Isaac McCoy (June 13, 1784 – June 21, 1846) was a
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
among the
Native Americans in what is now
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, and
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
. He was an advocate of
Indian removal
Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...
from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
, and
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
. He also played an instrumental role in the founding of
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
and
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
.
Early life
McCoy was born in
Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Greater Pittsburgh Region. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census, down from 12,422 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and ...
, in 1784. Five years later, the McCoy family rafted down the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
to Kentucky, settling first near
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
and in 1792 in
Shelby County. His father was a Baptist minister, sharing profound arguments with him about religion. His father, on theological principles shared by many of his congregation, was opposed to evangelizing. McCoy was inspired in childhood to become a missionary to Native Americans and determined on that work.
Marriage and family
In 1804 at the age of 20, Isaac McCoy married Christiana Polke (1778–1851), age 16, in Kentucky; she was a cousin of the future President
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...
. Christiana's family had been at Kincheloe's Station,
Nelson County, Kentucky
Nelson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,065. Its county seat is Bardstown. Nelson County comprises the Bardstown, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included ...
, when it was attacked. Her mother and four siblings were carried into captivity by the
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
and Christiana was born after that time. They were taken to Michigan, where they lived with the Indians for 13 months. They were eventually "bought" or ransomed by the British, who sent them south to return to their people in Kentucky.
The McCoys had 14 children, only four of whom survived to adulthood.
John Calvin McCoy
John Calvin McCoy (September 28, 1811September 2, 1889) is considered the "father of Kansas City".
Early life
McCoy was born in Vincennes, Indiana. He studied as a land surveyor at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, during 1826-1 ...
assisted his father and became prominent in the early history of the
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
and
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
frontiers.
McCoy's wife, Christiana, died in Kansas City in 1851. A stream in
Elkhart County, Indiana
Elkhart County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. , the county's population was 207,047. The county seat is Goshen. Elkhart County is part of the Elkhart- Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the Sout ...
and a lake in
Cass County, Michigan
Cass County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 51,589. Its county seat is Cassopolis.
Cass County is included in the South Bend–Mishawaka, IN-MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area which has a t ...
are named for her.
Westward migration
Soon after their marriage, the young couple departed Kentucky for
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the Southwestern Indiana, southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville, Indi ...
. Although he had no training and no formal education, McCoy became a part-time preacher. In 1808 the Silver Creek Baptist Church, the first Baptist Church in Indiana, granted McCoy a license "to preach the Gospel wherever God in His providence might cast his lot". The Silver Creek church was located near what became Sellersburg in
Clark County. In 1809, McCoy became pastor of Maria Creek Church near Vincennes and in 1810, the Church ordained him as a minister. He was the town jailor at Vincennes.
Through illness and poverty, McCoy traveled widely (if unsuccessfully) on the frontier promoting the Baptist church. In 1817, the
Baptist Board of Foreign Missions
International Ministries is an international Baptist Christian missionary society. It is a constituent board affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. The headquarters is in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, United States.
History
The soc ...
appointed him as a
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
to the settlers and Indians in Indiana and
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
territories. Though his original intention was to preach to frontiersmen, his interests and concern for Indians quickly began to dominate his work.
[
]
Missions in Indiana and Michigan
McCoy founded his first "religious station" and school in October 1818 in what became
Parke County, Indiana, on Big Raccoon Creek upstream from the later
Wea
The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami.
Today, the descendants of the ...
Indian reservation at
Armiesburg.
The mission was said to be situated between
Rosedale and
Bridgeton. The Wea showed little interest in the school, however, and it failed. McCoy at that time was likely the only white settler in Parke County. In February 1819, he performed the first marriage in the county, between two
''métis'', Christmas Dazney (Noel Dagenet) and Mary Ann Isaacs (a Brotherton or Mohegan from upstate New York). In 1821, in compensation for his work with McCoy and for the federal government as an interpreter, Dazney filed a land claim between the mouths of Sugar Creek and Big Raccoon Creek north and east of present-day
Montezuma and established a Wea-Miami reservation there. This was the first reservation that came about as a result of a connection with Isaac McCoy, though McCoy had left the area by then. Dazney was eventually instrumental in leading bands of Indiana Indians west to Kansas after the
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...
of 1830. Dazney died in Kansas in 1848.
