SAMUEL SPATES - A PIONEER METHODIST MISSIONARY

and Related Lines: Pope, Link, Fullenwider, Rice

THE SPATES FAMILY IN MARYLAND AND KENTUCKY

Samuel Spates (Jr) was born Jan 31, 1815 Bourbon County, Kentucky, to Samuel Spates (Sr) and Mary Ellen (Hoggins) Spates. . He married Sarah Pope, at Mt. Sterling , Ill. on October 7, 1845;. He died on April 19, 1887 at Red Wing, Minnesota. Fragments of his diary and other papers in the Minnesota Historical Society include autobiographical notes stating his grandfather, Robert Spates, was born in Yorkshire in Great Britain and that he came to America as a young man, settling in Maryland where he married,. ⁽¹⁾

The 1776 Maryland census for Sugar Land Hundred on Sept 2, 1776 lists Robert Speights (age 37), his wife (Elizabeth - age 38), and five children (ages 2-12)..⁽²⁾ This apparently was the family structure a year before Samuel Spates (Sr) , was born. It was soon after the Declaration of Independence was adopted and a time when the spirit of rebellion was spreading over Maryland. The words of William Eddis, a Tory who recorded opinions of Marylanders during these times expressed some of that spirit....".... the universal cry is liberty.... The inhabitants are banding together to apply a greater part of their time to military discipline.... In every district a majority of the people are under arms, and almost every hat is decorated with a cockade; and churlish fife and drum is the only music. " ⁽³⁾

When Samuel Spates (Sr) was still a toddler Robert Speights joined hundreds of other men from Montgomery County in signing the Oath of Fidelity and Support in 1778 - swearing that he did not hold himself bound in allegiance or obedience to the King of Great Britain; that he would be true and faithful to the State of Maryland; that he would support, maintain and defend the freedom and independence of the State; and that he would disclose all treasons against the state which might come to his knowledge.⁽⁴⁾ Robert was also listed as a militia soldier in the Sixth Company of the Upper Battalion of Montgomery County.⁽⁵⁾

Samuel Spates (Sr) grew up during some momentous times. When he was seven the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War. He was eleven when Maryland ratified the United States Constitution and twelve when George Washington became President At age thirteen he was one of the two young men listed in Robert Spates' household on the 1790 U.S. Census in Montgomery County. He was fifteen when Kentucky became a state, twenty when John Adams became president after Washington refused a third term, and twenty-two when Washington died. He was about twenty-eight when he married Mary Ellen Hoggins,⁽⁶⁾ perhaps in 1805, the year when Thomas Jefferson became president.

Mary Ellen's father (John Hoggin - age 20) appears in the household of her grandfather (Peter Hoggins - age 50) on the 1776 Maryland Census in Prince George's County The household includes Peter's mother (Elizabeth Hoggin - age 84), Peter's wife (Catherine Hoggin - age 46) , nine children (ages 3 - 20), and five "Negroes (apparently slaves - ages 1, 3, 3, 11, and 12) ⁽⁷⁾

In his 1798 will Peter Hoggins named Mary Ellen Hoggins as his granddaughter, giving her thirty pounds currency when she comes of age. .⁽⁸⁾ Peter's son, John Hoggins, appears to be Mary Ellen's father as his 1802 will clearly favored his daughter, Ellender (who apparently is "Mary Eleoner"), over his sons, providing extravagantly for her in his bequests: I give to my Daughter Ellender Hoggins on the day of her Marriage one good feather bed and bedstead, two sheets, one Rug, one Rose Blanket, one Counterpane, the Second choice of a cow and Calf, one Sow and five piggs, three hundred Weight of good pork, Six Barrels of Coin, one note of hand on William Bullet in the State of Virginia. If it can be Collected in Eighteen Months my wife must pay it out of the Rest of my State, one leather trunk which she has in possession. .⁽⁹⁾

Although John Hoggins' will names his wife, Tamar, she is probably his second wife and not Mary Ellen's mother because Samuel Spates (Jr) comments in his notes "....my mother had lost her mother when she was very young - only nine days old." ⁽¹⁰⁾ This was probably about 1784 because Mary Ellen's age is listed as 66 and her birthplace is listed as Maryland on the 1850 Illinois census.⁽¹¹⁾ In his notes, Samuel (Jr)'s comments about his mother reflect some of the pain she apparently expressed to him during his childhood......"....She knew but little about a mother's love and had no pain of parting with a mother....... She could know nothing of the affliction of parting with this parent., though she may have felt the need of the guiding hand in her bringing up. I remember my mother used to say to her children "I had not mother when I was young, to look after me, but if my mother had lived long enough for me to have been capable, I should have loved and obeyed her." This was said some times when we were not the most obedient to her commands..⁽¹²⁾

Samuel Spates I and Mary Ellen Hoggins were married about 1805.⁽¹³⁾ Three or four years later, in the shadow of the approaching war with Great Britain, they moved from Maryland to Bourbon County, Kentucky where Mary Ellen's uncle, Solomon Hoggins, had purchased land 1801.⁽¹⁴⁾ They then settled near what is now North Middletown in the vicinity of Paris and Lexington.⁽¹⁵⁾

Their journey was probably through the wilderness route between Virginia and Kentucky, extremely dangerous under the best of conditions. So much so that travelers contemplating the journey would often advertise for weeks ahead for persons to accompany them through the wilderness. There was no stage line at that time. None until 1818. ⁽¹⁶⁾ The conditions of the Wilderness Road in 1808 were probably not much better than they were in 1803 when Bishop Francis Asbury described it after a journey on the road following a Methodist conference in Madison county......... ........"Certainly the worst on the whole continent even in the best weather; yet bad as it was there were four or five hundred crossing the rude hills whilst we were... A man who is well mounted will scorn to complain of the roads, when he sees men, women, and children, almost naked padling barefoot and bare-legged along or labouring up the rocky hills whilst those who are best off have only a horse for two or three children to ride at once. If these adventureres have little or nothing to eat, it is not an extraordinary circumstance, and not uncommon, to encamp in the wet woods after night, in the mountains it does not rain, but pours."⁽¹⁷⁾

In his notes, Samuel Jr. relates a dramatic story that his mother told him about how she and his father took their children from Maryland to Kentucky, probably traveling first on the Great Wagon Road and then on the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky.⁽¹⁸⁾ with few possessions. ( Although Mary Ellen's grandfather, John Hoggins, had left a generous inheritance for her when she married,⁽¹⁹⁾ it was not possible to take much with them when they embarked on their journey.) Their family then included Samuel, two older brothers who were then very small as well as a very young orphan boy whom they had taken charge of. To carry the children, their household goods (which included a little kitchen furniture), their clothing, and some other things they provided themselves with two small horses. Samuel's mother and "the baby" (perhaps the orphan boy?) were on one horse. The rest of their movables with the other two boys were put on the other house. Samuel's father held a small ax in his hand and carried a gun on his shoulder as he led the way. All were moving from home and kindred, bound for a new country, to settle among strangers, perhaps knowing only Mary Ellen's Uncle Solomon. ⁽²⁰⁾

Samuel (Jr)'s autobiographical notes relate that all went well enough for a few days....... " Then one day, just before they were going to stop for the night, the horse that was well packed with the moveables , and in addition to this, had the two little boys on top, stumbled and threw one of the children onto the stones causing the blood to flow freely from some wounds received in the fall. Samuel's father caught up the child, all covered with his blood, and without thinking of consequences, struck the horse on the head with the hatchet he carried in his hand, but did not seem to hurt him. Still he inflicted a small wound. It did not seem to him to be dangerous. The horse seemed as well as usual and was put up for the night feed and left till the morning. But on going to the stable next morning, the horse was found dead! He had bled to death during the night from the wound received the evening before. The movers were now in trouble, having but one horse and it would seem that at least two horses were necessary to get along at all. The wife and three children could not all ride on one horse. One could ride in the mother's lap and another one could sit behind and hold on to the mother, but what would they do with the goods and the other child?

The goods were soon disposed of, for almost nothing. It was the very best they can do. A knapsack was soon made and the smallest child was put into it to swing onto father's back, and again they were on their way.

For the remainder of the journey they presumably traveled safely through the rest of the wilderness to Kentucky where they settled in the area known as Swinneytown, later to be recognized as North Middletown. ⁽²¹⁾ Perhaps with the help of Mary Ellen's Uncle Solomon, Samuel (Sr)'s family soon established a r little home and farm, working hard to produce the corn and wheat that was so bountiful in that area. Their home may well have been like that of many early settlers - s simple log hut where chinks were filled with mud or stone, plastered mud on the outside, and a few windows. It might have had a dirt or a log floor . If it was much like other homes in the area at that time, it probably had a latch-string door hole, a clapboard roof and a log chimney plastered with mud.⁽²²⁾

If the family found time to explore the region surrounding their new home, they would have traveled ten miles to visit Paris, the seat of justice in Bourbon County. There they would have found more than eighty dwellings, mostly good ones, several of them brick, compacted into three small parallel streets with a town square in the middle, dominated by the town's oldest building, the Duncan Tavern. At that time it was said to have hosted such illustrious lodgers as George Washington and Daniel Boone, and some years later, Henry Clay. Another such establishment, Eades Tavern, also served as the post office. The Burr house was as old stone house on the square with kitchen, billiard room, smoke house, lower stables, etc. and two partitions to be run across the ball-room. It was here that the youth of the town gathered on those grand occasions to dance the Virginia Reel, and where the first dramatic performances took place in 1807. The company was composed of the young men of the village and among the plays produced was Shakespeare's 'MacBeth'..." The town also had a market house, a neat brick court house, and a small but strong jail. The townspeople might have told the Spates family that the jail was a busy place when rowdies from the outskirts of the county came into Paris looking for a fight. It was said that some people liked to hire the rowdies to espouse their quarrels with others by doing the fighting for them. The Spates family may also have learned that the hosteler at Paris's Buchanan's Inn was an old free Negro man named Frank Bird, formerly owned by George Washington whom he accompanied and served in all his campaigns. He related to visitors how he had learned furriery, cooking and hairdressing when he was a youth in England and how Washington had liberated him and helped him get some land near Mount Vernon.⁽²³⁾

Outside of Paris the Spates family might have seen the log home that served as the church for the Mt. Gilead Methodist Society whose members were not allowed to buy slaves except to free them when their labor repaid the cost. Further east of Paris they may have visited the Cane Ridge Meetinghouse (twelve miles from their home in Swinneytown), the scene of the area's many mass revival meetings that started in 1800. There they would probably have been told about the famous Cane Ridge camp meeting revival of 1800 in which.." Seventeen Presbyterian ministers and an unknown quantity of Methodist and Baptist preachers assembled at the meeting house. As many as seven at a time took the stump, wagon bottoms, or tree limbs and shouted at crowds gathered around carriages, horses, or on foot. Perhaps 10,000 settlers, in over one-hundred wagons sang, prayed, screamed, jerked, danced, and fainted." ⁽²⁴⁾

Lexington was a few miles further than Paris from the Spates family's Swinneytown home. It was a thriving community where permanent brick-type houses were replacing old log structures. It boasted the "Kentucky Gazette" and one of the finest courthouses in the region. Lexington was also home to Transylvania University (where Henry Clay was later to be a professor of law) , two printing houses, a nail-cutting machine, two powder mills, copper and tinsmiths, jewelers, silversmiths, saddlers' shops, cabinetmakers, umbrella makers, hatters, bootmasters, brewers, textile mills, hemp mills tobacco factories, Venetian blind makers, brickyards, and several inns. For two dollars a week a boarder could eat and drink off the fat of the land.⁽²⁵⁾

Almost from the time that Samuel Spates (Sr) and his family arrived in Swinneytown, they must have been aware of the prejudices and injustices of the slave society. As early as 1801 a Negro was arrested and jailed for "going out at large and hiring himself out", and then released when it was learned that he had his owner's permission. ⁽²⁶⁾ A newspaper notice twenty-six years later (1827 - when Samuel (Jr) was twelve years old) shows how such a practice continued to infuriate the bigoted trustees of nearby Paris.

