Ohio History Journal

COLONEL DICK JOHNSON'S CHOCTAW ACADEMY:

A Forgotten Educational Experiment.

 

 

MRS. SHELLEY D. ROUSE.

Less than a century ago, there was a large and prosperous

school for the education of the sons of the Southern Indians,

in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky.

It was at that time "the only institution in the country under

the supervision of the war department of the United States

excepting the military academy at West Point;" it attracted the

attention of philanthropists, and was visited by many interested

and curious travelers; it was under the patronage of a Vice

President of the United States, and its head-master for most of

its nearly twenty years of existence, was a man of unusual parts,

who, though somewhat in advance of his times, must have been

marked and respected by his generation. Of this unique under-

taking there are but few and obscure records. The recent dis-

covery of the correspondence of its Superintendent, which since

his death nearly seventy years ago has been undisturbed, sug-

gests an inquiry into its history.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Indians of

the southern tribes had become discouraged with the results of

warfare with the white man; it was borne in upon them that

the only way in which they could compete with him and survive

was to become learned in his wisdom, that they might "fight

the pale face with his own medicine." In the treaties educational

provisos began to appear. A number of mission-schools had

been established by the different religious sects under direction

of the War office (for Indian affairs were then very frankly of

that department), but the head men of the nations had become

dissatisfied with the opportunities afforded by these institutions.

The surroundings were those of barbarism; the authority of the

teachers was weakened by the fact that the parents were their

children's guardians, and they, according to ancient custom, re-

quired no continued performance of duty; attendance was much

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.     89

interrupted by calls to hunt or to fight, and even more often by

illness; for small-pox was everpresent, "bilious fevers were prev-

alent in spring and summer," and tubercular disorders were

showing themselves; efforts to fix habits of industry and steady

purpose were rendered futile by such environment. Even the

most sanguine teachers grew disheartened; we find one of them

writing jubilantly to the Department at Washington: "We are

keeping step in the march of civilization; the Indian men and

boys are wearing Pantaloons;" but his next letter reports sadly

enough that they cannot be restrained from trading those same

pantaloons for firewater.  Finally, in 1825, the Presbyterian

missionary to the Choctaws writes in despair that Chief Mingo

Mushalatubbee had given his warriors permission to fight and

kill for one month (the time limit being no doubt the effect of

civilization), and that the schools in the nation had been closed

owing to the drunkenness of the chief, at whose house one of

them was maintained, and the disreputable conduct of the teachers

of others "who had been driven from the nation in fear of

their lives."

The next document in the yellowed archives of the War

Department contains the germ of the foundation to which we

refer. It is a communication from the chiefs General Humming-

bird, Wishu-washano, Nilega, and John Jones, wherein they state

that the Choctaw treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek concluded at

Washington in 1825, provided that $6,000 should be supplied

by the President annually for twenty years "to the support of

schools in said nation." This fund, as well as another arising

from the sale of certain lands reserved in the treaty made at

Doak's Stand in 1820, the chiefs desired applied to the education

of youths at some point distant from the nation. For they de-

clared that although schools could be maintained in the nation

by the expenditure of half as much money, which money would

circulate among themselves, while the daily example of the

students might be of benefit to their brothers, nevertheless they

wished the flower of their young men to be educated far from

the allurements and distractions of the plains and the wigwams,

where they could not seek the protection of their parents in idle-

ness, and where they could be surrounded by the customs and

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90        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

manners of civilized life. In furtherance of this request, which

was acceded to by the government, their agent, Colonel Ward,

wrote to his personal friend Colonel R. M. Johnson, United States

Senator from Kentucky, and to the Secretary of the Baptist

Board of Missions, which had a flourishing Indian Department

with headquarters at Louisville.

The Honorable Richard Mentor Johnson was a prominent

man in his day. Born at Bryant's Station in 1781, he had some

schooling at Transylvania, became a lawyer, a state legislator, a

member of Congress from 1807 to 1819; was unanimously elected

a United States Senator in the latter year, and served in that

capacity until he was made Vice-President of the United States

with Van Buren from 1837 till 1841^. A man of great enthusiasm

and energy, indomitable physical courage, with but few social

graces and little learning, he was more politician than statesman;

yet was the author of several important state papers, among

them the bill against Imprisonment for Debt. In 1812 he raised

a regiment of cavalry, and having hastened to the frontier, near

the outpost of Fort Wayne, Indiana, he served under General

Harrison. At the battle of the Thames in 1813 occurred the

most picturesque incident in his career. During the engagement,

he and old Colonel Whitley led a forlorn hope against the Indian

allies ambushed in a swamp; there was a tremendous melee;

everybody fell; Colonel Whitley dead; warriors dead; Colonel

Johnson borne off the field, near dead, with twenty-five wounds;

and the Kentucky pioneers, to the battle-cry of "Remember the

Raisin," avenged their massacred kinsmen by cutting razor strops

from the skin of a painted and befeathered brave dead near by,

while the wailing Indians, retreating, dragged away for burial

a mighty form in buckskins. Quickly the tale went forth that

Colonel Johnson had killed the warrior-priest Tecumseh; a leader

of great power and dignity, illimitable influence with his people,

huge-bodied and able-minded, a councillor and a prophet:- and

thus had broken the backbone of Indian resistance in the north-

west. Long and spirited were the discussions which ensued.

Collins says, after pages of reasons pro and con, "It seems proba-

ble that Colonel Johnson did not kill Tecumseh, that Adam King

may have done so, and that Colonel Whitley did." However,

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.      91

 

Whitley was dead, Adam King was an obscure private soldier,

and the gallant young Colonel, who had given his time, his talents,

his money and his blood for his country, got full credit for put

ting an end to the dreaded chief, and, nothing loth, became the

idol of his state. We have heard a very old gentleman tell with

chuckles, of having listened to Colonel Johnson, who, arrayed in

a bright-red waistcoat, with large tears rolling down his cheeks.

was making stump speeches in which he thrillingly related his

slaughter of Tecumseh; and we have read a quaint letter in

which the Colonel discourses of his attendance at a theatre party

in Washington to see the drama of "The Death of Tecumseh";

whereat there was great cheering and a mighty bowing to the

audience. And sure it is that there used to be heard a rousing

campaign song in 1819 with the refrain of:

 

"Tum ti iddy and a

Rumsey, Dumsey!

Colonel Johnson

Killed Tecumseh !"

 

Were it not for the records of his wise plans and desires for

the permanent establishment of the southern tribes in a ter-

ritory of their own, "fixed upon a Basis that can never be shaken

by the white people of the State in whose limits they now

reside," it might appear that the same spirit which moved the

Indians to eat the heart of a brave enemy, caused them to select

Colonel Johnson as patron and protector.

The Baptist Board of Missions was another valuable ally.

