40 Facts About Isaac McCoy

Isaac McCoy was a Baptist missionary among the Native Americans in what is Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Kansas.

Isaac McCoy was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

Isaac McCoy played an instrumental role in the founding of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri.

Five years later, the McCoy family rafted down the Ohio River to Kentucky, settling first near Louisville and in 1792 in Shelby County.

Isaac McCoy's father was a Baptist minister, sharing profound arguments with him about religion.

Isaac McCoy was inspired in childhood to become a missionary to Native Americans and determined on that work.

In 1804 at the age of 20, Isaac McCoy married Christiana Polke, age 16, in Kentucky; she was a cousin of the future President James K Polk.

Isaac McCoy's mother and four siblings were carried into captivity by the Shawnee and Christiana was born after that time.

John Calvin Isaac McCoy assisted his father and became prominent in the early history of the Kansas and Missouri frontiers.

In 1809, Isaac McCoy became pastor of Maria Creek Church near Vincennes and in 1810, the Church ordained him as a minister.

Isaac McCoy founded his first "religious station" and school in October 1818 in what became Parke County, Indiana, on Big Raccoon Creek upstream from the later Wea Indian reservation at Armiesburg.

In May 1820, the Isaac McCoy family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana to set up a mission to the Miami tribe.

In 1821, Isaac McCoy made the first of many visits to Washington, DC, seeking approval by the federal government, unsuccessfully on this occasion, for him to appoint teachers, blacksmiths, and other "agents of civilization" to be provided the Indians under newly ratified treaties.

In December 1822, Isaac McCoy left Fort Wayne and moved his family and 18 Indian students to a site on the St Joseph River near the present-day city of Niles in southwestern Michigan; he opened a mission to the Pottawatomi.

Isaac McCoy enjoyed more success here than in his earlier endeavors.

Isaac McCoy's school expanded to have 76 Indian children, four Indian employees, five missionaries, six white children, and a millwright.

In 1826, Isaac McCoy led his family in another move, deeper into the frontier, where he established the Thomas Mission to the Odawa people, at what was later to become Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Isaac McCoy began in 1823 to advocate that the Indian nations of the East be moved west "beyond the frontiers of the White settlement".

Isaac McCoy believed that getting the tribes to their own, isolated places, away from the reach of whiskey traders and others who were exploiting them, would give them a better chance of surviving and becoming Christianized.

Isaac McCoy expanded his concept later to propose the creation of an Indian state making up most of the land area of what is Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.

Isaac McCoy thought of himself as the future leader of what he called "Indian Canaan", but he had little confidence in his fellow missionaries.

Isaac McCoy's proposed Indian colony, to become subsequently a Territory and then a State within the United States, would be guided by a benign US government and missionaries with whiskey dealers and dishonest merchants banned.

Isaac McCoy failed to foresee that the frontier of white settlement was expanding so rapidly that his Indian Canaan would be overrun by settlers before Indians could enjoy "unmolested, the fruits of their labours".

Isaac McCoy invited representatives of the Potawatomi and Odawa to join the expedition.

In June 1829, Isaac McCoy moved his family to Fayette, Missouri.

Isaac McCoy had hoped to be one of the three commissioners appointed to oversee Indian Territory, but he was passed over and his dreams of becoming the government's chief representative to the Indian tribes were dashed.

Aware of the fraud, abuse, and neglect involved in the removal of Indians westward, Isaac McCoy rationalized that it was for the greater good of having Indian lands secured for them in perpetuity.

The younger Isaac McCoy established a trading post at Westport, Missouri.

Isaac McCoy was among the first organizers of Kansas City.

Isaac McCoy traveled to Washington, seeking funds from Congress to support a vaccination program for Indians.

In 1833, an armed Isaac McCoy was involved with a company of "ruffians", a mob in Independence, Missouri who attacked Mormon families at gunpoint and expelled them from their homes onto the prairie, where they nearly starved.

The Rev Isaac McCoy headed one of about 60 or 70, the other's was about 30 or 40.

Isaac McCoy hoped to be appointed as the government overseer of Indians.

Isaac McCoy lobbied in Washington and on the frontier seeking, unsuccessfully, for US government recognition of the Indian lands as an official US Territory.

Isaac McCoy provided for her children to be freed when each reached age 24.

In 1840, Isaac McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Midwestern Native American tribes, The History of Baptist Indian Missions.

Isaac McCoy wrote additional works on Indians and the missions.

Isaac McCoy died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery.

Isaac McCoy was much more of a social reformer than a missionary, hardly being concerned in his later years with converting Indians to Christianity.

Isaac McCoy's biographer said that the vision of this rude, untutored preacher and pioneer was "somewhat breathtaking".