Mr. Wheelock's parish was in the northern and most retired part of the town, and the least inviting, perhaps, in its physical aspects and natural resources. The products of a rugged soil furnished the industrious inhabitants with a comfortable subsistence, but left nothing for luxury. It was at that period a quiet agricultural community, living largely within itself. As at the present day, there was but one church within the territorial limits of the parish. The "council of nine," selected from the more discreet of the male members, somewhat in accordance with Presbyterian usage, aided in the administration of a careful and thorough discipline.
There can be no doubt that Mr. Wheelock was accounted one of the leading preachers and divines of his day. Both as a pastor, and the associate of the eminent men who were prominent in the great revival which marked the middle of the last century, his labors were crowned with large success. Rev. Dr. Burroughs, who knew him intimately, says: "As a preacher, his aim was to reach the conscience. He studied great plainness of speech, and adapted his discourse to every capacity, that he might be understood by all." His pupil, Dr. Trumbull, the historian, says: "He was a gentleman of a comely figure, of a mild and winning aspect, his voice smooth and harmonious, the best by far that I ever heard. He had the entire command of it. His gesture was natural, but not redundant. His preaching and addresses were close and pungent, and yet winning beyond almost all comparison."[4] By an intermarriage of their relatives, he was allied to the family of Jonathan Edwards, whose high regard for him is sufficiently indicated in a letter dated Northampton, June 9, 1741, from which we make brief extracts. "There has been a reviving of religion of late amongst us, but your labors have been much more remarkably blessed than mine. May God send you hither with the like blessing as He has sent you to some other places, and may your coming be a means to humble me for my barrenness and unprofitableness, and a means of my instruction and enlivening. I want an opportunity to concert measures with you, for the advancement of the kingdom and glory of the Redeemer."
[4] The venerable Prof. Stowe states that, when a professor in the College, he was informed by an aged man, living in the vicinity, that President Wheelock's earnestness in preaching at times led him to leave the pulpit, and appeal to individuals in his audience.
We are fortunate in having the testimony of a member of his own family, in regard to the beginning of Mr. Wheelock's more practical interest in the unfortunate Aborigines. His grandson, Rev. William Patten, D.D., says,[5] "One evening after a religious conference with a number of his people at Lebanon, he walked out, as he usually did on summer evenings, for meditation and prayer; and in his retirement his attention was led to the neglect [from lack of means] of his people in providing for his support. It occurred to him, with peculiar clearness, that if they furnished him with but half a living, they were entitled to no more than half his labors. And he concluded that they were left to such neglect, to teach him that part of his labors ought to be directed to other objects. He then inquired what objects were most in want of assistance. And it occurred to him, almost instantaneously, that the Indians were the most proper objects of the charitable attention of Christians. He then determined to devote half of his time to them."
[5] Memoirs of Wheelock, p. 177.
We will now allow this eminent Christian philanthropist to speak for himself. In his "Narrative," for the period ending in 1762, after referring to the too general lack of interest in the Indian, he says:
"It has seemed to me, he must be stupidly indifferent to the Redeemer's cause and interest in the world, and criminally deaf and blind to the intimations of the favor and displeasure of God in the dispensations of His Providence, who could not perceive plain intimations of God's displeasure against us for this neglect, inscribed in capitals, on the very front of divine dispensations, from year to year, in permitting the savages to be such a sore scourge to our land, and make such depredations on our frontiers, inhumanly butchering and captivating our people, not only in a time of war, but when we had good reason to think (if ever we had) that we dwelt safely by them. And there is good reason to think that if one half which has been expended for so many years past in building forts, manning, and supporting them, had been prudently laid out in supporting faithful missionaries and schoolmasters among them, the instructed and civilized party would have been a far better defence than all our expensive fortresses, and prevented the laying waste so many towns and villages; witness the consequence of sending Mr. Sergeant to Stockbridge, which was in the very road by which they most usually came upon our people, and by which there has never been one attack made upon us since his going there." After referring to the ordinary obligations of humanity, patriotism, and religion, he says:
"As there were few or none who seemed to lay the necessity and importance of Christianizing the natives so much to heart as to exert themselves in earnest and lead the way therein, I was naturally put upon consideration and inquiry what methods might have the greatest probability of success; and upon the whole was fully persuaded that this, which I have been pursuing, had by far the greatest probability of any that had been proposed, viz.: by the mission of their own [educated] sons in conjunction with the English; and that a number of girls should also be instructed in whatever should be necessary to render them fit to perform the female part, as house-wives, school-mistresses, and tailoresses. The influence of their own sons among them will likely be much greater than of any Englishmen whatsoever. There is no such thing as sending English missionaries, or setting up English schools among them, to any good purpose, in most places, as their temper, state, and condition have been and still are." In illustration of his theory, he refers to the education, by the assistance of the "Honorable London Commissioners,"[6] of Mr. Samson Occom, "one of the Mohegan tribe, who has several years been a useful school-master and successful preacher of the Gospel."[7]
[6] Agents of the Corporation in London referred to on page 2, of which Robert Boyle was governor.
[7] See Appendix.
"After seeing the success of this attempt," he continues, "I was more encouraged to hope that such a method might be very successful, and above eight years ago I wrote to Rev. John Brainerd [brother of the distinguished David Brainerd], missionary in New Jersey, desiring him to send me two likely boys for this purpose, of the Delaware tribe. He accordingly sent me John Pumpshire in the fourteenth, and Jacob Woolley in the eleventh years of their age. They arrived December 18, 1754.
"Sometime after these boys came, the affair appearing with an agreeable aspect, I represented it to Col. Elisha Williams, late Rector of Yale College, and Rev. Messrs. Samuel Moseley, of Windham, and Benjamin Pomeroy, of Hebron, and invited them to join me. They readily accepted the invitation. And Mr. Joshua Moor,[8] late of Mansfield, deceased, appeared, to give a small tenement in this place [Lebanon], for the foundation, use and support of a charity school, for the education of Indian youth, etc." Mr. More's grant contained "about two acres of pasturing, and a small house and shop," near Mr. Wheelock's residence.
[8] Mr. M.'s own orthography is More.
This gentleman was one of the more prominent of the early settlers at Mansfield. He owned and resided upon a large estate on the Willimantic river, a few miles north of the present site of the village bearing that name. There is sufficient evidence to warrant the belief, that the first husband of Mr. More's mother was Mr. Thomas Howard (or Harwood), of Norwich, who was slain in the memorable fight at Narragansett Fort, in December, 1675, and that her maiden name was Mary Wellman. From the church records, he appears to have been of a professedly