"Take notice. Whereas the citizens of Paris and Bourbon county are much annoyed by masters hiring their slaves and permitting them to go at large and trade for themselves, the trustees of the town are resolved to present the masters of any such slaves before the next grand jury for this county, and to take any other steps before a justice of the peace or otherwise, as may be deemed necessary to enforce upon the masters the penalty of the law if any such case happens within their knowledge after the first day of January, 1828.--- Paris, Kentucky, Dec. 25, 1827.---- Willis Young, Otho Hughes, H.E. Grant, Stephen Hall, O.W. Thornton."⁽²⁷⁾

About three years after Samuel (Sr) and his family arrived in Swinneytown they saw the United State drawn into a second war with Great Britain that ended at the end of 1814, less than a year before the birth of Samuel (Jr) on January 31, 1815. Two years later, in 1817, Samuel (Jr') s brother, Rezin, was born during a time when the family and all other Kentuckians were struggling through the great financial panic and upheaval over debt relief that emerged all over the state after a brief post-war boom.⁽²⁸⁾

Everybody in the Spates family probably worked hard on the farm. When the boys were five or six years old, they may well have been pulling weeds and taking clods from the corn. Sometimes they apparently helped with the woodcutting. In his notes, Samuel (Jr) says ..." In truth I was too young to be wielding an ax and I cut my foot very badly when I was about seven years old. Healing from the terrible wound I was confined to the house for several months before I was able to walk again. And when I could get about I was still permitted to remain in the house to assist my mother because my father thought I could be of little use in the field. As a cripple I was kept away from the dreaded cornfield for about two years. This did not disturb me for I must confess that I was at that time, very lazy. ⁽²⁹⁾

Samuel (Jr) speaks of the ax injury to explain how his mother first introduced him to religious instruction .... "I have not introduced the fact that I was crippled when so young to excuse that I was lazy or that by this means I escaped the hard field work as much as I rejoiced at the time because of the time that I could spend indoors with my mother where I received much religious knowledge that I otherwise would not have had. For my mother , though not at this time decidedly religious was of a religious turn of mind and a constant reader of the holy Bible - or should I say of the New Testament. We had not an entire bible and I think I had never seen one up to this time. We did have a New Testament that my mother would read. And when she read it she would most always weep. This would affect me and I would want to understand too. "Mother," I would say. "Why do you cry?" So she would pause and talk to me about God, about Jesus, about heaven and hell, about how we were sinners against God, and that if we died as such we would be sent to hell - a place of fire. But she said that we need not die sinners because Jesus, whom she was reading about, came from heaven to save us. My mother gave me at that time much religious instruction and I never got rid of the impressions made there and then on my heart." ⁽³⁰⁾

Children living in the frontier years of Bourbon county gained their agricultural or vocational skills at home through hard experience and guidance from parents who emphasized practical training and knowledge. Some may have studied the famous McGuffey readers (developed by William McGuffey at neaby Paris in 1823) which were based on scripture and advocated morality, moderation, and sound judgement. ^{(31) (32)}

In his notes, Samuel (Jr) elaborates how his mother's religious convictions affected the family. .... "It was not very long after the time when my mother gave me my first religious instruction when one of my older brothers was called away by death. This made a powerful impression on all the family but especially on my mother who became more earnest in prayer and more constant in reading the Testament. I remember that it was soon after his death when she got on her horse and rode off into the adjoining county to what she called "Methodist meeting" to hear a circuit rider. After she returned she told me that she had joined the Church as a "Seeker". I recall that she obtained religion at home while praying up in the loft. She was happy for a while but soon lost her peace. So she went back to the same place. When she returned she said when she fell on her knees before God and prayed in the name of Jesus, the heavens opened up around her and shone with beams of sacred peace. And then she delayed not in telling her children what great things the Lord had done for her soul. This was wonderful but strange to me. My mother was the first that I ever heard speak so. The first religious experience I ever heard. I will note here that my mother purchased a Bible when I was about ten or eleven years old. And I cannot soon forget the fact that a neighbor of ours called on us in a morning soon after this. The new Bible was produced and the man, being a good reader though unacquainted with the Bible, took it and began to read aloud. The children gathered around, I among others, anxious to know what was in the Bible. The whole of the history of Joseph was read and various other parts of that holy Bible. In Joseph's call I saw then the special providence of God." ⁽³³⁾

Samuel (Jr) also talks about how his family first encounter a Methodist preacher.... "A short time before this my mother had engaged a Methodist local preacher to come to our house to preach at my brother's funeral and at the same time to baptize her seven children, one older than I was and the rest younger.... News of the appointment was spread about and expectation was on tiptoe. It was altogether a new thing. No Methodist preacher had ever preached in the neighborhood, and very many, both young and old, had never seen one before. Very few children in the neighborhood had ever heard preaching from anyone. I for one. And yet I was to be baptized along with my brothers and our sister. A great many people came to the meeting and after the preaching we were dedicated to God in holy baptism. This fact always had an impact on me for good. I knew that should I sin at any time after that, I would feel worse than I did before I was baptized. ⁽³⁴⁾

The family's involvement with the Methodists may have occurred sometime in the 1820s, perhaps at the Union church in North Middletown which may have been built before 1823 and which was used by the Methodists, Presbyterians, Separate Baptists, and New Lights. The Methodists' well-known circuit riding preachers may have used that church as well as other places for their meetings. ⁽³⁵⁾

Wherever those circuit preachers were preaching, Mary Ellen Spates apparently continued to attend. Samuel (Jr) notes that when his mother returned from those meetings "....her soul was full of love to God and concern for the salvation of her family. Sometimes it was so full that her feelings could not always be controlled. She would turn preacher and exhort all - husband and children , to seek an interest in the blood of Christ. To have the family disturbed in this way did not please my father. Very often, I remember, she would talk to my father and to us children about "the one thing needful." And as my father did not feel like giving up his sins and go with my mother to heaven, he was not always pleased to hear her talk to him about religion, and would sometimes reply in ways to hurt her feelings.... Well do I remember one evening when my mother was speaking on the important duty of prayer to my father , urging him to begin a life of prayer. It was a little beyond his endurance so he replied "Do you Pray?" My mother, evidently afflicted, meekly said "I try to pray for myself and all my family." Then he said "Now let us hear you pray." But it was quite obvious to me that he did not wish her to pray nor did he think that she would. I felt anxious for her to pray and was afraid she would not. I had never hear her pray though I had often seen her at prayer. I saw there was a mighty struggle to take up the Cross. Thank God, she did not decline to take up the cross in that trying hour. No. God be praised. I saw her fall onto her knees with streaming eyes and I heard her praying for God's spirit to be poured on the entire family. She opened her mouth and God filled it. She prayed to be strengthened and for God to help my father and to help the children who were looking to the parents for example.. That night we all retired to our beds without further consideration and thinking on the strange thing that had taken place in our family. Was it true that we had prayer in our family?" ⁽³⁶⁾

According to Samuel (Jr) that was the first time his mother prayed in the family He talks about how he wanted her to continue praying ".... if for nothing else than to triumph over my father who seemed not to believe that she should pray. Some time after this our family altar was erected. It was kept up most of the time by my mother for about six years when God was pleased to connect nearly the whole family with his word." ⁽³⁷⁾

By 1830 Samuel (Sr) and Mary Ellen apparently realized that they could no longer in good conscience raise their children in Kentucky where one out of every four persons was a slave. It was even worse in Bourbon county where more than a third of the population were slaves ⁽³⁸⁾ The matter of slavery may have been especially painful for Mary Ellen if she thought about how her grandfather, Peter Hoggins, had been a slave holder For despite the anti-slavery sentiments of the Spates family of many other Kentuckians, repulsive slave auctions were occurring in nearby Lexington where female stock were exhibited with shameless disregard for modesty and decency.⁽³⁹⁾ Perhaps to escape such surroundings, the family packed up their belongings and joined a wagon train going to Jacksonville, Illinois, where they would begin their new life .⁽⁴⁰⁾

THE SPATES FAMILY IN ILLINOIS

Samuel Spates (Sr) and his family arrived by wagon train at Jacksonville in October, 1830 and settled on a farm several miles north of the town. They had barely settled into their new home when they had to contend with one of the worst winters in that area's history . For many years it was remembered as the winter of the "Deep Snow." ^{(41) (42) (43)}

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The snow started falling in late November and continued with little respite until January. Gusty winds blew snow into drifts seven to twelve feet deep in places, covering fences and small buildings. Farmers who had not gathered the last of their corn earlier had to go into their fields, reach under the snow for the ears, and carry them home in a bag or basket to feed their families and their livestock. . Since nobody could get to the mill because of the snow, they had to put the corn into wooden mortars where they pounded it until it was broken enough for boiling or baking. Luckily game was more plentiful than crops as prairie chickens and rabbits were easily captured and sometimes deer who would become trapped when falling through the crust of the deep snow. But few families were prepared for such winter hardships and most suffered from lack of food and warmth.

None of the Spates family suffered more that winter than Catherine who was just twelve years old when she was stricken with a high fever, fatigue, and consumption after being exposed to the cold weather. Her brother, Samuel (Jr) was profoundly affected by her last illness and death as evidenced by the following lengthy passages from his diary:

"Although others had been similarly ill, poor Catherine did not regain her strength as most of them did. Stricken through a very afflicting dispensation of Providence, she was taken with a lingering sickness for several months unto death. Anguished over how she was wasting away, I went to a religious meeting full of the opinion that good men, having power with God in prayer, could save my sister. Thus I went to the preacher although he was a stranger to me. I pleaded with him to go with me to see my sister who was about to die. He agreed. So distressed as I was on the subject of salvation, not for myself but for my sister, that I took my horse and rode several miles for yet another good man to come and pray for her. So afflicted was my poor heart that I stood and wept while I made my business known to this man as I had to the other. He too agreed to go and did so as a man powerful in prayer. Very often since then I have remembered how those good men, one a Presbyterian and the other a Methodist, were kneeling at my sister's bed, praying the prayer of faith I cannot forget how terribly anxious I felt for my sister's salvation . When it was evident that she must die, I took the Bible and read to her about Jesus and the offers of salvation. Stopping to comment on what was read, I urged her to believe. I remember feeling happy on my sister's account while reading the 20th chapter of John to her, especially the 29th verse. These words I read again and again "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed." Then with tears in my eyes I held Catherine's hand and said, "Now Sister. These words are for you. You have not seen Jesus. Yet you will be happy if you believe. Still holding her hand I prayed and wept and prayed again and again that God would save my only sister. I never prayed more earnestly for the salvation of my own soul than I did for my sister. I did not at that time pray for myself but I did resolve there and then to be a Christian. And I was happy when my sister said that God had forgiven her sins. Yes, I thanked God from my heart. .⁽⁴⁶⁾

Some of Samuel's friends discouraged him from going to the meeting....'Your sister has just died and your mind is too much troubled to obtain religion. You can attend to that as well or better after this meeting. There is too much noise and confusion here for you.'

With those suggestions I went and found some wild company. They were persons who would not on any account disturb a religious assembly but they did not intend there and then to seek religion. With them I thought I might find some relief. But I had been in their company only a moment when one said 'Old Mr. P. was at the altar to be prayed for last night. People prayed that he not go to the horse races any more.' Knowing that the old man had been actively engaged in the races, I was deeply concerned. 'And did he get religion?' I asked. 'I do not know,' said my informant. 'But a great many others did.' Then he went on to name quite a number with whom I was well acquainted.

That conversation increased my troubles and I left those companions to be alone. I kept away from all religious people as much as I could. When I went into the woods I felt so badly I could not stay alone. I therefore went back to the congregation, keeping myself on the outskirts. And when I saw any religious people with whom I was acquainted coming toward me, I would remove to another seat. Thus with a troubled heart I wandered around the campground from Thursday evening until Friday.

At about ten o'clock that night I found myself suddenly in the arms of old Mr. P. 'Sam,' said he, 'I have been a great sinner. But I have found Jesus to be a great savior.' And he began to urge me to set about seeking religion. I promised to do so. We slept in the woods that night but we were in different spiritual worlds. Having found Jesus, Mr. P. was most happy. But I was morosely unhappy as I thought about how I was failing to find religion.

The next day was Saturday and I was feeling as lost as ever as the Sabbath approached. Still searching for religion, I sat on the ground and heard all the preaching. That night mourners were invited to the altar. I felt it a duty to go but I did not do so even though I had promised old Mr. P that I would go if mourners were called. I knew that I ought to go to the altar but yet I went not.

After this my mind was filled with great darkness and I was afraid to make any more promises, either to God or to man. I knew not what to do although I felt I should make a start. By this time my heart had become so hard that I seemed to be as destitute of feeling as a stone. I was wretched. After a most dreadful night of anguish of the soul, the holy Sabbath came. But it was no day of rest to me. For some reason I feared that if I went to the altar and asked for the prayers of God's people, I would not obtain religion and thus it would be better that I not go. I reasoned in this way until I was as miserable as I could be. Then I came to the conclusion that it could be no worse with here if I did not obtain salvation so I resolved to try to go to the altar the first time an invitation is given.

At ten o'clock on that Sunday morning the preaching was going on as I was sitting on the outskirts of the very large congregation. After the preacher got through his sermon, another preacher arose and said ' The devil and some sinners say that Methodists never call mourners to the altar in the daytime - only at night. And I arise to contradict the slander. If any in this large congregation are in earnest for the salvation of their souls, they will be willing for this whole congregation to know it. Come along, broken-hearted sinner. God will meet you at the altar.'

Those were the most eloquent words I had ever heard and they thrilled through my poor heart. I arose and made my way through that crowd and when I reached altar amidst the rejoicing of many, I fell down and cried manfully 'God be merciful to me a sinner.'

For some time I continued to pray and agonize at the altar for mercy but without success. Then as the preaching began again , I took my seat to hear what God would say by his minister to my poor heart. I do not remember a word that was said by the preacher.

I did not then obtain the help that I sought. Yet I was glad that God helped me to make a start. I could not then go back to the outskirts. Too many had seen me. I had done a very public act and this cut off any idea of retreat. So I continued to present myself at the altar at every invitation but without obtaining religion - up until the last morning of the meeting. Then as the trumpet was sounding at the stand to call all together in order take leave of one another, I was putting the saddle on my horse to go home.

'I have prayed,' thought I, 'and done all I can but I have no religion yet. About a hundred souls have been converted during this meeting and I have tried surely as hard as any. Oh, wretched that I am. What shall I do? Well I can never give it up. I will do anything that I think is my duty.'

As I reasoned thus and talked to myself, the preacher who was conducting the religious exercises at the stand had opened the door of the church and a number were offering themselves as probationers. And just as I was thinking of mounting my horse to leave, providentially old Mr. P. came up to me. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he said 'Sammy, are you not going to join the Church?'

