two feet in thickness, and this floor was divided into four rooms and a north-south hall between the center rooms. The southernmost room was a cookroom measuring 22 by 31 feet with a centrally located fireplace on the south interior elevation. There were four windows, two located on the west, one on the south and one on the east which was adjacent to an outside door. An east-west bearing wall served as a partition between this room and the dining rooms. They could be entered from the kitchen or steward’s room or from the outside by a door on the east. The two equally dimensioned dining rooms, 12 ½ by 37 feet, were separated by a hall six feet in width. Two centrally located hall doors provided additional access to the dining areas.
The dining hall for the female school was on the west with the males occupying that area on the east. Aside from the four interior and single exterior doors, five windows, three on the west and two on the east, completed the basic architectural features for the area.
A steward’s room was the northernmost room of the basement floor. It measured 22 by 31 feet and had no partitions other than the two-feet-thick bearing wall which separated it from the two dining halls.
In the floor plan for the second story, the interior bearing walls
394 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Caption: Above, the only extant plan of the Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor Training School, drawn by the first superintendent, Johnston Lykins, and submitted to Orlando Brown, commissioner of Indian affairs, August 10, 1849. Right, a contemporary floor plan for a mission among the Creek Indians, designed by the office of the American Mission Association. It was sent by Sidney Dyer, corresponding secretary, to Luke Lea, commissioner of Indian affairs, November 19, 1850.
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 395
[Plan described on page 394.]
396 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
again separated the area into three parts. Walls for this area were reduced in thickness from two feet to one foot, six inches. The southernmost room was the female school room with the centrally located fireplace extending to this level. Five windows provided a natural light source for this room, with two sets being located on the east and west. A single window was situated on the southeast corner of the south elevation with an outside access door on the southwest corner of the aforementioned elevation. Interior stairs which provided access to the attic were located in the southeast corner of the room; an offset interior door provided access to one of four dwelling rooms that were in the central area.
The dwelling rooms were separated by a centrally placed east-west hall which could be entered from the outside door on the west with a window being located at the opposite end of the hall. Each dwelling room off the hall had an access door and a centrally located window. The southernmost rooms were for the female teachers at the school and the opposing series of rooms being for the male teachers and superintendent. However, there was no basis for the arrangement other than to correspond to the division of labor for the pupils at the school.
A school room for the males was of the same dimension as the one for the females, 22 by 31 feet. Placement for the windows and doors were basically the same as the female school room with the exception of a central window which had been inserted in place of what was to be a fireplace. A stair to the male dormitory was located in the northwest corner of the room.
The attic room was constructed of wood on the east and west elevations with the stone work on the north and south being a continuation of the lower stories, forming the flush-gable monitor. This area was partitioned off to form three rooms. A female dormitory was located on the south with the only direct access to the area being the stairs from the classroom. Eight windows were the primary features for the female dormitory other than its size. It was 35 feet in length by 20 feet in width. An area designated as the mission office which separated the female from the male dormitory, was relatively small, being 12 feet on its north-south axis by 20 feet on the east-west. There was no access to this room designated on the plan, but it was probably entered by an interior stair in the southwest corner. Two centrally placed windows on the east and west provided incidental sources of light.
The north section of the monitor functioned as the male dormitory and was of the same dimensions as the females’ in regard
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 397
to architectural features. All of the materials incorporated into the structure were apparently of local origin.
In regard to the derivation of stone utilized in the rough ashlar pattern of the mission, it was concluded that the limestone used was probably removed from outcrop areas of Burlingame limestone. This limestone is a very fine grained, hard, very fossiliferous limestone which weathers to a pale yellow brown to rusty brown on exposed surfaces. A careful study of existing aerial photographs of the area surrounding the old mission reveals the existence of many abandoned quarries in the Burlingame limestone. The dense growth of brush and trees indicate that those quarries are rather old although probably none are as old as the mission. 34 The absence of limestone outcrops on the valley floor near the mission indicates that the stone used in its construction was acquired from the surrounding hillsides where the Burlingame limestone forms the predominant outcrop. Mortar composition was lime, sand, clay, all of local derivation. By volume the largest percentage of the materials comprising the mortar was sand, followed by a calcium carbonate, with the clay being an impurity.
In addition, the treatment of the masonry contributes a certain expressive power to the manual labor school’s architecture. The four corners of the structure are firmly contained by generously scaled quoins where deliberate attention was paid to achieving a neat and tight system of joints among the ashlar blocks. Contrasting to the quoins in scale, finish, and joining are the stones used in the walls themselves. These are composed of random-coursed blocks of varying sizes and of rougher finish than those comprising the quoins. The interplay between larger and smaller stones animates the wall and supplies a satisfying contrast to both the restraint imposed by the quoins and the regularity of window and door placements.
However, Lykins’s aim of achieving a “convenient” scheme was less impressively realized. The dual considerations of efficiency for communal living and schooling, and separation of the sexes, were not always happily resolved. There were some needless complications in the plan as a result, especially through inconvenient placement of doors (note inaccessibility of one dwelling room each for males and females to their respective school rooms; note the difficult entrance to their dining room for the female students; note the separation of cook and steward rooms). In fact, the plan of the school suggests that, more than
398 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
convenience, symmetry was a predominant concern of the designer. The rooms on each floor were arranged regularly along clearly defined axes established by the corridors on the first two floors and by the mission office on the third floor. Although no two floors were identical in arrangement, so that distinct activities were segregated to different levels, the rigidity of the plan on each floor must have been constantly evident to those using the building. 35
Extant wood at the site includes door and window lintels of oak which exhibit either broad ax or adze marks. Remaining framing members and exterior finishing materials including siding, soffit, fascia, and shingle which are presently not in evidence, are revealed visually through photographs taken during the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. A sawmill was available to the Pottawatomies as early as 1844, but there was no one among the Indians able to run it. 36 Circular sawmills were in the Pottawatomie reserve prior to 1849, but there was apparently no one to operate the mills until February, 1849, when a contract was signed with Valentine C. Warden to labor with the Pottawatomies as an assistant mechanic and work hand. If the mills were operable during the later phase of construction, it is conceivable that Reverend Dille, being one with a mechanic’s knowledge, and Robert Simerwell, the government’s blacksmith, utilized the equipment in the process of erecting the monitor system for the mission office and dormitory. Simerwell undoubtedly was responsible for the hardware as the trading post at Uniontown probably furnished raw bar stock or other materials suitable for the manufacture of the final product. He was trained in his youth, making it possible for him to adapt to the position of government blacksmith, and to give the Indian boys manual training. 37 His competence as a gunsmith and blacksmith is revealed in a letter from Jotham Meeker of the Ottawa Baptist Mission on October 14, 1844. Meeker wrote:
Asees requested me today to say to you that he expects to get James to take his gun barrell to your shop. He wants you to saw off the end and put the britch [breech] in . . . and fit it for a flint lock—he expects to go for it next Saturday. . . . If you please, I want you to make for me, and send by Asees three rings 1¾ inch in diameter suitable for splicing two 7 quarter inch poles, which I wish to use for boring for water with a two inch auger. . . . If you
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 399
have time, I and some of my neighbors would be glad if you could make for us about a dozen ox bow keys and send by Asees. 38
Joseph H. Ware’s The Emigrants Guide to California published in 1849 also relates that “about ten miles above [the Kansas crossing], there is a mission station of the M.E. [Baptist] Church where any blacksmith work can be done, which accidents may have made necessary.” 39
Only small suggestions concerning materials were cited in the school correspondence for the year 1849, but a later proposal in regards to a Creek manual labor training school in what is now Oklahoma was quire detailed in regard to dimensions and types of materials to be used. These specifications were set forth by the American Indian Mission Association which at this time was the agency responsible for the Pottawatomie Manual Labor Training School. The two edifices were highly dissimilar, but it is conceivable that the Pottawatomie school influenced the specifications for the Creek institution. Due to the lack of structural data, for the Pottawatomie edifice, the specifications as outlined by Sidney Dyer, the corresponding secretary for the American Indian Mission Association, to Luke Lea, the commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington, D. C., are quite pertinent in regard to the Pottawatomie Manual Labor Training School because the same dimensional materials were probably utilized in its construction. He said:
The plans referred to, are to be strictly adhered to and the several rooms, halls, porches &c are to be of the dimensions marked on the plans.
The cellar under the kitchen will be seven feet deep from the bottom of the first of joist, and the foundations of the other walls of the building will be sunk 1½ feet below the original surface of the earth.
All the other foundation walls to be built of stone eighteen inches thick and two feet above the surface of the earth. The whole of the stone work must be of the best stone, well bonded together, and well laid in sand, and lime mortar.
The whole of the outside walls of the house to be faced with the best quality of hard burned brick, and all the other walls to be built with good mercantable brick of the best quality, the whole laid in the best manner in good lime and sand mortar.
All of the walls of the building will be of the thickness marked on the plans.
The brick flues and fireplaces built in the several stories, and the whole of the walls carried up the height shewn on the drawings.
