A Simmerwell [Simerwell] relative
Date: Between 1860s and 1880s
Cased sixteenth plate tintype of a Simerwell relative who lived in Kansas City. Possibly a cousin of Sarah Simerwell who was related to Robert W. Simerwell. Robert Simerwell was a Baptist missionary to Native Americans. For a time he was located in Shawnee County, Kansas.

Annie Simerwell to Sallie Simerwell
Creator: Simerwell, Ann
Date: June 18, 1854
In this letter to her sister Sallie, Annie Simerwell explains that she has received news from their parents regarding the passage of the "Nebraska Kansas bill."

Colonel A.C. Pepper to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Pepper, Abel C., 1793-1860
Date: April 11, 1833
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Indian Agent Colonel A.C. Pepper tells Simerwell that he is preparing to lead a band of Native Indians led by Quea-Quea-Tah, west in the early part of June 1833, and that the Native Indians "express a wish" that Simerwell accompany them on their journey. Pepper also states that Simerwell should talk with the Native Indians in his area to see if they are interested in moving west with the others and, if so, to meet at Logansport, Indiana on June 10, 1833.

Exhibit of cattle and other articles sold by the Cary Mission from April 1829 to September 1, 1830
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: September 1830
This item lists the livestock and items sold by the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, prior to the closure of the mission in early September of 1830 following the passage of the Indian Removal Act.

Expenditures and receipts of the Carey Mission 2nd quarter 1829 including June, July, and August 1829
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: September 1829
This item includes a detailed breakdown of the expenditures and receipts of the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, during a significant part of 1829. As such, this item details the tremendous amount of effort that went into running the Carey Mission, and the type of transactions and events that were required to support the education of Native Indians in the Michigan Territory shortly before the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830.

Expenditures and receipts of the Carey Mission first quarter which includes march april and may 1829
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: June 1, 1829
This item is a list of expenditures and receipts from the Carey Mission in the Michigan Territory from the first quarter of 1829, including the months of March, April, and May 1829. As such, this item contains a large amount of information regarding the activities and expenses related to the missionaries activities at the Carey Mission.

Francis Barrow to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Barrow, Francis
Date: May 27, 1828
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Francis Barrow writes about life in and around Castleton, Vermont. Barrow tells Simerwell that they like the "yankees" but that many of the people they visit "ask to many question." In concluding, Barrow asks Simerwell about the general situation at Carey, and requests that Simerwell "I want you should tell me about the Indian when you write to me."

Isaac McCoy to Robert Simerwell
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: February 19, 1831
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Isaac McCoy relates the news of his recent travels. McCoy, who had been away from the Carey Mission for some time, explained that he had been busy working to achieve the best for the Indians and the Baptist Board of Missions. However, McCoy candidly admits that his efforts have been "all up-hill work."

Isaac McCoy to Robert Simerwell
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: July 22, 1830
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Isaac McCoy explains what awaits Simerwell and the Indians at the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, as well as all Indians that will soon be impacted by the passage of the Indian Removal Act. McCoy states that the Baptist Board of Missions has offered to lead the effort to re-settle the Indians if the U.S. Government is willing to help them do so.

Issac McCoy to James Barbour
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: October 1, 1827
This letter from Isaac McCoy, superintendent of schools among the Potawatomies and the Ottawas, to James Barbour, Secretary of War under President John Qunicy Adams, lists the equipment, animals, dwellings, land, and other important assets at the Carney Mission. Located "Twenty five miles S.E. of Lake Michigan, in Michigan Territory, among the Potawatomie indians," Carey Mission was dedicated to educating the local Native Indians according to the standards of Americans during the early to mid 1800s.

Issac McCoy to Robert Simerwell
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: April 12, 1830
In this letter to Robert Simerwell at the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, Isaac McCoy addresses the "Indian removal question" that eventually resulted in the Indian Removal Act which was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 26, 1830. McCoy states that "I think the measure of removal will carry," and he suggests that Simerwell will have to wait a short time before needed improvements to the Carey Mission can be addressed. In fact, McCoy explains that Simerwell may soon have to relocate depending on what might follow the passage of the Indian Removal Act.

Issac McCoy to Robert Simerwell
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: 1827
In this letter to Robert Simerwell and the missionaries at the Carney Mission, Isaac McCoy details the difficulties of life among the Ottawas at the Thomas Mission near Grand River in the Michigan Territory (present-day Grand Rapids, Michigan). In particular, McCoy struggles with sickness, the challenges posed by trying to learn the Ottawa language, and the fact that his life is one in which the concerns of others must come first and foremost.

Issac McCoy to Robert Simerwell and Bay
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: March 29, 1829
In this letter, to Robert Simerwell and Mr. Bay, Issac McCoy relays the news that the Carey Mission will likely cease to function, and that the missionaries at Carey will leave for the Osage Mission "one year from next September." In addition, McCoy addresses the problems that many missionaries soemtimes faced, stating that he is "tired-tired-tired of my wanderings--I am lonesome and homesick."

