Bigelow. May 10, he assists in the organization of the church in Omro; he finds Oberlin perfectionism there. Again he is in Rosendale, with Mr. Birdeman. At Oshkosh, at an earlier date, which I cannot now recall, he had taken part in the organization of a church; Mr. Freeman was the minister.

And so, all over this region, from Green Bay to Baraboo, from Wausau to Columbus and Manitowoc, our missionary passed and re-passed during the years 1849-56. There was not a village or a rustic community unvisited by him, and where he did not seek to establish Christian institutions. These explorations were made on horse-back, over ill-defined pathways and unbridged roads. Sometimes he was lostonce in a cedar swamp, in which horse and man were obliged to spend the night. Another time, his horse was mired, and he walked several miles before getting help to pry the animal out. Often the missionary was in peril from the elements, and from vicious men. But all over this region he continued, with unwearied devotion, to read, pray, and exhort in families, and to preach in private houses or in school houses or upper halls. Often we find him prescribing at the sick-bed, when the physician was far away, or when the expense of one could not well be borne.

In 1852 he removed from Green Bay to Waupaca, where he had purchased a tract of land to make a home for his family; henceforth his head-quarters are there. He organizes a church at Waupaca and one at Pine River, also looks after Weyauwega.

From 1850 to 1853, there was a remarkable pouring in of people from the East. Foreign immigration had by that time hardly attracted notice. New England and New York institutions were rapidly developing in Wisconsin. Farms would open as if by magic; villages of five hundred or one thousand inhabitants would spring up in a few months or a year. It was a busy task to attend to them all, and see that ministers were supplied and sustained. Marsh, as the earliest on the ground, and fully alive to the importance of the northeastern part of the State, was incessant in travel,

in personal effort, in preaching and in correspondence. During the first fifteen years of his residence in the Fox River valley, it is safe to say that there was not a white family north of that river. The incoming tide of civilization found him here, awake to the needs of the hour. To his intelligent and ready zeal, much of the church planting and growth in this district is due.

The regions to the south and west, the earlier-settled parts of the State, were occupied by other and equally zealous pioneer ministers. The Wisconsin Congregational convention have erected a monument over the grave of Stephen Peet, who so zealously labored in the south. Others were equally deserving in other parts of the State. But none who labored in Wisconsin, whether we consider the time at which his labors began or the intelligent experience and zeal brought to bear upon them, are deserving of more honor than Cutting Marsh.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE STOCKBRIDGE MISSION, 1825-48.'

GRANT OF STATESBURG MISSION SITE.

This agreement made the 6th day of April 1825 between the Chiefs & Peacemakers of the Stockbridge Tribe of Indians in behalf of their nation of the first part and Revd. Jesse Miner' Missionary to sd. Tribe of Indians of the sec

1 As stated on p. 25, note 1, ante, the papers left by Rev. Cutting Marsh, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, have been deposited in the archives of this Society. With the Marsh papers, the Society has also received from the same source, several documents appertaining to the work of his predecessor, Jesse Miner. The Miner papers are herewith published in full; but the Marsh papers are so voluminous that we have selected for present publication only that missionary's annual reports to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, covering the dates May 2, 1831-June 1, 1818. Even these, we have somewhat abridged, omitting those portions in the later reports which either dwell in detail upon the purely ecclesiastical side of his work, or cast reflections upon rival denominations. The journal kept by Marsh is contained in 39 MS. books, covering the period from May 2, 1830, to the close of the year 1855; there are also 55 letters from and to Marsh, bearing dates from 1830 to August 6, 1856.

The Scottish reports, although prolix, are of exceeding interest, from many points of view-historical and psychological. They present to us a picture of the results of Calvinistic teachings upon Wisconsin barbarians, after several generations of similar missionary efforts; of the transition of the tribe from a state of nature to that of citizenship in a civilized community; of the trials, tribulations, and changing moods of the missionary himself; and are particularly interesting when compared with the annual Relations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, to which they will be seen to bear many curious resemblances as to matter, form, and spirit. We follow the original drafts of the reports, as preserved by Marsh. Finished copies were sent by him to Edinburgh.— ED.