All joist for the first, second, and third tier to be 2½ x 14 inches, and placed 15 inches from centers.
400 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The joist for the fourth tier to be 10 in. deep and 15 inches from center.
The girders for the Dining Room & Chapel to be twelve by fourteen in. The posts which support the Girder to be 12 in. square. The joist are to be bridged in the best manner with cross bridging.
The floors are to be laid in the best manner, of well seasoned pine or poplar boards not exceeding five inches in width.
All the window frames to be without boxing filled with sashes 1½ inches thick.
All of the window sills to be of walnut or cedar, the door sills to be of stone for the outside doors.
The frames of the cellar doors to be of cedar the doors of pine, made in the best manner. Hung with strap hinges and fastened with hasps & staples.
The ceiling of the lower porch to be of grooved and dressed pine boards 4 inches wide, the upper ceiling plastered.
The roof is to be framed, sheeted, and shingled in the best manner, the shingles to be of poplar of the best quality. The cornices to be of wood & the roof and cornices to be in every respect as shewn in the drawing.
The porches extending along the front of the house to be built with square columns and plain substantial handrail and ballusters, the floors to be of dressed and grooved pine boards 4 inches wide.
The roof to be of poplar shingles of the best quality.
All the fireplaces to have wooden mantels of modern style.
The stairway will be put with plain string board, round 3 inch poplar rail and turned newels and ballusters.
All the doors and windows will be finished with plain jambs and pilasters six inches wide. The cellar doors will be ledge doors finished with plain casings, hung with butt hinges & have suitable fastenings.
The cellar windows are to have plain casings and sashes hung with hinges.
The third story will be finished with a base 6 in. wide and the first and second story with a base 8 inches wide. The whole of the timber, plank, and boards for the house to be of the most approved quality and suitable for the different parts of the work for which they are to be used, and nothing inferior to 2d rate quality of lumber to be used except for sheeting or where not seen, or for purposes particularly named in this specifications.
The ceilings of the house are to be plastered with 2 coats and white washed. directed, the mantels will be painted black, and the work usually painted as well inside as outside, the building to be painted with 2 coats of white or any other color, the whole painting to be done in the best manner.
The window sashes to be glazed with the best quality of glass the whole to be left clean and perfect at the completion of the work.
The eaves to have hanging gutters and down pipes of suitable size made of the best tin.
All the locks, hinges, bolts and other hardware to be of the best quality and suitable for the work for which they are intended.
The fireplaces are to have iron arched bars. There are to be cast iron grates under all the openings each 1 foot by 2 foot. 40
The first official description of the manual labor training school, its location and support facilities were noted by Johnston Lykins in a communication to Orlando Brown, commissioner of Indian affairs on September 30, 1849. Lykins also proposed a
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 401
change in the name of the facility from the Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor Training School to the McCoy Academy in honor of the late Isaac McCoy. According to Lykins “no one has made greater efforts to save the North American Indians, and by whose personal exertions most of the Putawatomie education funds were provided.” 41 This suggestion by Lykins apparently was not satisfactory to the office of Indian affairs and the original name remained. The training school was not yet complete although the satellite structures were ready for occupancy for their intended purposes. Farm ground being broken from the native sod, the acquisition of livestock, and other particulars were noted in this letter. Lykins wrote:
Allow me to report the following as the condition of the Putawatomie Bap. M. L. School.
1. Site. Half a mile south of the Kansas, nine miles below Union Town the trading post of the Nation, and one and a half miles west of the great California road from Kansas Westport and Independence. The Station has an excellent supply of good spring water, first rate soil and is within reach of the necessary amount of timber. The mechanic shops consist of Blacksmith and waggonmaker shops are located one fourth mile west of the M. L. School edifice and near the bank of the Kansas River.
The establishment was located under the joint supervision of Majr. R. W. Cummings late Indn Agent and the undersigned, and is thought to be the most judicious that could have been made.
2. Buildings. 1 Stone edifice now in process of completion for M. L. School, 85 feet long, and 35 feet wide—with two cross walls of stone—3 stories high divided into 12 rooms having 60 doors and windows. Walls of the first story two feet thick—balance one and a half foot thick and when finished will cost say $4800. 1 Hewed log dwelling 36 feet by 18—1 story high, two good stone chimneys, comfortably finished. Costs $351.00. 1 Hewed log house for Mechanic, 18 by 16 1 story high—good stone chimney-well finished. cost $130.00. 1 Hewed log kitchen and meat house each 16 feet square and 1 root house. Cost $65.00. 1 hewed log lodging room for hired men 16 by 18 feet cost $35.00. 1 other kitchen 16 feet square cost $25.00.
3. Farm—In process of completion consists of 60 acres plowed prairie. Twenty-five acres of which is now in corn, 1 in potatoes, and two in beans, and other garden vegetables.
Thirteen thousand rails and stakes have been made and put up—The whole farm when completed will consist of 65 acres plowed and 40 acres pasture land and will cost $650.00. Twenty five acres are sowed in wheat.
Stock &c. consists of 1 good wagon and 3 yoke oxen. Cost $200.00.
| 7 head brood swine | Cost | 15.00 |
| 5 “ Milch cows “ | 15.00 per head | 75.00 |
| Tools 1 Harrow | Cost | 5.00 |
| 2 good plows | “ | 10.00 |
| 3 Chains at | $3.00 | 9.00 |
| 1 Box Carpenter tools | Cost | 15.00 42 |
402 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Caption: An undated view of the Pottawatomie Manual Labor Training School looking to the northwest. Note the ramp modification in the area of the female classroom.
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 403
Caption: A KSHS staff photo illustrating extensive architectural alterations on the south and east elevations. The flush-gable monitor has been replaced by a gambrel roof.
404 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In a letter to the Indian Advocate, dated September 22, 1849, Lykins noted that the mission has “assumed a degree of permanency,” and he was in the process of “sowing 20 or 25 acres of wheat—securing hay, cutting up corn &c. and making every preparation for winter.” During the course of the year (1849), “brother Dille left the service of the Board on the 4th of May because of a domestic affliction, and on the 24th of July, brother Sanders and wife arrived and commenced their labors, and have thus far proved a great acquisition to the Mission.” 43
The mission building had been completed as to admit part occupation and would have been completed according to Lykins if it had not been interrupted by cholera, personnel difficulties, and the California mania which rendered it almost impossible to obtain necessary help. 44
In December, Lykins admitted that “in consequence of having built with stone rather than logs our school edifice has been longer on the way. A portion of the mission family now occupy it, and we hope during the next quarter to enlarge the school to the limit of our contract.” 45
The final complement of personnel, Rev. J. M. Ashburn, who was to serve as a preacher, and his wife, who was to be an assistant, departed for the manual labor school on November 15, 1849, and arrived at the site to commence their work in January, 1850.
Ashburn in writing from the mission on January 10, 1850, related some of the apparent hardships and mentioned the unfinished condition of the manual labor school. He wrote:
By the mercy of God we arrived safely with all our things. We found the new building with two floors laid, doors and windows in, plaster on the walls of the second story. The family rooms not impaired. I have been laboring very hard to facilitate the completion of the house. I have gotten me a room nearly ready to go into; we will put on the last coat of plaster tomorrow. The lime has eaten into my fingers so badly that they bleed. . . . 46
As of January, 1850, the buildings were so far completed as to admit part occupation, and about 30 scholars were received into the institution. The Advocate speculated the whole would be completed and all the departments in full operation by the
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 405
commencement of the ensuing summer. 47 There are no direct references in regard to the completion of the mission grounds noted for the months of January through March, 1850; however, the annual report in the American Indian Mission Association Proceedings April 1, 1850, noted that the improvements and buildings were all completed.
It is quite apparent that the government aided substantially in the erection of structures at the compound, but the subsequent operating expenses were evidently not so well supported. During the early years, the manual labor school was supplied with an abundant and capable staff to provide the customary curriculum for both boys and girls. From the time that the manual labor training school was under construction to its completion, the educational program of the Baptist missionaries started to attract Pottawatomies and other tribes as well as Euro-Americans.
Most churches used the manual labor type mission, with the school as a community center. “The undertaking that produced the most tangible results was one which had a stationed missionary who could supervise a farm program, teach domestic techniques to the women and instruct men in agricultural reform.” 48 The Pottawatomie Manual Labor School exhibited all of these requisites in the beginning and at the time the buildings were in the final stages of completion boasted a staff of eight. Male teachers included Dr. J. Lykins, superintendent, Rev. J. M. Ashburn, principal teacher, with their assistants being Rev. B. W. Sanders and Robert Simerwell. Their counterparts included Elizabeth McCoy, head of the female department, with her assistants being Mrs. Ashburn, Mrs. Sanders, and Mrs. Simerwell.
