Early Education in the Mohawk Valley

EARLY EDUCATION IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY

Indian School Abandoned, continued

An Address Delivered Before a Joint Meeting of the Mohawk Valley Historical Association and the Van Epps-Hartley Chapter, New York State Archeological Assn., at Canajoharie, N. Y., May 2, 1936. (By Dr. A. C. Flick, State Historian)

Note S. P. G. stands for: Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, or the S. P. G. as it is commonly known.

John Sergeant of Stockbridge, Mass., opened a school for Indian boys and asked William Johnson to send him some Mohawk youths for "a liberal education" in 1749. Two years later Joseph Dwight informed him that Mrs. Sergeant had opened a school for Indian girls. Support from the endowment which Sir Peter Warren, Johnson's uncle, had left to the Bay Province for such charitable purposes was used for this experiment, and Johnson encouraged it in every possible way.

Rev. John Ogilvie went to Albany in 1749 and at once got in touch with the man who was to dominate the educations work among the Mohawks as he did politics and religion. That great empire builder was Indian Commissioner, William Johnson, who reported in 1750 that Petrus Paulus, a son of Chief Abraham, and an Indian schoolmaster, was conducting a school at the Upper Castle. Upon his death another Indian schoolmaster named Paulus was recommended for the Upper town. Apparently he was paid by col. William Johnson. Ogilvie visited the school in 1754 and 1755 and found it doing good work. Paulus had 40 pupils and was diligent in his labors. Ogilvie reported that the Indians of the Lower Castle wished to have their school revived, and he was authorized to find a schoolmaster for them. However the unsettled conditions resulting from the French and Indian was prevented such an appointment. Even Paulus' school seems to have gone to pieces about 1762, and Indian lad who received a yearly salary of 5 pounds. Rev. Jacob Oel (Ehle) also acted for a while as Ogilvie's assistant and had been a missionary since 1750. Edward Johnson, a schoolmaster to the Tuscaroras, in 1762 complained of the difficulties in teaching 18 Indians in their own language. Philip Jonathan was teaching school at Conajohary in 1764 and asked Sir William for books, paper and quills for pens. He had two pupils "pretty fur advanced in their learning." John Wooley, a Delaware Indian was learning the Mohawk language so he could teach school. Joseph Johnson was an Indian schoolmaster of this period.

[The "Conajohary" mentioned was probably the Upper Castle in the Canajoharie district which extended from the Noses to Little Falls.]

The attempt to educate Indian children exclusively in their own tongue now came to an end and subsequent schoolmasters maintained English schools--a fact of much significance in the cultural development of the Mohawks who by this time showed a desire to learn English. In 1762 Dr. Samuel Johnson of Kings College recommended as schoolmaster to the Mohawks, Cornelius Bennet, a Yale graduate and an experienced teacher. With the financial backing of New Englanders this fifty-year old schoolmaster opened a school at the Lower Castle in 1763 on an annual salary of forty pounds. In March of the next year he reported that he had "a fine company of lively pretty children, boys and girls, who though ignorant of learning at their first coming, are very ingenious and orderly." His was the first English school ever known among the Mohawks and pupils came from a distance of 30 miles. Sir William Johnson became his interested patron, although he did not approve of Bennet's religion. The hunting season and an outbreak of smallpox disrupted his school, so he returned to New England where he died in 1766.

[The Lower Castle was at the present site of Fort Hunter].

By 1765 the S. P. G. assumed that the Anglican Church at Albany and elsewhere was so strong and affluent that it could be depended upon to support schoolmasters among the Mohawks. Rev. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock's school opened in 1761 at Lebanon, Conn., was educating Indian boys to be sent as teachers and missionaries among their own people. He was also willing to teach Indian girls "in house-wifery." Sir william Johnson seemed to approve of the school and sent young Joseph Brant and other Indian lads to be educated there.

Wheelock in March, 1765, informed Sir William that "all your first five boys" would go home during the summer to "keep schools under the conduct of the missionaries." He expected to recommend to Sir William tow Indian missionaries and three Indian schoolmasters, and that Peter and David were eager to be instructed. Wheelock was using the income of an endowment of 1750 from Sir Peter Warren to educate six Iroquois youths.

To carry out his plan to have the students go out during the summer vacation to obtain some experience in teaching, Dr. Wheelock sent David Fowler, a bright Indian land from long Island who was interested in improving agriculture among the Indians, to the Mohawk Valley during the summer of 1761 and again in 1765 with a letter of introduction to Sir William. Probably Rev. Samuel Kirkland secured his appointment as schoolmaster among the Oneidas. Shortly after he opened his school, young Fowler sent the following letter to Dr. Wheelock:

"Kanavarohare, in Oneida, June 15, 1765.

