1829 - Letter from Josiah C. Goodridge in New Hampshire to his sister at the Carrey Pottawattamie Indian Reservation at Niles, Michigan

Carrey Pottawattamie Indian Reservation, Niles, Michigan, 1829. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This stampless folded letter measures 15.5" x 12" unfolded. It was datelined "Newboston [New Hampshire] March 11th 1829 and send by Josiah C. Goodridge (sometimes Goodrich) to his sister, "Mrs Fanny Simerwell / Cary on the St Josep's / Michigan" via as annotated on the cover "From [the] fort Wayne [Indiana] the post office."

The letter to Fanny reads in part:

"I was very glad to hear of your safe arrival at Carey and of the improvement in your health. . .. Jesus Christ . . . is abundantly able and willing to supply all our wants whether temporal or spiritual and to grant unto us an inheritance among those that are sanctified and to all those who believe in his name . . . all men to black as well as white. . .. I hope dear sister that you and your partner will so trust in the Lord that he will guide direct comfort and support you in your arduous undertaking in endeavoring to civilize and Christianize the Indians. "

. Fanny was the wife of Roger Simerwell, a Baptist missionary who served as the government blacksmith at the newly founded Pottawatomie Indian Reservation on the St. Joseph's River near Niles Michigan. He became fluent in Pottawatomie and translated a book of catechism and hymns. Trusted friends, the Simerwells voluntarily accompanied the Pottawatomie when the tribe was forced to move west and helped establish a reservation with a school near Topeka, Kansas, in 1835. Roger continued his evangelical work there until 1854 when poor health forced his retirement.

The Carey Mission was established by Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy in the 1820s and named for William Carey a noted Baptist missionary. Its location in western Michigan made it a major immigration center, not just for the local region but for pioneers heading further west. Mail to the Carey Reservation from the East was dispatched primarily via the Erie and Wabash Canals to Fort Wayne, Indiana which served as a routing post for mail heading further west to Chicago. Regular mail deliveries to western Michigan did not begin until the 1830s with the establishment of the Fort Wayne, Indiana to Niles, Michigan mail route.

The manuscript postmark on this letter is especially scarce, and it is dated much earlier that the only other example recorded in the American Stampless Cover Catalog

(For more information, see Griswold's The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Keim's "Elkhart County's connection to the outside world began with the Fort Wayne-Niles mail route" at the Elkhart County, Indiana . . . View from the Past Facebook website, and "Robert Simerwell - Pottawatomie Missionary" at the Legends of Kansas website.)

An exceptionally scarce record of an early Michigan Indian reservation and the establishment of mail service to the western part of the state. At the time of listing, nothing similar is for sale in the trade. Nothing similar has appeared at auction per the Rare Book Hub. A google search suggest that a similar letter may be held by the University of Michigan.

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