The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1917-11 - 1917-12

              THE WORD CARRIER
•
OF
Santee Normal Training school.
VOLUME  XLVI
HELPING THE  RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 6
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1917
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR
D. D.
REV. JOHN P. WILLIAMSON
By Rev. D. Edward Evans.
At the request of the Board of Home Missions
I am sending to the Herald and Presbyter these
brief words of tribute to the character, and
appreciation of the life and services, of Rev.
John Poage Williamson, D. D., who closed his
earthly labors at his home in Greenwood, South
Dakota, on October 3rd. It was my privilege
to be associated with him for seventeen years
as a missionary of our Board among the Sioux
Indians, and bear testimony to the universal
esteem and love in which he was held by all
who knew him, and especially by the Indians,
for whom he consecrated and poured out his
long and useful life.
Dr. Williamson was born at Lac qui Parle,
an Indian trading village on the upper Minnesota River, October 27, 1835. His parents,
Rev. Thomas Smith Williamson, M. D., and
Margaret Poage Williamson, had a few months
previous to.that event arrived there from Riley, Ohio, as missionaries of the American
Board of Foreign Missions. John was the first
white child born in all this region, at least out
side of the military fort-, and he has pften told
me of how his mind as a child was continually
oppressed by the darkness of heathenism which
surrounded him on every side, and how his
heart abhorred and rebelled against it. One
of the Indian boys who were his playmates was
John B. Renville, son of the French Indian
trader, Joseph Renville; and as they were of
about the same age, a strong attachment grew
up between the two; and thus from a mere
child the young missionary begun to influence
the life of his first boy friend, who was destined in later years to be a most efficient associate in bringing the light of the Gospel among
his 'own people. I think it was in 1860 that
John P. Williami-on returned from Lane Seminary to take up his great life work, one which
extended continuously for fifty-seven years in
unremitting toil and self-sacrifice, and which
has resulted in many thousands of regenerated
lives among the once heathen savages. Soon
after commencing his ministerial labors he and
the other missionaries were confronted by the
terrors of the massacre of 1862, instigated by
a band of hostile Indians, and many precious
lives were lost. But through the merciful interposition of divine Providence, and by the
friendly efforts of Christian Indians, the lives
of the missionaries were spared, and the two
Williamsons, father and son, began at once to
work among the prisoners, which resulted in
a marvelous revival in the various prisons, and
in the conversion and baptism of hundreds of
the Indians during the winter of 1862-3. Thus
Satan's daring plan to break up and destroy the
mission work was foiled, and a rich harvest of
souls from the many years of Gospel seed-sowing began, which has brought many'thousands of
Sioux Indians into the various churches. Among
all these John P. Williamson had always exerted
a commanding influence; and by all the Christian Indians, whether they belonged to the Presbyterian, Congregational or Episcopal churches,
and even by the Catholic Indians, and also by all
the heathen Indians who knew him, he had always been regarded with the utmost veneration
and tenderest love. Most of the early converts of
the mission have preceded their beloved leader
into the presence of the King; but there remain
as active members in the thirty-five churches
connected with the Dakota (Indian) Presbytery,
1863 who have been brought out of darkness
of heathenism into the glorious light of the
Gospel. To these thirty-five mission stations
the Gospel is preached by eighteen native ordained ministers, and several elders commissioned as missionaries. For the support of
this great work our Board of Home Missions has
given most generous aid; and it is also true
that much  of the ever-increasing interest felt
by all our churches in this Indian mission work
is due to the way in which tb> Indians themselves have increased their gifts to their own
nativeihiss'on enterprises, E:ich native church
has its Women's Society, and at the great annual
conference each September one whole afternoon
and laborious jonrneyings in the evangelization
of the Indians, which remind us so powerfully
of those of the Apostle Paul; and the constant
development of the work ui.der his care from
its small beginnings to the present ever-enlarging bounds that have extended into Canada.
But when that account is prepared, one out-,
standing feature of Dr. Williamson's character
that must be mentioned will be his home-love,
and no adequate estimate of the. influence exerted through the life of Dr. Williamson will
be complete without mentioning the quiet, earnest woman who kept that radiant h mo in Greenwood, to which the tired missionary hastened
when each errand for his Master was accomplished. May all who knew the beloved mis-
i sionary pray together that God may sustain by
his grace Mrs. Williamson and her sons and
daughters in their loneliness and sorrow.—The
Herald and Presbyter.
