1746-1948
Guide to the Collection
Restrictions on Access
Portions of this collection are available as color digital facsimiles (see links below). Where digital facsimiles are available, use of the originals is restricted.
Abstract
The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America records include historical materials, correspondence, general business records, diaries, and financial records of the first Protestant missionary society of its kind in North America.
Historical Sketch
The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America was the first Protestant missionary organization of its kind in North America. It existed in concept prior to its 1787 charter as a group of Boston individuals sponsoring missionary work in New England.
The Society was officially founded in 1787 by a group of Massachusetts citizens concerned with converting the Native Americans to Christianity. Inspired by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, a group of 21 prominent Massachusetts citizens petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a charter. These men shared certain characteristics, such as political views and educational backgrounds (several were Harvard graduates).
The Society's object was "the dissemination of Christian knowledge, and the means of religious instruction among all those, in their country, who were destitute of them." It was difficult for the missionaries to convert the Native Americans, to whom Christianity was unknown. The early missionaries, such as John Eliot, Gideon Hawley, the Mayhews, and John Cotton, mastered Indigenous languages, formed alphabets and grammar books, and learned to preach in these languages. Conducting sermons and visiting Native American homes were early ways of propagating the gospel.
Around the first decade of the 19th century, education in missionary schools became the focus. The outcome of the Civil War and the freeing of enslaved people added to the shift toward industrial education, as white society tried to "civilize and Christianize" Black Americans as well as Native Americans. During the mid-19th century, industrial schools for Black people sprung up in the southeast, such as Claflin University, Tuskegee Normal School, and Hampton Institute in Virginia. Inspired by reform groups like the Temperance Society, the focus of education for Native Americans and Black Americans shifted away from reading and writing and more toward assimilation with the white majority.
Collection Description
The records of the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America, housed in 23 boxes, include missionary diaries, missionary and Society correspondence, the Society's commission, annual Select Committee reports documenting missionary work, annual accounts of stock and income, auditor's reports, business correspondence, receipts and vouchers, as well as some 1910 photographs of missions.
The contents may be broken down into two large series: a general category and a business category. The general section, the bulk of the collection, consists of missionary and Society member correspondence between 1756 and 1922, primarily written to the Society's secretary and treasurer. Included are letters from New England missionaries such as Elijah Kellogg and Abraham Plumer. There are letters from the presidents of industrial schools for Native Americans and Black Americans beginning around 1850 and 1870, respectively. Of particular note are letters from Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Normal School. The general section also includes some New England missionaries' diaries documenting their daily work.
Due to the policy of assimilation of Native Americans and Black Americans through industrial education, which developed toward the second half of the 19th century, there is a noticeable change in the style and content of the general correspondence by this period. The letters shift from daily missionary documentation of their field work, sometimes in diary form, to letters to the heads of industrial schools describing the set-up at their schools.
The diaries of six missionaries all date between 1791-1828, with the exception of George Kenngott's. The diaries reveal missionary thought with an emphasis on family or health problems. They usually contain daily entries covering a several-month period. The Native American point of view is very under-represented in the diaries, as well as in the general correspondence. A better account of Native American life may be found in George Kenngott's 1910 report of his travels among the western tribes. Photographs are included.
Finally, the general section also includes historical papers pertaining to the founding of the Society, as well as material which predates its founding in March 1787. Letters between Gideon Hawley and Edward Wigglesworth document the work conducted under the Society's leadership prior to 1787 which inspired its founding. The business section consists of annual Select Committee reports, 1828-1913; annual treasury reports, 1807-1909; auditor's reports, 1921-1947; four bank books, 1841-1850; Select Committee meeting minutes; receipts; vouchers; and some business correspondence.
There is some overlap between papers in the general and business sections. For example, both contain correspondence, albeit with different content. All of the materials after 1922 are filed in the business section because the bulk of it is business correspondence concerning the treasurer or the secretary.
