History
The Moravians at Springplace
One historian describes a group of Moravian missionaries who sailed to the “New World” with the intention to “preach to the Indians of Georgia.”[1] Another historian reports that the Moravian missionaries who came to Georgia were first located in Salem, North Carolina. This group “had reached the conclusion that the Lord desired them to take thought for the souls of the Indians.”[2] In 1800, this group traveled to Tellico (Tahlequah), Oklahoma, the Cherokee capital, and sent two Moravian brothers to meet with the Indiana Council. The story is reported as this:
One after another the chiefs came in—Doublehead, Little Turkey, Bloody Fellow, Boot, and Glass—all clad in breech clouts and blankets. To these patriarchs of the forest the agent explained that the two Moravians desired to tell them about the Great Spirit and to teach their children reading, writing, and some of the white man’s art. The Council was interested, not in the Great Spirit, but in the proposed school. They asked whether the strangers would board and clothe the children sent to them to teach. The surprised Moravians emphatically informed the Indians they could not do so much. Was it not enough to offer to teach the children gratis?[3]
After receiving the offer to teach children about the Great Spirit and reading, writing and art, the Council debated for several months. Chief Doublehead is reported as making a long speech to allow the Moravians to have an opportunity to try their plan and if unsuccessful, they would be asked to leave Cherokee territory.[4] The Council voted to allow the Moravian missionaries to begin their work.
Brother John Gambold and his wife, Sister Anna Gambold, are credited with being some of the first missionaries at Springplace. They led the school and hosted the Moravian mission station. As the name Springplace implies, the mission was located near the spring or a creek, and included three buildings: one log cabin and two houses.[5] This mission and school grew through the work of Brother and Sister Gambold until the forced exodus of the Cherokee people. They abandoned this location when the Cherokees East were forced to move to Oklahoma. Some Moravians are reported to have journeyed with the Cherokees in their migration to Oklahoma. Upon arriving, they established New Springplace near Oaks, Oklahoma.
The Lutherans at New Springplace
There appear to some gaps in the documented history of the exact details regarding the responsibility of the mission from the Moravian missionaries to the Lutheran missionaries. What has been reported to me through story and what I could glean from some sources is that the Moravians eventually abandoned the work at New Springplace for a variety of reasons. What follows in this essay will be what I could recover regarding the history that is documented by Lutheran historians regarding the relationship between the Lutheran missionaries and the Cherokee people.
The name most closely associated with the Lutheran relationship to the Cherokees of Oklahoma is Niels L. Nielsen, who emigrated from Denmark in 1888 with “…no other motive than to find an Indian tribe among which he could settle, preach the Gospel, and by his life’s work be of eternal benefit to the people.”[6] Nielsen, in his journals, reported that he had heard the voice of God to begin ministry, but resisted initially. He eventually came to the “New World” and settled in Menomonee, Michigan. While in Michigan, he worked at a saw mill, where he saved $600 from two years’ worth of work. In 1890, he attended Trinity Seminary in Blair, Nebraska, for his theological training with his mind set on ministering to the Indians.[7]
After completing his training at Trinity Seminary, Nielsen made his way to Oklahoma on June 11th, 1892.[8] He found a local interpreter and spent his time in the forest and the Ozark Mountains near a place called Moodys.[9] In September, 1892, a mission school was founded in Moodys. The school began with only eight children, but is attributed with being the starting point of the Lutheran Church among the Cherokee people, where Nielsen was responsible for preaching, teaching Sunday School and Mission School.[10] Nielsen and his Danish wife were not seeing the “results” of their mission to the Cherokees for several years, six years to be exact. This ended when a Cherokee man came to Nielsen and his wife and relayed that his daughter was seriously ill and requested the missionary. His daughter, “Annie England” was a student at the school where Nielsen taught. She asked him to baptize her once he had arrived to her bedside. After her father’s consent, Annie England was baptized a few weeks later on Easter Sunday in 1898. This was the “first fruit” of the Nielsens’ work with the Cherokee people; fourteen baptisms occurred in the following year.[11] (Keiser, 117)
The school at Moodys was growing and becoming more well-known, thus prompting the United States Government to request that children who were white also be allowed to attend the Mission School. The Nielsens allowed for this. The white children crowded the Cherokee children out of the school, which prompted the Board of the Church to recommend that they move to Oaks, Oklahoma, where they would take up an old Moravian Mission Station.[12] Oaks was a short distance away from Moodys and located slightly northeast of Moodys, still in Oklahoma.
