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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 



Sergeant (J. ), the elder — Contiuued. 

 dians: or, An Account of the Methods used, 

 and Pains taken, for the Propagation of the 

 Gospel among that Heathenish-Tribe, and the 

 Success thereof, under the Ministry of the late 

 Reverend Mr. John Sergeant," 



Sergeant (Eev. John), the younger. Trans- 

 lation of the 19th Psalm [14 verses, com- 

 plete] into the Muh-he-con-nuk lan- 

 guage, done at the Corawall School, 

 under the superintendence of Rev. John 

 Sergeant, Missionary. 



In Morse (J.), Report to the Secretary of 

 War ... on Indian Affairs, appendix, pp. 

 359-360, New Haven, 1822, 8°. 



Mohegan and English, in parallel columns. 

 On page 278 of Morse's Report it is stated that 

 this " translation of the 119th [i. e. 19th] psalm, 

 into the Mah-he-con-nuk language," was made 

 by "John Hicks, of that tribe," a pupil at the 

 Foreign Mission School, Cornwall, Conn. 



Reprinted in : 



Hodgson fA.), Letters from North America, 

 vol. 2, p. 413, London and Edinburgh, 1824, 8°. 



Pickering (T.), Notes [on Edwards' Observa- 

 tions], pp. 152-154, Boston, 1823, 8°. 

 See Quinney (J.) 



John Sergeant, son of the missionary of the 

 same name, was born at Stockbridge, Mass., in 

 1747, and died near New Stockbridge, N. Y., 

 Sept. 8, 1824, aged seventy-seven years. When 

 he was about two years of age his father died, 

 and in 1752 his mother was married again, to 

 Gen. Joseph D wight, who died in 1765. The 

 first ten or dozen years of his life were spent in 

 Stockbridge among (he Indians, from whom he 

 acquired that knowledge of the Moh egan or Mo- 

 heakunnuk language which was so useful to him 

 in later years. He attended school for a while 

 at Newark, N. J., and then returned to his 

 native town, where he studied theology under 

 Rev. Mr. "West, minister of the church there. 

 In 1775, although without college honors, he was 

 judged to be fully qualified to preach the gospel. 



After the death of the elder Mr. Sergeant, in 

 July, 1749, the Stockbridge Indians were with- 

 out a minister for two years. In August, 1751, 

 Rev. Jonathan Edwards was installed as pastor. 

 He did not attempt to learn the Indian lan- 

 guage, believing it better for the Indians to 

 learn English. His sermons to them were there- 

 fore delivered through an interpreter. In Jan- 

 nary, 1758, he left Stockbridge to accept the 

 presidency of the College of New Jersey at 

 Princeton, bu in the following March he died. 

 Fcff about a year Rev. Mr. Stoddard ministered 

 to the church, and in 1759 Rev. Stephen "West 

 became its pastor. In 1775 Mr. West resigned 

 the care of the Indian portion of his congrega- 

 tion to young Mr. Sergeant, whose knowledge 

 of the language peculiarly fitted him for that 

 work. From that time Mr. Sergeant received 

 the salary of the missionary, and Mr. West was 

 suj^orted by the whites as pastor only. 



Sergeant (J.), the younger — Cont'd. 



For the next ten years Mr. Sergeant minis- 

 tered to the Indian congregation, and taught in 

 the Indiau school, which had been kept sepa- 

 rate from the school for white children since 

 1760. In 1785 the Stockbridge Indians removed 

 from Massachusetts to laud given to them by 

 the Oueidas in New York state, where they 

 built the village of New Stockbridge. Mr. Ser- 

 geant did not accompany them, but remained 

 behind. In the following year, however, he 

 visited the new town with tlie intention of 

 staying there to preach, and leaving his family 

 in Massachusetts. With a view to his mission 

 among them, he was duly ordained as an evan- 

 gelist in 1788, at a salary of four hundred dol- 

 lars a year. In the meantime the Rev. Samson 

 Occom, a Mohegan Indian, had visited the peo- 

 ple of New Stockbridge, and made known his 

 desire to be their raiuister. This resulted in a 

 division, and the formation of two Indian 

 churches, one party, with the Brotherton In- 

 dians, choosing Mr. Occom for their pastor, and 

 the other party remaining under Mr. Sergeant's 

 care. Mr. Occom died in 1792, and then the 

 two churches were united. 



Mr. Sergeant's ministry at New Stockbridge 

 lasted nearly thirty-eight years. A few years 

 after he first commenced his work there he 

 built a frame house and removed his family to it. 

 The farm on which the mission house stood, about 

 fifty acres, was set off for his use by the In- 

 dians. The church was built by the Mission- 

 ary Society, and would accommodate five hun- 

 dred persons. The mission was supported, in 

 part, by the Scotch Society for the propagation 

 of the gospel, in part by the Corporation of 

 Harvard College, and in part by tlie American 

 Society for propagating the gospel among the 

 Indians and others in North America. For a 

 while Mr. Sergeant employed white men to 

 teach, for the benefitof his own children ; but, 

 with this exception, the Indians taught .'\nd 

 sustained their own schools. Some of the In- 

 dian girls, however, were afterwards educated 

 at Clinton, and some of the boys at the Corn- 

 wall school in Connecticut. 



In 1795 there was printed at Stockbridge an 

 edition of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism in 

 the Mohegan language, with Dr. Watts' s Shorter 

 catechistn for children at the end. It was pub- 

 lished without doubt under the direction of 

 Mr. Sergeant, and was intended for the use of 

 the Indians under his care. For an account of 

 the book see Quinney (J.). 



During the residence of the Stockbridge In- 

 dians in the State of New York, Mr. Sergeant 

 prepared for their use a code of laws. Two of 

 his daughters were also active in the mission 

 work, and one of them started an Indian tem- 

 perance society. The neighboring Oneidas and 

 Tuscaroras also attended the New Stockbridge 

 church, and were addressed by Mr. Sergeant 

 through their interpreter, Capt. Nicholas 

 Cusick, father of David Cusick, the Indian his- 

 torian. In 1822 Dr. Morse wrote of the Stock- 