The goal was that the manual labor boarding school be self-sustaining through farm work performed by student labor. “Work developed those virtues of labor, industry, and economy deemed essential to good character and at the same time taught the children civilized customs. All schools demanded the scholars be clothed, for the most part in white man’s garments.” Activities and order of the day varied little from school to school with each sex working at those tasks considered appropriate to it by the white man. “Older boys cut wood, made fires, fed cattle, cared for the cows and worked in the field at planting, hoeing, and harvesting. Little boys carried water and assisted in feeding the cattle. Girls cooked, baked, washed and ironed clothes, swept the
406 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
buildings, made beds, spun, knitted and wove, made candles, and processed meats.” 49
School hours and relationships were comparatively uniform from school to school; however, at the Pottawatomie school, there was a rigid division of labor in regard to class and dining room facilities and, of course, the dormitories. The male pupils were taught and exercised in the various departments of manual labor, and due to a lack of work hands at the mission, it is conceivable that the boys took their places in the fields while the females worked in labors appropriate to their sex, and “all have made encouraging progress in their studies.” 50 Females under the instruction given by Elizabeth McCoy and her assistants, progressed to such a point of excellence she was prompted to report that “our children all improved well in every respect, I never saw white children who excelled them in letters, and but few that would equal them in sewing and fancy work.” 51
Apparently, the older girls did not assist in food preparation or washing during the early phase of the school’s operation. This is reflected in a letter from Elizabeth Simerwell to her sister:
We have been washing hard all day. . . . We have no one to cook for us. Our cook left last week and I have had to leave the school room and take the kitchen. I have got along very well so far but do not know how long we will hold out. Mr. Alexander starts in the morning to hire help, but help is very hard to procure. . . . I attend to the chickens we have quite a number of small ones. . . . Excuse haste for I am very sleepy and tired and if I do not go to bed there will be no one to get breakfast in the morning. 52
Help for the mission was still unavailable a month or more later as Lizzie Simerwell related in a letter to her sister in May. 53
The usual pattern for the children at an institution of this type was for them to be awakened at five o’clock, then wash, dress, and have devotionals except the larger girls who prepared breakfast. They all dined at the same time and then all the girls except the dishwashers went to the school room to knit and sew, the boys worked on the farm or in the fields until nine in the morning. At that hour all assembled for lessons, which lasted till dinner at noon; then after a period of recreation, lessons were continued until 4:15. The girls resumed sewing or prepared supper for 5:30,
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 407
and the boys returned to the field and farm work. After supper a brief worship service was held and then all exercised for a short period. Between seven and eight the children returned to their classrooms, where they prayed and sang before retiring for the night. 54
Scholars for the mission increased from the 17 boarders listed for September, 1848, prior to the erection of the permanent manual labor facility, to 29 prior to June 30, 1849, with another increase in September, 1849, to 39. Apparently, the Pottawatomie students were transitory in some respects for Lykins when he wrote to the Indian Advocate in September, 1849, gave the attendance as being between 20 and 30.
Some students enrolled at this time already had English or French names. Three of the new students were full-bloods and two of the three received the names Paulding and Kendrick upon their arrival and the third small boy, who apparently was quite bright, had the name Sidney Dyer conferred upon him. He was, of course, named after the corresponding secretary of the American Indian Mission Association in Louisville. The placing of an English name on a new arrival was a common practice for beneficiary naming was the method of obtaining new contributions based upon a stipulated sum per annum. The donor had an Indian named after him or someone else and he received a brief letter annually from the teacher or directly from his namesake. 55
Several aids were employed by Johnston Lykins and Elizabeth McCoy in order to communicate with their charges. Lykins in 1844 translated the “Gospel According to Saint Matthew” and the “Acts of the Apostles” into Pottawatomie language. Elizabeth McCoy was anxious to secure six French Bibles for the school due to a large number of half-French Pottawatomies who read French. Also, an interpreter was engaged by Lykins in 1849 who was to be at the school daily in order to facilitate communication between the teachers and the newly arrived scholars. He was of the opinion that the school had assumed a degree of permanency and he hoped to see better days among the Pottawatomies. 56
Several major trials occurred in 1849, one of which involved Reverend Dille and his wife who were on their way to the new station. Upon reaching Westport, it was found that Mrs. Dille was suffering from frostbitten feet. Storms detained the Dilles’ arrival
408 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Caption: Johnston Lykins (1800-1876), minister, educator, physician, and first superintendent of the Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor Training School; and the title page from Lykins’s translation of the “Gospel According to Matthew,” and the “Acts of the Apostles,” used in religious instruction at the manual labor training school.
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 409
as it did other members of the station who were visiting the Wea Mission at the time and it was not until February 2 that they could make the journey back to the mission station. Lykins in his report to the Indian Advocate described the journey:
The forenoon was cloudy, and neither myself nor our driver had ever passed a portion of the route proposed. For some hours I felt the extreme solicitude for our safety, but in the afternoon the threatening clouds broke away, and soon the “Lone Elm”—a noted landmark—showed in the distance, and relieved us from further apprehension. At dark, we reached the Wakarusa and lodged at the house of a Shawnee friend. We soon learned that brother Dille was ahead of us a half day’s journey. Here we dismissed our conveyance and took my own horse and buggy, left here by brother Dille. We had left this place in company with two Shawnee teams, and for the sake of company, were compelled to camp with them for the night. Our selection of a camping site was not judicious, and we passed a most dreary night from trying to sleep on a “bed” of snow between one and two feet thick, and from want of fuel. About 3 o’clock we reached Shunganunga Creek and found our friends had wandered from the route; we hurried on but found that they had not reached the Station. When about starting in pursuit of them, they were discovered on the hills some distant approaching us. Leaving Miss McCoy at a neighboring house, I raised a fire in the Mission House, wet from drifting snow, and had the pleasure of seeing all arrive in safety. 57
The school was disrupted again during the year when cholera broke out and the superintendent dismissed the scholars and sent them home. School resumed after the danger had passed. Two of the missionaries, the Dilles, who had endured many of the early hardships, left the service of the school in May, 1849, and they were not replaced until July when Reverend Sanders and his wife arrived. A further complication in regard to mission activities was a direct result of the “California mania” which drained the area of any additional help for the farm. Elizabeth Simerwell noted that “the emigrants pass here every day, five thousand head of cattle passed this morning.” 58 In regard to this migration, Lykins wrote as late as June 29, 1850, that enlargement of the facility, was deemed inadvisable:
The late excessive emigration to California have almost stripped the country of anything like breadstuff. Flour has been selling by the Indian traders at $15.00 per barrel—corn meal at rates equally high, with transportation in proportion and super added to these and the remoteness of our Station from the state of Mo. (80 or 90 miles) we have to pay enormously high for labor. 59
However, the school at this time was relatively solvent relating to food stuffs for they had 20 acres of wheat being harvested and a good supply of bacon. News from the school during this period
410 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
revealed that it was in prosperous condition. Meetings were held at the station and three or four places in the neighborhood and also at the post (Uniontown). Ashburn and Sanders were in Independence at this time, but on their return to the station they would be giving full time to the Pottawatomies. Ashburn was to preach, study the language, and teach, whereas Sanders’ duties were primarily teaching and visiting. Almira Hurlbert, who lived in close proximity to the station and often attended the prayer meetings of the women, remarked in a letter to Sarah Simerwell, then stationed at the Wea mission, that she enjoyed this privilege. She wrote that there were two Indian women who met with them and would pray with the others which was seen as an encouraging sign in regards to the religious training of adult Pottawatomies. 60
By 1850 the school boasted an attendance of 70 Pottawatomies and a definite improvement could be seen in the scholars. Elizabeth McCoy commented on the 33 girls who were in attendance:
Fifteen read, six write, five study geography and arithmetic, and one grammar; and so soon as books can be procured, some three or four will study United States history. The number of advanced scholars is small, but when we consider their total ignorance of the advantages of education, and English, the language, we almost wonder at their progress. . . . 61
No mention is made of the male scholars in this report. However, they were probably assisting Ashburn and Sanders in the field due to a lack of work hands. They were both compelled to spend most of their time on the farm in planting the corn crop and it was feared that Ashburn had become consumpted from working too hard. It is conceivable that the boys also learned, in addition to farming, such trades as shoemaking, blacksmithing, and tanning as was the practice in other schools of the period.
Congregations were good on the Sabbath during the year but apparently no impressions were being made on the congregations and the two to three preaching outposts were not well attended. Services on the Sabbath were held at the nation, and Thursday afternoon was reserved for the female prayer meetings.
