Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-05-25
Ridge.

1t is more than forty years since the
nuttiu OF Missionary Ridge, iii WHICH
General Grant gave his order to charge
the base Of the ridge, and the soldiers
obeyed so we'll thai they did not halt
till they reached the top That was
in November, 1863, and few even then
knew how Missionary Ridge Obtained
its name. A short time ago there dleu
in Rcllands, Cal, d woman whose lie
reacled back to the lint when MIS-
sicnary Ridge was the home of mis-.
~sionaries. She was perhaps the last
living person connected in any way
with that work.
Tha Cherokee Indians, who lived In
the upper Tennessee valley, were gen.
orally. the friends Of the white men,,
and although in the Revolution they
were for a time the allies OF the En-
riisf1. as in the French War they had
been the friends of the English against
the French, they later came to be
friends of the colonies. In 8 l they
rendered Jackson's army important SER
vice, and some of them were with him
at the Battle of New Orleans. 10 these
Indians missionaries We're sent, ana.
under the guidance Of these good men,
and women the Indians became a CIV
! i!izcd and Industrious people, many
of them able to read, and a consider
able number members OF the church.
The story OF their removal from their,
oId-time home is a sad n e In 1ISo
the United States government made a
treaty with them, known as the Hope
we'll treaty, recognizing b Cherokee
nation as an Independent nation. In
1926 Georgia declared this treaty not
binding upon that State, and In 1880
the State Legislature passed a law
calling for a survey and distribution
of the lands of the Cherokee Indians,
and the Cherokees were removed to the
Indian Territory. Many died by the
way.
The case was tried in the United
States Supreme Court, and Justice MAJ
shall declared the Georgia law uncon-
stitutional; but the white men wanted
the lands, and the Indians had to so.
Their homes, their fields, their gold
mines fell into the hands of the covet-
ons white men. 1t is said that of six
teen thousand Indians who were re-
moved during the years from 1880 to
1888, not more than twelve thousand
reached the new reservations.
In recalling these sad events, too
much like others that nave character.
lied the dealing of white men with
Indians, it is well to remember that
othersinfiuences were at work, and for
good. Great was the good accomplished
by the missionaries, both prior to the
removal and in the new home.
Among the stations established and
maintained until the removal was the
Brainerd Station, on what later came
to be called Missionary Ridge. One OF
the missionaries there was DR.. Elizur
Butler, who was transferred to that
place from a station in Georgia about
1880. His little daughter Esther was
about Q years old when the change
was made, and she spent her childhood
in the mission there.
When the removal occurred, the mis-
sionaries accompanied the Indians tt
Tahleuuah, ''the new station" whence
she went to Mount Holyoke Seminary
she was graduated in 1853, and after
ward married the Rev. Oswald
Woodford, a teacher in the Cherokee
Seminary. He broke down in the work
and returned to his home in Connect
icut, where, he died. His death left he
with four small children.
In 1894 Mrs. Weoodford accompanied
q daughter to California, where sh,
; died last June. She was perhaps thu
last person who remembered havin,
borne a share of the work Of the mis-
sionaries to the Cherokees on Mission
airy Ridge. 1t is good to know tina
such missionaries lived.-Youth's Com
nanion1