2 Jesse Miner was at this time the American Board's missionary to the Stockbridges at New Stockbridge, N. Y. The mission site herein described

ond part witnesseth That the said Parties of the first Part for the consideration herein after mentioned do agree to convey & confirm to the sd. Jesse Miner and hereby do convey & confirm to him all right and title to the Mission House & Barn and the other improvements on the piece of Land attached to them agreeably to a Deed given by Elijah Pye to our former Missionary Revd. John Sargeant.' and the said party of the second part doth hereby agree & bind himself to & with the said parties of the first part that when the said piece of Land shall be sold to the State, on condition the said House Barn & other improvements, on their appraisal, shall be accredited to the sd. party of the second part, he will then pay to the said parties of the first Part or their Agent within one year the sum of money at which said House Barn & other improvements shall have been appraised.

And the said parties of the first part further agree to grant to the said party of the second part so far as in their power peacable possession of sd. piece of Land & the improvements untill sd. Land shall be sold to the state

In testimony whereof the parties to these presents have hereunto interchangeably set their bands & seals the day & year above written

was that of the present South Kaukauna, the settlement being at first called Statesburg. Miner arrived at Statesburg in July, 1827. As will be seen from the succeeding document, he returned to New York in the autumn; but in June, 1828, permanently located at Statesburg. He came at first without his family, but later brought them to the new mission; and while completing a house and barn for them, died March 22, 1829.- ED.

1 Miner's predecessor as missionary to the Stockbridges, in New York. Sergeant died September 7, 1824.— ED.

2, 3, 4, 5. See next page for these notes.-ED.

MINER TO THE STOCKBRIDGES.

To the Stockbridge Indians residing in Statesburgh M. T. MY CHILDREN-I thank the great & good Spirit who reigns above that he has allowed me to visit your Country & to speak to your people on their great & most important concerns; and that I have found so much of the light of divine truth & mercy shining in this wilderness.

2 Captain Hendrik (Aupaumut) was a soldier in the American army, in the War of the Revolution, and is said to have received a captain's commission from the hands of Washington. In 1792, when the Stockbridges visited President Washington, Secretary-of-War Henry Knox commissioned him to undertake a mission to the Western tribes. His great influence with these tribes was thrown against Tecumseh, and he actively assisted Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison in the campaign which ended in Tecumseh's defeat. He is said to have favored the plan in 1808-10, for forming settlements of all the Eastern Indians, in the White River country in Indiana, where, by 1818, there had been gathered about 800 of the Stockbridges. From here they were invited by the Outagamies to settle in the valley of the Fox, in Wisconsin. Later, they joined forces with the Munsees, Brothertowns, and Oneidas; and August 8, 1821, signed a treaty which entitled them to a strip of land about five miles wide, at Little Kaukauna. Hendrik Aupaumut's remains were buried at Kaukauna.- ED.

3 John Metoxen was the head chief of the Stockbridge Christian party which left White River, Indiana, in the late summer or autumn of 1822, to take up their new lands in Wisconsin. It was the following year before the Stockbridges who had been left in New York, reached Wisconsin. Metoxen, who had been educated in the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pa., was an orator of rare power, and frequently preached to his people. He died April 8, 1858, aged 87 years, and lies buried in the old Indian cemetery at Stockbridge. See biographical sketch in Wis. Hist. Colls., iv, pp. 303-305.- ED.

4 Quinney was born in 1797, and received an English education at a high school in Yorktown, N. Y. Attaining the chieftaincy of the Stockbridges in Wisconsin, he was largely employed by his people, during thirty years, in the negotiation of treaties with the government of the United States. He died at Stockbridge July 21, 1855. See biographical sketches in Wis. Hist. Colls., iv, pp. 305-311; also Quinney's speech and memorial, Ibid., pp. 313-333.- ED.

The son of Hendrik Aupaumut, and himself a chief of the Stockbridges. He was one of the negotiators of the treaty of 1821, which secured the Wisconsin lands for his tribe.- ED.