the Allegany River, Jill Kinney Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by

Transcription

1 Letters, Pen, and Tilling the Field : Quaker Schools Among the Seneca Indians on the Allegany River, by Jill Kinney Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by Dr. Mary E. Young Department of History Arts, Sciences, and Engineering School of Arts and Sciences University of Rochester Rochester, New York 2009

2 ii This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of DuWayne Duce Bowen, whose knowledge and support guided me.

3 iii Curriculum Vitae The author was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania on July 9, She attended the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford from 1994 to 1996 and Lehigh University from 1996 to She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in She came to the University of Rochester in the Fall of 1998 and began graduate studies in History. She received the Van Deusen Award in She pursued her research in Native American History under the direction of Dr. Mary E. Young.

4 iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the help I received at the Quaker Collection at Haverford College, Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Rochester. In particular, I would like to thank Chris Densmore, Diana Franzusoff Peterson, Joelle Bertolet, Ann Upton, Betsy Brown, and Emma Lapsansky. Dan Richter and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania gave me the opportunity to benefit from association with the center and share my work. More importantly, they were willing to provide me with valuable feedback, for which I am grateful. Karim Tiro, Jack Erickson, Fred Muscavitch, Tom Abler, and Carl Benn read papers or portions of the dissertation; their comments were invaluable. Jean Soderlund was enormously helpful when I started my research on the Seneca Indians as an undergraduate. Brenda Meehan was an early member of my committee, but her illness soon required her to step down. She provided guidance on a related seminar paper and during the initial phase of my dissertation research. She is greatly missed. I would like to thank my parents, Bruce and Donna Kinney, for their support in my academic endeavors. Most of all, I want to thank my husband, Andrew Conner, for years of patience and his help with spreadsheet formulas for my analysis of school attendance patterns.

5 v Abstract In 1798, the Society of Friends Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee sent three young men to reside among the Seneca Indians on the Allegany reservation in the state of New York and the private land grant of chief warrior Cornplanter in adjacent Pennsylvania. Their goal was to provide the Senecas with agricultural, mechanical, and literary instruction in order to equip the Senecas for self-sufficiency in a rapidly changing world. Through their instruction, Friends altered Seneca religion and culture. While some Senecas embraced Quaker instruction, others simply elected not to participate in the civilization program or the school. Over time, the Quaker presence and the school itself became a divisive force in the Allegany community. Scholars have examined Quaker instruction in domestic crafts, agriculture, and trades, but the school and curriculum have been neglected in previous scholarship. This study demonstrates not only that the Friends school brought English language instruction, literacy, and new ideas; it divided the Allegany community, and ultimately opened the door for more heavily proselytizing sects.

6 vi Table of Contents Introduction...1 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Letters, Pen and Tilling the Fields, Little Foresters, Inside the Classroom, Down Country, Friends and Opponents, The Problem of Native Teachers at Allegany, Conclusion.245 Bibliography..249 Appendix...257

7 vii List of Tables and Plates Table Title Page Table 2-A Report on Civilization Progress, Plate Title Page Plate 1 Map of the Morris Purchase by James Peirce 150 Plate 2 Seneca Reservations in Plate 3 Towns on the Allegany River 258

8 1 Introduction The Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, stretched across colonial New York. Living on a drastically diminished land base, some of the Haudenosaunee remain in New York State. The most westerly group of these Native Americans in the state, the Senecas, are divided between members of the Six Nations, a confederation of Iroquoian groups, and those belonging to the independent Seneca Nation of Indians, with their own constitution drawn up in The SNI consists of residents of the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations. This dissertation focuses on the Allegany reservation and the adjacent private tract of land belonging to the chief warrior Cornplanter, known as the Cornplanter grant or sometimes the grant, because the land was granted to Cornplanter by the state of Pennsylvania. These two parcels of land were the home of the Allegany Senecas, and became the sites for the missionary efforts of the Society of Friends from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Prior to the Revolutionary War, six distinct tribes of Iroquois resided in the colony of New York. Imagining their positions in the colony as a longhouse, their traditional extended family dwelling, the Senecas were the Keepers of the Western Door. The Tuscarora, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk tribes comprised the rest of the figurative longhouse, with the Mohawks serving as the Keepers of the Eastern Door. After failing to maintain a neutral stance, all groups cast their lot with their old allies, the British, save for the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. In their negotiations after the war, the alliance against the Americans cost the Iroquois a significant portion

9 2 of their territory in New York State. Tuscarora and Oneida alliances with the Americans did not save their land. 1 The Iroquois were part of confederacy known as the Six Nations or the League of the Iroquois. There were fifty sachems at the League level, eight of whom were Seneca men. Because they were the Keepers of the Western Door, the Senecas were able to nominate the two war chiefs. At the tribal and village level, hereditary and merit-based non-hereditary chiefs exerted authority, but families and clans often made decisions, and clan matrons selected or deposed the chiefs. Women held an important role in the political sphere in Iroquoia because they were home in the villages when men were hunting, trading or engaging in warfare or diplomacy. Women could demand war to replace a dead kinsman, extending their authority beyond selection and removal of chiefs. League sachems, war chiefs, hereditary peace chiefs, and clan mothers were not the only political leaders in the Seneca world. As Thomas Abler notes in his biography of Cornplanter: It is clear that Cornplanter in the decades following the American Revolution was recognized as a Chief Warrior, which meant that he could speak for the warriors, as distinct from the sachems, or chiefs. An underlying principle of Seneca political organization (and the Seneca here differ from the other members of the Iroquois Confederacy) is that political positions are to be filled in pairs by members of each moiety. Paired with Cornplanter in his position of Chief Warrior was Little Billy, also known as Great Grasshopper. Abler adds that Cornplanter served as a headman in his particular region, namely the lower towns on the Allegany River. His position as headman and Chief Warrior led Quakers and other whites to treat him as a chief of equal or higher authority than 1 Carl Benn, The Iroquois in the War of 1812 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998),

10 3 other chiefs in the area. In this fashion, white outsiders assigned greater authority to some leaders than others, and sometimes this translated into a change in the amount of influence these leaders wielded within their own communities. In theory, none of these leaders could compel their people to do as they willed, but as government officials recognized rights leaders simply did not have, decisions of political leaders resulted in loss of land by treaty. 2 Clans played an important role in the lives of the Seneca people. Clans determined marriage partners, residence in extended family structures, hereditary chieftainship, and divisions of crops and game. At present, Senecas have eight clans divided in two moieties. The animal clans are the Wolf, Turtle, Beaver, and Bear; the birds are Deer, Hawk, Snipe, and Heron. Clan affiliation passes through women, and in this matriarchal society, clan mothers appointed hereditary chiefs. 3 After the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797, Senecas retained 311 square miles, or about 200,000 acres, of their land in the State of New York. In 1826, the Senecas sold six small reservations on the Genesee River. At that time, they also sold most of their Tonawanda reservation, approximately a third of the Buffalo Creek reservation, 2 Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 28-9, 39-44; Benn, 12; Thomas S. Abler, Cornplanter: Chief Warrior of the Allegany Senecas (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007), 124; Thomas Abler, Seneca Moieties and Hereditary Chieftainships: The Early-Nineteenth-Century Political Organization of an Iroquois Nation, Ethnohistory 51:3 (Summer 2004), 464-6, 481. Abler also notes that Seneca government was dynamic, and there was local variation. The number of chiefs varied because many positions were merit-based and not hereditary, and the proportion of chiefs sometimes varied greatly from one reservation to another. Buffalo Creek Reservation had a disproportionate number of chiefs. Cornplanter s birth date is debatable, but his death on February 18, 1836 is well documented. His monument in the Cornplanter family cemetery in Warren County, PA indicates he was about 100 years old. Abler argues for a later birth year. See Abler, Cornplanter, 15-17, William N. Fenton, Locality as a Basic Factor in the Development of Iroquois Social Structure, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 149 (1951): 47. There are no chiefs in the Seneca Nation of Indians, which has an elective government.

11 4 and one-fifth of Cattaraugus. They sold nothing from the Allegany reservation, nor did they sell the one square mile Oil Spring reservation, a source of the petroleum used for curative purposes. (Maps can be found in the appendix, Plates 2 and 3.) According to Whitney Cross, the southern tier of Western New York had the poorest quality land, and was the only part of Western New York still a frontier after It is true that the land was sparsely settled at this time. In 1800, Buffalo (then New Amsterdam) had twenty to twenty-five inhabitants. In 1804, a speculator named Adam Hoops bought land around present day Olean, New York, much closer to Allegany. There was not much in the way of settlement in the area in The King family resided in Ceres, and a few people lived near Ischua Creek. There might have been some other settlers here and there, but settlement in the region was slow. 4 One year after the Treaty of Big Tree, in 1798, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, came among the Allegany Senecas to provide them with education and manual labor training. Friends had a long history with Native Americans, stretching back to the Quaker founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, William Penn, who 4 Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 183, 324. Wallace indicated that in 1797, Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda together measured 200 square miles. Allegany & Cattaraugus each consisted of 42 square miles; Whitney Cross was cited in Diane Rothenberg, Friends Like These: An Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Interaction Between Allegany Senecas and Quakers, (Ph.D. diss., City College of New York, 1976), 102; Encounters with Euro-Americans brought the Seneca people into contact with new ideas. When Quakers arrived, they did not find a culture that had been untouched by Euro-Americans. Traders and the odd missionary had come through, but records seem to indicate that they rarely, if ever, made it up the Allegany River from present-day Pennsylvania to New York. Missionaries had definitely come through the upper reservations. In 1798, a man named Morrison was operating a sawmill for Cornplanter at Saw Mill Run below Onoville, NY, and he was said to be a moral and religious man. This man is thought to have been James Morrison, Sr. A few other white pioneers lived in the region in Pennsylvania. Quakers were the first sustained Euro-American missionary presence on the Allegany in New York State. Charles E. Congdon, Allegany Oxbow: A History of Allegany State Park and the Allegany Reserve of the Seneca Nation (Salamanca, 1967), 13-16, 29. Of course, captives and traders/interpreters had resided and intermarried with the Senecas prior to Quaker missionization.

12 5 established the colony in In the 1790s, Friends attended treaty negotiations to observe and protect the interests of Native Americans. Describing their plan to assist the Haudenosaunee with their training program to federal officials, Quakers indicated they desired only the happiness of their fellowmen. They would not teach their doctrine or make a profit; they knew they would finance the operation themselves. Their work was done purely out of Quaker benevolence, a motivation that some Senecas would be unable to believe. Those who served did so out of a belief that they had a religious calling to help at the mission in a general way or perform a specific duty like teaching the school. They received small salaries from the Indian Committee, but working at the mission was not lucrative. 5 The Quaker program was largely a civilization program. While other Protestant missionaries might incorporate some other types of instruction, the main goal of these other missionaries was to save souls and make converts. When there were schools, they were often a means to an end. Children learned to read so they could read the Bible, either in English or in their own language, if missionaries had already developed a written form of it. Pupils also learned to sing hymns in school. Quakers departed from other missionaries in that conversion was not their primary goal. The aim of the Quaker mission to the Senecas was to improve the lives of 5 Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 220; During President Thomas Jefferson s administration, civilization programs like the ones started by Quakers among the Oneidas and the Senecas, would be greatly encouraged. For a recent treatment of Native Americans under the Jefferson administration, see Anthony F.C. Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999). For an examination of Quaker benevolence in the early Republic, see Bruce Dorsey, Friends Becoming Enemies: Philadelphia Benevolence and the Neglected Era of American Quaker History, Journal of the Early Republic, 18 (Fall 1998):

13 6 Senecas who were now confined to reservations and were unable to live as they had previously lived. Friends hoped to teach Senecas to use plow irons and grow additional crops to feed and clothe their families. They promoted the keeping of livestock for the same purpose. When Quaker women arrived, they provided instruction to Seneca women so they would know how to turn these crops and creatures into foods and textiles. Quaker schoolmasters taught their charges reading, writing and arithmetic in order to prevent them from being cheated when they conducted business with outsiders. With such knowledge, the rising generation would not have to rely on questionable interpreters in future treaty negotiations. While the Quakers are generally viewed as less intrusive missionaries, due to their emphasis on a change in division of labor as opposed to a change in religion, their impact upon the Seneca culture was unmistakable. In addition to altering gender roles, promoting private property, teaching and emphasizing the English language, introducing new commodities and ways of thinking, condemning serial monogamy and easy divorce, advocating the keeping of domestic livestock and otherwise altering the food consumed by Senecas, and engaging in many other teachings and activities which had an influence on the Senecas, Quakers most assuredly did seek to alter the religion of the Seneca people in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways. In the Seneca world, culture and religion were so closely connected that it was difficult to differentiate between them. Their everyday lives involved many things that were done in connection with their belief system, from growing crops to practicing the healing arts. Quakers often promoted ideas directly

14 7 opposed to Seneca beliefs because of profound cultural misunderstandings between the two groups. Historians and anthropologists have not neglected the Senecas in the colonial and early national period. This study takes up where other works have left off by detailing aspects of the mission, which have received scant treatment in other secondary sources. Without analysis of Quaker school-keeping efforts at Allegany, a large part of the story of the Allegany Senecas has gone untold. Without this piece of the puzzle, it is impossible to understand what happened on the reservation during this time period. Many events on the Allegany would make little sense without looking at them through the lens of the school. By examining the schools among the Senecas on the Allegany, we have a window to the process of cultural change as it happened among native peoples. We can witness the effect of a school on a community, not just on the students within its walls. We can also discover how day schools and textbooks can divide a community and change a world. Additionally, knowledge of how such schools were conducted informs us about rural white American schools. In her dissertation, Friends Like These, Diane Rothenberg covered the manual labor education efforts of the Quakers, but did not deal with the classroom, where pupils learned the English language, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Quaker author Lois Barton, a former employee at the Friends Boarding School near the Allegany Reservation, wrote a short history of Quaker efforts at Allegany entitled A Quaker Promise Kept. Barton utilized many of the same resources as Rothenberg in

15 8 her work, but this small volume, although well-researched, serves as an overview of the mission without providing the depth necessary to understand the effects of Quaker work on the Senecas. David Swatzler s book, A Friend Among the Senecas, discusses the Quaker mission to Cornplanter s private land grant, but also offers no in-depth analysis of the school. His book features the journal of schoolmaster Henry Simmons in the appendix, and this is a wonderful resource. Unfortunately, Simmons did not offer a great deal of detail on his school, and Swatzler s book ends before the time period of schoolmaster Joseph Elkinton. Published in 1969, Anthony F.C. Wallace s monumental The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca set the standard for scholarship on the Senecas but provided little detail on the Quaker schools. Released two years prior to Wallace s book, lawyer Charles Congdon s Allegany Oxbow gave a history of the Senecas. It was clearly well researched, but it was not an academic book (it had no footnotes), and he did not devote time to a discussion of the schools. Thomas S. Abler s new book, Cornplanter: Chief Warrior of the Allegany Senecas, is a praiseworthy addition to the scholarship on the Allegany Senecas, but the schools do not figure prominently into his work. The same is true of Mary H. Conable s dissertation, A Steady Enemy, examining the Ogden Land Company and the Senecas. No one has covered the Elkinton school, and his journals are rich with information on his daily school-keeping activities. 6 6 Rothenberg, Friends Like These ; Lois Barton, A Quaker Promise Kept: Philadelphia Friends Work With the Allegany Senecas, (Eugene, Oregon: Spencer Butre Press, 1990); David Swatzler, A Friend Among the Senecas: The Quaker Mission to Cornplanter s People. (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000); Congdon, Allegany Oxbow; Abler, Cornplanter; Mary H. Conable, A Steady Enemy: The Ogden Land Company and the Seneca Indians (Ph.D. diss., University of Rochester, 1994).

16 9 Congdon, Wallace, and Rothenberg mention or argue that Quakers differed from other missionaries of the time because they did not focus on altering the religion of the Seneca people. It has been assumed that Friends did not seek to make converts because they believed that everyone had an Inner Light, even practitioners of other faiths. This dissertation demonstrates that Friends religion was always a part of who they were, agreeing with Quaker authors Lois Barton and Rayner W. Kelsey that not only was the Quaker religion the motivating force behind the establishment of the Friends mission, but that Friends also actively worked to bring Christianity to the Senecas, even if they did not attempt to make them Quaker converts. Additionally, while Quakers might have sometimes operated in different ways from other missionaries, the effects of their activities were often the same. 7 David Wallace Adams studied Native Americans in boarding school situations in a later era in Education For Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, Adams briefly touches on day schools from the 1860s onward, only to note their problems and failures, but is more concerned with the boarding school experience. As one might expect, the removal of children from their families to be raised like white American children had a tremendous effect on the children. The impact of day schools on the children, and subsequently on their cultures, has not been given enough consideration. Adams notes that the day schools failed in their civilization attempt because children went home to the influences of their families each night. Quakers often worried about the influence of the children s 7 Rayner W. Kelsey, Friends and the Indians, (Philadelphia: The Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs, 1917),

17 10 parents, but cultural change as a direct result of day schools cannot be underestimated. Only a few children from Allegany lived apart from their parents and were fully immersed in white American culture from The day schools affected a greater number of children. 8 Textbooks used in the classrooms became an important means of opening young Seneca minds to the wide world outside their home territory. Steeped in another culture, these textbooks brought religious and cultural information, in addition to teaching children the basics of a grammar school education. When Seneca elders focused on the importance of reading and writing, or entered the classroom to tell the children to mind their books, their words and actions sanctioned the textbooks and their contents. This study also demonstrates that a school can be much more than just a place for learning. At Allegany, the school became a divisive force, altering political alliances. The school became one of the most controversial elements of the entire Quaker program. The Senecas understood that what happened within the walls of the classroom could directly influence their way of life. This made some Senecas embrace the school, while others threatened to burn it to the ground. Schools deserve our attention. Chapter One examines the beginning of the Quaker mission to the Seneca people, During this period, schools did not flourish, but manual labor training took off after an initially rocky start. In the earliest school-keeping attempts 8 David Wallace Adams, Education For Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995),

18 11 in 1799, a small number of pupils learned what was expected of them in a school situation. The schools did not thrive, in part, because this was an extremely unsettled time. Senecas moved from one area to another, unsure of their new boundaries after a recent treaty. Friends openly criticized many elements of Seneca life on the Allegany. Quakers told the Senecas how they should live, causing resentment. Before a school could have any staying power, the two groups needed to learn how to coexist. A prophetic movement under the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, halfbrother of Cornplanter, emerged on the heels of the Quaker mission. Handsome Lake s prophecy spawned a religion still in existence today, the Longhouse Religion. Handsome Lake s movement promoted nuclear residences over extended family residence patterns. The prophet sought to revive certain aspects of ceremonial life, like the White Dog sacrifice, while simultaneously eliminating newer and dangerous customs like the use of alcohol at their dances. His work involved religious reform, but it also involved societal reform, as he promoted abstinence from alcohol entirely. His strict moral code and requisite confession provided a check on the excesses of Seneca society in a time of turmoil. There is no evidence that the whole community backed the Handsome Lake movement. It evolved into a religion over the course of decades, but during Handsome Lake s lifetime, some viewed him simply as another prophet in a culture with a tradition of prophecy. His influence was greater than

19 12 most. Seneca culture was not frozen in time. It was and is a dynamic culture, in constant evolution, and Handsome Lake fit into this pattern. 9 The daily journals of Quaker schoolmaster Joseph Elkinton (in residence from ) provide us with a rare and interesting glimpse into life inside a rural classroom of this period. The information gleaned from his journals is useful not only for Native American scholars, but also to scholars of education history. His journals provide the bulk of the sources for Chapters Two and Three. Through this information, we can see how children had to adapt to the English concept of time, as they were bound by school hours and days of the week. Further complicating the situation, the schoolmaster continued to observe Quaker religious days, meaning that children had to learn not only that there was no school on First Day, or Sunday, but also that school would commence late on Fifth Days, or Thursdays, because of the schoolmaster s Fifth Day religious observation in the morning. In these early years of the school, we see the beginnings of future conflict, which later ended Elkinton s school on the reservation. Senecas divided over the questions of who should teach their children, whether allowing a white man to reside on the reservation might jeopardize the land, and whether having a white man on the reservation at all was more of a benefit or a risk. The experience with the school led some, like Cornplanter, the chief who had initially invited Friends to come among them, to distrust all whites. Additionally, we see the schoolmaster s early designs to 9 See Wallace, Death and Rebirth, on Handsome Lake s movement and the turbulent times in which he emerged.

20 13 give his pupils some experience in classroom leadership through his promotion of the Lancasterian model of instruction. A few young men received an education away from the reservation, being fully immersed in white American culture in the area around Philadelphia. Little is known about their experiences Down Country, but what we know of their story is chronicled in Chapter Four. Ultimately, the effort was deemed a failure, as Friends and Senecas alike believed that these boys returned to the reservation worse off than if they had never left. Their example led some to believe that all education was bad for Seneca children. In his book Jefferson and the Indians, Anthony F.C. Wallace writes: Quaker advice and the prophet s urging soon worked a remarkable secular transformation among the Senecas and the other Iroquois communities. The Iroquois reservations in New York state became settlements of sober farmers whose families resided in log houses, with fenced fields, plow agriculture, livestock, and spinning wheels. These rural communities, admired by visitors both white and Indian, differed dramatically from the slums in the wilderness they had been before. The Quakers, the prophet, and President Jefferson combined to make civilization respectable to erstwhile hunters and warriors and their womenfolk. 10 This idyllic community might have existed somewhere, not at Allegany, certainly not during the prophet Handsome Lake s lifetime, and not for a very long time after his death. In Chapter Five, opposition to the school and to the Quaker program by Handsome Lake s followers is discussed in detail. In Cold Spring, founded by Handsome Lake, people made schoolmaster Elkinton feel most unwelcome. Pro- Quaker chiefs sought to protect him from the inhabitants of Cold Spring. At one 10 Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians, 299.

21 14 point, Elkinton feared going through the town so much that crossed the river at another point to avoid it entirely. Opponents of the Quaker school were more than just reactionaries. This study depicts them as people with genuine and legitimate fears. Primarily, objectors to the school believed it endangered their society, that having the school on their reservation jeopardized their land base, that reading and writing were a corrupting influence on their young people, and that Quakers were attempting to indoctrinate their children. 11 Chapter Five examines the Quakers as allies to Seneca political parties. The relationship between factions changed at a very distinct moment, and one party took the Friends as their allies almost immediately as the other party moved away from Friends and toward the Presbyterian missionaries. Even strong objections by the Opposition Party could be changed as circumstances changed, and this reversal of alliances occurred in an instant. In Chapter Six, Friends final attempts to operate day schools among the Senecas are chronicled. Friends sought to establish schools headed by their most advanced Seneca pupils. For a number of reasons, these schools failed to provide the solution to the problems with the Quaker schools. Some Seneca leaders objected to having such inexperienced teachers at the head of the class. One particular concern of the leadership was over Quaker attempts to get Senecas to pay these inexperienced 11 While Blacksnake and Cornplanter held titles at the League level, most mentioned here were local chiefs, who often wielded a great deal of influence in their villages and communities. For an excellent discussion of this, see Thomas Abler, Seneca Moieties and Hereditary Chieftainships: The Early- Nineteenth-Century Political Organization of an Iroquois Nation, Ethnohistory 51, No. 3 (2004):

22 15 teachers themselves. The other major problem lay in getting advanced Seneca pupils to teach at all. Some were not available, as they were involved in other business or pursuits. Others could not make ends meet with the pay offered to them. Friends finally put other local whites or Friends at the helm of a few schools, and these day schools gave way to a boarding school on adjacent Quaker land in While the boarding school never had a Seneca teacher, several pupils became teachers at reservation day schools. These white-led day schools and the boarding school were able to provide relatively consistent instruction for girls under female Friends, leading Senecas to send female children to school in large numbers for the first time. In looking at Quaker schools among the Senecas, we fill in gaps in the story of the Senecas as they struggled to find their way in a changing world. We can correct misconceptions about what was happening on the reservation and understand the course of events as they unfolded on the Allegany Reservation in the first half of the nineteenth century. Details of the Quaker schools at Allegany shed light on the struggles of the changing Seneca community, the position of educated Native Americans among their own people, Quaker missions to Native Americans, and the way in which small rural schools operated.

23 16 Chapter 1 Letters, Pen, and Tilling the Fields, We have too little wisdom among us. We cannot teach our children what we perceive their situation requires them to know, and we therefore ask you to instruct some of them. We wish them to be instructed to read & to write and such other things as you teach your own children; and especially to teach them to love peace. -- Chief Cornplanter to Philadelphia Friends, February 10, Previous scholars have isolated Quaker husbandry and domestic instruction as the most important forces of cultural change at work on the Allegany reservation. In the initial period of Quaker missionary efforts at Allegany, , this is probably true. But one cannot underestimate the importance of day school instruction, which brought American culture and Christian principles into the lives of Seneca young men and children through their textbooks. An investigation into these textbooks reveals the specific lessons pupils took away from their day school experiences. By studying the textbooks, we can pinpoint specific lessons and their possible effect on Seneca life. Additionally, these schools, while short-lived, taught pupils the rudiments of reading, writing, and other practical knowledge that would put them on much more equal footing when they or their fathers engaged in commerce with neighboring white people or in Pittsburgh. Because Quakers faced many challenges and failed to become firmly established in this early period, their impact on pupils was more minimal than later years, when some students attended school 12 Cornplanter to Friendly Association, 10 Feb. 1791, Papers Relating to the Friendly Assn., vol. II, , Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford PA.

24 17 daily for years. In this period, the presence of an off-reservation educated young man was perhaps even more influential than the school. His knowledge and experience might have contributed to the birth of a prophecy and subsequently a lasting religion. In February 1791, the Seneca Chief Cornplanter asked the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends to teach two Seneca boys, including the chief s son, and the son of the Allegany Senecas interpreter as Friends would teach their own children. The chief indicated that his people would not be able to pay Friends for this service. In June, members of the Friendly Association (precursor of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee) responded that they would take the boys, who should be sent at the convenience of the Senecas, agreeing to provide instruction in reading, writing, and husbandry. In a later note, Friends asked that all the children be sent at the same time, stating that the children would be placed in the country, away from the corrupting influences of the city. Friends hoped these children would become useful men who could one day teach their own people. 13 When Cornplanter returned from Philadelphia, and learned that the federal government had sent his former captive, Waterman Baldwin, to teach the Seneca children in their own village, plans changed. Quakers left their offer open, but no Seneca children came to learn from Friends at this time. Henry Obail, a son of 13 Ibid.; Thomas Woody, Early Quaker Education in Pennsylvania. (NY: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1920), 263; Philadelphia Friends to Cornplanter, 1791, Letters from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee, Folder 2, , Quaker Collection, Haverford College; Swatzler, 7; Barton, 1. Moravian John Heckewelder noted that Cornplanter, Halftown and other Seneca chiefs expressed a desire to have a teacher among them as early as October 3, 1788, although not all agreed on this issue. Paul A.W. Wallace, ed., Thirty Thousand Miles With John Heckewelder (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958), 227.

25 18 Cornplanter, did go to Philadelphia to pursue his education in 1792; he received instruction at a charity school loosely associated with the University of Pennsylvania. There he encountered life in the city, not what the Quakers had planned for him. His stay did not last long, as a delegation of government officials and Quakers called upon the young man to guide them into western New York and into the western territories. After this trip, Henry entered a school in New York, where he was not satisfied with his experience, and returned to Philadelphia before early In October 1794, Henry journeyed home and signed the Pickering Treaty in November as a witness, Henry Abeele. 14 Henry continued to pursue a Euro-American education, and in 1795, Secretary of War Timothy Pickering, who as Postmaster General had been on the 1793 trip with Henry, wrote to a schoolmaster in Woodbury, New Jersey to ask permission to send Henry, then twenty years old, there. Citing Pickering s letter, Merle Deardorff noted, [Henry s] attainments were small because he attended the school of the university among a multitude of small children. Further, he was surrounded in the city by too many opportunities for amusement and had too many invitations. The schoolmaster accepted Henry, and in May 1795, Henry told Pickering that he had only one 14 Cornplanter to Philadelphia Friends, 1791, PYMIC Correspondence, Box 1, Folder Letters to PYMIC from the Seneca, , QC, HC; Merle Deardorff, Henry Obail, the Young Cornplanter, Cornplanter Descendants Association Newsletter 1 (Aug 1994): 3. This article is reprinted from the Warren County Historical Society s publication, Stepping Stones, Vol. 14, No. 3, Sept The Stepping Stones article is difficult to find, so special thanks to Jack Ericson, editor of the CDA Newsletter, for providing me with copies of the newsletter. Deardorff stated that Baldwin remained with the Senecas off and on through November 1791, so this was a short-lived school experiment. I have used Obail as the preferred spelling of their surname for Henry and his father John Obail, a.k.a. Cornplanter. However, their surname is variously spelled Abeal, Abeel, O Bail, Abeele, Abele, etc. Cornplanter s father was a Dutch trader, and the surname originated with him.

