Report-1841, May 27

Transcribed letter from R.W. Cummins, Indian Agent, Fort Leavenworth Agency to Major J. Pitcher, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St, Louis, Mo. dated May 29, 1841 with enclosed transcribed letter from Thomas Johnson, J. Greene and J.C. Berryman to T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated May 27, 1841

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Indian Manual Labor School
May 27th 1841

Sir

   As we have concluded to have two vacations of our school during the year, we have thought it would be better to have two examinations also. We accordingly attended to this duty on the 6th inst. The schollars [sic] were from the following tribes

   1st   Class, 15 boys and 8 girls, spell, read and write well some of them are well acquainted with geography and some of them with the common rules of arithmetic.

   2nd  Class, 7 boys and 7 girls, spell, read, and write, tolerably well, and can answer questions readily in the rudiments of geography and arithmetic.

   3d    Class, 7 boys and 7 girls, spell in three syllables read easy lessons intelligibly and answer simple questions on the blackboard.

   4th   Class, 8 boys and 2 girls, spell in two syllables and have commenced reading in easy lessons.

   5th   Class, 5 boys and 3 girls, spell in three letters, In addition to these, we have 5 large [?] Girls learning to cut and make clothes who do not attend school. We have school seven hours in each day in the first term (from fall untill [sic] spring) and six hours in each day during the second term, from (spring untill [sic] fall). The schollars [sic], spend their time when not at study at various kinds of manual labor.

   Ten of the boys work in mechanic shops, vis. 2 in the Black smith shop, 4 in the shoe and boot making shop, 4 in the carpenters shop. We expect to increase the number in each of the last two named shops, and we also expect to commence a waggon [sic] making shop in August, and to establish a cabinet making shop in connexion [sic] with the carpenter shop. The boys who do not work in the shops labor on the farm.

   The girls, with a sufficient number of teachers or superintendants [sic] do the cooking, washing, ironing, etc. for the school and about 20 laboring men, and milk from 30 to 50 cows. They cook in turn each one week out of five, they also do the sewing for the school, from the 16 of Jan. to the 6 of May, they made 551 garments, such as are commonly used by children and youth from 6 to 18 years of age.

   According to the best estimates we are now able to make our buildings when existing contracts shall have been complied with, which we expect to be done by the 1st October will have cost us as follows

   The above amount will be owing [?] by the Institution Oct 1 1841 unless the government pays the amount due according to the stipulations entered into June 20 1838 according to which our claims are as follows.

   If the Government should deem it prudent to advance enough to pay the expenses of the Delaware & Kansas children untill [sic] Oct 1841 in proportion to the number of them now in school, they would add to the above as follows

   As we have found it necessary to expend much more than was originally contemplated for building hands we hope the Department will afford us all the aid they may deem convenient.

   As a copy of this report will be handed to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs by the Revd E.R. Ames, corresponding Secretary of the Methodist E. Church, for the Western conferences, or by the Revd Wm Johnson, Missionary among the Kansas Indians we hereby authorise [sic] either of them to receive and receipt for any sum the Department may think proper to pay us.

   All of which is respectfully submitted by the undersigned Superintending Committee

Ths Johnson
J. Greene
J.C. Berryman

Hon T. Hartley Crawford
Com. Ind. Affs.

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[Transcribed from National Archives Microfilm Series M234, roll 780, frames 461-464 by Roger Berg Jr. June, 1991. It appears to have been written by J.C. Berryman, as the penmanship and spelling errors are consistent with documents he alone signed.]