The Baptists had been the pioneers of religion in Kentucky;

shepherded by "men of ardent piety, untiring zeal, indomitable

energy of character, and vigorous and well-balanced intellects

in every way fitted to the then state of society in a wilderness

beset with every danger and privation, they were the first min-

isters to the brave, daring and noble spirits who settled and sub-

dued this country" and notwithstanding various divisions and

defections, in 1825 their numbers still retained in the state a

proporion of about one in twenty of its inhabitants. Therefore,

it was deemed good policy to put this popular denomination in

charge of the new venture. The names of the members of the

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School-Board and the Board of Visitors which it appointed are

mentioned in many of the histories of the time. They were:

Dr. Staughton, Secretary of the Baptist Board at Washing-

ton; Wm. Suggett, who had commanded a mounted battalion in

an engagement near Ft. Wayne when an Indian chief of some

distinction was killed; Jacob Creath, a famous preacher and

Indian fighter who because of a "personal difficulty with an elder

about a negro trade," caused a noted split in the church; Benja-

min Chambers, a distinguished soldier and legislator; James

Fishback, D. D., one of the founders of the Bible Society; Major

John T. Johnson, a brother of the Colonel, a member of Con-

gress, a Judge of the Appellate Court, who later became a con-

vert to Alexander Campbell's teachings and a minister of the

Christian Church; Elder Barton Stone, to whose virtues and the-

ological dissensions the old chroniclers devote many pages; Gen-

eral David Thompson, legislator from Scott County; Dr. Noal,

a legislator; and James F. Robinson, a Governor of the State

and one of the incorporators of the town of Covington. All

were conscientious men of position, and of sturdy life and prin-

ciples, as well as veteran Indian fighters.

To try now to revitalize their rugged individualities is

like calling up spirits from the vast deep, and well-nigh as

impossible.

It is less difficult, however, to re-create the personality of

the true hero of the Choctaw Academy, whom Colonel Johnson

heralds thus to the Indian Department: "I have engaged a man

of uncommon merit. A scientific character, with Globes." This

man, described as a "preacher of the gospel, eminent for his

literary talents and attainments and his amiable disposition; a

man of business, industrious in his habits, dignified in his deport-

ment, and conciliatory in his manners," was Thomas Henderson.

He was born in 1781 in Albemarle County, Virginia, and was a

kinsman of Richard Henderson of Transylvania Land Company

fame. Little is known of his life before his second marriage,

but it is evident that he was a man of liberal education, advanced

ideas, broad sympathies, and much executive ability. He may

have come west as a surveyor, for it is known that he surveyed

part of the territory of Missouri for the government, and there

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.   93

 

are records of his surveys in the then young town of Cincinnati.

That he was a philanthropist even in his youth is proved by an

old deed which records his purchase, as a trustee, of two hundred

acres of land on Green River, Kentucky, and of his colonizing

there the negroes that were freed "with their increase forever,"

by the will of one John White, of Albemarle County, Virginia.

It is said that he had been an Episcopalian in the latter State,

but we find that he was licensed to perform marriages in Albe-

marle in 1807, having "proved his ordination as a Baptist clergy-

man." Colonel Johnson says in 1825 that he had been "accus-

tomed to teaching for years of his life;" where, or whom, we

have no record. At that date he was a storekeeper and mer-

chant in Scott County, and being a connection by marriage, was

also the confidential adviser and manager of Colonel Johnson's

affairs while that gentleman was serving his country in Washing-

ton. From the letters of the latter to Mr. Henderson, and his

to the office of Indian affairs, together with sundry documents

preserved in the congressional records, we can construct the story

of the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky, the memory of which

seems to have perished.

The request of the Indians for its establishment having been

acceded to by the government, Colonel Johnson proceeded to

make preparation. "The nation of Choctaws," he writes in 1825,

"determined upon this measure without my solicitation and with-

out my knowledge, but since they have decided to send their chil-

dren here, I feel a deep interest for them, and believe it will

benefit me to furnish them with every accommodation of board-

ing and clothing, etc., etc., to make them comfortable. No man

in the United States is better fitted than I am for this business.

I have a house with three rooms 20x30 feet which I shall ap-

propriate exclusively to their accommodation. Another house

with four rooms twenty feet square which will do for a teacher

to live in; and one room for a school room. The whole estab-

lishment will be within my fences so that no time shall be lost."

In later letters there are directions for "fixing up my hughed

[sic] log house for the Creeks" and references to many other

building operations. The negro working men were put to con-

struction of tables, benches, chairs, "etc., etc."; the sewing women

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94        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

to making sheets and shirts; books were ordered from Philadel-

phia, tracts and Bibles from Washington, stores were laid in,

and to quote the Colonel, "All is Bustle."

The school was admirably situated at Great Crossings, near

Blue Springs in Scott County, Kentucky, seven miles from

Georgetown, and two miles off the pike; where the old buffalo

trail leading from the far south to the Ohio River crossed the

north fork of the Elkhorn, and near Stamping Grounds, where

the herds had been wont to congregate and stamp every blade of

grass from the surface of the earth. "The country," says Mr.

Henderson, "is somewhat broken, interspersed with hills, groves

and pleasant valleys; the water is excellent and pure, the climate

mild, healthy and pleasing. In addition to other circumstances

tending for healthful conditions in this institution, it is located

within half a mile of the White Sulphur fountain, one of the

best medicinal springs in the West." In truth the sanitary con-

ditions must have been excellent, for excepting the dread cholera

years when so many died, the health reports contain few casual

ties; mentioning, "several with colds but not serious," "two boys

sick with bad Risings," and some from "gormandizing great

quantities of meat three times a day." And this in spite of the

primitive administration of the medical department which is sug-

gested when we find Colonel Johnson trying "to get a doctor

and preacher combined" in order that the Superintendent may

be sometimes relieved from his Sunday preaching duties; and

from the fact that at one period it was "successfully conducted

by Dr. Adam Nail, an Indian youth, who had turned his atten-

tion to medicine; with the occasional aid of other physicians."

A working plan for the school was submitted by the Baptist

Board of Missions and approved by the Secretary of War, Gov-

ernor Barbour. In addition to the Choctaws, the Creeks agreed,

in 1826, to send twenty boys. The Pottawatamies, (referred to

as "a powerful nation settled along the waters of the Wabash

on lakes near the Canada line where British talks and British

goods continually interrupt their peace and our security,")

agreed to apply $2,000 per annum for as many of their tribe as

that sum would support at the school. The school having in-

creased in importance and favor with the southern tribes, there

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.      95

 

are notes during the ensuing years of the presence of Miamis,

Foxes, Sacs, Chicagos, Quapaws, Prairie du Cheius, Iowas,

Ottawas, Chippewas and Seminoles. There was mention at first

of a scheme for "taking in a number of white children from the

neighborhood to share the instruction and to be treated in exactly

the same manner as the Indians," but the Kentuckians had no

great faith in the niceness of Colonel Johnson's discrimination

in regard to the association of races, and they must have de-

clined these ministrations, as there is no further allusion to

the plan.