26 19 complaint: the schoolmaster remained at the school for only an hour a day. Still, Henry told Pickering that he aimed to do his best. When I intend to leave this place then you may see me to Genesee then you see what I be. I may be good man and I may be bad one. You may be good judge about that, but all I say if you think so you ought to send me home you know drunker man he never do no good. However I hope it will not be so. you may see me yet be one of the greatest man the Six Nations. then what will you say. Judging by the lengths to which Pickering went to ensure an education for Henry, the Secretary of War thought highly of the young Seneca man, although Henry seemed to believe that he needed to prove himself. Yet, in the same letter, Henry noted that two young ladies from Philadelphia visited him, and had invited him to return the visit the following week. Henry remained interested in social engagements and the world outside his books. 15 Henry s sojourn in New Jersey did not last long, and he soon found himself back at home, caught between worlds. Deardorff noted: By the fall of 1795, Henry was back home. General Chapin at Canandaigua wrote the War Office Nov. 15 th that he had returned to his Indian habits, stealing horses from the Whites and holding them for ransom. He is very little respected by own or the white people. Decades later, a newspaper in Warren, Pennsylvania noted Henry s use of his knowledge of writing to defraud his own father. According to the author of the article, Henry waited until his father s lumber at Pittsburgh had been sold, at which time he forged an order to withdraw several hundred dollars from the proceeds of the sale. Reportedly, he wasted this money in gambling and other questionable pursuits. 15 Deardorff 3-4.

27 20 Initially, Henry s education and his experience in the outside world did not prove to be a blessing to his people. 16 Pickering did not confine his educational interests to Henry Obail. In February 1795, he wrote to the Six Nations, recommending that they accept the Quakers offer to provide instruction in farming and raising livestock on the reservations. He told the various nations that the federal government supported this plan. Further, he stated that Quakers would not seek payment for these services. He clarified the Quakers goals in a letter to Seneca interpreter Jasper Parrish a month later, stating that Friends did not wish to teach doctrine, but would only provide instruction in husbandry and the mechanical arts. Only the Oneidas replied to Pickering s letter. The Oneidas already had a Christian mission on their reservation, led by missionary Samuel Kirkland of the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. According to anthropologist Diane Rothenberg, the Quaker civilization mission at Oneida did not establish firm roots because the Oneidas were already leasing and selling land to whites, which meant that Oneidas on the whole were not willing to establish permanent farms of their own, utilizing the land in ways the Quakers recommended. The experimental mission at Oneida served as a training ground for some future Quaker missionaries to the Seneca Indians Ibid., 4; Cornplanter s Prediction, Cornplanter Descendants Association Newsletter 2 (July 1998): 1, 16. CDA Newsletter editor Jack Ericson notes that the article first appeared in the Warren newspaper called Connewango Emigrant, and that it was reprinted in The Telescope on April 16, 1825, which was published by William Burnett & Co. of New York. 17 Rothenberg, In 1796, Friends journeyed to Oneida to establish that mission, and the trip and visits to some of the other tribes (not the Senecas) can be found in James Cooper s Journal of a visit to the Seneca Indians, 1796, by James Cooper, of Woodbury, N.J. Obviously, this journal is misnamed. This journal can be found at Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA.

28 21 In 1798, the Seneca people were accustomed to having contact with Euro- Americans, although relatively few whites lived near their Allegany reservation. Their encounters with Euro-Americans were numerous and, in some circumstances, sustained. The odd explorer or Catholic missionary had passed among their people. Senecas moved fluidly between reservations and might have encountered white settlers living near any of the reservations. Some Senecas had served in the military with white men or sought refuge from American forces and hunger at Ft. Niagara, bringing them in close contact with Euro-American people for longer lengths of time. Many men had been to Pittsburgh to trade goods. Various chiefs went to Philadelphia to meet with representatives of the colonial, state, or federal government. White government representatives and speculators had been a part of councils and land sales. The Senecas had a white federal agent who dispensed goods and annuity money to them. Traveling missionaries had visited the area. None of these encounters involved Euro-Americans coming to reside among the Senecas for any length of time, although some whites certainly stayed for short sojourns. Senecas had adopted white captives, raised as Indians, but they did not attempt to convert the Senecas to their language and lifestyles. Not until 1798 did Senecas experience white Cooper traveled to the Oneidas to establish the mission (he was not a resident there), and he and his party also went to the Onondagas and Cayugas. They turned back before they reached the Senecas because only chief Cornplanter had responded to their offers. In 1796, agent Israel Chapin indicated in a letter to Friends that the Indians assembled at Buffalo Creek heard a speech sent by the Quakers and did not wish to have Friends come among them. They were very concerned that Friends would ask for land shortly after their arrival. This was a concern they expressed many times in the coming decades. Chapin tried to assure them that Quakers would not charge Indians for their work and that they would not want land, but the anxiety was such that Senecas did not accept the Quakers offer. Israel Chapin, Canawayaras, to PYMIC, 6 July 1796, Letters to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2. For more on the Oneida mission, see Karim Tiro, We Wish to Do You Good : The Quaker Mission to the Oneida Nation, , Journal of the Early Republic, 26, No. 3 (Fall 2006),

29 22 people in their midst who behaved as white people and, in the case of the Quakers, expected the Senecas to behave like white people, too. 18 Cornplanter brought Euro-American culture into the everyday life of the Allegany Senecas. The chief warrior s request prompted the federal government to send his former captive back, this time as an instructor. Cornplanter also sent his son Henry to be educated by white men, and hired a white man named Morrison to run a sawmill for him. Finally, Cornplanter invited Quakers to live at Allegany and to instruct his people. Some people have viewed Cornplanter with scorn for his actions after the American Revolution, while others have celebrated him. Recently, Thomas S. Abler published a comprehensive biography of this controversial figure, shedding light on the chief warrior s motivations. Most assuredly, Cornplanter was concerned about his own property, income, and power, but he was also concerned about his people and their survival in a world that was changing all around them. In the years following the American Revolution, Cornplanter walked a fine line between serving himself and serving his people. The two interests were not mutually exclusive. The chief warrior was an intelligent man, and a quick study in the ways of white America. In official negotiations in council, Cornplanter adeptly used words and ideas from the Euro-American world against those who wished to take more land from his people. He realized that he and his people needed to acquaint themselves with the ways of the 18 While other Iroquois reservations had larger white settlements in close proximity, the Senecas did not have much white settlement at this time. The largest city adjacent to their reservations would soon be New Amsterdam (later called Buffalo), but as of 1801, it had only several houses and a tavern. Christopher Densmore, Red Jacket: Iroquois Diplomat and Orator, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 60.

30 23 American people in order to retain their property and survive on their ancestral lands. 19 By the time members of the Society of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting arrived on the Allegany River in May 1798, Seneca residents in the region faced a new and uncertain future. Newly confined to reservations within their traditional home region as the result of a recent land sale, the Seneca people decided to live on the Pennsylvania private land grant of Chief Cornplanter until they were certain of the boundaries of the new Allegany reservation. The reservation was located adjacent to Cornplanter s private tract, but situated within the boundaries of neighboring New York state. Friends estimated that between three hundred to four hundred Native Americans resided on the private grant, with virtually no one living on the Allegany reservation. Speaking on behalf of his people, Cornplanter told the newly arrived Friends that the Seneca people would allow them to stay for a trial period of two years. At the end of two years, we will know whether [Robert] Morris will leave us any land, and whether he will pay us our money. If Cornplanter s people liked having Friends among them, the Quakers could remain for a longer period of time Thomas S. Abler, Cornplanter. See pages 107, for instances of Cornplanter using the Bible and a missionary s words for his own purposes in negotiating with whites in council. Abler cites an interesting letter on p. 137 in which Cornplanter inquired after his son in Philadelphia: [A]s soon as he is Learned enough I want him at Home [to] Manage My Business for Me. 20 John Peirce, 1798, Journals of John Peirce, John Philips, and Joseph Scattergood, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford PA. Robert Morris served as purchaser for the Holland Land Company after he sold pre-emptive rights to Seneca land to said company; Rothenberg, ; The people resided not in longhouses, but in small extended family dwellings. Abler, Cornplanter, 136. Cornplanter s private land grant in Pennsylvania is sometimes called The Cornplanter Grant or the grant.

31 24 Warned by a military commander en route to Cornplanter s town, Friends feared that any improvements made upon Cornplanter s land would become his private property instead of that of the nation. Thus, Friends determined to establish a home base at Genesinguhta, or Old Town, on the west bank of the Allegany River five miles above the state line between Pennsylvania and New York. Friends concluded that it would be unwise to ask the Seneca people to make any agreement about the Quaker settlement or the boundaries of the farm in writing, lest it create suspicion that Friends wished to obtain permanent title to the land. Since all the children lived at Cornplanter s town, Jenuchsadaga or Burnt House, the three young Friends and the two older Friends, who came along to help the younger men as they established the mission, determined to have Henry Simmons Jr. keep the school on Cornplanter s grant, while Halliday Jackson and Joel Swayne ran the model farm at Genesinguhta. 21 The purpose of the Quakers model farm was to demonstrate Euro-American agricultural techniques, farming implements and crops to the Seneca men. In Seneca 21 Peirce, 1798; A Brief History of Tunesassa Boarding School For Indian Children, Record of Indian Children at Tunesassa B.S., 1888, QC, HC; Henry Simmons and Joel Swayne, Genesinguhta, to PYMIC, 16 Nov 1798, Letters to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4. The elder Friends helped the younger men set up their mission and returned to Philadelphia. Correspondence was very slow, and while the young men could not operate independent of the Indian Committee s decisions on larger issues, they had to make a lot of decisions amongst themselves. While there was great geographic distance between the Committee and the mission, correspondence was also hampered by their isolation and the weather. In lake effect snow country, winters were long and harsh. In April 1807, a Friend in residence wrote to the committee that this was his first opportunity to get a letter to them all winter because of the snow. A Seneca person was heading to Pittsburgh the next day, and he was sending the letter to Pittsburgh with the man. 5 Apr 1807 update to letter filed under Jacob Taylor, Tunesassah, to Thomas Stewardson, 3 Feb 1807, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5. The spelling of town names and the names of Seneca people follows the most frequent spelling used by Quakers in the original records. Quaker spellings of their own names sometimes varied, as well, particularly that of Joel Swayne, whose surname is sometimes given as Swaine or Swain at times.

32 25 society, women had been the traditional agriculturists. Men might help with clearing the fields and during the busy harvest time, but primarily, Seneca women tended to the crops. Quakers imagined a new world for the Senecas in which men became farmers and women housewives; i.e. a complete change in their gender roles. Quakers sought to have families living on individually owned parcels of land, and wanted to replace serial monogamy among the Senecas that was commonplace at the time with lasting marriage. And when every home had a man in the field and a woman at the hearth, Quakers hoped that all children would learn their letters in school. The Friends program eventually encompassed elements of education for the entire community. For adults, Friends wanted to provide practical education, with men learning to work the land and women learning Euro-American housewifery. The outreach to women did not begin immediately, as the initial group of Friends did not include a female Friend. Friends did not open the school at Cornplanter s town directly after their arrival. The work of all three young men was needed to get their new model farm up and running. Because of Friends late start in preparing their farm, Quakers did not expect to have a surplus of food during that year, but promised to give future surplus crops to elderly Senecas. Their situation was complicated by a lack of goods for sale in the region. On their journey to Cornplanter s grant, Halliday Jackson referred to the country Friends had traversed in the last two days before their arrival as waste howling Wilderness. Because the nearest white settlements were at some distance from Cornplanter s grant, Friends informed Thomas Wistar of the Indian Committee

33 26 that they could not get anything besides maple sugar and bear s oil closer than Pittsburgh. Simmons and Swayne wrote to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee (PYMIC) in November, indicating that they hoped to start a school at Jenuchsadaga soon. Jackson noted that this was prompted by a request from Cornplanter to begin the school for the children. Simmons opened the school in half of Cornplanter s home at Jenuchsadaga on November 23, For schoolmaster Henry Simmons, Jr., mission work among the Haudenosaunee was not a new endeavor. He had served in the Friends mission to the Oneida previous to taking up his new station at Jenuchsadaga. If one of the Friends had to separate himself from the other Friends in order to run the school, Simmons would have been the logical choice. He probably had a better understanding of Haudenosaunee culture, and he might have known a bit of the Oneida language; some residents of Cornplanter s town might have had some knowledge of this language, which was closely related to their own. Certainly, Simmons would have known how to conduct himself while living in the midst of the Iroquois due to his past experience at Oneida. 23 Seneca children must have been difficult pupils for a Quaker instructor. Traditional Seneca child-rearing was far less strict than Euro-American child-rearing. 22 Joshua Sharples, John Peirce, Henry Simmons, Jr., Joel Swayne, and Halliday Jackson, Address to the Indians, 22 May 1798, Letters to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Henry Simmons and Joel Swayne, Genesinguhta, to PYMIC, 16 Nov 1798, Letters to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Anthony F.C. Wallace, ed., Halliday Jackson s Journal to the Seneca Indians, , Pennsylvania History 19, no. 2 (1952): 126, 141; Joshua Sharples and John Peirce to Thomas Wistar, 31 May 1798, Letters to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Cornplanter s home is described in Abler s biography, Cornplanter, A few letters from Simmons while at Oneida may be found in his own folder, Letters to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4. In his letter of 16 July 1797, he asked to be released from his work at Oneida. Rothenberg, 155.

34 27 Quaker missionaries complained that children were at liberty to behave as they wished. Halliday Jackson noted that Seneca children being indulged in most of their wishes, as they grow up, liberty, in its fullest extent, becomes their ruling passion. Senecas did not reprimand or punish their children, according to anthropologist Anthony F.C. Wallace. Boys received some instruction from fathers, uncles, or other male elders, while girls learned from their mothers or aunts. But, as Wallace noted, [T]his instruction was presented, rather than forced, as an opportunity rather than a duty. On occasion the parent or other responsible adult talked to the child at length, endeavoring, as a Quaker scribe gently put it, to impress on its mind what it ought to do, and what to leave undone. These children were not accustomed to a rigorous daily schedule, and they were certainly not adapted to life in a classroom environment. Simmons must have had a great deal of difficulty teaching and maintaining some semblance of order with pupils coming and going at their leisure. 24 Even with his experience at Oneida, Simmons was frustrated when Seneca children in his school failed to adapt to his schedule or when Seneca celebrations and ceremonial obligations interfered with his teaching. When students took leave from school to attend their own cultural and religious festivities, Simmons condemned the Seneca mode of worship. On February 27, 1799, while Simmons tried to conduct his school, one of the Seneca people came into his classroom to inform the pupils about a Dance & Frolick nearly underway. Some students left school immediately to join 24 Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 35-38; Joseph A. Francello, The Seneca World of Ga-No-Say-Yeh (Peter Crouse, White Captive) (Latham, MD: University Press of America, 1980), 43.

35 28 the festivities. The next day, when Simmons answered questions posed to him by chiefs, he took the opportunity to inform those assembled that he believed many of their customs to be evil, particularly that of Dancing & Shouting, in such an hideous manner which they are accustomed too (sic). This incident was a part of a longer train of interruptions resulting from dancing, which had kept his pupils from learning much on the days following such festivities. Simmons had already spoken with community leaders about the matter, attempting to regain both order in the town and in his classroom. 25 Irregular attendance patterns were another difficulty for schoolmaster Simmons. Pupils often did not come to school regularly. This made it difficult to teach them, since each student had a different background due to attending the school on different days and for varying lengths of time. In addition to learning to read and write, the children had to learn an entirely new language, as their books were not written in the Seneca language. Not all Senecas at the Cornplanter grant supported the school or sent their children to it, and whether or not a student attended depended on the changing political climate and beliefs of individual parents. Simmons commented that when he gave a public talk on the benefits of book learning, his school grew immediately. He attributed the increase from twenty to thirty pupils, some of whom were young men, to his speech. A week later, Allegany residents 25 Swatzler, 42, , Such festivities were often the occasion of drunkenness, and were a great grievance to Simmons as both a teacher and someone who wished to bring civilization to the Seneca people. It did not take much to convince the Senecas that alcohol was indeed a problem and that such celebrations had gotten out of hand, but the dancing continued as a regular part of their ceremonies. Senecas tried to strike a balance between what Quakers wanted from them and what they needed to do for their own religious obligations, including sorting out older tradition from more recent traditions. Wallace, Death and Rebirth,

36 29 received a report of a little girl s dream from the Buffalo Creek reservation. Reportedly, the little girl dreamed that the Devil was in all white people alike, and that the Quakers were doing no good among them, but otherwise, and it was not right for their Children to learn to read and write. The Senecas at Cornplanter s town discussed the dream, and Cornplanter indicated that he did not believe the dream. Simmons reported that his school was smaller for one day, after which time, it was larger than ever. 26 Following these incidents, more Senecas committed to sending their boys and girls to the school. Cornplanter approached Simmons on the first of March to say that a number of children would attend the school steadily, and the boys would be given to Simmons to care for as his own and to teach them to work. Cornplanter stated that Simmons could correct the children as appropriate, including the chief warrior s own children. This was probably a memorable moment for Simmons, but the schoolmaster s happiness was short-lived. In two and a half months, things changed dramatically in the village. 27 In April, three hundred and sixty-one Senecas at the Cattaraugus reservation signed a letter to Friends to ask for Quaker assistance. Citing the benefits that Henry 26 Francello, ; Simmons informed the Senecas that there would be an advantage to their Children, in learning to read, as the great Spirit pleased to enlighten their understandings and make them Sensible of this good Book; as well as many other benefits which will be likely to attend their Children, thus being Educated. Wallace, Death and Rebirth, and Swatzler People might have been reluctant to send children to school because they had been alienated by Quaker condemnation of their ways of life, or because all of the Quaker missionaries at Allegany were men who had been unable to reach out to Seneca women. Within ten days of their arrival at the Cornplanter Grant, Joshua Sharpless noted that he had already spoken to the Senecas about how unreasonable it was for the women (to) work all day while the men were playing with bows and arrows. Frederic Cope Sharpless, Excerpts from the journal of Joshua Sharpless (untitled), 10 Apr 1964, TMs, p. 7, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford PA. 27 Swatzler, 262.

37 30 Obail had received from his education, Cattaraugus Senecas requested that Friends teach them letters, pen, and tilling the fields. Work at Cattaraugus would be sporadic for a time, until the Genesinguhta mission was established and Quaker mission workers could offer more help at the more northern reservation. This demonstrates that the early impressions of the Quaker mission were positive enough that Senecas at the other reservations decided to request the assistance of Friends. 28 Textbooks used by Simmons at the school echoed much of what Quakers had been telling Senecas at councils and in daily contact. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee accounts indicate that the committee sent Friends at Genesinguhta a number of books in April Complete titles are not available for all the books, but those that can be found are indicative of the acculturation process at work within the school and the Quaker mission as a whole. Friends had sent six testaments, one farmer s almanac (likely intended for Friends at the model farm), six pamphlets, four dozen primers, two copies of an arithmetic book and two dozen copies of Pierce s spelling book. 29 The Indian Committee selected Thomas Dilworth s The Schoolmaster s Assistant: Being a Compendium of Arithmetic, Both Practical and Theoretical as the arithmetic textbook for the school at Jenuchsadaga. Only two copies were shipped from Philadelphia, so this book was not intended for distribution to the entire class. 28 Cattaraugus Senecas to PYMIC, 11 April 1799, PYMIC Correspondence Box 6, Letters from PYMIC AA41.1, Folder The receipt for these books can be found in PYMIC Accounts, Bill, Etc., folder 3 ( ), Quaker Collection, Haverford College. It is likely that previous textbooks were similar to these in content, as there seems to be a great deal of continuity in the textbooks. There are no records remaining to indicate the names of books in use at the school before April 1799.

38 31 Perhaps the teacher wrote out problems for the students to solve, or perhaps most pupils were only just learning to read, and were not yet ready to begin arithmetic. This was a very basic and practical text, featuring simple arithmetic, multiplication, fractions, decimals and interest. These skills would have been necessary for Senecas who might one day manage their own farms or practice trades. Many problems featured money, prices of commodities and agricultural items. The beginning of the text emphasized that it was important to teach these things to girls as well as boys, because they might have to manage business affairs in widowhood. Additionally, the preface to the textbook offered advice for parents of students, including the admonition that consistent attendance was important and parents should not contradict schoolmasters. 30 According to a receipt in the records of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee, the school at Jenuchsadaga used Pierce s spelling book, that is, John Peirce s The New American Spelling Book. The textbook coupled spelling with moral lessons, starting with lessons constructed of small, easy words. An early lesson read: All of us, my Son, are to die: If we do no Ill, we go to Joy; But if our way be bad, we go to Woe. Woe is to be on all who do Ill. A few pages later is a lesson including the line Bad men go to the Pit. 30 Thomas Dilworth, The Schoolmaster s Assistant: Being a Compendium of Arithmetic, Both Practical and Theoretical (Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1793), ix-xiv. This book might have been too expensive for Friends to furnish the entire class with copies.

39 32 Thus, very early in their spelling lessons, Seneca children and young adults attending the school got the message that bad behavior led people to an unhappy place when they perished; it is likely that Simmons or perhaps Henry Obail, as an interpreter, would have explained the meaning of going to Woe or the Pit. Perhaps an even more poignant lesson for the young warriors and the children of warriors, whose days of battle were drawing to a close, could be found in the following example: Trust not in thy Bow, nor in the Might of thy own Arm; for it is not thy Bow, nor thy Sword that can help thee in the great Day. 31 In a period during which Quakers railed against the use of alcohol and when alcoholrelated mayhem vexed the village, the textbooks also affirmed Quaker advice on the issue of drunkenness. For the Drunkard and the Glutton shall come to poverty; And Drowsiness shall cover a Man with Rags. 32 This book s lessons furthered the agenda of the Quaker mission. The spelling book also included advice on how to be well-behaved students and members of society. The text indicated that consistent attendance was very important. A list of rules for behavior included the instructions that children should obey their parents, that they should not make fun of people, that they should be careful with their school books, that they should not quarrel or grieve the teacher and that they should be quiet and reverent during Meeting or worship service. As part of this section, the publisher included the Lord s Prayer in the textbook. Lessons from 31 John Peirce, The New American Spelling Book (Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1793), 5, 11, 21. It is not known if Henry Obail spent any time in the schoolhouse interpreting for the teacher, or if Simmons simply muddled along as he tried to communicate with pupils who did not speak his language. 32 Ibid., 57.

40 33 the New Testament book of Matthew also appeared in the text, in addition to some parables and the story of Lazarus. It is likely that Quakers thought little of the Christian principles and stories contained in the textbook, or they simply had little choice in the matter because most textbooks from the time included something about the Bible or Christianity. Textbooks were not created for Native American pupils. They used the same books as their white counterparts. 33 Henry Obail probably used similar textbooks when he was enrolled in eastern schools. And when the textbooks first arrived, Cornplanter s eldest son would have been the only Seneca capable of reading the textbooks until the new students learned to read. Peter Crouse, a white captive and adopted Seneca, never learned to read. Most likely, other white captives, if they lived in the village in 1798, could not read, either, even if they could speak English. Often taken from frontier areas where there were no schools, and captured at young ages, the captives might not have had any book learning before they became adopted Senecas. If they did, they had probably forgotten whatever they knew in the decades between their capture and the arrival of the first Quaker teacher. 34 In mid-may 1799, some Senecas returned from Pittsburgh with whiskey in tow. What followed was nothing short of drunken chaos in the village. The whiskey lasted for weeks, as did the disorder it caused. The alcohol resulted in some deaths and quite a bit of quarreling. Quakers determined that they needed to address the issue, and arranged a council with the Senecas. Friends spoke to the Senecas on their 33 Ibid., 63-65, 67-75, 89, Francello, 152.

41 34 progress toward civilization, and in a few days, the Senecas delivered their reply to Simmons, the only Quaker remaining in the village. They had decided to prohibit the sale of alcohol among them, and had appointed two young men to enforce that rule. The Senecas also indicated a willingness to be more helpful to the women by assisting with the crops. But a month later, Simmons noted that he and an Indian intervened to stop an intoxicated man who was beating his wife with his fists. 35 Around the same time that the textbooks arrived at Jenuchsadaga, and the Quaker school was fully outfitted to instruct pupils, something happened to change the life and religion of the Seneca people forever. On June 13, 1799, Cornplanter ordered three of his men to kill a woman who had threatened the life of a child in his household. She was suspected of having harmed others by witchcraft in the past. Henry Simmons noted that he was not sure if she should have been killed, but he understood that she was a bad woman. It is remarkable how little the Quaker Simmons said about the slaying of an alleged witch, but he had been a missionary at Oneida previously, and perhaps he had enough cultural understanding of witchcraft belief among the Iroquois that he thought it best to leave the situation alone. Two days later, while Cornplanter was having some men build a house for him and Quakers were working on a house for the school, villagers sent word to Cornplanter that his brother, Handsome Lake, had passed away. But Handsome Lake had not died. Instead, his illness marked the beginning of a successful prophetic movement, 35 The incident involving the beating occurred on the same day that some of Cornplanter s men executed a woman as a witch. This had nothing to do with intoxication, but was a noteworthy event on the road to the formation of the Handsome Lake religion. Swatzler, ; Wallace, Halliday Jackson s Journal,

42 35 including charges of witchcraft and executions of witches, but also deeply influenced by Quaker morality. 36 On that early morning in the middle of June, Handsome Lake s daughter sent someone to tell Handsome Lake s brother, Cornplanter, and his nephew, Blacksnake, that her father had passed away. He had been ill, suffering from the effects of too much alcohol. When Blacksnake reached Handsome Lake s side, he found a warm spot in his uncle s chest, and the family decided to wait to bury the man. By midmorning, Handsome Lake s heart was beating, and he opened his eyes. Later in the day, he opened his eyes again, and told those around him what had happened to him. He related a visit by three beings who gave him some healing berries and took him on a journey through the heavens. Handsome Lake saw a wide road to hell, the realm of the Punisher, and a narrow road to heaven, the realm of the Great Spirit. The beings told him that the village needed to revive the White Dog Sacrifice. If his people did not do so, they would suffer a great illness. This was the first of three visions, later comprising the Code of Handsome Lake Swatzler, ; Wallace, Halliday Jackson s Journal, Halliday Jackson noted that he and others went to Fort Franklin on June 17, 1799, to pick up goods sent by Friends in Philadelphia. The textbooks could have arrived earlier, but it is also possible that Friends held the books to be sent with other items, and they were just arriving in the village immediately following Handsome Lake s near death experience. Merle H. Deardorff and George S. Snyderman note that the Quakers were careful to keep out of the Seneca witch scares: It is, indeed, rather remarkable that, where they do record witch-killing, they do it with little comment. See Deardorff and Snyderman, A Nineteenth- Century Journal of a Visit to the Indians of New York, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 100 (1956): The schoolhouse must have been quite close to completion, as Friends wrote PYMIC on 16 June 1799 that Quakers and Senecas had erected a commodious school house at Conescotago. Henry Simmons, Joel Swayne, and Halliday Jackson, Genesinguhta, to PYMIC, Box Thomas S. Abler, Chainbreaker: The Revolutionary War Memoirs of Governor Blacksnake as Told to Benjamin Williams (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), 207, 210; Merle H. Deardorff, The Religion of Handsome Lake: Its Origin and Development, An Iroquois Sourcebook Volume 3: Medicine Society Rituals, edited by Elisabeth Tooker, (New York: Garland Publishing, 1986), 88-90;

43 36 If the textbooks were in the village at the time of Handsome Lake s near death experience, the teachings in these books might have circulated around the village and reached him before his illness. The books had almost certainly arrived by his vision of August 8, His near death experience is reminiscent of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, featured in the spelling book used at the school. Heaven and hell were certainly covered in the spelling book, as bad men went to the pit, and good people went to joy. In Handsome Lake s lifetime, rumors persisted that he and his prophetic movement were political tools of his brother Cornplanter. A critic noted that when the prophet said anything noteworthy, he was always seated next to his nephews. But when the Seneca Red Jacket made sure to seat others next to the prophet, Handsome Lake had very little to say. Yet it is just as likely that Handsome Lake had a very worthy tutor in Christianity and white culture in his Lewis Henry Morgan, League of the Iroquois, (New York: Corinth Books, 1962), ; Paul Robert Walker, Spiritual Leaders, (New York: Facts on File, 1994); Abler, Cornplanter, Handsome Lake was not the first Iroquoian man to see such things. Just prior to Handsome Lake s near death experience, a young man had a dream while out hunting in the woods. In that dream, which occurred shortly after Henry Simmons had talked about heaven and hell with some of the Senecas, the young man found himself on a narrow path, and went into a house where he found the most beautiful man he had ever seen. Then he went into a large building with a large door, where he met a man with a contorted mouth (not unlike one of the Iroquois False Faces, which were carved masks used for healing). The man showed him many drunken people, some were known to the young man and who had been dead for many years. There, he was made to drink molten pewter. There were other punishments, appropriate to assorted bad acts on earth. Then the young man was sent home. He resolved to be a better man and learn to read. Simmons heartily endorsed the dream. Wallace, Death and Rebirth, A Grand River Mohawk had a vision in He called for the revival of the White Dog Sacrifice, and this also happened at Oneida, before Handsome Lake s vision. Arthur C. Parker, The Code of Handsome Lake, Parker on the Iroquois, edited by William N. Fenton, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1968), Lyn Richard Jacobs has traced four Lenape prophets whose visions and movements included some of the same elements as Handsome Lake s. Lyn Richard Jacobs, Native American Prophetic Movements of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, (Ph.D. diss., Syracuse University, 1994). These prophets operated in the Pennsylvania, Ohio and Lake Erie areas, and it is quite possible that Handsome Lake encountered their teachings, if not the men themselves. In Joseph Elkinton s writings, Blacksnake is also known by the name Tekiando. I have tried to use the name used in the source here, thus the simultaneous use of Tekiando and Blacksnake. Blacksnake was also known as Ta-Wan-Yus, or the Chainbreaker, and Tha-o-nawyuthe (Tha-o-wa-nyutha), the Nephew. Congdon, Allegany Oxbow, 167, 201.

