Elizur butler biography bundle

MASSACHUSETTS MISSIONARIES

Reverend Samuel Worcester and Reverend Doctor Elizur Butler began their missionary work among the Cherokee Tribe in Georgia before their removal, by the United States Government, to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

Each missionary’s daughter, Sarah and Esther respectively, grew up white among the Cherokee people and then returned to Massachusetts to study at Mount Holyoke Seminary. William  P. Ross ( nephew of Chief John Ross and later Chief) and David Vann, influential Cherokee men during that time, served as cultural brokers to the Reverends; together they began to implement educational plans at the Park Hill Mission Station.

There were to be two seminaries, one at Park Hill for women and another some miles away for men.

CHEROKEE CONSTRUCTION
The first cornerstone was laid for the Cherokee Female Seminary on June 21st, 1847 at the Park Hill Mission Station(2) As construction occurred, Ross and Vann traveled to New England in 1850 to tour the Mou