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| Previous section of the Timeline: Shawnee Lands, 1826-1838 | |
| 1839 | |
| 1839, January | Belle Greene, in a series of extracts from letters, along with memories of conversations with her mother, Mary Todd Greene, relates Mary’s experiences coming to teach at the Indian Manual Labor Schools. Read the letters. |
| 1839, January 22 | Thomas Johnson wrote to the editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal that work on the buildings for the manual labor school was commencing. David Locke of Carrollton, IL., employed to do the brick work, had arrived with a company of hands. Shawnee Indians were at work making rails for the farm. His plan was to fence and plough four hundred or five hundred acres of prairie, sow some in grass for meadow and pasture, plant corn, and sow wheat, oats, etc., thereby making the school almost self-supporting after the improvements were made. He hoped to open the school immediately after the conference in October. The Indians friendly to civilization were reported to be much pleased with the plan. Read the letter. |
| 1839, January 28 | Johnston Lykins writes to Isaac McCoy informing him of Shawnee plans to sell a 3 mile wide strip of land to the Wyandots for their settlement. He notes that this will impact their (the Baptist) Shawnee Mission and that this may prove a problem since the Wyandots are mostly Methodist. He also comments, “There is much excitement among the Shawnees in regard to the new Meth. Establishment….” Read the letter. |
| 1839, May 23 | Report of progress of work at the manual labor school as given by Major Cummins: Four hundred acres of land enclosed under a good fence; 12 acres set in apple cions of selected fruit; also planted in Irish potatoes and garden vegetables; 176 acres planted in corn, and 85 acres in oats. Five ploughs were breaking the balance of the enclosed ground which was intended for timothy and bluegrass. One hundred acres in addition to the 400 enclosed was expected to be ploughed by July 15 and enclosed by September, making 500 acres ready for next year. Shawnee Indians had made about 40,000 rails within a short time. The buildings were under way. Mechanics were preparing brick, 30,000 feet of lumber at the place, 15,000 of it dressed ready for laying floors, 2,500 lights of sash made, stone quarried for the first building, nails, glass, hinges, locks, etc., ready on the premises. About forty hands were employed. Read the Report. |
| 1839, May 31 | David Kinnear, teacher at the Kickapoo Methodist mission, left for a three months’ vacation in Ohio. His place at the mission was filled by Miss Elizabeth Lee who had come out to teach in the manual labor school. The board also wished to secure Mr. Kinnear for the manual labor school when he returned. Read a letter. |
| 1839, June 7 | Transcribed letter from Major Joshua Pitcher, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St, Louis, Mo. to T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated Jun 7, 1939 with enclosed report from R.W. Cummins, Indian Agent, Fort Leavenworth Agency dated May 23, 1839. Read the letter. |
| 1839, June 21 | Jesse Greene and Mary Todd were married at Shawnee mission. |
| 1839, August | In his report to the Indian agent Thomas Johnson commented upon the merits of a central manual labor school. He explained that the children from the different tribes were to live at the school under the care of competent teachers and with the association of white children. All would be required to speak English. In addition to literary subjects the children were to be instructed in mechanical subjects and agriculture. The chief aim was to give the Indians an education suited to their needs. The missionaries would continue their work among the separate tribes, giving religious instruction and aid in agriculture, selecting children for the central school and exercising a guardianship over them when they returned home. Mr. Johnson reported that the teachers had been engaged for the school, but that the brick work had been delayed by the wet spring and summer and by the poor quality of clay. The principal part of the materials for the whole of the buildings were collected at the place, and he expected to have buildings to accommodate sixty or seventy scholars by fall. The oats crop yielded 1,500 or 1,800 bushels, and the 175 acres of corn was expected to produce 5,000 bushels. One hundred acres each of wheat and timothy had been sown. Read the report. |
| 1839, August 14 | Rev. David Terry writes to Mary Todd [Greene] commending her on her determination in her missionary/teaching work and advises her on living a godly life. Read the letter. |
| 1839, October 1 | Yearly report of Shawnee Methodist mission school: Twenty regular scholars lived in the mission family, fourteen girls and six boys. Eight could read and write, cipher a little, recite the tables in arithmetic, and the first lessons in geography; eight others could spell and read a little and recite the tables of arithmetic; four were beginners and had made little progress. A few others attended occasionally from their homes but had learned very little. The girls in the school used the needle well and some could weave. |
