A portrait of missionary Reverend Isaac McCoy at age 47. Copied from a painting. Born the son of a Baptist preacher in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1784, McCoy spent his youth in Louisville, Kentucky. He married at age nineteen and moved to the Indiana Territory to preach in communities of settlers, French traders, and Indians. While there, McCoy witnessed what he considered the degradation and suffering of tribes at the hands of whites. He was one of the first to suggest the removal of Eastern tribes to the West. McCoy achieved mild success operating missions in Michigan and Indiana Territory, and training future Kansas missionaries, such as Jotham Meeker, Johnston Lykins, and Robert Simmerwell. He spent progressively more time in Washington D.C., lobbing for the establishment of reservations in the future states of Kansas and Oklahoma. McCoy found sympathy for his proposals, and in 1830 personally surveyed future Indian lands in what would become Kansas. The following year McCoy moved his family to Westport, Missouri, near present-day Kansas City.

Date: 1831