Chapter-1855, December 18

Brewerton’s book, War in Kansas: A Rough Trip to the Border, Among New Homes and a Strange People. (New York. Derby & Jackson, 1856.) [You may read the whole book here.] provides useful insights into the Border War in Kansas and Missouri and the people, both White and Indian, caught in it. (Note the page titles with the page numbers.)

.

MASSA JOHNSON. page 105

 CHAPTER X

 THE SHAWNEE MANUAL-LABOR SCHOOL.

   And now, to return, or rather to go ahead, we pressed on, and after some two miles and a half of hard trotting travel, with something to boot from taking the wrong road, “hove in sight,” as the sailors say, of the Shawnee Methodist Mission, consisting of three long two-story brick buildings, with sundry cabins and out-houses, which, while they had rather a dilapidated appearance, looked as if they might be Western comfortable inside.

   Upon reaching the board fence which enclosed a sort of flower­-garden, just in front of the Superintendent’s dwelling, we rode up to a tying-post, and having reined in our mule, who was, because he liked it, very willing to stop, we dismounted, hitched Long-ears so securely that he couldn’t very conveniently run away, and then proceeded to arouse the inmates of the “most responsible looking” house, but as our knocking called forth no reply, save the growling of several ill-looking curs of low degree, who kept up a dismal racket in our rear, we made bold to walk in, the more so as the front door stood invitingly open; but we traversed several rooms, got out of the back door, and finally wandered into the kitchen ere we lighted upon anything human, which, however, turned up at last, in the shape of a voluble old darky, with a bullet head,· and elongated heels, who informed us that “Massa Johnson” (the Superintendent of the Mission), was not at home, and would not be back until night.

A DUBERSOME DARKEY. 106

   “But who is?”

   “Well, dars de man dat takes care ob de place when Massa Johnson’s gwyne away.”

   “Can’t you find him, and let him know that a gentleman would like to speak with him?”

   “Well, dis byar niggar’s mighty busy just now, massa, s’pose I mout find him, though-‘spect I might try, but I’m dubersome about it.”

   As this uncertainty was removed by a quarter,” the man who took kear ob de place” was found, and speedily made bis appearance. Upon transferring our inquiries to him, we learned that Governor Shannon was, as we had previously understood, at Lecompton, some fifty miles distant from Westport, whither he had gone to buy up some claims; our informant added that the governor’s son who is also his private secretary, and the Secretary of State, Mr. Woodson, were with him, but that the whole party were expected back in the course of a few days. After communicating these facts, our new acquaintance, who seemed a plain well-meaning sort of person, and a strong Pro-Slavery man into the bargain, invited us into a sort of sitting-room, where we will venture to say that we asked him as many questions in five minutes’ time, as if he had been undergoing a cross-examination by a Philadelphia lawyer (though for that matter, we are free to confess that we don’t exactly see why a legal man, because be comes from the Quaker City, should be any keener than his brethren of the long robe, elsewhere), but be this as it may, here follows an abridgment of the information elicited by our inquiries. The Shawnee Manual Labor School has been established for nearly twenty years; at first, under the fostering care of the Board of Missions for the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church, in connection with the patronage of the general government. Latterly, however, as the institution grew better able to support itself, or it may be, as Uncle Sam became more liberal, that

THE MISSION FARM. 107

amiable old gentleman has stood sole paymaster; at present, under the treaty stipulations with the Shawnee Indians, the school receives the interest of one hundred thousand dollars, at five per cent per annum, amounting, of course, to five thousand dollars; that being the sum appropriated for educational purposes in the Shawnee Nation. To this income, may be added the earnings of the very large farm attached to the mission, which, at this time, consists of fifteen hundred acres of fenced land, of which, from six to seven hundred acres are under cultivation. The soil being a rich loam, from twelve to fifteen inches in depth. During the past year they have raised upon this farm, one hundred and forty acres of corn, sixty acres of which grew eighty bushels of grain to the acre (not bad that, even in Kansas), and one hundred acres of oats, which yielded from thirty to forty bushels per acre. There is, also, a large vegetable garden, and they have two hundred and fifty head of cattle, who, so far as the females are concerned, are very like the Dutchman’s cow of notable memory, which “gave very goot milk.”

   The Institution is under the direction of a general superintendent, a school superintendent, and his assistant (to whom we are indebted for interesting information), and a farmer who oversees and directs its agricultural operations. There is, also, a superintendent of the boarding-house, who was our informant in regard to many matters connected with his own department, as well as in relation to the history (for he is an old settler) of the mission.