I replied, 'I have done all I know how to do. Yet I have no religion.'

'But you have not given yourself to the Church. And most of us Methodists obtained religion in the Church. Within the Church is the best place to get religion.'

So reasoned that good old Methodist and I yielded. Realizing how wrong I had been to expect that I could get religion instantly, I I went along with the good man and gave my hand to the preacher. It was thus that at age fifteen I was on my way to finding religion - a journey that was to mark my life forever."

THE EBENEZER STUDENTS AND EARLY MISSIONARY WORK

Samuel Spates (Jr's) notes indicate that he did find religion over time within the Methodist church as he and his family recovered from the winter of the Deep Snow and from the death of Catherine, Rev. Peter Akers may have been involved with the family during these times. . He had come to Illinois from Kentucky just about a year before Henry's wedding . Samuel (Jr)'s mother may had heard him preach in Bourbon county when she was a "seeker." Rev. Akers had also been the president of a state school at Mt. Sterling, not far from the Spates family's Swinneytown home in Kentucky .^{(47) (48)}

Rev. Akers soon gained the confidence and respect of his neighbors, especially the small but growing community of Methodists in the Ebenezer area. It was not long before he had persuaded many of them, (perhaps including Samuel Jr) , to meet at his home once every two weeks for religious services.. Rev Akers was a powerful and thoughtful preacher and he may well have encouraged Samuel Spates (Jr) to consider missionary work..⁽⁴⁹⁾ If so, it was not long before he created an opportunity for Samuel to do just that.

At one of the religious services at his house in 1835 Rev. Akers persuaded his Methodist friends and neighbors that there should a House of Worship in that area. He then said that he would donate the land and building materials for the structure on the condition that it was to have two rooms, one for public worship and one to be a school for the education of young people for the ministry and for missionary work. The people eagerly accepted the proposal and began planning to built the structure. To formulate and carry out the plans the Ebenezer Society was organized on New Year's Eve, the last day of 1836. It was soon after that when Samuel Spates (Jr) decided to embark on his missionary training. Thus he was among the first students admitted to the newly erected Ebenezer Manual Labor School in the fall of 1837, the same time when the Methodist Conference was held in Jacksonville.

That conference was held at the First Jacksonville Methodist church. If Samuel attended he may have found it to be an exciting and interesting introduction to Methodist clergy. But the conference was also badly marred by a scandal. Simon Peter, a prominent member of the Conference, who had been a presiding elder, was invited on Sunday night, at church, by a woman, to go home with her and spend the night, as his lodging-place was a little out of town. The preacher was well acquainted with the woman and her husband and had often lodged with them in the past. But this time she told her husband when he came home that the preacher had tried to seduce her. The preacher said that he had merely asked her to do a favor for him after he retired and that she interpreted it as an impure suggestion, although he only intended to ask for some necessary mending. Despite his attempts to explain, the husband and wife would not listen so he left the house and went to another. Then the wrathful husband gathered a hundred men together. They arrested and imprisoned the preacher and were preparing to lynch him until a few of the preachers attending the Conference intervened and prevailed upon the mob to await action by the Conference the next day. You have read how it was said that if the Conference did not promptly expel him, the Conference itself would be driven out of town and that if he denied the charge he should be shot down like a dog. Those threats were not known to the Conference generally until after the preacher pleaded guilty, was expelled, and then escorted out of town. ^{(50) (51)}

Samuel Spates (Jr) probably had better memories of his subsequent studies at Ebenezer Manual Labor School itself - which also became known as the Ebenezer Seminary. The building had two rooms as planned by Rev. Akers. The school room was separated from the chapel by a sectioned partition which could be lifted to the ceiling. Rev. Akers became the first president of the school. The curriculum included Greek, Hebrew, Theology, Philosophy, and Mathematics.⁽⁵²⁾

If Samuel attended camp meetings at the nearby Robinson Camp Ground, he may have seen the noted Methodist preacher, Peter Cartwright, at a revival meeting in 1837. A description of that gathering is quoted in a study of Jacksonville.

"The differences in revival techniques caused much disagreement among western clergy and were a special source of friction between Yankee and southern preachers. Kentuckian Peter Cartwright had a revival in full swing in 1837 when a 'new school' Yankee minister, an agent of the American Home Missionary Society, insisted on helping him. The 'fresh, green, live Yankee" was allowed to stand before the rustic audience and read his carefully prepared sermon, during which 'the congregation paid a heavy penance and became restive.' Cartwright rescued the meeting with a fast, fire-and-brimstone harangue and sent the 'little hot-house reader' out into the audience to 'exhort sinners.' When an enormous man stood up and bellowed aloud his newfound faith, the diminutive Yankee urged him to 'be composed.' Cartwright rushed to the rear of the meeting house and yelled at the man: 'Pray on brother; pray on, brother; there's no composure in hell or damnation.' Before Cartwright could lead him to the mourner's bench, the convert cried, 'Glory to God,' and in the ecstasy of his joy... he wheeled round and caught my little preacher in his arms and lifted him up from the floor; and ... jumped from bench to bench, knocking the people against one another on the right and left, front and rear, holding up in his arms the little preacher.' Cartwright thought of warning the terrified Yankee to 'be composed.' but as soon as the little hot-bed parson could make his escape he was missing.'..."⁽⁵³⁾

Samuel Spates may have remembered his fellow students more than any revival meetings.. Those who studied with him at Ebenezer included Allan Huddleston, G.W. Brown, Kate Blackburn, William Rutledge, and three Indian students who were sent to Ebenezer for through efforts of Rev. Alfred Brunson, superintendent of a Methodist Indian mission school at Kaposia, Minnesota. The English names of the three Indians were Peter Marksman, George Copway and John Johnson. Copway (whose Indian name was Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh) and Johnson (whose Indian name was Enmegahbowh ) were cousins. All three had been converted in Canada but had been at work among their brethren in Wisconsin . They came from Rev. John Clark's mission on the shore of Lake Superior and had assisted in the work of the Red Wing mission during the summer of 1837. They were enrolled at Ebenezer before Samuel Spates (Jr) entered there in the fall of that year. ⁽⁵⁴⁾ It may have been partly because they had expressed the wish to be associated with some white students that Samuel Spates (Jr) was one of those selected to study at Ebenezer with them.⁽⁵⁵⁾

Samuel's fellow Ebenezer students achieved various degrees of notoriety throughout the years. William Rutledge stayed in contact with Samuel Spates and became one of the best known men in the Illinois Methodist Conference. In an 1845 letter that he wrote to George Copway he spoke of how Peter Akers had described "the Ebenezer Boys" as those who through faith , preach "big sermons," exhort thousands, "who are valiant in fight," who slaughter many a sinner, and wear the marks of many a well fought field, although death has done his work among us.⁽⁵⁶⁾ Kate Blackburn, under the auspices of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, devoted her life to service with the young women of Bulgaria

.

The rest of the Ebenezer students were expected to work at Indian missions following completion of their studies in the fall of 1839. Allen Huddleston, G.W. Brown, George Copway, John Johnson, and Peter Marksman were assigned to Rev. Alfred Brunson's Elk River mission. That mission was also known as the Crow Wing mission because it was located near the mouth of Little Elk River on the west bank of the Mississippi a few miles below Crow Wing. Another student, David Weatherford, refused the assignment despite the fact that he had promised to go where he was appointed. Allen Huddleston taught school at Fort Snelling for a term before joining the group at the Elk River mission in December. He died there of dysentery a year later on December 30, 1840. John Johnson (Enmegahbowh) was with Old Hole-in-the-Day when that celebrated Chippewa chief, came to Allan Huddleston's grave and threw a heap of stones on it, saying,. "In order that all may see and know where the good man is, he who came to bless us."⁽⁵⁷⁾

Enmegahbowh , who was a life-long friend to Samuel Spates (Jr), is best remembered for his important involvements with many Indians and whites in Minnesota during the troubled times of the 1800s. Much of the following account of his life is told through a letter he wrote, later in life, to Bishop Whipple .⁽⁵⁸⁾

Enmegahbow was an Ottawa Indian, born in Canada , whose name meant "One Who Stands Before his People." . He described his relationship with God as beginning in his boyhood when he stayed several months with an Episcopal clergyman who taught him to speak and read some English. Some time later his parents were asked to send him to Sault Ste. Marie where he would become an interpreter for the Methodist missionary. They reluctantly agreed and he departed with equal reluctance. He expected to return to them in a year, not then knowing that as events in his life unfolded, he would never see them again.

On his way to Sault Ste. Marie, Enmegahbow arrived at Pententuguishing on the shores of Lake Erie where he became friends with some other Indians who had a large canoe. They offered to take him across the Great Lakes to Sault Ste. Marie. In the middle of the voyage a furious wind arose with waves that threatened to swamp the canoe. As one of the Indians sang a prayer to "the gods that dwell in the deep," Enmegahbow prayed to the Lord that he might again tread the earth. The Lord then guided the boat safely to Sault Ste. Marie. Thanking the Lord, he then embarked on his assignment to La Ance, a large settlement of Canadian Indians, where he taught school for two years. From there he was sent to a yet larger and wilder settlement of Indians. At the end of that year, the superintendent of the mission work urged him to give up school teaching and take up regular missionary work. At first Enmegahbow refused because it had been four years since he had been home and because he felt his education was too limited for him to be a missionary. But when the superintendent offered to send him to school for more education, he agreed and then came to Ebenezer where be became known as John Johnson.⁽⁵⁹⁾

It is not clear from Enmegahbow's letter to Bishop Whipple as to just what he was doing before coming to Ebenezer but he does indicate that at some point he spent ten years in an area where there was no sign of any white man except for some French-Canadian traders married to squaws. He said that during those ten years he never met a man who could speak English with him and so his grammar and English at last took flight.^{(60) (61)} He apparently recovered both of those skills very well at Ebenezer where he was observed to be most willing to learn those things that could help him in doing missionary work among his people. He read many books and was considered one of the best grammarians. Some of the teachers told him that he was ready to be sent to college to study dead languages. He replied "You would send me to college to study dead languages. You have prepared me for missionary work among the living heathen - not the dead ones. I hope you are not going to send me to the dead ones to learn their language. No, I have not much appetite to study dead languages."⁽⁶²⁾

So it was that after Ebenezer Enmegahbow came to be with Hole-in-the-Day by Brother Huddleston's grave at the end of 1840. Reading the story of his life it appears that after he left school, probably in 1838, he came to Hole-in-the-Day's village. There Hole-in-the-Day insisted that he stay. Enmegahbow spent his first year after school in that village teaching school to few of the children. But at the end of that year he was lonely and tired of living with the heathen. He was especially disgusted with how Hole-in-the-Day kept going out on the war-path and ringing back Sioux scalps. So he planned to leave the country and return to his own people in Canada.⁽⁶³⁾

Samuel Spates' diary indicates that he was apprehensive in 1841 when Enmegahbow left him alone at Sandy Lake while he departed to bring back his wife, Charlotte, who was a niece of the old chief, Hole-in-the-Day. ^{(64) (65)} , Yet he understood how important this was for Enmegahbow . He had earlier confided to Samuel how he met her and how she was with him during a time of much discouragement. At that time he was sorely tempted to leave missionary work until another experience in a storm convinced him that he must continue with the work to which God had summoned him.

Early in their missionary work Enmegahbow and Samuel Spates worked together, first at Elk River. But they soon had to close that mission after the Chippewa, fearing their Sioux enemies, went north. Next they went to Rabbit Lake but it too was soon abandoned when the Sioux and Chippewas resumed their feud.^{(66) (67)} It was then that they went to Sandy Lake^{(68) (69)} where Samuel Spates spent most of his life as a missionary.

By that time, G.W. Brown was at Sault Ste. Marie., George Copway had been sent to Fond-du-Lac where the Indians had driven out Rev. Frederick Ayer just months earlier, and Peter Marksman had gone to Michigan where he gained some notoriety when he hunted down a gigantic moose in the area of Torch Lake. An account of his achievement appeared in an this in 1869 edition of "The Portage Mining Gazette", .

