# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 05 23_S157
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

157

...being and all his works. The questions concerning faith he answered not merely with a simple "Yes," but with an affirmation: "Yes, I believe assuredly."—We all praised God, who had done so great a thing.—After his baptism the baptized man held out the prospect that he would soon present his house also, that the unbaptized members of it might receive holy baptism.

Thereupon we proceeded to the meeting in which the great question was to be decided, whether the Indians of Bethany should move to Shebahyonk, or whether those of Shebahyonk should seek a new home in Bethany. Then it was found that the whole congregation, in its members present as well as absent, was unanimous that it were better to let the station Shebahyonk be given up and to settle all the brethren in Bethany, than to transfer the great number of the Pine Lutherans to Shebahyonk. We could not do otherwise, after weighing all the circumstances, than to agree with them. To be sure, on the other side many advantages are not to be overlooked which a removal of the Bethanians to Shebahyonk would have, e.g. the splendid situation of the place Shebahyonk on Saginaw Bay, which is especially favorable for traffic, trade, navigation and fishery; but we dared not rate these advantages too high, since it is indeed our very task to help the Indians to give up their hunting and fishing life and to accommodate themselves to an orderly farmer's life. The danger, however, which we mentioned in an earlier report, of being seduced by the Methodists, who carry on their mischief so near Bethany and even in the midst of the place, will be rendered more and more harmless by the congregation in Bethany drawing closer together and so becoming more consolidated, to which the transfer of the Shebahyonk Indians to Bethany can contribute much.- Accordingly we concurred in the wish of the Bethanians to ask the brethren at Shebahyonk to move to Bethany, then exhorted them to a personal visit to Shebahyonk, to make the hearts of the brethren there willing, and gave them to consider that it is the duty of us all to restrict the costs of the mission as far as possible, since we have the obligation upon us to bring the preaching of the Gospel also to the other tribesmen of the Chippeway nation in Minnesota, where they live by thousands.-The meeting accepted all our admonitions willingly and it was then resolved. In the evening the usual house visits took place, in which we remarked that almost all the Indians had very comfortable log houses. Unhappily, however, we became aware that most of the houses had been built for money by others, and that the Indians themselves had done only hodman's work thereon. The LORD grant that in this respect also they may get further and soon learn to build their log houses themselves.—

The personal house visits among the Indians are very heartening, in that the old well-known hospitality is always newly proved thereby. With hearty joy they greet their guests and seek to impart to them something good.

The old Sahrah also was visited once more, and promised on her part to pay us another return visit early the next morning. This she also really did, and cold as it was, she appeared nevertheless to bid us her last Boschu, and at the same time to put forward a request that we would give her a little flour. It should be mentioned generally that requests for provisions and other necessities have been made too much, not only by the old people but also by the young and able-bodied in Bethany. In this they have so far resembled children, who with great unconcern do not cease to ask so long as they see that their requests are granted. Hence it is time to resist the excessive demands, which are, to be sure, made by way of begging, for the LORD does not will that His people should live by begging. The old Sahrah we naturally granted her request gladly.— The evening before, the neighbor of the missionaries, Bemagojin, made a claim upon us, asking us to help him in a matter which threatened to ruin him. His wife, namely, had received from an English merchant in Saginaw many articles on commission, to sell them in Bethany. She had now, to be sure, consumed all the things partly in her own family, partly sold them to others; but many of the buyers had vanished from her memory or had died without having paid, so that she was not in a position to discharge her debt. After some waiting the merchant had threatened her that he would have everything she had sold. Frightened at this, her husband sought protection and assistance from us. As to the expected money assistance we had, to be sure, to disappoint him; but afterwards in Saginaw we brought the merchant to this, that he not only abated something of the money demanded, but also promised to have patience in regard to payment.— It was, as long as the Indians still lived in heathen disorder, always a bad habit of the women that, quite independently of the will of their husbands, they undertook commissions from English merchants and thereby were continually in the hands of these people, who not seldom made the most shameful, unchaste proposals to them and cheated them as much as they could. It is to be praised that wholesome Christian instruction puts an end to this mischief also.

After a hearty farewell from the Indians, several of whom accompanied us, we went on our journey again. The cold days had made the ice on the Pine River safer now, and we reached Saginaw City again without particular danger in a single day, although our horses had to run 75 miles to get there. The missionary Miessler accompanied us, because a conference in Frankentrost had been arranged by us; arriving in Saginaw he learned at the same time that the birth of an Indian infant in Frankenmuth had called him thither for baptism. In the latter place, namely, that old Indian doctor is still dwelling with his family, whom many of the readers know by the name Oldschim. He has, despite all efforts to bring the Gospel near to him, nevertheless remained in his heathenism, but seemed of late to be mightily touched by the drawing of divine grace, for he not only had his newborn child baptized, but also declared that he had now resolved to let himself be baptized; only it came to him too quickly now to present himself at once. He would therefore await another visit of the missionary.-The missionary now baptized his child and spent a long time, until deep into the night, in conversation with him himself, in which the old Oldschim confessed to him that he regards the "Anima" (i.e. the Germans of Frankenmuth) as his true and proper brothers, whereas his red countrymen, who visited him now and then (namely the Methodists from Lapeer), appeared to him as enemies, because they showed him no love. In such circumstances the missionary Miessler resolved not to let long wait for him; but, after he had attended the conference in Frankentrost another half day, he hastened home, in order to return to Frankenmuth already in the following week. He found, to be sure, not the old man, but his wife ready to be baptized. The husband himself asked for a new time for reflection. In full assembled congregation the baptism of the woman was performed.— Soon after this baptism the missionary also carried out his journey to Shebahyonk, where he was awaited, to discuss the removal of the Indians there to Bethany. He was accompanied by two young men of his congregation, who as delegates of the Bethanians were to invite the Shebahyonk congregation to move to the brethren. The purpose of this journey was fully attained. In a meeting all the families declared that they had now taken the firm resolution to undertake the journey to Bethany with God. They were even ready that very moment to carry out the removal. Only they were anxious (it was the 27th of February) lest the ice should break up too early. Besides, the time of sugar-making was now at the door, and they would rather first take along this earning, since they could not drag all their implements for sugar-making to Bethany. They hoped, however, to arrive in Bethany with their canoes about the end of April. As to their clearings, which they must now leave without finding the like again in Bethany, they were willing to have the same appraised by a fair standard, about 12 dollars per acre, which money might be paid out to them for carrying on their new farms in Bethany, or be reckoned against the payment for the land itself.