44 37 educated nephew, Henry Obail. If Henry had not seen the textbooks intended for use in the Quaker school, he had utilized other books with similar content during his offreservation educational experience. While Henry s educational experience might have influenced Handsome Lake initially, it seems unlikely that Handsome Lake was a mere puppet, particularly given his later break with his brother. Handsome Lake was a determined leader with a mind of his own. 38 Initially, Handsome Lake and his new religious movement enjoyed the support of the resident Friends. His teachings were in line with theirs, and at first, Quakers supported any means to bring their values to the Seneca people. When questioned about whether they believed the visions of Handsome Lake, the Friends told Cornplanter that even some of their own people had claimed to have such visions. Things changed, however, when the religious ceremonies began to interfere with Quakers attempts to operate their school. As Friends confronted Seneca religious practices and condemned their mode of worship, they created a rift between themselves and Handsome Lake s followers. 39 At this moment in history, things had already changed dramatically for the Senecas culture. Somewhat restricted to reservations, they no longer enjoyed the 38 Wallace, Death and Rebirth, ; Abler, Cornplanter, 144; Densmore, Red Jacket had been charged with witchcraft by Handsome Lake, most assuredly for political reasons. The two men were political rivals. Parallels between the Handsome Lake religion and Christianity were certainly strong, and scholars and others have long wondered about the source of this parallel. Handsome Lake had many opportunities to encounter these ideas throughout his life. His contact with textbooks is only one possible source of this influence. Lyn Richard Jacobs chronicled a series of similar movements, and Thomas Abler discusses suggestions for the influence told to him by Christian Senecas. See Abler, Cornplanter, Joy Bilharz, First Among Equals? The Changing Status of Seneca Women in Women and Power in Native North America eds. Laura F. Klein and Lillian A. Ackerman (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), p. 108.

45 38 freedom to hunt and move as they pleased. After the Revolutionary War, the Seneca people no longer had British allies to supply them. While some pelts were still traded at Pittsburgh, the era of trade in animal skins had more or less drawn to a close. Whiskey had taken its toll on individuals and on the village as a whole. As Anthony Wallace has demonstrated, the Seneca society needed something or someone to put it back together. While the Quakers attempted to do so, Handsome Lake tried to effect change for his people in a more familiar fashion. Drawing from both Euro-American, specifically Quaker, cultural ideals and from his own Seneca traditions, Handsome Lake s movement combined the two worlds of his followers. As an answer to negotiating a path through a world changing all around them, Handsome Lake s path made a lot more sense than the Quaker plan to change Seneca society completely. By incorporating changes in a way that made more sense to his culture, Handsome Lake had an easier time gaining followers than Friends, who had to work harder and longer to gain followers. A series of witchcraft accusations, executions, and subsequent Euro-American admonishment, coupled with the objection of some of Handsome Lake s own family members, resulted in a tempering of the Handsome Lake movement. But it also created conflict between those who wished to follow Quakers by living apart to work their own lands and those who adhered to Handsome Lake s followings and lived in towns Wallace, ; Taylor noted that people had attempted to intervene in the Seneca and Munsee witchcraft affair, but his note was vague, and he provided no names. Jacob Taylor, Ginasingohta, 28 Jan 1801, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

46 39 Friends did not interfere with Handsome Lake s movement much (in the early days). Yet Quakers, concerned local settlers, government officials, and the Indian Committee became greatly concerned when Handsome Lake s witchcraft accusations against the Munsees (Delawares) living at Cattaraugus threatened war between the two Native American groups. Handsome Lake s followers on the Cornplanter land grant and the prophet himself harbored hard feelings toward Friends and their missionary efforts in the wake of this interference. School attendance diminished, and Quakers ceased to operate a school there, although one of their men remained at Jenuchsadaga to provide instruction in plowing. Friends in residence considered this part of the instruction quite successful. In the months following the Munsee witchcraft accusations, Quaker hopes for the school at the lower town turned from optimistic to resignation that the effort was a failure. PYMIC had encouraged Friends in residence to drop this school and open one near their residence at the upper town of Genesinguhta. The resident Quakers had resisted this move because no one lived at the upper town on the reservation; therefore all the children were at the lower town on the private grant. They had been unable to induce anyone to move to the vicinity of the model farm. While initially concerned in a very general way about having one Quaker living apart from other Friends to encourage him, PYMIC now worried more about leaving a Friend in the lower town at a time of so much turbulence, where witchcraft accusations were made against opponents of the prophet and his teachings. An August 1801 letter from Friends in residence showed their demoralized state after the witchcraft conflict with Handsome Lake and his followers. When enthusiastic

47 40 about the mission, months earlier, Friends Joel Swayne, Jacob Taylor, and Jonathan Thomas noted that they would only go to the lower town as occation (sic) may require, and further, they thought that after a blacksmith provided that branch of instruction to the Senecas, the best thing that the Committee could do for the Senecas would be to withdraw entirely. Their good news in the letter about Senecas embracing animal husbandry and the prodigal former student Henry Obail moving up the river to work the land did not change their impression that the mission was drawing to a close. 41 Having one Friend residing at the lower town alone was always trouble to the Indian Committee. Previously, on April 20, 1799, PYMIC wrote to Friends in residence that they understood why one of them wished to remain at the lower town to teach, but the committee did not think it was a very good idea to have one man living separate from the others. Together, the men gave each other support, and one man alone would be more exposed. They did not directly say that they disapproved of the plan, and they did not order the lone Friend to return to the model farm, but they desired for the school to be moved to the upper town. The committee realized that it would reduce the size of the school, but were willing to accept lower attendance in order to have the Friends living together. Cornplanter s town had become the center of a new religious movement. Friends in residence informed PYMIC that a school near them simply would not flourish, as all the children lived at the lower town. They thought that some Senecas might return to the upper town in 41 Joel Swaine, Jacob Taylor, and Jonathan Thomas, Ginasingohta, to PYMIC, 3 Aug 1801, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4.

48 41 the fall season, but if one Friend left the mission as planned, there would not be enough Friends in residence to operate the farm and run a school. By fall 1799, Simmons had left the mission. There could be no school without a third Friend, as two men were required to operate the farm. Swayne and Jackson hoped to teach some children who had moved near them during the winter, when the missionaries would have less work to do on the farm. They also had a disabled adult man living with them to learn to read and write. His disability prevented him from earning a living in farming or in a trade, and Quakers hoped that book learning would help him to earn a living in some other fashion. He was the only Seneca receiving any kind of book learning, as the formal school was not in operation in the fall of Yet PYMIC was not ready to abandon the mission at this stage. In May 1801, they received a letter from Secretary of War Henry Dearborn indicating that President Jefferson highly approved of their educational efforts among Native American children and adults. Perhaps with the hope of encouraging this effort, PYMIC sent a visiting delegation to visit the Allegany in late August. 43 The location for the school was not settled for some time. While Friends in residence did not agree to refrain from operating a school at the lower town, they did manage to conduct a school at the model farm during the winter of In 42 Henry Simmons, Joel Swayne, and Halliday Jackson, 22 Aug 1799, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Joel Swayne and Halliday Jackson, Genesinguhta, 11 Oct 1799, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Thomas Wistar (PYMIC) to Friends at Genesinghuta, 20 Apr 1799, PYMIC Correspondence AA41.1, Letters from PYMIC. 43 Letters from PYMIC in Folder 4, AA41.1 Box 6, dated 18 Feb 1801, 28 Feb 1801, 14 Apr 1801, May 1801, 22 May 1801 and 24 Aug Their letter dated 16 Jul 1801 introduces the blacksmith, Vincent Wiley, who was on the way to the mission.; Jacob Taylor, Ginasingohta, to PYMIC, 28 Jun 1801, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; Joel Swaine, Jacob Taylor, and Jonathan Thomas, Ginasingohta, to PYMIC, 3 Aug 1801, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; PYMIC Minute Book, Volume 1, p provides a positive report on the school under the date 16 Apr 1801.

49 42 January 1800, they informed the committee that several small children had made some progress while attending school in the Friends home. Additionally, a boy around age thirteen stayed in their home with them to be instructed in work (probably farming). In November 1800, Quakers noted that they had worked on a schoolhouse in Cornplanter s town, although school had not yet commenced there. Friends expected that it would be some time before the school could begin, as many young boys were hunting with their parents away from the village. The school in the village was in operation by the end of 1800 or early Oneida veteran Jacob Taylor was the Friend who lived alone at the lower town to serve as schoolmaster. Taylor explained that his school had five or six, but sometimes eight or nine young lads in attendance. He said that it was too early for the children to have made much progress, but they had demonstrated good memory skills. At the same time, he lamented that the parents impeded their children s progress because the way the children were raised made it difficult for them to adjust to sitting still for school lessons. 44 The year 1801 saw both significant progress and a large setback for the Friends mission. From the beginning, Quakers had encouraged Seneca men to take up the plow. This was no easy task. In 1799, Friends had commenced plowing for some Senecas, and it appears as though some men did follow Quaker instruction in agriculture. 45 It took some time before men started to plow for themselves, and in the initial years of the Quaker mission, men plowing and working their own fields was 44 PYMIC, Jan 1800 and 20 Nov 1800, PYMIC Correspondence AA41.1, Letters from PYMIC. 45 Henry Simmons, Joel Swayne, and Halliday Jackson, 16 Jun 1799, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

50 43 not commonplace. Not until 1801 did more than one Seneca man engage in plowing. While agricultural instruction picked up early in the year, conflict between Friends and Handsome Lake and his followers over witchcraft accusations resulted in the end of the school at Cornplanter s grant. Friends indicated that the people there did not send their children with regularity, and with the Indian Committee still uneasy at the prospect of having one Friend live alone to conduct the school, Friends elected to close the school there. They proposed a school at Old Town, and the Senecas were satisfied with that idea. By this time, other Senecas who did not agree with what was happening at Cornplanter s town or who wished to follow Quaker instruction moved to the Allegany Reservation. By the time Friends wrote this letter, their school was in operation such a part of the day as is found most convenient. In late August 1801, PYMIC sent a visiting delegation to the Allegany River, and it is likely that blacksmith Vincent Wiley traveled with them to his post. When he arrived, Friends were able to introduce instruction in his trade at Old Town, now the center of Euro- American education in Seneca country. 46 As the Quaker stance on witchcraft accusation seemed to alienate them from some Senecas at Cornplanter s grant, leaders at the Cattaraugus Reservation looked to Friends for additional support. Indian Committee Meeting Minutes from December 1801 indicate that some at Cattaraugus were very interested in sending their children to Philadelphia for an education. If a war had ensued with Munsees, who were living 46 By 1811, the Allegany Senecas owned six yoke of oxen and four plows collectively, and plowed for neighboring white people for additional money. Rothenberg, 166, , ; Congdon, 53; Joel Swaine, Jacob Taylor, and Jonathan Thomas, Ginasingohta, 3 Aug 1801, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; PYMIC Correspondence AA41.1, letters dated 16 Jul 1801 and 24 Aug 1801.

51 44 at Cattaraugus, these Senecas would have been in a difficult situation. They might have appreciated the intervention of Friends and other whites in diffusing the witchcraft accusation situation, and some on that reservation may have moved closer to Friends at this time. 47 While the school faded away with the departure of Joel Swayne in late 1801, the Seneca blacksmith students made excellent progress, providing new hope for the success of the Quaker mission. In April 1802, PYMIC informed Friends in residence that now was not the time to look toward withdrawal from their mission. For the time being, the educational focus at the mission was on agriculture and the blacksmith s trade. Late in 1802, Swayne returned to the mission, and after he arrived, Jonathan Thomas and blacksmith Vincent Wiley (who believed the Seneca smiths were wellprepared) decided to return home. While the mission had only two Friends in residence, they did not have enough people to operate both the farm and the school. 48 In fall 1803, Friends moved to their own piece of land at Tunesassah. Their location at Old Town, on the reservation, had become a source of conflict with those who believed that the Quakers were profiting from the use of Seneca land. Because of such rumors, Friends had been maneuvering to purchase a tract of land for some 47 Minute Book of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee, vol. 1, 162. PYMIC offered to care for some boys, but no Senecas were taken to Philadelphia for an education at this time. Later, the Committee took four boys. See Chapter Four for details on their experiences. 48 PYMIC Correspondence AA41.1, 15 Apr In 1803, a blacksmith named John Pennock spent some time at Old Town to give further instruction to the Seneca smiths. Pennock first accompanied a young Tuscarora man named Jacob Caredtawacha back to his own reservation from Philadelphia and helped him establish a business there. Vincent Wiley had learned from John Pennock, so Pennock was a more experienced smith. PYMIC Correspondence AA41.1, 10 May He returned to help again for the duration of the summer of PYMIC Minute Book, vol. 1, 185, 187, 195, 210, 212, ; Barton, 6; Jacob Taylor, Jonathan Thomas, John Pennock, and Joel Swaine, Tunesassah, 29 Aug 1804, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

52 45 time. In a note to PYMIC, Friends in residence indicated that whenever Senecas came to the Quakers and wanted Friends to do something for them, and Friends did not perform the task, Senecas reminded them that the Quakers enjoyed the benefits of living on Seneca land. Friends in residence proposed to the committee that they should purchase a piece of land adjacent to the reservation. They believed that Senecas would not send their children far for school, and thus it was best to hold a school at a town on the reservation. In late August 1803, Allegany Seneca leaders agreed to Quaker removal from their reservation land. The new Quaker farm was just three miles from Cold Spring. 49 Turmoil within the main body of Allegany Senecas at Cornplanter s grant resulted in a windfall for Quakers, who wanted Senecas to move back onto the reservation. Political divisions among various chiefs, the demotion of Cornplanter from the rank of chief warrior, and the Handsome Lake movement combined to create a mass migration of families from the Cornplanter grant. Many went to Cold Spring with their prophet, Handsome Lake (or Conudiu in some Quaker records). His nephew, follower and advisor Blacksnake (or Tekiando ) went with him, and Friends credited Blacksnake with responsibility for removing Cornplanter from his office as chief warrior. Other families who wished to plant and follow the Quaker program moved, as Cornplanter would no longer allow them to plant crops on his land. Some ten families had moved to a location above the Cold Spring settlement of 49 Abler, Cornplanter, 153; Barton, 6; Jacob Taylor and Joel Swain, Ginasetega, 11 Dec 1802, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5. In a letter from Jacob Taylor, Jonathan Thomas, and Joel Swain dated 20 Jun 1803, the Friends in residence stated that Cornplanter said if his people moved to their own land, they would value it more, making them less inclined to sell the land in the future. (PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.)

53 46 Handsome Lake s followers. As Friends had only recently relocated to their new property on Tunesassah Creek, they were still utilizing some cleared land on the reservation. Senecas asked Friends if they could use this land after their removal from Cornplanter s grant, and Friends agreed to let them use one cleared field. Having this prepared land was very useful for the recently displaced Senecas who had been living below the reservation. 50 In the earliest years of the Quaker mission, Seneca women presented a particular problem. Quaker missionaries were almost exclusively male, and these men were uncomfortable with Seneca gender roles, particularly the role of women as farmers in the community. Looking at the women farmers through Euro-American eyes, Quakers saw women as drudges, working in the fields while men seemed engaged in useless activities. Yet Seneca women enjoyed their work in the fields, and their role as agriculturists was intimately connected to their role in religion and as mothers. Communal work groups allowed them to have their children with them while they worked, and if a woman was sick or pregnant, the work continued without her. Seneca women probably found advocacy of individual land ownership the most troubling Quaker proposal, as they knew this meant a loss of the communal farming 50 Friends letter of 11 Apr 1804 provides a glimpse into the political turmoil at Allegany. In this and a previous letter, they discussed their own hiring of Native Americans, whites and an African-American man to help them with chopping wood and clearing land. Quakers were not just instructors and purveyors of culture, they were also periodic employers, and this sometimes brought in outsiders who might be living nearby or passing through the region. Joel Swaine, Genesinguhta, 12 Feb 1804, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Jonathan Thomas, Genesinguhta, 21 Apr 1804, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; John Pennock, Jacob Taylor, Jonathan Thomas, and Joel Swain, Tunesassah, 9 Jun 1804, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; In August 1804, Friends in residence noted some dissatisfaction among a part of the Allegany Senecas regarding Cornplanter s removal as a chief, and Friends thought he would resume his position soon. Jacob Taylor, Jonathan Thomas, John Pennock, and Joel Swaine, Tunesassah, 29 Aug 1804, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

54 47 system. Quakers also wished to have the men working the land, and for Seneca marriage and divorce to be less frequent and easy; thus Quakers were pushing toward a system in which women would be wholly dependent on men for food. If the man failed to be a good provider and partner, the woman would have little recourse if she followed Quaker directives on marriage and divorce. As Diane Rothenberg has noted, changes in gender roles only came over time. 51 In June 1805, Friend Rachel Coope arrived on the Allegany with her husband, Benjamin Coope, and Hannah Jackson, a veteran of the Oneida mission. With two women present at the Quaker farm, Friends could now begin serious outreach toward Seneca women. Working together, Rachel Coope and Hannah Jackson could finish the housework at the mission and find time to instruct Seneca women and girls. Rachel Coope noted that upon her arrival, she asked Seneca women if they would consent to be instructed in the ways of white women. Coope wrote in her journal that the Seneca women were pleased with the prospect of having such instruction. Coope might have been speaking to a very select audience, namely women whose husbands already participated in the Quaker program, or women who did not object to the Quaker mission. It is unlikely that all women were delighted by the prospect of changing their way of life, although the nature of the instruction was somewhat in keeping with parts of their traditional work. Unlike instruction geared toward men, 51 See note 24 for an example of Quaker views on the village activities of men; Barton, 6-7; Bilharz, 104; Michelle Dean Stock, telephone interview by author, 18 Aug 1997; Rothenberg, ; At least one female Friend had visited the Allegany Reservation, as Friend Ann Mifflin, Philadelphia, wrote to Thomas and Swaine on 25 Feb 1804 that they should build a house for Seneca women to receive instruction. She also sent her regards to the Senecas she had met at Cold Spring on the Allegany Reservation, PYMIC Correspondence, AA41.1.

55 48 Quaker instruction for women might have been more welcome by the intended audience because women could apply the new knowledge of Euro-American domestic crafts to their traditional lives without fundamentally altering their beliefs. In December, Friends informed the Indian Committee that women Friends had begun instruction, but had not been able to do much because of a want of materials. They had some spinning wheels, but were having trouble with obtaining enough flax. On February 22, 1806, Coope noted that the daughters of six or eight families attended her instruction. In her journal, she wrote that the girls were not clean in their appearance, particularly that they did not wash their clothes, hands, or faces. Coope taught them to make soap, infusing this with lessons about Euro-American standards of cleanliness. She also provided instruction in knitting, spinning and making Indian bread. The last part is noteworthy. Rather than teaching these girls how to make bread in the white fashion, she taught them something that their own mothers would have taught them. 52 All Senecas did not view the idea of Seneca women receiving instruction in spinning and domestic crafts as benign. Opposition to spinning, led by a man named Johnston Silverheels, threatened continuance of the school. Friends noted that 52 Friends at Oneida asked for a female Friend to come to that station in 1797, as the two men were overwhelmed with having to care for their home and prepare food, in addition to doing the work of the mission. In 1798, PYMIC sent Hannah Jackson with William and Susanna Gregory to join Jacob Taylor and Jonathan Thomas. Jackson had already been one of two women running domestic affairs and teaching housewifery at a mission, so Coope found herself partnered with a woman experienced in running such an operation. See PYMIC Correspondence, Box 5, for the letters of Jacob Taylor regarding the Oneida mission.; Rachel Coope, Some account of Rachel Coope, taken from notes that she preserved, from her letters, and from personal knowledge, , Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA. See pages 5-6 and ; Benjamin Coope, Jacob Taylor, Joel Swaine, Rachel Coope, and Hannah Jackson, 17 Dec 1805, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2. Friends noted that both women and girls attended instruction through the winter of

56 49 Silverheels and others cultivated a very strong prejudice against the Quakers, and their primary objective was to stop Seneca women from attending the spinning school. At times, Friends believed that this would stop their spinning school, although Quakers in residence told the Indian Committee that a few chief women and some others continued to support the school. Finally, in January 1807, Senecas held a council at Cold Spring on the issue of the female manual labor training school at Tunesassah. Although seemingly uninvited, Friends went to the council and requested to have the principal women invited into the council. Friends and women were admitted. Jacob Taylor noted in his letter to PYMIC that some Senecas were happy to see Quakers at the council, while others were not. Handsome Lake was surprised by their arrival. Ignoring protocol to this degree was out of character for Friends, but Jacob Taylor seemed far more opinionated and forward in his nature than other Quakers, despite his longer association with the Iroquois, due to his experience at Oneida. Taylor included the text of Friends speech in his report to PYMIC, and with what sounded very much like Taylor s words, the speech included the following: We intreat (sic) you to think seriously of what we say and take notice that such of your people who try to oppose this good work will feel trouble in their own minds because it is like injuring their own flesh, and, puting (sic) out the eys (sic) of their children. The main goal of the speech was to convince Senecas that sobriety, industry and peace were advisable, and that the happiness and comfort of the Seneca people for

57 50 generations to come hinged on whether or not women could learn how to spin so they could make clothing for their people. 53 The Senecas had to deliberate amongst themselves before making any sort of reply. They asked Friends to leave, and Senecas prepared a reply the same day. Make your minds easy, for we have now agreed to remove all disagreeable things that have existed between you and us out of the way again, and make the path straight and clear, because we believe it has displeased the good spirit and also been injurious to ourselves. The council requested that Friends sell tools to them again, as this practice had subsided. Senecas indicated that they were satisfied with having Friends live beside them, though they could not get Friends to follow their customs, specifically that of giving victuals to visitors. The school could only accommodate three girls at a time, and when the present three girls finished with their instruction, the council promised to try to find three more girls. They could not compel anyone to send his or her daughters to the school, but together with the chief women (clan mothers and possibly other elders), they would encourage the school. As one final bit of business, Friends had requested to have one good man appointed to speak for all the Allegany Senecas to eliminate any confusion with Friends, and the council appointed the prophet Handsome Lake. As for Johnston Silverheels, he indicated that he would no longer oppose the female manual labor school, but would not permit any women or girls in his family to attend it Jacob Taylor, Tunesassah, to Thomas Stewardson, 3 Feb 1807, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5. It is difficult to say why Silverheels opposed the spinning school. Perhaps he objected to the entire Quaker program, and opposition to the school is the way he chose to voice his concerns. Friends never discussed the reasons for Seneca opposition to female manual labor training. 54 Ibid.

58 51 After one year of instruction, in February 1807, Friends in residence wrote to the Indian Committee that they had made improvements to their schoolhouse, and it was now very comfortable for the women and girls who came to learn domestic crafts. Several students produced sufficient thread to be woven by the wife of the millwright to whom Friends had leased their sawmill. An additional class was also making satisfactory progress. Friends were encouraged by some overtures which have lately taken place among our Indian Neighbours, that, rather more attention will be paid to this branch of the Work than has hitherto been, as it now appears that a number of Chiefs have concluded to encourage the Women, and try to remove some uneasiness, which has prevailed among them, about that, and some other matters. Yet by August, it had become much more difficult to provide this type of instruction. On August 16, 1807, Rachel Coope passed away. To continue with this work, Hannah Jackson required more assistance with the management of the home. Friends called upon the family of Francis King, one of the earliest white settlers to the region. King was a former Quaker, whose wife and children remained members of the Society of Friends. One of the Kings daughters came to the Quaker homestead, and assisted in household maintenance. Friends continued with the instruction until two more women Friends arrived in autumn By this time, Cornplanter had been restored to the office of chief, and his daughter was one of the girls receiving instruction Benjamin Coope, Rachel Coope, Jacob Taylor, Joel Swaine and Hannah Jackson, 14 Feb 1807 and Benjamin Coope, Jacob Taylor, Joel Swaine, Stephen Twining and Hannah Jackson, 21 Aug 1807, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2. For the arrival of new Friends, see Benjamin Coope, Jacob Taylor, Joel Swain, Stephen Twining, Thomas Dutton, Hannah Jackson, Sarah Dutton and Agnes Cadwalader,

59 52 The female manual labor school continued throughout 1808, with moderate success. Friends noted points at which women and girls learned to spin and other times when no one came. They perceived progress among their students, and several women had obtained their own spinning wheels. One such woman was a clan mother whose name Friends interpreted as Oyongogoss. She was very supportive of the school, and encouraged the younger women in their work. During this time, Friends obtained their own loom to weave the material spun by Seneca women. They were so pleased with the work here and by requests from the Cattaraugus Senecas for assistance that they purchased a tract of land at Clear Creek near Cattaraugus, intending to start a similar operation there. Jacob Taylor quickly took charge of the endeavor at Clear Creek. In late 1809, he reported that a number of Friends had purchased land around the Clear Creek tract, meaning that the Friends at the missions were no longer alone in the region. In difficult times, they might be able to find helpers in that community, just as the Allegany Friends had called upon the family of Francis King for assistance when they were short-handed. Things were looking up for the Quaker missionaries as they expanded their program to encompass a new reservation. Meanwhile, Swayne planned a trip to Pittsburgh to spend several days learning how to make wheels so that he could provide some instruction in that craft at 28 Oct 1808, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; Jacob Taylor, Tunesassah, to Thomas Stewardson, 3 Feb 1807, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; PYMIC Minute Book, Vol. 1, According to King family genealogy, the wife of Francis King, Katherine Kenway King, had passed away before their daughter went to assist Friends. Compiler Judith Taylor gives Katherine King s death date as November See

60 53 Allegany. Friends also requested equipment to provide further instruction in weaving and tanning. 56 Friends work in these branches of industry was filled with successes and failures. No one came for instruction in tanning, perhaps because their women already knew how to tan hides their own way. Grist and sawmills operated at both mission stations in Friends continued to promote male agriculture. Red Jacket, who had a reputation as being decidedly anti-missionary, asked Friends to ensure that his nephew learned the art of talking on paper if he was sent to Philadelphia for an education. And while all these changes were underway, the neighborhood also changed. Taylor noted that easterners were settling north and east of their stations at Clear Creek, and Friends were amongst these settlers. The Delaware Indians at Cattaraugus were moving away. While all this happened, it does not appear that Friends operated any kind of day school at either reservation. No letters or Indian Committee meeting minutes mentioned any kind of day school. Friends educational efforts on both reservations had been limited almost exclusively to manual labor training after Jacob Taylor to Thomas Wistar, 27 Mar 1808 and 25 Mar 1809, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; PYMIC Minute Book, Vol. 1, , , , ; Joel Swaine, Tunesassah, to Isaac Morris, 15 Jun 1809, PYMIC Correspondence Box Joel Swaine, Thomas Dutton, Jonathan Thomas, Sarah Dutton, and Agnes Cadwalader, Tunesassah, PYMIC, 21 Mar 1810, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4. They noted that two elderly women were now helping the young spinners, and that two young women had been spinning blanket yarn in the previous summer, which had since been woven into three blankets. However, no women had been interested in coming to learn to weave. See Joel Swaine, Thomas Dutton, Jonathan Thomas, and Sarah Dutton, Tunesassah, PYMIC, 1 Jun Jonathan Thomas was a skilled weaver, and perhaps they did not wish to receive instruction from someone of the opposite gender. Jacob Taylor, Cattaraugus, to PYMIC, 12 Aug 1810, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; Stephen Twining, Benjamin Coope, Jacob Taylor, and Hannah Jackson, Cattaraugus, PYMIC, 12 Aug 1810, PYMIC Correspondence Box5. For Red Jacket s recommendation on the education of his nephew, see

61 54 After close to ten years without any kind of day school in operation, Friends in Philadelphia sent an address to the chiefs at Allegany, breaking their silence about book learning. They stated that it had been several years since they mentioned anything about operating a school, because several chiefs had not wished it to continue. Friends asked if they might open a school at this time. The Seneca reply indicated that not only was there a general desire for a school among the hierarchy, but that alliances had changed through the years. Those signing the letter in support of a school included Cornplanter, Handsome Lake, James Bates, Jacob Snow, Halftown, Captain Strong, Henry Obail, Black Chief, Captain Jemmy, John Peirce, and Johnson Silverheels. PYMIC hoped to have a school in operation during the coming winter. At the same time that Allegany Senecas embraced school, Cattaraugus Senecas worried about their involvement with Friends. Quakers at the Cattaraugus station wrote to the Indian Committee that Senecas had requested something in writing from Quakers that they would never seek payment for their work. Cattaraugus Senecas told Quakers that they trusted the current generation of Friends, but did not know if they could trust future generations. Their uneasiness came from the most recent sale of the pre-emption rights to their land, meaning that yet another group of individuals was attempting to get the Senecas to sell their land. PYMIC Conferences with the Indians, AA43, 28 Feb 1810, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee Records, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, PA. Thomas Dutton, Jonathan Thomas, Joel Swaine, and Sarah Dutton, Tunesassah, PYMIC, 12 Feb 1811, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2. In this letter, Friends mentioned all the progress at the Tunesassah station. Of 110 women on the Allegany Reservation, more than fifty had received some spinning instruction. Twenty-five could make good yarn, four had woven ninety yards in two years, ten women had purchased spinning wheels, two Seneca smiths had worked, sixteen men sowed wheat, and a handful of people had put up salted beef and pork. Of all of the listed accomplishments, they never mentioned a day school. There simply was no book-learning happening on the Allegany at this time.