"In the year 1847, there was a famous herd of wild moose living in the woods around the head of L'Anse Bay, which, even then were noted for their great size, beauty, and exceeding fleetness of feet.... But finally the day of triumph a slaughter came; the unfortunate herd were entrapped and all killed except one old leader stag, who broke away and by dint of great strength and endurance eluded his pursuers. For a year or two nothing was seen or heard of him, bu finally there came rumors of a gigantic moose, roaming the woods around the head of Torch Lake. Once or twice a year, for several years, some Indian or adventurous hunter would meet him, but the old fellow would be crashing through the bushes away out of sight before the hunter would recover from his surprise.... This winger some Indians appeared determined to catch him, and finding his track gave him several lively chases but until a week ago he always escaped. Then a half-breed, Peter Marksman, got after him and there being a thick crust on the snow, the man could move about easily, while the sharp hoofs of the veteran moose broke through at every leap. Peter finally overtook him, several miles northwest of the Calumet mine, and quickly closed his career with a rifle ball. He skinned him, cut up the flesh, brought it to town, and found a ready sale for most of it at fifty cents a pound, realizing over three hundred dollars. The head was cut off and brought in, and has been exhibited to most of our people at Peter Bellebumer's during the past few days. It now belongs to Harry Beesley, C.E., who will prepare it for preservation in the rooms of the Historical Society. The head alone gives token that the entire animal must have been of such monstrous size, as to recall the days of the ichthyassaurus, megatherium, ptyradactyl, etc., when monsters occupied both the land and the water. Beside this head those of an ox or horse look small and insignificant. It measures thirty-three inches from the tip of the nose to the crown of the head between the antlers. The nose is of decided 'Roman' style and measured twenty-eight inches around. The nostrils, distended, each measured four inches in diameter, and a large hand could be pushed up into them over a foot." ⁽⁷⁰⁾

Peter Marksman was not the only one of Samuel Spates' classmates to achieve some distinction. The life of George Copway, whose Indian name was Kahgagahbow, was perhaps the most colorful of the group and has had mixed reviews. For a few years he worked as a missionary among his own tribe. One of his detractors was t Chauncey Hobart, known as the "Father of Methodism in Minnesota". Hobart maintained that George Copway's connection with the missions was unsatisfactory and the he eventually drank himself to death.^{(71) (72)} And Rev. Thomas Fullerton, a contemporary Methodist missionary said that Copway later became a gambler and turned out bad. ⁽⁷³⁾ In a biography of George Copway, The Encyclopedia of North American Indians. States that .... "Finances proved the young native minister's undoing. He spent band funds freely, without always obtaining council approval to do so. In early 1846 two Upper Canadian bands, those of Saugeen and his own Rice Lake, accused him of embezzlement. As a result of the charges the Indian Department put him in jail, where he remained for several weeks. The Canadian Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church expelled him. Alienated and bitter, Copway and his family returned to the United States after his release from prison.....In terms of his career, his expulsion from the Methodist Church proved a blessing in disguise, for it forced him into a new field of endeavor: he became a celebrated author and lecturer. How Copway succeeded in writing his life story while, in one observer's words, "going from place to place, without much of steady employment, for 6 or 8 months, and perhaps more," remains a mystery. No doubt his well-educated wife helped"⁽⁷⁴⁾

George Copway's Life, Letters and Speeches is said to be the first book-length autobiography written by an Indian who was raised in a traditional Native American family.⁽⁷⁵⁾

Another biography (in The Heath Anthology of American Literature,) provides more details about Copway's life... "The high point of Copway's career in Canadian Indian affairs was his election in 1845 as vice president of the Grand Council of Methodist Ojibwas of Upper Canada. Later that year he was accused of embezzlement. After being imprisoned briefly in the summer of 1846, Copway was expelled from the Canadian Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and left Canada for the United States. Befriended by American Methodists, Copway launched a new career as a lecturer and writer on Indian affairs. His first book was his autobiography, The Life, History and Travels (1847), later republished as The Life, Letters and Speeches (New York: 1850) and as Recollections of a Forest Life (London: 1850). Enthusiasm for this autobiography was so great that it was reprinted in seven editions in one year... His lectures in the East enabled him to meet the well-known scholars Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and Francis Parkman as well as such famous writers as Longfellow, Irving, and Cooper, who provided moral and financial encouragement for his later publishing projects. Copway's second book was The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of the Ojibway Nation (London, 1850; Boston, 1851), later republished as Indian Life and Indian History (1858). In this first published, book-length history of the Ojibwa, Copway is far more critical of whites than he was in his autobiography. Copway reached the zenith of his career in the years 1850-51, when he was selected to represent the Christian Indians at the Peace Congress held in Germany. He lectured in Great Britain and on the Continent before the Congress, where he created a great stir by delivering a lengthy anti-war speech while garbed in his Ojibwa finery.....Returning from Europe in December 1850, Copway hurriedly stitched together Running Sketches of Men and Places, in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland (1851), one of the first travel books by an Indian. Between July and fall 1851, Copway established the short-lived journal Copway's 'American Indian.' Gradually abandoned by his eastern intellectual friends because of his constant pleas for money and beset by financial difficulties, he also endured the deaths of three of his four children from August 1849 to January 1850.....Copway's attempt to support his family by lecturing was unsuccessful because his novelty had worn off. Dropped by the eastern intellectuals, Copway was taken up by a nativist group who called themselves "native Americans." Members of this anti-immigrant, anti-Roman Catholic group later established the political party known as the "Know-Nothings." Little is known of Copway's later life. In 1864, he recruited Canadian Indians to serve in the American Civil War, for which he received a bounty. He surfaced again in 1867, when he advertised himself in the Detroit Free Press as a healer. The following year, having abandoned his wife and daughter, Copway arrived alone at the Lac-des-deux Montagnes, a large Algonquian-Iroquois mission near Montreal. Describing himself as a pagan, Copway became a Catholic convert and was baptized "Joseph-Antoine" on 17 January 1869. Several days later he died".....⁽⁷⁶⁾

SANDY LAKE AND LA POINTE: 1840- 1842

When Samuel Spates and Enmegahbow went to Sandy Lake, in 1840, the Minnesota territory was a dangerous area.. A Sioux Indian and his wife were killed in 1840 by Ojibwas on the bank of the Mississippi between Mendota and St. Paul. In 1842 an Ojibwa war party raided a Sioux village by Kaposia and killed ten men. ⁽⁷⁷⁾ It was even worse in 1841 after three Ojibwas killed a Sioux chief and his son near Fort Snelling. That was the year of gruesome murders at the mission by Lake Pokeguma. ⁽⁷⁸⁾ Two twelve year old girls who were pupils of the mission school were murdered by a party of Sioux. Their grief-stricken parents found their bodies with their heads cut off and scalped with a tomahawk buried in the brains of each girl. ⁽⁷⁹⁾

Samuel 's notes record a most difficult journey that year to La Pointe and Fond-du-lac. First he suffered severe seasickness voyaging on Lake Superior. He had to return to shore until the storm subsided. After he reached LaPointe he was distressed to find people "hurrying to get the goods of this world rather than to save their souls". And he was offended when he attended a service there where a bass fiddle was played....... " A fiddle! I thought that the braying of a jackass in the house of God, would be as good as the screeching of a fiddle." Feeling that he was "losing ground in religion" Samuel prayed for God to help him with his faith as he left La Pointe.. His faith was strengthened as the boat in which he was traveling was buffeted by strong winds on Lake Superior. ....... " The waves seemed to be thirty or forty feet high. We stayed on the lake as long we could keep above water and then made for shore. Just as we got there our boat sank, But then we were safely on shore with a fire kindled and a tent pitched. Glory to God for all his mercies." ..⁽⁸⁰⁾

After arriving safely at Fond-du-Lac and completing his business there Samuel sought a chance to get back to Sandy Lake, but became upset when the Indian whom he had paid to let him go in his canoe from Sandy Lake to Lapointe and back again refused to take him on the return trip as agreed - ...... "just because he said I didn't paddle during the first trip. It was then that I had to remind myself that my record was on high with God and that I expected my reward to be in heaven rather than on earth. With such thoughts, I was willing bear all things for Christ's sake." ⁽⁸¹⁾

Back at Sandy Lake, Samuel found the Indians complaining about the mission and wanting the missionaries to take their children and board and clothe them - although the missionaries have no such clothes. Samuel was distressed to find many of the Indians playing cards.. He was even more concerned about his helper, Stephen Bongo whom he suspected of thievery. .⁽⁸²⁾ He was especially unhappy that Stephen and his squaw were unmarried but yet sleeping together..... "Then I had to tell him and his squaw that they must get married and to not sleep together until they did because otherwise they would be committing adultery." ⁽⁸³⁾

Conflicted feelings about the Indians emerge from Samuel's diary. He believed that God had sent him into their midst because they were a long-neglected people. He was able to tolerate it when they named him "Crooked Foot", calling unwanted attention to the lameness that he had suffered ever since cutting his foot as a child, although he was mortified when they did so in the presence of white men.⁽⁸⁴⁾ And yet there were times when he was very impatient with them. He found some of their practices to be revolting - like the Indian mother who sucked snot out of her baby's nose. But he was most angry with the Indians when they were drunk or when they were committing adultery.⁽⁸⁵⁾

The diary also reveals how discouraged Samuel felt at this time. He felt slighted when he was not called upon to lead in prayer after being absent for more than three weeks. Sometimes he thought that too many people were trying to run thing and was reminded of how his father used to say ... Too many cooks spoil the broth. He sadly recalled how he argued with a fellow missionary ("Brother Brace") who had bargained with a man to work on the Sabbath after Samuel persuaded the man not to do so. The incident reminded Samuel of a time when Brother Brace read Samuel's diary and then put a note in his diary telling him to put the journal in his trunk rather than leaving it out........... "Thunderstruck, I asked him about it and learned that he had been reading my thoughts about tobacco and the wish I had for a wife who would not smoke the pipe." ...... Burdened by such things, Samuel was strongly tempted to leave the field and even prayed for death ⁽⁸⁶⁾.

Struggling to put aside his despair, Samuel turned his attention toward building a school house. And as he of the souls that might be saved his despair disappeared....." I felt like pushing the battle to the very gates of hell. I prayed to God to inflame my zeal for his glory in the salvation of souls. I knew then that I loved God and His religion better than ever". His spirits were then raised when he learned that his family back in Jacksonville were all well. Then, Enmegahbow replaced Brother Brace at the mission........ "He preached to the Indians that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so the Son of man be lifted up. After that he went down the river to get his wife. It was then, as I related earlier, that I was alone among the Indians at Sandy Lake." ⁽⁸⁷⁾

Samuel's hopes went up and down during Enmegahbow 's absence. In his diary he talks about praying and feeling ....... " a sweet peace of mind that the world could neither give nor take away despite the freezing weather or my partial deafness or my aloneness. I was happy though alone as I kept house and did my own cooking, surprising myself when I succeeded at baking bread. Yet I was not alone for Christ was with me. Yes he was in my heart as I nurtured high hopes of heaven and glory where I knew I would meet many with whom I used to worship in life. Such hopes helped me through the frustration I felt when I could find nobody to interpret when I preached to the Indians and when the Indians misbehaved My patience was sorely tried during some times when the Indians were shooting their guns off around the house all day and during a time when the devil sent some into my house where they played cards and refused to stop when I forbid it. But through prayer I found God's grace sufficient to endure all such things."⁽⁸⁸⁾

Such was life at Sandy Lake in 1841 as Samuel struggled to make a success of the mission. A study of Methodism in Minnesota suggested that it was doing better in 1842. Enmegahbow submitted a report that mission's little school had been progressing and that great improvements were being made in the lives of the Indians. Most of the families had planted potatoes and corn and the chiefs and principal men talked of building houses for themselves. The head trader was very kind, donating ten dollars to the mission's work with the Indians. And Enmegahbow 's wife was very good in teaching the Indian women.⁽⁸⁹⁾

Then came the Treaty of La Pointe in September, 1842. Thomas Fullerton's autobiography relates that Samuel Spates was there along with Fullerton, Peter Marksman, George Copway and many other missionaries. George Copway, with whom Samuel had studied at Ebenezer, was already turning out to be a disappointment. He had been assigned to Fond-du-lac and was to return there with Brother Fullerton as his assistant. But he had accepted a higher salary offered by the mission authorities in Canada and was then at the treaty en route to his position in Canada..⁽⁹⁰⁾

Enmegahbow did not attend the Treaty of La Pointe. In a letter to Bishop Whipple some years later when he had joined the Episcopal Church after being unfairly expelled from the Methodist Conference, he described how keenly the Indians felt they were wronged by the White Man in the aftermath of the Ojibwa's first treaty in 1837 at Fort Snelling.......... "The first treaty my people made was the most imposing gathering I have ever witnessed. The chief of each band wore the colors of his rank. His suit of clothing was made of the best dressed skins and furs gorgeously decorated. His firm and independent step and his demeanor indicated his strength and purity. Do I say his strength and purity? I say it knowingly from my own experience. His growth was from the purest seed - an offspring which had not been contaminated by the white man's manufactured drug. He drank the purest water, he ate the purest food, he breathed the purest air, as when the first man breathed it in the new created world. He drank no devil's spittle to burn away his brains; he was a happy human being. There was a great crowd of warriors at that treaty, each wearing his eagle plumes which told of his bravery in battle and of the enemies he had slain. After the treaty, the great war chief, Hole-in-the-Day said: - 'A fatal treaty! Kuh quah ne sah gah nig! Kuh quah ne sah gah nig! Woe, woe be to my people!

Why did he say this? Our fathers had predicted that the day would come when a great and beautiful bird would appear, and sing a most captivating song to our people; that the songs could not be resisted. I think it was at this treaty that some of our people first saw silver and gold dollars. I knew a girl who took her gold dollar to a trader and bought three yards of calico; she came home much pleased and said, 'Mother, see what that little gold piece bought.' 'My daughter, that was a great deal, go back with my two gold dollars and get me calico.'

A great crowd of mixed bloods came to the treaty. Every man, woman, and child who had a drop of Indian blood in his veins was there. They loved the Indians and were proud of their Indian blood. Their speakers said, 'Grandfathers, fathers, uncles, and nephews, we are glad to come to your Council. We ask to have a share in our payment, and we make an oath as long as you shall receive annual payments we shall never come again to the treaty ground' How many years was the solemn oath kept? Just one year....