In 1831, Mr. Henderson writes that under circumstances of

absolute necessity he is compelled to make an appeal to the Hon-

orable Secretary of War, (John Eaton), for the first time to

make an additional allowance to his compensation as Superin-

tendent of this institution, stating that when the school was

first organized with twenty-five youths from the Choctaw tribe,

an allowance of $500 per annum having been made the Superin-

tendent from the fund of $6,000 annually for twenty years, he

was induced to take it "more from principles of humanity aris-

ing from a deep solicitude to see the condition of that unfortunate

people changed for the better than from any pecuniary con-

sideration."  "The prospect for an increase of students at the

time," he explains, "was entirely uncertain, indeed it was not

believed that it would be any better, but on the contrary that

it would dwindle and come to nothing. The school has increased

beyond all calculation, and has become an institution of more

importance than we ever contemplated.   Additional students

only increased the labor, care and anxiety of the Superintendent,

without any additional salary, for the school fees of $10 each

over and above the twenty-five students for which the provision

was made at first, are barely sufficient to pay the assistant teach-

ers that the institution requires." In other words, for six years

he had cared for five times the number of students agreed upon

with no increase of pay, and had made no request for it; this

seemed reasonable enough even to the economical United States

Government, and he was allowed $800 with $400 additional for

assistant teachers, which arrangement continued until the clos-

ing of the school.

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96         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

The first students, in pursuance of an unexpressed desire

that this should be a higher-school for young aristocrats of the

plains, were selected from those who had been a longer or

shorter time at the schools of the nation; some from among the

best scholars; others there were who from their age or "other

circumstances," could not be again received therein and it was

considered on the whole, according to their agent, a relief to

be rid of them. The list of their names resembles a roll-call

of Congress for though we are occasionally cheered by such

local touches as "Morris Tiger," "Charles Bushyhead," and

"Tomfula," most of them are Americanized into Benjamin Har-

rison, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas H. Benton, and

so resoundingly on.

They travelled from the agency by means of rivers; some-

times beginning the journey in large canoes lashed together, de-

barking to steamboats at Louisville, thence to Cincinnati, and

completing the journey on horseback; the horses being either

sent back with returning scholars, or sold and the proceeds

turned over to the governmental fund; they were usually accom-

panied by a competent conductor, and, though rarely, were

sometimes dispatched alone with an open letter to "all well-

disposed people," asking that they be sped on their way and

kept from strong drink.

The regulations for the school's governance were had in

careful detail from the war office. The clothing of the students

was a uniform of mixed dark-grey, and of blue and white, and

is thus prescribed in instructions:

1 Frock or rifle coat of domestic woolen cloth......... $12 00

Coat (summer) of colored domestic cotton..........                         4 00

2 pair Woolen Pantaloons to correspond with coat....                      8 00

2 pair Cotton Pantaloons for summer coat............                          5 00

4  Shirts ......................................... ...                                             4            00

4  pair    Shoes  or  Moccasins............................                              4            00

4  Neck Handkerchiefs ................................                                    1            50

1 Black  Leather  Stock  ................................                                50

2 pair Woolen Stockings for winter ...................                              50

1  Hat  for  dress  wear .................................                                                                                2                  50

1 Cap of linen or cloth for common wear ..............                         50

Total  ...........................................                                          $42        50

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.       97

Their food, and "I feed them equal to any good tavern,"

said Colonel Johnson, was according to a bill of fare issued by

the Department: "Breakfast and supper: Tea, or coffee, or

milk, and sugar, with bread and butter. Dinner: Meat and

vegetables; salt meat twice a week, and hominy when in sea-

son." The curriculum included "reading, writing, arithmetic,

grammar, geography, practical surveying, astronomy, and vocal

music." The books used were Emerson's Readers, Pike's Arith-

metic, Kirkham's Grammar, the American Spelling Books, 01-

ney's Geography, Tytler's History, Blake's Philosophy, Colburn's

Algebra and Gibson's Surveying. There is evidence of their

scholarship to this day; for their Superintendent has kept several

letters from ex-pupils written in beauiful, copperplate, eighteenth

century-looking hands, couched in waif Johnsonian English, and

expressing their affection for Mr. Henderson and their home-

sickness for Kentucky in quite touching fashion. Some maps

carefully drawn and coloured which were sent to the wise men

in Washington are extant; and numerous compositions and ad-

dresses are preserved as exhibits among the executive documents.

General Tipton writes in 1827, after a visit to Kentucky: "Ev-

erything about the establishment, globes, maps, books, and instru-

ments are suited to the purpose, as well as the dress and treat-

ment of the students; and the most perfect harmony prevails

among them, removed from the bad example of wild Indians

in their native revelry. There the native talent can be cul-

tivated surrounded by the first families of the West. They

receive occasional visits from gentlemen of the first order be-

sides the superintending care of that soldier and statesman,

Colonel Johnson. The discipline is such as must be approved by

the entire community. Boys who have been there but thirteen

months write and draw in a way that would do credit to any

institution of white boys in the country."

Mr. Henderson approached his work with profound interest

and a solemn devotion of his powers. It was a task of no little

difficulty and embarrassment; he was never unhampered; he

could never complete his experiments without interference from

the constantly changing officers of Indian affairs: some of then

competent and conscientious men, some otherwise. He was

Vol. XXV- 7.

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responsible to the War Department of the United States; to

Colonel Johnson; and to the Baptist Board; while to the teach-

er's customary burden, -the pacification of perturbed parents,

these being in his case, the wild Indian Chiefs,- was added the

manipulation of political foes, wilier and almost as wild.

The Department advised him that it was important that he

should commence school at sunrise the year round and finish

the day's duties at sundown, except on Saturday, when it would

be proper for them to cease at noon. He is admonished that

the "must on no account, even for a day, unless ill, withdraw his

personal attention, as "it is hard to delegate power, and the prin-

cipal must give his personal and constant attention to his trust

in order to give it life and energy and make it operative and

successful." The Board desired him "to review the conduct of

the youths once a week, offering approbation or censure, to give

frequent and affectionate lectures upon the advantages of tem-

perance, mutual good will, respect for parents, and upon all

other topics which an excellent morality can embrace, especially

as to the truth and expedience of the Christian religion. To

visit the children frequently at their respective dwellings by night

and by day, to prevent disorders, and to make them employ

their time properly." Colonel Johnson tells him: "Have every-

thing like the Horses in Pharaoh's Chariot and the building of

the temple of Solomon; and all you do let it go on as a matter

of course without Bustle," and he mentions that "when the school

reaches one hundred and fifty, the Secretary of War intends to

have visitors examine the students, as at West Point, which will

put us all to our trumps, but we can show our hands to

advantage."

He had entire direction and management of the business

affairs and domestic arrangement of the institution besides de-

voting all his time during school hours to the teaching of the

class of twenty-five, which, under the Dancing Rabbit agreement,

evolved entirely upon him. The students of astronomy, book-

keeping and surveying met in his house every night during the

winter, excepting the Wednesdays of alternate weeks, to spend

two hours in reviewing the studies of the day under his inspection.

