Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XV (1900)

              104 wisconsin historical collections vol xv expedition to the sacs and foxes.1 stockbridgb mar 25th 1835 to rev david greene missionary rooms boston mass dear sir — i feel it a duty to make some apology for so long a delay in communicating to the board2 the result of my tour last summer with the stockbridge indians but my peculiar situation building removing to the new set tlement visiting the sick together with the duties con nected with my calling c must be my apology your last brought to me the unwelcome information that you had not heard from me since i left my station directly and now it will be necessary to recapitulate much of what until yours came to hand i had supposed the board had re ceived last summer your last before the delegation left last june informed me that it was the wish of the board that we should leave sooner than it was contemplated at first but it was some two months after it was written before i received it it was then time that we should have been on our way in or der to have met dr w.3 seasonably but the indians were 1 the original letter embodying this report of mr marsh is still pre served in the record room of the american board in boston the"hier oglyphical figure by which the sacs c are in the habit of representing human life " has escaped from the report and cannot now be found — w w wight 2 the american board of commissioners for foreign missions is the oldest national missionary society in the united states having been es tablished in 1810 it undertook at an early time the evangelization of the american indians simultaneously with its work in india and in the sand wich islands its missionaries have always been thoroughly educated men and especially instructed to report to the board as to matters of ethnological and archaeological interest the report now under consider ation is an instance in point — w w w 3 rev thomas smith williamson m d a missionary of the american board from ripley ohio he was a son of rev william williamson and was born at fairforest s c in march 1800 he graduated at jefferson college pennsylvania 1820 studied medicine at cincinnati and new haven received the degree of doctor of medicine from yale college in 1824 and studied theology at lane seminary cincinnati his wife was margaret poage of ripley born in mason county kentucky in october