Yes, you have drawn us into a helpless position. You try to please us with pleasant smiles. It is not a smile; it is a grimace, and you sing the interesting song, 'Hail Columbia' and all we can do is to cry 'HELP!' Plenty of big promises given, but alas! We cannot eat and be satisfied with promises. My old friend, Chief Pa-ka-nuh-waush said: 'My friend, I am afraid to move East or West. I am standing by a precipice, to move in any direction I fall to be no more.'..."⁽⁹¹⁾

FOND-DU-LAC

In 1843 the Methodist Conference still listed Samuel Spates as appointed to Sandy Lake with Enmegahbow . But arrangements had been made for Samuel to move to Fond-du-Lac where Thomas Fullerton was then in charge. No sooner had Samuel settled in there to work with Fullerton than a continuous June rainstorm, lasting eleven days and nights, resulted in a flood in the river , greater than any that had been seen for many years. It filled the trader's store within a few inches of the joists. All of his goods and pelts were under the water. It washed out the foundation of the mission house, making it unfit for habitation. Spates and Fullerton , along with everybody else, fled to the high ground where the Indians had already moved, settling into their wigwams. ⁽⁹²⁾

When the waters receded and the mission property was put back in order, Samuel Spates joined Thomas Fullerton on a long canoe trip to Parkinson's settlement in southern Wisconsin where Fullerton was to be married to a young woman, Miss Jennet Jurney before going on to the Methodist Conference in Michigan. They set out on an eighty mile canoe trip on the St. Louis River and then on the Savannah for twenty miles. After crossing a six mile portage and going down another small river they reached Sandy Lake where Samuel Spates greeted his old friend, Enamahgahbowh and his wife, Charlotte. Enamahgahbowh told how he was gradually persuading some of the Indians to return to the mission..

Leaving Enamahgahbowh at Sandy Lake, Fullerton and Spates started down the Mississippi in the canoe, landing on a driftwood in the afternoon of their first day on the river. There they boiled a small piece of fat pork in three pints of water and then stirred in enough water to make "pap." .n the next day they found land and also captured a water turtle. From that they made a camp-kettle of turtle soup. . Then a rainstorm forced them to stretch their tent out and remain there for the night. They awoke before daybreak and started down the river again. By dawn they were at the Crow Wing river where Mr. Aitkin had a trading station. Chief Hole-in-the-Day was there so they called on him. He asked them about Enmegahbowh and his wife, , who was Hole-in-the-Day's niece. Spates told him that both were well and doing the Lord's work. He nodded and seemed satisfied. .

Thirty miles further down the river they reached Elk River where Enmegahbow and Spates had first worked together in 1839 until the advancing Sioux warriors forced them to close the mission. The old abandoned mission house was still there intact, perhaps because the government had made a neutral strip of fifty miles between the Chippewa and Sioux nations, hoping to stop the warlike raids that were driving the Chippewas further north. After cooking breakfast in the mission house, Spates and Brother Fullerton went to the crest of a hill overlooking the Mississippi where they prayed at Allen Huddleston's grave. Then they gathered stones and filled up the grave site which had sunken over the years. Finally they put up the grave marker that Enmegahbowh and Spates had prepared at Sandy Lake.

Resuming their journey, Spates and Fullerton made a portage around Little Falls and reached Sauk Rapids by mid-afternoon. A portage around those rapids did not seem practical because the shores were so rough. Yet it was very dangerous to take a canoe through them. But they did so, praying for the Lord's protection. And they succeeded , despite having the canoe ship much water.

On July 15, they reached the falls of St. Anthony where they made a portage of three quarters of a mile before cooking and eating breakfast. They had their usual morning prayers, bathed in the river, shaved, and dressed in clean clothes as they talked about what a grand sight the falls were. About twenty feet straight up and down. They looked at how an island majestically divided the falls and thought reverently about how God's mighty power had made such things Continuing for another twelve miles in a rapid tumbling current , they reached Fort Snelling. There they were detained at the landing until the corporal on guard could report their names and business to the officers commanding the fort on top of the bluff. Once they were cleared, they were allowed to go up and enter the fort. It was an impressive stronghold with many more indications of comfort that the two missionaries had seen for more than a year.

After looking over the fort, they continued down the west bank of the river. Soon they looked across to a bluff on the east side of the river where they saw a few cabins and huts. That settlement eventually grew into the city of St. Paul. But at that time the Catholics had a priest and a log church there, and that the settlement included several half-breed and French families, with one or two traders. Spates and Fullerton did not land there but went several miles further to Red Rock, a painted stone on the east side of river, with beautiful prairie as a backdrop. There they spent several days before continuing down river to Red Wing where they remained over another Sunday. When they found many sick Indians at the Red Wing mission house, they took their places by sick beds for most of the night, very nearly becoming sick themselves.

Leaving Red Wing, they canoed down to a point mid-way on Lake Pepin where Lake City now stands. The following day they slept on the prairie that is now the city of Winona. At that time it was Chief Wabasha's headquarters. It was dark when they reached that point. Fearing the Sioux, they silently passed below their settlement and drew the canoe out in the grass. They slept under it that night and remained silent, not wanting the Indians to discover them. Starting out before daybreak on the next day, they passed La Crosse, then was only a little clump of houses, and reached a point that was later called De Soto. Next day they reached Prairie du Chien, where they stayed overnight with some of Fullerton's friends. It was the end of their long canoe trip - a ride of a thousand miles as distances were then reckoned.⁽⁹³⁾

From Prairie du Chien they went to Parkinson's settlement which is now Fayette in Lafayette county.⁽⁹⁴⁾ There Thomas Fullerton was married to Miss Jurney, then nearly eighteen years of age. The family were Methodists and understood that the newly married couple would return to the Indian mission at Fond-du-Lac.

At the Michigan Conference Samuel Spates learned that he was assigned to continue at Fond-du-Lac in 1844- 45 while Enmegahbowh was assigned to continue at Sandy Lake. He then traveled from Ann Arbor to Sault Ste. Marie to La Pointe and finally to Fond-du-Lac.⁽⁹⁵⁾ At the Sault Ste. Marie mission house he found John Pitezel who had recently arrived to assume the duties of his appointment by the Ann Arbor Conference. Pitezel said that when he and his family first entered the dwelling they found it infested with vermin which was most difficult to eradicate. Nevertheless he said he was pleased with how the fifty-five Indians at the mission worshiped. Samuel Spates assisted Rev Pitezel with services, preaching the "salt of the earth" passages from Matthew 5: 13-16. Pitezel's memoirs indicate that those s remarks were well received. A few days later he boarded a vessel to La Pointe and then completed his journey back to Fond du-Lac . ⁽⁹⁶⁾

ANCESTORS OF SARAH POPE

In 1845 after recovering from a bout with the ague,⁽⁹⁷⁾ Samuel Spates was granted time to visit his family in Jacksonville and to preach that year on the Mount Pleasant Circuit. While he was there, living in Mount Sterling, Chauncey Hobart introduced him to Sarah J. Pope, a young women who had been most helpful to Hobart in his earlier year of ministry at the Rushville church. On October 8 Rev. Wilson Pitner united Samuel Spates and Sarah Pope in Marriage. ⁽⁹⁸⁾ . ⁽⁹⁹⁾

Wilson Pitner was a Methodist preacher who was praised by the famous Peter Cartwright for the way he had converted a gang of drunken rowdies at a camp meeting in 1832 after Cartwright had subdued them. In his memoirs Cartwright described how the rowdies disrupted the meeting before he quieted them.

"We returned to the encampment, and the rowdies were in a mighty rage because they could get no drink, for we had the groggery under guard. They swore if we did not release it, they would break up the camp-meeting. I told them to ride on, that we would not release the grocery, and we could whip the whole regiment. At candle lighting we had preaching; they were still and quiet till most of the tent-holders had gone to bed. Then they began their dirty deeds. I had ordered out a strong watch and directed the lights to be kept burning all night. They began at a distance to bark like dogs, to howl like wolves, to hoot like owls; they drew near and crowed like chickens; they tried to put out our lights, and threw chunks at the tent; but the guard beat them back and kept them off nearly all night. Toward day, they drew nearer and nearer still, and would slap their hands and crow like chickens. One ringleader among them came right before the preachers tent, slapped his hands, and crowed and passed on. I stepped to a fire close by, and gathered a chunk of fire, and threw it, striking him right between the shoulders, and the fire flew all over him. He sprung, and bounded like a buck. I cried out, 'Take him; take him;" but I assure you it would have taken a very fleet man to have taken him, for he ran as though the very devil was in him and after him. When I returned to the tent, one of the guard came and told me that they were taking wheels off the wagons and carriages; and looking through an opening in the tent, I saw one of them busy in loosening my carriage behind the tent, where I had tied it to a sapling for fear they would run it off. I slipped round, gathered a stick in my way, and came up close behind him, and struck at him, not with much intent to hurt, but to scare him. However the stroke set his hat on one side of his head; he dashed off in a mighty fright and his hat not being adjusted right, it blinded him, and fleeing with all speed, he struck his head against a tree, knocked himself down, bruised his face very much, and lay senseless for several minutes; but when he came to himself, he was as tame as a lamb, and his dispensation of mischief was over. This put an end to the trouble of the rowdies and afterward all was peace and quiet." ⁽¹⁰⁰⁾

This moving account not only describes how the troublemakers tried to break up the camp meetings but also illustrates the well-known fiery manner of Peter Cartwright himself. Later in his autobiography he credits Wilson Pitner for the subsequent conversion of the rowdies.

"We had a very singular and remarkable man among us, a traveling preacher in the Illinois Conference; his name was Wilson Pitner. He was at this camp-meeting. He was uneducated, and it seemed impossible for him to learn; but, notwithstanding his want of learning, and in common he was an ordinary preacher, yet at times, as we say in the backwoods, when he swung clear, there were very few that could excel him in the pulpit; and perhaps he was one of the most eloquent and powerful exhorters that was in the land.

"On Monday he came to me and desired me to let him preach at eleven o'clock, saying, 'I have faith to believe that God will this day convert many of these rowdies and persecutors.' I consented; and he preached with great liberty and power. Nearly the whole congregation were powerfully moved, as he closed by calling for every rowdy and persecutor to meet him in the altar; for said he, 'I have faith to believe that God will convert every one of you that will come and kneel at the place of prayer.'

"There was a general rush for the altar, and many of our persecutors and those who had interrupted and disturbed us in the forepart of the meeting, came and fell on their knees, and cried aloud for mercy; and it is certainly beyond my power to describe the scene; but more than fifty souls were converted to God that day and night. Our meeting continued for several days, and about ninety professed to obtain the pardon of their sins, most of whom joined the Church, and great good was accomplished, although we waded through tribulation to accomplish it. Such success often attended the Gospel labors of this brother."⁽¹⁰¹⁾

There is no other record of Wilson Pitner being involved in the lives of Samuel and Sarah Spates but there are records about the family and ancestors of Sarah Pope. Her tombstone in the Burnside cemetery at Red Wing, Minnesota states she was born on August 6, 1821. Her grand-daughter, Frances Elizabeth (Ewing) Lehmann maintained that Sarah was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Although no record of her birth there has yet been found, there is documentation of the marriage of her parents, Reuben Pope and Ann Link, in Shelby County, Kentucky on April 1, 1812. ⁽¹⁰²⁾ Tax records verify that Reuben Pope was in Shelby County from 1813 until 1836.

Reuben Pope and his family appear on the Shelby county census in 1820 . If their residence was like most, it would have had a dirt floor. Eating utensils were most likely made of wood. Reuben probably hunted game, cleared land, and raised crops. Ann would have milked cows, spun yarn, wove cloth, knit socks, made garments, cooked meals. and did other household tasks. ⁽¹⁰³⁾

Slavery was a major problem in Shelby county as it was in other parts of the country during those times. A slave named "Mato" was hanged near Shelbyville in April, 1805. Caleb, a Negro Slave was convicted in September, 1806 by the Shelby County Court of breaking and entering. He was sentenced to a public whipping of "39 lashes with cane on his bare back."... On another charge, Caleb was found not guilty of burglary. However in October, 1806, He was sentenced to be hanged for burglary. In 1812, Charles, a slave owned by Solomon Simpson, was found not guilty of a charge of "Rebellion and Insurrection."⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ Such events may have influenced Reuben Pope to move his family from Shelbyville to Illinois sometime after September, 1835 ⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ and before the birth of his daughter, Harriet, in 1837.⁽¹⁰⁶⁾. ⁽¹⁰⁷⁾

Information about Reuben Pope's ancestry is limited. On the 1850 census for Brown county, Illinois, the somewhat illegible entry for his birthplace appears to be either "VA" or "GA" He is listed as a veteran of the War of 1812. - for one month in 1813. ⁽¹⁰⁸⁾ For his wife, Ann Link, more information is available. According to the 1850 Illinois census, she was born in Pennsylvania, about 1792. She and her sister, Catherine, were two of several children of Jacob Rice and his first wife, Ann ___. Catherine Rice married first, Peter Fullenwider, and second, Jonathan Boone, nephew of Daniel Boone. Ann (also known as Nancy) Rice married first, Henry Fullenwider, and second, Jacob Link of Donegal Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania. ⁽¹⁰⁹⁾ She married Jacob Link sometime after the 1789 death of her first husband, Henry Fullenwider.. They moved to Kentucky, probably sometime after 1792^{(110) (111)}

Nancy (Rice) Link's father, Jacob Rice settled with his family about 1773 in the Dutch Fork area about three miles from the current West Virginia and Pennsylvania line and ten miles east of the Ohio River. There the family started a grist mill and later built a fort on the bank to the west of the road. That was the scene of the well-known attack on Rice's Fort in September, 1782 in which Peter Fullenwider was one of six men defending the fort from an attack by dozens of Indians. The event, supposed by some to be the last battle of the Revolution, ⁽¹¹²⁾ occurred sixty-three years before Nancy (Rice) Link's grand-daughter, Sarah Pope, married Samuel Spates at Mt. Sterling, Illinois.

