Temporary record

The American Bible Society was founded in 1816 from an amalgamation of local societies with a mission to produce, distribute and promote the Scriptures in all languages everywhere. The main recipients of the correspondence comprising this collection are Joseph Hyde, General Agent and Assistant Treasurer of the ABS from at least 1842 through at least 1855, Rev. John C. Brigham, Corresponding Secretary of the ABS during at least the late 1830's and 1840's, an Edmond S. Jones, Financial Secretary during at least the 1840's. James Field, and Agent of the ABS in Wisconsin, is the writer of a significant body of correspondence documenting evangelical activity on the frontier among both whites and Oneida Indians.

The bulk of this accession consists of orders from subsidiary or affiliate bible societies, often located in rural or frontier areas, for bibles for distribution and sale. These orders came from societies ranging in location from Farmington, Maine, in the east to Bainbridge, Ga., in the south to (especially) societies in the western states and territories. The great number of local societies represented as correspondents and the quantity, quality and cost of bibles they ordered can be used to recontruct patterns of evangelical activity and success in the fringes of the country during the 1840's and '50's. This correspondence provides evidence of ABS activity in Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Maine, and several letters provide the names and officers of local bible societies.

Included in the correspondence are a few informal reports from local societies of their situation vis a vis the needs of the evangelist, their finances, and the success of their efforts to date. Some of these societies served ethnic communities (Welsh, French, German, Native American) or frontier areas where contact was difficult. 'You would find that lonely rides with your own conveyance over extensive Prairies and through forrests, is somewhat different from visiting important points by public Coneyances' (1842.04.26).

A series of correspondence from the Wisconsin Territory to John Brigham in the late 1830's and early 40's is particularly detailed in describing plans for evangelising in WI and reveals something of the mentality of the evangelists. The reports, orders, and letters from this quarter are detailed in terms of the numbers and types of bibles distributed, the means used to distribute them, the finances of the local society, and the clientel served. The correspondents paint a fairly thorough picture of evangelical activity in Wisconsin and their personal experiences as evangelists. The rapture these evangelists felt at finding pious settlers is moving: 'O it is like cool water to a thirsty soul to find in this Wilderness Country such a spot fertile as the garden of the Lord.'

Among their clientel were substantial numbers of Oneida Indians, the 'remnants' of the Iroquois, whom the correspondent, Julius Field, suggests 'are a peacible, Moral, - Industrious, and enterprizing People, - And the best of all Many of them give Satisfactory evidence of conversion & ardent piety' (1842.05.20). Field continues at some length on the Oneidas and, in other letters, on the Oneida West Mission, 12 miles west of Green Bay. His descriptions of evangelizing among the Oneida are among the most complete in this collection, and his opinions on their life style and future prospects are fascinating.

M-2445

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