   The buildings, as we have before stated, consist of thin, long, two-story brick houses, not very substantially built, and from present appearances, considerably in need of repair. As a summer residence they might be moderately comfortable, but as a winter one, and particularly in severe weather, they are, owing, I should say, to the shiftless way in which things appear to be managed, a most undesirable home. The arrangement too, for persons lodging there, are bad, as the boarding-house proper is some fifty

THE SHAWNEE RESERVE. 108

yards distant from the dining-room or rather kitchen, in which the inmates take their meals. The children’s school-house and dormitories are open to the same criticism, being about twice that distance from the main building.

   This mission is located upon the “Shawnee Reserve,” a tract of land some twenty-four miles in width, by thirty long, which is secured to the nation by their final treaty with the United States government. This treaty gives two hundred acres, as soon as its survey is fully completed, which is expected to be the case by the 1st of July next, to each Shawnee Indian, whether man, woman, or child. These tracts are to be selected by the parties concerned, as nearly as possible to the vicinity of the individual’s present residence in the Shawnee Indian Territory. The choice to be made and declared within sixty days, or, as other authorities say, ninety, from the conclusion of the government surveys. Thirty thousand acres are to be reserved for non-resident Shawnees, who may come in to claim their share. The remnant of this (once powerful) tribe, now resident upon the Reserve, amounts, all told, to about seven hundred and fifty souls.  The remainder of the “Shawnee Reserve” will then, if we understand the matter rightly, be thrown into the market to become subject to locations at the usual government price ($1,25 per acre). In view of these facts, we have been informed that a secret society has been organized in Missouri, or rather in certain border counties of that State, for the purpose of settling the whole of this tract, as soon as it is made liable to entry, with bona fide Pro-Slavery settlers. This society, we learn, numbers nearly eight hundred men, who are pledged to each other to do all in their power to make Kansas a slave State, and to support the peculiar institutions of the South. We hear that they have already made very favorable arrangements with the Shawnees, as to the entry of these lands. This club may be regarded as an humble imitation, which will, however,

RED-SKINS AT SCHOOL. 109

in all probability, accomplish quite as much as its progenitor, the Massachusetts Aid Society.

   The number of children at present under instruction in the Manual Labor School is about forty of both sexes; among these are some half-a-dozen Wyandots and one Arapahoe. Some of these children are orphans, placed here by their guardians, others have parents residing upon the Reserve. But few of these Indians are full-blooded, yet the physical peculiarities of their race seem strongly marked in each; the dark, restless eye, the prominent cheek-bone, the straight, coarse black hair, and pigeon-toed gait being visible in all.

   These children pay seventy-five dollars per annum each, to the superintendent, as a receipt in full for board, washing, and tuition. Their instructor assures us that they will compare favorably, in mental capacity, with the same number of ordinary, every-day, non-precocious children at the North. They speak, as a general thing, no language but their own upon entering the school; the first care of their instructor is, therefore, to teach them English; this they soon learn to speak well, though a slight, yet not unpleasant accent seems in almost every case to betray their foreign birth. As children, they are playful out of doors, romping with each other in very un-Indian-like style, while in school theyappear to be quite as mischievous as the offspring of the pale face. If they misbehave, the system of discipline is nearly the same as that formerly in vogue in New England. They do not, however, care much for any species of punishment, save that of the rod, a peculiarity which is appreciated by their teacher, who is a firm believer in that portion of the wisdom of Solomon, which says, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” The branches taught are those necessary to a good English common-school education.

   Their daily routine of life is as follows—at five, A.M., they are awakened by the ringing of a bell, when, if it be summer,

COPPER COLORED YOUNGSTERS. 110

they do light work about the farm until seven o’clock, when they breakfast, a horn being blown by way of signal before each meal, which gives them ample time for preparation (if in the winter-time, their morning work, before eating, is confined to the preparation of fuel, milking the cows, some thirty or forty in all, and feeding the stock). At nine, the school-bell summons them to their studies, which are kept up, with a short interval for recess, until twelve, M. They dine between twelve and one o’clock, and then resume their mental pursuits until four. Their tea­hour is six, P.M., and their evenings are spent in the preparation of lessons for the ensuing day until eight o’clock; they are then allowed to indulge themselves in in-door recreation, until half-past eight sends them to their dormitories for the night. The only religious services which are held during the week are the reading of a chapter in the Bible, followed by prayer, just previous to the morning and evening meals. Saturday “fore­noon” is devoted to work, the afternoon is a holiday, and the evening is spent in the bath-room in “cleaning up for Sunday.” The Sabbath is devoted to devotional services.