DISTURBANCES AT SAULT STE. MARIE, SANDY LAKE, AND FOND-DU-LAC

Following their wedding, Samuel and Sarah settled in at the Sault Ste. Marie mission where he had been appointed to serve for the remainder of 1845 and 1846.. A few months later that community was shocked on July 6 , 1846 when somebody shot James Schoolcraft, the brother of Henry Schoolcraft (famed for his discovery of the headwaters of the Mississippi River). At the time everybody believed that the murderer was John Tanner, the embittered old man who had been kidnaped in boyhood by Indians and raised in that culture for many years until he was restored to members of his family only to find that he could not adjust to white culture. The stories persisted until Lt. Bryant Tilden confessed. on his deathbed that he was the murderer. .^{(113) (114)} .⁽¹¹⁵⁾

Samuel's next assignment was at Sandy Lake where he and Sarah rejoined Enmegahbowh.. who expressed his frustration with the migratory habits of the Indians who often took their children out of the mission schoo. He also complained about how the traders sold liquor to the Indians who were then more likely to be quarrelsome and ill-behaved Nevertheless he said that he taught what children he could persuade to come to the mission school. Samuel and Sarah worked hard with him throughout 1847 to regain the trust of the Indians. But in 1848 they were once more separated when Enmegahbowh was appointed to a mission in Michigan while Samuel and Sarah remained at Sandy Lake, where they began raising a family, starting with their first son, Samuel Pope Spates, born March 1, 1848 at Fond-du-Lac and their first daughter, Imogene, born 1849 at Sandy Lake. .^{(116) (117)} . ⁽¹¹⁸⁾

With Enmegahbowh gone, Samuel then needed an interpreter. a position which was filled by none other than James Tanner, the son of John Tanner who had been wrongly suspected of murdering James Schoolcraft. ^{(119) (120)} James Tanner was well known as a huge and powerful man who could appear gentle and kind when sober but capable of much anger in the many times when he was drinking. Moreover, he was reputed to have terrorized entire villages when drunk.. Many biographies describe him as a kind, compassionate, and dedicated Christian who was an intelligent and gifted speaker. However two of Samuel Spates' children maintain that he was a cunning and unprincipled man who never showed any appreciation for kindnesses bestowed upon him. .⁽¹²¹⁾ .⁽¹²²⁾ Whatever the nature of his character, he did not continue in the following year as an interpreter at Sandy Lake.

In the summer of 1849 Samuel and Sarah were visited by John Pitezel and Peter Marsman who journeyed from Saut Ste. Marie to Sandy Lake on a route that was periodically traveled by Samuel Spates. Pitezel's autobiography describes the details of that journey from Sault Ste. Marie by way of Fond-du-Lac and over the Grand Portage and Knife Portage to the Savan river and then to Sandy Lake

"About three miles from Fond du Lac, up the St. Louis river, commences what is called the Grand Portage. The distance across is called nine miles. Here is a succession of rapids, impracticable either to ascend or descend. Every thing must be carried by land; not in wagons, or on horses, but on men's backs. We were favored in being able to leave one canoe on this side and get one of the North Fur Company's on the other side. Part of the way walking was good; but in places, quite muddy from recent powerful rains. We reached the end of this Portage at two o'clock, P.M. Here we stopped to gum our canoe, but were soon under way, stemming the rapid current. After some exertion, moving at a slow rate, we reached Knife Portage. Distance across is three and a half miles. The fullness of the river enabled us to shorten the portage a mile and a half. Here we landed safely, after having ascended one of the most dangerous places. We soon ... were camped for the night.

" Friday, 22d. We had a succession of rapids till we crossed Grand Rapids, at one o'clock P.M. Some of these we had much difficulty in ascending. Poles were used when the water was not too deep. At times we succeeded by getting hold of bushes and libs of trees, and thus pulling ourselves along. Sometimes when our paddles were insufficient we found it necessary to 'cordell;' that is to use a rope. But this could seldom be done, except for a short distance, on account of trees, etc. Occasionally large trees were found lying in the rapids, which it was difficult to get around. We avoided some difficult rapids by following channels which the river had forced among the trees; but in one of these places we came very near breaking our canoe. Even here the water was very rapid. Having ascended the Grand Rapids, we were over the worst, although the current of the St. Louis is very strong all the way. We traveled till eight o'clock, P.M., and camped, were much annoyed by musketoes. During the night we had a heavy thunder-shower; lightning struck near us.

"Saturday, 23d. At half-past four o'clock we left our camp. At two o'clock P.M., we had reached the mouth of East Savan river. This river was spread over all its bottoms; but we found smooth water and current light, compared with what we had passed over. We now made good headway. Between five and six o'clock a dark cloud arose before us and distant thunder warned us of an approaching storm. As soon as we could find a convenient spot, we went ashore, and erected our tent. But this was scarcely done before a deafening peal of thunder fell near us, and the lurid lightning flashed in our faces, and quick as thought, a hurricane swept by us, breaking off a large number of trees as if they were rushes. We all forsook the tent, and stood and took the driving storm, securing a position on the shore where we had no trees in range of the storm. We received a fine wetting, but no farther injury. The storm was fierce but soon subsided, and we went on again. Just before sundown we reached the head of the river, and camped down on the wet grass, with water all around us, scarcely affording a place suitable for our tent. I thought I had often seen musketoes but will not attempt to describe the salutations we here met. Supper was prepared, but our situation was so uncomfortable that we could scarcely eat. Another heavy thunder-shower now poured down on us.

"Sabbath, 24th We now had some twelve miles of land portage, and about four miles across Sandy Lake, to reach the mission.....we went into the mission in the early part of the day, and spent the afternoon with brother and Sister Spates, our missionaries, in religious exercises, find it rest and pleasure both to soul and body, to be out of a dismal swamp, and at the end of a fatiguing and perilous voyage. At four o'clock preached to the little company which assembled. God was with us of a truth. We all felt it good to wait on the Lord. For want of wine we did not administer the sacrament of the Lord's supper either here or at Fond du Lac. It had been administered at both stations during the winter by Brother Spates. ⁽¹²³⁾

During Pitezel's and Marksman's visit with Samuel Spates the three were asked by one of the Indian chiefs to go to his lodge where his son was very sick, perhaps hoping that a Christian presence might add to medicine man powers. Pitezel described the event as follows:

"The wigwam was spread around with blankets, leaving a square in the center for the fire. The invalid lay on one side, his father seated near him. On the other side were two plates of sugar, and spoons in them. Another plate contained water or broth. In this was a piece of horn cut off at teach end so as to leave it hollow. It was about four inches long and perhaps three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Beside this was a bear's claw, with two brass nails in the large end, and several small pieced of bone, two to three inches long, and a fourth to a half an inch in thickness. The plate was covered with a rattle, made similar to their drum, with hieroglyphics painted on each side. It was about eight inches in diameter. The conjurer came and took his seat by the head of the sick man. Another came in with a drum. The performer took a little pail of water and washed his hands - they certainly needed it - and then rinsed out his mouth. Now he offered a kind of prayer to the Great Spirit. He stated that 'it was made known to him when a little child that he should swallow bones; and that it was not for the purpose of making a show that we had been invited to see the performance.' He spoke very rapidly, and appeared to be in a kind of agony. During this the invalid showed signs of great distress, groaning and pressing upon his abdomen with his hands, and changing his position. The prayer ended, he took his rattle and began to shake it, occasionally beating himself with it on one should, then on the other, then on his back and breast in rapid succession, bending forward toward the plate, and drawing in his breath as if he would take in the bones without touching them. The man with the drum meanwhile kept up a constant drumming jingling of little bells. Now he put his mouth to the plate, took one of the bones, and made a dreadful struggle as if attempting to swallow it, beating his back and shoulders with the rattle. The he would pit it out, and take another, and thus he continued till he got them all in - bones, bear's claw, horn, and all - and, for aught any one could tell, had actually swallowed them. Though I watched his throat very narrowly, and could not perceive that he swallowed, still they had disappeared, and they went into his mouth. Then he vomited them all out again, during which his face was all contortions, and he writhed and sweat as if he had been in the agonies of death. Now he would take one of the bones in his mouth and press it upon the body of the invalid., during which he appeared tranquil and serene. It acted on him like a charm...."

After the medicine man's performance, the Indians met in council with Pitezel and Spates to review the work at the Sandy Lake mission. Although they called Samuel Spates a father whom they loved, the found fault with him, complaining that he did not feed them enough and did not give them enough clothing. They especially wanted him to keep a good supply of medicine on hand to doctor their sick.. They complained that they were not able to make their children go to school as desired (although the mission school was better attended than during any previous year with twenty-three males and nineteen females enrolled} The mission's little church was truggling with only six members and one on probation. Nevertheless Pitezel encouraged Spates, especially when he surveyed the lodges around the mission and saw how the Indians' gardens had been buried under the freshet. H e agreed with Spates that more suffering could be anticipated as the consequences of a destroyed rice crop. and approved of his ordering a larger supply of provisions than usual.⁽¹²⁴⁾

Another disturbing event occured in 1849 at the Fond-du-Lac mission where Samuel Spates' good friend, Enmegahbowh, had been assigned. after a brief period working with John Pitezel at Kewawenon. There Enmegahbowh was dismissed by the Methodists for his behavior when .his wife Charlotte, was seriously insulted in 1849 by a white man at Fond-du-Lac. Charles Akers reports that .... Enmegahbowh then promptly took the law into his own hand, and held the man while his wife chastised him, which she did with marked effect. For this both Enmegahbowh and wife were expelled by the Methodist church Samuel Spates maintained that he had been unjustly treated and that the Methodist church should have exonerated him from all blame and given him credit for promptness, bravery, and right action. ⁽¹²⁵⁾. Soon after Enmegahbowh's departure the mission at Fond-du-Lac had been abandoned following some serious trouble and disturbances by the Indians in that area. Some stories said that those disturbances had been stirred up by James Tanner who had apparently gone back to Fond-du-Lac after some time at Cass Lake and a brief period at Lake Winnibigoshish where he was with the Presbyterian mission. ⁽¹²⁶⁾ Chauncey Hobart, speaking of Enmegahbowh's expulsion, blamed James Tanner... "John Johnson" (the name with which Enmegahbowh was dubbed by the missionaries) "was expelled; but the propriety of that action under the circumstances was very doubtful. For the trouble and disturbance, which resulted in the loss of confidence in the missionaries, James Tanner, a desperate and worthless, as well as designing half-breed, was largely responsible."⁽¹²⁷⁾

1850 - FAMINE AT SANDY LAKE.

When the rice crops failed a famine developed at Sandy Lake. The conditions there were movingly expressed in a letter sent by Sarah Spates to Mrs.Pitezel on January 31, 1850.

"Dear Sister Pitezel,

I have long been wanting to write to you, but have never taken my pen in hand to do so till now. We are all well at present; and truly, I think, I feel thankful to the Giver of every good and perfect gift for this great blessing; for never was there a time when it was more important for us to have good health for the performance of the duties that devolve on us than at present.

"The Indians, or at least many of them at this place, lost all their gardens last summer by the great freshet, and from the same cause, the wild rice crop was entirely destroyed in this region, and, consequently, there is quite a famine among them. There are several large families here who have not a pound of provision, and their only chance to get anything is to cut holes in the ice and try to take fish with a hook, for the water is not clear enough to spear them. If they succeed, they have something to eat; if not, they must wrap up in their blankets, and lie down, amid the cries of their hungry children, to pass the night without food.

"Formerly when the rice crop was cut off, they could live by hunting. But this winter they all say there are very few tracks of any kind of animals to be seen, so few that they have almost entirely given up hunting. But the Indians at this place are not alone in their suffering. All the Indians north of us, as far as we have been able to learn, are in a still worse condition. They are not only hungry, but are almost naked. The rabbits, previous to this winter, have always been very numerous in that part of the country, and, as the Indians' lands have not been purchased by Government, they, of course, have no annuities from that source, and their principal clothing has been made of the skins of rabbits, and their flesh was their main dependence for food. But this winter there were no rabbits to be had, and it is to be feared that a great many of these poor Indians must perish with hunger and cold before spring. You can better imagine than I can describe our feelings, when a few days since, a whole band of these poor starving, naked creatures made their appearance among us. They were scarcely able to walk. A few of the strongest ones came several days before the others. They said they had eaten nothing for eight days. After recruiting a day or two, they procured a little provision, and started back to meet the others. When they reached them, they were so far gone that they would walk a few steps and fall down. After eating, however, they gathered strength, and all reached here alive. But how all the Indians that are here now are to live till spring I can not tell. To all human appearance, some of them must starve to death. The Lord blessed us with a fine crop of potatoes last fall, amounting to nearly three hundred bushels. By cooking potatoes, we are able to feed a good many of them. We generally give away from ten to thirty portions a day, besides what we let them have to take away with them. Within the past month we have thus fed between three and four hundred Indians.