62 55 PYMIC complied with their request by sending an official letter stating that they would never ask for compensation for their work. 58 Joseph Harlan, the youngest Quaker to serve at the mission, took charge of the new school. Between late 1811 and the fall of 1813, Harlan had attempted to keep a school three times. He continued the school as long as four pupils attended, but was unable to do so for more than four months at a time, and sometimes, the school only operated for two straight months. While the chiefs wished to encourage the Quaker school, very few people were interested in sending their children to it. Some parents appear desirous to have their children taught, but whatever the cause may be they have not hitherto sent them in such a manner as to receive much benefit altho some learned fast while they attended but their attendance was very irregular therefore not very profitable. Friends also complained that the War of 1812 had caused the Senecas to become more intemperate and to focus less on domestic concerns. Judging by this complaint, it sounds as though other parts of the Quaker mission at Allegany also saw a decline in interest. It might have been the wrong time to reintroduce the school. When Quakers penned this note, Harlan had already left the mission. When the school was on hiatus, one young man came to the mission for instruction. He had asked to go to Philadelphia for an education, but Friends discouraged him because he had a wife and 58 Address to Chiefs and Others of the Seneca Nation on the Alleghany River, PYMIC Correspondence AA41.1, 20 Apr 1811; Thomas Dutton, Jonathan Thomas, Joel Swain, Sarah Dutton, and Joseph Harlan, Tunesassah, PYMIC, 6 Jun 1811, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; Stephen Twining, Jacob Taylor, and Hannah Jackson, Cattaraugus, PYMIC, 20 Jul 1811, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; Letters from PYMIC, 19 Sep 1811 and 21 Sep 1811, PYMIC Correspondence Box 6. Over time, different land companies held the pre-emption rights to the Senecas land. This would allow these companies to purchase the land if the Senecas ever decided to sell it. While the Senecas did not wish to sell it, each new sale of these rights brought with it a new company trying to coerce the Senecas into selling the land.

63 56 a child. He was the only Seneca who pursued his education on the reservation at this time. 59 While Friends enjoyed success in manual labor training, first for men, and then for women, they had been largely unsuccessful in keeping a day school in operation for any length of time. While there had been some opposition toward manual labor training at times, most people simply chose not to participate if they objected to the methods. For school, however, it was another story. There seemed to be greater difficulty in getting any agreement among the Senecas on having a day school in the initial years, and Friends simply quit trying to run such a school for a decade. After they finally obtained permission to try another school on the reservation, the turmoil of war in the region coupled with the perennial problem of getting parents to send children to school to result in a string of failed attempts. For a school to take root on the Allegany Reservation, peace and a dedicated schoolmaster were necessary. 59 Joel Swain, Joseph Harlan, Thomas Dutton, and Sarah Dutton, Tunesassah, PYMIC, Mar 1812, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Robert, Elizabeth, and Hannah Clendenon, Tunesassa, PYMIC, 25 Oct 1813, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; PYMIC Minute Book, Vol. 1, The war was definitely a cause of the decline in Seneca pursuit of the Quaker program at Cattaraugus, which was much closer to the action. Stephen Twining, Hannah Jackson, and Jacob Taylor, Cattaraugus, PYMIC, 4 Mar 1814, PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

64 57 Chapter 2 Little Foresters, Not surprisingly, Quakers viewed education as an important part of their civilization program. Friends saw that Indians would continue to be duped by Euro-Americans if they could not understand the English language. Senecas often affixed their marks to treaties and documents without knowing their contents. Relying on interpreters was potentially dangerous, as interpreters were human and therefore corruptible. As Senecas slowly moved toward a state of civilization in the 1790s and had to conduct business with English-speakers with some regularity, it became increasingly necessary to have the ability to understand and read English. As with other aspects of the Friends mission, Senecas were reluctant to pick up the improvements associated with civilization that represented a change in their life ways. As few men farmed or grew the crops that Quakers wanted them to grow, and few women picked up the new elements of housewifery Quakers advocated, it is small wonder that children and parents rejected the alien institution known as school. For a school to succeed, Friends would need to find a good location, willing parents and pupils, a dedicated teacher, and a message that would cause the Seneca people to embrace education. After the failure of Joseph Harlan s school, Philadelphia Friends did not give up hope for a school at the Allegany Reservation in December The Indian Committee advertised the need for a schoolmaster within the various monthly meetings comprising the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and found a suitable candidate

65 58 in twenty-one-year-old Joseph Elkinton. Although trained as a silversmith, Elkinton had some experience as an educator, as he taught at an African-American school for a short time. On August 26, 1816, he set out for Tunesassah in the company of the Thomas family, who would also be in residence; they arrived on September 12 th. Elkinton was eager to begin teaching right away, but learned quickly that it took time for chiefs to have discussions and make decisions before anyone could take action. After Quakers themselves rejected a part of a house offered as a school by a chief, Quakers and Indians agreed to rent a room from an Indian at Cold Spring for six months. The arrival of schoolmaster Elkinton and the beginning of this school marked the start of the first successful educational effort for children at Allegany. 60 By reading the journals of Quaker schoolmaster Joseph Elkinton, we are enlightened about the Allegany community at large and Seneca receptiveness both of the Quakers and their school. Elkinton chronicled political and religious changes within the Allegany community. Through his observations, we can find clues about the Senecas reactions to Quaker influence. Senecas took advantage of Friends knowledge when they needed an intermediary with authorities or other whites. Pupils used the school at their convenience, much to the disapproval of Quakers, who 60 Joseph Elkinton, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, , Box 3, Letterbooks and Misc., Misc. Papers, Artifacts, Etc., PYMIC records, (Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, PA). Joseph Elkinton, Jonathan Thomas, and Ann Thomas, 18 Sept to Indian Committee, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Letterbooks (3 v ), vol. 1 ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal , entry , Journal , entry , Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Jonathan and Ann Thomas might have brought children with them on this first trip. Resident Quaker children are usually invisible in the records. These Thomases were not associated with the later Thomas Orphan Asylum at Cattaraugus Reservation. Elkinton s age comes from his entry in Journal , in which he stated he would turn 25 in a few months; Joseph Elkinton to Friend Hannah Clark, 27 Mar. 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

66 59 wished they would attend school all day. Parents continued to take their children away from their residences to engage in traditional activities, preventing them from attending school during those times. Friends soon adapted their school schedule to Seneca work cycles. Senecas used the services Quakers offered in their own distinct ways. Since these journals have not been used thoroughly, previous scholars have missed much of the saga of Seneca cultural change. In this period, we can see Senecas adapting the Quaker program to their world. Friends sharpened their message on the importance of their school and the civilization program. With the knowledge that Senecas feared any further reduction of their lands, and that both private and public figures had designs on Indian land, Quakers encouraged Senecas and Onondagas at Allegany to improve their lands and educate their children to insure the security of their land base for future generations. In occasional letters, Quakers addressed other Western New York reservations inhabitants to recommend that these groups do the same. Moreover, when some Western New York Indians considered a move to the West to be free of white settlers, Quakers argued that it was only a matter of time before white settlement expanded to these western locations, forcing the Indians from their lands again. Friends insisted that the best possible way to ensure that future generations would have a home was to improve their present land, dividing it into individual tracts that could never be sold. Friends reiterated this plan time and again. [Y]our own reason must teach you, that you cannot long exist where you are surrounded as you are by the white Inhabitants unless you give up your former customs and adopt the plans we have so frequently recommended to you.

67 60 The plan to divide the land into individual family tracts was very controversial, as the Senecas had always held land in common; this part of the Quaker program was not formally adopted. 61 Through speeches and addresses they sent to the Indians, Friends pressured the Senecas to participate in their civilization program. When a delegation of Indians including Penunggice (the chief), Negunnyawgoh, Segwaskenace, Uctawgoh, Neguye-etwassaw, Stacute, and Tekiewdoga visited England in 1818, John Brodhead of Leeds strongly recommended the American Friends program. Your woods are yielding to the axe, Brodhead told them, and conjured up additional images of the destruction of the Indians and the changing world in which they found themselves. Our Brethren the Quakers in your country have long seen the feet of destruction pursuing you, -- they have long seen that the hatchet and the bow can not much longer preserve your safety nor procure you food, -- they have long seen that drinking strong waters kills you faster 61 Some chiefs had been to Sandusky for a council before January 30, 1817, the date of the Quaker letter. These tried to obtain land upon which their people could settle, but were not successful. Quakers were sorry to hear about the prospective move, stating that the land in New York was of good quality; they further attempted to stir up emotional attachments to the land by bringing up tradition and family, stating that this land was the land upon which the Senecas fathers had lived. Friends pointed out that if the Indians moved too far away, the Friends would not be able to help them. A land sale would bring the Indians money, but they would soon lose the money. Friends recommended a division of lands as the answer to the problem. Found in Letters from PYMIC, of the box Letters from PYMIC, , QC, HC. Quote is from the same folder, PYMIC to Chiefs and others on the Allegany, 17 September Even though the land was not divided formally some Indians did end up with farms they considered their own. On April 19, 1817, Elkinton started school late because he had to measure a piece of ground for an Indian in the morning. Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Some Senecas agreed to the Quaker proposal to divide the reservation land into individual tracts of 160 acres each, and in 1818, the Quakers brought in a surveyor to run the lines. He was stopped by some Indians who did not wish to have the land divided, and the debate over the issue never advanced far enough to bring out another surveyor. Friends managed to get President Monroe to write advising a division of lands, to no avail. Minute Book, vol. 2, , PYMIC, 67, 71-72, 89; Letter to the Allegany Senecas, 17 Sept. 1818, Letter to Timothy Pickering, 24 Oct. 1818, and Letter to Chiefs and others on the Allegany, 17 Sept. 1819, from PYMIC, Letters from PYMIC , Box AA41.1, Letters from PYMIC , QC, HC; James Robinson to Thomas Stewardson, 16 May 1819.

68 61 than the sword. They have warned you to alter your mode of living, or you would become a lost people. Brodhead told the Indians they had sold too much land to live as they once had, and said the Indians should now fence the land, which would make them rich. Further, he stated that the Quakers had sent instructors to teach them to use the wheel and the loom, the hammer and the anvil, and that [t]hese are the weapons which will overcome your enemies take fast hold of them and your enemies will flee before you. If they followed these instructions, they would again become a great people. Contrasting images of destruction and extinction with achieving wealth, becoming a great nation, and overcoming the enemy probably grabbed the attention of the listeners. Finally, Brodhead recommended that the Indians learn the English language and read the Bible. 62 For an educational endeavor whose greatest problem to date had been finding students, Cold Spring was a prime location. In a letter of September 1816, traveling missionary Reverend Timothy Alden noted that the Western Missionary Society (Presbyterian) was considering the addition of a school at Cold Spring because of its extremely dense population compared to other Seneca settlements on the Allegany. The WMS had taken over a school at Cornplanter s town that was flourishing, according to Alden, but only because Cornplanter strongly advocated attendance. It 62 Speech of John Brodhead of Leeds, 10 April 1818, Letters from PYMIC, This speech is like many others from Friends, but is also unique in that it was given in England and the speaker relied more heavily on images of Indian demise if they did not follow the path of Quaker civilization. I have been unable to link the Indian names in this form with any other names from this time period. Several individuals had names similar to Tekiewdoga, but not close enough to match with any certainty. The only reference I can find to any Senecas going to England in 1818 stated that a group traveled with a road show (Storrs & Co.) as early as Rothenberg, Friends Like These, 214.

69 62 is doubtful that Friends knew anything about the proposed WMS school, and certainly the presence of the Quaker school squashed any possibility of the WMS opening one at that village. While the location was desirable, the Quakers had the misfortune of starting the school at an inopportune time. Several chiefs came to Tunesassah to discuss the proposed school with the new Friends shortly after their arrival. According to these men, a frost ruined their crops and they had to go into the woods for subsistence. They wished to have their children with them, so Quakers could not expect a large number of scholars. Despite the bad news, Friends decided to give the school a try; on October 5 th, Elkinton opened the school to the two Indians who came as scholars. 63 The Cold Spring school was not held in one fixed location. It began in the rented rooms of a home in Cold Spring and quickly outgrew the facility. In a matter of weeks, Friends moved the school to rented rooms in the home of Thomas Halftown. Elkinton continued to keep school in these rooms until December 1817, when he moved to the house the Indians built to serve as a school. The construction of the new building meant that Elkinton was free to remain at the school during the week instead of undertaking the sometimes hazardous trek from Tunesassah to Cold Spring and back each day. The new building was not without drawbacks; in the 63 Timothy Alden, An Account of Sundry Missions Performed Among the Senecas and Munsees, (New York: J. Seymour, 1827), 16; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Alden discussed the possibility of opening a school at chief Long John s residence with Long John in 1817, as it was far enough from Cold Spring to be of benefit. This school never materialized. Alden, Alden was working on behalf of the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America. The Western Missionary Society was sometimes called the Western Missionary Society of Pennsylvania or the Western Missionary Society of Pittsburgh.

70 63 winter, it was extremely cold. After Friends purchased a new stove, the schoolhouse was more tolerable for the teacher and pupils alike. 64 Given traveling conditions in the winter, the school would always be difficult or impossible to reach for some potential students. We can see this by Elkinton s own difficulties in journeying to the school from Tunesassah before he was able to board at the new schoolhouse during the week. This might explain why some children did not attend, and others attended only occasionally. While Cold Spring was the largest village, not all students resided there. One boy came three and a half to four miles each day, missing very few days. Judging by the distance, this might have been one of the Pierce boys, as the area now known as Pierce Run was approximately that same distance from the school, and the Pierce boys came with some regularity. Elkinton noted several instances in which he had trouble crossing the river because of high or turbulent water. Once he fell into the river, causing him to be a little late for school. Excessive rain could make crossing the river dangerous (few students came from the other side of the river, and this was probably the reason), and could also make roads impassible by creating thick mud. The Senecas sometimes cited lack of food as a reason for not sending children to school, and lack of proper footwear could make the journey through mud difficult, especially in the cold. Snow, of course, was an even larger obstacle with bare feet or inadequate footwear. And 64 Joseph Elkinton to Committee, 24 Oct 1816, Letterbooks (3 v ), vol. 1, Papers of Joseph Elkinton Box 3; Minute Book, vol , PYMIC Minutes, 18-19, 49; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal , entries , , Journal , entries from to , Journal 1818, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Jacob Taylor, Cattaraugus, to Committee, 16 Feb 1818, Letters to PYMIC Jacob Taylor (et. al.), PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

71 64 even for those with proper shoes, large snowfalls could make it impossible to negotiate roads and paths. For children who did not live in the immediate area of Cold Spring, attending the school was not an option, unless they had relatives in the area with whom they could reside. Eventually, some children boarded at the schoolhouse. 65 School was probably a big adjustment for both teacher and students alike. On the first day, Elkinton let his students leave for a meal at noon, but they were not accustomed to this practice and stayed away an hour or two. Not speaking the Seneca tongue, the schoolmaster had no way to convey to his students what he expected them to do. Not speaking English, and with a different meal schedule and concept of time, the Indians had no way to know what their teacher wanted. In the earliest days of the school, this was a consistent problem. Naturally, Quakers would not hold school on Sunday, or First Day. How would Elkinton tell his students not to come on First Days? How would he tell them that on Thursdays, or Fifth Days, school would commence at ten o clock, after the Quakers regular religious meeting held? How would he let them know about vacations or what time school started each day? How would the Indians know about time or calendar days in general? It is doubtful many Senecas had clocks or calendars in 1816, for very few could read numbers. Elkinton was distressed by the thought that scholars might find the school empty upon their 65 Joseph Elkinton to Mary Hathaway, 10 Jun 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal , entries and , Journal , entry , Journal , entries , and , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Senecas did have snowshoes, but the availability of this equipment for everyone is unknown, and snowshoes are only good in certain kinds of snow.

72 65 arrival on Fifth Day, wait a short time and then leave. He was pleasantly surprised to find his students waiting at the school on his first Fifth Day as schoolmaster. 66 Few Allegany Indians had a good understanding of the way a school operated. Without anyone to tell them the rules, pupils created their own. A council at the village in Elkinton s first few days drew many curious people who came to the school throughout the course of one day. Elkinton was happy to give books to his visitors, but they recited lessons a couple of times, grew tired and walked out. For the young schoolmaster, this created an extremely confusing situation. For the curious Indians, this was an alien experience, just as it was for those who regularly attended the school. From the beginning, Elkinton complained that students misbehaved and there was little order in the classroom. It was rare for students to stay the entire day, and Elkinton sometimes referred to their transience in his journals and letters. Students utilized the school, but in their own way. While Seneca children were probably accustomed to sitting still for religious services and other special events, sitting at attention for an entire school day was undoubtedly quite difficult, at least at first. Quakers complained that Seneca children were an unruly lot whose parents did little to correct their behavior Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 30 Oct. 1816, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3 stated that he could not communicate with his scholars, but found ways to make them understand him, for example to tell them there was no school on First Days. People all over the Northeast had a difficult year in 1816, the year without a summer. Friends in residence struggled, too, and sold any extra they could spare at cost. Rothenberg, Friends Like These, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, Journal , entry for ; Journal , entries for , , Elkinton numbered the students and the times they

73 66 Many of Elkinton s complaints about student attendance can be chalked up to simple cultural misunderstanding. Thomas McElwain has noted that the Seneca people had different concepts of time than Euro-Americans. Noon is a significant point of the day, and certain ceremonies can only be performed before or after noon. Certain stories are only told in the afternoon. The arrival and departure of students at mid-day might have been the result of other business they needed to conduct during the other portion of the day. Likewise, some students and their families could have believed that school learning was only appropriate during a certain period of the day. Prior to contact, Senecas had months with names referring to the growth cycle, changes in weather, or human reaction to the changes in weather (for example, kasha?khneh, meaning month when I cough ). They did not have days of the week prior to missionary interaction, and while Elkinton s scholars learned English names for days of the week (including the Quaker method of calling the days by their numbered order), they also had Seneca names for each day. These names reflected missionary influence. McElwain cited the example of the Seneca name for Saturday, niyenôktowaes, meaning they wash the room then. 68 came in each day. Students straggled in from opening to close; sometimes, he had one student for a few hours before a couple of others came; For Jackson quote, see Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 38. For examples of the way in which the students came into school, his entry (Journal 1819) states he had 3, 5, and then 4 students, one of which was there most of the day. His entry (Journal 1818) numbers his students throughout the day as 1, 6, 10, 9, 10, and 9. Certainly, it was not easy for young Euro-American children to learn to sit still during the school day when they probably wished they could be playing; Seneca children were not exceptional in their fidgetiness. See Robert Berkhofer, Jr., Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American Indian Response, , (New York: Atheneum, 1976), 17-19, for the missionary tendency to blame irregular attendance on parents and lack of family government. 68 Thomas McElwain, Seneca Iroquois Concepts of Time, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, VII (1987) 2:

74 67 The difficulty in getting children to wish to attend school can be seen through the account of a neighboring Indian school operated by a missionary. In 1816, the Reverend Timothy Alden visited the school at Cornplanter s grant under Samuel Oldham of the Western Missionary Society of Pennsylvania. The school had been operating for about a year, with eleven Indian boys and about an equal number of white children in attendance, according to Alden. Reportedly, Indian girls attended the school from time to time, but the Indians saw little purpose in sending them. Many boys were not excited to attend the school. Parents who sent their children to school got them to attend by offering a choice between attending school or some labor-intensive task. 69 Even more important than whether or not a child wished to attend was whether or not parents wanted to send him. It is difficult to determine why some parents decided to place their children in the Friends school. Ultimately, these Senecas and the small group of Onondagas residing with them on the Allegany River saw that they needed to adapt in the face of increasing white encroachment, much as Handsome Lake had believed they would need to do, to survive. Further, settlers and other whites frequently used the river to move through this mountainous terrain, causing them to pass directly through the reservations. These settlers might stop to purchase goods from the Indians or to conduct some other business. If the weather turned and the river became dangerous, would-be travelers might remain in the 69 Alden, An Account of Sundry Missions, This report shows another obstacle that will be discussed, namely the objection of parents; Elkinton noted in 1817 that a missionary taught a school ten or twelve miles from him and it continued through the winter with six to eight scholars. This was Oldham s school. Joseph Elkinton to Friend Israel W. Morriss, 17 Mar. 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

75 68 vicinity until the river became more navigable. Senecas found it desirable to be able to communicate with these people. Parents knew that their world was changing, and their children needed to know how to survive in that changing world. 70 It is helpful to understand the Seneca land, as well as how Quakers helped the Senecas to retain title to it, thereby preventing any further reduction of their holdings. Senecas had once claimed much of western New York and areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio as their hunting grounds. By the arrival of Friends in 1798, the Senecas lived on a significantly smaller amount of land than they had previously held. According to an 1820 account, the Senecas had 30,469 acres at Allegany, 26,880 acres at Cattaraugus, 83,557 acres at Buffalo Creek, 46,209 acres at Tonawanda, 31,640 acres in small reservations on the Genesee River and a small 640 acre tract. With their land base thus reduced, the Senecas could not support themselves the way they had always done. While women continued to farm and gather, men could not hunt and fish to the same extent as they had done previously. It is unlikely that men confined their hunting to the reservation limits when there were no white settlers on their perimeters, but as the area became increasingly populated, opportunities to take game beyond the borders of the reservation diminished. This caused men to seek ways to earn money to buy food and goods they could no longer procure themselves; logging was one of the more common ways to earn much-needed cash. This business brought men into increasing contact with whites and the English language For more on whites passing through and settling, see Congdon, Allegany Oxbow, throughout. Also see Rothenberg, Friends Like These, Reverend Jedidiah Morse, A Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs (New Haven: Howe and Spalding, 1822), 77. Morse cites the population of the reservations as well:

76 69 Until such time as the Seneca children became proficient in the language, the Quakers were present to work through interpreters and help the Indians in their interactions with their white neighbors. Friends in residence aided in difficulties on a local level, and the Committee could render assistance on a state or federal level. The Quaker base in Philadelphia and association with other yearly meetings in places like New York allowed them to obtain information about Indian legislation before the Indians themselves were informed. Quakers could act as lobbyists for Seneca lands and rights, and they had sufficient inside information about the daily lives of the Indians to advocate for the Seneca cause more efficiently than the Senecas themselves. The kind of information that Quakers collected about their progress to justify their work to the Yearly Meeting was useful in attempts to convince legislators that the Senecas were progressing toward civilization in their present locale and should not be removed to the West. In 1817, the Committee wrote President James Monroe to ask that any proposed land sale be discouraged and to arrange it so that Indians could not sell their land to white people. They corresponded with other government officials at various times to intervene in a similar way. Some Senecas quickly realized that the old men at Philadelphia could help them speak to the federal and state governments and that these men could help them learn in advance about legislation affecting their people. For this reason, some chiefs backed the Quakers early, sending their own children to the school at Cold Spring. Allegany 597 at Allegany, including some Onondagas; 389 at Cattaraugus, including some Delaware; 686 Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas at Buffalo Creek; 365 at Tonawanda; 456 scattered along the Genesee.

77 70 chiefs came to trust Quakers, and requested in 1818 that the President send them a writing to assure them of the security of their lands through the Quakers, not through their agent, Jasper Parrish. 72 While protecting Seneca lands was an important reason to have Quakers in their midst, Senecas who might or might not have supported the Quaker program also saw the advantage of having members of the Society of Friends living with them to help them negotiate the American legal system when necessary and to write for them when correspondence with whites was desired. Elkinton noted a number of instances of Indians calling on him to write for them, which sometimes disrupted his school. Elkinton seems to have been glad to be of service, at least at first. These Indians were not necessarily the same people who sent children to school, but providing this service might have endeared Elkinton and the Quaker cause to some of the Indians. In 1817, Elkinton wrote on behalf of some Indians in hopes of bringing a resolution to one heart-breaking situation. A white man named David Shields took a 17-year-old boy, the son of Killbuck s wife, while the family was at a camp. Shields insisted that the boy was the son he had lost several years ago, but Elkinton described the child as an Indian boy. The child s Indian mother was distraught, and the situation caused 72 James Robinson, Allegany, to Thomas Stewardson, Philadelphia, 16 May 1819, Letters to PYMIC R, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4, QC, HC notes that they were grateful for Friend Jonathan, who helped in their difficulties with their white brethren; Richard R. Lawrence, New York, to Thomas Stewardson, Philadelphia, 27 December 1816, Letters to PYMIC L, PYMIC Correspondence Box 3, QC, HC; Minute Book, Vol. 2, , Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee, QC, HC, 26, 31-32; Scrapbook of Miscellaneous Papers, , New York Yearly Meeting Committee on Indian Concerns, Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, 39; Thomas Stewardson and Thomas Wistar to Timothy Pickering, 24 Oct. 1818, Letters from PYMIC, , Letters from PYMIC, Parrish and Horatio Jones were white captives who served as interpreters (Parrish later became agent). Both were hired by land companies to influence the Indians. Rothenberg, Friends Like These, 235.

78 71 quite a stir among the Senecas. After about three months of dealing with the situation in their own way, some Indians called upon Elkinton to write on their behalf. Unfortunately, Elkinton never discussed the outcome in his letters or journals. 73 In the first years of the Cold Spring school, Elkinton mentioned nothing indicating differences in cultural or religious beliefs between parents who sent children and those who did not. While a divide did arise between the Christian and Pagan parties loosely based on religious ideas and affecting the attendance of the school, no such partisan or religious division appeared among the Seneca and Onondaga people at Allegany at the inception of the Cold Spring school. Already, there were some marked differences in the way people lived on the Allegany. Shortly after his arrival, Elkinton noted the appearance of the people around him. Men wore leggings, shirts, moccasins, hats and a kind of coat with a belt tied around the body. Women wore leggings, short dresses, moccasins, pieces of cloth for petticoats and blankets to wrap themselves. Men and women hung silver ornaments on themselves, sometimes from their noses, but more often in their ears, which had been cut. One might say that from appearance alone, the Indians at Allegany had not adopted civilization to a very great extent. However, many decades of trade with Euro- Americans had in fact brought new goods and materials into Seneca lands. In 1817, Friends noted that some seventy families lived on the Allegany Reservation. Elkinton 73 It is likely that the Killbuck family was at a sugar camp, judging by the time of year. It is also possible they were hunting. Joseph Elkinton to Friend Edwin A. Atlee, 9 Mar 1817 and to John King, 18 May 1817, Letterbook, , Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, Box 1. entries , ; Indians also sought out the help of the schoolmaster on his day off, traveling to the Quaker residence at Tunesassa. On December 20, 1818, Elkinton noted in his journal that he spent most of his day at home with the Indians. Journal , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

79 72 stated that eight or ten people had sown buckwheat, and some had sown spring wheat. Two years later, Jonathan Thomas sent a chart to the Committee comparing elements of civilized living among the Indians between 1800 and 1819 (Table 2-A). Friends in residence periodically reported progress in growing crops, without giving any hard numbers; they perceived a rather slow yet steady progress in farming. Progress among the Indian women was slower, but in 1819, some Allegany chiefs asked Friends in Philadelphia for a woman to provide instruction in spinning, knitting, washing and the like. Nothing indicates that only those embracing new ideas sent their children to school Joseph Elkinton to George Elkinton, 3 Nov 1816, to Hannah Gillaspey, 29 Jun 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton to David Jones, 8 Aug 1819, to Joshua G. Thompson, 8 Aug 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Record of Indian Children at Tunesassa B.S., QC, HC; Some Allegany Chiefs to Committee on Indian Concerns, Philadelphia, 1 Sep 1819, Letters to PYMIC from the Seneca, , PYMIC Correspondence Box 1. Good sources for trade include Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992) and Francis Jennings, The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from its Beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744 (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1984).