Honored and Rev. Sir:

This is the twelfth day since I began my school; and eight of my scholars are now in the third page of their spelling book. I never saw children exceed these in learning. The number of my scholars is twenty-six but it is difficult to keep them together; they are often roving from place to place to get something to live upon. I am also teaching a singing school. They take pleasure in learning to sing. We can already carry three parts of several tunes. I am well contented to live here, so long as I am in such great business. I believe I shall persuade the men in this castle, at least the most of them, to labor next year. They begin now to see, that they could live better if they cultivated their lands than they do now by hunting and fishing.

From your affectionate and unworthy pupil, DAVID FOWLER."

The S. P. G. now proposed that a school similar to Wheelock's be established in the Mohawk Valley under the supervision of Sir William to train 10 boys as teachers; and voted a gift of 150 pounds towards the cost. Sir William was suspicious of the work of "Dissenting Minister" because he thought boys educated under their care "Become a gloomy race and lose all their abilities for hunting, &c., spending their time in idleness and hanging upon the Inhabitants for a wretched subsistence, having lost those qualities which rendered them useful to us." He believed that a school at the Lower Mohawk Castle would draw students thither, and that a second school at the Upper Castle (Canajoharie) should be established. These two schools to train native teachers would accomplish much more, he thought, than institutions outside of the Indian country.

The Johnson Plan which had the support of the provincial governor and the church leaders in New York included the following provisions:

1. That two missionaries of good character and with some knowledge of medicine be sent to reside at Canajoharie and at the old Oneida town.

[The "Canajoharie" was the Upper Castle, at present Indian Castle.]

2. That a schoolmaster be located at Canajoharie, the old Oneida town, Onondaga, among the Cayugas and two sent to the Senecas. These schoolmasters were to be prudent, virtuous and liberally educated young men who could teach the younger Indians to read and write and to understand Christian morality and religion.

3. Gunsmiths were to be placed in all the principal Indian villages to teach this trade to some of the Indians, while their wives were to teach the Indian women spinning, sewing and "other branches of female industry."

4. The missionaries, schoolmasters and mechanics, while subject to the appointment or at least approval of the S. P. G. were to be under the "immediate inspection" of His Majesty's Superintendent of Indian Affairs so as to make the plan conducive to "the Interests of Trade" and the governmental policy.

5. Finally a college or seminary was to be established at the old Oneida town where the brighter Indian youths were to obtain "a more enlarged Education" to fit them for the ministry. Such a seminary would be in "the properest place" if located in the Indian country. (Doc. Hist. IV, 1089).

A schoolmaster named Hall was given instruction in the valley in 1770-71 but little is known about his work. In 1771 rev. Charles Inglis sent a memoir to the Earl of Hillisborough recommending that two missionaries be sent to Canajoharie and old Oneida town and

Sir Williams' Papers show, however, that he was wholly convinced of Colonel Babcock's trustworthiness.

The S. P. G. approved the Johnson Plan but it was found difficult to secure good men for the work. At last in 1770 Rev. John Stuart of Pennsylvania was sent to the Mohawks and his work continued till 1778 when his loyalism forced him to depart for Canada. The selection of a schoolmaster was put in the hands of Sir William who obtained the services of Colin McLeland in 1769. He soon had 30 boys and girls receiving instruction at Fort Hunter. Their names have been preserved. Rev. Henry Monro of Albany reported in 1770 that the schoolmaster was "universally beloved" and that the children were making "considerable proficiency" in reading and writing under McLeland. Five year later this pedagogue reported the progress of his school which was encouraging despite the death of its patron, Sir William. Of the 24 pupils, 4 were reading the Bible and the rest were learning fast in the spelling books. McLeland seems to have kept a school of a sort during the Revolution and the S. P. G. continued to pay his bills till 1782. The enlarged edition of the earlier Indian Prayer Book which Sir William secured in 1769 from Hugh Gaine in New York seems to have met all the needs of both missionaries and schoolmasters. Rev. John Stuart translated, into Mohawk, St. Mark's Gospel, an exposition of the catechism and a compendious History of the Bible. Sir William had promised publication of these books at his own expense but after his death in 1774, Stuart applied to the S. P. G.

But the publication of these translations, together with the schools and missions, was disrupted by the out-break of the War for Independence. Had it not been for the Revolution the education of the Mohawks might have proceeded satisfactorily. But the Mohawks for the most part were loyal to the King and only a minority remained in the Valley during the war. At the conclusion, the entire Nation abandoned its ancestral home on the Mohawk River and thus the Mohawk educational experiment came to an end.