NARRATIVES OF

EARLY MISSION WORK

ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER AND

BUFFALO CREEK.

I. THE QUAKERS AMONG THE SENECAS.

II. JACOB LINDLEY'S JOURNAL, 1797.

III. VISITS OF REV. DAVID BACON, 1800-1801.
IV. LETTERS OF REV. ELKANAH HOLMES, 1800.
V. VISIT OF REV. LEMUEL COVELL, 1803.
VI. VISIT OF GERARD T. HOPKINS, 1804.

VII. VISIT OF REV. JOSEPH AVERY, 1805.

VIII. VISIT OF REV. ROSWELL BURROWS, 1806.

IX. A TEACHER AMONG THE SENECAS: EXPERIENCES OF JABEZ BACKUS HYDE, 1811-1820.

X. NARRATIVE OF ESTHER RUTGERS LOW, 1819-1820.

XI. JOURNALS OF REV. THOMPSON S. HARRIS, 18211828.

XII. THE SENECA MISSION CHURCH REGISTER, 1823

1848.

FIRST PROTESTANT MINISTER TO VISIT THE NIAGARA REGION (1759).

FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY COPLEY, OWNED BY THE CORPORATION OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK.

NARRATIVES of EARLY MISSION WORK ON THE NIAGARA AND BUFFALO CREEK

I.

QUAKERS AMONG THE SENECAS.

BY FRANK H. SEVERANCE.

The first visit of a Protestant missionary to the region of Buffalo Creek and the Niagara, of which we find record, was that of Rev. Samuel Kirkland, in the summer of 1788.* "His object in this journey was to ascertain, and furnish to the Board of Commissioners in Boston, a particular account of the situation and numbers of the Senecas, their disposition towards the Christian religion, the prospects of usefulness to a missionary residing among them, and also to be present, by invitation and request, at a treaty to be held in their country." ("Life of Samuel Kirkland," by Samuel K. Lothrop, Boston, 1848; p. 281.) He reached the Seneca

*A distinguished Protestant missionary had visited the Niagara in Johnson's army in 1759, but as his coming hither was apparently in the capacity of chaplain to the British troops, and not as a missionary to the Indians, it would be hardly permissible to begin the record with him. This was the Rev. John Ogilvie, a native of New York, and a graduate of Yale College. Being a Dutch scholar, he had been appointed to the mission at Albany in 1848, going thither the following year. In connection with his parish work, he was active for many years as a missionary among the Mohawks. He was a favorite with Sir William Johnson, who in 1756 asked the Lords of Trade to grant him an increase of salary. In 1755-56 we find him often in attendance at councils at Fort Johnson. He joined the expedition against Niagara, and remained with the army until the close of the war. He it undoubtedly was who officiated at the burial of Prideaux at Fort Niagara, being the first Protes tant clergyman to conduct religious services on the banks of the Niagara. He became rector of Trinity Church, New York, and shared in translating into Mohawk the Book of Common Prayer. He died Nov. 26, 1774, aged 51. Our engraving is from an oil portrait by Copley, owned by the Corporation of Trinity Church.