Occom, Samson, A Christian convert, called "the pious
Mohegan," born in 1723. Converted to Christianity under the influence of
Rev. E. Wheelock in 1741, he received in the family of that minister a
good education, learning to speak and to write English and obtain in some
knowledge of Latin and Greek; and even of Hebrew. Owing to ill health he
did not complete the collegiate instruction intended for him.
He was
successively a school teacher in New London, Conn. (1748); preacher to the
Indians of Long Island for some ten years; agent in England (1766-67) for
Mr. Wheelock's newly established school, where he preached with great
acceptance and success; minister of the Brotherton Indians, as those
Mahican were called who removed to the Oneida country in the state of New
York (1786). On his death at New Stockbridge, N. Y., in 1792, Occom was
greatly lamented. He is said to have been an interesting and eloquent
speaker, and while in England delivered some 300 sermons. A funeral sermon
on Moses Paul, a Mahican executed for murder in 1711, has been preserved
in printed form. Occom was the author of the hymn beginning "Awaked by
Sinai's Awful Sound," and of another, "Now the Shades of Night are Gone,"
which gave Bishop Huntington delight that the thought of an Indian was
made part of the worship of the Episcopal Church; but it was omitted from
the present hymnal. It was through his success in raising funds in England
that Mr. Wheelock's school was transferred from Lebanon, Conn., to New
Hampshire, where it was incorporated as Dartmouth College. As a man, Occom
exhibited the virtues and the failings of his race. He was a regularly
ordained minister, having been examined and licensed to preach by the
clergymen of Windham county, Conn., and inducted in 1759 by the Suffolk
presbytery, Long Island. His later years were marred by drunkenness and
other vices, but on the whole his life was one of great benefit to his
race, though Schoolcraft (Ind. Tribes, v, 518, 1855) praises him perhaps
too highly. See J. Edwards, Observations on the Language of
the Muhhekaneew Indians, 1789; W. De Loss Love, Samson Occom and the
Christian Indians of New England, 1899.
Cheeshateaumuch,
Caleb. The only New England Indian who completed
his studies at Harvard College, taking his degree in 1666. He died
of consumption.