| 1839, October 2 | The Missouri conference of the M. E. church met at Fayette, Mo. Thomas Johnson was made superintendent of the Indian mission district and was also appointed to Shawnee mission. Wesley Browning and David Kinnear were assigned to the Indian manual labor school. They were assisted by Mrs. Jesse Greene, Mrs. Browning and Miss Elizabeth Lee. The school appeared this year for the first time as a separate and distinct appointment and remained so. |
| 1839, October 14 | Wesley Browning arrived at the manual labor school. In the afternoon he went to the Thomas Johnsons for a day or two, and then went down to the school to work. Johnson was still living in the old log house near present Turner. |
| 1839, October 15 | The board of managers of the missionary society of the Missouri conference reported the membership of Shawnee mission church to be twenty-two white, three colored and ninety-three Indians, with twenty promising children in the school. A frame building at the school sufficient for two families was nearly finished, and a brick building, designed for a hoarding house, cook room, and family residence was in progress, but the work was not as advanced as the board had hoped. Read the report. |
| 1839, October 22 | Thomas Johnson moved his family down to the new manual labor school. |
| 1839, October 23 | The scholars were moved down to the new manual labor school. |
| 1839, October 25 | Celebration of the centenary of Methodism was held at the Indian manual labor school. Missionaries from other stations on their way from conference stopped to attend, and although the weather was unfavorable, the rain falling in torrents, it was reported an excellent time was had. Wesley Browning, principal of the school, gave an address on the rise, progress and peculiarities of Methodism. A subscription of something over $1,200 was taken, averaging about fifty dollars for each adult subscribing. Some Indian children gave 50 cents each, and one Indian gave $50. Considering that the salary of the missionaries was $100 if unmarried and $200 if married, that they were the principal contributors, the subscription was no small sum. |
| 1839, October 27 | Sabbath school was held in a now unidentified cabin on the grounds. Joab Spencer remembered, "the next sabbath in Sister Greene's room, and the following in mine, in the frame house’ We have no way of identifying ‘the cabin’. Sister Greene, nee Mary Todd was a teacher and one of the grandest women of her time. Her room was in the superintendent's house. The ‘frame House’ was located east of the other buildings, and was used as a school house by the Indian boys until the large brick house was completed but how long we do not know. At the same time Mrs. Greene taught the girls in her room. The frame house here spoken of was occupied as a residence by the farmer in charge of the mission farm, after it ceased to be used as a school house.” |
| 1839, October 29 | School opened at the Indian manual labor school. The school for the boys was held in the frame house until the brick building was completed. The frame house was located east of the other buildings and later became the residence of the farmer. Mrs. Greene taught the girls in her room. |
| 1839, Winter | Jerome Berryman was commissioned by Thomas Johnson to go to Pittsburgh, PA, to purchase materials for the school. With his Kickapoo interpreter, Encas, he made the trip to Louisville, KY., on horseback, giving missionary talks on the way. His purchases at Pittsburgh amounted to a steamboat load for which he chartered the new boat Shawnee, built by Captain Kizer, for the Missouri river. The cargo was safely delivered at the Kansas landing, and Mr. Johnson was much pleased with the manner in which the trust had been delivered. Read the memory. |
| 1840 | |
| 1840, January 27 | The Delaware chiefs requested Richard Cummins to inform the government that they had visited the manual labor school and made investigations and that they wished the interest arising from their school funds to be applied in the following manner: $1,000 for the purchase of agricultural implements for the use of the nation, and the remainder for educating their children at the school. Read the Letter. |
| 1840, February 20 | Thomas Johnson reported that sixty Indian children were enrolled in the school and much to his mortification he had been compelled to stop the Indians from bringing more scholars until more room was available. There were already twenty pupils in reserve and, if the buildings were ready, the number could be increased to one hundred without effort. He expected to commence work on the buildings early in the spring. Read the letter. |
| 1840, March 28 | Letter from R. W. Cummins, Indian Agent, Fort Leavenworth Agency to T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington City dated Mar 28, 1840 with enclosed report of the school committee to Major Cummins of the expenses and condition of the Indian manual labor school up to March 28. Read the letter and report. |
| 1840, April 24 | A requisition was issued by the government in favor of Thomas Johnson and J. Greene for $6,250, the amount promised to aid in the erection of school buildings and for education expenses for 1840. |