80 73 Table 2-A: Jonathan Thomas s report on civilization progress to Indian Committee, March 17, Elements of Civilization Houses built since 1800 with families now living in all bark around 59 them Barnes and stables none around 30 Land cleared and fences, in grain and farming Grain in this season wheat and rye Hay last season (uncertain) 500 or 600 acres perhaps 10 acres 40 of 50 acres Horses 3 around 70 Horn cattle about 6 cows and calves 250 Sheep Swine about 20 around 250 none (too many dogs and wolves) Women spinners none about 40 or 50, but little flax, so not much spinning Weavers none 2, and one has woven considerable for 8 years Smiths none 3 generally do the work of the Indians, whole number is 5 Carpenters none 2 good workmen, 1 of which makes little spinning wheels Likewise, religion did not seem an important factor in determining which children attended the Cold Spring school. Like Simmons, Elkinton discovered that Seneca religious festivals disrupted the school. Unlike his predecessor, Elkinton accepted the inevitability of such disruption. In fact, Elkinton attended a religious ceremony held by the Seneca people shortly after his arrival, and had no harsh words about the event. In March 1818 and again in February 1819, Elkinton noted that 75 Jonathan Thomas, Tunesassa, to Thomas Wistar, Philadelphia, 17 Mar. 1819, Letters from PYMIC T (except Taylor), PYMIC Correspondence Box 5. Thomas also noted that in 1800, the Indians had no flax, no grass seed and no grain. They had some hay and wild grass, none of which was sold. They sold no corn to whites and had no wheat or buckwheat. Potatoes were scarce. In 1819, the Indians said very little about witches, wizards, or other wild ideas. Thomas noted that the Indians had a considerable change in their religious ideas and that their customs now bordered on civilized life. A year later, Friends in residence did not know what to report in the way of progress, as there had been little clearing, little building, no flax grown and very little spinning. Indians had planted grain on some of the recently cleared land, and some were preparing to put up frame structures. Minute Book, vol. 2, , PYMIC Minutes, 90.

81 74 worship dances would likely disrupt his school for a few days. Children came and went on these days; generally, fewer than usual attended school. The schoolmaster also complained of inattention among those in attendance. In October 1819, Elkinton had no scholars at the school one day because of a dance in the village. In short, children who attended the school at Cold Spring were from the same families attending the worship dances, showing that a tendency toward Christianity was not the determining factor in whether or not a family sent its children to school. As parties formed loosely around religious ideas, members of the so-called Christian Party would be much more likely to send their children to Quaker school, but in the first years of the Cold Spring school, this was not the case. 76 The first indication of any change in the religious beliefs of the Seneca people came in In March, Jonathan and Ann Thomas, along with Joseph Elkinton, wrote the Committee that the Indians appear to have become much more divided with respect to the propriety of having their worship dances than formerly was the case. In May of that year, Elkinton noted that he and the other Friends in residence had many conversations with the Indians at their own residence at Tunesassah, at the schoolhouse at Cold Spring, and in the homes of the Indians. As one might expect from a Quaker, the schoolmaster saw that the Indians worshipped God (or the Great Spirit) in their own way, and this religion instilled its followers with morals as correct as his own. 76 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal 1818, entries , , Journal , entry , Journal , entry , Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. It is not apparent that any Allegany Senecas were inclined toward Christianity at this point. The parties will be discussed more in Chapter 5.

82 75 We are at times made sensible that in every tongue, nation, kindred and people those that fear God and keep his commandments will be accepted of Him, and I have no kind of doubt but many of the poor Indians (who are in a manner despised by some other parts of the human family) will find acceptance with Him with whom we all have to do, in that day, when some of the rest of us who have been favoured with far greater priveleges(sic) and many more of the blessings of this life, will find that we have nothing to spare. Elkinton told the Indians with whom he talked that if they continued to live in this way, they would surely go to the Great Spirit after they died. A couple of weeks after writing this letter, Elkinton noted a discussion with a young man about the views of the Society of Friends, and he hoped it would not be for naught. While Elkinton was cognizant of the compatibility of the native religion with his own belief system, he seemed simultaneously to be promoting his own faith. Throughout his tenure at the mission, Elkinton was tolerant of the native religion, while also seeking to promote Quaker Christianity. To missionary school teacher Jabez Hyde at Buffalo Creek, Elkinton wrote that he rejoiced whenever he heard that the cause of truth was being spread. 77 By July 1819, the Indians were reportedly divided into two parties or factions, namely the Christian Party and the Pagan or Anti-Christian Party. These parties met in a council at Buffalo to debate whether or not the Christian religion would be tolerated among them. T.L. Ogden noted that the latter group was 77 Jonathan Thomas, Tunesassah, to Committee, Philadelphia, 7 Mar. 1819, Letters to PYMIC T (except Taylor, PYMIC Correspondence, Box 5; Minute Book, vol. 2, , PYMIC Minutes, 74; Quote at Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Sarah Middleton, 2 May 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton; Joseph Elkinton, Cold Spring, to Jabez B. Hyde, 30 Jul 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

83 76 much larger than the former, and by his account, this division was not a new one. Further, religion was no longer the only dividing point. The two parties no longer divide upon the point of religion but upon the broader question of civilization. That is whether they are to remain Indians with their antient (sic) Laws & habits or to encourage Industry & Education. According to Ogden, both parties were highly irritated and each inflexible, with Red Jacket leading the so-called Pagan Party in wishing to remove all priests, teachers and other whites from their lands because these people threatened their ancient laws and customs. Not surprisingly, Ogden stated that Christian Party members were the best men of the tribe. They profess a sincere desire to give up their Indian character, to hold property as white men do & to come within the pale of Law & civilization. While the Pagan Party had sheer numbers on their side, they did not eject the Quaker schoolmaster from Allegany. Perhaps the political climate at Allegany was slightly different from elsewhere, as they had no missionary and only the Quaker experiment at that reservation. Elkinton later wrote to Hyde about the recent council and the decision of the Indians to allow him to remain. He further stated that the Indians were afraid that the missionaries would charge for their services, and this is why they wished to remove them from Seneca lands T. L. Ogden, Buffalo, to PYMIC, Philadelphia, 10 Jul 1819, Letters to PYMIC O, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4; Elkinton became aware of the council on July 15 th, when some of the Indians came by the school to tell him about the council. Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton, Cold Spring, to Jabez B. Hyde, 30 Jul 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. Members of the Pagan party were not necessarily followers of the native religion in one form or another; likewise, members of the Christian party were not necessarily Christians. Allegany is a special case. On the parties at Cattaraugus, see Densmore, XVI. The fear that Quakers would charge for their labor dates at least to 1796, when Friends first offered to go among the Iroquois. Israel Chapin, Canawayaras, to PYMIC, 6 Jul 1796, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2.

84 77 Upon further inspection, it appears that the controversy started at Buffalo Creek; while Allegany Indians had their toes in the water, the Buffalo Creek Indians dove in head first. Jacob Taylor, Quaker representative at Cattaraugus, noted that some Cattaraugus Indians had become involved in the difficulty concerning the missionary concern at Buffalo and had become rather in favor of the missionary plan by July Some had started to meet on First Days with some regularity to promote order and advise to acts of devotion. Since school attendance normally dropped off in the summer months, Elkinton suspended the school in May, returning in October to resume it. During his absence, the Allegany Indians became so fully embroiled in the conflict that the opposition gave away the Cold Spring schoolhouse to one of the women of the tribe to use as a residence, leaving the Quaker school temporarily homeless. 79 While some parents sent their children to school to promote knowledge of English language and customs for the improvement of their people, others sent their children at the behest of their chiefs. Certainly, not all chiefs supported the school. Some chiefs of various ranks residing at or near the large village of Cold Spring sent their children to school, while others did not. Chiefs living in smaller enclaves scattered along the Allegany often tried to influence the people of their particular neighborhood to send their children to school, if said chiefs supported Friends. The results appear to have been quite mixed. Sometimes, after periods of chiefly 79 Jacob Taylor, Cattaraugus, to Committee, Philadelphia, 8 July 1820, Letters to PYMIC Taylor, Jacob (et. al.), PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; Minute Book, vol. 2, , PYMIC Minutes, 94; Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Elizabeth Lippincott, 1 Oct 1820, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

85 78 encouragement, a few children from a particular neighborhood attended the school. Some chiefs might have assured Quakers they would try to round up scholars even when they did not have much of an interest in promoting the school actively. 80 Addresses to Friends in Philadelphia regarding the school and the rest of the Quaker effort came from chiefs, for they had the authority to communicate the wishes of their people. It is often difficult to determine which chiefs raised the call for the school, and followed the Quaker program. Copies of the chiefs addresses often exist within letters from Quakers in residence, sometimes recopied by hand. The addresses are noted as having come from chiefs, chiefs at Allegany, or some chiefs at Allegany. An address within a letter from Friends in residence shortly after the initial arrival of the Thomas and Elkinton party shows great support for the Friends program and enthusiasm for the beginning of the school. Shortly after this address, several chiefs visited the Quaker residence to say that they wanted a school, but frost had ruined their crops and they needed to go into the woods for subsistence. After discussing the issue with Friends, they concluded to try to start the school, even though the number of children attending school could not be great due to the necessity of going into the woods. One chief even offered a portion of his home for 80 Examples of this abound in the period of the Tunewauna and Tunesassah schools, but there are no notes on chiefly encouragement in the Cold Spring era. Two examples are found in Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 2. Friends, like many of their contemporaries, did not differentiate between league sachems, war chiefs, and subsachems. All were called chiefs.

86 79 the school. Enough chiefs spoke for the school that Friends were convinced to continue their efforts. 81 As noted previously, the school was not the only part of the Quaker program in this period. Acceptance of other parts of the Quaker program by chiefs seems to show an acceptance of Quakers in general. In 1818, Blue Eyes, referred to as the chief sachem of the Allegany Senecas by Friends, offered reassurance in a speech: Now Brothers, keep your minds strong, for we intend to take your advice, and pursue habits of industry, and attend to the path you have pointed out to us. This speech came as Friends grew anxious to run lines for a division of the Allegany land into individual plots for farms. Several months later, when Friends received permission to run lines, the surveyor they hired reported that chief Cornplanter objected to the survey, and wanted the man to leave the Seneca reservation. The surveyor left, but he must have been confused, since John Pierce, a chief, had met with him the day before at the home of the white captive Peter Crouse and determined that the survey should commence the next morning. Obviously, chiefs Blue Eyes and Pierce, and quite possibly the captive Crouse (who was not a chief), advocated a division of the land, and therefore supported the Quaker program. Elkinton had a pet project of trying to convince Senecas to keep small gardens near their homes. In May 1819, he wrote to his father, Asa: Several of the Indians have been excited to make gardens this spring adjoining their houses, so perhaps it may be of some use my being at 81 Joseph Elkinton, Jonathan Thomas, and Ann Thomas, Tunesassah, to Committee, Philadelphia, 18 Sep 1816, Letters to PYMIC E, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

87 80 Cold Spring if it should only be the means of having gardens made among them. Seven or eight of these gardens were under way, and Elkinton helped to plant them. In the previous month, Jacob Robinson, son of chief James Robinson, wrote to Asa Elkinton that his father had a garden. The old chief known as Blacksnake also had a garden. When Elkinton asked him about it, the chief answered that he saw Elkinton s garden by the school, and it looked so lively that he wished to have one of his own. Elkinton offered to provide Blacksnake with seeds, and wrote his sister to ask for seed flowers. 82 Chiefs showed their support and desire for the knowledge or services of the schoolmaster by visiting the school. Elkinton often noted having natives at the schoolhouse on some business or another, and quite often, he stated specifically that his visitors were chiefs. Unfortunately, many of the chiefs remain as nameless as the natives in Elkinton s journals. His first note on the visit of a chief in the classroom was in February 1817, when a chief came into the school, seeking to learn how to write his name. On at least four more occasions in 1818 and 1819, Elkinton noted not being able to attend to his scholars for a part of the day or evening because chiefs came to the school to have a council, to have Elkinton write for them, or to 82 Minute Book, vol. 2, , PYMIC Minutes, 57; Cotton Fletcher, Allegany River, to Jacob Taylor, Cattaraugus, 11 Aug 1818, Letters to PYMIC F, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; Joseph Elkinton, Cold Spring, to RL Austin, 24 Apr 1819, and Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Asa Elkinton, 2 May 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Jacob Robinson, Cold Spring, to Asa Elkinton, 23 Apr 1819, Papers of Joseph S. Elkinton, vol. of correspondence, re: Seneca Indians, , QC, HC. It might be a bit of a stretch to call gardening an indicator of acceptance of the Quaker program, but both of the chiefs did support the school in the early years. In Elkinton s writings, Blacksnake is sometimes known by the name Tekiando. Blacksnake was also called Ta- Wan-Yus, or the Chainbreaker, and Tha-o-na-wyuthe (Tha-o-wa-nyutha), the Nephew. Congdon, Allegany Oxbow, 167, 201.

88 81 have conversations with him. On many other occasions, chiefs came to speak to the scholars in support of the school. The presence of these chiefs at the school and their association with the schoolmaster made Elkinton a more trusted and likeable character, and thus might have promoted the school. 83 Perhaps the support of some chiefs can best be seen by the fact that they sent their sons to the school at Cold Spring. In fact, the only three surviving names of Elkinton s scholars at Cold Spring belonged to the children or relatives of chiefs (Jacob Robinson, son of James Robinson), Maris Pierce (son of John Pierce) and Joseph Silverheels (probably one of the two children of chief George Silverheels who attended the school). All three boys sent letters to Elkinton s parents, Asa and Lucia, preserved by Joseph Elkinton s son, Joseph Scotton Elkinton. Other children of John Pierce and James Robinson attended the school, in addition to still other Pierce children related to John. In Seneca society, the office of chief was not passed from father to son, and these chiefs might have seen education as a means of ensuring the status of their sons in the community. 84 As parents of school children and chiefs who supported Quaker endeavors, Silverheels and Robinson emerged as leaders of early efforts to promote the school and the Quaker agenda. Both men sent individual addresses to the Quakers in Philadelphia, with Robinson sending two during the era of the Cold Spring school. 83 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Journal , entry , Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box Maris Peirce, Cold Spring, to Lucia Elkinton, 11 Feb. 1819, Jacob Robinson, Cold Spring, to Asa Elkinton, 23 Apr. 1819, and Joseph Silverheels, Cold Spring, to Asa Elkinton, 26 Apr. 1819, Papers of Joseph S. Elkinton, vol. of correspondence.

89 82 While Silverheels was certainly a supporter, his letter was more reserved than those from Robinson. Silverheels wrote that he was glad for the advice of Friends, and intended to follow it. In addition to promising to be sober and industrious, he wrote, I intend to pay attention to farming and keep my children near me and endeavour to bring them up to industry and always live with my wife. In his note, he did not mention the school. 85 James Robinson was a far more important character in the development of the Quaker school on the Allegany River. Unlike Silverheels, Robinson expressed his gratitude to the schoolmaster. He noted his gratitude to Friend Jonathan for interceding with whites when the Indians had difficulties with their neighbors. He feared that Quakers might withdraw, and stated that many of his people were dark in their minds and could not see that the school was for their own benefit. He told Friends in Philadelphia that the Great Spirit was pleased with their work, and if they discontinued their labors among the Seneca people, the Great Spirit would not be happy. Robinson expressed the fear that white people in New York aimed to get the Indians off their lands; he heard that the Quakers had some communication from the President, and he wanted to know the contents of that letter. Robinson described his own attachment to the Quaker civilization program by stating that while in bed at night, he thought about what he would do when working the next day. When he 85 George Silverheels, Tunesassah, to Thomas Stewardson, Philadelphia, 1 Sept 1819, Letters to PYMIC Sa-Sl, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4. Friends were dismayed by the frequency of marriage and separation/divorce among the Indians, which is why Silverheels promised to always live with his wife. One instance of disappointment at the parting of husband and wife (in this case, William Patterson and wife) is in Elkinton s letter to Jonathan Thomas, 21 Mar. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

90 83 awoke in the morning, he prepared his field for corn and did other things to provide for his family. He did not drink whiskey, and told the Friends that warriors had concluded in council that if anyone brought whiskey onto Seneca land, they would break the barrels with an axe and spill the liquor. Robinson supported the conclusion of the warriors. He was virtually the model for what the Quakers wanted to see as a result of their labors, and with his position as a chief, had the potential to be very influential in advocating the program among his people. 86 In 1820, Robinson wrote Philadelphia Friends again to encourage their labors and strengthen their program with his own people by calming fears raised by the growing opposition. He began the address by rejoicing that children were learning their books and expressing his gratitude for the presence of Elkinton and Jonathan Thomas. Robinson stated that five chiefs now followed the advice of Quakers, but did not name them. Again, he feared that Friends might withdraw, and cited the difficulty of following the Quaker program. Many of our warriors feel determined to follow on with us chiefs in minding the counsel of our friends, but as many of our people remain so much uninformed we cannot get along so fast as would be desirable to us, and we much hope that our friends will not grow weary and leave us. He stated that many of his people feared they would lose their land in debt to Friends for all the Quakers had done for them. Robinson s solution for quieting these fears was to request Friends to put something on parchment and send it to the Indians, stating Quakers would never take the Indians land or money in payment for services. 86 James Robinson, Tunesassah, to Thomas Stewardson, Philadelphia, 16 May 1819, Letters to PYMIC R, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4.

91 84 Robinson hoped a written statement would ease fears and stop the mouths of the opposition. The chief had a request to make of the Quakers. For ten years, Robinson had wanted to travel to Philadelphia to see the situation of Friends and sit in one of their councils. If it was agreeable to Friends, Robinson hoped to start right after the upcoming general council at Buffalo. He believed he would see many improvements in Philadelphia, and this would be profitable for his people at home. Presumably, he expected to see things he could apply to his life at home. Perhaps he thought that telling his people how the white people of Philadelphia lived would cause them to embrace the Quaker program. It does not seem that Robinson ever made this trip. 87 Although Peter Crouse was not a chief, he spoke English quite well and could speak some German; for this reason, he was probably used as an interpreter and was well acquainted with Seneca politics. Crouse was never named as a supporter of the Cold Spring school, but was somewhat involved in the negotiations surrounding the attempted land division. This captive of German parentage probably did not send his children to the school at Cold Spring in the first years because he sent them to the school run by Samuel Oldham of the Western Missionary Society in Cornplanter s town. This location would have been more convenient to the Crouse residence. When Reverend Timothy Alden passed through the reservation and met with him in 1816, Crouse noted that he could not read but that his children were learning. 87 James Robinson, Tunesassah, to Thomas Stewardson, Philadelphia, 17 Apr 1820, Letters to PYMIC R, PYMIC Correspondence Box 4. In March 1819, Elkinton noted the names of all of those who sent children to the school on a regular basis: James Peirce, John s boys sometimes, G Silverheels 2, Owen Blacksnake, J Robinson, C Johnson, Big Jacob s sometimes, J Snow pretty regularly and Capt Bones and Peter Crouse s boys part of the time. Joseph Elkinton to Jonathan Thomas, 21 Mar. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

92 85 Captives like Crouse, with some attachment to Euro-American culture and the English language, probably wanted their children to have the same knowledge of English, and therefore sought to send them to school. It is difficult to gauge just how influential a captive might have been. By 1819, Crouse was sending his boys to the Quaker school part of the time. 88 Indian parents kept their children at home for a number of reasons, some longterm and others temporary. And some children did not want to attend. In June 1818, Elkinton had six scholars and worried that the scholars are growing into an indifferent and careless way about coming to school. A few weeks later, when he had only five scholars, Elkinton stated: I sometimes think the school is but weak. If parents were not enthusiastic about sending children to school, there was not much to keep the children in the school. 89 Some parents did not rush to send their children to the school at Cold Spring for cultural reasons tied to gender roles. Parents saw no need to send daughters to school because their work was in the field and home. Their contact with outsiders was limited, lessening the necessity of girls learning from books. Boys more often found themselves off the reservation, through occupations such as rafting timber and trading agricultural products; they also engaged in diplomacy. Elkinton only noted having a non-white female student on two occasions, suggesting it was a rare 88 Alden, An Account of Sundry Missions, Alden spells Peter s last name as Kraus. While this might have been the correct German spelling, Crouse became the common spelling of his surname and that of generations to follow. It is not known if there were other captives at Allegany at this time. Joseph Elkinton to Jonathan Thomas, 21 Mar. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. Crouse s story has been chronicled in Joseph Francello s book. 89 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1818, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry

93 86 occurrence for an Indian girl to attend the school. According to Anthony F.C. Wallace, children were raised in the same way, regardless of gender, until the age of eight or nine, when parents separated them. Girls helped in the homes and in the fields, while the boys played at war, hunted, and competed at races, wrestling and lacrosse. Additionally, when a girl had her first menstruation, her ability to attend school regularly dramatically lessened, as she had to live in a hut outside the village for the duration of each menstrual period. This meant that a girl who had reached menarche might only attend school for three weeks out of every four. 90 As noted earlier, another cultural issue preventing parents from sending their children to school stemmed from how children were raised in Seneca society. Rarely corrected and allowed to do as they wished, most Seneca children did not wish to go to school and sit still, and parents would not to compel them to do so. However, if a parent did want a child to attend, it is doubtful a child would have resisted, given the teachings of Handsome Lake, which emphasized obedience to parents. 91 In the short term, children could be kept from school when parents required their labor. When Elkinton started his school in 1816, only two scholars came because parents needed to go into the woods for subsistence, and wanted their 90 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 36, 38; PYMIC, Philadelphia, to Chiefs and others on the Allegany, 17 Sep 1819, Letters from PYMIC, states Friends were glad to see some had improved in school learning, but there was no mention of girls. Elkinton usually called them all scholars, but did not state gender. When gender was stated, the whole lot of the students were called boys, and, as noted above, the specific mention of a little girl scholar by Elkinton was noteworthy. Alden stated that female children were not sent to the Oldham school because Indians saw little purpose in it. Further, he said that even teaching boys from books was not greatly desired among them. He gave no further explanation on this. Alden, An Account of Sundry Missions, In addition to working in the fields, girls also learned to cook, sew, make tools for various tasks associated with women s work and weave baskets. Joy Bilharz, First Among Equals?, Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 38; Morgan, League of the Iroquois, 238.

94 87 children with them. In December, the schoolmaster wrote his brother that the school was very small because most Indians were away from home, hunting or on some other business. In April 1817, Elkinton noted in his journal that he had only eight scholars because the Indians were making sugar, and the children were assisting them. Absence to work at sugar camps was common around this time each year. The school often had more students in the winter months, when there was little work to be done, and the numbers routinely dropped off in the late spring and summer. In July, Elkinton spoke with a young chief who said that he sometimes considered keeping his son at home to help him with his work, but the boy always said he must go and learn his books. This boy s desire to attend school was somewhat unusual. This young chief was quite committed to the Quaker program, but it is doubtful many parents allowed their children to go to school when there was a great deal of work to be done. Elkinton became more cognizant of these work cycles, and in the following year, gave his students a week-long break in July to help their parents make hay. In October 1817, a number of students were absent from the school to take care of the corn. The seasonal work cycle became such a problem that Elkinton adjourned school for the summer of 1820, and returned to Philadelphia for a visit. Friends noted that it would be a good thing for the children to be with their families during this season because they needed to learn to work. This was not the only reason for suspending the school, as Elkinton had recently experienced a death in his family and longed to return to his connections in Pennsylvania Joseph Elkinton to George M. Elkinton, 8 Dec 1816, to John King, 18 May 1817, and to BM Austin,

95 88 Lack of food or adequate clothing sometimes prevented parents from sending their children to school. In a letter written about a month after commencing school in 1816, Elkinton noted how trying it was to take his mid-day meal with five or six Indian boys watching him wistfully. His school did not often have more than ten or twelve students, he noted, and sometimes no more than four. Elkinton said he did not blame the Indians for the small number, as he realized they did not have the provisions necessary to send their children to school. In December, he stated that he had only three scholars lately, as most of the Indians had gone away to hunting camps because they lacked provisions. While school attendance rose in March 1817, when Elkinton sometimes had twenty scholars, the Quaker schoolmaster feared some of them had no food at all and that others took only one meal a day instead of their customary two. In June, he noted a child crying kwa dus we daugh ne, which Elkinton said meant hungry. Again in June, Elkinton spoke of children watching him take his noon meal, and Jacob Taylor, a Friend at Cattaraugus, wrote that the Indians in his vicinity had also gone off to their hunting towns. Finally deciding to help the Indians in their needy situation, in July, Friends distributed flour among the 27 Jul 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entry , Journal 1819, entries , , , , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 55; An Indian came to Elkinton to tell him that his children would not be coming to school as frequently in May 1818, and this was probably due to work, Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1818, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry , and Journal 1818 of the same date; Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to William Evans, 15 Aug 1819, and to Asa Elkinton, 30 Apr 1820, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry talks about students gone taking care of corn, which is unusual because it was a female-tended crop (although men were known to assist at the most laborious times); Joseph Elkinton, to Committee, Philadelphia, 13 Apr 1820, Letterbooks (3 vol ) vol. 2, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Jonathan Thomas, Tunesassah, to Thomas Wistar, 20 May 1820, Letters to PYMIC T (except Taylor), PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

96 89 scholars at Cold Spring at the direction of the Committee. However, this did little to alleviate the problem, and in August, Elkinton wrote his aunt that many Indians came to the Quaker residence at Tunesassah to say they had nothing to eat and no money with which to buy food. Seven Indian children who were not residents of the Allegany River found a weed in the woods and ate it, probably out of severe hunger. It proved toxic, and all the children died. 93 Parents decisions to send children to school could also shift with the changing beliefs of chiefs. This can best be seen in the example of the Oldham school in Cornplanter s town. Cornplanter, initiator of the relationship with Quakers, invited a missionary to keep a school on his private land grant in Pennsylvania after Quakers moved their efforts up the river. In 1815, the Western Missionary Society of Pennsylvania sent Samuel Oldham to commence school teaching. Cornplanter strongly supported the school. In 1816, Alden noted that the school had eleven Indian boys between the ages of ten and fifteen, and that Cornplanter was the only reason there were any children there at all. The following year, Alden noted that white children attended the school, and white neighbors came to the schoolhouse on the Cornplanter tract to have a Sunday service each week, with no apparent objection by 93 Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 30 Oct 1816, to Asa Elkinton, 8 Dec 1816, to Hannah Webster, 2 Mar 1817, to Asa and Lucia Elkinton, 1 Jun 1817, to Thomas Evans, 8 Jun 1817, to Catharine Tyler, 3 Aug 1817, and to Esther Smith, 31 Aug 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Jacob Taylor, Batavia, to Thomas Wistar, 4 Jun 1817, Letters to PYMIC Taylor, Jacob (et. al.), PYMIC Correspondence Box 5; Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry The distribution of flour was probably somewhat helpful to the families of the seventeen students in school that day, but this not a solution for the problem of hunger. Friends were often reluctant to give provisions to the Indians, as they believed the Indians were too reliant on handouts and needed self-sufficiency, an important aspect of their civilization mission. It is possible that the children had eaten muskrat root, or Cicuta maculata, which grew in the area and was known by the Indians to be deadly. It was used for suicide, but cases of mistaken ingestion by children occurred into the twentieth century. Congdon, Allegany Oxbow,

97 90 the chief. Cornplanter stated that he was hopeful that some of the school children might become teachers among their own people. Mrs. Oldham spent part of her time teaching domestic arts to the children, and when Alden visited again in July 1818, she was not present because she had taken two granddaughters of Cornplanter to a quilting bee. The chief clearly trusted the Oldhams and did not reject schooling that included elements of civilization, and Christianization. Oldham had begun theological training at the time of Alden s visit in By September, something had gone horribly amiss, as the records of the Western Missionary Society indicate that Oldham sent a note to the board of the society regarding unpleasant circumstances at the school, details of which did not appear in the records. At the society s October meeting, Oldham was dismissed from service, and the Reverend Michael Law, sent to investigate the situation the month before, was directed to write Peter Crouse to see if any Indian youths could be taken to complete their education. No further notes indicate any children were taken by the society. When Quakers tried to get the Allegany tract surveyed in August 1818, perhaps Cornplanter began his wholesale rejection of whites on Indian land. The chief became a leader of the party opposing Quakers and all whites residing on Indian land; he was the most vocal member of the opposition at Allegany. In 1819, Samuel Oldham still resided in the area at Kinzua Flats; he was probably ministering among the white people with whom he had Sunday worship services Congdon, Allegany Oxbow, 70; Alden, An Account of Sundry Missions, 14-16, 29-30, 68-70; Western Missionary Society of Pennsylvania Records, , Transcription of the Original Records of the Western Missionary Society, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia PA, 33, 39-41, 43; Cotton Fletcher, Allegany River, to Jacob Taylor, 11 Aug 1818, Letters to PYMIC F,

98 91 Support of a chief like Cornplanter could make or break a school. In this instance, the WMS kept the school on Cornplanter s private land grant, so he had ultimate authority over whether or not there would be a school. As Alden noted, Cornplanter was the only reason there were children in attendance. It is not known if his authority or a subtle form of coercion caused parents to send their children to the school on his tract, but whatever forces were at work in his village were probably also at work at Cold Spring. When Elkinton moved into the Cold Spring school in 1817, he began to keep a garden. As mentioned earlier, he convinced some chiefs and possibly others to keep gardens at their homes. For students living near the school, Elkinton s presence in his garden adjoining the school in the mornings and evenings might have influenced them to do the same. For students whose parents were influenced by Elkinton s garden, gardening might have been something in which they were already engaged at home. Elkinton reported to his sister that he grew corn, potatoes, beans, peas, radishes, beets, onions, cucumbers, squash, turnips, sunflowers, broom corn, lady slippers, and more. In Seneca society, corn, beans, and squash were the mainstays of horticulture; these three sisters were traditionally female-tended crops. If boys saw Elkinton growing these plants, and especially if their fathers were influenced by the garden and started their own, they might begin to tend these food staples once in the domain of women. The social and ceremonial consequences of men tending such PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; Jabez Backus Hyde, A Teacher Among the Senecas, Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society 6: 1903, ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1, entry for

99 92 plants are not known, but it is likely that some Senecas, women in particular, would not care to have men growing female-tended crops. It is quite possible that women chastised men who encroached on their domain. 95 In Iroquois society, women wielded a great deal of influence. Clan mothers were particularly important figures, able to determine which men would be chiefs in clans with hereditary chieftainships. In 1818, for unknown reasons, women began to object to the school, perhaps because of their strong connection to the land and the fear that Seneca lands would be in danger if whites lived or worked on the reservation. Elkinton returned from an absence in October 1818 to discover that women had been speaking against book-learning in councils. The schoolmaster noted that was the third or fourth time the Indians had stirred up this subject since he came among them. When he started school after this break, he had only four to six students. By March 1819, those who had quit because of the opposition of the women returned, and objections had died down. He counted his total number of students in March as from seven to ten, still relatively small compared to the numbers he had previously instructed. 96 As the schoolmaster, Joseph Elkinton set the tone in the classroom. Some Quakers believed they were called to teach as a ministry, and this was probably the case with Elkinton. Money certainly did not motivate him, as working at the Quaker mission was never very lucrative. When Elkinton embarked on his journey to Indian 95 Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to R L Austin, 1 Aug 1819 and to Joshua G. Thompson, 8 Aug 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box Joseph Elkinton to Thomas Wistar, 28 Mar 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3, and attached to a letter from Jonathan Thomas to Thomas Wistar, 17 Mar 1819, Letters to PYMIC T (except Taylor), PYMIC Correspondence Box 5.

