Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma

The Missionary Pioneer, or A Brief Memoir of the Life, Labours, and Death of John Stewart, (Man of Colour,) Founder, under God of the Mission among the Wyandotts at Upper Sandusky, Ohio:

PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH MITCHELL.
NEW YORK
PRINTED BY J. C. TOTTEN,
No. 9 Bowery.
1827.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-first day of June, A. D. 1827, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, John C. Totten, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following to, wit:

'The Missionary Pioneer, Brief Memoir of the Life, Labours, and Death of John Stewart, (man of colour,) Founder, under God, of the Mission among the Wyandotts at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Published by Joseph Mitchell.'

In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled "An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching hiistorical and other prints."

Agreeably to your request, I offer you my opinion of the brief memoir of the life and labours of John Stewart, which you are about to publish. Having myself been the first to assist Stewart in Missionary labours among the Wyandotts, I became acquainted with him, and with the concerns of the then infant and unorganised mission, early in February, 1819; and my acquaintance with Stewart was uninterrupted, nearly to the period of his death. I have consequently had a tolerable opportunity of being acquainted with the circumstances detailed in your little work, and from personal knowledge and authentic information, I consider the memoir of Stewart, in all particulars, as entitled to full Credit.

In my opinion it is due to the Christian public, to give them some account of the life and labours of this faithful Missionary Pioneer, and I am gratified to find you are about to

publish something on the subject. I have also received letters from Messrs Isaac and Walker, expressing their entire approbation of your undertaking, and informing me that the Chiefs, John Hicks and Thomas Manoncue wish to be known as decidedly approving your publication, the object and contents of which were made known them by Mr. Walker.

As the preface of a book is very seldom read, especially if it be of any considerable length, it shall be an object to make this is brief as can be justified by the nature of the incidents detailed in this narrative.

In the striking circumstances of John Stewart's missionary call, and in the success of his labours, there is evident the hand of a special Providence, which must be interesting to the Christian commonwealth; and those circumstances belong to them of right. Whereever it is known that this humble African, has been, under God, the founder of what is now, perhaps, the most prosperous missionary establishment on this continent; a more particular account of his history and labours has been demanded. And since he has been taken from labour to reward, this call has become more general and pressing. For several years past, some of the most distinguished

Christians and Christian Ministers in the United States, have earnestly requested those, whose former connexion with the mission, gave them the best means of information, to furnish the public with the early history of the Wyandott Mission, and of Stewart its founder. This, for several reasons has never been done. And one cause of its delay has been an expectation, fairly authorised, that such a history would, long since, have been given to the public from another quarter. But as reasonable expectation has been so long disappointed, as the facts of this narrative have only lived in the recollection of a few individuals, thus far, and as delay must soon have consigned those interesting facts to oblivion, it is deemed a duty now to rescue those which yet remain, from that fate, by giving them to the world in a more permanent form. The Editor has however to regret the existence of several circumstances which must prevent this work from being either as full or as interesting as could be wished. Among these are the following: several persons from whom doubtless much

information might have been obtained, have already exchanged this life for eternal realities, and the time allowed for collecting and arranging the materials for this little work has been so very limited as to render it impossible to collect all the facts and anecdotes of interest, which are yet attainable, relative to the subject of this brief memoir. It is confidently believed, that should another edition of this narrative be called for, it will be in the power of the Editor to render it more acceptable than this, by the addition of much valuable matter, which he will he enabled to collect.

The incidents recorded in this memoir may be relied on as substantially correct, as they were collected and arranged by William Walker, who resided in the Wyandott Nation at the time of Stewart's first visiting them, and does to the present. His opportunities consequently have been peculiarly favourable to the purposes of acquiring correct information, and therefore most of what he records is from personal knowledge. And as his character for veracity is entirely unimpeachable,

his narrative is entitled to the fullest credit. What he has gathered from others has been collected from those who were most intimately acquainted with Stewart, and with the concerns of the mission in its infancy, and who only detailed to him such facts as had fallen under their own observation, or were certainly known to them.

It will be readily seen by the reader, that this little memoir is not intended as the panegyric of its pious subject; but merely as a record of interesting incidents, in which he had a prominent agency. Eulogy on his virtues is not needed; for Heaven has awarded him a more substantial and enduring inheritance. And though on earth his lot was one of poverty, persecution,and extreme adversity, the patience and resignation of Christianity bore him above the waves. And though unmarked by a stone, his ashes obscurely repose in the wilderness, we doubt not, his virtues and his name stands registered in the Lamb's Book of everlasting life.