The completion of the manual labor training school’s interior was held up during the course of the year due to a want of funds and Lykins noted that:
. . . Also account current for improvement and building fund I had expected before the close of this quarter to have paid contractors bill for plastering M. L. edifice, but the improbability of obtaining suitable aid has delayed his work, and
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 411
Caption: Elizabeth McCoy (1834-1891), niece of Isaac McCoy and head of the female department of the Pottawatomie school until her transfer to the Wea Mission. Photo from The Memoir of Miss Eliza McCoy by Calvin McCormick.
this disbursement cannot be included in this quarter. This bill will more than cover the amount of building and improvement fund remaining in my hands at the end of this quarter. 62
In spite of completion problems due to the disbursement of funds, the school was gaining in popularity day by day. Those in the beginning who were not sending their children to the station were now doing so. The missionaries during this time were even withholding the benefits of the school due to a lack of supplies. Elizabeth McCoy noted in her annual report for 1850 that the
412 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
children who initially were a source of constant trouble had become obedient, kind, and affectionate. 63 To achieve this type of acquiescence, there were several forms of punishment. Whipping, a common occurrence in white schools, was not practiced by the missionaries. Instead, when corporal punishment could not be practiced, rewards and unusual punishment were instituted. These included imprisonment, long periods of standing in odd positions, or sitting with a hood over the head. Dismissal from school was the punishment for sex and other gross offences. 64
Superintendent Lykins had a different opinion from Elizabeth McCoy. He reported the Indian pupils were irregular in attendance and that a large percentage of the day must be devoted to manual labors and domestic duties. He was of the opinion that even with these allowances, the school was progressing the best that could be expected. He related that if they “could be favoured with the allowance of our accounts as per vouchers, it would not only greatly relieve us but enable the Establishment to move onward on a more extended and useful scale.” 65
This year, like the preceding one, proved to be one of trial and tribulation not only for the school, but especially for Johnston Lykins. An altercation between W. W. Cleghorn, a licensed trader to the Pottawatomie, and Reverend Ashburn precipitated a great deal of trouble for the school in the years which followed. The dispute was a result of Cleghorn trying to keep Pottawatomies from attending school. 66 This, and comments by George Ewing, Indian agent, and Father Hoken of the St. Mary’s mission, were to have their effect on Lykins and would result in his eventual removal as a physician and superintendent. Ewing’s attack on Lykins is best illustrated by a letter to Orlando Brown, commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington, in which he concurs with statements made by Father Hoken of St. Mary’s. Hoken had stated that “Lykins was unfit for the station he now occupies,” and that he had “heard the Indians repeatedly say that they may as well throw their money into the Kansas river, than to have such a doctor.” 67 In his letter to Brown, Ewing related that he had
known him [Lykins] for twenty-five years. He is no physician at all, in my humble
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 413
opinion . . . has never done anything except to manage to live off those Indians. He is a lazy mischief making Missionary Loafer, and in this way has managed to fleece those Indians and the Government out of large sums of money yearly without consideration. . . . I have no doubt but that he has for years imposed upon the government by making false and garbled reports on the “flourishing condition of the missionary school.” 68
In June Ewing again wrote to D. D. Mitchell, superintendent of Indian affairs in St. Louis, and dwelt on another line of attack in his criticism of Lykins. This was in relation to the cholera epidemic of 1849, when “he abandoned his post & was thoughtless in his duty & that in consequence of this the other physician was left without help, and fell a victim as well as many of the Indians who with proper medical attention might have been saved.” 69 Relative to this comment by Ewing, there is no doubt that he left the school when the epidemic broke out. However, whether, he was involved in a scheme to bilk the Indians out of a portion of their annuities and falsified the school returns to obtain additional money outside of operating funds, is not revealed through the subsequent investigation of the schools returns. Sidney Dyer, corresponding secretary for the American Indian Mission Association, expressed dismay upon these allegations directed toward the school superintendent. He related “we have been aware that some difficulties existed between Mr. Lykins & some trader. . . . but we were not informed that his character & standing were called in question & the circumstance has given us much pain.” Dyer was of the opinion that the accounts rendered by Lykins were correct and that they had been properly rendered. His statements were signed by the teacher of the literary department, Elizabeth McCoy, and Dyer believed both to be totally incapable of lending themselves to such gross deception. In sum, Dyer stated that “If, however, you have such well authenticated facts as will shake your confidence in Mr. Lykins, we shall be pleased to be informed, as we desire only such persons as the Dept. can cordially approve.” 70
The controversy continued toward the latter part of December when D. D. Mitchell wrote “I am but slightly acquainted with either of the gentlemen: but from what I have learned from various respectable sources, I am satisfied that the place of Doctor Lykins could be filled by someone much more worthy.” 71
414 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Correspondence relative to the school is conspicuously absent from July 29, 1850, up to September 1, 1851, when Lykins filed his annual report with the commissioner of Indian affairs. Lykins’s record relating to the status of the farm and school, the cholera epidemic, and his defense against the allegations directed toward him are contained in this lengthy report. In regard to the farm, additional acreage was put under cultivation, cows and a team of oxen were also purchased for use at the school. A full complement of scholars, 91, consisting entirely of Pottawatomies with the exception of one, a Kansa, were enrolled during the first quarter; however, this number dropped to 75 during the second quarter. It was the latter figure which remained constant up to the time the report was filed by Lykins. In regard to irregularities of the school’s accounts, Lykins included the comments of George Stilly who examined the accounts at the request of the superintendent of Indian affairs in St. Louis, D. D. Mitchell. Stilly’s report is quoted by Lykins in his annual report to the commission of Indian affairs:
After having witnessed an examination of the pupils in reading, writing, and geography, as well as examined their specimens of needlework, [I] take great pleasure in testifying to their progress in these branches of education.
From the short time since the school has been established, and the numerous great difficulties to surmount, much credit is due to the untiring perseverance of the superintendent and his able associates, Mr. J. Ashburn and Miss E. McCoy, for these happy results. It is to be hoped that the attention of the government will be directed to the advancement and encouragement of this mission, as the result to be obtained in this establishment (the welfare of the Indians) cannot be more truthfully carried out than by the system adopted by this institution. 72
Lykins also included a statement from the teacher of the female department to the society which is basically the same report as the preceding years with the exception of boys’ activities: “Of the boys, six study the third reader, six second reader, thirteen first reader, six geography, twelve arithmetic, and thirteen writing.” 73
The dry season which had affected the farm during the preceding season had abated and the yield for the year appeared to be one of promise in that the wheat matured well and an ample supply was on hand at the mission. The remaining crops, consisting of corn, beans and potatoes, held promise for a good harvest, and an increasing number of Pottawatomies were sowing wheat. Unfortunately, however, habits relating to intemperance were on the increase. Coupled with this, cholera had again made its appearance as a result of Col. Edwin Sumner’s regiment being
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 415
in a state of contagion when they passed through the reserve. Lykins commented that: “A few days since I met in the road an Indian wagon, containing a barrel of whiskey, accompanied by horses laden with kegs, all on the way to a village where the cholera was then raging. The result is not difficult to anticipate.” 74 Lykins was of the opinion that the liquor traffic could be halted by arrests of the offenders by soldiers and punished under existing law.
The financial condition of the school was also of major concern in that only one half of the allowance ($2,500) had been received by the society. This, apparently had a crippling effect in regard to the missionaries’ efforts and “greatly embarrass[ed] the superintendent of the school.”
The report ended by commenting on the controversy concerning himself and the school. Against one of the principals involved in the attack, Lykins had filed a suit for libel,
with the view, not only to obtain justice, but to place the facts of the case before the public. Neither am I ignorant of the fact, that in the Department of the Interiors statements and affadavits of the most malicious character have been filed to my injury; but I have relied on the magnanimity of the Department to protect me from a species of persecution so directly in conflict with the rights of a citizen, and so little in harmony with the spirit of American institutions. 75
If the events from the preceding year were not enough to cripple the newly established institution and its associated personnel, yet another disaster struck in the early part of 1852. Smallpox broke out at the school and all of the pupils had been removed with the exception of those who had received too much exposure to the disease, 18 in all, who were interned at the school. As a result of the disease, panic broke out and a large percentage of the Pottawatomies went to the Osage country. Dyer related that “at the earliest possible period, consistent with the safety of the scholars, the school shall be resumed.” 76
Lykins made a trip to Washington with Elizabeth McCoy and attempted with apparent success to have funds released for the mission operation. Ashburn and his wife had been transferred to another agency thereby leaving the Sanderses in charge of the school with no assistance other than that which the students could provide. Apparently, the school was unable to permit the full complement of students from returning due to the January outbreak of smallpox.
416 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
At this time an extensive audit was also being conducted which related to expenditures of all the establishments where Lykins had served in the capacity as superintendent covering the years from 1830 to 1850. P. Clayton, 2d auditor for the treasury department requested “a statement showing to what agents of the government has been sent all the money intended for purposes of education at the establishments where Dr. J. Lykins has been employed . . . ,” to be required in court “in a few weeks.” 77
The ninth annual report of the American Indian Mission Association published in Marion, Ala., on April 8, 1852, still carried the name of Lykins as a preacher in addition to Rev. B. W. Sanders and Rev. I. F. Herrick as being associated with the male department and Mrs. Sanders and Mrs. Herrick assisting in the female departments. Elizabeth McCoy was transferred to the Wea Mission and Robert Simerwell, living too far outside the area of mission to “render them any aid,” was dropped form the report although “his influence” was still with the organization. Reverend and Mrs. Herrick, new additions to the field of labor, were “sustained by the State Convention of Mississippi.” 78
The outcome of the controversy between Lykins, the agents, and personnel from the St. Mary’s mission remained unanswered in the official correspondence of the principals involved until April 24, 1852, when Dyer in a letter to Luke Lea, commissioner of Indian affairs, reported: “It may not be improper for me to state that Dr. Lykins will be relieved from his connection this spring, &, for the present, the station filled by Rev. D. Lykins well known to your department as the very successful superintendent of the Wea Missions.” 79
David Lykins in his new role of superintendent of the Pottawatomie Baptist Manual Labor School issued his first report concerning the status of the institution in September, 1852, to the Indian agent, F. W. Lea. Health at the mission had been restored after severe sickness (smallpox) during the year had somewhat retarded educational efforts.
