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Rev. Isaac McCoy
Rev. Isaac McCoy, 1784-1846 Rev. Isaac McCoy began his ministry in Knox County, Indiana where he was ordained by the Maria Creek Baptist Church. He served as a Baptist missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan and Missouri. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. He also played an instrumental role in the founding of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri.
Rev. Isaac McCoy, the great apostle to the American Indians, was born in Fayette Co., Pa., June 13, 1784. He came with his father to Kentucky in 1790. In 1801 he was converted and joined the Buck Creek Baptist church. In 1803 he was married to Christiana Polk, daughter of Capt. Polk, whose wife and several children were captured by the Ottowas. Mr. McCoy and his wife were afterwards missionaries to that tribe.
In 1804 he came to Vincennes, Ind., and in 1805 removed to Clarke County, same State. He had a marked influence upon the churches and Associations of that part of the State. No one of the great benevolent enterprises of the denomination was allowed to pass unnoticed. Living in a part of the country where Antinomianism was industriously taught, he exerted himself to counteract its baneful influence.
He was licensed to preach by the mother of all Indiana Baptist churches, — Silver Creek who held the principals of the Baptist Confession of Faith adopted at Philadelphia. In 1810 he was ordained by the Maria Creek Baptist church. “That church joined with a number of other churches, the year it was constituted, in forming the first Baptist association in Indiana. Shortly after churches throughout that territory were negatively impacted by the teachings of Daniel Parker and Alexander Campbell who held among other things anti-creed and anti-mission beliefs. Later Rev. McCoy and the Maria Creek Baptist Church was excluded from the association on the ground that it was a confessional, missionary church. This did not detour Rev. McCoy from standing his ground as to what the scriptures taught. Interestinly, a brother of Isaac, John McCoy, was one of the founders of Franklin College in Indiana.”
In 1817 he received an appointment as missionary to the Indians of Indiana and Illinois. Mr. McCoy was appointed for one year, but had no thought that he should cease to labor for the red man at the expiration of that time; his plans embraced many years. After spending some time in Western Indiana, it occurred to him that he should move to Fort Wayne and establish a mission.
He labored there till 1822, when he established a mission about one mile west of where Niles (Michigan) now is. He named it Carey, after the English missionary. Mr. McCoy and his wife entered upon this missionary work with all the zeal and strength of faith that characterized the life and labors of Mr. and Mrs. Judson. And their faith did not fail. Deprivations, sicknesses, and sorrows such as but few mortals know were not strangers to them. Mr. McCoy rode hundreds of miles through the wilderness, and swam the swollen streams, lying on the wet ground at night, for the sake of carrying forward his missions.
He went on horseback to Washington several times to interest Congress in measures beneficial to the Indian.
Many months were occupied in these journeys. One of the severest trials that Mr. McCoy was called to bear was that during his absence from home sickness and sometimes death would visit his family. Five of his children were called by death at different times while he was absent from home. Persons of narrow selfish views would readily call him cruel and indifferent, but men who could rise to his plane of devotion to the work that he believed God had given him can see that his loyalty to the Master was superior even to parental affection. No man loved his wife and children more than he.
Many conversions occurred at the Carey mission. The hymns composed by him on the occasion of the first baptism at Fort Wayne and at Carey are expressive at once of his great joy and his great hope of what would yet be done for the Indian.
He records that the greatest obstacle by far that he was obliged to meet in his labors for the conversion of the Indians was the introduction of whisky among them by white men. So great were his annoyances at one time that he decided to send several of his Indian pupils East to be educated, so that they might become teachers for their own people. They found a ready welcome at Hamilton, N.Y.
His labors at Washington were to secure a territory for the Indians into which the white man might not intrude his wicked commerce. This he regarded as the only sure hope for the Christianization or civilization of the red men. He lived to see some of the tribes settled on their own territory, industrious and happy. In his labors for the passage of such acts as he recommended to Congress he speaks of the sympathy and co-operation afforded him by Spencer H. Cone, William Colgate, and others of his brethren.
Oct. 9, 1825, Mr. McCoy preached the first sermon in English ever delivered in Chicago or near its site. In 1826 he gave up the personal superintendence of the Carey mission for the purpose of selecting lands for the Indians farther West. He made surveys west of the Mississippi River, and several times went to Washington to communicate facts to Congress and to lay his plans before that body. In 1840 he published his "History of Baptist Indian Missions," a volume of 600 octavo pages, and full of interest. In 1842 the American Indian Mission Association was formed, and he was made secretary, with headquarters at Louisville, Ky.
In June, 1846, as he was returning from Jeffersonville, where he had preached, he was caught in a rain-storm, from the effects of which he died in a few days at his home in Louisville.