The only holidays were Christmas Day. New Year's Day, Whit-

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.       99

 

suntide, Fourth of July, and the 22nd of February, on all of

which days the Superintendent must carefully explain the rea-

sons for their observance; and one week at the time of the annual

examination in June. It was directed that Saturday afternoon

be spent by the boys in preparation of rooms and clothes for

the Sabbath, and in the writing of letters to friends and relatives

in the nation, for the best of which letters prizes were awarded

every three months. What these prizes were can be inferred

from Colonel Johnson: "I shall without delay send you reward

Books as I did last year. There is no society in the union where

I can get anything but Bibles and Testaments, and it is this

winter difficult to get them." There is also itemized on a bill

from McDaniel & Finnell "I Bunyan's Holy War for Bour-

rassa." The Superintendent was required by the Department

to "see that these letters would produce a favorable impression

in the nation. The boys would as soon write good letters as bad,

but if left to themselves, they make complaints and tell lies in

order to get money and petting." The Sabbath was to be made

a day of rest, interesting and instructive, with Sunday-school and

preaching by the reverend superintendent.

During the first years of the school, when it increased so

rapidly and unexpectedly, there began to be trouble about the

necessary assistant teachers. It was not easy to get young men

of "consecration and worth" to devote all of their time to the

young savages for $100 and $150 a year. And in 1827 we find

Colonel Johnson writing that the Government proposes that the

classes be held under the Lancasterian plan;-a monitorial sys-

tem of instruction introduced by an English educator, wherein

monitors chosen from the more advanced scholars taught the

primary classes. This was successfully adapted to the needs

of the school, and there is constant reference in the letters to

the numerous lower-form teachers and their Indian assistants.

It is interesting to note how many of our so-called modern

improvements in education were worked out by this school-

master of a past century, and how scientifically, as well as pray-

erfully, they were applied to his Indians. In order that "they

might become Pillars of Society", he inaugurated the Lycurgus

court, its end being to promote self-government; it consisted of

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a judge, a jury, a sheriff; two lawyers and a clerk. The grand

jury took notice of every kind of misconduct during recess and

out of school hours, and at the regular courts presentments were

made, every officer striving to copy the proceedings of the com-

mon courts of justice. That "they might become Ornaments",

there was the Napoleon Society, its object being to instruct the

young men in "all the peculiarities of etiquette, observed in polite

circles of society; and that the savage breast might be soothed

according to poetic precedent, singing societies and a native band

were organized. Mr. Henderson had been warned in the begin-

ning that the studies of the young chieftains were not to be in-

terrupted by any form of "menial industry" except the making

of their own fires, and such exercises as should be necessary

to health, recreation and improvement," but in 1832 after the

school had endured for seven years, he revolted suavely but

firmly against the continued creation of "aboriginal Turvey drops",

and wrote to the Department that he had wished for several

years to have shops connected with the school, and to introduce

manual labour. "I have been led to these reflections," he says,

"partly from the nature of the case as it has been presented to

my own mind, and partly from having had boys in the school

whose minds appeared turned more upon some kind of work than

on their books; also from the discovery of a considerable me-

chanical genius among them together with a desire manifested by

some of the youths themselves to become mechanicians. Let

such as discover a genius latent for scholarship be permitted to

pursue a regular course of study to the full extent, but I would

not deprive the most sprightly of an opportunity to acquire some

mechanical art;" he here makes some technical suggestions and

soothes the parsimony of the Government by stating that the

mechanics engaged to instruct the boys could be paid from the

proceeds of the shops, so that the Department would be put

to no extra expense; and declares that with this addition the

establishment would be doing more good to the Indians than any

other in the Union. "Indeed," says the good man, allowing him-

self a little glorification, "I flatter myself that they are deriving

more benefit from it now, than from any source whatsoever. It

is impossible to express my feelings on the occasions when I

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.     101

have my students in full review and look over the fine counte-

nances of many; the mind becomes enlarged in anticipation that

from this institution and through the instrumentality of my

labours, many are to return to their people as so many torches

to enlighten their superstitious and ignorant tribes with the glow

of science, of religion and of civilized life! Nothing will afford

me more pleasure than to have your advice and instruction and

to execute your order in all matters pertaining to the improve-

ment and happiness of this ill-destined race."

This letter was ignored by the politicians then in charge of

Indian education, but a year later, Bourrassa, a young Choctaw

chief, who, while studying law at Georgetown College and being

educated at the school, having also been for a year an under-

teacher there, addressed the Indian agent, General Grover, in

what he calls the silent language of the pen. He asked him to

use his influence to have two or three shops joined to the school

for the benefit of some students and the good of several tribes,

protesting against its being used solely as a classical academy.

"Sir," he writes, "there is no proper person to select the boys

that are come to this institution; therefore there are some who

cannot learn their books, were they to live as long as the man

of 969 years and study all the time, but could a trade. There

are many who could have taken a common education and a trade

in the same length of time they spend generally in this academy.

It is for want of regular employment that they are so prone to

practice their Indian habits, and it would be mere folly to confine

them to their studies all the time for we know that the Indian

boys are unbounded in their recreation, their parents never re-

strict them." He declared that a young man with a trade would

be of much more benefit to his people than would be one with

a classical education alone, "for the savage or wandering tribes

cannot support a school-master, but a blacksmith would have easy

access to many tribes, for some Indians have been known to travel

upwards of two hundred miles to get one or two of their hunt-

ing utensils repaired. Almost any trade will prove more ben-

eficial than a good education in the first settling of a country;

it was not by pen and book that this country was settled, but by

axe and plough. A young man with a trade could support him-

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102      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

self and family by it, and also be employed by the Department

for his tribe to aid in this colonization business which will help

or else prove the everlasting destruction of the Indians; and

only their own young men can help them. A blacksmith could

be of more service to a tribe than the greatest professor in North

America, and your honour well knows that an old Indian would

be more pleased to get a knife or a tomahawk from his son than

ten well-ordered philosophical lectures 'which' he would say, 'do

not feed me nor clothe my children.' The establishment of those

shops would check the laziness of the Indian character and do

away with those waste times and Indian plays which day by day

they follow closer than the devoted followers of Bacchus did

him."

The Department took prompt cognizance of this bit of native

special pleading, and Mr. Henderson's plans and estimates hav-

ing been submitted and approved, the shops were built and in-

struction begun. There was a wagon-shop, a shoe-shop, and two

smith shops. Mr. Henderson says: "I at first contemplated

more contracted buildings, but upon advice of more enlightened

and practical men, I was encouraged to put up buildings com-

fortable and large and to procure a full supply of the best tools

in order to insure the object in view, i. e., to make good me-

chanics in the shortest possible time of the youths that might be

put to trades. I found great difficulty in procuring skillful

workmen in the different mechanical branches; of steady and

sober habits, calculated to fill their stations with that dignity

which the nature of the case required, but finally succeeded to

my entire satisfaction. It requires three shoe and boot-makers,

three smiths, and two wagon-makers to instruct each shop."