"But this seems to effect but little toward relieving their sufferings. I frequently think if our good Christian brethren could be with us, and witness with what gratitude they receive a little food, and have them beg for every thing in their sight, even to the potato peelings, and see with what eagerness they gather up the smallest pieces -...... - could they, in a word, behold the image of their blessed Lord in such ruins, such dreadful ruins, as we here behold it, their purse-strings would be unloosed, tears of sympathy would flow freely from their eyes, their interest for the cause of missions among the heathen would be greatly increased, and the burden of their prayer would be, O Lord, send forth speedily more laborers into thy harvest! There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of poor Indians in this wilderness who have never heard the name of Jesus. My eyes overflow with tears at this thought; and unless they are soon Christianized and taught to cultivate the soil, they must soon become extinct; for game, which is their principal source of subsistence, is becoming scarcer every year." ⁽¹²⁸⁾ I

Hunger among the Indians led to more problems at Sandy Lake in 1850 when an Indian killed an ox that belonged to the mission. The Indian agent was notified and then intervened by forbidding the Indians to take any of the meat. The situation escalated into a struggle between the knife-wielding Indian and Brother Holt (who was then working with Spates at the mission), over the carcass until the agent threatened to take the Indian into custody. The incident generated more fear among the missionaries for their own safety.⁽¹²⁹⁾

John Pitezel visited Samuel and Sarah again, arriving at Sandy Lake on May 30, 1850 in time to witness a large company of Indians gathering for a war dance. A number of the Indians were determined to go to war with the Sioux after some drunken members of that tribe had recently murdered fourteen Chippeways at Stillwater and one near Sauk Rapids..So the missionaries called the people to gather for a late afternoon service where Rev. Pitezel preached. ⁽¹³⁰⁾ Four days later they met with the Indians to discuss their concerns. One of them said he was poor but nevertheless, he was not going to do as the Indians at Fond du Lac had done, wanting the missionaries to pay him for coming to meeting. He said that Rev. Spates had too much to do and needed more help. Another echoed the same thought. ⁽¹³¹⁾

The plight of the Indians worsened dramatically late in 1850 when the government moved the 1850 Ojibwe annuity payment, required by the Treaty of 1842, to Sandy Lake, Minnesota, rather than holding it at La Pointe, Wisconsin as usual. It was an effort to induce eastern Indian nations to move onto lands west of the Mississippi, . In late November about 3000 Ojibwe traveled the 500 miles to Sandy Lake only to find no payment and little or no provisions as the government hoped to strand them west of the Mississippi. By the time they were able to make it home about 400 people had died of hunger, disease, or exposure ⁽¹³²⁾ The most detailed account of that terrible autumn at Sandy Lake was recorded by John Pitezel........... "Impediments have been thrown in the way of our efforts to evangelize the Indians in the western part of this district by the efforts of the Government to effect their removal. The Indians have already suffered much. They have felt, in consequence, chafed in their minds, and to a considerable extent they are jealous of their best friends because of the wrongs they have suffered..."Since the treaty the payment had been made at La Pointe. This place was quite central, so far as the Indians connected with our missions were concerned, and easy of access. But with a view to effecting the removal of the Indians west the payment was removed to Sandy Lake, and a refusal to go there to receive it amounted to a forfeiture. The Indians about Kewawenon did not go, and as a result, got nothing. A large band of Indians at Lake Vieux Desert also suffered the loss of their payment before they would consent to go to Sandy Lake. If I was correctly informed, none of them went. Many, however, from different points, did convene at the call of the Agent.

Troubles after their arrival at Sandy Lake. They were in a most destitute situation. As their route led across land portages, some of them miles in extent, they could not take with them bark to construct lodges. Nor could any thing be obtained at Sandy Lake to afford even a tolerable shelter for several hundred Indians from the pelting rain and snows of autumn. Their clothing was scarcely a circumstance. The wood they burned, as the missionaries informed me, they carried on their backs the distance of a mile to a mile and a half. Nor were they any better off for food. They waited a long time for the arrival of the Agent - threatened to force open the provision store and help themselves, and would have done so but for the resolute manner in which it had been guarded. The provisions they did get, were nearly or quite consumed while waiting for their pay. Another aggravating circumstance was connected with their provisions. The contractors had stored a large quantity of the flour near the Mississippi. The river rose, and for some time, the flour was submerged, and consequently badly damaged. But such as it was it was fed out to the hungry Indians. Almost incited to insurrection by past grievance, they were measurably quieted in hope of being paid off on the arrival of the Agent. After waiting about two months, what must have been their disappointment to be met with the cold comfort that their Great Father (?) Was not yet ready to pay them; they must wait another year for their money.

Meanwhile disease had been making terrible ravages among them. It assumed the form of dysentery; some thought it to be a modification of cholera. Simultaneously the measles was prevailing. As a result of the malignant disease abroad, there were about two hundred deaths. Frequently seven or eight died in a day. So alarming was the mortality that the Indians complained that they could not bury their dead. Coffins could not be procured, and often the body of the deceased was wrapped up in a piece of bark and buried slightly under ground. At times a hole was dug and several corpses together thrown in and covered up. Often when one died in a wigwam, the surviving friends would dig a grave in the center, bury their dead, and remove their lodge. All over the cleared land graves were to be seen in every direction, for miles distant from Sandy Lake; they were to be found in the woods. Some, it is not known how many, were interred by their friends on their way home. I was credibly informed that there instances in which the sick were unable to accompany their relatives and were alone to perish in the wilderness. One man, it is said, importuned his wife to remain with him and not to suffer him to die alone. She replied that if she should remain she must die too, and thus left him. On my way to Sandy Lake I saw a number of those recent graves, and in some places, there were remaining racks or frames constructed for the support of the sick. The evidences of a terrible calamity everywhere met the eye.

The Indians who went to payment via the St. Louis River, left their canoes at the confluence of the East Savan and the St. Louis, thinking that it would not be safe to take them to the head of the Savan, as that might be frozen over before they returned. But they did not dream of being detained till the large and rapid St. Louis should be frozen over. Such, however, was the fact. Finding the rivers closed on their return, and all a snowy wilderness around, some were so enraged that they broke their canoes in pieces for fuel, others were purposely broken to prevent them from being stolen; many more were simply left in the snow, and, on the opening of spring, some were stolen, many were carried down the St. Louis and lodged among the floodwood, or against the banks. I saw quite a number in this situation. A few were still remaining, when I passed, where they had been left. The number of the canoes thus sacrificed is not known. The Indians said a hundred or more. They were worth from eight to twenty dollars each, which shows a heavy destruction of property, besides the inconvenience and hardships to which the Indians were subjected in being compelled to walk home, and carry their effects on their backs.

"With this chain of distressing evils, the cause of which the Indians charge upon the Government, it is not to be wondered at that many should have been driven almost to desperation. And as it is difficult for the Indians to distinguish between friends and enemies; as they can not be expected to make due allowance for the unavoidable failures of the Government, it is no great wonder that they should feel jealous even of the missionaries; rank them with others as enemies and treat them accordingly. This may account for the treatment received by our missionaries at Sandy Lake the past winter. It must however, be set down to the credit of the Indians that the ill treatment suffered by the missionaries is to be charged, not to the Indians en masse, but to a few of the most abandoned." ⁽¹³³⁾

Rev. Pitezel does not name any of the Indians who treated the Sandy Lake missionaries badly. But many years later Samuel and Sarah Spates blamed James Tanner for inciting the Sandy Lake Indians to the point where they finally drove the Spates family out of the mission.⁽¹³⁴⁾

A letter to Bishop Whipple from Samuel Spates' good friend, Enmegahbowh, includes a heartrending description of the Sandy Lake disaster

"The Indians from all the Mississippi lands, Mille Lacs, Gull Lake, Leech Lake, and Pokeguma were present. The old Sandy Point was covered with wigwams. The first day they received their beautiful well-colored flour hard with lumps, and pork heavily perfumed. The old chief brought me some of both and said, 'Is this fit to eat?' I said, 'No, it is not fit to eat.' But the Indians were hungry and ate it. About ten o'clock at night, the first gun was fired. You will know, Bishop, that the Indians fire a gun when a death occurs. An hour after another gun was fired, and then another and another, until it seemed death was in every home. That night twenty children died, and the next day as many more, and so for five days and five nights the deaths went on. Oh it was dreadful! Weeping and wailing everywhere! I and my companion were dumb. All the time women were coming to ask if this disease were contagious. As the deaths increased, wigwams were deserted, and the inmates fled to the forest. They buried their dead in haste, often without clothing. The chief's prophecy was true: 'A fatal treaty! Woe, woe be to my people.'

Bishop, when these dear victims strewed along the pathless wilderness shall hear the great trumpet sound and shall point to those who caused their death, it will be dreadful. My friend, Chief Pakanuhwaush, has just come in. I asked him how many died at the payment of Sandy Lake. He said, over three hundred. These are tales of woe which some day shall be made known. The Great Spirit knows them all."⁽¹³⁵⁾

In the aftermath of the 1850 famine, 1851 was another bad year at Sandy Lake for Samuel and Sarah Spates. Sarah was often in poor health. The mission did not have a good interpeter. When John Pitezil visited again he had to conduct meetings with the Iindians in his own broken style of speaking Ojibwa without any interpreter.⁽¹³⁶⁾ Later that year scarlet fever broke out and spread among the Indians. Many of their children died. A letter (July 29) from Samuel Spates to John Pitezel said that for a time it was doubtful whether his family would live or die .... . 'But God had mercy on us, lest we should have sorrow upon sorrow.". In another letter ( August 9^th) Spates wrote ; 'Our health has greatly improved since my last; still the little girl, Imogen, is not well; her neck is much swollen. I was quite sick for about two weeks with sore throat.'. Another report by John Pitezel indicates how depressing that year was

"Sandy Lake and Mille Lac Missions. S. Spates and J.W. Holt, Missionaries. No flattering report can be made of this mission for the past year. It has been a year unparalleled in its history for deep and sore trials among the missionaries, and scarcely ever have such calamities befallen the Indians. To them it has been a year of mourning and woe. They carry this in their countenances and upon their blackened skins. The infrequency of their accustomed mittas, the few dances they celebrate, and the comparative silence and gloom that has seemed to settle down upon hem, are proofs of this. We have among them only four members and two whites but even in these we see the effects of the power of the Gospel. They stand as a beacon to others. In the midst of the sorest trials, the little few have experienced the greatest Divine support.

"The school, taught by brother Holt, has numbered thirty scholars. Their attendance has not been very regular, nor have they made as much progress as the children at other stations. There is a cause for this: they are just emerging from the dense darkness of heathenism, and with a succession of calamities, they have been ill prepared to learn.

"The afflictions the missionaries were called to endure, and the hostile demonstrations of some of the Indians, prevented the former from visiting Mille Lac. They still call to us for help; and if possible, a missionary should be appointed among them. Brother Spates is inclined to go there next fall if it is in accordance with the will of the appointing power." ⁽¹³⁷⁾

DETERIORATION OF THE SANDY LAKE MISSION

More misfortune befell Samuel and Sarah beginning with the death of Samuel's father in Jacksonville on Jan. 3, 1853., ⁽¹³⁸⁾. Later that year Samuel's mother and three of his brothers (Rezin, John, and Charles) then moved to Red Wing, Minnesota. ^{(139) (140)} Samuel's brothers may have learned about land opportunities and the opening up of navigation in the Minnesota territory and a growing Methodist presence in the Red Wing region. ,⁽¹⁴¹⁾ .^{(142) (143)} They settled in Red Wing about the same time as the first fire in Red Wing which was associated with the beginning of the removal of the Indians in that area to the western part of the state..⁽¹⁴⁴⁾

"The removal of the Indians to their home in the western part of the state began at this time and in that connection must be noted the first fire in Red Wing. On a day in May the cry of fire was heard and flame and smoke were seen to roll up from the roof of practically all the Indian wigwams located along the river bank. As no fire protection was available, in less than an hour every Indian bark house had disappeared in ashes. No doubt the fire was the work of incendiaries but the perpetrators were never discovered. When the Indians returned to their summer homes their feelings can be better imagined than described." ⁽¹⁴⁵⁾

While his mother and brothers were in Red Wing, Samuel continued at Sandy Lake but was also going back and forth to Mille Lac where he had been appointed to provide some services in addition to his duties at Sandy Lake.. It was a time of increasing tensions among the Ojibways in the region as Indians throughout Minnesota periodically went on the . Some Ojibways killed a Sioux Indian at Shakopee and another in St. Paul. A party of Sioux killed an Ojibway in the valley of the St. Croix River. ⁽¹⁴⁶⁾ Two Ojibways were murdered by Winnebagoes near Long Prairie. Chief Hole-in-the-Day was declaring that "Nothing but blood can atone for the killing of the Chippewas."⁽¹⁴⁷⁾

Chauncey Hobart must have been well aware of such tensions when he visited Samuel and Sarah in 1853, to see how they were faring and to determine whether they should be continuing at Sandy Lake. His impressions were positive. enough for him to endorse Samuel and Sarah continuing at the mission for at least another year.

