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Thomas Smith Williamson | |
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| Born | March 8, 1800 |
| Died | June 24, 1879 (aged 79) |
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Thomas Smith Williamson (March 1800 – June 24, 1879) was an American physician and missionary. He co-authored the first translation of the Bible into Sioux.
Williamson, the only son of Rev. William and Mary (Smith) Williamson, was born at Fair Forest, Union District, South Carolina, on March 8, 1800; in 1805 his father, wishing to set at liberty the enslaved persons which he had inherited, moved to Manchester, Ohio.
He graduated from Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1820, and soon after began to read medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. William Wilson, of West Union, Ohio. He also attended a course of medical lectures in Cincinnati, before attending the Yale Medical School, where he graduated in 1824. On receiving his degree he settled in Ripley, Ohio, where he soon gained a good practice, and was married, April 10, 1827, to Margaret, daughter of Col. James Poage.
A half-formed purpose to devote themselves to missionary work was rendered stronger by the early deaths of their first three children; and after spending one winter at Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, and being licensed to preach the gospel, Dr. Williamson was appointed by the American Board in the spring of 1834 to visit the Native American peoples west of and near the Mississippi River and north of the State of Missouri. The result was the establishment by the Board of a new mission, of which Dr. Williamson was put in charge. As soon as navigation opened in the spring of 1835, he left Ohio with his family, and until 1846 was stationed at Lac qui Parle, among the Dakota, in the western part of what is now the State of Minnesota. In 1846 he removed to Kaposia, five miles below St. Paul, and after the cession of these lands to the government, followed the Dakota in 1852 to their reservation, and selected as his residence a spot some thirty miles south of Lac qui Parle. He continued there until the Dakota War of 1862, and afterwards made his home at St. Peter, Minnesota, where he died, June 24, 1879, in his 80th year. His wife died in July, 1872.
From the time of his entrance on the missionary work, he gave himself unreservedly to the elevation and Christianization of the Dakota; he lived to see among them ten Native ordained ministers and about 800 church members, connected with the churches which he had planted. The crowning work of his life, the translation of the Bible into Sioux, was only completed, in connection with Rev. Dr. Riggs, about three months before his death. His three surviving sons were all college graduates, and one of them was associated with his father in the missionary work.
This article incorporates public domain material from the 1880 Yale Obituary Record .
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Yellow Medicine County is a county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its eastern border is formed by the Minnesota River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,528. Its county seat is Granite Falls.
Lac qui Parle County is a county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,719. Its county seat is Madison. The largest city in the county is Dawson.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations and consisted of participants from Protestant Reformed traditions such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and German Reformed churches.
Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 30,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken Indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit languages, and Ojibwe.
Little Crow III was a Mdewakanton Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862.
The Mdewakanton or Mdewakantonwan are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota (Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Together with the Wahpekute, they form the so-called Upper Council of the Dakota or Santee Sioux. Today their descendants are members of federally recognized tribes in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska of the United States, and First Nations in Manitoba, Canada.
Eli Smith was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1826. He worked in Malta until 1829, then in company with H. G. O. Dwight traveled through Armenia and Georgia to Persia. They published their observations, Missionary Researches in Armenia, in 1833 in two volumes. Eli Smith settled in Beirut in 1833.
Joseph Renville (1779–1846) was an interpreter, translator, expedition guide, Canadian officer in the War of 1812, founder of the Columbia Fur Company, and an important figure in dealings between settlers of European ancestry and Dakota (Sioux) Natives in Minnesota. He contributed to the translation of Christian religious texts into the Dakota language. The hymnal Dakota dowanpi kin, was "composed by J. Renville and sons, and the missionaries of the A.B.C.F.M." and was published in Boston in 1842. Its successor, Dakota Odowan, first published with music in 1879, has been reprinted many times and is in use today.
Gabriel Renville, also known as Ti'wakan, was an US-government appointed chief of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe from 1866 until his death in 1892. He opposed conflict with the United States during the Dakota War of 1862 and was a driving force within the Dakota Peace Party. In 1863, Renville volunteered to serve as a Dakota scout serving in US military leader Henry Hastings Sibley's punitive expedition against Dakota escapees, hunting those considered "hostile" including Little Crow. Renville would become chief and superintendent of scouts in 1864. Gabrielle Renville's influence and political leadership were critical to the eventual creation of the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, which lies mainly in present-day South Dakota.
The Yellow Bank River is a 12.0-mile-long (19.3 km) tributary of the Minnesota River in western Minnesota in the United States. It is formed by the confluence of two longer streams, the North Fork Yellow Bank River and the South Fork Yellow Bank River, which also flow in northeastern South Dakota. Via the Minnesota River, the Yellow Bank River is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of approximately 460 square miles (1,190 km²) in an agricultural region.
Stephen Return Riggs was a Christian missionary and linguist who lived and worked among the Dakota people.
Augustin Ravoux was a French priest and missionary who served in the area preceding Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in Minnesota.
Eli Lundy Huggins was an American Brigadier General and author who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Indian Wars. He was also the commander of the 8th Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Spanish–American War.
Hypolite Dupuis was known as a "veritable old settler" in the Minnesota River Valley when it was largely inhabited by Native Americans. He was a French Canadian fur trader who eventually settled in Mendota, Minnesota, opened the first general store there, and served as the first treasurer of Dakota County.
Fort Renville, originally called Fort Adam, was a fur-trading post established by Joseph Renville and built in 1826. The fort was used as a trading post for the Columbia Fur Company, which was later purchased by the American Fur Company. The American Fur Company continued to use the post until 1846, when it moved to another site. There are no visible remains at its site, a half mile from the Lac qui Parle Mission, in Lac qui Parle State Park near Watson, Minnesota, United States. It was a significant post during the fur-trading years, but fell out of use after Renville's death in 1846. The site has been damaged by flooding and is now held in preservation by the Minnesota Historical Society. It is not open to the public. There is an overlook of the site with a sign detailing a brief history of the fur-trading post for visitors.
Lac qui Parle Mission is a pre-territorial mission in Chippewa County, Minnesota, United States, which was founded in June 1835 by Dr. Thomas Smith Williamson and Alexander Huggins after fur trader Joseph Renville invited missionaries to the area. "Lac qui Parle" is the French translation of the native Dakota name, "Mde Lyedan," meaning "lake which speaks". In the 19th century, the first dictionary of the Dakota language was written, and part of the Bible was translated into that language for the first time at a mission on the site of the park. It was a site for Christian missionary work to the Sioux for nearly 20 years. Renville was related to and had many friends in the Native community, and after his death in 1846, the mission was taken over by the "irreligious" Martin McLeod. The relationship between the mission and the Dakota people worsened, and in 1854 the missionaries abandoned the site and relocated to the Upper Sioux Agency.
Gideon Hollister Pond was an American Presbyterian missionary, clergyman, and territorial legislator.
John Poage Williamson was an American missionary, politician, and writer.
Alonzo Barnard (1817–1905) was a Presbyterian missionary to Native Americans. He helped people escape slavery and taught formerly enslaved people in Ontario, Canada. He met his wife Sarah Philena Babcock Barnard (1819–1853) at Oberlin College and they worked together as missionaries and abolitionists with other graduates from Oberlin. Called the "Oberlin Band", they were led by Rev. Frederick Ayer. They worked initially for the Western Evangelical Missionary Society, and then the American Missionary Association after 1846. He ran one of the first printing presses in Minnesota, which was used to print books in the Ojibwe language. He established several mission stations and was a fund-raiser for the mission.
Williamsburg, Minnesota is an extinct town, and the first townsite in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota.