| 1840, May 4 | From the Address of the Bishops of the M. E. Church is a brief report of the establishment of the Manual Labor School and its purpose and expectations. Read the report. |
| 1840. May 26 | Report of the Committee on Boundaries at the General Conference. "The Missouri Conference shall include the state of Missouri and that part of Missouri Territory which lies north of the Cherokee line." |
| 1840, June 1 | The committee on missions at the General conference of the Methodist Episcopal church submitted resolutions expressing the obligations of the church to the executive officers and local agents of the government for the cooperation they gave in establishing the manual labor school and recommended that other schools on the same plan be considered for the Indian country. |
| 1840, June 15 | Mrs. Shurlock writes in reference to the note for $75.00 she loaned Miss Todd [Greene]. Read the letter. |
| 1840, June 27 | Thomas Johnson reached home from the General conference and found that two of his children, a boy, nine and a half months old, and a girl, nearly six years old, had died during his absence. “It would have afforded me much pleasure,” he wrote, “to have seen my four little children again whom I had left when I started from home.” |
| 1840, June 27-September 7 | Between June 27 and September 7, 1840 Thomas Johnson wrote a series of almost daily notes for a “Journal” (which may have mirrored a personal diary) for the November 26, 1840 Christian Advocate and Journal. In it he details his work and personal feels, such as the loss of two of his children and how he coped with the tragedy. Read the journal. |
| 1840, June 29 | Thomas Johnson went to the river with some wagons to haul out goods purchased for the school and mission. |
| 1840, June 30, July 1-2 | The manual labor school was in the midst of wheat harvesting. The farmer, Mr. Kline, had a gigantic task to take care of 90 acres of wheat, 100 acres of timothy and 125 acres of oats. At the same time W. Browning was busily engaged in procuring materials, superintending the building department, and purchasing supplies for the institution. |
| 1840, July 2 | Thomas Johnson wrote to Jotham Meeker that he thought it best to receive no more scholars until the commencement of the next term in October; that he was willing to promise to take some Ottawa children, but he wished to give all the tribes a fair chance and that eighty was all they could take care of at that time. Read the letter. |
| 1840, July 3 | New church dedicated at the Delaware Methodist mission by the Rev. Thomas Johnson. |
| 1840, July 6 | On his return home from Delaware mission, Thomas Johnson collected a company of hands to save the hay crop. He spent the remainder of the week cutting and putting up timothy. |
| 1840, July 12 | Thomas Johnson preached to a congregation of Shawnees about ten miles from the school. |
| 1840, July 14 | Thomas Johnson moved his family to the boarding house so that Mrs. Johnson might assist with the domestic affairs of the institution. |
| 1840, July 17 | Thomas Johnson left to visit the Pottawatomie and Peoria missions. He wrote, “Rode forty miles through the prairies having no timber to shield me from the sun, which was very oppressive, and the flies unusually bad.” |
| 1840, July 21 | Guaquater, a Pottawatomie chief, inquired of Mr. Johnson as to the number of Pottawatomie children the school would be able to take care of next fall, stating that they had a number ready to go. |
| 1840, September 5 | Twins were born to the Rev. Jesse Greene and Mary Todd Greene at the Indian manual labor school. They were named Thomas Johnson Greene and Mary Elizabeth Greene. They were said to be the first white twins born in Kansas. |
| 1840, September 9 | Joshua Pitcher, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St, Louis, Mo. Wrote to T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs transmitting a letter from Indian Agent R.W. Cummins and enclosed report from Thomas Johnson, J. Greene and J.C. Berryman. Read the Letter and enclosures. |
| 1840, September 18 | The superintending committee submitted to the commissioner of Indian affairs a report on the manual labor school at the close of its first year. There were twenty-four boys and twenty-five girls in school. Read the report. |
| 1840, September 29 | The Missouri conference convened at St. Louis, MO, for its annual meeting. Thomas Johnson was reappointed superintendent of the Indian mission district, L.B. Stateler was transferred from Delaware to Shawnee mission; David Kinnear was placed in charge of the manual labor school. |
| 1840, October 11 | The Missouri conference convened at St. Louis, MO, for its annual meeting. Thomas Johnson was reappointed superintendent of the Indian mission district, L.B. Stateler was transferred from Delaware to Shawnee mission; David Kinnear was placed in charge of the manual labor school. |
| 1840, October 28 | Jesse Greene, Chairman, reports, "Missions within the Bounds of the Missouri Conference." “The Indian manual labor school has been in successful operation for one year, and notwithstanding the buildings are yet incomplete, we have been able to keep at school an average of about 60 Indian children from six different tribes. They have made encouraging progress in acquiring a knowledge of books, and also of the different branches of manual labor in which they have been employed. We still look to this school for the preparation of interpreters and native assistants, by whose aid we hope to be able to carry the Gospel to the whole Indian community on our western border." |