"Here we were joyfully welcomed by Bro. Spates and wife who had been faithfully laboring in this place among the Indians, since 1847. I found the mission prospering and the missionaries much beloved by the Christian Indians. A school had been established; quite a number of the children had learned to read, and between twenty and thirty had been converted. I remained with them four days; preached several times ...., held a council with the clan, and baptized Bro Spates youngest son. I enjoyed the visit very much."⁽¹⁴⁸⁾

Hobart's autobiography records a council that he held with the Indians

"While holding the council with the Chippewa clan at Sandy Lake, of course I had to make them a speech. I told them, that several winters before, I had lived many days' travel south, in the same country with Brother and Sister Spates; that I had known them a long time before they came to this country; (Just here Sister Spates said, 'Tell them we had plenty to eat, and many friends"), so I added that they had good, kind friends, good houses to live in, good fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters, and plenty of beef and pork, plenty of flour and corn and milk and butter and clothes; that the good people in that 'south-land' having heard the Great Spirit had some red children up here, who did not know Him, and did not do what was right; that these red children had not heard of their Savior, who died to save them, and bring them to Heaven; that these praying people in the 'south-land' had sent Bro. Spates and Bro. Huddleston to teach them two years and then had gone back to see whether he could get a young lady to come and help him to teach them; that Sister Spates had come, and they had been with them now many years, not to trade with them or cheat them out of their furs and skins, but just to do them good, and tell them of the blessed Jesus; that if the red brothers would be kind to Brother and Sister Spates, and send the children to school, they would stay with them and help them and teach them still; that if they would not do this; then Brother and Sister Spates would have to go back to their kind friends in the 'south-land;' that I had come from St. Paul to see them and to learn what they intended to do; and now I wanted their answer.

"When I sat down Bu-shu, the chief of the clan - a tall, hard looking Indian with a restless look - rose, came forward, and shook hands with me and with all the others present; then straightening himself to his full six feet, he said, extending his long hand and arm;

'I am known from Mackinaw to Gull lake. They talk about me across the great water. Everybody knows that I speak the truth.' ( He was a noted liar.) 'We have heard your words. We are glad that you came, and have spoken. All the Indians here want a missionary, and we want no one but Mr. and Mrs. Spates. We like them. We have not sent our children to school much. We cannot send them in the spring when we go away to make sugar. We cannot send them in the fall when we go to gather rice. We cannot send them when we go to hunt. But we will send them when we are here. We want Brother and Sister Spates and we don't want you to take them away.'

"To this speech the Indians assented by the usual, 'Ho! Ho!!' I told them their teachers should be left with them another year, and after that we would see how well they had kept their promise."⁽¹⁴⁹⁾

Samuel and Sarah had a respite of sorts early in 1854 when they took their family back to Illinois. probably in connection with the death of Sarah's father who died on Oct 31, 1853. Perhaps they also went to attend the wedding of Samuel's brother Charles, who was married to Elizabeth Botts in March by the famous Methodist minister, Peter Cartwright..⁽¹⁵⁰⁾ Understanding the situation , the church permitted Samuel and Sarah to leave Sandy Lake, scheduling Samuel to tour the Illinois district with the elders so that he could raise some money for our work with the Indians. Samuel collected about two hundred dollars and some boxes of clothing for the mission at Mille Lac. Knowing that some livestock might insure survival during lean times Samuel tried to get a yoke of oxen and some cows back to Minnesota. But he was not successful and could only continue worrying about how he and Sarah could get some. During those months in Illinois Samuel and his family suffered with bad colds as the weather would be warm one day and very cold the next. .⁽¹⁵¹⁾

In March and April they were with Sarah's family in Mount Sterling, preparing to leave for Minnesota but their return was delayed by illness. Most of the family came down with the measles. .⁽¹⁵²⁾ At the time they were probably aware that Sarah's parents had been facing many financial hardships. Reuben Pope had . faced many debts and hardships during most of his life in Illinois. In 1839 he borrowed $9.31 from George Little at 13 % interest. In 1850 he borrowed $17.25 from someone recorded only as "Macern" and $11 from Mrs. S.A. Spates (Samuel's mother) at 6% interest as he struggled to keep his farm in a title dispute. . In 1852 Reuben Pope borrowed $11.72 from John Brye. It seemed that from 1850 to 1853, Reuben incurred debts of $130 to his son, Alan. When Reuben died on October 31, 1853, he still owed Alan $100.

Reuben Pope's financial troubles continued I n 1853 as he borrowed $91 from his son-in-law, Edison Heymer; $18 from James Singleton - at 10% interest. Accounts showed that in 1852 and 1853 he was paying for such things as cutting wood, repairing old shoes, repairing and sharpening his plows, and welding his pitch fork. He bought a bottle of "Mexican Mustang Liniment" on July 2, 1853, perhaps to ease bodily aches and pains he was feeling. He purchased two gallons of whiskey on August 25 and another gallon on September 10 - just a few weeks before his death, Was he driven to heavy drinking as he approached the end of his life? ln Reuben Pope's detailed 1852 accounts. there is no record of him purchasing any , whiskey ⁽¹⁵³⁾

Due to all of Reuben Pope's debts, his widow, Ann , was allowed to keep very little from his estate. - sixty dollars allowed by law. Another $125 for the value of 90 bushels and 10 shocks of corn, 20 bushels of wheat, sugar, tea, coffee, bridle and saddles, fuel, feed, and six sheep. Eight pigs, a calf, a harness, a wheelbarrow, a bee stand, a plow - and very little else. She also acquired a barrel and sled, a hoe, a shovel, a hand saw, a box, a shovel plow, a harrow, and a sorrel mare but she had to purchase all those items from a sale that was held to satisfy debts from Reuben's estate..⁽¹⁵⁴⁾

The first part of 1854 was a gloomy time for Samuel and Sarah in Illinois in the first part of 1854. Sick most of the time, they struggled to help their children through their illnesses . They returned to Sandy Lake in late July. Expenses for the return trip were much more than Samuel had anticipated. Nevertheless they were happy to get back to the mission and the Indians said they were glad that they came back. Samuel was kept very busy with the Mille Lac business as well as with making hay and opening the school at Sandy Lake. He had to travel back and forth between the two places as he explored the readiness of the Indians at Mille Lac to work with a missionary there . ⁽¹⁵⁵⁾

For a while that year the Indians were in better circumstances than they had been for some times, with good houses, gardens, horse, oxen, and abundant crops of potatoes and rice. But then the whooping cough struck and many died at Sandy Lake and at Mille Lac. Samuel buried a little child, the son of one of the members of his church. Samuel pleaded with his superiors for more common provisions and for mission goods so that he could employ Indians in ways that would be of advantage to them as well as to the mission. He became more aware of how important work could be for their dignity.⁽¹⁵⁶⁾ But by December he was at Chippewa Agency and things were getting desperate. The mission was almost out of food - down to one bag of flour. They desperately needed provisions and a cow, a horse, and a yoke of oxen.. In his letters, Samuel complained that whatever else may have led to his bringing his family into the wilderness for, it was not to have them starve or freeze. He expressed fear - not for himself but for his family. ⁽¹⁵⁷⁾

At the time Samuel was at the Chippewa Agency, nearly all the Indians in the area had collected there and were waiting for the payments. They were very poor, most without clothing. While they were waiting at the agency, there were almost no provisions at Sandy Lake until the middle of January. The mission's provisions were getting depleted. Samuel Spates plead ed with Elder Brooks to send provisions, including garden seeds - cabbage, turnip, tomato, beans, peas, onions, beets, and sweet corn.

Although few Indians came to the Sandy Lake mission anymore Samuel was building a wood house (complete with kitchen and bedroom), an ice house, and a fence. But he had very little money and worried about having enough food for his family and and for the Indians. He had to buy 25 bushels of potatoes at a dollar a bushel. He no longer had a good garden. It was costing his family much more to live than it have before. Samuel had to buy a cow with his own funds. He spent a hundred and fifty dollars to get a yoke of oxen. He used a draft on Brother Brooks to haul provisions. The mission were desperately short of everything.. Samuel again pleaded with Brother Brooks, complaining that he was being kept in the dark as to how much money there was for mission . .^{(158) (159)}

Samuel became very discouraged during the early months of 1855. . The Indians belonging to Sandy Lake were gone in January and did not return until February, after they had collected their annuities. During that period the mission was not able to have school because there were no children. Nor could they open school after the families returned because they had no stove to warm the school room. Samuel tried hard to get one that winter but he was not successful. ⁽¹⁶⁰⁾ Everything was costing much more than he had expected that year. . As he continued to plead with Elder Brooks for provisions, Samuel agonized about whether or not he would be able to pay the mission's interpreter..⁽¹⁶¹⁾

The Indians continued to say that they were glad to have Samuel and Sarah there but they did not come to meetings. At the mission's morning meetings, only three or four men attending. Just one old man came to the evening meetings. He seemed deeply interested but as he was leaving one of the meeting, he said that the Indians hated him because he came to the mission so much and because he talked about how he intended to leave the Indian way. His mind was very dark . He left but as he did so, he said that as soon as he saw the way clearly, he would walk in it.⁽¹⁶²⁾

In his letters, Samuel related that he and Sarah did everything they could to help the Indians. They had put together a good wood pile of about a thousand rails to fence with. Then they had to get even more wood because they had promised some of the Indians that they would help them build houses .⁽¹⁶³⁾

Samuel complained that some other people, calling themselves "The Church sent a Mr. Break here to baptize several of those whom Samuel had baptized years ago . Samuel said that Mr. Break tried to get most of the mission's people to come to his endeavor. Mr. Break reportedly told Enmegahbow that he has religion. Enmegahbowh wrote to Samuel Sapates more than once questioning whether they should treat Mr. Break as a minister of Christ or as a papist. Samuel wrote to him and warned him against antiscriptural doctrines.⁽¹⁶⁴⁾ In letters to Elder Brooks, Samuel admitted that he was chagrined when Mr. Break opened his own mission. Especially when he learned that he was getting more support than Spate was receiving, including some from the government..⁽¹⁶⁵⁾

Things were a little better in March. Brother Jacob Fulstrom was with the mission and did some of the preaching. . But the were still very low on funds and provisions. Samuel continued pleading to Brother Brooks for help.⁽¹⁶⁶⁾ At the end of April, he was asking him for rutabaga and turnip seeds ⁽¹⁶⁷⁾ as he wanted to get some crops started. At the same time, Sarah once more fell ill, this time with inflammatory rheumatism.⁽¹⁶⁸⁾

Sarah remained ill for many weeks, including the time when Brother Brooks came to Sandy Lake to visit. They were glad to see him as he helped them get some funds and provisions. They also talked about plans to get a teacher for the mission. Sarah strongly recommended that it be a young lady.⁽¹⁶⁹⁾

Brother Brooks had encouraged the Indians to attend the mission's meetings and warned them that Samuel and Sarah might have to leave unless the mission was more successful. By the middle of July more Indians were coming to meetings.⁽¹⁷⁰⁾. Even an old chief who had been bitter during Brother Brooks' visit. Not only was he attending but he seemed much more friendly than he had been in the past. Everything was not decidedly good, however. A knife fight between two of the Indians erupted that summer when they were gambling. In his letters, Samuel expressed hope that it would tend to break up the gambling and to cause them to separate. .⁽¹⁷¹⁾

Sarah's health was improving but Samuel knew that he needed to get some help for her. There was too much for her to do in the house and it took too much of Samuel's time to do what needed to be done there.⁽¹⁷²⁾

By the end of July Samuel was encouraged again when a one-eyed old man whom we had come to call "Friday" repeated his renouncement of heathenism that he had made during Brother Brooks' visit. He said that he wanted to lead a new life and would never go back to his old ways.⁽¹⁷³⁾ His words helped to strengthen Samuel's faith and hope. He needed such encouragement when he learned that the young man whom he had employed briefly as an interpreter had since forged a note on him at Crow Wing. In his letters, Samuel fervently expressed the hope that the forger would be taken by the authorities.⁽¹⁷⁴⁾

So during that first half of 1855 Samuel and Sarah had already faced many tribulations. Serious shortages of funds and provisions. Worries that their family might starve or freeze. Sarah's health going up and down. Few children in the school. No stove for the school. Competition from another mission. Gambling and knife fighting among the Indians. Samuel's interpreter forging that note. The church was saying that they might have to leave Sandy Lake.. And not only was Sarah ill as she often had been, but she was then very pregnant with their fourth child who would soon be due to arrive . (Anna Spates was born January 2, 1856 Samuel Pope was seven years old., Sarah Imogene was six, and Kossuth was three.) Bad as all this was, it was about to get worse.⁽¹⁷⁵⁾

TERROR AT SANDY LAKE

Samuel Spates' many years of missionary work ended abruptly in October, 1855 when he and his family fled the Sandy Lake mission after the Indians threatened to kill them all. A first hand account of their flight is preserved in the following letter from Samuel Spates to David Brooks.......Belle Prairie Oct. 30th, 1855...... " Brother Brooks - You see I date my letter at Belle Prairie. We came here on yesterday. Left Sandy Lake on yesterday one week ago. We had trouble with the Indians such as we never had before and found it impossible to remain longer in safety. The Indians were drunk some days and nights without intermission, and while drunk, without any cause or provocation on our part, came to the mission, broke the door open twice, threatened to kill me, two men struck me, one or two days after poisoned our little boy. Yet, thank God, their diabolical design was not accomplished. We still have our precious babe with us . .. We came down in a canoe of course and therefore could bring but little with us. Left what we could not bring with the Government blacksmith. I sent the cattle out before I left. They are at Mr. Olmsteads. .. We should have tried to come down to St. Paul but my wife's health is so poor we thought it not best to proceed. We are now at the house of Dr. Lewis. Please to say what we had better do. For the present I can not leave my wife or I would bring this intelligence instead of writing. At present we feel very much worn out. Still hope after a little rest and quiet to rally again.... We do feel thankful to God that it is as well with us as it is. Our family is still unbroken - none are buried in heathen ground.... Most respectfully, Samuel Spates." (Three year old Kossuth was probably the "precious babe" who was poisoned by the Indians.) ⁽¹⁷⁶⁾