Issac McCoy to Robert Simerwell and J. Bay
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: May 16, 1829
In this letter to Robert Simerwell and J. Bay at the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, Issac McCoy relays information to them concerning the Baptist Board of Missions' decision to send himself and Johnston Lykins further West. In addition, McCoy explains that the Board has decided to appoint a committee in Lexington, Kentucky and in New York for the purpose of "keeping alive the subject of Indian missions, and of promoting the interests of these missions in general."

Johnston Lykins to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: December 21, 1830
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Johnston Lykins relates some of his activities in the late fall and early winter of 1830, most of which concerned the efforts to ready the local Native Indians for the move west of the Mississippi. Lykins states that, while at Logan Fort, he met a Wea from the Kanza River who had "collected 100 Weas & Miamis who will go on in the spring to Missouri." Lykins then explains that he plans to see the Wea soon so that the two of them can make arrangements for the 100 Native Indians that were ready to leave the Michigan Territory for the "West."

Joseph N. Bourassa to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Bourassa, Joseph Napolean, 1810-1878
Date: March 30, 1833
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Joseph Napoleon Bourassa, man of French and Potawatomi descent, argues that good men are needed to help Indians because "the nation for which you have labored for many years is destitute of men qualified for business and more especially at the department of Chiefs."

Joseph R. John to Robert Simerwell
Creator: John, Joseph R.
Date: April 8, 1831
This item, sent from Joseph R. John to Robert Simerwell, contains a list of expenditures for Isaac McCoy from Septmber 1828 to August 1830.

Jotham Meeker to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Meeker, Jotham, 1804-1855
Date: April 9, 1829
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, Jotham Meeker discusses some of the problems at the Thomas Mission that were due to the scarcity of food. In fact, Meeker explains that the lack of corn forced the missionaries at the Thomas Mission to dismiss their students for a time because they could not properly feed them. Included in this letter is a list of expenses incurred at the Thomas Mission during portions of 1828.

L. Bolles to Robert Simerwell
Creator: Bolles, L.
Date: June 24, 1829
In this letter to Robert Simerwell, L. Boles informs Simerwell that a large portion of the funding for the Carey Mission, Michigan Territory, will be cut because the Baptist Mission Board had decided that it "could not afford to keep up a large establishment as heretofore." However, Bolles does state that there is money available to Simerwell if needed.

Lucas Bolles to Johnston Lykins and Robert Simerwell
Creator: Bowles, Reverend Lucas
Date: October 1, 1830
In this letter to Johnston Lykins and Robert Simerwell, Reverend Lucas Bolles reports that the Baptist Board of Missions has received the reports sent by both Lykins and Simerwell and, as a result, the Board is completing the closing of the Books & winding up of affairs at Carey Mission, Michigan Territory. Bolles letter indicates that the educational department of the Carey Mission was closed on August 26, 1830, with 15 scholars in attendance at the time it ceased operations. Bolles reports that the U.S. Government has promised that a new school will be opened in the "new Country" west of the Mississippi and that the Native Americans were being moved there following the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Rebecca Simerwell to Annie and Elizabeth Simerwell
Creator: Simerwell, Rebecca
Date: August 31, 1856
In this letter to her cousins Annie and Elizabeth Simerwell at the Potawatomi Board Manual Labor School in the Kansas Territory, Rebecca Simerwell states that she is pleased to hear that her cousins are safe "in these troubled times and your particularly dangerous situation." Rebecca is concerned for her cousins and their parents because "the accounts we hear from Kansas are prefectly horrifying too bad, almost to believe."

Robert Simerwell to Annie Simerwell
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: November 21, 1853
In this letter to his daughter Annie Simerwell, Robert Simerwell discusses the happenings at the Potawatomi Baptist Manual Labor School near present day Topeka, Kansas a year before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Simerwell explains that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is expected back in April of 1854 to discuss treaties with the Native Indian tribes in the area, and he believes that "most of them will sell, and the whites will enter their country." The second page is a letter from Annie's mother about some of the daily chores.

Robert Simerwell to Brother Goodridge
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: October 26, 1830
Written in the months after the passage of the Indian Removal Act, Robert Simerwell's letter to Brother Goodridge relates his feelings regarding the treatment of the Native Indians by "individuals of the Government" of the United States. Simerwell, obviously angered by the treatment of Native Indians, states that "the impositions practised by individuals on the Indians are incredible, only by custom are they made to bear it, it would appear strange to you to see a white man enter a store and purchase cloth at 25 cents a yard, and an Indian immediately enter who could not get it short of 37 cents."

Robert Simerwell to Colonel Abel C. Pepper
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: April 18, 1833
In this letter to Colonel Abel C. Pepper, Robert Simerwell tells Pepper that the leaders of the Potawatomis would like to visit before deciding where to relocate because they have heard that "in a short time they will see the whites soldiers marching through their country westward." While Simerwell states that he has assured the Chiefs that such fears are largely unfounded, he explains to Pepper that many of the Chiefs are still reluctant to leave.

Robert Simerwell to H. Lincoln
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: November 22, 1828
In this letter, Robert Simerwell details events at the Carey Mission in the fall of 1828, including the departure of the Lykins family and the McCoy family for St. Louis where they spent the winter before returning to the West. In addition, Simerwell indicates that the local Indians have gone to their winter hunting grounds and have complained that their situation has been growing increasingly desperate, believing that they had upset the "Great Spirit" with their behavior.