| 1840, November 11 | John B. Luce, requested by the commissioner of Indian affairs to visit the manual labor school, gave a favorable report of his visit. He visited Mrs. Kinnear’s class at the boys’ school while she went through with the ordinary routine of instruction. The scholars ranged in age from six to eighteen; nearly all could read; many composed and wrote sentences and could readily answer questions in the “rule of three.” The girls’ school was not in operation as it happened to be wash day. He reported that two three-story brick buildings (one for the farmer, the other for the boys’ school and lodging) had been erected and were nearly finished. A third, for the girls, was underway. There was also a frame building occupied by the principal, another for the blacksmith’s residence, a blacksmith shop, barn, stables, etc. He said that every attention was paid to the comfort of the children as well as to their instruction. Dining at the same table with them, he found they always had an abundance of wholesome food, were well clad, and very few, and those chiefly newcomers, were dissatisfied. The school was very popular. When the buildings were completed he thought the expenses would not exceed seventy dollars per head. However, it was not considered desirable that the students’ labor should be sufficient to cover expenses, lest the Indians, naturally suspicious, might think their children were being imposed upon, and thus defeat the benevolent design of the institution. Read the letter. |
| 1840, Winter | Tbc Reverend Stateler began the building of a large central church. It was located in a grove about four miles west of the manual labor school, and was a hewed-log building, twenty-five by fifty feet with one large door and nine windows. The cracks were “chinked” with pieces of wood and daubed with lime mortar, and the overhead was sealed. By early summer the building was ready for use. There was also a parsonage connected with the church. (Early in the Civil War the church was used as a fort by the Kansas militia, but later it was torn down and used for fuel.) |
| [1840?] | The committee in the Indian M. L. School has agreed to employ Mr. Currell shoe-maker. Read the memory. |
| 1841 | |
| 1841, February | Kansas tribe of Indians through Major Cummins informed the government that they wished to apply the interest arising from their school fund to the education of their children at the manual labor school. |
| 1841, February 15 | Johnston Lykins wrote to Isaac McCoy: “The Quaker school here of 33 scholar is as much a manual labor institution as the Methodist, & is sustained I presume at less than one tenth of the cost. Building, fine houses &, raising fine crops is not the business of missionaries." |
| 1841, Spring | Edward Currell was employed by the manual labor school to teach the shoemaking trade at a salary of $350 a year. |
| 1841, March 15 | Thomas Johnson reported seventy-six Indian children at the institution, forty-two males and thirty-four females. The children attended school six hours per day and worked four hours, with the exception of the boys working in the mechanic shop, who alternated working one week and attending school a week. Two boys were learning the blacksmith’s trade, four the house joiners’ trade, and four were learning to make boots and shoes. Mr. Johnson expected to commence a wagon-making shop in the course of a year and hoped by the next fall to take as many as twenty boys into the shops. A large number of scholars had been rejected on account of the crowded condition of the school, but they hoped to have buildings enough by fall to accommodate 150 children. Read the letter. |
| 1841, March 31 | Jotham Meeker visited the Shawnee Methodist mission engaging his flour and meal at the “Johnson mill.” |
| 1841, May 6 | Richard Cummins attended an examination at the manual labor school. |
| 1841, May 10 | Father P.J. De Smet started from Westport on his missionary tour to the west. He saw nothing remarkable in the land of the Shawnees but the “college of the Methodists.” |
| 1841, May 20 | William Johnson and two Kansas chiefs arrived at the school bringing nine boys between the ages of nine and thirteen to the school. A visitor at the mission described the party thus: “They were all on horseback, and although they had blankets they had laid them aside as they rode along, and were naked when they arrived. One especially was an object of interest. He was a fine looking boy, ten or twelve years old, well proportioned, and his whole estate, real and personal, was a red string of the thickness of his finger tied round his waist. He was an orphan, and the missionary bought him from his friends. The price was one blanket…. The boys were soon dressed, and appeared quite pleased with their new home; but, poor fellows, when it came to dressing themselves the next morning, they were at their wits end; for, when discovered, they were busily engaged in arranging their pantaloons, wrong side out, and the forepart behind. The next thing was to give them names. This done we all repaired to the dining room for breakfast.” The children were received under such arrangements as to secure their stay at the school until they had a suitable education. Their parents could not remove them without an order signed by the government agent, the superintendent of the school, the missionary to the Kansas tribe of Indians and the principal chief of the nation. Read the article. |
