Missionary Work Among the Ojebway IndiansWilson, Edward Francis
History
Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians
Wilson, Edward Francis
Indians of North America -- Missions; Ojibwa Indians
A year after this, Oshkahpukeda, and a number of the other Indians of
Lake Neepigon were baptized; the site for a Mission was selected, and a
roughly built log school-house with bark roof was constructed, also
another log-house for a teacher. Joseph Esquimau, a pupil of the
Shingwauk Home was placed in charge of the Mission temporarily, and
conducted services, and taught school very successfully. In the summer
of 1881, the Rev. R. Renison, was appointed by the Bishop to take
charge of the Mission, and moved there with his family. Several of the
Indians had by that time built log-houses for themselves, and the
village is called Ningwinnenang, after the boy who died.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE WAWANOSH HOME.
The spot selected for the Wawanosh Home was rather more than a mile
above the village of Sault Ste. Marie. I bought five acres of bush land
at three pounds an acre as a site for the Institution, and a ten-acre
cultivated lot, just opposite, for L60.
Immediately after making the purchase, we took all our boys up there
for a "clearing bee;" they hoisted the Union Jack on the site of the
new Home, and within a few days had cleared a considerable piece of
land and commenced digging the foundations. It was to be a stone
building of two storeys high with a frontage of about forty-five feet,
and a wing running back, and to cost about L700. During the summer our
boys got out all the stone necessary for building, most of it was
collected on the Shingwauk land, and they were paid 20 cents a cord for
piling it.
We were anxious as soon as possible to get the new Home into
operation. After the summer of 1876 no girls returned to the Shingwauk,
and we doubled our number of boys. It seemed hard to shut the girls out
from the privileges of Christian care and education, and we were
naturally desirous of receiving back as soon as possible those whom we
had already commenced teaching. For this reason we thought it well at
once to make a beginning by erecting the back wing of the Institution
first. During the winter stone and sand were hauled, and on the 5th of
May, 1877, building operations commenced. We took the contract
ourselves. I had a good practical man as carpenter at the Shingwauk,
and we got our plans and specifications; then an estimate was made, and
after being approved by a third party--a person experienced in such
matters--the work began. Mrs. Fauquier, our Bishop's wife, and two or
three other ladies kindly joined with me as a committee to manage the
Institution, a lady was engaged as lady Superintendent, a man and wife
as gardener and matron, and about the first week in September the girls
began to arrive.
We only took ten girls that winter, as we were of course cramped for
room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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