There is material missing during certain years throughout the collection, including a particularly large gap in the general correspondence between 1863 and 1874. However, published annual committee reports, which may be found at the MHS, attest to the continued existence of the Society since 1787.
Acquisition Information
Deposited by the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America in 1957.
Restrictions on Access
Portions of this collection are available as color digital facsimiles (see links below). Where digital facsimiles are available, use of the originals is restricted.
Other Formats
Portions of this collection are available as color digital facsimiles.
Detailed Description of the Collection
I. General records, 1746-1922digital content
A. Historical materials, 1746-1899digital content
Arranged chronologically.
These records pre-date the official founding of the Society in 1787. Included is a letter from Archbishop Becker to Reverend Dr. Johnson, October 1768, concerning the founding of a missionary society in Boston; an inquiry letter from Dr. Hale into the Society's history, May 1898; a newspaper article on the origins of the Society's history as discussed at the annual meeting, 2 June 1899; a series of letters from missionary Gideon Hawley to Edward Wigglesworth from various spots in Maine and Massachusetts spreading the gospel among the Native Americans, 1752-1756; and "The Commission by The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge to the Gentlemen within named as a corresponding Board at Boston, North America, March 1787."
B. Missionary diaries/journals, 1787-1832, 1910digital content
Arranged chronologically.
These diaries were kept by missionaries in the field as documentation of their daily work. Included are five diaries of Reverend Samuel Kirkland, a missionary sponsored by the Society in Scotland and Corporation of Harvard College to the Oneida Nation and others of the Six Nations, June 1787-October 1791; two journals of John Sergeant with the Oneida in Massachusetts, 1791; an extract from a journal of John Strickland in Hancock and Washington counties, Maine, 1796; William Maclean's journal during his time in Camden, Maine, and the surrounding areas, 1800; two journals of John Sawyer in Brewer and Bangor, Maine, 1828-1832; and one long report of Reverend George F. Kenngott from his travels out west, July-August 1910. The latter's report includes typewritten documentation of his visits to missions, as well as photographs of the missions and their inhabitants.
C. Missionary and Society correspondence, 1782-1922digital content
Arranged chronologically.
This subseries primarily consists of letters from missionaries to Society members describing their work up to 1838, living and traveling among the Native Americans in New England and New York. The bulk of this period, until the middle of the century, consists of correspondence to Abiel Holmes, secretary of the Society, and head of the Select Committee. Holmes was a noted Congregationalist and the father of the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. Notable among the other correspondents are Elijah Kellogg, working among the Passamaquoddy tribe in Perry Point, Maine, and Frederick Baylies, missionary to the Narragansetts in Edgartown, Massachusetts.
There is some overlap of subject and style between these personal letters and the missionary diaries from the 1787-1832 period, as well as some brief diaries included in the general correspondence. Included is documentation of daily activities, i.e. preaching and baptisms, as well as descriptions of lifestyle and health problems, but very little reflecting the Native American point of view. More of that aspect may be located in the journals or diaries.
Around the mid-1840s, the correspondence becomes more business-oriented and less personal. The missionary correspondence is more sparse and focuses more on requests for payment of salary and the need of resources for the missions, rather than descriptions of the missionaries' lives among the Native Americans. Correspondence from Abraham Plumer, missionary at Damariscotta and other parts of Maine, provides good insight into the thoughts of a Society missionary.
The correspondence from 1851-1857 is very sparse, and there are only two letters representing the 1858-1862 period, with another gap from 1862-1874. The bulk of the letters from this early middle period is between Society officers concerning business matters. Noteworthy among the officers of this period are treasurer James Savage and secretary Francis Parkman. Letters between these two concern payment of missionaries and recommendations of new missionaries.
The 1874-1922 period is characterized by correspondence from industrial school officers describing in depth the work of their institutions and requesting financial assistance from the Society. These institutions vary from schools for Black students in the south, such as Claflin University and Calhoun Colored School in Alabama, to Scandinavian missions in the north and midwest. Some are schools for Native Americans like White River Indian Agency in Colorado and Twinsburg Seminary for Indian Youth in Ohio. The main recipients of this correspondence are secretary Rufus Ellis and treasurer Thornton K. Lothrop.
