06/16/2026
On June 15, 1784, Isaac McCoy, foremost white advocate of Native American rights, was born in Fayette County, PA. While still young, McCoy was inspired to become a missionary to Native Americans.
McCoy, his son John, his daughter Delilah and her husband Johnston Lykins, worked together as missionaries to the Shawnee and Lenape (Delaware) peoples, following them to the border of Indian Territory in what is now Kansas City, Missouri. The younger McCoy established a trading post at Westport, Missouri.
In 1840, McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Native American tribes in the midwest, The History of Baptist Indian Missions. In 1842 he returned to Louisville, Kentucky, where he directed the Baptist American Indian Mission Association and wrote additional works on Indians and the missions. He died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery. ABHS has 10 folders of Isaac McCoy's correspondence with the American Baptist Home Mission Society in addition to his personal papers.
McCoy wrote, "I learned that the Baptist Triennial Convention had just met in Philadelphia and appointed John Mascon Peck to be an itinerant missionary to the West. I sent in an application. In October of 187, I received news of my appointment."
McCoy wanted to start a school for Indian children stating, "Your children will not lose their language or have their dress changed. Our children will exchange languages because we want to learn your language while you're learning ours."
Although McCoy's plan to open up the western plains to the Indians eventually failed due to the westward expansion of white settlers - he tried by talking with Presidents, surveying the west and plotting new plains reservations - allowing for 24 Eastern tribes to settle in the expanded Indian Territory.