In May 1820, the McCoy family moved to
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...
to set up a mission to the
Miami tribe
The Miami (Miami-Illinois: ''Myaamiaki'') are a Native American nation originally speaking one of the Algonquian languages. Among the peoples known as the Great Lakes tribes, they occupied territory that is now identified as North-central India ...
. His school at Fort Wayne attracted 40 Miami,
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
, and mixed-blood children, several whites, and one African American. The Miami and Potawatomi tribes at this time consisted of mixed-race people and there were no clear lines of distinction between races within the tribes. In 1821, McCoy made the first of many visits to Washington, DC, seeking approval by the federal government, unsuccessfully on this occasion, for him to appoint teachers, blacksmiths, and other "agents of civilization" to be provided the Indians under newly ratified treaties.
In 1821, Chief Little Turtle of the Miamis, along with 16 other Indians and the captive William Wells, also made a trip to Washington, DC. It was Little Turtle's second visit to a President. The trip resulted in a government-funded Quaker agricultural mission to the Miamis.
In December 1822, McCoy left Fort Wayne and moved his family and 18 Indian students to a site on the
St. Joseph River near the present-day city of
Niles in southwestern
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
; he opened a mission to the Pottawatomi. The
Carey Mission The Carey Mission was established by Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy among the Potawatomi tribe of American Indians on the St. Joseph River near Niles, Michigan, United States in December, 1822. It was named for William Carey, a noted English Bap ...
, as it came to be known, was 100 miles from the nearest White settlement. The Pottawatomi gave McCoy a relatively warm welcome and helped feed his large family and Indian students through their early seasons in the territory. McCoy enjoyed more success here than in his earlier endeavors. His school expanded to have 76 Indian children, four Indian employees, five missionaries, six white children, and a millwright.
In 1826, McCoy led his family in another move, deeper into the frontier, where he established the Thomas Mission to the
Odawa people
The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They ha ...
, at what was later to become
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
.
McCoy and his missionaries were the first European-American settlers in Niles and Grand Rapids.
Indian removal
McCoy began in 1823 to advocate that the Indian nations of the East be moved west "beyond the frontiers of the White settlement". He believed that getting the tribes to their own, isolated places, away from the reach of whiskey traders and others who were exploiting them, would give them a better chance of surviving and becoming Christianized. McCoy's ideas for removal of the Indians were not new, but he promoted the idea that the U.S. government should fund "civilization programs" to educate the Indians and turn them into farmers and Christians.
McCoy expanded his concept later to propose the creation of an Indian state making up most of the land area of what is now Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.
McCoy thought of himself as the future leader of what he called "Indian Canaan", but he had little confidence in his fellow missionaries. They never accomplished more than "to soften the pillows of the dying" and had "too recently been transplanted from the sterile plains of religious bigotry, to expand with liberal views of the character, and of the just rights of man". Rather, he placed his faith in the government to create for the Indians "a country of their own" where they could "feel their importance, where they can hope to enjoy, unmolested, the fruits of their labours, and their national recovery need not be doubted". His proposed Indian colony, to become subsequently a Territory and then a State within the United States, would be guided by a benign U.S. government and missionaries with whiskey dealers and dishonest merchants banned.
McCoy failed to foresee that the frontier of white settlement was expanding so rapidly that his Indian Canaan would be overrun by settlers before Indians could enjoy "unmolested, the fruits of their labours".
Moreover, he overestimated the good will and capacity of the government. During the tragic removals forced on the Indians by the U.S. government in the 1830s and later, thousands would die of neglect and arrive in Kansas and Oklahoma impoverished and starving. McCoy's conversion programs and philosophy of removal, though well-intentioned, culminated in the 1838
Potawatomi Trail of Death
The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal by militia in 1838 of about 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas.