Rev. John P. Williamson, D. D.
meeting, extending over three or four hours,
is given to the reports of the year, aud these
I meetings are attended by hundreds of devoted
I women. And it has always been a character-
I istic sight at each spring and fall meeting of the
I presbytery to see the Indian delegates, men and
I women, from the different fields emptying their
mission pouches of their precious contents to
be counted by their beloved "John," who gave
them each a receipt for the same, the whole
totaling each year more than $3,000, and all to
be spent by him in sending native missionaries
to their less-favored Indian brethren in the
far-away fields in Montana and South Dakota.
Many of his former co-laborers of the earlier
years have passed on to their reward. We shall
never forget the eloquent -words of inspired
oratory with which he gave the memorial address at the conference immediately following
the death of hev. John B. Renville, which reminded us of the lament of David over Jonathan. And again it was he who electrified the
audience of more than one thousand as he paid
his respects to the memory of his friend and
associate, Rev. A. L. Riggs, D. D., of Santee.
Of the sons of the earlier missionaries, only one
is left, Rev. Thomas L. Riggs, Ph.D., of Oahe,
who, together with Dr. A. L. Riggs, were the
sons of Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, D.D., who was
associated with Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D.,.
and the Pond brothers in translating the Holy
Scriptures into the Dakota language. The two
sons of Dr. A. L. Riggs and Dr. J. P. Williamson, namely, Professor Fred B. Riggs and Rev.
Jesse P. Williamson, are now associated in the
Santee Normal Training Missionary Institute
at Santee, Nebraska.
It is to be expected that a suitable memorial
volume will soon be prepared that will give us
an extended view of the life and labors of this
devoted hero of the cross; of his love lor loyalty to the Word of God; his emphasis on the
fundamental doctrines of salvation through the
atonement of Jesus Christ; his untiring efforts
Rev. John P. Williamson, D. D.
By Rev. John Tallmadge Bergen, D: D.
Dr. John P. Williamson always claimed to
be the first child born in Minnesota under the
"auspices" of our Church. Reared among the
Sioux, speaking their language as a mother
tongue, he was sent to Knox College, where he
graduated in 1855 with ah'A.B.; with a postgraduate course in Marietta he won his A.M. in
1857; then for his diploma in theology at Lane
Seminary, where he graduated in 1860; thus
finally prepared for a life work he went back
in the face of the massacre and war of 1862, to
spend his days iu the salvation and uplift of
the wild Sioux or Dakota Indians.
To this end he gave all his time aud tireless
j energy. Succeeding his father, and in co-
j operation with the sons of Dr. Stephen R.
j Riggs, who had gone into'the work side by
! side with the Williamsons, he perfected the
I literary culture of the Dakota language until
i it is counted amony the established printed Ian- '
guages of the world. The English-Dakota Dictionary by Dr. J. P. Williamson is the standard. He founded the paper, Iapi Oaye, together
with Dr. A. L. Riggs edited the "Dakota Odowan" (Dakota Hymn Book) and many other
publications in the Sioux language. With his
wide knowledge of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew classics and his accurate knowledge of
the English, he was abundantly adapted to
reduce the wild Sioux language to a scientific
form and still retain its beautiful poetic spirit.
He declared to me that he thought in Dakota
and translated his thoughts into English, aud
that the Dakota language was much finer in
some of its expressiveness than our more materialistic English.
Dr. John P. Williamson had seen a great tribe
or family of tribes, for that the Dakotas are,
changed from a wild savage people to a settled,
Christianized community extending from the
Minnesota River to the Rocky Mountains and
from across the Canadian line almost to the
Platte. In this vast domain the Dakotas have
their communities and churches, thirty-six of
which are Presbyterian, with twenty-one ordained Dakota ministers. Here these American
Christian Indians are thriving, increasing, retaining their full blood to a remarkable degree,
struggling for education and material advance;
and a large number of their young men are now
going into our army.
He who speaks against the Sioux Indians today speaks out of a remote past or a dense ignorance. In this Northwest the Dakotas will remain
to become an integral factor in the Christian
civilization of its future.
To this end the life work of Dr. John P. Williamson was given, and he lived to witness a
savage race converted into a kingdom of God.
His son, Prof. Jesse P. Williamson, continues
his father's noble work at Santee Normal Training School, Nebraska.—Herald and Presbyter.