D. Lykins reported that 60 pupils were enrolled but the average attendance remained comparatively static at 40 per day. The school was divided into various classes, arranged as follows:
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 417
1st class—Rhetorical Guide, 4.
2d class—McGuffin’s [McGuffey’s] Third Reader, 12.
3d class—McGuffin’s Second Reader, 12.
4th class—McGuffin’s First Reader, 8.
5th class—Goodrich’s First Reader, 7.
6th and 7th classes—Alphabet and first spelling lessons.
1st class Arithmetic, 11.
2d class arithmetic, 16.
1st class geography, 10.
2d class geography, 6.
English grammar, 3.
Writing, 14.
The girls are all taught needle-work. Several of the classes have made considerable advancement, while others are only making a start to improve. We find, by experience, that our children generally have good capacity for improvement; and were it not for the irregular manner in which many of them are kept in school, we should, doubtless, soon see a more decided improvement. 80
Liquor traffic still posed a problem in the Pottawatomie country and it was causing considerable amounts of degradation. David Lykins was hopeful that “. . . the ruinous practice of liquor traffic be broken up, we might hope that soon this moral wilderness would be transferred into a cultivated and enlightened region of peace and happiness. . . .” 81 Apparently this form of trespass could not be prevented due to a lack of any organization on the part of the Pottawatomies and it could not be suppressed “until the chiefs and headmen oppose it.” 82 The Indian agent in his report for 1852 expressed concern in that “For so long as men are permitted to get drunk and commit murder, and a few ponies pay for the life of the best man in the nation, I cannot see how we are to expect any very great change, unless it is from bad to worse.” However, the report also voiced a degree of hope in regard to this problem because a group of influential Pottawatomies agreed to assist in punishing all who brought alcohol into their country. Little mention of the mission was made in the report other than the difficulties which had transpired during the preceding year. A note of optimism was voiced concerning the appointment of David Lykins who had great popularity with the nation, and the school “now bids fair to soon to be in as flourishing condition as any school in the country.” 83
418 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In the latter part of the year, assisting David Lykins, for what appears to have been a very short period of time, were Robert Simerwell, his wife Fanny and daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth was teaching the school and her father expressed concern that the school was small and the want of means and help made them afraid to enlarge it. He also noted that changes appeared in the making for the Pottawatomies in that “some . . . wish to sell [their land] others wish to have their land divided and become citizens other tribes wish to remain undisturbed, but I suppose the most of them will sell and whites will enter the country. . . .” 84
Mrs. Simerwell provides additional insight into the status of the school and of the daily routine. In addressing her daughter Ann, she wrote:
. . . it is past three o’clock. At four I shall have to go to the kitchen to assist in getting supper it is very difficult to get good help in the Indian country.
. . . This morning I was up before daylight I went to the kitchen and made up biscuit for breakfast then the little girls came into my room I combed their hair and they washed and got ready for breakfast When the first bell rung I had to go and get the cream and milk for breakfast. After breakfast [I had] to attend to the churning and dressing the butter so I am kept pretty busy one thing after another I have to attend too. The little girls appear very affectionate and they call me Grandma I hope that I may be of some little use to them though things here at present wear a gloomy aspect. . . . 85
Apparently the “gloomy aspect” was indeed correct for the mission was in the process of transfer from the American Indian Mission Association in Louisville to the Southern Baptist Convention in Marion, Ala. The initial notice of transfer occurred on June 17, 1854, when S. L. Helm related to George Manypenny that he was no longer the corresponding secretary of the parent association but that he was in Louisville closing up the affairs of the mission for transfer. 86 The actual document making the transfer was not duly executed until the 20th day of June, 1855, when a designated committee acted
to transfer, convey, & deliver unto the Southern Baptist Convention all the missions, schools, assets, dues, money choses-in-action, legacies, bequests, gifts, subscriptions, and property, and rights of money and property of all and every sort & description of, or belonging to this Board or said American Indian Mission Association whether in possession or otherwise, . . . all the Missions and Mission Stations of the American Indian Mission Association, including the Missions, Mission Stations and Schools at Wea and Potawatomie in Kansas Territory, together with all and singular the Mission and school houses and other
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 419
improvements and appurtenances thereto belonging, with the right to use and occupy the same for school & mission purposes, and also, all farming implements, horses, cattle, and hogs, and all crops, grain & provisions & all the household and kitchen furniture belonging to or appurtenant to said Mission and School. 87
The transfer of title was signed by Joseph Walker on June 20, 1855, in Louisville. Buildings on the mission site remained unoccupied and those who were associated with the complex were no longer in residence. John Haverty, a clerk in the St. Louis Indian office, on September 26, 1855, requested further instructions in regard to the occupancy of mission buildings. 88 Joseph Walker, corresponding secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention, in a letter to George Clarke, Pottawatomie agent, said that he entertained “full expectation of being able to reorganize and profitably conduct this school,” however Clarke was of the opinion they would fail to accomplish this goal. 89
In 1856, John Jackson was sent to work with Rev. David Lykins, now described as “General Superintendent of all the Baptist Missions in the Kansas Territory.” 90 The commissioner of Indian affairs in his annual report for that year was of the opinion that some improvement had been made since the take over and reoccupation of the manual labor school by the Southern Baptist Convention. However, there was a great need for improvement and the Indians could rightly expect more from it with the great amount of funds which had already been expended. Jackson’s enrollment at the school totaled 63 pupils of which 34 were males and 29 females. Of the males, eight were being taught arithmetic and 14 writing with the remainder occupying the “lower branches, such as reading and spelling.” A majority of the females were taught sewing and other domestic pursuits. Participants in the school revealed rapid improvement since being admitted to the school. Jackson had a number of laboring hands under his supervision and two teachers, one for each sex. Jackson related in his report that “when I first came I was unprepared and a stranger to these people, but now, with some industry and perserverance, do good to these people.” 91 Walker on November 4, 1856, again made note of the school’s progress in Kansas
420 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
territory, that under the circumstances it had “done as well as might be expected.” 92
On November 6, 1856, enroute to Lecompton and encamped near the Baptist mission, Gov. John W. Geary issued the following declaration:
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, “CAMP GRACIAS A DIOS,”
BAPTIST MISSION, POTTAWATOMIE RESERVE, KANSAS TERRITORY,
Having reached this point, after an extended tour of observation through this Territory, and being now fully satisfied that the benign influences of peace reign throughout all her borders, in consonance with general custom and my own feelings I hereby specially set apart the 20th day of November, instant, to be observed by all the good citizens of this Territory as a day of general thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God for the blessings vouchsafed us as a people. Given under my hand, at the place aforesaid, this 6th day of November, A. D. 1856.