"His life and labors were truly the connecting link between barbarism and civilization in this region of the country and over a large portion of the West. His perseverance and devotion were morally and heroically sublime. For nearly thirty years he was the apostle to the Indians of the West." His last words were, "Tell the brethren, never to let the Indian mission decline."
Sources
1. Isaac McCoy -1895, by W. N. WYKTH
2. Isaac McCoy - 1932 E. C. Routh
3. The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881
In 1804 he came to Vincennes, Ind., and in 1805 removed to Clarke County, same State. He had a marked influence upon the churches and Associations of that part of the State. No one of the great benevolent enterprises of the denomination was allowed to pass unnoticed. Living in a part of the country where Antinomianism was industriously taught, he exerted himself to counteract its baneful influence.
He was licensed to preach by the mother of all Indiana Baptist churches, — Silver Creek who held the principals of the Baptist Confession of Faith adopted at Philadelphia. In 1810 he was ordained by the Maria Creek Baptist church. “That church joined with a number of other churches, the year it was constituted, in forming the first Baptist association in Indiana. Shortly after churches throughout that territory were negatively impacted by the teachings of Daniel Parker and Alexander Campbell who held among other things anti-creed and anti-mission beliefs. Later Rev. McCoy and the Maria Creek Baptist Church was excluded from the association on the ground that it was a confessional, missionary church. This did not detour Rev. McCoy from standing his ground as to what the scriptures taught. Interestinly, a brother of Isaac, John McCoy, was one of the founders of Franklin College in Indiana.”
In 1817 he received an appointment as missionary to the Indians of Indiana and Illinois. Mr. McCoy was appointed for one year, but had no thought that he should cease to labor for the red man at the expiration of that time; his plans embraced many years. After spending some time in Western Indiana, it occurred to him that he should move to Fort Wayne and establish a mission.
He labored there till 1822, when he established a mission about one mile west of where Niles (Michigan) now is. He named it Carey, after the English missionary. Mr. McCoy and his wife entered upon this missionary work with all the zeal and strength of faith that characterized the life and labors of Mr. and Mrs. Judson. And their faith did not fail. Deprivations, sicknesses, and sorrows such as but few mortals know were not strangers to them. Mr. McCoy rode hundreds of miles through the wilderness, and swam the swollen streams, lying on the wet ground at night, for the sake of carrying forward his missions.
He went on horseback to Washington several times to interest Congress in measures beneficial to the Indian.
Many months were occupied in these journeys. One of the severest trials that Mr. McCoy was called to bear was that during his absence from home sickness and sometimes death would visit his family. Five of his children were called by death at different times while he was absent from home. Persons of narrow selfish views would readily call him cruel and indifferent, but men who could rise to his plane of devotion to the work that he believed God had given him can see that his loyalty to the Master was superior even to parental affection. No man loved his wife and children more than he.
Many conversions occurred at the Carey mission. The hymns composed by him on the occasion of the first baptism at Fort Wayne and at Carey are expressive at once of his great joy and his great hope of what would yet be done for the Indian.
He records that the greatest obstacle by far that he was obliged to meet in his labors for the conversion of the Indians was the introduction of whisky among them by white men. So great were his annoyances at one time that he decided to send several of his Indian pupils East to be educated, so that they might become teachers for their own people. They found a ready welcome at Hamilton, N.Y.
His labors at Washington were to secure a territory for the Indians into which the white man might not intrude his wicked commerce. This he regarded as the only sure hope for the Christianization or civilization of the red men. He lived to see some of the tribes settled on their own territory, industrious and happy. In his labors for the passage of such acts as he recommended to Congress he speaks of the sympathy and co-operation afforded him by Spencer H. Cone, William Colgate, and others of his brethren.
Oct. 9, 1825, Mr. McCoy preached the first sermon in English ever delivered in Chicago or near its site. In 1826 he gave up the personal superintendence of the Carey mission for the purpose of selecting lands for the Indians farther West. He made surveys west of the Mississippi River, and several times went to Washington to communicate facts to Congress and to lay his plans before that body. In 1840 he published his "History of Baptist Indian Missions," a volume of 600 octavo pages, and full of interest. In 1842 the American Indian Mission Association was formed, and he was made secretary, with headquarters at Louisville, Ky.
In June, 1846, as he was returning from Jeffersonville, where he had preached, he was caught in a rain-storm, from the effects of which he died in a few days at his home in Louisville.
"His life and labors were truly the connecting link between barbarism and civilization in this region of the country and over a large portion of the West. His perseverance and devotion were morally and heroically sublime. For nearly thirty years he was the apostle to the Indians of the West." His last words were, "Tell the brethren, never to let the Indian mission decline."
Sources
1. Isaac McCoy -1895, by W. N. WYKTH
2. Isaac McCoy - 1932 E. C. Routh
3. The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881