At this time, the Society still sponsored individual missions in New England, among them the Isle of Shoals mission, the Gay Head mission, and Samuel May's mission for the Onondaga Nation. These reports are similar to the earlier correspondence. In particular, the letters of Mrs. L. M. Wight from her mission in Versailles, New York, give good insight into Native American mission life. Other correspondence of interest includes nine letters from Native American students of Siletz Indian Agency in Oregon to their missionary Thomas Eliot in March 1882. During the 1880s and 1890s, there are also letters between missionaries and government officials concerning reservations and assimilation policies.
All missionaries and organizations receiving appropriations from the Society wrote detailed annual reports of expenditures and progress. Significant among these correspondents is Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Normal School. His many letters contain lengthy descriptions of this type of agricultural university for Black students in the 1890s and early 20th century.
Correspondence after 1922 is more business-oriented and doesn't describe missionary or student life, so it has been filed with the business section.
1782-1815digital content
II. Business records, 1783-1948
A. General business, 1828-1924
Arranged chronologically within type of record.
This series contains general business records central to the organization and running of the Society, other than the financial records. These include the 1924 by-laws; annual meeting minutes and announcements; certificates and appointments of missionaries and officers; lists of officers; and miscellaneous reports.
Also included are reports of the Select Committee, loose and bound annual reports, and minutes written by the secretary to document expenditures and progress in propagating the gospel. The secretary lists the organizations and missionaries receiving appropriations and describes the reports he has received from them. These school reports often discuss specific pupils and what they are learning.
B. Financial, 1783-1948
Arranged chronologically.
Included are accounts of stock and income for each year, as well as lists of appropriations and money received from stock investments. Particularly notable is the Society stock in railroads, such as the Western Railroad, the Missouri Railroad, and the Pacific Railroad.
Included are annual auditor's reports for 1923, 1947, 1929, 1934-1935, and 1937-1947.
Included are four bank account balance books, 1838-1850.
4. Treasurers' correspondence, receipts, and vouchers, 1783-1948
Included is treasurers' correspondence related to the allocation of funds, requests for money from outside institutions, and contributions to the Society; lists of appropriations to missionaries, including the person and amount allocated; receipts of salary from missionaries; statements of missionary and mission expenses; checks, insurance forms, and bills from missionary expenditures; and nine statements of property, 1894-1901, under Arthur Lincoln, treasurer.
During the 1920s, there is a large amount of business correspondence between treasurer Henry Ware and the Society attorney, Stephen Phillips, concerning financial investments. The sole missionary correspondent from this period is G. E. E. Lindquist of the Lawrence, Kansas, mission. All of his correspondence concerns payment of his salary and other financial matters. On 1 November 1934, there is a letter from Lina Ware to her father Henry Ware regarding the questionable worth of the Society's missionary work, in reference to Thomas Riggs of the Oahe Industrial School. Also included are letters between Conveyancers Title Insurance and Mortgage Company and the Society.
III. Bound volumes, 1787-1936
Arranged chronologically.
A. Reports of the Select Committee, 1787-1904
B. Account reports, 1788-1936
IV. Oversize materials, 1807-1909
A. Annual treasury reports, 1807-1909
Included is a treasurer's list of yearly expenses and income.
B. Miscellaneous materials, 1849-1880
Included is a blueprint of plans for a mission school in 1880 and miscellaneous deeds, 1849, 1857.
V. Printed materials, 1787-1937
A. Society for Propagating the Gospel, 1787-1932
This subseries contains materials by or about the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America, hereafter abbreviated as SPGAIONA.
B. Missionary, training school, and industrial school publications, 1827-1937
C. Miscellaneous, 1915-1930
D. Newspapers, 1894-1934
E. Map, 1882
Preferred Citation
The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America records, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Access Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.