The Department having reminded the Superintendent that

mechanical instruction was not the primary object of the school,

and that no coercion was to be used to make the boys go into

the shops, ordered regulations to be made to prevent overwork

and undue severity on the part of the principals; directed that

the latter be required to keep accounts of the work done by each

boy and to present them at the end of each month to the Super-

intendent for examination by him and by the inspectors, who

would then distribute the proceeds among the boys according

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.    103

 

to the work done by them severally, and in their relative capac-

ities; the cost of the tools and the pay of the mechanics having

been deducted. The general direction of the shops was to rest

with the Superintendent, who would be allowed ten per cent of

the proceeds after having made the above deductions, the per-

centage to be subtracted before the division among the boys.

Quarterly reports were to be made by the Superintendent to the

Department exhibiting the names and pay of the mechanics,

names and amount of work done during the quarter by each boy,

and the amount of money to be distributed. And it was em-

phasized that every boy in the shops must pursue the elementary

studies so far as to acquire a knowledge of arithmetic.

The report of the inspectors in November, 1833, states:

"We approve the plan of teaching the boys the mechanic arts

as well as letters. We visited the workshops and were pleased

with the plans of the buildings but far more with the astonishing

proficiency of the boys in the several branches of mechanism,

never having seen it surpassed if equalled; the improvement of

some of the youths is rapid beyond calculation; in the black-

smith, shoe, boot and wagon makers' shops we saw industry,

attention and ingenuity displayed, and pleasure beamed in the

countenances of all. We are convinced that a tailor's, cabinet,-

and such other shops as the government's wisdom directs should

be added. The Superintendent acted wisely in expending double

the amount he at first expected for the mechanical arrangements.

Mr. Henderson writes that the "deep interest which the insti-

tution excites and almost daily invites spectators of every class,

both foreigners and citizens, males and females, to witness the

novelty of Indian reform, but no department has excited more

admiration than the recent introduction of workshops con-

necting practically the arts and sciences, particularly for that

race of the human family which has so long suffered the want

of both;" while a distinguished visitor in 1834, in expressing

his approval of the flourishing school, says, "If the chase is to

be abandoned and war cease to be a favorite pursuit among

them, the mechanic arts should be substituted. It is well known

that even the simplest artificer among the Indians is looked upon

with some of the admiration felt for their chiefs and warriors."

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104       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

This reform having been so successfully inaugurated, in

December, 1837, Mr. Henderson wrote to Colonel Johnson as

to the advisability of introducing in addition to the work shops,

a system calculated to instruct youths in the business of agricul-

ture upon a small scale. "It could be done by a proper man,"

he says, "without interruption to regular studies, and would be

an important acquisition to the Indians. I think if you could

get Mr. Harris, (the head of Indian affairs at that time), who

seems a most excellent, practical man, to take some interest in

the promotion of the plan, it would result in much benefit to

the tribes." The Colonel responded with enthusiasm that they

might cultivate eighteen or twenty acres, as it would save him

expense and complaints of the neighbors against the boys. He

advised that each one have "a garden or truck patch of all the

vegetables, and a corn field, all embraced," and thought that "the

boys would enter upon it with a spirit to feast upon."

Both the gardens and the shops prospered exceedingly for

years, and might have done so till the end, had it not been for

the weakness of the government's position in insisting upon

voluntary attendance; and this notwithstanding the constant

complaints from the heads of the native schools deploring the

changeableness, levity and idleness of the Indians in regard

to any sort of steady work. In 1838, the Department having had

occasion to see the error of its ruling, issued an order making

work in the shops compulsory, as Mr. Henderson had always

wished it to be. "Eight boys," directed Mr. Harris, "should be

employed in each of the four shops every day under the super-

vision of trained men. The selection of the boys should be

regulated by the number of boys from each tribe, their natural

aptitudes and their acquired habits. They might be permitted

to choose, so far as should be consistent with having all the shops

filled. Each one should be required to stay in the shops for two

years, and each one on entering should be given five dollars, this

to include all those already enrolled. But it was too late for

these wise and long-desired rules to be effective. The mischief

had been done; there was sullen inertia in the place of willing

apprenticeship, and the reports are filled with complaints because

of the few enrollments, especially in the much-demanded smith-

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.    105

shop. In the report for October, 1838, twenty-two are listed as

learning trades; eight in the tailor's shop, four in the smith-shop,

and two in the wagon-shop; this would indicate more interest

in "pantaloons" than in hunting utensils; but in 1839 there is

a letter from Chief Richardville, a Miami, who orders his grand-

son Lewis Cass to be sent home at once. so great is his in-

dignation that the boy should have been put to the tailor's trade

when "he had intended to make him a clerk in his mercantile

establishment !"

Nothing was accomplished without friction, owing perhaps

to that which Mr. Henderson delicately designates "the nature

of the case." It is well to examine this allusive phrase, for it

was "full of a number of things," first among them being the

fact that there were here collected together, hundreds of miles

from their homes, a body of Indians varying at times from a

hundred to two hundred; chief's sons, for the most part, of ages

from ten or twenty odd years; some arriving in a completely

savage state, others having a little English and the rudiments of

education and training, all paying their way, as they thought;

and all possessing parents with the childlike credulity of the

average Indian; incapable of weighing evidence, swayed by all

reports good or bad, but who had the final word as to the dis-

position of their children. Occasionally the boys, wearying of

constant employment and supervision, ran off and after weeks

of tramping would present themselves, hungry, ragged and dirty

before the guardians, saying: "Behold how we are fed and

clothed at the Choctaw Academy!" and straightway the govern-

ment would be besieged with demands for the removal of Chief

So and So's sons from the Kentucky school, with the reason,

"It is a base place. Did we not see with our eyes?"

In the beginning, the complaint having been made that they

received no word of their children so far away from them and

so silent, special letter-writing regulations were enforced at the

school, and the government established a postoffice at Great

Crossings that the Indian boys' letters might be mailed without

sending them several miles on horseback. It also franked their

letters and added the duty of postmaster to Mr. Henderson's

other cares. Soon a great hullabaloo arose both in the nation

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106       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and in the neighborhood, for the franked letters were post-marked

"Paid" and the chiefs complained that they got so many that they

were sure the boys were wasting the educational fund in mail-

age, and some political appointees to adjacent postoffices wrote

to Washington that Mr. Henderson was making more money out

of the office than they could endure the thought of. A stamp

of "Free" instead of "Paid," indicating much more work than

pay for the postmaster alleviated the pangs of the latter party.

but no one was ever sure whether that or any other explanation

to the Indians was ever understood or accepted; they pondered

these things in their hearts; and that they and their sons had

long memories is proved by the way in which the constant shift-

ing of the educational heads of the War Department and the

contradictory orders emanating from them, tended to weaken

the authority of the one unvarying official of the school.

Colonel Johnson being always in public life, his connection

with so unusual an undertaking offered his political enemies a

shining mark. They averred, of course, that he gave little and

got much, that it was a money-making scheme entirely; and the

poor gentleman's rueful comments upon this score are amusing.

When the shops were most flourishing, it was the task of Mr.