100 93 country, he was still quite a young man, who did not know what he wanted to do with his life. When he talked about what he might do when he left his work among the Indians, he once said he might go to Ohio to live. Elkinton was not certain what his future held, but while he was with the Indians, he believed that was where he needed to be. Often discouraged, he thought of giving up, but in the end, he determined that he needed to be with the Senecas. In his early letters, he wrote that he loved the little tawny brethren. This love probably kept him among the Indians for so long and made him encourage succeeding generations to work for and among the Indians. 97 Like other Friends, Elkinton believed that he knew what was best for the Indians. His writings demonstrate that he did not see the adult Senecas as children, but believed he had knowledge their circumstances did not allow them to possess, and that he could help them negotiate a balance between their old ways of living and their new circumstances. He also believed he could convey this knowledge to his young charges, the little foresters Paul A. Lacey, Growing Into Goodness: Essays on Quaker Education (N.p.: Pendle Hill, 1998), 96; throughout early letters in Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Charles W. Starr, 8 Aug 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. Elkinton s daughter Sarah later worked at the mission, and his son Joseph Scotton Elkinton had a lifelong commitment to Indian work with PYMIC. Judging by the names of later workers, it seems some offspring of the early missionaries might have participated in the mission. 98 Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to his brother, George Elkinton, , in which he encourages some of the Philadelphians to take up their pens and address the little foresters because he thinks it would be to good effect. Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. This phrase certainly seems paternalistic, especially considering that some of his scholars were not little, but young men. Referring to them as little foresters also implies they were residents of the forest, not of a settled village. This says something about the Euro-American view of civilization versus savagism or barbarism. Euro-Americans had a fear of the woods as an unknown and alien place. Senecas were not dwellers of the forest, as James H. Merrell points out, and Indians themselves had a

101 94 When Elkinton first came among the Senecas, he did not speak their language. Communication between teacher and students was the first problem he encountered at his post. While it is possible to teach non-english speakers the English language without knowing their native language, it cannot be easy. As previously noted, most pupils did not have a sense of how school operated. Most did not know days of the week or have the same concept of time as their teacher. Eventually, Elkinton found ways to make himself understood, probably through gestures. Quite early in his work, Elkinton learned some Seneca words in order to communicate with his charges. Although there were interpreters, Elkinton never mentioned the presence of one at Allegany. Someone had to write the letters from Indians that they sent to Friends. Some Indians probably picked up bits of English here and there, through failed Quaker schools, from the missionaries who sometimes passed through the reservation, and through business contacts with white people. Henry Obail attended school among Quakers in the Philadelphia area and had a good command of English. Elkinton s students were anxious to help him become familiar with their language. Three or four of them circled around him after his noon meal one day during his first month on the job, giving him some Indian words and somehow expressing to him what they meant. Elkinton wrote these down to help them. Eight months later, Elkinton wrote his father and stepmother that he had a command of some of their words, and when a student came to ask for paper, he could tell him that he must ask in English. In 1819, Elkinton noted that he was still learning the Seneca healthy respect for the dark mystery of the woods. James H. Merrell, Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999),

102 95 tongue, aided by reading a Seneca translation of the third chapter of John prepared by his friend, the missionary Jabez Hyde. Around this time, someone came to the schoolhouse on a semi-regular basis to help him study the language. Elkinton appears to have been the first Quaker with extensive knowledge of the Seneca language. This helped him in teaching the school, although it took some time before he gained enough knowledge to be useful. 99 One thing Elkinton s journals tell us quite specifically is the teacher s state of mind; he was frequently depressed in the early years of his work at the mission, and this must have affected his school. His state of mind appears to have been linked to happenings in the classroom. Elkinton seemed more upbeat in his journal entries on days when school was lively, meaning that the students interacted with him and they had a productive school day. These days were rare, and a comfortable school day was the best for which the schoolmaster could hope. Frequently, Elkinton described feeling poor and tried or poor and low because the school was not lively, or worse, the students were trying, distracted, or few in number. A small number of students usually made Elkinton feel low, but having a lot of students did not necessarily mean happiness. A large number of students could be rowdy and uncontrollable, although Elkinton probably considered this preferable to having scanty attendance. The schoolmaster was very aware of his own mental health and 99 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal , entries and , Journal 1819, entries and , Papers of Joseph Elkinton Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to Asa and Lucia Elkinton, 1 Jun 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton Box 3. Marilyn Irvin Holt states that Seneca leaders knew English or French, but the average adult or child had no such knowledge. Cornplanter relied on an interpreter, and given Elkinton s difficulty in communicating with the Indians, it seems unlikely that most chiefs had much of an understanding of English. Marilyn Irvin Holt, Indian Orphanages (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2001), 54.

103 96 realized he was struggling. He detailed his state of mind almost every day while keeping the Cold Spring school. Elkinton was an outsider in a village where English was not spoken, his customs were not the norm, his appearance differed from the inhabitants, and the winters were more extreme than those to which he had been accustomed. Additionally, he saw his Quaker comrades less often once the school moved to its own schoolhouse and he began to lodge in the village. On the days in which Elkinton was feeling something less than contentment, it is easy to imagine that he was not able to conduct a lively class. Sometimes he was unable to pay attention to the task at hand, complaining of being distracted by unprofitable thoughts. 100 Occasionally, Elkinton made statements beyond the words poor or comfortable commonplace in his journals; these betray deeper emotional upset. After teaching for over a month, he expressed for the first time a wish that he might not follow his heart and take flight in the winter season. This expression can be found in his journals at least twice throughout the Cold Spring years. On more than one occasion, he was so alienated and depressed that he considered leaving the mission entirely. Elkinton often feared that he was not worthy of the charge he had placed upon himself, as evidenced by his fear that he might bring dishonor to the cause. This feeling of unworthiness sometimes led him to be deeply concerned about his own spiritual condition. 100 Elkinton s state of mind can be found throughout his journals. For specific examples, see Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entries , , , , , Journal , entry Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

104 97 Oh! the low times that I frequently wade through, and am sometimes almost ready to question whether I make any progress in the one thing needful. Oh! how sorrowful if after all I should miss of that blessed rest that is in store for the travelers Zion ward, and that I may be engaged daily to look unto the Fountain and seek for direction to do the Masters will is I trust very desirable. Two days later, he showed concern that he was not representing himself as a Christian ought: Oh that I might be favoured to meet the various trials in such a manner that the scholars may not have cause to say that I am a follower of Baal. It is doubtful that any of his scholars would have said such a thing, considering that it is unlikely they knew anything about Baal. Elkinton cycled in and out of these moods, as seen in his entry several days later, when he had a comfortable day and stated how refreshing such times were, like a spring of water in a thirsty land. Five days later, he cycled back into the doldrums: Oh! these trying times how they are calculated to try the very foundation, and I am ready to think at times that if I should only be favoured to hold out and not let all go, so that I may not lose the prize, why that will be the great compensation and I shall be enabled to look back upon these days with pleasure. On another day, he felt stripped as it were of all that was alive. Periodically, letters from friends and relatives encouraged him; such correspondence was like a brook by the way to refresh him in his work. His final worry before he left the Cold Spring school was that he might have clean hands before he left, demonstrating his fear that he had not been doing his job and his discomfort with taking money for a failed endeavor Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Journal 1817, entries , , , , , , Journal 1818, entry , Journal , entry , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1;

105 98 Elkinton believed he had a temper, and this certainly could have affected his students, who often tried his patience. From Elkinton s journals, we know that he used corporal punishment for a time, but stepped away from it and utilized other methods. He prayed for an evenness of temper. In one instance, he mourned on account of the ascendancy that my passions have over me when an unpleasant occurrence takes place. 102 While Elkinton s state of mind might have affected his pupils negatively, he tried to do his best for them. Elkinton sometimes had other business to attend to, and in such instances, he sometimes did not suspend the school, leaving it in the care of one of the other Friends. In 1818, when Elkinton left for a longer trip to Philadelphia, he left the school in the care of Jonathan Thomas, probably the usual substitute teacher. 103 Such trips were often for the purpose of observing other schools, as Elkinton believed he needed more knowledge of how school should be conducted. This was probably due in part to his insecurities, but also because he constantly sought selfimprovement. In August 1818, Elkinton left Tunesassah for Philadelphia to study the Lancasterian plan of teaching. Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker teacher in England, William Penn wrote about clean hands as referring to the taking of a bribe or the receipt of money without doing business. Elkinton probably thought the latter applied to him, as he believed his school was weak and he was seeing little result. He probably thought he was being paid even though he was not doing his job. William Penn, Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims Relating to the Conduct of Human Life (London: A.W. Bennett, 1863 reprint) 50-51; Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to George Elkinton, 1 Aug 1819, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entry , Journal , entry , and Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Punishment will be detailed later in this chapter. 103 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries and , and Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Minute Book, vol , PYMIC Minutes, 65.

106 99 developed the Lancasterian system, often used in free African-American schools. Lancaster himself had 350 students under his sole care, as he was the only teacher in his school. His plan created a monitorial system in which the older students supervised and taught the younger ones. As a general rule, Cold Spring school did not have enough students to make this system necessary. While on his trip, Elkinton observed other schools, including two for African-Americans. He then visited a Lancasterian school and one other school before returning home. Elkinton even visited local schools for whites in the vicinity of the Allegany Reservation to see how schoolmasters conducted these rural schools. He visited one school down the river in Pennsylvania at least twice and conversed with the teacher. From his observation of the Lancasterian school, Elkinton could have learned how to teach his older and more experienced pupils to become informal teachers, which could have aided him when he was unable to attend to the school and could have helped these older students teach family members at home. Observing local rural white and free African-American schools could have helped him learn how to conduct a frontier class with limited resources. 104 Schoolmaster Elkinton was dedicated to his pupils and his work at Allegany. He made an effort to learn the language so he could communicate with his pupils and 104 Minute Book, vol , PYMIC Minutes, 65; Lacey, Growing Into Goodness, ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , and Journal , entry It is entirely possible that the students did try to teach family members. Elkinton mentioned allowing scholars to take their books home with them during a break. Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. While Elkinton was gone, he left the school in the care of Jonathan Thomas the younger. Joseph Elkinton to PYMIC, 24 Aug. 1818, Letterbooks (3 vol., ), Vol. 2, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Jonathan Thomas to PYMIC, 24 Aug. 1818, Letters to PYMIC T (except Taylor), PYMIC Correspondence, Box 5. The War Department later promoted the Lancasterian plan among Native American schools, recommending it to all missionary societies. See Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage, 27.

107 100 the adults in the community. In addition to being a schoolmaster, he served the community as a translator, and wrote letters for Senecas who needed him to intervene with white people on their behalf. Without someone capable of running a school, involved with the people, interested in the education of their children, and committed to the mission, it is doubtful that this school would have survived any longer than Joseph Harlan s. The position of schoolmaster was thrust upon Harlan. Elkinton came to the Allegany with the intention of serving as teacher. Unlike the young Harlan, Elkinton had previous teaching experience. The successful foundation of a school in this period is probably due to his preparation and experience, in part, but it is important to note that in 1816, people had settled away from Cornplanter s land and were living in stable communities on the Allegany reservation. By this time, they had the opportunity to adjust to their new and smaller world, and they were probably less worried about boundaries and whether or not they should build homes or plant crops on the land. A more stable environment might have made people turn to the Quaker program. Through a combination of the fine-tuning of the Quaker message about the importance of education in a changing world, a willingness on the part of some parents and children to participate in the school, the location of the school in a central and well-populated area, and a dedicated teacher, the Quaker school finally flourished. A generation of Seneca children received a regular school education. They learned to communicate in English, both oral and written. They could read documents, and they could read the Bible. While hard times were still ahead for the

108 101 school, it had finally taken root in the community. The next chapter examines attendance data from the school and what the school experience was like for pupils.

109 102 Chapter 3 Inside the Classroom, Joseph Elkinton s journals offer rare glimpses into the inner workings of the Cold Spring school. Other scholars have not utilized the journals to their fullest extent. Although Elkinton did not provide much detail about his school days, he did mention noteworthy events that can help us determine what life was like inside his classroom and about the curriculum. By looking at the schoolhouse itself, and what we know of the students, we can begin to construct the history of the Cold Spring school from inside the classroom. The rich detail of Elkinton s journals provides a wide range of information about the Seneca community and the school experience. All of this information gives us pieces of a puzzle as we examine the ways in which Seneca culture, religion and life changed in the nineteenth century. Not surprisingly, there is not much written from the perspective of Seneca pupils. Precious few letters survive. By reading the Quaker sources against the grain, we can tease out more information on the students and their school experiences. Not only does this allow us to glimpse day-to-day school life, it allows us to see the way in which new ideas entered the community and reshaped Seneca culture. For the students who boarded with Elkinton, we can see that some pupils were immersed in Quaker life fully for part of each week. The Senecas were not passive actors on the stage of history. Their input or lack of attendance resulted in changes to the school schedule, and their objection to the use of physical punishment on pupils might have

110 103 caused the Quaker schoolmaster to realize that such use of force was contrary to Quaker pacifism. The scholars did a great deal to dictate what life was like within the classroom at Cold Spring. Elkinton was restricted in the times he could open the school because the Senecas ate only two meals a day; he had to schedule school times around these meals or children would not come. School could not begin until at least one of his pupils arrived, and sometimes, this was not until very late in the morning. 105 Just as students could arrive at school when they wished, they left at will. Elkinton sometimes had fewer students after lunch, showing some went away at the mid-day break and did not return for afternoon lessons. In one instance, Elkinton wrote that he had four students, and most left at noon and did not come back or came back very late. Some students sought permission to leave during the afternoon session. Elkinton noted one afternoon in which the liveliness of the day was ruined, perhaps to my denying one of the scholars requests who wished to go home. Perhaps the weather was not suitable and the student needed a larger neighbor or brother to help him get home. On another day, the schoolmaster stated that school was very trying because one scholar cried quite a bit, saying he was sick. Elkinton did not say the child asked to be excused from class, but it is surprising that Elkinton did not send him home. Clearly, if the child believed he could leave, he would have done so, as he was so uncomfortable that he cried throughout school. As noted later, Elkinton was sometimes absent for a period of time during the school day to assist the 105 Joseph Elkinton to William Richards, 3 and 17 Nov 1816, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

111 104 Indians in one matter or another. Sometimes his students took this opportunity to dismiss themselves from school, as Elkinton found one day when he left to interpret for a physician. When he returned, his Indian scholars were gone. 106 Elkinton s scholars wanted to assist their teacher, as evidenced by those who helped him learn their language. They were also willing to aid Elkinton in physical labor. One day, after his noon meal, the schoolmaster took an axe to the woods to chop wood. Some of his scholars followed, helping him carry the firewood and giving up their own mid-day break to assist him. As noted previously, Elkinton studied the Lancasterian plan of teaching. This prepared those pupils who decided to engage in school-keeping on their own, always a hope of both Friends and Indians. It also lessened Elkinton s work load and afforded him more flexibility in the event he was called elsewhere. 107 Sometimes interruptions from those needing assistance delayed school in the morning, although his students probably did not know that until they showed up for school and found no schoolmaster present. In one case, Elkinton had to measure a piece of ground for an Indian, causing him to open the school late one morning. If the school day had not commenced, the scholars usually waited for him to appear. The location of the school at Cold Spring was sometimes cause for disruption, because worship dances took place at the council house in the village, drawing in curious Indians who wished to observe the school. On-lookers made it hard for 106 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1818, entry , and Journal 1819, entries , , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

112 105 Elkinton to teach and hard for the children to concentrate. He once wrote that school was unsettled when a worship dance was held nearby, as his students could not keep their minds on their books. When visiting delegations of Friends came to the area, they watched Elkinton s school in progress; this must also have been disruptive. Elkinton noted that he was late starting school one day because visitors from the Committee made him wait to ferry them across the river, and he then had to draw up an address to the Indians on the subject of witchcraft. The Indians themselves disrupted school in the middle of the day by showing up at the schoolhouse to hold councils. Elkinton rarely complained about their presence, as he rather enjoyed their company. On one day, he did note that the presence of several chiefs kept him from attending to his scholars. Perhaps when Elkinton was busy with chiefs in council, the students read silently or were taught by an experienced pupil as per the Lancasterian plan. In any event, the students were expected to remain in school while such councils proceeded. 108 At times, Elkinton suspended the school entirely to visit other Friends or missionaries and their schools. On a trip during October and November 1819, the schoolmaster visited Friend Jacob Taylor at Cattaraugus, attended Clear Creek Meeting, visited Jabez Hyde at Buffalo Creek, went into the white village of Buffalo 108 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entries , , , , Journal , entries , , Journal 1818, entry , Journal , entry , Journal 1819, entries , , , , , , , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton, Cold Spring, to Thomas McClintock, 20 Apr 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. According to the author Charles Congdon, the doctor was his grandfather, Dr. Sam Wilcox of Napoli. Napoli had a post office and a doctor in Elkinton s time, so it must have had quite a few residents. Congdon, Allegany Oxbow, 168.

113 106 to buy something for the school at Cold Spring, passed through Hamburg and attended a meeting which had just begun, and returned to Taylor s house to complete his visit. He missed nine school days while on this trip. In December of the same year, he adjourned school for four days to make a trip down the river to visit Samuel Oldham, who resided at Kinzua Flats after he left Cornplanter s private land grant, and to visit some schools in the area. In January, he missed a day to go to Great Valley on personal business. 109 In his first two years, Elkinton was a diligent schoolmaster. Out of a possible seventy-five school days from the time his school commenced in 1816, Elkinton did not miss one day. In 1817, he taught on all 313 possible school days. Of 313 possible school days in 1818, Elkinton attended school 266 days. If Jonathan Thomas taught school during the thirty-five day absence of Elkinton, it is possible that school children had as many as 301 school days. In 1819, Elkinton taught days of school. In 1820, he attended school between days before leaving the Cold Spring school entirely for the summer break. Elkinton probably attended the Cold Spring school in its various locations as many as 1,035 days from It is possible that Elkinton began to feel that he could absent himself from school at times between 1818 and 1820 as he became a more important part of the Quaker 109 Elkinton s purchase for the school, which was never named, was a rare instance. Nearly everything for the school was made by Quakers in residence or hand-selected by Philadelphia Friends and shipped to Tunesassah. Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries from to , , and Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. The Hyde translations are another exception that will be noted.

114 107 mission and a reliable emissary to other reservations. As noted previously, he also believed he would gain important knowledge from visiting other schools. 110 Local white students sometimes attended the school at Cold Spring, probably because there was no other available school. These students were never a large or continual presence in the Cold Spring school. On only twelve days in the entire life of the Cold Spring school did Elkinton note both white and Indian day scholars sitting in the classroom together. On only five evenings were both white and Indian scholars in attendance, according to the journals. On four of these occasions, there were more white than Indian scholars during the day. Considering the number of possible days on which school was held at Cold Spring, this is virtually a statistical aberration. The data did not indicate that the presence of white scholars in the classroom had any impact on the number of Indian scholars in attendance on surrounding days. The interactions between these students are unknown, as Elkinton noted neither conflict nor harmony. Considering the total number of day or evening white scholars for the duration of the Cold Spring school, clearly they were not a significant presence. The total number of dates in attendance for white students was only seventy-two, as opposed to 11,681 Indian pupils when both day and evening attendance are counted together for Cold Spring Information was culled from all Elkinton journals between The date after the eighteen school day break was April 18, It is possible that as Elkinton became more comfortable with the Seneca people, he believed he could take such breaks. During this period, his mental health appears to have improved somewhat, and perhaps these breaks had helped to rejuvenate him. It is impossible to determine a causal relationship between these factors with any certainty. Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box On only two occasions were white children present in the classroom when there were no Indian students during the day. It happened more in evenings, a total of ten times. The first time a white

115 108 Attendance was often smaller on Fifth Days than on the other days of the week. As Friends held morning worship services on Fifth Day, causing school to begin later, students coming from greater distances would thus be less likely to make the journey to the Cold Spring school. While an average of ten to eleven Indian scholars attended day school on Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Days from , an average of about eight attended day school on Fifth Days. While this might not seem a dramatic change, individual instances show a marked difference in attendance. For example, in one week in 1819, attendance for Second through Seventh Days was as follows: 7, 11, 10, 5, 7, and 11. On Fifth Day, attendance was halved from the previous day. Likewise, for a week with excellent attendance a year later, Elkinton s school experienced the same Fifth Day decline: 15, 18, 15, 9, 23, and student attended the Cold Spring school was in October The last time a white student attended was in January In between these two one-day instances in white day school attendance, all the rest of the dates fell in During this period, white students only came to school during eleven different weeks for day school and nine weeks of evening school. In the evenings, whites came for four evenings in 1817, three evenings in 1818 and eight evenings in It is possible that these white students had another regular school and it had been stopped for one reason or another. Elkinton also numbered the white scholars separately from the Indians, and when he had a white scholar boarding with him briefly, Robert King, he wrote, 1 scholar appeared, indicating that the boarding white scholar was not being counted in the daily tally of students. It is difficult to say when this scholar left the school, so I have only counted his presence on days when Elkinton noted it. Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. It is quite possible that sometimes, white students were present and not mentioned or counted in the tally of students. 112 Attendance from the week of 15 Mar. 1819, Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1819, and from the week of 6 Mar. 1820, Journal , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Although the white students are statistically insignificant, Fifth Day is when we have the most data for them, with a total of ten Fifth Days attended during the entire length of the Cold Spring school. The statistical analysis offered here comes exclusively from numbers found in the Elkinton journals, specifically from the dates on which any student attendance information was offered. When Elkinton opened the school and no Indian scholars came, an attendance of zero was factored into the data. This was not done with white scholars since they came to school so sporadically that there was no reasonable expectation that they would come each day. If there was no information at all for a given date or Elkinton noted only that he had the usual number (an extremely rare occurrence), the dates were not factored into the analysis. This methodology applies to the entire school discussion and is not limited to the data in this paragraph.

116 109 As noted above, in 1819 there were five days when no pupils came to the schoolhouse when Elkinton was available and ready to instruct his charges. The first such instance occurred in April 1819 on Elkinton s first school day back from an absence of a few days. More than likely, his students simply did not know that he would hold school on that day. A small number of students came the next day. The next four instances came in fall Elkinton had not been absent, and for three of these occasions, he gave no reason why his students did not come to the schoolhouse. These days were not consecutive, but three occurred in September. Two were Fifth Days, when students were less likely to come to school because of the shortened session. Students might not come to school on any given day for any number of reasons. Possibly weather or road conditions were not favorable or parents agreed that on one day periodically, the children would labor in the fields or do some other communal work. On October 21, 1819, Elkinton noted that his scholars did not come to school because there was a dance in the village. 113 While not a regular event, at times Elkinton held evening school regularly for spans of weeks. Elkinton began the evening school in December It was not customary for Elkinton to have evening school on Seventh Day evenings, as he would have been heading home to the Quaker farm at Tunesassah after the close of day school on Seventh Days. He remained there until Second Day morning, so there was no evening school on First Day evenings, either. In two instances, Elkinton held 113 The final instance when no scholars came to school was in March 1820, on a Fifth Day. Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal 1819, entries , , , , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

117 110 school on Seventh Day evenings, but did not note the reason for these exceptions. Perhaps the weather was such that he could not return to the farm, and children or adults living in the vicinity wished to take the opportunity to come into the school to say lessons. Both exceptions occurred in winter. There were less than thirty-four weeks of evening school sessions held during the course of the Cold Spring school, and evening school was often held exclusively during the winter months. 114 Quakers in residence noted that day school attendance was best in the winter months. The numbers support the idea that students did not attend as much in the late spring and summer because there was work to be done at home during those times of year. Children helped the family or community with crop work (for both families who embraced the new agricultural practices of the Quakers and those who did not) and by engaging in other pursuits to support their families (gathering, hunting, making crafts for trade). During the course of the Cold Spring school, autumnal attendance patterns indicate that more students became involved in labor as the school progressed. Elkinton began the school in fall 1816 with very few students because their families required assistance to survive by traditional pursuits in a time of great want. In fall 1817, attendance dropped from September to October. Elkinton returned to Philadelphia at the end of August 1818 and remained until the beginning of October. In his absence, he left the school in the care of a member of the Quaker family in residence, and there is no data for school attendance in September. Before his 114 Evening school usually lasted until 8:30 or 8:45 PM, Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

118 111 departure in August and his return in October, his journals show a drop in attendance, and it did not recover for months. This makes it difficult to look at the fall of 1818 with any accuracy. By fall 1819, Elkinton believed it was necessary to allow his students some time off to engage in labor. Even with this break, attendance remained spotty for the rest of the month, and did not recover until October. This change in attendance patterns probably occurred during seasonal work such as harvesting and for ceremonial reasons associated with this seasonal work cycle. Perhaps as more people adopted what Elkinton called improvements, the labor of children became more necessary in September or October. For the rest, men and children might help women with the agricultural harvest, but with so many hands working communally, it might have been unnecessary to remove children from school. Senecas who worked their own plots of land had only the help of their nuclear families to reap the harvest, sow a fall crop, or make necessary preparations for the coming winter, rendering the labor of children essential to the survival of the family unit. 115 Breaking down attendance numbers by year, another trend emerges. In the first partial year of school in 1816, an average of about eight Indian scholars attended the day school. In 1817, the number jumped to around thirteen day scholars on average. The average dropped to about ten scholars a day in 1818 and to around six a year later. During the final partial year at Cold Spring in 1820, the number climbed to nearly twelve scholars on average. Factoring in the evening scholars with the day 115 When crops were harvested, the Iroquois held a four-day festival to celebrate the harvest. It would have been important for children to attend this festival of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for the harvest. For a brief description, see Lewis Henry Morgan, League of the Iroquois, ; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. See also Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage, 18.

