[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

On what peninsula was the first church in Creek Nation?

Anytime we are talking about the first, we are about to time travel. Travel in 1834 was pretty much the same as the first British colonists in 1600s. Technology changed little.

The Spanish introduced horses in 1519. That was a huge boon to the Native Americans, but they did not adopt the wagon or buggy. This advanced technology was still the exception, since the machinery required a wider trail and smoother path to prevent damage. The individual horse dominated transportation.

When Isaac McCoy (1784-1846) came to survey the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Osage territory and that of 20 tribes, he was on horseback. Depending on the trail, a single rider horse could typically cover about 25 miles in a day. Travel required a lot of camping under the stars, if no houses offered shelter.

Like other leaders of the day, McCoy was broadly accomplished as a preacher, surveyor, wheelwright, diplomat statesman, author, government commissioner, then corresponding secretary and general agent of American Indian Mission Association. Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Kentucky, he was well acquainted with the Native American conflict. Like many Native American advocates, Reverend McCoy joined them as an backer for a separate state where settlers could not encroach. Sixty years after McCoy left his remains, the State of Sequoyah was the last chance. An astute observer, having experienced a lifetime on the frontier, he thought “American Indians as being doomed to degradation by close association with whites.”

McCoy was a very busy fellow. He moved to North Bend, Northwest Territory in 1789; Jefferson Co., Kentucky in 1789; Shelby Co., Kentucky in 1801; married 1803; Vincennes, Knox Co., Indiana Territory in 1804; Clark Co., Indiana Territory in 1807; area north of Vincennes in 1808; Wayne Township, Randolph Co., Indiana in 1820; Niles, Michigan Territory in 1821, where he established Carey Mission for Ottawa and Miami Indian tribes; founded Thomas Station Indian Mission, near Grand Rapids, Kent Co., Michigan in 1823; commissioner to transfer Ottawa and Miami Indians to the West, 1828. Lexington, Lafayette Co., Missouri, in 1829; Howard Co., Missouri in 1830; Jackson Co., Missouri in 1840; Louisville, Jefferson Co., Kentucky, 1842

Wait a minute. I thought he was a surveyor in Indian Territory, but he did not live here? Correct. His wife and family lived in Missouri and he made his surveying jaunts into Indian Territory and Kansas, a three hundred-mile trip by horseback. His family life in Missouri was also significant. On one return trip home, Isaac led a peace keeping group to preclude rioting against Mormons. He travelled regularly to Washington, DC, on behalf of the Native Americans.

He receives credit for first calling this area ‘Indian Territory’ and ‘Aboriginia Territory’ in 1834.

His wife and Isaac, obviously lived a difficult life. Five of their children succumbed while he was away from home. While it was still operating, McCoy made Union Mission his local homebase.

His son John, daughter Delilah and her husband, Rev. Johnston Lykins worked with McCoy among the Shawnee and Lenape. The McCoy children were early founders of Kansas City, with his son-in-law an early mayor.

Like those away from the frontier, McCoy realized he needed the physical rest of the Lord’s Day. There were no places of worship in the Territory of 1832. What does that highway marker proclaim about Oklahoma’s first local, indigenous Baptist church?

“The Fountain Baptist Church 1/4 mi. S. & 1 mi. E. believed to be the successor to Oklahoma’s first Baptist church organized by Rev. Isaac McCoy Sept. 9, 1832 in this vicinity at Ebenezer Station with six charter members: Quasch, Bob, and Ned, slaves of the Creeks; Rev. & Mrs. David Lewis, missionaries; and John Davis, a Creek who later was the first Baptist minister ordained in what is now Oklahoma. The church grew until the Civil War when it ceased activities until the Era of Reconstruction. Meeting houses in various locations were used including a frame structure built in 1901 at site of present building erected 1956 by Black, Indian, and White Baptists of Oklahoma symbolic of these races in the church’s origin.

The marker is on the Old Texas Road (now US 69) just north of the Arkansas River in Wagoner County. At the time of Ebenezer, you had to ford the Arkansas River to travel to what would be Muskogee in another 50 years.

Leave the highway travelling east along a narrow, not-quite county road. Take a sharp right toward the south and drive up a very steep railroad bed. You immediately see the 1950s era building. You are in a narrow peninsula between the Arkansas and Verdigris Rivers. The massive oaks in front have been there for decades. We measured the circumference of one at 16’7”.

What was the make-up of the assembly? Slaves? Check.

Creek Indians? Check.

Anglo-Americans? Check.

The group was incredibly diverse, obviously without ethnic animosity. They were voluntarily joining together. Maybe our society does not understand cross-cultural relationships as much as the provocateurs proclaim? Maybe they are intentionally distorting history?

Think about what the early frontier people did in the process of developing the country. Some, like the Reverend McCoy tried and never saw the success of their venture. Although his vision did not come about the way he desired, arguably, the people of the tribes are stronger and more politically powerful now, than at his time.

What have we done, that may have long-term significance?

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Excerpts from our book:

Where Indians, Outlaws & Oilmen Were Real, ISBN: 9781658834643. Photo: Fountain Baptist Church by Rosemary Durham