Issac MCCOY, REV.

                   Isaac McCoy was born near Uniontown, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1784. Whenhe was six years old his family moved to Kentucky, where the grew tomanhood.  There he married Christianna Polk, a relative of PresidentPolk, in 1803. Christianna, nicknamed Kittie, was in 1782 along with hermother and several siblings, kidnapped by Indians from her home atKinchelo Station in Nelson County, Kentucky. She was held captive for 13months in Indian villages near Detroit, Michigan.

In 1804 the newlyweds moved with Isaac's family to Clark County,Indiana.  Fourteen children were born to this union but four died ininfantcy or early childhood and only three remained alive atthe time ofIsaac's death in 1846.

On July 11, 1807, the Silver Creek Baptist Church granted Isaac McCoylicense to "exercise his gifts in the bounds of the church." HE was only23 years old and his "gifts" were still uncertain.  Apparently his giftswere considerable as on August 13, 1808, the Church at Silver Creekgranted him "license to preach the gospel wherever God in his providencemight cast his lot."

In 1809, Isaac and Kittie relocated to Knox County near Vincennes wherein 1810 Isaac became pastor of Maria Creek Church and remained there for8 years while spending much of his time making missionary trips in thesurrounding countryside.

In 1817, Isaac McCoy was sent by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions inAmerica to the Miami Indians, who were living on the Wabash River, 16miles above Terre Haute, Indiana. This was his first missonary experiencebut he was to spend the remainder of his lif in this and related fields.

McCoy established Carey Mission among the Pottawatomies on the St. JosephRiver near present Niles, Michigan in December 1822. In 1826 he foundedThomas Mission among the Ottawas near present Grand Rapids, Michigan.

His daughter Delilah married Dr. Johnston Lykins, who was a missionary, adoctor, and Kansas City's first mayor. Dr. Lykins was born August 15,1800. He went west with his bride, Delilah McCoy, his father-in-law IsaacMcCoy, and Bro. McCoy's surveyor son, John Calvin McCoy. Together theyshepherded their Shawnee Indian parishoners on the long trek fromMichigan to Kansas. Dr. Lykins doctored their bodies as well as theirsouls.

Bro. McCoy and his family accompanited the Indians removed from Indianaby the Federal government circa 1830 to their new home west of theMississippi.

In 1836, Bro. McCoy, Dr. Lykins, Jotham Meeker, and their associatesobtained a printing press and began peinting books in Delaware, Shawnee,Potawatomi, and other native languages. Dr. Lykins edited the SinwioweKesibwi (Shawnee Sun), a small newspaper published entirely in Shawnee.His translation of the Gospel of Saint Matthew and the Acts of theApostles into Potawatomie was published in 1844 by William C. Buck'spublishing firm in Louisville, Kentucky. One of the rare surviving copiesis held by the Library of the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis.

For many years McCoy was almost constantly employed by the government inthe Indian Country, selecting and surveying locations for the immigrantIndians and establishing and maintaining missions and schools.  In 1842he moved to Louisville, Kentucky to direct the American Indian MissionAssociation, a society which he himself had organized.

He was the author of History of the Baptish Indian Mission and continuedin this work until his death in Louisville in 1846.

On the moss-covered slab of his headstone is the following:

            Rev. Isaac McCoy
            Born June 23, 1784
            Died June 21, 1846

            "For near thirty years his entire time and energies weredevoted to the civil and           religious improvement of theaboriginal tribes of this country.  He projected and        founded theplan of their colonization, their only hope, and the imperishablemonument of his wisdom and benevolence."

The papers of Isaac McCoy were presented to the Kansas State HistoricalSociety onJuly 9, 1879 by John Calvin McCoy, a son who accompanied themissionary on his early explorations and assisted in the survery of theproposed Indian lands.  John Calvin McCoy was born in Indiana onSeptember 28, 1811. HE founded the city of Westport, Kansas, where hesettled in 1830, and 8nyears later, founded the original "Town Company ofKansas", which became Kansas City.

The collection, numbering more than 2,500 items, was bound in 38 volumesshortly after it was deposited with the Society.