Henderson to find a market for the Indian-made goods; among

his personal letters are those of his elder sons, who were mer-

chants in Louisiana and Mississippi, offering to dispose of some

of the wagons made in the shops; being a competent business man,

he must have had successful sales, for all too soon arose the usual

aspersions that he and Colonel Johnson were making money out

of the poor Indian, and there were orders from Washington to

the effect that Mr. Henderson must be so placed that he could

be protected from such attacks. Even the farming experiment

was not unmaligned; it was averred that Colonel Johnson's over-

seer was working Indians instead of negroes, and there was a

futile attempt at scandal.

The discipline of the school seems to have been efficient, and

the daily life remarkably regular and harmonious, but the at-

tendance of pupils of such widely diverging ages and of such

parallel stages of civilization produced serious problems.

That the grown young men could not be punished as small

• 19
 

Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.    107

 

boys, is manifested by a letter from what was left of an assist-

ant teacher after he had attempted it during Mr. Henderson's

absence. He declares it most inexpedient, nay improper; es-

pecially as they were bigger than he was. And he seems to have

been in position to know. There appears to have been little

difficulty with the smaller boys aside from the usual crimes:

window-breaking and clothes-destroying, pilfering, breaking

bounds, and misbehaving at table, which prove all boys brothers

under their skins.

Colonel Johnson, in a worried letter concerning a breach

then under discussion, says: "Out of every hundred, about ninety

boys have been as harmless as infant children; about ten alone

have given you and me any trouble. Eight or ten Choctaws in

two years have given more trouble than all the rest in ten." Un-

fortunately this "trouble" was of a particularly distressing na-

ture. The young would manage, though very rarely, to get

whiskey; they would steal from their beds after inspection at

night, trade their clothes, shoes, or books and get it from un-

scrupulous people, -generally from  "bad negroes" or from

such free negroes as could manage to elude the "patterol" and

get access to the plantations. This would make them utterly mad

and reckless, and they would raid the negro women's quarters,

either openly "belching forth profanity" and breaking down the

doors, when they would be overpowered and the magistrates sent

for; or by steatlh, when they might be received with hospitality,

which resulted in the negresses being sold South; for the boys

were always quickly discovered, and haled before the stricken

and horrified superintendent. As early as 1828 the first dis-

graceful outbreak of a chief's son took place. Mr. Henderson

promptly and solemnly dismissed him from the school after a

public humiliation, and a report was sent in full to the nation

and to Washington. This would seem to have been the proper

and only course, especially as it was commended by the authori-

ties, and applauded by the Indians, who communicated their sor-

row and unqualified approval through their agent; moreover,

there was no repetition of any like disorder for many years.

But Colonel Johnson, whose Brick House was kept by an

educated quadroon woman, decreed that the knowledge of en-

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108       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

suing cases should be "kept from the Government, as it would

have a very bad effect and induce the belief that the boys feared

neither God, nor devil, nor man." In the light of events it would

seem to have been a serious error of judgment not to have pur-

sued Mr. Henderson's straightforward policy. For the young

reprobates, discovering that their iniquity had been holden from

the eyes of the White Fathers in Washington and the Red Chiefs

in the nation, waxed bold and malignant. Those who had been

sent home made false statements to the nation and to the agents,

and devoted their days to undermining the usefulness of the

school of Kentucky. One, still at the academy, who had been

admired and trusted, and given a chance to redeem himself,

having first made an unsuccessful attempt to start a general mu-

tiny, dared to write a letter of positively fiendish ingenuity, so

enwrought is it of truth-tinctured falsehood, to which he ap-

pended his own name, with the forged signatures of twenty of

his companions, and dispatched it to Washington. The fact

that Colonel Johnson promptly explained the circumstances of

its composition, and that the trustees wrote indignantly denying

the statements that it contained, did not entirely dissipate the

doubts of the nation; nor was it unproductive of misgivings in

the mind of the Secretary of War.

It is a relief to turn from these subterranean matters to the

pleasant daily life of the school proper, as it is written in con-

temporary letters of visitors and of the boys themselves, and in

the reports of the trustees and the Superintendent.

There was very little idle time for mischief between six A.

M. and nine P. M., when the curfew rang. The hours were em-

ployed in the arduous pursuits of the three R's, the English lan-

guage and the "higher branches." There were the singing so-

cieties, the band-practice, the bandy-ball, the debating societies,-

they were great speechmakers and debaters, -the shops, the

gardens, the devotional exercises, and Adam Christi's temper-

ance societies, - all are described, and it is remarked that "they

are very fond of dancing." Colonel Johnson's returns from

the capital were always days of festival; he would be met at

the gates of the estate by the marching boys, banners flying,

band playing, and escorted to the grove, where there would be

• 21
 

Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.     109

addresses of welcome and flourishes, followed by copious liba-

tions of watermelon, or feasts of roas'in' ears, or their season-

able equivalents.  Sometimes certain larger boys who were

studying surveying, were allowed to go out with responsible men

to assist in simple surveys.  Sometimes there were hunting

parties in the woods; in summer they would visit the Sulphur

Springs, (a fashionable resort owned by the Vice President)

where the belles and beaux of the day and the young chieftains

observed each other with mutual interest. There were the annual

arrivals of scholars bringing news from home, and the annual

farewells, exciting occasions, which enabled the directors to re-

turn to the nation "the lazy, the discontented, the vicious and

the educated;" then the students were permitted to accompany

their comrades as far as the Frankfort road. There were the

visitors; sometimes great lawgivers and generals, who would be

entertained with pomp and circumstance in the Colonel's man-

sion; sometimes, to the deep affliction of Mr. Henderson and

Colonel Johnson, Choctaw or Cherokee delegations came to ob-

serve the progress of their sons. Then there was the great

week of music and decorations when the annual examination

was celebrated, the exercises being held on a woodland stage in

the beautiful grove where General Lafayette had been entertained

by the people of Georgetown. There is an account of a com-

mencement week (which was published in a Kentucky news-

paper and written by one Pushmatsha, a Choctaw, in which he

described the proceedings of and the "good nature" of the au-

dience of seven hundred. We also have a description of the one

held in 1832, three thousand visitors being present, on which

occasion, a number of the spectators, among them being the

Catholic priest, Father Drew, took part in the catechising of the

students. We may read some of the fiery orations then de-

livered and behold how little either time or creed affects the

commencement essay of whatever colour or clime. Listen to

Trahevne on history:-"Upon me a youth of the forest de-

volves the arduous yet pleasing task of addressing you. The

occasion is attended with the diffidence of one who is speaking

not in his native vernacular, and of one not in the habit of pub-

lic speaking. If I should expose my ignorance and folly in this

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110       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

presence, the exposure will be manifested in a cause worthy

of a much greater sacrifice. *  *  * *  Sirs, when we view

the present situation of the Indians and cast our eyes to some of

the enlightened nations of the earth, we behold in our imagina-

tion the awful destruction which awaits the aborigines of North

America. Cheated, destroyed, misled since the white man first

trod their soil, they have here been driven from the shores of

the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and the next step will in-