JOHN W. GEARY,
Governor of Kansas Territory93
He also commented on the students enrolled at school in that he found “many bright-eyed, intelligent-looking Indian children exhibiting great aptness in learning.” 94
The school, according to Jackson in his report for the quarter ending in December, 1856, was still in a prosperous condition and he was having no problems with the Indians. He said that improvements were needed but he did not list the improvements or mention the cost, and he did not know whether or not the government would extend funds for this type of aid. R. Holman, corresponding secretary for the board at this time, was anticipating an inspection trip to the missions under the jurisdiction of the Southern Baptist Convention in order to do a proper evaluation of the properties relating to their specific needs. 95
In conjunction with the aforementioned needs, Holman addressed the commissioner with a request concerning an increase in the allowance made to the students at the Pottawatomie school. Apparently, a request was made by Holman in 1856 and was granted, increasing the allowance from $50 to $75 per scholar. He now desired that the increase be continued for “at the present prices of provisions the school cannot be sustained for less than $75 per scholar.” Apparently, St. Mary’s mission school was receiving the increased amount as were other schools; however, there is nothing to suggest that Holman received the increased
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 421
funding. In his travels among the Pottawatomies, Holman was gratified to learn “that the patrons of the school were pleased, and that Mr. Jackson was rapidly winning their confidence and esteem.” 96
For the Southern Superintendency in 1857, Rev. John Jackson is listed as superintendent, J. G. Thompson, teacher, boys; Matilda Arnent, teacher, girls; and Malinda Holloday, girls. The attendance for the school for this quarter which ended in June, 1857, was almost equal to the best, which was 63 pupils. Jackson was “redeeming the buildings and farm from their former dilapidated condition as fact as practicable.” The report ended with the statement that “the prospects of the school are more encouraging than they have been the last 12 years.” 97
Little in the way of activities was contained in the preceding quarterly reports for the school, with the main concern being prompt payment of the approved accounts. This became a major point of frustration in that none of the accounts for the year 1857 had been paid by the government. Holman addressed this matter in February 1858, and related that “the board has been under the necessity of appropriating funds to this object which were placed in our treasury for other purposes.” 98
The accounts were paid on March 4, 1858, but there were still difficulties in regard to the quarterly returns being submitted on time. In this instance it was due primarily to the agent for the school, George W. Clarke, who visited at the grounds only twice in 1857. Both of these visits were short inspections and in one instance he did not visit the girl’s department while they were receiving instruction. Clarke’s dissatisfaction with Jackson occurred over a minor departmental investigation in regard to the quarterly reports. He later accused Jackson of being an overly ambitious farm manager but incapable of conducting an educational institution. Whatever the merits of the argument, Jackson succeeded in reopening the school, in restoring some of its early vigor, and outlasting George Clarke on the Pottawatomie Reservation by a number of years. 99
Activities of the school were still progressing at an even rate in regard to the students. What held promise for the school was that Jackson had gained a measure of confidence among the “wild” or
422 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
“Prairie Indians,” who had made but little progress in civilization and that Jackson was accomplishing more with that portion of the tribe than had ever been done before. 100
In the earlier years the two mission schools were concerned primarily with those children from the Mission band and the mixed bloods. In his annual report for 1858, Agent William E. Murphy again mentioned that the school was devoted “chiefly” to Prairie band children, and that 98 children attended the school during the year; crops were generally good, and the mission was in a good state of repair. 101 On September 14, 1858, Holman reported that Jackson was again in need of a quarterly payment so that he could lay in his winter stores.
In October, 1858, a very detailed set of guidelines and suggestions for the operating of manual labor training schools were posed by Walter Lowrie in New York. This report listed three methods in which to operate the schools, the most feasible of which was for them to be conducted by the missionary societies. The report weighs the differences and expenditures relating to secular education, manual labor, and religious training. Religious training would be the responsibility of the society and the secular education and manual labor aspects would fall under departmental control. Included in this work were yearly salary ranges for personnel at the manual labor schools:
Superintendents-
Man and Wife $200.00
Each Child 25.00
Male teacher or farmer $150.00
Female teacher 100.00
Hired hands often had a higher monthly income than the male and female teachers. Their scale ranged from $15.00 to $20.00 per month whereas the male teacher received $12.50 and the female $8.33, “yet they labored cheerfully at their work.” Lowrie concludes the report by stating:
Let the Department [Indian affairs] furnish the school funds of the Indians, or the civilization fund under all suitable regulations and restrictions, in everything relating to secular education, including full instruction in labor and requiring half yearly reports and regular vouchers for all sums expended. . . . 102
Jackson continued working for the benefit of the school and the farm, but apparently became disheartened when it was learned
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 423
that C. E. Mix, commissioner of Indian affairs, and Holman, the corresponding secretary for the board, thought “it would be injudicious to expend much money at the buildings now occupied, as there was some prospect of such change of treaty as to require a new location for the school.” 103
The school remained fairly stable in regard to the students but Jackson was facing a financial crisis. In a letter dated September 19, 1860, he wrote:
At the end of the present quarter all that will be due me from the government will not clear me of debt, I shall realize nothing from the farm—no corn, no potatoes, no vegetables of any kind. I have been at the expense of cultivation, and received no return. I have cattle and hogs, but no feed for them. From the farm the school has, formerly, received a great part of its support. This support is altogether cut off this season; and the government allowance will not sustain the school. Unless some additional assistance can be furnished I shall be compelled to dismiss the school at the end of the next quarter. . . . In view of all the foregoing facts will not the Department either raise the present appropriation per scholar or make a special appropriation of some $500, to assist in the present emergency? 104
Apparently, help was not forthcoming as Jackson sent Holman a second request for funds and Holman answered “I hardly know what to say. Times are extremely hard here. . . . We have not the means now to do anything. I will make an appeal through the papers—will try to do something thru our agent in Ky, to get provisions I fail to hope something can be done yet . . . hold on a while longer. . . . I think we can make it go—I shall spare no pains.” 105
By December no aid had been sent by the department, although funds from the association had previously helped to ease the burden. However, “owing to the financial embarrassment of the country arising from the short crops and political commotions we are not able to do so at present.” Unless the government extended aid, it was felt that the school would have to be suspended for a season. Holman’s last question to the commission was, “is the condition of the fund, and the crisis of the country such as to render a suspension of the school advisable or necessary, either temporarily or permanently?” 106 The accounts remained unsettled as late as March, 1861, although repeated requests were made to the commission in regard to quarterly payments and on June 24, 1861, in a letter from W. W. Ross, Pottawatomie agent, it was noted that:
424 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
It becomes my duty to announce to you that the Baptist Mission School, which is located on the eastern portion of the Pottawatomie Reserve was disbanded on the 21st inst., by the request of Mr. Jackson, who has had the school in charge for the past six years. His reasons are for the past year he has continued his school regularly and has received no equivalent what ever for it. The Board under which he has been operating, are now behind him from $1200 to $2000 and his pecuniary embarrassment caused thereby prevents him from going any farther. . . . 107
Two additional events, one being the Civil War which severed all times of organizations with Southern affiliation, and the other being the treaty of November, 1861, affected the school. On November 15, 1861, the Pottawatomies signed the treaty under which a large percentage of them became citizens of the United States. The treaty was ratified in 1862, and in essence provided for an access through the reservation for the Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western railroad, a diminished reservation, and lands held in common or severalty. 108 The treaty also provided 320 acres for the Baptist school as well as the Catholic school at St. Marys.
A final note on the manual labor school while the treaty was under way was made by William P. Dole on a trip to the reservation to aid in the treaty negotiations when he wrote: “The Baptist School being closed on account of the connexion with the Southern Board was not visited, but I was informed it had been the means of much good.” 109
The Catholics operating the mission at St. Marys desired 1,000 acres for their school and improvements patented to them; however, Major Ross the agent, consented to 320 acres if the Indians also approved of the same amount of land to the Baptists. However, at this time, 1861, there were no representatives present for the Baptists and the treaty stipulated that the land and school were to be conveyed to “such parties as may be designated by the Baptist Board of Missions.” 110
As a result of this treaty, the connection between the Prairie band and the Mission and Woods bands was severed. The Prairie band received 77,440 acres as their share of the tribal domain, whereas, the other bands, the citizen Pottawatomies, “were allotted land in severalty—640 acres to each chief, 320 to each head man, 160 to each other head of a family, and 80 acres to each other
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 425
person.” The two educational institutions were granted 320 acres each and the residue was offered under the treaty to the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western railroad company, but no sale was successfully made. 111
Prior to a major reopening effort by the Home Missionary Society, Rev. J. M. Lackey wrote to William P. Dole, the commissioner of Indian affairs, from the Delaware nation on December 5, 1861, inquiring about a possible position among the Pottawatomie. He listed his qualifications for the position as being “a minister religiously a Baptist, a western man.” Apparently, he did not secure the position as the mission buildings remained unoccupied except that a man by the name of Weidner occupied part of a structure and burned lime. 112
The Baptist Home Missionary Society board initiated a formal claim for the property in 1865. Board members went to Washington and made arrangements with the secretary of interior who reported that inasmuch as the Home Mission Society was the only representative of the Baptist denomination that the government could then recognize, the property should be turned over to it. 113 The school was officially resumed in 1866, the final effort by the Baptists to provide educational facilities to the Pottawatomie. D. N. Cooley, Indian commissioner, mentioned that the school was being reopened, “with flattering prospects in the old Baptist mission building, under the auspices of the Home Missionary Society of that Church.” Rev. W. G. Raymond, who was employed as superintendent for the reopening of the establishment, “has shown sufficient energy in making necessary preparation, repairing the mission buildings, &c., [and] now awaits the action of the board to enable him to open his school.” 114
In 1867, by another treaty, a new home was provided for that portion of the citizen Pottawatomies comprised chiefly of the Mission band, that had not yet acquired personal ownership. Also, “the land originally intended for their individual use was transferred to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company at the price of one dollar an acre, the amount to be paid, not in gold, but in lawful money—that is in greenbacks.” However, the Prairie band did not emigrate with their kindred to Indian
426 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
territory, but instead moved to a diminished reserve which is located in present Jackson county. 115
Early in 1867 Rev. Evan Jones replaced Reverend Raymond and a boarding school was kept until the two bands of the Pottawatomie were moved to Indian territory. In June, 1869, floor plans and specifications outlining a prospective hospital, physicians dwelling, smokehouse, and smith work shop were submitted to the board; however, these were never built. L. R. Palmer in his report to the commissioner of Indian affairs wrote that “The other establishment, known as the Baptist mission, and which, a few years ago, was turned over to the Baptist missionary board, has suspended operations.” In the same report he related that in order for the Home Mission Board to repair the facilities for the accommodation of the Prairie band, $2,000 was taken from the civilization fund by the commissioner of Indian affairs; “but poor success attended the effort, and after a short time the enterprise seems to have been altogether abandoned; and upon visiting the premises a few days ago I was told by a tenant whom I found there that the property was offered for sale.” 116
Joseph Francis Murphy sums up the efforts of the manual labor training school in the following manner:
No evaluation of the proportionate influence of the total Baptist impact upon the Potawatomi of the Kaw Valley, 1848-1869, seems possible or necessary. Yet it must certainly be taken into account as a force in the changing culture of the Indians. As such, it was one of the roots of the origin and subsequent nature of the civilized Citizen Band. It seems also that the Baptist educational effort contributed to the receptivity of the Prairie Band to the educational facilities provided by the government in the later eighteen-seventies. 117
The American Home Mission Society’s patent to the land was filed on March 5, 1870, although it was dated two years previously, on February 10, 1868. This patent was issued in accordance with Article 11 of the treaty concluded on February 27, 1867, between commissioners on the part of the United States and duly authorized representatives of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, and ratified on July 25, 1868. Article 11 of the 1867 treaty which relates to lands for school purposes states:
The half sections of land heretofore set apart for the mission schools, to wit, those of the St. Mary’s mission and the American Baptist mission shall be granted in fee-simple, the former to John F. Diels, John Schoenmaker and M. Gillaud, and fee-simple, the former to John F. Diels, John Schoenmaker and M. Gillaud, and
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 427
Caption: Robert Ives Lee (1846-1911), breeder of nationally known trotting horses, who purchased the Pottawatomie school property from the American Indian Mission Association in 1873 and converted the building to a horse barn. Photo from Kansas and Kansans by William E. Connelley.