119 112 scholars makes the decline in daytime attendance in 1818 and 1819 seem less dramatic. The average attendance in 1817 remained at thirteen by this calculation, while the averages for 1818 and 1819 rose to thirteen and a half and seven, respectively. So, while daytime attendance decreased, some scholars probably came in the evening, when they were free from work. Adding the evening scholars into the daily average also changes the calculation for the partial school year in The average climbed from nearly twelve scholars on average to over fifteen, making it the year with the highest average attendance per day. 116 As previously stated, evening school usually occurred during the colder months. If students came to evening school because they were busy with work during the day, one must ask what kind of work these boys and young men did at this time of year. If the students were from families following the Quaker civilization plan, there would not be so much work for boys and young men in the colder months. They needed to take care of livestock, but could not engage in agriculture when the ground was frozen or when frosts were likely. At certain times of the year, these scholars engaged in specific seasonal work like tapping maple trees and making sugar, both traditional activities. Friends were always frustrated that some Senecas engaged in logging instead of agriculture, and it is possible that some of these 116 Elkinton noted when two young men showed up after school had closed, wishing to say their lessons. They had been at work during the normal school day. Elkinton finished with them in twenty minutes. It seems that Elkinton started the evening school program later in the year for the benefit of those who could not come during the day due to work requirements. Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. While adding evening scholars into the average softens the apparent trend of falling attendance, it still shows that 1819 was not a very good year for attendance at Cold Spring school. Perhaps this decline had something to do with the growing religious struggle within the nation, although Elkinton left no indication of religious division among his scholars at Cold Spring.

120 113 children and young men felled trees in the winter months when they could easily move logs across the snow with horses, then rafted the logs down the Allegany River in the spring. Some young men and boys might have been hunting during the winter, when it was easier to see the blood of an injured animal against the white snow. 117 Halliday Jackson s observation that liberty was the ruling passion of Seneca children is important to remember if we are to imagine what life was like inside the classroom at Cold Spring. Elkinton complained of students misbehaving in his first weeks as schoolmaster. On his third day of school, Elkinton noted that he had a little order at times, but not normally. The next day, he stated that his scholars came earlier and paid better attention than they had previously, as they started to learn what was expected of them. Like any other children, the Seneca boys were bound to misbehave even if they knew what their schoolmaster expected, and Elkinton noted having to punish children for misbehavior. This punishment in the first weeks was not physical. The schoolmaster noted having to make an example of a child and wondered how he would know when to release the boy from confinement. Elkinton probably made this pupil stand in a corner. By the end of the month, Elkinton had fewer complaints of misbehavior, but he did write a correspondent that whenever someone passed by the school on the road, all the children left their seats to watch While this does not address the coldest months, letters from Friend Ebenezer Worth in the 1840s demonstrate that school attendance sometimes suffered because children were kept home to help with hunting, sugar-making, preparing the ground, or planting crops. See PYMIC Minutes Vol. 3, 18 Dec 1845, and letters from Ebenezer Worth to PYMIC, PYMIC Correspondence Box 6, 2 Aug 1843, 6 Aug 1844, 28 Mar 1845, 6 Apr 1846, and 8 Jun Wallace, Death and Rebirth, 35, 38; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal , entries , , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 30 Oct. 1816, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

121 114 Throughout November 1816, Elkinton complained of trying times, including unsteady numbers and transient students. One afternoon, he had to make an example of three scholars. On November 14 th, Elkinton became annoyed enough with one frequent offender that he found it necessary to strike this student. By Elkinton s own admission, this was the first time he struck any of his pupils. It would not be the last. He was continually frustrated by the lack of order and love of talking among the students. As Paul Lacey has noted, Friends consider silence and attention very important in both religious life and in the classroom. The child who learns how to sit still while waiting for a bird to land or a deer to emerge from the thicket is laying a foundation for greeting the sacred, for centering outside the self, for knowing herself as a part of a world of beauty and order, as well as for learning how to collect data. 119 Until Elkinton closed the Cold Spring school for good, he used corporal punishment in at least ten more cases. Nine of these instances occurred in the following year, when Elkinton s mental health was at its worst. In one instance, he noted that he struck one of the scholars in the head with a ruler for being very disorderly. Three days later, he struck one of the boys with my foot in the afternoon for bad behaviour, but feared that he had been too hasty and might bring dishonour to the cause that is everlastingly worthy of all praise and honour. Elkinton did not have any regrets when he next punished a scholar the following January. He found himself 119 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , , , , Journal 1819, entries , , Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to George M. Elkinton, 8 Dec. 1816, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. Lacey, Growing into Goodness, 7-9.

122 115 under the necessity of boxing one of my scholars very severely for his disorder, he having tried me very much at many different times with his perverse spirit since I commenced school teaching and for the strength that I was favoured with, to chastise him, I desire to feel thankful. A week later, he closed the school comfortably having struck one of my scholars for being very disorderly through the course of school, and I hope it was done in a portion of the right spirit and also in a degree of love. After these cases, the frequency of physical correction decreased dramatically. In an incident in the spring, he corrected one of them pretty smartly for having cheated and told me several untruths. He boxed another student for disorder in August, and whipped a scholar in September for running away from school whilst I was about talking to him he fearing a whipping and after his running away I whipped him in great measure for that and felt peace in so doing. The last instance of physical correction came in February 1818, when Elkinton ferruled one of the boys a little for not minding what was told him. He worried that he had been a little excessive, but ultimately decided he was at peace with this punishment. 120 Elkinton used such punishment to correct scholars for misbehavior, but also for students caught fighting with one another. In one instance, he whipped two of his scholars pretty severely for frequently hitting one another. These might be the 120 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , , Journal 1817, entries , , , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Thanks to Mark Nicholas for pointing out some of these instances of physical punishment; Evening school had only just commenced a little over a month before the last instance of physical punishment, so young adults would have been present in the class when physical punishments were going on earlier.

123 116 same boys he mentioned in two earlier instances in which one boy struck another and made him cry. Elkinton did not indicate that he punished either boy on these earlier dates. Five days after whipping the boys, he wrote that the misconduct of two scholars at noon put a damp on the day, and these might have been the same two boys. 121 It seems peculiar that a member of the Society of Friends would use physical correction on a child. Yet just as Friends held slaves for a time before the Society decided this practice contradicted their views, Friends moved away from corporal punishment of children as they came to see this practice as un-friendly. Elkinton himself appeared to have some inner turmoil over striking a child on one occasion; perhaps this inner feeling of wrongdoing caused him to cease the practice entirely. According to William Penn, the Quaker code on the matter enjoined other methods: If God give you Children, Love them with Wisdom, Correct them with Affection: Never strike in Passion, and suit the Correction to their Age as well as Fault. Convince them of their Error before you chastise them, and try them, if they shew Remorse before Severity, never use that but in Case of Obstinacy or Impenitency. Punish them more by their Understandings than the Rod, and shew them the Folly, Shame and Undutifulness of their Faults rather with a grieved than an angry Countenance, and you will sooner affect their Natures, and with a Nobler Sense, than a servile and rude Chastisement can produce. I know the Methods of some are severe Corrections for Faults, and artificial Praises when they do well, and sometimes Rewards: But this Course awakens Passions worse than their Faults; for one begets base Fear, if not Hatred; the other Pride and vain Glory, both which should be avoided in a Religious Education of Youth; for they equally vary from it and deprave Nature. 121 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; An old woman and at least two chiefs made speeches at the schoolhouse in February 1817 to tell the boys to avoid quarreling, to make less noise, and to mind their books. Journal , entries , , Elkinton noted that boys were fighting at noontime one day, Journal , entry , Box 1.

124 117 Elkinton worried about the ascendancy of his passions, and from phrases throughout his journals found in the words of Penn, it seems he was familiar with Penn s writings and took his words as good advice. 122 For children not accustomed to this kind of correction, Elkinton s punishments must have been quite startling. The teacher did not note their reactions, and the children themselves left no record of their feelings. In the case of the boys who fought with one another, the parties involved were the same in several instances. After Elkinton stopped using physical correction, he complained of being tried by one scholar who frequently gets out of the right road. Clearly, physical force did not deter repeat offenders. Since there were only a few cases of physical punishment, it is quite likely that most students at Cold Spring never experienced it. Elkinton probably used this form of discipline in only the most difficult cases. Witnessing this use of force was probably enough to keep some students in line, but Elkinton noted trying or rowdy students throughout his time among the Senecas, and it does not appear that he created a culture of fear in the classroom. As previously stated, there was not much to keep some of these students in the school, and if they feared the 122 Joelle Bertolet and Ann Upton at the Quaker Collection offered their insight into Friends and corporal punishment in schools. See also Howard H. Brinton, Quaker Education in Theory and Practice. (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1958), 55, 58; William Penn, The Advice of William Penn to his Children Relating to their Civil and Religious Conduct, A Collection of the Works of William Penn, Volume One. (New York: AMS Press, 1974), 901; William Penn, Fruits of Solitude, 41; Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

125 118 schoolmaster, they would simply have stayed away. Likewise, if parents did not like the idea of their children being punished, they could avoid sending them to school. 123 For followers of Handsome Lake, Elkinton s use of physical correction must have been upsetting because such punishment was expressly forbidden by this religion. The four Messengers further said, that it was wrong for a mother to punish a child with a rod. It is not right to punish much, and our Creator never intended that children should be punished with a whip, or be used with any violence. In punishing a refractory child, water only is necessary, and it is sufficient. Plunge them under. This is not wrong. Whenever a child promises to do better, the punishment must cease. Elkinton never mentioned plunging his pupils into water, and according to the new way of Handsome Lake, this was the only proper means of punishing a child. Not all Senecas followed Handsome Lake, and it is unknown if the old ways permitted the striking of a child; it seems doubtful it was customary, given early Quaker observations Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1818, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Five chiefs signed an address to Friends stating that Friends could confine or punish the children, but this was not until 1821, when the school had already moved from Cold Spring and Elkinton no longer used physical punishment any longer. Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 2. When Jacob Blacksnake, a warrior, visited the school two days prior to this, he told the students that the old men had decided that Elkinton should have control over the school, and if the children were disobedient or inattentive, the schoolmaster could whip them. This appears as though the decision was recent, so perhaps it took until 1821 for Senecas to agree to Elkinton using physical punishment on the children. It was probably a controversial topic in the days when Elkinton actually used force on the students. Joseph Elkinton, Indian Speeches at the Tunewauna School, 1820, entry , uncatalogued material labeled Tunesassa Indian School. Misc. Found at Arch St. 5/78, QC, HC. In her dissertation, Mary Conable related an 1836 incident in which Allegany Senecas criticized William Hall, Presbyterian missionary, for physical punishment of a student. No such controversy was recorded in regard to Elkinton s punishments. See Conable, 123. Berkhofer indicated that sometimes, missionaries switched to a system of rewards or non-physical punishment due to rebukes from parents, Salvation and the Savage, Morgan, League of the Iroquois,

126 119 After abandoning physical punishment as a tactic, Elkinton mentioned only one instance of punishing a student. In August 1819, the schoolmaster punished an inattentive boy; he was not permitted to read with the rest of the scholars. After Elkinton administered this punishment, he wrote that he felt badly about having done it. 125 One method Elkinton used to help his children pay attention was the result of a happy accident. On his tenth day of school, in October 1816, Elkinton played ball with the boys at noon. He found the children quieter and more attentive after he played with them. Yet in May 1817, Elkinton wrote that he was suffering for entering into their play too deeply. Clearly, playing with the scholars was not enough to keep the children orderly in the classroom, as evidenced by continuing instances of trying times and the necessity of punishments. 126 Beyond playing at the noon break, Elkinton hoped to find ways to keep the children interested inside the classroom. In March 1817, he requested a Friend to send prints or books with interesting pictures, hoping to hold the attention of the children. He had only the few pictures in the primer and some in the few books 125 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. In the same journal, he noted being very tried by a bad boy on the 20 th and 21 st of the month; he corrected the child but did not name the method of correction. When Elkinton ceased to use physical punishment on the children, he did not make any entry stating that he would no longer use this method of correction. He simply stopped noting the use of such correction. Given that he continued to mention punishing children and usually named other methods, and considering his propensity for giving even the most mundane information for nearly every single school day, it is reasonable to assume that he would have noted any continued use of physical correction. 126 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , Journal 1817, entries , , , , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Elkinton was able to hold their attention and achieve order at times, as observers reported that the order of the school and the attention of the students afforded an encouraging prospect for their work. Report of the Committee for the Civilization of the Indian Natives found at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA.

127 120 brought for the use of the Thomas children. Elkinton presented one scholar with such a book as a reward for his excellent recitation of the multiplication tables. Even with books, events outside the schoolhouse sometimes made it difficult to hold the attention of the scholars. 127 From time to time, Elkinton gave his scholars a special treat. Occasionally, he took the boys over the river to have dinner at Tunesassah and for recreation. This was a rare occurrence, happening only three times during the duration of the Cold Spring school, according to the schoolmaster s journals. Elkinton wrote Henry M. Lollickoffer that the Indians greatly enjoyed the fireworks he had sent, but Elkinton did not indicate whether or not the Quaker fireworks display was held exclusively for the scholars. 128 What probably helped Elkinton s scholars pay attention was the practice of having respected individuals in the community address the scholars. The first such speech was unsolicited, at least by the schoolmaster. This practice seems to be a product of native ingenuity, as children had learned to respect their elders in Seneca society, and supporters of the school knew that children would hear their elders and pay attention to their words. On February 6, 1817, an old woman called to see Elkinton, wishing to make a speech to the scholars. The schoolmaster could not 127 Joseph Elkinton, to Friend Israel W. Morriss, 17 Mar. 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entry , Journal 1818, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Elkinton wrote that his stepmother sent books for all schoolboys in 1818, see Elkinton to George Elkinton, 7 Jan. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1819, 12 Jun. 1819, Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton, Cold Spring, to Henry M. Lollickoffer, 20 April 1819, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Letterbook , Box 3.

128 121 understand Seneca, but he asked a student who spoke some English, and learned that she told the pupils to mind their books and not to quarrel or fight with one another. Elkinton did not say if this woman was a clan mother, but as an elder, her words would have been important to the students. There were no instances of students quarreling for weeks afterward. Several days after the woman visited the school, a chief addressed the scholars. He told the boys to mind their books better and make less noise. Elkinton said that the speech worked, as the day went much more quietly than usual. Two days later, two chiefs gave speeches to the scholars, but the schoolmaster did not note the contents of these talks in his journals. While these speeches appeared to have had the desired effect in the immediate aftermath, children did fall back into their habits of loud talking and quarreling. 129 Senecas were not the only ones to address the scholars of the Cold Spring school. In August 1817, Elkinton twice noted that a missionary came through en route to Buffalo. In each case, the missionary observed the class and addressed the scholars. Elkinton probably referred to the same incident in both these accounts, found in separate journals. This visitor, most likely Rev. Timothy Alden, wrote about visiting the Cold Spring school in a letter to the secretary of his society one month later. The missionary told the scholars to be good boys and mind their books, as it 129 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Journal , entries , , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Elkinton and the chiefs who supported the school recognized the impact of such speeches, but also realized that they only worked for a short period of time. When the school moved to Tunewauna in late 1820, Elkinton and the chiefs agreed to have someone talk to the scholars on a somewhat regular basis. These speeches can be found in Indian Speeches at the Tunewauna School, 1820.

129 122 might be an advantage to them. It is not likely that such a speech from an outsider had as much impact on the children as speeches made by their own people. 130 During Elkinton s tenure as schoolmaster at Cold Spring, he became a student of the Lancasterian plan of teaching. Joseph Lancaster had developed this system, designed to educate children of the poor who did not belong to any particular religious society through which they could receive an education. Lancaster had a lot of troubled, truant children, and nothing that he or the parents could do stopped the pupils from misbehaving or avoiding school. Lancaster started having parts of the school compete against other parts in their lessons, and by this method, his pupils took more of an interest in school. Lancaster also used boys as monitors; one might take care of the writing books, one monitored absences, some were teaching monitors, etc. Presumably, giving children these jobs made them feel important, and they would desire to attend school and perform their designated tasks. Lancaster stated that one monitor should have ten students under him. The students were to be grouped together by what they already knew and by the level on which they were studying. Due to a shortage of texts and materials, the teacher affixed enlarged versions of pages to pasteboard, and children wrote in the sand with a stick until they had earned a slate by showing sufficient progress. Competitions between groups continued to be an important part of Lancaster s plan. Children were carefully placed next to other students on a similar level to ensure competition in class. Additionally, children were required to wear numbers showing their rank in the class, inspiring 130 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal 1817, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Alden, Account of Sundry Missions

130 123 some to improve. Children received prizes or honors for their work, with children who exhibited genius getting special prizes or awards. 131 Lancaster recommended a number of punishments for miscreants, emphasizing variety. For talking in class and other offenses, a child should wear a wooden log of five or six pounds around the neck as a pillory. A teacher might fasten a child s legs together with wooden shackles, forcing the child to walk around the room until he or she became tired. He also recommended tying a child s left hand behind his or her back, forcing the child to wear wooden shackles on his or her elbows behind the back, or tying the child s legs together. A boy might be suspended from the ceiling in a sack or a bucket. Up to six frequent offenders might be yoked together and forced to walk backwards, according to one listed punishment. For disobedience to parents, slovenliness, or moral infractions, a child could wear labels naming the offense and a crown and forced to walk around preceded by two boys proclaiming the offender s faults. When a boy entered Lancaster s school with a dirty face, the schoolmaster appointed a girl to wash the boy s face in front of the whole school. Children could be confined after school hours. While this usually meant that the master or someone else had to stay after school to supervise, Lancaster proposed that the child be tied to a desk. Above all, Lancaster proclaimed that novelty was 131 Joseph Lancaster, Improvements in Education, as it Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community, (New York: Collins and Perkins, 1807), iv, xlv, 32-33, 36-41, 43-44, 50-51, Berkhofer notes the use of the Lancasterian system in Native American schools, Salvation and the Savage, It is not known to what extent Elkinton followed Lancaster s plan in his own classroom. When the schoolmaster was called away on other business, having students trained as monitors was probably extremely helpful. At one time, he tried to reward students for saying their lessons, and there was some competition involved, but it does not appear from the journals that this practice lasted for very long. Such rewards were not customary in Quaker education, although Lancaster utilized them. See Brinton, Quaker Education,

131 124 important in punishment. If a punishment was used too often, it lost its effect. The best way to get the livelier boys to behave was to make them monitors. Since parents often undid the good the children learned at school, Lancaster believed that ridicule was an important means of obtaining the desired behaviors from his pupils on a daily basis. 132 White children, as previously noted, were sometimes present at the Cold Spring school. For Seneca children not involved in trade or other business off the reservation, this was probably the most prolonged exposure they had to their Euro- American counterparts. Neither the students nor the teacher provide details about how the Seneca children reacted to the presence of white children. If they quarreled, it is likely the schoolmaster would have noted such incidents. It does not seem that Seneca children found the presence of white children distasteful enough to warrant staying home, as attendance numbers were not affected by the presence of white children. It is not likely that the children had much to say to one another, either, as the Seneca children were just learning English (except for some older scholars, at least one of whom spoke a little English), and it is highly unlikely that the white children spoke any Seneca. White scholars at the Cold Spring school were the children of settlers living in the vicinity of the reservation. The first mention of one of these scholars states that the lad was a little white boy whose father lately removed in this neighborhood 132 Lancaster, Improvements in Education, All Elkinton s punishments as noted in the journals have been mentioned in preceding paragraphs. Either he had strong distaste for Lancaster s shame tactics or simply lacked the same imagination as Lancaster.

132 125 and requested that his boy might come to school. News traveled fast about Elkinton accepting a white student at the school, and a week later, Elkinton had another. This little white girl appears to have been the first female child in the school. Elkinton noted that both white children were present the following day. When Elkinton started his evening school on December 25, 1817, three of his seven evening scholars were white, but their ages were not noted. Four days later, he had one white pupil in the evening, with no age given. In the next two days, he had two and three white evening scholars, and two nights later, he had three white evening scholars. These white families must have found or established another school to serve the educational needs of their children, probably closer to their homes, because Elkinton did not note the presence of another white scholar, day or evening, until October 1818, when he had two white day students. Shortly after this, Elkinton mentioned a white student, Robert King, who lived some distance from here but has come to stay some time at the school. Friends noted the presence of a local white family headed by Francis King in 1803, but Friends had not mentioned him for some time. Robert was the son of Francis and the younger brother of John King. Mail sometimes came to Friends at John King s home, forty or fifty miles up the river from the Quaker farm. Elkinton also stayed at King s home when traveling in that neighborhood, so King was wellknown to Friends and they would have been comfortable taking one of the King children as a boarder. Elkinton wrote periodically that he had two white scholars over the course of several months, but they were only listed in the evening tallies. Finally, in March, Elkinton wrote that he was down to one white scholar (again, only

133 126 in the evening tally), and on March 15, 1819, confided in his journal that he felt lonesome in the evenings because both his white scholars had quit for a time. He never noted the presence of another white evening scholar at Cold Spring. After this, he had white scholars on one day in April, two days in May, three days in June, five days in July, and one day in December 1819; he had white scholars on one day in January It seems likely that white children ceased to attend the Quaker school when another school became available. The continued sporadic attendance suggests that they returned to Cold Spring when these alternate institutions were not in operation, or when new white settlers moved to locations closer to the Cold Spring school than to other white schools. One must also wonder why white students were only noted in evening school sessions for a time. Perhaps they labored during the day, but since all these instances occurred between mid-october and mid-march, not prime working season, this seems unlikely. Robert King s father sent him quite a distance to board 133 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , , , , , , Journal , entries , , Journal , entries , , , , , , , , Journal 1819, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. For more on the Kings, see Robert Clendenon, Tunesassa, to Committee, 25 Oct. 1813, and Benjamin Coope, Tunesassah, to Committee, 21 Aug. 1807, Letters to PYMIC C, PYMIC Correspondence, Box 2; Joseph Elkinton to John King, 18 May 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Thomas Wistar, 2 Dec. 1821, Letters to PYMIC E, PYMIC Correspondence Box 2; Minute Book, Vol. 1, , Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee, 261; A scholar named Joseph Silverheels wrote to Elkinton s father that sometimes white people stayed all night at the school in Cold Spring. It is possible he was speaking of white boarding scholars, but perhaps he spoke of white adult visitors, too. Joseph Silverheels, Cold Spring, to Asa Elkinton, 26 Apr. 1819,Vol. of Correspondence, re: Seneca Indians, , Papers of Joseph S. Elkinton, HC, QC. For the first note on King by Friends, see Vol. XLIV of Friends Intelligencer and Journal for the Journal of Journeys to the Indian Country by Isaac Coates, of Caln, Chester County, published as a serial. Information on the Kings can be found in genealogy compiled by Judith Taylor. See

134 127 with Quakers, when there must have been a closer establishment. Perhaps he considered the Quakers especially trustworthy or had a special relationship with Elkinton from his contact with the schoolmaster. As this boy was one of the white evening scholars, one must wonder what he did during the day. Possibly King and his fellow white scholar were also day scholars, but for some reason, Elkinton did not note their presence during the day. There were always Indian scholars during the day, and the presence of the white evening scholars was generally noted only when Indian scholars were scant. It is also possible that King worked for someone in the area during the day, as he was a teenager. There are enough lapses between notes on white evening scholars that it is possible that King went home periodically. It is also just as likely that he stayed for the entire time between October and March. 134 Elkinton taught Seneca children in much the same way that his contemporaries taught white children in their own schools. It is easy to see why white children felt at home in the Cold Spring school, but it was difficult for Seneca children to be taught from English language books and to read and recite in a foreign language. Until they understood what they were reading, they repeated meaningless sounds and words over and over again. Elkinton wrote it is a little tedious as there is so much sameness in learning them their letters. Elkinton s contemporary, Jabez Hyde, recognized the problem with this method of teaching: Schools are what they were and what we have reason to fear they will remain so long as we attempt to teach them English without a translation. One child after another will get discouraged with reading 134 For Quakers, having their children educated by other Friends was important. See Brinton, Quaker Education, 23, 45. See also Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage,

135 128 words of which he has no understanding. A century of arduous labor will bring the same result none will be educated. I am speaking of children boarding in their families, and attending school a few hours in a day. The Senecas have no aversion to learning English, but they cannot learn it without a translation, or their teacher possessing the language. Hyde s solution was to work on translations of books of the Bible and schoolbooks. While Elkinton hoped to use Hyde s translations when available, he also worked to learn the Seneca language himself. But this was a slow process, and it was a long time before his students saw any advantage from this study. 135 Unfortunately, neither Elkinton nor PYMIC left a record of the books used at the school during this time period. Elkinton mentioned only one of his texts by name, when he told a correspondent that the children were working in Comly s spelling book. A later copy of the Comly speller demonstrates its similarity to many other spelling books, containing a copy of the standard letters for children to learn and lists of words increasing in difficulty throughout its pages. Comly followed these words with verses and short paragraphs made up of the words. These passages often had to do with God, nature, God and nature, and virtues. The same good hand that made thee, my child, made the birds and the fish, the fly and the worm, too. And when he saw all that he had made, he said they were all good. So take great care, and do not hurt them in thy play. In addition to instructing children to be kind to animals (a fixture in period texts), this speller also prescribed behavior both in and out of the classroom; given his peculiar difficulties with order in the school, Elkinton probably emphasized such passages. 135 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Hyde,

136 129 Good boys and good girls do as they are bid, and by this means they gain the love and good will of all who know them. They love to be still, and hear when good folks talk, and do not play, and make a noise. It is a good thing to learn good manners while young. In addition to the above, Comly instructed children that they should not play in school, brothers and sisters should not fight, harsh words could lead to murder, good boys obeyed and loved their teachers, and children should do well in school so as not to disappoint their parents. Scholars were also reminded of their mortality, so they should not spend their time in vain or evil talk. The Judeo-Christian tradition also appeared in the form of a passage on Cain and Abel. Scholars were also told to praise the Lord and repent their sins. For many children, this was their introduction to Christian beliefs, although they were familiar with their own concepts of creation and nature and Christian morality as found in the revitalized religion under the prophet Handsome Lake. In addition to the didactic passages, Comly told stories, allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusions and lessons Joseph Elkinton to Mary Hathaway, 10 Jun (speller), and to Israel W. Morriss, 17 Mar (primer), Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Elkinton mentioned the textbook in 1817, and the only copy I could find of Comly s Spelling Book was printed in Much had changed in twenty-three years, but it is possible that the version was relatively unchanged, despite the word new in the title. Ruth Miller Elson has studied nineteenth century textbooks extensively, and states that they were quite resistant to change. She also states that spellers and arithmetic books were the first texts given to students, so it is likely that the speller and a primer mentioned by Elkinton (not by name) were the only textbooks at the school in 1817, when he made the notes. Ruth Miller Elson, Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964), 2, 10; John Comly, A New Spelling Book, Adapted to Different Classes of Pupils, (Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless, 1840). For lack of an earlier edition, I have included a discussion of the contents of the 1840 copy. Quotes from Comly, New Spelling Book, 12, 19; Treasurer s reports indicate that Friends sent eighteen slates to Tunesassa for the students around 1818, PYMIC, Treasurer a/c 1818, Treasurer s Reports, , QC, HC. Rothenberg has stated that Quakers chose not to teach religion except as a set of generalized values informally conveyed, [but] they did not have the threat of supernatural sanctions to reinforce their teachings. She further added that Friends could only suggest that certain things displeased the Great Spirit, but this had little influence on the Indians. Rothenberg, Friends Like These, 40. For school children, Elkinton was an

137 130 At times, Elkinton strayed from the texts to explain matters of Euro-American culture not detailed in a primer or a speller. Elkinton noted one day that he tried to enlarge their ideas and explain to them the order in which the days of the week came and also their names. Many of his students probably grasped this idea, as they could see from the days on which school was conducted that there was a sequence of seven days. Some older scholars might have had enough previous contact with whites to have known already about days of the week, and the growing missionary presence on other reservations would have shown them that there was one significant day for worship. Four months later, Elkinton wrote about instructing the boys respecting the order of the months and the days of the month and also the years. The schoolmaster was pleased to note that some pupils grasped these ideas, but he did not believe that they fully understood them. Elkinton strayed from the books on at least one other occasion. One day in 1818, the schoolmaster altered the exercises in the classroom to keep his scholars busy with their slates. 137 While Elkinton often wrote as though he was discouraged by the slow progress of his scholars, he also noted their accomplishments with great pleasure. As early as nine days after school commenced in fall 1816, Elkinton was encouraged as I have got two of them spelling in two letters that were not acquainted with the alphabet when they commenced. Two weeks later, he wrote that he had some scholars spelling in three letters. By December, he had them spelling in three letters influential character, especially given that their elders repeatedly told them in speeches that they should mind their books and the teacher, giving authority to both. 137 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entries , , Journal , entry , Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

138 131 from their books as a class for the first time, and some individuals could spell in four letters. At the end of the month, four of Elkinton s scholars could spell in two syllables. A few weeks later, one scholar was spelling in three syllables. By August, some scholars had advanced to work on arithmetic, and he noted that four of his boys could say the multiplication table to 6 times inclusive with some assistance for which 3 of them got a reward of 3 fish hooks a piece for stimulous and I got 4 having said it very well. By the time Elkinton reached this point, he had involved the children in competition for prizes in school, in this case fish hooks. The next day, he noted that three scholars said the tables to six times, and Elkinton gave himself three fish hooks and the others each two hooks for saying the table imperfectly. The following day, three scholars said part of the table, but did so imperfectly, and two of them got two fish hooks while one received one hook. This was the last time he noted such competition in the schoolroom. Possibly that Elkinton s expectations were too high, considering that two days after this last note on the competition, Alden passed through the school and later reported to his society s secretary: We heard the pupils spell in concert and repeat the principal arithmetical tables, in the same manner, with a correctness, which bespoke the fidelity of their teacher, as did the excellence of their chirography and the neatness and accuracy of several maps of their execution Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , , , Journal 1817, entries , , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 30 Oct. 1816, to George M. Elkinton, 8 Dec. 1816, to Lucia Elkinton, 27 Dec. 1816, to his aunt, 10 Aug. 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Alden, Account of Sundry Missions, Elkinton s journals give conflicting accounts of the visitor, or the visitor passed through twice within the space of five days. Alden did not date his visit in his report, written one month later.