In a short pamphlet describing the history of the Lutheran presence in Oaks, it is documented that this move to Oaks happened in August, 1903, and Ebenezer Evangelical Lutheran Church was established in October, 1903. “The church work has been carried on there since to this day, and God has blessed it.”[13] While the congregation was established in 1903, a new church was built in 1913. A new two-story school building followed. In 1921 and 1922, the new boarding school was built.[14]
The history of Oaks Indian Mission and Ebenezer Lutheran Church has since continued through the development of programs and the shifting of identity from simply a dormitory to a family-style setting for the youth who reside there. Ebenezer Lutheran Church is still in operation and works in partnership with Oaks Indian Mission, which serves to house young people from various nations and provide for holistic support, education and care.
[1] Justo L. González. The Story of Christianity: Volume 2, The Reformation to the Present Day. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1985), 211.
[2] Ralph Henry Gabriel. Elias Boudinot: Cherokee & His America. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941), 23.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Albert Keiser. Lutheran Mission Work Among the American Indians. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1922), 116.
[7] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 14.
[8] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 14.
[9] Ibid, 15.
[10] Ibid, 16.
[11] Albert Keiser. Lutheran Mission Work Among the American Indians. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1922), 117.
[12] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 17.
[13] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 17.
[14] Ibid, 19-20.
Please check back for additional history information. This is a work in progress!
The Moravians at Springplace
One historian describes a group of Moravian missionaries who sailed to the “New World” with the intention to “preach to the Indians of Georgia.”[1] Another historian reports that the Moravian missionaries who came to Georgia were first located in Salem, North Carolina. This group “had reached the conclusion that the Lord desired them to take thought for the souls of the Indians.”[2] In 1800, this group traveled to Tellico (Tahlequah), Oklahoma, the Cherokee capital, and sent two Moravian brothers to meet with the Indiana Council. The story is reported as this:
One after another the chiefs came in—Doublehead, Little Turkey, Bloody Fellow, Boot, and Glass—all clad in breech clouts and blankets. To these patriarchs of the forest the agent explained that the two Moravians desired to tell them about the Great Spirit and to teach their children reading, writing, and some of the white man’s art. The Council was interested, not in the Great Spirit, but in the proposed school. They asked whether the strangers would board and clothe the children sent to them to teach. The surprised Moravians emphatically informed the Indians they could not do so much. Was it not enough to offer to teach the children gratis?[3]
After receiving the offer to teach children about the Great Spirit and reading, writing and art, the Council debated for several months. Chief Doublehead is reported as making a long speech to allow the Moravians to have an opportunity to try their plan and if unsuccessful, they would be asked to leave Cherokee territory.[4] The Council voted to allow the Moravian missionaries to begin their work.
Brother John Gambold and his wife, Sister Anna Gambold, are credited with being some of the first missionaries at Springplace. They led the school and hosted the Moravian mission station. As the name Springplace implies, the mission was located near the spring or a creek, and included three buildings: one log cabin and two houses.[5] This mission and school grew through the work of Brother and Sister Gambold until the forced exodus of the Cherokee people. They abandoned this location when the Cherokees East were forced to move to Oklahoma. Some Moravians are reported to have journeyed with the Cherokees in their migration to Oklahoma. Upon arriving, they established New Springplace near Oaks, Oklahoma.
The Lutherans at New Springplace
There appear to some gaps in the documented history of the exact details regarding the responsibility of the mission from the Moravian missionaries to the Lutheran missionaries. What has been reported to me through story and what I could glean from some sources is that the Moravians eventually abandoned the work at New Springplace for a variety of reasons. What follows in this essay will be what I could recover regarding the history that is documented by Lutheran historians regarding the relationship between the Lutheran missionaries and the Cherokee people.
The name most closely associated with the Lutheran relationship to the Cherokees of Oklahoma is Niels L. Nielsen, who emigrated from Denmark in 1888 with “…no other motive than to find an Indian tribe among which he could settle, preach the Gospel, and by his life’s work be of eternal benefit to the people.”[6] Nielsen, in his journals, reported that he had heard the voice of God to begin ministry, but resisted initially. He eventually came to the “New World” and settled in Menomonee, Michigan. While in Michigan, he worked at a saw mill, where he saved $600 from two years’ worth of work. In 1890, he attended Trinity Seminary in Blair, Nebraska, for his theological training with his mind set on ministering to the Indians.[7]
After completing his training at Trinity Seminary, Nielsen made his way to Oklahoma on June 11th, 1892.[8] He found a local interpreter and spent his time in the forest and the Ozark Mountains near a place called Moodys.[9] In September, 1892, a mission school was founded in Moodys. The school began with only eight children, but is attributed with being the starting point of the Lutheran Church among the Cherokee people, where Nielsen was responsible for preaching, teaching Sunday School and Mission School.[10] Nielsen and his Danish wife were not seeing the “results” of their mission to the Cherokees for several years, six years to be exact. This ended when a Cherokee man came to Nielsen and his wife and relayed that his daughter was seriously ill and requested the missionary. His daughter, “Annie England” was a student at the school where Nielsen taught. She asked him to baptize her once he had arrived to her bedside. After her father’s consent, Annie England was baptized a few weeks later on Easter Sunday in 1898. This was the “first fruit” of the Nielsens’ work with the Cherokee people; fourteen baptisms occurred in the following year.[11] (Keiser, 117)
The school at Moodys was growing and becoming more well-known, thus prompting the United States Government to request that children who were white also be allowed to attend the Mission School. The Nielsens allowed for this. The white children crowded the Cherokee children out of the school, which prompted the Board of the Church to recommend that they move to Oaks, Oklahoma, where they would take up an old Moravian Mission Station.[12] Oaks was a short distance away from Moodys and located slightly northeast of Moodys, still in Oklahoma.
In a short pamphlet describing the history of the Lutheran presence in Oaks, it is documented that this move to Oaks happened in August, 1903, and Ebenezer Evangelical Lutheran Church was established in October, 1903. “The church work has been carried on there since to this day, and God has blessed it.”[13] While the congregation was established in 1903, a new church was built in 1913. A new two-story school building followed. In 1921 and 1922, the new boarding school was built.[14]
The history of Oaks Indian Mission and Ebenezer Lutheran Church has since continued through the development of programs and the shifting of identity from simply a dormitory to a family-style setting for the youth who reside there. Ebenezer Lutheran Church is still in operation and works in partnership with Oaks Indian Mission, which serves to house young people from various nations and provide for holistic support, education and care.
[1] Justo L. González. The Story of Christianity: Volume 2, The Reformation to the Present Day. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1985), 211.
[2] Ralph Henry Gabriel. Elias Boudinot: Cherokee & His America. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941), 23.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Albert Keiser. Lutheran Mission Work Among the American Indians. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1922), 116.
[7] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 14.
[8] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 14.
[9] Ibid, 15.
[10] Ibid, 16.
[11] Albert Keiser. Lutheran Mission Work Among the American Indians. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1922), 117.
[12] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 17.
[13] 25th Anniversary of Our Indian Mission at Oaks, Oklahoma, 1903-1928. Published by the Church Council of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nielsen, 17.
[14] Ibid, 19-20.
Please check back for additional history information. This is a work in progress!