the latter to such party as the American Baptist Board of Missions shall designate. 118
The legal description for the property given in the patent is as follows:
The Northwest Quarter of Section thirty two containing one hundred and sixty acres (with other property not under consideration) all in Township eleven South of Range fifteen East of the Sixth principal Meridian in the State of Kansas and containing in the aggregate three hundred and twenty acres. . . . To have to hold said tracts with the appurtenances unto the said American Baptist Home Mission Society and to its successors and assigns forever.
This document was then signed on February 10, 1869, by Andrew Johnson, President of the United States.
On April 10, 1873, the mission society’s committee on the Pottawatomie farm reported that it had sold the property consisting of 320 acres for $30 per acre, payable $2,000 each year thereafter, with interest on the unpaid portion at 10 per cent per annum. It was deeded to R. I. Lee on April 22, 1873, for the amount of $9,600.
Robert Ives Lee was born in Boston on May 5, 1846, the son of Bvt. Brig. Gen. William Raymond Lee, III, and Helen Maria
428 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Caption: A view of the Pottawatomie Manual Labor Training School looking southwest. An earth-filled ramp, sliding doors, and other alterations have changed the north elevation. Robert Ives Lee’s residence is in the lower foreground. Photo taken by C. L. Miner in 1912.
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 429
Caption: A recent view to the northeast, showing the Pottawatomie school near the center and with I-470 and I-70 in the foreground.
430 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
(Amory) Lee. 119 Lee first came to Kansas in 1869, living at first in Jefferson county, and then moving to Topeka shortly thereafter. His greatest desire was the improvement of trotting horses and his acquisition of the 320-acre parcel of land which became known as Prairie Dell farm provided a place to accomplish this objective. It was here that Lee constructed a large two-story home of native stone to the north of the manual labor training school. Under Lee’s direction the first in a series of modifications took place on the school building which was to serve as a facility for his trotting horses.
During his ownership, all elevations relating to the structure were severely altered from their original configuration, according to a series of photographs taken by Samuel Adams in 1897 and by an unknown photographer in the late 1890’s, and a subsequent series taken by C. L. Miner in 1912. 120 The alterations include the removal of the three outside entrances on the north, south, and west elevations with the door for the west elevation then being sealed with the same type of limestone that was used when the building was constructed. On the north and south elevations, two large ramps were constructed to provide vehicular access to the second floor where the male and female school rooms were located. The interior bearing walls containing the doors were also modified by sealing the openings and then removing the central part to match the width of the ramps. Sliding rail doors were then placed over the outside openings on this floor. Interior rooms on the basement floor were modified into facilities to accommodate Lee’s trotting horses.
A number of Lee’s stallions were nationally famous and his brood mares were the best in Kansas and known outside the state in trotting circles. Perhaps one of the most famous trotters during the early years of the farm was Robert McGregor known as the “Monarch of the Home Stretch.” This particular horse was sold by Lee in 1890 in Louisville, Ky., for $33,250 cash. Other notable stallions in stud at Prairie Dell included Mountain Mist, McCallummore, Jackdaw, and Scythian, to name but a few. His farm continued to flourish as one of the outstanding horse farms in the country. However, in 1908, Lee held his second disbursal sale in which he disposed of over 80 percent of his standard bred
POTTAWATOMIE TRAINING SCHOOL 431
horses. 121 A catalog issued prior to the sale date of March 5, 1908, said concerning the farm and sale:
. . . this farm has owned and stood for service the most successful sires in the country, the record proves. Robt. McGregor, sire of Cresceus 2:02¼ , was owned for seventeen years. . . . Paula, dam of Gratton Boy, 2:08, was bred and raised here, as was her dam. The sire and dam’s sire, of Pansy McGregor, (1) 2:23¼, World’s Champion for age and sex, were foaled and raised here. The sire (and his dam) of Maxine, (4) 2:08¾ (fastest trotter for age in 1902) and her dam’s and grandam’s sires, were both bred and stood at this farm.
Lee still retained a small percentage of the stock, but the farm never again achieved the prominence that it had once known in its early years of operation. Robert Ives Lee, probably one of the most prominent horsemen in the Midwest, died in Chicago on December 19, 1911. The farm stayed intact in the family until 1919 with the Elmer E. Moore family living in the Lee home and cultivating the acreage. The property was purchased in 1919 by Charles Hawk who in turn sold the property to Elmer Lee, not related to the original owner, in 1922. At this point the final structural modifications took place due to the unsoundness of the structure. Lee related in an interview that he hired Charles, Bill, and Frank Walraven to tear down the monitor roof, remove the doors, windows, and door frames and to rebuild the structure in its present form in 1922. It is conceivable that the remaining windows on the west elevation were lengthened for additional doors. It has been suggested that the old monitor was destroyed by a tornado in 1917, however, according to Lee and a photograph taken after the tornado this was not the case. 122 The property was again purchased in 1928 by C. J. and Eric Widestrand who retained possession until Dale and Ruth Carmean bought it in 1946. Carmean raised horses and cultivated the grounds until the state of Kansas purchased the property on December 26, 1973.
Currently a planning study is underway relating to the new museum complex for the state, and the old manual labor training school building is to be rehabilitated on the exterior to that period when it served in one of the frontier efforts by a religious body, the Baptists, to educate and convert a native American group, the Pottawatomies.
THOMAS P. BARR, native of Oklahoma with a B. A. degree from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and with graduate specialization in archeology, is historic sites archeologist for the Kansas State Historical Society. He has done extensive investigative work at the Baptist Manual Labor Training School.
Notes
1. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, October 28-30, 1847, p. 25.
2. John Francis McDermott, ed., “Isaac McCoy’s Second Exploring Trip in 1828,” Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. 13, no. 7 (August, 1945), pp. 413-414.
3. John Guthrie, “Primeval Heroes, Patriots and Priests,” Agora, Topeka, v. 3, no. 1 (July, 1893), pp. 64-75.
4. “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1847, p. 738.
5. Louise Barry, The Beginning of the West, 1540-1854 (Topeka, Kansas State Historical Society, 1972), pp. 725-726.
6. Anna Heloise Abel, “Indian Reservations in Kansas and the Extinguishment of Their Title,” Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8 (1903-1904), pp. 72-109; “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1846, pp. 216-217; Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs—Laws and Treaties, v. 2 (58th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 319 [Serial 4624]), pp. 557-560.
7. Indian Advocate, Louisville, Ky., v. 2, no. 4 (November, 1847).
8. Ibid., v. 2, no. 5 (December, 1847).
9. Guthrie, “Primeval Heroes . . .,” p. 68.
10. Barry, Beginning of the West, pp. 252, 336.
11. Bessie Ellen Moore, “Life and Work of Robert Simerwell” (M. A. thesis, Dept. of History, University of Kansas, 1939), p. 43; Joseph Francis Murphy, “Potawatomi Indians of the West: Origins of the Citizen Band” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1961), p. 157.
