About this time a good deal of interest was being taken in the education of Indian youth.  For the furtherance of this design, the Rev. Eleazur Wheelock established a school at New Lebanon, Conn., for the education of young whites and young Indians.  This school afterwards ripened into Dartmouth college, and was removed to Hanover, New Hampshire.  From this new-fledged seminary, the Rev. Mr. Kirkland was sent among the Oneidas, and his labors in that quarter eventually resulted in the founding of Hamilton college, at Clinton.  From a similar school established at Stockbridge, Mass., and which appears to have been favored by the influence and good will of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, Mr. Hawley was sent to Oquaga on the Susquehanna.

Oquaga was the Indian settlement near the site of the present village of Windsor in Broome county.  Mr. Hawley’s journey was from Albany up the Mohawk, across the mountains to Schoharie, thence along the valley to Schenevus creek and westward.  As his letter, in the form of a journal, contains the earliest account that is known of the presence of white people within the present territorial limits of Oneonta, I hope the quotations I make from it may prove of some interest.  The letter is dated July 31st, 1794.  The first entry is as follows: 

     JULY 31st, 1794.

“It is forty years this date since I was ordained a missionary to the Indians, in the old South Meeting House, when the Rev. Dr. Sewall preached on the occasion and the Rev. Mr. Prince gave the charge.  The Rev. Mr. Foxcroft and Dr. Chauncey of Cambridge, assisted upon the occasion, and Mr. Appleton.  I entered upon this arduous business at Stockbridge, under the patronage of the Rev. Mr. Edwards.  Was instructor of a few families of Iroquois, who came down from their country for the sake of christian knowledge and the schooling of their children.  These families consisted of Mohawks, Oneidas and Tuscaroras.  I was their school-master and preached to them on the Lord’s day.  Mr. Edwards visited my school, catechised my scholars, and frequently delivered a discourse to the children.”

This quotation may serve to show what kind of man this early missionary was, and the deep interest then felt in the education and civilization of the aborigines.  The formality with which the clerical harness was put on in the historic Old South Church, is strikingly in contrast with the way the missionary to the Indians is equipped now-a-days.

In the following quotations the dates are of the year 1753.  May 22d of that year, a party consisting of Mr. Hawley, Mr. Woodbridge, a Mr. Ashley and Mrs. Ashley, set out from Stockbridge for Oquaga.

May 30th, 1753, a little more than a week after leaving Stockbridge, the party had its first view of the Susquehanna at Colliers.  As the journal gives some description of our valley as it was then—­one hundred and thirty years ago—­I quote freely: