First A Little Chickasaw History
The Treaty of Paris in 1782, officially marked the end of the American Revolutionary War. The Chickasaw Nation had been staunch allies of the British, but had spent the war years not in battle with the Americans, but with their bitter enemies the Spanish who had acquired much of the former British holdings in the southeast. The Chickasaw, while not a very large Indian nation, were none the less very respected by all sides for the warrior abilities. This, and the fact that their nation was situated in such a location that they virtually controlled the Mississippi River, gave them a status beyond their numbers.
Four years after the Paris Peace Treaty, the new United States nation entered into a peace treaty with the Chickasaw Nation, called the 1786 Treaty of Hopewell. In the negotiations, the U. S. let it be known that they had no designs on the lands of the Chickasaws, as they felt that they had all the land they would ever need in the then existing 13 states. Unfortunately, for the Indian, this avowed U.S. policy was short lived. With rapid growth and expansion the U.S. turned it’s eyes on the Indian lands and several treaties were made in which the so called, "Five Civilized Tribes", (Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Creek), were pressured to give up parts of their nations.
By the 1820’s, the U.S. was formulating policies to permanently "remove" the nations to new lands west of the Mississippi River. Land that was to be theirs, "As long as the grass grows and the rivers run." The U.S. negotiated with the Chickasaw and Choctaw in 1826, and the tribes refused to give up all their eastern lands. The Chickasaw and Choctaw, although at times bitter enemies, were frequently treated together as they had so much in common. Even their "origin legends" claimed that they were originally of one tribe. In 1830, the Choctaws capitulated and agreed to surrender their eastern lands in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi River in the new created Indian Territory. Because the Choctaws got on the "ground floor", so to speak, their new nation became what is today all of the southern half of the State of Oklahoma.
In 1832, a "removal" treaty was signed by the Chickasaws. This treaty was re-negotiated and signed in 1834. The Chickasaws, benefiting from the problems they saw that their Indian brethren the Choctaws had experienced, negotiated a clause in their treaties that the secession of their lands would not take place until suitable lands in the west were located and obtained. Unfortunately, the U.S. had no more "suitable" lands in the Indian Territory, and the Chickasaws managed to delay the effective date for several years. Finally, the Chickasaws were pressured into becoming a "lessee" of the Choctaws in their new nation. This was agreed to by the Treaty of 1837.
The net effect of the 1837 treaty was that the Chickasaws were to become members of the Choctaw Nation. For a one time payment they leased a portion of the Choctaw Nation, which was called the Chickasaw District. They agreed to be governed by the Choctaw government. Thus for all practical purposes the Chickasaw Nation as a legal entity ceased to exist. The Chickasaws did reserve one right and that was the right to manage their own money. Among the items to be funded out of this money was education for their members. (This arrangement of membership in the Choctaw Nation only lasted for 18 years until 1855 when the Chickasaws were able to purchase their district outright from the Choctaws and once again establish their own Nation.)
Plainfield, Connecticut
While the Choctaws were quick to establish schools in their own three districts, the Chickasaws did not. The Chickasaws utilized the Choctaw schools or sent their scholars back east to school. At first the primary eastern school was the old Choctaw Academy located in Kentucky, Col. Johnson’s school, but they soon fell out of satisfaction with that school. The Chickasaws passed acts in 1848 to establish their own native schools, but until that time decided to pull their students from the Choctaw Academy and send a few up north to Plainfield, Connecticut.
Their first contingent of students, eleven in number, were escorted north in 1848, by Peter Pitchlynn. Pitchlynn was Choctaw and a leader in the Choctaw Nation. He later became the principal chief of the Choctaws and still later a permanent representative of the Choctaws in Washington D. C., where he later died and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery. On March 28, 1949, the Chickasaws appointed Chickasaw leader Robert H. Love to escort seven more young men to Plainfield. The Rev. Alvan Bond of Norwich acted as their guardian there in the north.
What should be noted is that most of these Chickasaw scholars were not children but young adult men, many in their early twenties. Some may even have been married with children at home. Most were of mixed blood and came from prominent Chickasaw families. These were to be the future leaders of the Chickasaw Nation. Some of them were from families that had large land holdings and a number of slaves. They certainly were not "tee-pee" Indians.
Not all of the 18 students were sent to Plainfield Academy. One Holmes Colbert, a member of the contingent of seven students, apparently did not go to Plainfield Academy. Additionally, while records are sketchy, it does appear that one or more of the total Chickasaw students sent to Plainfield, died there. ( On report states six died, two in Plainfield.) In a "Catalogue of Plainfield Academy 1850-51", the following students from the the "Chickasaw Nation" are listed. Several names were prefixed with an asterisk, which was denoted in the catalog as "deceased".
Names listed in 1850-51 catalog were:
*Thomas Alberson
David Alberson
Alexander Bradford
Aaron V. Brown
La Fayette Colbert
Samuel Colbert
Joseph Colbert
Howard Duncan
*Tecumseh Gaines
Jefferson Greenwood
Gibson Greenwood
Tecumseh Johnson
Fredric McCalla
Benjamin McLaughlin
Sampson McLaughlin
Lewis Newbury
*Silas Newbury
In the 1848 Pitchlynn group were:
Lafayette Colbert
Samuel Colbert
Joseph Colbert
Jefferson Greenwood
Gibson Greenwood
Tecumseh Johnson
Lewis Newberry
Silas Newberry
Sampson McLaughlin
Howard Duncan
Alexander Bradford
Information on these individuals is sketchy or non-existent. Lafayette Colbert is listed on the 1847 Chickasaw Roll as being half white, head of the household consisting of one male over 18 and one female over 16. Thus we can speculate that he was married by the time he went north to school. There were several Chickasaws named Samuel and Joseph Colbert so a definitive ID can not be made. Jefferson and Gibson Greenwood may well have been children of Chickasaw chief Capt. Greenwood. Jefferson Greenwood appears on the 1847 roll as half white, age over 18. Tecumseh Johnson is listed on the 1858 Chickasaw Roll, but little else is known about him. It should be noted that in April 1852, he made a speech at the annual Plainfield exhibition in the Chickasaw language. Lewis and Silas Newberry are probably sons of Chickasaw chief Capt. Newberry. Sampson McLaughlin was stated in a letter by Rev. Alvan Bond to be a cousin of Benjamin McLaughlin. Unfortunately, no information to date has been uncovered to establish this relationship. During a visit to the school in 1851, by members of the Chickasaw Council, it was decided in May 1851 to take many of the students back home. Sampson was one of these. Howard Duncan was listed on the 1857-1860 Chickasaw Rolls. He was the father of John C. Duncan born in 1872. He is probably the son of John Duncan listed on the 1847 Chickasaw Roll as being a full blood over the age of 18 and having a male under the age of 18 in the household. This same John Duncan may have been the same as the one who attended the Choctaw Academy in 1838, age 9. Alexander Bradford appears to have no information available. The is no Bradford listed on the early rolls and may well have been a case of a full blood adopting an English name for school as was often the case.
The 1849 Love group of seven students consisted of:
Thomas Alberson
David Alberson
Aaron V. Brown
Holmes Colbert
Tecumseh Gaines
Fredrick McCalla
Benjamin McLaughlin
We have no information on Thomas and David Alberson. It is to be suspected that they were sons of Chickasaw chief Isaac Alberson. Bond mentions in one of his letters that he made arrangements with a "Mr. Crary, and experience teacher of English studies", to take into his family T. Gaines and the older Alberson, "… to take parental care of them, they being young." Aaron V. Brown, a full blood Chickasaw, was already exhibiting leadership in the tribe before he was sent to Plainfield. In 1845 he was elected as a representative to the Chickasaw District Council at Boiling Springs, (now Tishomingo, OK). In 1847, his household consisted of two males under 18, one male over 18, and one female under 16. He was interpreter during the 1852 treaty negotiations and attended the constitutional convention of 1851. He was listed on the 1857 & 1860 Chickasaw Rolls. Holmes Colbert was a much older student, born in 1828. His actual name was James Holmes Colbert. He apparently did not go to school in Plainfield but was sent to school at Delaware College in 1848 and then to Union College in New York where he graduated in 1852. He took part in numerous tribal governmental roles. He died in Washington D.C. in 1872. Tecumseh Gaines was probably the son of Chickasaw John Gaines. Tecumseh appears on the Chickasaw roll of 1847 as a full blood and head of the household that consisted of one male under 18 and two females under 16. He owned 11 slaves. Regarding the student named Fredrick McCalla there is no record.
Benjamin McLaughlin was the great-great-grandfather of this author, Kerry M. Armstrong. He was the son of one of the last elected chiefs of the Chickasaw Nation. (In 1856, after the Chickasaws had regained their status as a nation they adopted a new constitution which called for the top leadership position to be that of governor, thus doing away with the "chief" title. This position has been continued even today.) Benjamin’s father was James McLaughlin, a half blood, who was in fact the chief of the Chickasaws at the time Benjamin went north. One of the interesting threads that is found in Rev. Bond’s letters is the realization that apparently Benjamin was not to be treated as just any Chickasaw student, but that as the son of the chief, he was due some special care. In his letter of May 14, 1849, he states that he will be placed in the family of Doctor Cogswell, "who is the right sort of man to manage him, as he has been much indulged at home & inclined to be, as we say, somewhat wild, and needs to be under a steady & strict family control."
However, word must have then gotten to Rev. Bond that maybe the chief’s son was entitled to be "indulged" a bit, as by his letter of May 31, 1849, as Benjamin was moved to another family with acknowledgement that he as well as Aaron Brown carried much larger pocketbooks.
Historian Grant Foreman stated that Benjamin McLaughlin became one of the most prominent men in Indian Territory and that he was the most extensive cattle raiser in the Nation. In 1857 he was serving as clerk of the Circuit Court of the Chickasaw Nation.
Apparently, the arrival of the first contingent of Chickasaw students was met with some apprehension. Christopher P. Bickford, in his book Plainfield Transformed: Three Centuries of Life in a Connecticut Town 1699-1999, stated:
The first eleven Chickasaw Indians arrived on August 22, 1848, and created quite a stir in the old Village. According to Henry P. Robinson, the son of Reverend Robinson and a student of the Academy, "a flurry of wonder and fear swept down the long, broad leafy street." Some expressed the fear that these wild Indians would scare away the white scholars who were not quite ready to be scalped. The fears were without substance. The Chickasaws were undeniably Native Americans. Most were tall, with prominent cheekbones, adept at hunting, fishing, and lacrosse, skills which they taught to their fellow students. They came in western dress, not buskins, and they proved decent scholars and wonderful companions to the other male students. Happily for the town, there were no romances between the Chickasaw students and any young women in the village such as had occurred with devastating consequences in Cornwall in the 1820's when intermarriage between the Cherokees and white women closed the Cornwall school.
Bickford mentions that, "The last six boys left town on July 3, 1852. According to Henry P. Robinson, a correspondence continued between Samuel Colbert, one of the Chickasaws, and the Cogswell family, until 1865."
Bickford also states that, "Peter Pitchlynn later told Robinson of 'the death, one by one, of most of the scholared Indians, many of them by violence, showing not the happiest concord among their own people.'"
One of the tragedies of the Chickasaw Nation was that it picked the wrong side in the Civil War. The Chickasaw Nation allied with the South. It raised several companies of soldiers. Many of its leaders in public life became military leaders and did not survive the war. According to sources, Benjamin McLaughlin died from wounds received during that war. It is believed that when Peter Pitchlynn wrote that several of the Plainfield Chickasaw scholars died by violent means that he was referring death as a result of war.
Letters from Plainfield
A. M. M. Upshaw to Wm. Medill, 28 MAR 1849:
Chickasaw Agency
March 28th 1849
Honl Wm Medill
Com of Ind Affairs
Sir
This will be handed you by my Young friends A.V. Brown, Holmes Colbert and Benjamin McLaughlin they are three of the seven boys that were selected by the Council to go to School at the North. You Sir will find them very interesting young men and anxious to get a good education, two of them were at Col. Johnsons School about two years, and they as you will perceive made good use of their time.
A.V. Brown could not speak our language when he went there; I am satisfied that you will put these young men at good schools, and I am as well satisfied that they will improve and be great advantages to their people. Your kind attention to these young men will be thankfully acknowledged by me.
Very respectfully
yr mo ob st
A.M.M. Upshaw CA
Hon
Wm Medill
Coms
______________
NOTE: for some reason I cannot find my copy of a letter dated
14 MAY 1849, Rev. Alvan Bond to W. Madill, Indian Commissioner, but do have a
paragraph extracted in another source, to-wit:
"Benjamin McLaughlin will probably remain at the academy in Plainfield, as his cousin is there, (Sampson McLaughlin), & if so he will be placed in the family of Doctor Cogswell, who is the right sort of man to manage him, as he has been much indulged at home, & inclined to be, as we say, somewhat wild, and needs to be under a steady & strict family control."
_____________________
Norwich May, 31, 1849
Sir
After careful inquiry & deliberation I have made a disposition of the five Chickasaw youth, sent to my care in charge of Mr. Love, and submit the arrangement to your consideration. On learning that Brown and McLaughlin left home with the understanding that they were to be placed together and as a larger appropriation, as I am informed, was made for their support, than was voted for the other youth, I have put them under the care & instruction of Mr. Morgan, an approved teacher of an English school in Norwich Town, about two miles distant from the city. Board, including washing, mending, fuel, & light, has been engaged for them in a respectable private family for two & a half dollars a week each. Their tuition will be six dollars each a quarter - books & stationery not over two dollars a quarter for both.
As they have been accustomed to dress more expensively than the other boys, I am not as yet able to intimate the probable amount of expense for their wearing apparel, including boots, shoes, hats & caps; but judges that it will not fall below $75,00 pr. annum, nor exceed $85 or 90$ for each.
I have also made an arrangement with Mr. Crary, an experienced teacher of English studies in a village of this town about one mile distant from my residence, to take into his family T- Gains & the older Alberson, and take a parental care of them, they being young. He teaches a School, & has taken the boys into one of his classes, with which they recite. He gives them instruction in school and at his house. They are very pleasantly situated & seem happy. His charges for board, washing, mending, fuel, & light, are two & a half Dollars pr week for each, & six dollars a quarter for tuition. Books & stationary will be about one dollar a term for each. - Their clothing, including every article of wearing apparel, will not exceed $60. a year for the present.
The younger Alberson seemed desirous of remaining at Plainfield, and I concluded in the circumstances, that I could not do better than place him in the family of Doctor Cogswell with Sampson McLaughlin, where good care will be taken of him. His annual expenses there will not vary from those incurred by the other boys in that Seminary, which for the current year including trunks, umbrellas, brushes, &c, will not exceed $205 each.
In the arrangements thus specified, I have studied an economy as rigid, as is consistent with the comfort and improvement of these interesting youth. They are in the midst of an enlightened community, who feel a deep interest in Indian civilization. They are welcomed by the members of their respective schools, & kindly treated, & are thus brought into familiar intercourse with the school boys of the community, where they reside. And being thus near, I can often see them, & watch their progress & conduct. The charge, including that at Plainfield, imposes on me much care, responsibility and anxiety, which I should decline assuming, were it not for the great interest I feel in these youth, and the nation from which they come.
Enclosed is my accounts the expenses, that will have accrued from the time of their arrival here to the 8th of June, ensuing, which is the close of the quarter at Plainfield. I do this, that the expenses of the whole number may hereafter be included in one account.
Very Respectfully
Your Obt Servt,
A Bond
Hon. W. Medill
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Washington
(OTA-. School File. B 376 etc. Norwich, Conn. 1892. B-415.)
________________
Norwichtown New London County. Connecticut
June 23d, 1849
Col Medill
Dear Sir. I was requested by -you through Mr. Bond to write a few lines to inform you of our Situation, & how we like the residence of this place, Myself & Benj McLaughlin are here at Mr. Morgan’s School, & so long as we have been here, we are very well pleased with our instructor, and hoping that we shall do better than we did at Col Johnson’s, school. We have been & visited those boys at Plainfield, about two weeks ago & saw them they are geting along finly & well satisfied with their boading. & all the arrangement which has been made for their education..
Mr. Medill We have not had to say, We only write these few lines, merely for you to see & know how We will improve hereafter. And I will ask good advise from you. If any delegation from our nation Should come to Washington City recommand them to visit us around.
No more at present, But reimaind your sincery &c
Aaron V Brown
Benj. McLaughlin
Your (Chickasaw) (x) Indians scholars
(OIA: School File. B-432-568, Norwich, Conn. 1849. B-432.)
_________________
Norwich. Ded. 13th, 1849
Sir,
You will herewith receive the accounts of expenses incurred, in providing for the support and education of sixteen Indian youth under my care, for the quarter ending the 8th instant. The amount exceeds somewhat my estimate, as some articles, necessary to their comfort during the winter months, were therein overlooked. I have found it necessary, this season, to have them supplied with substantial flannel under garments, as a protection important to health in this climate. They have at present a good supply of clothing, and will not require so large an outlay for this purpose during the current quarter. No article of clothing is furnished to them without my order, and it is all made to order, and in a substantial manner. An economy, as rigid as is consistent with comfort and respectability, has been consulted in this department of their expenses.
I am happy to be able to report at the present time the good health of all these youth. They continue diligent and ambitious in the prosecution of their studies. They progress in study and general improvement is highly satisfactory. The attention of the assistant preceptor in Plainfield Academy has been almost wholly devoted to the Chickasaw boys in that institution.
The facilities for improvement in the Academy at Plainfield, - the retired, quiet and healthy situation of the place, - the elevated state of morals and the intelligence which characterizes the inhabitants, and the peculiar interest they manifest in the welfare of these youths, - have induced me to remove thither Gaines and Alberson, who have been in this city. They went on the 8th instant.
Mr. Eaton, a respectable gentleman, near the Academy has taken them into his family as boarders, where they will have a pleasant home. They are much pleased with the change.
A. V. Brown, and B. McLaughlin, who have boarded in the upper village in this town, about two miles from the city, have become so far advanced in their studies, in the Morgan's private school, that I have transferred them to the Academy in that place, a highly respectable institution under the care of a graduate of Yale College of high standing as a scholar and a gentleman. They are much respected in the school, and by the citizens, and seem contented and satisfied with their situation.
Yesterday I visited the boys at Plainfield, and heard their recitations. They acquitted themselves in a satisfactory manner in reading, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, and in the sounds of vowels and consonants. The books used by them are Saunders School Reader, third part, Webster's Spelling Book, and Definer, Greenleaf’s Mental Arithmetic, and Mitchell's Primary Geography. A specimen of writing and composition, without correction, is enclosed.
Respectfully,
Your Obt Servant
Alvan Bond
Hon. Orlando Brown,
Conmissioner Indian Affairs
Washington
(OIA: School File B-376 etc. Norwich, Conn. 1849. B-549.)
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