evitably plunge them into the bowels of the Pacific Ocean. The

Indians once stood lords of the Continent, but the white man

brought him low; the Indians once called this continent their

own, but they now call hardly a foot their own. And such now

is their condition that many believe they can never become en-

lightened or civilized and that in the course of half a century

they will be extirpated. Be that as it may, we, their sons, have

minds, bodies, hands, hearts; and so long as the blood flows

through our hearts and hands we will contend, if we be com-

petent, to evince to the world that the Indian race is not obliter-

ated. If we fail in the attempt, we must share the fate that

awaits our race; but if we prove successful, may God smile upon

us and bless us! His the will to make any nation happy or mis-

erable. I conclude by asking those who are to be conspicuous

men in their various tribes, to persevere and surmount the ob-

stacles of fame, and climb the hill of science. May this wish

produce members who shall resemble pillars of marble, strong,

polished, fit to decorate and support the temple of union in which

our tribes shall hereafter assemble. May we, when time shall

have done with us, rest in our graves in tranquillity."

This one, by a small boy, if less grand and gloomy, cer-

tainly exhibits a lively sense of the expediency of morals.

 

On Stealing.

"I consider that stealing is one of the lowest and most de-

graded habits a man can get into. At first he will take small

things, and then larger till he steals horses and large sums of

money. He will go from town to town, and from city to city,

till he goes throughout the United States and then he will turn

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.   111

 

out to be a robber, plundering and murdering everyone that

passes, and sometimes not getting a cent for his trouble.

"My young friends, if you steal you will not be respectable,

and a person that steals will never be contented; he will always

be uneasy, and therefore you had better let stealing alone.

"No more at present.

"TIMOTHY WALKER."

 

The years 1832 to 1838 would seem to mark the high

tide of the school's prosperity and good results. The Choctaws

boasted of its being their enterprise entirely, and there were

quarrels and cabals for the war office to settle because the pow-

erful Cherokees were thought to be getting more than their

legitimate number into the academy. One document interests

us, as it is evidently referring to the ancestors of Senator Owen

of Oklahoma, whose wonderful mother was the granddaughter

of a Cherokee chief of this name. It states that seven of the

family of John Ross, the principal chief of the Cherokees, his

sons and his political friends had got admission, and that all the

Cherokees were clamoring to go to the school. In 1838, W.

Armstrong, acting superintendent of the Western Territory,

writes the Department that "The Choctaw Academy in Ken-

tucky has educated many of the most prominent men in the In-

dian country. They are seen in their councils taking the deep-

est interest in the welfare and prosperity of their people." In

the next year, the same man complains in bewilderment that he

cannot get the chiefs to let their sons go; that in place of hold-

ing off a waiting list, that he cannot keep up the number re-

quired. "Three of the most prominent young men in the na-

tion," he says, "Colonel Joe Harkins, Captain Robert Jones and

Pierre Juzan, who were all at the academy, are bitter against it.

Peter Folsom, a young man naturally well disposed, says he

could learn there nothing of any importance. I am at loss for

an explanation of their attitude." We, however, find an expla-

nation of the unspeakable cause in a furious letter from Colonel

Johnson, written before they were dismissed.  "Whether I

leave black or white," he says, "to keep my house in my ab-

sence, it is sacred by the Laws of the Constitution as if I were

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112       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

in it myself!" "You and the magistrates", he reproaches, "were

not sufficiently severe."  But no severity on their part could

have made up for the secret half-measures in connection with

the youths' expulsion; and it is edifying to note that while the

first offender of so many years back, was never heard from

every individual mentioned by Captain Armstrong as injuring

the institution, had been expelled from the school quietly for

drunkenness and disorderly conduct. At the instance of Colonel

Johnson and Mr. Henderson, the Government ordered an in-

vestigation into the affairs and condition of the school in 1841,

and matters were satisfactorily cleared up.

But the times were out of joint. The slanders of the evil

young chiefs were among the least of several causes for the de-

cline of the institution. The chiefest was that Mr. Henderson

was flagging. His frail constitution had begun to break under

his multitudinous duties (one wonders how he found time to at-

tend to his own affairs, to be widowed, to remarry, and to add

six children to his numerous first brood). Annoyed by unrea-

sonable concealments and complaints, exhausted by myriad cares,

feeling it necessary to rear his growing daughters in different

surroundings, and desiring time to accumulate a possible inherit-

ance for a wife and children much younger than himself, he be-

sought Colonel Johnson to release him from his post at the In-

dian school; the Colonel replied in a panic; though, he declared,

none but himself could keep the school together at all, he was

involved in so many political webs that he would be helpless

without Mr. Henderson's continued superintendence; and he

adjured him by his loyalty to him, and to his own humanitarian

principles, to continue his connection with it. To this request Mr.

Henderson was constrained to accede, providing that he be per-

mitted to spend half his time away, Colonel Johnson agreeing to

engage a suitable man for sub-superintendent during his absence.

His conditions were accepted, but the difficulty lay in procuring

the man. Nobody with his patience, courage, longsightedness

and deep scholarship could be found to supply him. "It is

hard to delegate power", the minister of war had said: and it

is; especially the power of the spirit. While the work went on

very well after this change, it was then that most unpleasant im-

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.      113

broglios took place unreported; that young men were returned

to the nation whose words fouled the scholastic nest. The

new head of Indian affairs believed that the Indians could be

served best by schools in their own country; for the frontier was

moving westward, and Kentucky was in his opinion too far out

of touch with the nations. Colonel Johnson offered to wind up

the school in two years; Mr. Henderson continued his position

upborne by his missionary conscience and the feeling of duty

unshirked which are admirably displayed in the following letter

to the Indian office, (dated September, 1839):

"It is a matter of deep regret that the Indians cannot appre-

ciate the advantages of education more highly than they do,

and that all our labour and toil to cultivate the minds of their

children should be so little regarded by them. It is true that

many prejudices have existed against the school ever since it

was located in Kentucky; they have got up from various quarters

under various circumstances and have been managed with great

art and skill, to the injury of the school; some by the boys them-

selves, who have become impatient and tired of close applica-

tion to business or to study; some by designing men in the na

tion, and others by enemies to Indian reformation in the bosom

of our own country. With all these we have had to struggle

and combat for thirteen or fourteen years. As to the grounds

of complaint heretofore exhibited against the school, we have

this gratification, that upon investigation it has uniformly turned

out that they have arisen from the most trivial circumstances,

and have been more ideal than real. If the Indians of the North

or South are so prejudiced against the school that they cannot

consent to send more boys, I am at loss to ascertain upon what

grounds their objections are predicated; for sure I am that the

great boast of talents and education among the Choctaws and

Pottawatamies is of persons who have been educated at this

school. We always expected that many, like our own youths,

would make but little or no use of an education after it was pro-

cured; moreover that many out of so large a number would be

sent from the nations who had not sufficient intellect to become

scholars, and that others who had, would upon their return home,

fall back into their Indian customs and habits, and soon forget

Vol. XXV-8.