139 132 Alden was not the only visitor to see and report on the accomplishments of the scholars at Cold Spring. Elkinton noted that a visiting committee of Friends listened to the boys do exercises in spelling, reading, and saying tables (numeration, multiplication, pence, shilling, and times) in concert. The children also recited a little verse on the calendar months for the visiting Friends. Friends published a report on this visit in the following year (1818): On visiting the school taught by one of our Friends, it was found that eighteen Indian lads attended, who, generally, had made satisfactory progress in learning. Several of them could read the English language. The cleanliness of their persons; the order observable in school, and the attention they paid to their learning, afforded an encouraging prospect of the issue of the attempt making for their instruction. Several days after the visit of Friends, Elkinton heard one of his scholars say the multiplication tables by heart, and the schoolmaster presented him with a little book. For children who did not speak much, if any, English before the school commenced, it seems that they had advanced quite well. 139 The accomplishments of Elkinton s scholars can perhaps best be seen through their own writings. When Elkinton s step-mother sent books for the boys, the scholars sent thank you letters. Elkinton said that he sometimes walked behind them and saw things on their slates like I want make letter see Lucia Elkinton. On Joseph Pierce s slate, he saw I want Lucia Elkinton make letter me see. Eight year old Maris Pierce s entire letter to Lucia Elkinton was written one month later. 139 Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 15 Sep. 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Report of the Committee for the Civilization of the Indian Natives. 1818, HSP; PYMIC, Minute Book Vol. 2, , PYMIC Minutes, 55. Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

140 133 my father he want me go Pitts burgh always he says the go Pitts burgh all Pretty well at my house. I want very much Pretty well asa Elkinton Lucia Elkinton too. I glad me gave Lucia Elkinton Picture I want me give asa Elkinton Picture Book. now 8 years old me I think very good to [?] sugar milk too. I dont know how how many mil to Philadelphia. I think great ways Philadelphia I think Big town Philadelphia great many fishes Allegany [?] too. Cold spring school house sometime great my many school boys at Cold spring. may be 18 or 19 got clock cold spring. quakers got saw mill grist mill too. great many board at quakers. I think great many store at Pitts burgh I think very good to eat meat flesh too. I want always school me. I want good learn Book me from Maris Peirce By March, Elkinton wrote former missionary Halliday Jackson that several of the children had written to his mother. Those who came regularly could read in the testament and write pretty well, according to Elkinton, and several could express themselves to some extent. He did note that sometimes when they wrote their ideas on paper and slate the result was very humorous. 140 Maris Pierce was not the only scholar to send letters to Philadelphia. Two months after Elkinton wrote to Halliday Jackson, two Cold Spring scholars wrote letters to their teacher s father, Asa Elkinton. I am now going to write a little for thee to see. I [torn bit here] before long Plant Potatoes and corn. Joseph Elkinton has planted some onions and some cabbage for seed. he says by and by his Garden very good. Some of the Indians make Garden this summer my father ploughed his Garden yesterday. Bargain my Father plough Joseph Elkintons Garden tomorrow. my father has got one yoke of oxen one yoke of small Bulls about two years old he has got two cows two calves six hogs and [seven?] hens two chickens and one old Horse 140 Joseph Elkinton to brother (George Elkinton?), 7 Jan. 1819, and Joseph Elkinton to Holliday (sic) Jackson, 14 Mar. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Maris Pierce, Cold Spring, to Lucia Elkinton, 11 Feb. 1819, Vol. of Correspondence, Re: Seneca Indians, , Papers of Joseph S. Elkinton; PYMIC, Minute Book Vol. 2, , 74 states that the children who came regularly showed great improvement. In the Maris Pierce letter, empty brackets indicate a portion of the word that is unreadable, and brackets with a question mark inside indicate a word that is unreadable. Where the original letter was torn, I noted such.

141 134 has got a very good ox sledge last summer he had a good deal of Hay and oats and potatoes and corn. Great while ago big John one of the chief daughter very sick he says she is almost dead. We have done making Sugar now I guess we have got one hundred Pounds Great many Indians sick some time ago and Some children died. I hear great many Pigeons up the river about nine miles not long ago one Indians died at Cattaraugus Reservation. I saw very Great many rafts and arks Go down the River this Spring very often I come to School at cold Spring and Learning Book I cyrhering multiplic[] of money I read some in testament I wont to understand English. My father well mother and all my sisters all my Relation well I wont thee write a letter to me I have got no more to say from Jacob Robinson I am now going me to write letter. very fine [?] ther now very good to make garden. I guess by and by I have good garden at my house yesterday it was ploughed I guess directly plant. my father has gone to hunt a yoke of oxen because he wants to plough his corn field. I seen a great my boards going down the river thir spring some of them broke their rafts on the islands and some of the people got drowned and some of then got very much [hurt?] very glad by and by glad may fish very low water. very strong work tland make fences yesterday junst more plough [borther?] our cow last night had a young calf. big john daughter died yesterday just now plow borther. I guess [?] [?] corn and potatoes will grow pretty fast because it is warm I want a field of corn this summer. some times white people stays all night at school house at Cold spring. I want thee to write letter to me. I have no more to say now from Joseph Silverheels These scholars might have been older than Maris, but all three were developing good English vocabularies and learning how to put words together to make sentences, even if they sometimes lapsed into stringing English words onto Iroquoian syntax. They had already learned enough to make themselves understood. A month later, Elkinton wrote one of the Seneca lads from Buffalo who was residing and learning among Quakers in the Philadelphia area, that some of Elkinton s own scholars could read and write pretty well and have ciphered to multiplication of money. The Minutes indicate that several scholars wrote letters that the Committee read at its meeting in

142 135 June. Still, their understanding of the English language was imperfect. In November, Elkinton wrote that his brother George s epistle to the boys was received, and his scholars read it in English. Afterward, Elkinton explained it to them in their own language. Understanding and utilizing some words in English did not necessarily mean that even regular scholars who had made so much progress could fully comprehend a letter from a native speaker of English. 141 As Jabez Hyde understood, the best way to teach Seneca children to read and write in English was to have a readily accessible translation available for them. As they learned to read in English, they would also learn to read in their own language, and could use the books as a reference as they worked through the new language. Best of all, the translations would give pupils access to a written form of their own native tongue and they could begin to write in their own language, perhaps not an outcome Hyde intended. 142 In his correspondence with Hyde and through his experiences, Elkinton saw the potential benefits of having Seneca language textbooks in his classroom. Elkinton 141 Jacob Robinson, Cold Spring, to Asa Elkinton, 23 Apr. 1819, and Joseph Silverheels, Cold Spring, 26 Apr. 1819, Vol. of Correspondence, Re: Seneca Indians, , Papers of Joseph S. Elkinton; Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Lewis Thomas, 17 May 1819, Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Lucia Elkinton, 1 Aug. 1819, and Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to George Elkinton, 14 Nov. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; PYMIC, Minute Book Vol. 2, , The Seneca language is now written, but there were no real attempts to write the language until Presbyterian missionaries began their language studies. They needed to know the language to communicate with Senecas, which was essential to conversion. Jill Lepore has documented missionary attempts to put the Cherokee language in written form. Like Hyde, these missionaries used native speakers to assist them in their endeavors. By their methods, Cherokees were able to learn to read quite slowly, but the syllabary invented by the Cherokee Sequoyah allowed his people to learn to read quite rapidly. There were no such attempts by Senecas to create a system of writing their own language. See Jill Lepore, A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States, (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), chapter 3.

143 136 acknowledged that Hyde sent books to him as early as February Hyde sent Elkinton some translations of hymns and scriptures, which Elkinton read to one very interested native, who requested that a dozen copies be sent to Allegany. The Quaker schoolmaster told Hyde he gave this unnamed native a copy and would distribute the other four copies. He then asked Hyde to insert the lines of Now I lay me down to sleep into his translation of the Gospel of St. John, if Hyde had not yet completed this work. Elkinton stated that this would be suitable for children to commit to memory. This indicates that Elkinton wished to use such a translation in his classroom, and the testaments his students read perhaps were Hyde s translations, and were not printed exclusively in English. In May of that year, Elkinton told Hyde he was so pleased with the work that he wished to request one-sixth of what Hyde had printed with a stiffened cover. Thy plan of the spelling book having an addition of 8 or 16 pages entirely meets my view and we will take one third of them when completed please to have them put in a pretty good cover as they will likely be more serviceable. One verse more is with me to have inserted if not too late which is In a burying place may see Graves shorter there than I From Deaths arrest no age is free Young children too may die. Additionally, Elkinton wished to have the Sermon on the Mount translated into the Seneca language. Significantly, the supposedly non-proselytizing mission of the

144 137 Quakers used an actively proselytizing missionary s translated textbooks in their school. 143 It is certain that the Cold Spring scholars did not have a geography text. Jonathan Thomas wrote PYMIC clerk Thomas Wistar to suggest a small geography for use in the school, because such a text would amuse the scholars and perhaps change their beliefs. Geographies of the era would have had both maps and details of cultures of the world, and given some understanding of the known cosmos. The effect could have been massive cultural confusion, or a fusion of the two ways of viewing the world and beyond. Certainly, it would have instilled in the scholars the idea that there was a large world outside Iroquoia. Historian Robert Berkhofer, Jr. cited this letter from Thomas and another anecdote from a Presbyterian missionary at Allegany to demonstrate that religion could be a part of nearly any lesson. Even the choice of subjects at times served a religious purpose. A Quaker schoolmaster taught geography to force the older scholars to reflect on a sistom[sic] that we believe to be more correct in its nature than the one they hold. Another teacher requested some science apparatus for his society in order to demonstrate that the earth was neither flat nor borne on the back of a turtle and that two benevolent forefathers did not create and carry the sun and the moon. 143 If Elkinton did indeed purchase and receive copies of Hyde s translations for the use of the Cold Spring school, this would explain the absence of textbooks in PYMIC receipts during Elkinton s tenure as schoolmaster. Hyde, ; Joseph Elkinton to brother, 7 Jan. 1819, to Jabez B. Hyde, Feb. 1819, to Holliday Jackson, 14 Mar. 1819, to Jabez B. Hyde, 23 May 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. Quakers appear to have been ever mindful of childhood mortality, as it was a reality of the time, and to some extent, it appears that Elkinton wished to remind children of this so they could consider their spiritual state. Elkinton once requested that Hyde send copies of his works in both English and in Seneca, so perhaps both languages were not always found in the same bound volume. See Joseph Elkinton, Cold Spring, to Jabez B. Hyde, 6 Aug. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. In the above-mentioned note to Jackson, Elkinton wrote that Hyde did all his translation through an interpreter who lived with him, so Hyde was not using his own knowledge of the language to make the translations. The University of Rochester has a copy of Hyde s work on microcard. This translation consisted of only a hymn, some Psalms, John 3 and a couple of prayers.

145 138 While the teaching of science is not the equivalent of promoting Christianity, teaching pupils that their religious beliefs were not correct opened the door for the separate entities of both science and Christianity to prevail in young Seneca minds. 144 While reading, writing, and arithmetic were Elkinton s main focus in the classroom, his pupils also engaged in map-making under his direction. As early as 1817, Alden noted that the scholars maps were neat and accurate. Elkinton had no formal training in this endeavor, and it is difficult to say if this part of the curriculum was his idea or someone else s. In August 1819, Elkinton wrote a correspondent that his children were making maps of the Holland Purchase. He sent one such map to his father that month. One map of the Morris Purchase survives and is included at the end of this chapter, that of James Pierce, age twelve, completed on August 30 th. In November, over two years after Alden wrote about students at Cold Spring learning to make maps, Elkinton asked his brother to send more instruction on map-making, indicating that it was a continued interest of both the teacher and his pupils. 145 By making maps, Cold Spring scholars would learn to read them. In the Senecas dealings with whites on the issues of land, boundaries, and sales, it could only be beneficial to have some sense of how to read a map. If the children also 144 Jonathan Thomas, Tunesassa, to Thomas Wistar, 20 May 1820, Letters to PYMIC T, PYMIC Correspondence, Box 5. Berkhofer references Jonathan Thomas in 1820 and Presbyterian William Hall in Thomas was not actually the schoolmaster, as Berkhofer implied. He did serve as a substitute teacher, at times when Joseph Elkinton was traveling. Salvation and the Savage, Alden, Account of Sundry Missions, 30-31; Joseph Elkinton, Indian Country, to Ebenezer Levick, 8 Aug. 1819, Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Asa Elkinton, 22 Aug. 1819, and Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to George Elkinton, 14 Nov. 1819, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; James Pierce, Map of the Morris Purchase or West Geneseo, Folder Misc. papers, Maps in Miscellaneous Papers, PYMIC, QC, HC; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

146 139 learned surveying techniques, they could make maps of their own lots on the reservation if the land should ever be divided, as Quakers hoped. If the land was not divided, they could certainly make maps of their own informal claims. But it does not appear that the pupils at Cold Spring were taught surveying, and they might have learned nothing beyond the ability to copy a map someone else had created. 146 Students at Cold Spring also engaged in another form of copying. Jonathan Thomas, general Quaker missionary and sometimes substitute teacher, wrote Thomas Wistar, longtime clerk of the Indian Committee: Last fall & fore part of winter, I often felt myself engaged in something like a little history of the Bible, or the most remarkable passages of providential events & some of the expressions of wise men in order to open the minds of the scholars on some things & for them to copy it, & carry it home to their parants (sic) to read to them & inform them its contents. Thomas suggested that perhaps something like this should be printed in pamphlet form or bound in a small book for Indian boys and girls. He reckoned that the scholars could not study the whole Bible, so such a compilation would be advantageous. Although Thomas did not state that he had given his work to Elkinton and the school children, in February 1820, Elkinton wrote to his sister that the children were engaged presently in copying this history of the Bible; Elkinton hoped this would be an advantage to them. In the days surrounding this letter to his sister, Elkinton s school was larger than ever. Winter was normally the peak season for the Cold Spring school, but the numbers during this period were unusually large. While 146 The importance of being able to read a map and of possessing maps of Seneca lands can be seen in Blacksnake s testimony during the court case surrounding the rightful ownership of the Oil Spring Reservation as printed in Congdon, Allegany Oxbow, Blacksnake was deposed in 1857 and 1858.

147 140 the weekly average was close to other weeks in Februarys past, Elkinton had around twenty students on any given day in this period. On one banner day he had an unprecedented twenty-seven pupils in the morning (twenty-two of whom remained for the afternoon session). His evening sessions had fair attendance, but did not set any records. 147 February was often the best month for school attendance. In February 1820, children and/ or their parents had an interest in the Thomas history of the Bible. Thomas stated that he selected remarkable passages from the Bible for this collection. These were probably the stories familiar to most children raised in the Christian tradition. Thomas probably included stories with heroes and heroines such as Moses leading his people out of Egypt, David s defeat of Goliath, Daniel s survival in the lion s den and Esther s courage in saving her people. It is likely that Thomas also added the miracles of Jesus and stories of his life and death. These stories would have reminded children of their own story-telling traditions. These pieces would have been inspiring, too, for a people engaged in their own struggle for survival. Thomas included expressions of wise men in his collection, something adults would have embraced in their own efforts to guide their youth. And the Seneca population at Allegany was learning more about Christianity. In the following year, Indians met in their own capacity to worship in a Christian or Christianizing way. While 147 Jonathan Thomas, Tunesassa, to Thomas Wistar, 20 May 1820, Letters to PYMIC T, PYMIC Correspondence, Box 5; Elkinton wrote his sister that he had eight children boarding pretty regularly at this time, Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to RL Austin, 13 Feb. 1820, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries for February 1820, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1. Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage, 31, notes the use of Bible history in the Quaker school.

148 141 Allegany did not have the same missionary influence as the other reservations, its inhabitants did not operate in a vacuum. They had heard about the principles of the Christian faith from Christian Senecas on other reservations. Perhaps some had attended church while visiting other reservations, and certainly, those who had a great deal of contact with the Quakers had heard something of Christianity. 148 After the Cold Spring school moved into its own building, scholars boarded at the schoolhouse when they had to come from a distance. This allowed the schoolmaster to be a constant presence in their lives for the duration of their stay. Elkinton had planned to stay at the school in a small room with an eighteen-foot base only when weather did not permit him to return to his Tunesassah home. Before long, however, Elkinton stayed at the school for the entire week, returning to Tunesassah only on the weekend. Elkinton often returned to Tunesassah on Fourth Day evenings or Fifth Day mornings for meeting; he went back to Cold Spring around noon on Fifth Day and stayed until Seventh Day evening. A month after the new schoolhouse opened, Elkinton wrote that he had gotten good at frying meat and roasting potatoes, and that he often had his hands in dough. Students probably started staying overnight when it was too difficult to return home, due to the river conditions or the overall weather. Robert King, a white scholar, stayed with Elkinton because he lived quite a distance from the school. Elkinton noted letting his scholars go early one day because most lived at quite a distance from the school. Elkinton noted that 148 Papers of the American Board of Commissioners For Foreign Missions, Unit 6, Reel 789, document 310 provides a history of Deacon Robert Pierce, credited with being the first Allegany Seneca to embrace Christianity. He visited other reservations, where he heard missionaries and professed his faith. The document indicates that this happened in the 1820s.

149 142 he had a couple of boarders in January 1819, when he told his brother that he had to learn to cook more extensively. That year, young Maris Pierce noted that a great many people boarded with Quakers, and his fellow student Joseph Silverheels wrote that sometimes white people stayed overnight at the school. By February 1820, Elkinton had eight boarders. There is not much evidence about these boarding scholars during the Cold Spring era, but when the school moved later under Elkinton s tenure, there were more boarding scholars. 149 When Elkinton returned home to Tunesassah for meetings on First Days and Fifth Day mornings, he left no one to watch these pupils. If he had a responsible student monitor, he could have left his pupils at Cold Spring and attended Fifth Day meeting early in the morning, but it is doubtful he would have left them overnight. Possibly the children came over the river with him for these meetings. The students might have returned to their homes on Seventh Day evenings, just as Elkinton did, or perhaps they stayed with relations nearby from Seventh Day evening to Second Day morning. 150 Living with Elkinton during the school week exposed boarders to Quaker life. Boarding pupils would have had a different daily routine when staying at the schoolhouse. Since Elkinton noted having to learn to cook more extensively, he was 149 Joseph Elkinton to RL Austin, 14 Dec. 1817, to Hannah Clark, 11 Jan. 1818, to Asa Elkinton, 18 Jan. 1818, Letterbook , and Joseph Elkinton to brother (George Elkinton?), 7 Jan. 1819, and Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to RL Austin, 13 Feb. 1820, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Maris Pierce, Cold Spring, to Lucia Elkinton, 11 Feb. 1819, and Joseph Silverheels, Cold Spring, 26 Apr. 1819, Vol. of Correspondence, Re: Seneca Indians, , Papers of Joseph S. Elkinton; Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entries , , Journal , entry , and Journal 1819, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box This will be analyzed in more detail in a later discussion of boarders at Tunesassa. Paul A. Lacey has stated that having a meeting for the whole school community is important in Quaker education. See his Growing into Goodness, 1.

150 143 clearly cooking for his boarders. For Seneca boarders, the food Elkinton served and the way in which he prepared this food would have been unusual. Even meal times would have been different. By living with Elkinton, children were exposed to his daily worship, manners and mannerisms, his personal beliefs and other aspects of Euro-American life and culture. These experiences probably made Quaker suggestions about changing their lifestyles seem less foreign. Perhaps the story most neglected in primary documents on Cold Spring is that of the adult scholars. It is impossible to separate adults from children when Elkinton used the term scholars. When he used the phrase boys, one could clearly see no adults were present at those times. In a couple of instances early on, Elkinton mentioned picking up an Indian on the way to the school and having that individual as a scholar. Elkinton would have never called a child an Indian, preferring the term boy for a male child. In these cases, Elkinton found adults he could convince to come to school. When Elkinton had curious on-lookers from a council at the beginning of his school-keeping days, these people were adults. They came in and said their lessons a couple of times, then left. In 1817, Elkinton wrote I often feel very small in school when I look round and see several scholars much older than myself. Save for these instances, one would not notice the difference between these young men, some older than their teacher, and young boys in the records. All were there to learn to read and write, and the dynamic between grown scholars and

151 144 their small peers is not known. Perhaps generations of the same family even attended school together. 151 Due to their work schedules, it was often impossible for adults to attend school during the day. After school one day, two young men came as scholars, and each wanted to say a lesson. They could not come during the day, they told Elkinton, because they were at work when school was in progress. Elkinton did not commence keeping an evening school until October, and only for members of the Quaker family in residence (probably the Thomas children), held at Tunesassah when he returned home in the evening. Not until the new schoolhouse was built at Cold Spring in the following December did Elkinton keep an evening school on the reservation. On his first evening he had seven scholars, four native and three white. He did not mention if the idea of keeping an evening school was his own or came from the Indians. While white students were infrequent, Indian scholars came almost every night that evening school was offered. For young adult men engaged in caring for livestock, cutting timber, or the like, evening school was ideal. Elkinton s semantics support this idea. In January 1818, he informed a correspondent that ten to thirteen natives usually attended his evening school. While this could include both adults and children, there were probably more adults than children attending the evening sessions, or he would have used the term boys. Elkinton and the Thomases 151 Joseph Elkinton, Journal , entry , Journal , entries , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 17 Mar. 1817, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3.

152 145 reported to PYMIC in March that Elkinton opened the evening school for young men who could not come during the day. 152 It is unlikely that anything barred adult women from the evening sessions, but it is doubtful a woman ever came or Elkinton would have noted it. Ann Thomas did a little instruction in domestic crafts at Tunesassah. In March 1817, Quakers in residence noted that they wished to procure flax and wool to instruct women to spin wool, knit, spin thread, and occasionally to learn their books. They did not say whether Ann Thomas or Elkinton would give the literary instruction, and they never noted if this part of the plan came to fruition. Friends wrote that Seneca women already had 150 yards of yarn, but since the two Seneca women who had already learned to weave went into the woods with hunting parties, Quakers had to do the weaving. In the report of the visiting committee written in 1818, Friends noted that many Seneca women had made considerable progress in spinning. Elkinton was too concerned with his own business at Cold Spring to remark on Thomas s endeavors, and the Thomases left only scant reports to the Committee. It is not 152 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1817, entry , Journal , entries , , Journal , entries , , , , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Evening scholars, adult and juvenile, were also prone to being unsettled or trying. Elkinton noted one instance of a young man in the evening who was not as composed as he was supposed to be at the close of school. Journal 1818, entry ; Joseph Elkinton, Jonathan Thomas, and Ann Thomas to PYMIC, 8 Mar. 1818, Letterbooks (3 v., ), vol. 2, and Joseph Elkinton to Hannah Clark, 11 Jan. 1818, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; It is possible that these evening sessions were often less formal because they were attended largely by adults, and the numbers were often smaller than during the day. Such informal sessions might have led to informal discussions, one of which Elkinton noted as being on the subject of the Great and Evil Spirits. Journal 1818, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1.

153 146 known how long Ann Thomas continued to teach women to spin or if they ever learned anything from books. 153 By accepting the offer to learn Euro-American domestic crafts, Seneca women did not seek to abandon their old life ways for new gender roles, material culture and skills. The two women weavers were not able to engage in their weaving because they were off in the woods with hunting parties, where they cooked for the hunters, dressed the kill and prepared the hides. Women still engaged in their traditional form of agriculture, and if men plowed, women continued to follow the plowing by sowing and tending their corn with hoes. While a number of women knew how to spin, with rare exceptions, Indians did not grow flax, and spinning declined when Quakers became reluctant to supply the flax. Women were busy with their traditional crops and other work, and unless they married men who subscribed to the new ways endorsed by Friends, the men did not grow flax either. 154 Providing this kind of instruction taxed the Quaker household as well. When Ann Thomas left Tunesassah for a time, instruction could not continue. When at Tunesassah, Thomas s own work around the house prevented her from having much time to dedicate to instruction. Elkinton tried to convince a female Friend to assist at 153 Jonathan Thomas, Ann Thomas, and Joseph Elkinton to PYMIC, 17 Mar. 1817, Letterbooks (3 v ), vol. 1, Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Minute Book Vol. 2, , PYMIC Minutes, 34-35; Report of the Committee for the Civilization of the Indian Natives. 1818, Jonathan Thomas, Ann Thomas, and Joseph Elkinton to PYMIC, 17 Mar. 1817, Letterbooks (3 v ), vol. 1, and 8 Mar in Vol. 2 of the same, and Joseph Elkinton to Friend John Hoop, n.d., Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3. For a detailed study of women and men and their reactions to Quaker introduction of Euro-American style agriculture and domestic crafts, see Rothenberg, Friends Like These, 156; The changing roles of women is also discussed in Martha Champion Randle, Iroquois Women, Then and Now, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 149 (1951); Bilharz, First Among Equals? ; Joan M. Jensen, Native American Women and Agriculture: A Seneca Case Study, in Vicki Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois, Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women s History, (New York: Routledge, 1994).

154 147 Tunesassah, but this young woman was not ready to undertake such a job. For a woman to give instruction to other women at Tunesassah, she required one female assistant to help in the household. Unless Ann Thomas had the help of one of her female children, it is not likely that she was able to give a great deal of instruction in the household. Ann and Jonathan also had one small child in the household in 1819, requiring additional care. Jonathan Thomas was a skilled weaver and had instructed those who knew how to weave. Having a man teach such skills to women might have been seen as inappropriate, and while one man had learned from Thomas in the past, Indian men did not rush to take up this craft, which appeared to be women s work according to Seneca gender roles. 155 Female manual labor training and book-learning probably did not gain much ground under the tenure of the Thomas family. Women trained as weavers did not engage in this line of work with any regularity, forcing Friends to weave for the Indians, as well as for themselves. Seneca girls did not attend the school at Cold Spring, and were therefore not learning to read and write, except perhaps for a little instruction which Quakers might have given at Tunesassah for a time with the manual training. Women were left out of Quaker education in these years. Only part of the reason for this was because Quakers failed to reach out to women and girls. For their 155 Joseph Elkinton, Journal 1818, entry , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 1; Joseph Elkinton to Asa Elkinton, 4 Apr. 1819, Joseph Elkinton to Richard M. Austin, 4 Apr. 1819, Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to George Williams, 2 May 1819, Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Hannah Webster, 9 May 1819, Joseph Elkinton, Tunesassah, to Rebecca Thomas, 24 Dec. 1820, Letterbook , Papers of Joseph Elkinton, Box 3; Barton, Quaker Promise Kept, 9. Rothenberg discusses Jonathan Thomas as a weaver and states that since a man and woman he had taught became spiritual leaders in the Longhouse, Senecas could take up the arts of whites and retain status in their community. Rothenberg, Friends Like These, 192. This might not be the case, as Quakers complained that these individuals were no longer weaving, so perhaps they quit and took on these religious roles to prevent others from chastising them or accusing them of witchcraft.

155 148 own reasons, Senecas themselves did not send female children to the Cold Spring school. While not always heavily attended, the Cold Spring school succeeded in bringing English-language education, reading, writing, arithmetic, and even mapmaking to young men and boys. Some young men and children stayed away from the school because they or their parents did not wish them to attend. Cultural factors prevented others from attending. Young men and boys came to school at Cold Spring nearly every day that it was held, indicating a demand for such a school among a part of the populace. The scholars, their parents, and/or their chiefs understood that such knowledge would help the rising generation in changing times. Those who attended school with regularity learned enough English to communicate and rudimentary arithmetic. After Elkinton introduced the Hyde translations, some learned to read and write in their native language. While women and girls did not take advantage of the school at Cold Spring, some learned manual labor skills from Ann Thomas at the Quaker residence. For young men, women, boys, and girls exposed to Quaker education, learning English or skills associated with the Euro-American population helped them to conduct business or political affairs in the future. As they learned the various skills associated with the instruction they received, these students learned parts of a second way of life. In this period, people obtained clocks and calendars as they adopted Euro-American concepts of time. They learned about the Christian religion, in addition to Euro-American views of the world, manners, and child-rearing practices. They incorporated this knowledge into their existing knowledge base and

156 149 way of living. As they did so, a divide arose between those with Quaker instruction and those without. This divide tore apart a community, and at the center of the controversy was a schoolhouse. The opposition to the Quaker school is chronicled in Chapter 5.

157 150