Letter-[1842]

Transcribed description of the Shawnee Methodist Mission from R.W. Cummins, Indian Agent, Fort Leavenworth Agency to D.D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St, Louis, Mo. dated 1842, and submitted along with the Mission’s annual report to the Office of Indian Affairs via Maj. D.D. Mitchell, Supt. of Indian Affairs, St. Louis, Missouri in 1842

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[1842]

    The following is a description of the buildings at the Indian Manual Labour School for the education of Indian youth. To wit

    1st a school house proper 110 feet long, 34 feet wide two stories high a garret for lodging boys [East bldg.] The lower story is laid off into three divisions with a ten foot passage between each room, the center room is 60 feet long and 34 feet wide occupied as a chapel and school room for boys. At each end of the house are two rooms 16 by 18 feet. These rooms are occupied by the teachers and their families. The second story is laid off corresponding with the first. The second story is used for lodging & instructing the girls. The walls of this building are brick, foundation rock.

    2nd Boarding house [West bldg.] 40 feet long & 20 wide two stories high, a cellar the whole size of the house, walls of rock, the walls of the house brick. This house contains four rooms, one in the first story & one in the second at each end of the house, 16 by 20 feet, a passage of 8 feet wide in the center on the first and second story. One of the lower rooms used as a public sitting room, the other occupied by the Steward and his family. The rooms on the second story are occupied by the superintendant’s family. Connected with this house is an ell of 90 feet long & 20 feet wide, two stories high with a two story the whole length of the ell. On the first floor of the ell is a dining room of 70 feet long and a cooking room 18 feet long under which is a cellar used as a bake shop. The second story is divided into five rooms of equal size, one of which is designed for nursing the sick and the others for the lodging of labouring hands. The stairs of this part of the building are run up in the piazza. The smoke house is a two story log building 18 feet square. The wash house is also of logs, one story high, 18 by 22 feet, with a stone furnace through the center the whole length of the house. The flue from the furnace is run into the smoke house, which stands at the distance of 25 feet, which smokes the meat. A brick spring house two stories high and 10 feet square, two bee houses of frame work 8 feet square, sealed and shelved off inside.

    3rd Situated at the distance of about 400 yards from the above buildings, there are two frame edifices each 50 by 32 feet, one story high, the garret finished off for lodging rooms. Each house is equally divided by a partition in the center making two family residences. These buildings are occupied by four mechanics and their families, to wit, a carpenter, wagon maker, black­smith, and shoemaker, and eight Indian boys apprentices.

    4th A barn of hewn logs 47 by 65 feet a large threshing floor 25 by 47 feet. Connected with this a horse mill of frame work 32 by 36 feet. The barn and mill are both two stories high.

Respectfully
Yr obt Servt
Richd W Cummins
Indian Agent

Maj D. D. Mitchell
Supt Ind Affrs
St. Louis Mo.

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[from National Archives Microfilm series# M234, roll 301, frame 1122,·1123]