12. Ibid.; Barry, Beginning of the West, p. 336.
13. Ibid., pp. 204-205, 283, 330-331, 336.
14. Ibid., pp. 464, 467, 514, 527.
15. Moore, “Life and Work of Robert Simerwell,” p. 55; Barry, Beginning of the West, p. 741.
16. Ibid., pp. 737-738.
17. Indian Advocate, v. 2, no. 8 (March, 1848).
18. Johnston Lykins to Thomas Harvey, March 28, 1848, “Letters Received—Schools,” Office of Indian Affairs (OIA), National Archives (NA) Microcopy 234.
19. Ibid.
20. Richard Cummins to Thomas Harvey, June 7, 1848, ibid.
21. Thomas Harvey to William Medill, June 16, 1848, ibid.
22. Sidney Dyer to William Medill, July 24, 1848, ibid.; Thomas Harvey to Richard Cummins, September 11, 1848, ibid.
23. Indian Advocate, v. 3, no. 2 (September, 1848); Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, October 26-27, 29, 1848, pp. 19-20.
24. Indian Advocate, v. 3, nos. 3, 5 (October, November 1848); Thomas Harvey to William Medill, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
25. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, p. 19.
26. Thomas Harvey to William Medill, December 10, 1848, “Letters Received-Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
27. “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1848, pp. 447-449.
28. Ibid., p. 451.
29. Sydney Dyer to William Medill, January 17, 1849, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA NA Microcopy 234.
30. John Gallimore to _____ Boggs, May 30, 1849, “Letters Received—Fort Leavenworth Agency,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
31. Indian Advocate, v. 4, no. 2 (August, 1849).
32. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, August 10, 1849, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
33. Julie Wortman to author, 1977.
34. Alvis Stallard to author, 1975.
35. Julie Wortman to author, 1977.
36. Barry, Beginning of the West, p. 509.
37. Lena Baxter Schenck, “The Forty-Niners and the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission,” Bulletin of the Shawnee County Historical Society, Topeka, no. 27 (April, 1957), p. 20.
38. Jotham Meeker to Robert Simerwell, October 14, 1844, “Isaac McCoy Papers,” in manuscript div., Kansas State Historical Society.
39. Joseph W. Ware, The Emigrants Guide to California (Princeton University Press, 1932, reprinted from 1849 edition), p. [14].
40. Sydney Dyer to Luke Lea, November 19, 1850, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
41. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, September 30, 1849, ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Indian Advocate, v. 4, nos. 4 ,6 (October and December, 1849).
44. Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, October 25-27, 1849, pp. 23-24.
45. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, December 31, 1849, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
46. Indian Advocate, v. 4, no. 8 (February, 1850).
47. Ibid., v. 4, no. 7 (January, 1850).
48. Walter Brownlow Posey, Frontier Mission: A History of Religion West of the Southern Appalachians to 1861 (Lexington, University of Kentucky Press, 1966), pp. 188-189.
49. Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American Indian Response, 1787-1862 (Lexington, University of Kentucky Press, 1965), pp. 36-40.
50. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, September 30, 1849, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
51. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, April 10-12, 1851, p. 30.
52. Elizabeth Simerwell to her sister Ann(?), April 26 (no year), “Robert Simerwell Papers,” manuscript div., KSHS.
53. Elizabeth Simerwell to Sarah Simerwell, May 17 (no year), ibid.
54. Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage, p. 38.
55. Ibid., p. 37.
56. Indian Advocate, v. 4, no. 4 (October, 1849).
57. Ibid., v. 4, no. 6 (December, 1849).
58. Elizabeth Simerwell to her sister Ann(?), April 26 (no year), “Robert Simerwell Papers.”
59. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, June 29, 1850, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
60. Almira Hurlburt to “Sister Simerwell,” April 3, 1850, “Robert Simerwell Papers.”
61. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, April 10-12, 1851, p. 30.
62. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, June 29,, 1850, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
63. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, April 10-12, 1851, p. 30.
64. Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage, pp. 41-42.
65. Johnston Lykins to Orlando Brown, June 29, 1850, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
66. Murphy, “Pottawatomi Indians of the West,” pp. 315-316.
67. George Ewing to Orlando Brown, May 2, 1850, “Letters Received—Fort Leavenworth Agency,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234; Alex Coquilland to George Ewing, April 16, 1850, ibid.
68. George Ewing to Orlando Brown, May 2, 1850, ibid.
69. George Ewing to D. D. Mitchell, July 2, 1850, ibid.
70. Sidney Dyer to Luke Lea, September 12, 1850, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
71. D. D. Mitchell to Luke Lea, December 28, 1850, “Letters Received—Fort Leavenworth Agency,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
72. “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1851, p. 338.
73. Ibid.
74. Ibid., pp. 338-339.
75. Ibid, p. 340.
76. Sidney Dyer to----, January 5, 1852, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
77. P. Clayton to Luke Lea, January 15, 1852, ibid.
78. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Indian Mission Association, April 8, 1852, pp. 39-42.
79. Sidney Dyer to Luke Lea, April 24, 1852, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
80. D. Lykins to F. W. Lea, September, 1852, 32d Cong., 2d Sess., Ex. Doc. No. 1 (Serial 673), pp. 378-379.
81. Ibid., p. 379.
82. F. W. Lea to superintendent of Indian affairs, St. Louis, September 22, 1852, ibid., p. 377.
83. John W. Whitfield to superintendent of Indian Affairs, St. Louis, October 8, 1853, 33d Cong., 1st Sess., House Ex. Doc. No. 1 (Serial 710), p. 322.
84. Robert Simerwell to his daughter Ann, November 21, 1853, “Robert Simerwell Papers.”
85. Mrs. Robert Simerwell to Ann, November 21, 1853, ibid.
86. S. L. Helm to George Manypenny, June 17, 1854, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
87. Resolution, American Indian Mission Association, undated, appointing a committee to transfer mission property, ibid.; “Deed of Transfer & Conveyance,” June 20, 1855, American Indian Mission Association to Southern Baptist Convention, ibid.
88. John Haverty to George Manypenny, September 26, 1855, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
89 Joseph Walker to George Clarke, August 2, 1855, “Letters Received—Pottawatomie Agency,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234; George Clarke to A. Cummings, October 17, 1855, “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1855, p. 419.
90. Murphy, “Potawatomi Indians of the West,” pp. 318-319.
91. John Jackson to George Clarke, no date, “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1856, pp. 669-670.
92. Joseph Walker to George Manypenny, November 4, 1856, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
93. “Executive Minutes of Governor John W. Geary,” Kansas Historical Collections, v. 4 (1886-1890), p. 623.
94. Ibid.
95. R. Holman to George Manypenny, April 3, 1857, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA< NA Microcopy 234.
96. R. Holman to J. W. Denvers, August 22, 1857, ibid.
97. “Official Roster of Kansas,” Kansas Historical Collections, v. 16 (1923-1925), p. 733; R. Holman to J. W. Denvers, August 22, 1857, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
98. R. Holman to C. E. Mix, February 5, 1858, ibid.
99. Murphy, “Potawatomi Indians of the West,” p. 319.
100. R. Holman to C. E. Mix, March 20, 1858, “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
101. Murphy, “Potawatomi Indians of the West,” pp. 321-322.
102. Walter Lowrie, “An Examination Into the Best Mode of Conducting Manual Labor Boarding Schools Among the Indian Tribes,” “Letters Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234.
103. R. Holman to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, November 1, 1859, ibid.
104. R. Holman to C. E. Mix, September 19, 1860, ibid.
105. R. Holman to John Jackson, October 10, 1860, ibid.
106. R. Holman to A. B. Greenwood, December 11, 1860, ibid.
107. W. W. Ross to-----, June 24, 1861, ibid.
108. Robert E. Starburg, “Baptists on the Kansas Frontier” (B.D. thesis, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, Ill., 1960) p. 112; Kansas Historical Collections, v. 16 (1923-1925), p. 766.
109. “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1861, p. 12.
110. Marvin Thomas, “The Pottawatomie Baptist Mission Building, Topeka, Kansas—An Architectural Review,” p. 5.
111. Abel, “Indian Reservations in Kansas,: pp. 102-103.
112. J. M. Lackey to William P. Dole, December 5, 1861, “Letter Received—Schools,” OIA, NA Microcopy 234; Thomas, “The Pottawatomie Baptist Mission,” p. 5.
113. Ibid.
114. “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 1866, p. 51; L. R. Palmer to Thomas Murphy, September 17, 1866, ibid., p. 265.
115. Abel, “Indian Reservations in Kansas,” pp. 102-103.
116. Thomas, “The Pottawatomie Baptist Mission,” p. 5; L. R. Palmer to Enoch Hoag, September 20, 1869, “Report of the Commissioner of Indian affairs,” 1869, p. 374.
117. Murphy, “Potawatomi Indians of the West,” pp. 326-327.
118. Kappler, Indian Affairs, p. 973.
119. William E. Connelley, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co., 1918), p. 1819.
120. Personal conversation with Mrs. Arthur Erskine, Topeka, autumn, 1977.
121. Connelley, A Standard History, p. 1821.
122. Thomas, “The Pottawatomie Baptist Mission,” p. 6.