The march began at Twin Lakes, Indiana (Myers Lake and Cook ...
.
Surveyor of Indian Territory
The possibility of removing eastern Indians west of the Mississippi River was enhanced in 1825 when the
Osage and the
Kaw
Kaw or KAW may refer to:
Mythology
* Kaw (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology
* Johnny Kaw, mythical settler of Kansas, US
* Kaw (character), in ''The Chronicles of Prydain''
People
* Kaw people, a Native American tribe
Places
* Kaw, Fr ...
ceded large portions of their lands in Kansas and Oklahoma to the United States. In 1828, Congress authorized McCoy to lead an expedition to survey lands to which the
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
,
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
, and
Creek of the Southeast could be relocated. McCoy also invited representatives of the Potawatomi and Odawa to join the expedition. With the unenthusiastic Indians, McCoy traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma laying out potential reservations and devising in his mind the organization of an Indian State.
In June 1829, McCoy moved his family to
Fayette, Missouri
Fayette is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 2,803 at the 2020 census.
History
Fayette was laid out in 1823. The ...
. Late that year, at his own expense, he carried out a survey on the Kaw lands. In 1830, with Kaw "mixed blood"
Joseph James Joseph or Joe James may refer to:
* Joe James (footballer) (1910–1993), English football centre half for Brentford
* Joe James (racing driver) (1925–1952), American racecar driver
* Joe James (American football) (1934–2015), American gridiron ...
as his guide he surveyed and established the boundaries of a reservation for the
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
tribe who were persuaded to move there from their territories in southern Missouri.
In 1829, his book was published, ''Remarks on the Practicability of Indian Reform, Embracing Their Colonization''. It recounts a four-page, cited, historical summary of the essential justification of the European colonization of the continent since
Jamestownand refutes each essential element. He laments the callous conquest of the native tribes, the disregard of their very concept of government, land rights, and freely chosen lifestylecomparing this to a hypothetical conquest of the modern
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
by Chinese invaders who could similarly see America as alien, uncivilized, and inferior.
In 1830, Congress passed the
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...
, which formally authorized the removal of eastern Indians to the West. For the next ten years, McCoy was engaged in surveying boundaries of reservations for more than twenty tribes who moved west to present-day Kansas. Often they comprised small remnants of formerly powerful peoples. McCoy had hoped to be one of the three commissioners appointed to oversee Indian Territory, but he was passed over and his dreams of becoming the government's chief representative to the Indian tribes were dashed.
Aware of the fraud, abuse, and neglect involved in the removal of Indians westward, McCoy rationalized that it was for the greater good of having Indian lands secured for them in perpetuity. Such "perpetuity" was to last little more than two decades.
Missionary work in the 1830s
McCoy, his son John, his daughter Delilah, and her missionary husband
Johnston Lykins
Johnston Lykins (April 15, 1800 – August 15, 1876) was a prominent settler and civic leader in the Americans, American American frontier, frontier Town of Kansas, which became Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. He was editor of the ...
, worked together as missionaries to the
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
and
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
(Delaware), following them to what is now
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
, on the border of
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
and near their reservations. The younger McCoy established a
trading post
A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded.
Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...
at
Westport, Missouri
Westport is a historic neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Originally an independent town, it was annexed by Kansas City in 1897. It is one of Kansas City's main entertainment districts.
Westport has a lending library, a branch of the K ...
. He was among the first organizers of Kansas City. Lykins became the city's first legally elected mayor.
McCoy's strong views were often at odds with the Baptist mission board and other missionaries. In 1832, a
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
epidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
was killing thousands of Indians. McCoy traveled to Washington, seeking funds from Congress to support a
vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...
program for Indians. He found little enthusiasm for such a bill. The Missouri Senator,
Alexander Buckner
Alexander Buckner (March 8, 1785June 6, 1833) was a United States senator from Missouri.