| 1841, May 21 | The Rev. Joseph Williams visited Shawnee mission on his way to join one of the first emigrant companies to Oregon. He was sixty-four years old and was urged by his friends at the mission to give up such a hazardous trip. However, he persisted and set out on Saturday with William Johnson and the Kansas chiefs in pursuit of his party. “We reached, that night, Wakloosa creek,” he wrote, ‘“and camped under the trees. Brother Johnson cooked supper, and we had cakes and coffee. We laid down to sleep; the thunder and lightning could be heard and seen, and the wind began to blow. I was somewhat alarmed, for fear of the trees falling on us. The rain soon began, and the wind ceased. Then I soon fell asleep, and rested well and comfortably.” Read the memory. |
| 1841, May 29 | Richard Cummins reported, and enclosed a May 27th report from Thoomas Johnson, to the commissioner of Indian affairs that in addition to the improvements previously reported, they were building a large two-story brick building 110 feet long by 34 feet wide, to contain 14 rooms for the accommodation of teachers and children for school and lodging rooms. Read the letter and enclosure. |
| 1841, June | Rufus Sage who visited the Indians in this vicinity wrote: “The mission schools are generally well attended by ready pupils, in no respect less backward than the more favored ones of other lands. It is not rare even, considering the smallness of their number, to meet among them with persons of liberal education and accomplishments. Their mode of dress assimilates that of the whites, though, as yet, fashion has made comparatively but small inroads. The unsophisticated eye would find prolific source for amusement in the uncouth appearance of their females on public occasions. Perchance a gay Indian maiden comes flaunting past, with a huge fur-hat awkwardly placed upon her head—embanded by broad strips of figured tin, instead of ribbons—and ears distended with large flattened rings of silver, reaching to her shoulders; and here another, solely habited in a long woolen under-dress, obtrudes to view, and skips along in all the pride and pomposity of a regular city belle! Such are sights by no means uncommon.” |
| 1841, July 1 | Letter from T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Rev E. R. Ames, Corresponding Secretary, Methodist Missionary Society. Dealing with payment of expenses and instructions regarding future requests. Read the letter. |
| 1841, August 26 | Close of a six-day camp meeting held at Shawnee meeting house. Thomas Johnson writes of it in the Christian Advocate Journal (Febrary 23, 1842): "We have just closed one of the most interesting camp meetings that I ever enjoyed in my life; and I find that almost every person who attended appears to be of the same opinion. We commenced on the 20th instant and closed on the 26th….The meeting of which we speak was at the Shawnee meeting house.” |
| 1841, September 21 | Thomas Johnson sent a complete report of the Indian manual labor school to the superintendent. of Indian affairs. He listed eight classes ranging in attainment from the first class which read well, was proficient in geography and had reached cube root in arithmetic to the eighth class which could spell well in two syllables. Read the letter. and a follow-up report. |
| 1841, October | The Missouri conference of the Methodist Episcopal church met at Palmyra, MO. Thomas Johnson on account of ill health was forced to give up his work. He was superannuated and went East. J.C. Berryman was placed in charge of the manual labor school, and William Johnson was made superintendent of the district, at the same time retaining his work among the Kansas tribe of Indians. L.B. Stateler was returned as missionary to the Shawnees. |
| 1841, November 25 | Hartley Crawford, commissioner of Indian affairs, praised the manual labor school in his report to the Secretary of War. He considered the assistance given to the school by the government as well bestowed, and thought the plan adopted the only one that ever would succeed. |
| 1841 | It was probably this year that a big bell, cast in Cincinnati, was brought to the mission by way of boat and ox team. It was placed on the boarding house building where its ringing tones wakened the boys and girls in the morning and called them to school and religious services. Its ringing other than at regular time was an alarm for a prairie fire, and everyone was expected to turn out to help. |
| [1841] | Report of the value of the Buildings, Farm Stock, Crop, and Appertances belonging to the Indian Manual Labor School and an account of the Indians at the Indian Manual Labor School from Thomas Johnson both dated 1841. Read the reports. |
| Next Section of the Timeline: Indian Manual Labor School, 1842-1847 |