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114       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

what they had learned. I have regretted to observe one unfa-

vourable trait in the Indian disposition to do justice to this insti-

tuition i. e., that while they have been disposed to speak in the

most unfavourable terms of a few whose minds were not capable

of receiving instruction (and had on that account to be sent

home) or of others who lacked moral courage to resist the

temptation of vice, and thereby rendered themselves useless and

ridiculous after their return home, they passed by unnoticed the

meritorious and the many who have done credit to the school

and been an honour to the nation and themselves. Although I

have been so often mortified at the unreasonable complaints com-

ing from that part of the nation from which I had reason to ex-

pect the most grateful acknowledgments, yet I have had the

pleasing consolation on my part of realizing the great and incal

culable advantages resulting from this institution to the Indian

tribes. This school can boast of having produced a greater num-

ber of the best scholars and mechanics, of the best school teach-

ers, and accountants, as well as of the best practical farmers and

merchants, than any other institution of which I have knowledge.

A smith-shop is conducted in the Choctaw nation by young men

from this institution, and I am told that a boot and shoe shop is

managed profitably in the Pottawatamie country by young men

who learned at this place. I received a letter not long since from

one of the young men who was educated here who informed me

that he was employed to teach a school at $500 a year; from an-

other that he was acting as clerk on good terms. I have also

heard from many others who are doing well, but those of whom I

speak came to the school in a perfect state of nature. I have also

been informed that many who became pious at this school still

continue to conduct themselves in an orderly and Christianlike

manner. Any information of this sort must be highly gratifying

to one who has grown grey labouring to improve the condition

of that devoted people. I have had the honour of presiding over

this institution for the last fourteen years as Superintendent, dur-

ing which time I have always entertained the deepest solicitude

to impart every species of knowledge calculated to elevate the

Indian mind above that state of savage degradation and supersti-

tious darkness under which they have lain for so many ages

• 27
 

Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.     115

 

past. I have endeavored to sow the seeds of piety and benevo-

lence, to lay the foundation of moral rectitude, to cultivate social,

affectionate and brotherly temperament of mind, to stamp upon

the young and all, the high reverence and responsibility we owe

to the Creator. I have laboured incessantly to show the evil

consequences of vice, and the end to which it leads. I have en-

deavoured by every means to contrast between good and bad

actions, and to show the difference between good and bad men.

I have studied the most useful course of education,- that which

I thought best suited to their condition. This, I intend, shall

be my course so long as I shall have the superintendence. Any

instructions you may be pleased to give will be promptly obeyed."

Colonel Johnson proposed that Captain Armstrong visit

the school upon his return from a journey to Washington, that

he might make a report upon it to the chiefs whose minds had

been poisoned by the lies of a few thwarted libertine boys. If

favorable, it would have great weight with the nation and con-

tinue to make the school useful for its short remaining time.

He also decided upon the retention, as its sub-superintendent,

of Colonel Peter H. Pytchlynn, a Choctaw chief, whose education

for the most part had been received here and who had been to

and from the school as escort for arriving and departing scholars

and interpreter for visiting delegations of chiefs. He believed

him to be competent and devoted to the real interest of his people.

and knew that he possessed their entire trust. Strangely enough,

this young man has been immortalized by no less a personage

than Charles Dickens. The latter encountered him when he was

traveling on the boat from Cincinnati to Louisville in 1842, and

gives a most entertaining account of his interview.  Pytch-

lynn, who was no doubt a charter member of the Napoleon So-

ciety, sent up his card; which tickled Dickens' fancy immensely.

He described the chief's handsome person and stately bearing,

his excellent English, which he had not begun to learn until he

was a man grown, and their discussion of literature,-(Cooper,

Scott) archaeology, history, hunting, (when the chief laughed

at Dickens' little joke about not damaging the buffaloes much)

and politics. Pytchlynn was returning from Washington, and

Dickens asked his opinion of Congress. He replied with a smile

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116       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

that it lacked dignity in an Indian's eyes. They spoke of the

recently completed gallery of portraits of Indian chiefs by Mr.

Catlin, and our chief assured him that his portrait was among

them, and afterwards sent Dickens a lithographed copy of it,-

"very like, though scarcely handsome enough," -which Dickens

carefully preserved as a memento of his encounter with a

Choctaw Indian in America.

The school kept on its apparently prosperous way, for even

at the height of the stormiest times, affairs had gone smoothly

on the surface, and the board of visitors reported the students

"in fine health and condition, decently and comfortably clad,

seemingly attentive and industrious, and so far as they knew

or believed, better satisfied than at any former period when they

were called upon to make report".   Colonel Pytchlynn was

retained at a good salary, and administered his duties satisfac-

torily until March 14, 1842, when he resigned in favor of a Mr.

Vanderslice, concerning whom we know nothing save that he

had been in charge of schools in the Indian country.

In May, 1842, the number of pupils had greatly decreased

and no more were received; the attenion of the Government and

of the nations being centered upon plans for the foundation of

a school of similar aims and scope in the Southwest Choctaw

territory, in furtherance of which incipient steps had been taken.

This institution ceased to be a place of education for Indian

youths in 1843. Of its final disintegration and its closing scenes,

we have no account. Mr. Henderson, who was then living at his

farm in Grant County near Crittenden, died there shortly after,

in 1846. His soul must assuredly be with the saints. His body

is under a modest shaft of marble in the family burying ground

near the orchard of the old house, which is now occupied by his

grandson. In the garret are some simple desks and benches, a

handsome globe and surveying instruments, some old school-

books and maps; and his great-grandchild is sung to sleep with

a barbaric Indian lullaby. These appear to be the sole relies in

Kentucky of Colonel Dick Johnson's once famous Choctaw

Academy.

As for that distinguished man, Collins mentions in 1844

that he had "retired to his farm in Scott County, where he was

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Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy.     117   endeavoring to repair his private fortunes, which had been some- what impaired by a too liberal hospitality and by his absorption in his duties to his country." He died in Frankfort in 1850, and was buried in the beautiful cemetery on the hill near the spot where O'Hara and his comrades keep the bivouac of the dead. His monument is sculptured in extraordinary bas-reliefs purporting to image forth the scenes of the death of Tecumseh at the hands of the dashing Colonel, who is magnificent in bear- skin and Hessian boots. His Brick House, and the school buildings, the shops, which produced the articles which caused "the liveliest pleasure to gleam from the countenance of President Van Buren and the Secretary of War, General Cass," the dining hall capable of seating two hundred, where the young aborigines were sometimes wont to be "so evilly disposed as to throw stones and coffee" at each other, and cut up the table-cloths, and carry off the knives to go trading with,-all were destroyed by fire. Even the grove has dwindled from its former noble proportions; and the last vestige of the Indian school has vanished; both from the land, and from the memory of the Oldest Inhabitant. Let us hope that the results of its labors have been less evanescent; such effort on the part of teachers and of taught should survive as a little of the leaven of civilization.

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