Biography
Born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, he studied law and moved to Charlestown, Indiana in 1812. He moved to Missouri in 1818 and settled near Jacks ...
, said to him about the Indians, "if they were all dead it would be a blessing for our country." Partially due to his efforts, Congress eventually passed a modest bill to finance Indian vaccinations.
In 1833, an armed McCoy was involved with a company of "ruffians", a mob in
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro ...
who attacked
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
families at gunpoint and expelled them from their homes onto the prairie, where they nearly starved.
The ''
Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt
''The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt'' is the 1874 posthumous autobiography of Latter Day Saint apostle Parley P. Pratt. It was compiled from Pratt's writings by Pratt's son, Parley P. Pratt Jr., with assistance from his wife and apostle J ...
'' recalls: "While we thus made our escape the companies of ruffians were ranging in every direction; bursting into homes without fear, knowing that the people
he Mormonswere disarmed; frightening women and children, and threatening to kill them if they did not flee immediately. At the head of one of these parties appeared the Rev. Isaac McCoy (a noted Baptist missionary to the Indians), with gun in hand, ordering the people to leave their homes immediately and surrender everything in the shape of arms. Other pretended preachers of the Gospel took part in the persecution—speaking of the
ormonChurch as the common enemies of mankind, and exulting in their afflictions." Edward Partridge recalled the same incident in a letter of 1839, when the Mormons were disarmed at Independence: "Wednesday Nov 6th. The arms being taken from the Saints the mob now felt safe and were no longer militia. They formed themselves into companies and went forth on horseback armed to harass the saints and pick up all the arms they could find. Two of these companies were headed by Baptist priests. The Rev. Isaac McCoy headed one of about 60 or 70, the other's was about 30 or 40. They went through the different settlement
of the Saints threatening them with death and destruction if they were not off immediately... The mobs whipped and shot at some and others they hunted, for as they said to kill them. Such mobs well lined with whiskey were acting worse than savages."
Although he was involved in numerous projects on behalf of what he perceived as the best interest of Indians, McCoy was nearly destitute during much of the 1830s, taking in boarders and working as bookkeeper in a neighboring store. He hoped to be appointed as the government overseer of Indians. He lobbied in Washington and on the frontier seeking, unsuccessfully, for U.S. government recognition of the Indian lands as an official U.S. Territory.
While in Missouri, a slave state, in 1835 McCoy purchased a female
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
named Chainy. Opposed to slavery, he said that he had bought her to prevent her being separated from her husband and children by being sold through a slave market. It appears he already owned her husband and children. In his will he provided for her to be manumitted, on the condition that she pay his estate (or descendants) her purchase price of $415 plus interest. He also provided for her children (also his property) to be freed when each reached age 24.
In 1840, McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Midwestern Native American tribes, ''The History of Baptist Indian Missions.'' In 1842 he returned East to
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, where he directed the Baptist American Indian Mission Association. He wrote additional works on Indians and the missions. He died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery.
"Isaac McCoy"
''Oklahoma Encyclopedia of Culture and History'', accessed February 19, 2011
Assessment
McCoy was much more of a social reformer than a missionary, hardly being concerned in his later years with converting Indians to Christianity. He "attacked the system of law and custom by which Indians had been kept in bondage" and "his object was to free the Indians from those restraints." His solution was to move the Indians beyond where they could be corrupted and exploited by Whites. But the tide of westward expansion in the U.S. was too strong and his plans failed. His biographer said that the vision of this rude, untutored preacher and pioneer was "somewhat breathtaking".
References
Further reading
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*
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External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Isaac
1784 births
1846 deaths
People from Uniontown, Pennsylvania
American city founders
People from the Kansas City metropolitan area
People from Grand Rapids, Michigan
People from Louisville, Kentucky
United States Indian agents
People from Vincennes, Indiana
Critics of Mormonism
People from Fayette, Missouri
Baptist missionaries in the United States
19th-century Baptists