   As regards general character and temperament, the Indian pupils are accounted as generally docile, teachable, and good­natured. When sick, they are stupid and silent, have much fear, are easily depressed, and sink more rapidly, when prostrated by disease, than the white. They quarrel but little among themselves; in their juvenile attachments they appear to have a greater “affinity” for members of their own tribe, and would, we are told, resent an insult more quickly if coming from a child belonging to another. Indolence is their greatest and most besetting sin.

   In the little Arapahoe we felt particularly interested, as he is a full-blooded Indian, who came to the Institution as wild as a hawk, when he could speak but a very few words of English, and even these had been learned upon his way thither from a

THE LITTLE ARAPAHOE. 111

white man, who had accompanied him from the hunting-grounds of his tribe. The date of this juvenile’s reception into the school, was the 27th of October, 1855, and in three days after his admission, he knew his letters perfectly—his teacher tells us that he now spells readily in words of one syllable.

   As regards their table–for we had not time to inspect the dormitories, we should say that, so far as quantity is concerned, the children fared remarkably well; though the cookery, to our taste, was little better than an illustration of that oft-quoted proverb, which talks of Heaven’s sending the raw material, and Satan’s providing those who dress it. Of this we were well able to judge, as we had dined at the board of these “children of the Red-men,” or, to speak more correctly, at one just like it, which is common to the superintendent and his family, as also to visitors, and the other officers and employees of the Institution. All things considered, however, these little aborigines may regard themselves as being extremely fortunate; for we could not but contrast their living favorably with our·own early recollections of the “fashionable boarding school starvation system,” which is but too frequently tolerated at the East.

   The superintendent of the boarding-house informs us that workshops were formerly attached to the Mission, where the pupils, in addition to their daily routine of studies, learned various trades. These, however, have of late years been discontinued, as it was thought better for the intellectual advancement of the children, that their minds should not be too much diverted from their books. They are not, for a similar reason, allowed to labor in the field or do any other than light work upon the farm. (It occurs to us that there might be another object in this prohibition, which is, to prevent a dishonest or interested superintendent from following the example of that amiable pedagogue, Wackford Squeers, who pursued the very practical system at his delightful academy for young gentlemen at Dotheboy’s

AMALGAMATION. 112

Hall, where youth “were” boarded, washed, furnished with pocket-money, &c. of teaching a boy a thing, and then fixing it upon his memory by letting him go out and do it.)

   These very general facts, in relation to Shawnee Mission and its Manual Labor School, are gathered in part from our own observation, for with true Yankee curiosity we visited, in our pursuit of facts, the school-room, where we saw the Indian children at their desks, and heard them recite, and we can assure the reader, that (physical peculiarities excepted), they seem, to our eyes, to differ but little from any “district school” interior, which educates the juveniles of some New England village, amid the green valleys of Connecticut, or the rocky hills of the old “Bay State.” For we saw one youngster munching an apple, with an occasional side-look at the master and his rod, another doing anything but a sum, unless the sum had a nose and a mouth, with a crest of eagle’s feathers upon its head, while a third tried hard to post up her neighbor, a very stupid­looking Shawnee, as to the correct reading of some forgotten arithmetical rule, while the urchin in question stood scratching his head, and looking woefully perplexed, as he tried in vain to catch the muttered information in time to answer promptly.

   Finally, then, as touching the interior economy of the Shawnee Mission, this school is said to have done a vast amount of good among the Indians, for whose benefit it has been instituted. We are informed by those interested in the establishment, that a number of the female pupils who have grown up and received their entire education at the Mission (for there are several of them), have, on graduating, married well. Some of them to white men, and in their after lives done credit to its training; apropos to this, we understand that a relative of the present superintendent (Mr. Johnson), was united in matrimonial bonds with one of these fair descendants of the very oldest inhabitants, not many months ago.

SHAWNEE BELLES. 113

   And here we may remark, that so far as our own taste in such matters goes, although some of the Shawnee girls, now members of the school, are called pretty, we have as yet been unable to discover this alleged beauty in these copper-colored damsels. Their manner of walking, for instance; is ridiculous, indeed it was with the greatest difficulty that we refrained from laughing outright, as we saw them file out (on a signal rap from their teacher’s fork), at the dining-room door, for the only thing which we can think of as approximating to their peculiar gait, might, perhaps, be a lame, and very short-legged duck, if you can suppose so common sense a bird to be attempting an imitation of the last fashionable “teter” for young ladies. Add to this, that they stoop, have round shoulders, no figure at all, and “too much color” in their faces, and then if you be a connoisseur, sing their praises, if you please—a la Longfellow’s “Hiawatha.”