Manuscripts Collection
Moses N. Adams was born on February 14, 1822 in Rockville, Adams County, Ohio, the son of Robert and Elizabeth Baird Adams. Following a common school education, he attended Ripley (Ohio) College (ca. 1839-1845) and the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio (1845-1848). He received his ministerial license on May 5, 1847 and was ordained by the Cincinnati Presbytery on June 14, 1848. He was then appointed as an American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) missionary to the Dakota Indians on or near the upper Mississippi River. Immediately following his July 9, 1848 marriage to Annie Gaul Rankin, daughter of James and Sarah Gaul Rankin and also an ABCFM missionary, the couple traveled up the Mississippi River to the Kaposia, Minnesota Territory mission station. They remained at the Kaposia and Shakopee stations learning the Dakota language until the fall, when they joined Reverend Stephen R. Riggs at the Lac Qui Parle mission station on the upper Minnesota River.
At Lac Qui Parle Adams taught a day school, developed a systematic study of the Dakota language, and produced a Dakota/English lexicon. He and his wife also began the first successful boarding school for Dakota children, boarding six children in their home.
In 1853 Adams left the Indian missions to enter Presbyterian Church home mission work. He moved to Nicollet County, Minnesota Territory, and ministered to settlers in the Traverse des Sioux and St. Peter area. In November 1853 he organized the first Presbyterian church at Traverse des Sioux. Between 1860 and 1871 Adams was engaged in Sunday school work and served as the American Bible Society agent for the state of Minnesota.
In December 1871 he accepted appointment as the United States Indian agent to the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota living on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, Dakota Territory. During his tenure as agent he oversaw the construction of two district school houses (1872) and a Manual Labor Boarding School (1873). He resigned as agent in April 1875. He then went to St. Paul where he remained until February 1876, when he received a commission as chaplain in the United States Army. In that capacity he served three years at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, three years at Fort Lyon, Colorado, and four years at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. He retired from the chaplaincy in 1886.
He again returned to St. Paul but soon accepted the Goodwill Mission post vacated by the death of Stephen R. Riggs. At Goodwill he was both missionary and general superintendent of native pastors and churches on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation and superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions' missionaries. Adams also acted as resident chaplain at the reservation's Goodwill Mission and United States government schools.
He retired in the autumn of 1892 due to poor health and returned to St. Paul. He died at the Buffalo Surgical Institute, Buffalo, New York on July 23, 1902 and was buried in St. Paul on July 28.
Biographical data was taken from the collection.
For more information about Adams, see:
Included are correspondence, particularly with the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs; financial documents; Dakota council minutes; biographical material; newspaper clippings; official agency statistics, returns, and directives; a Dakota/English lexicon; and agency account books.
The collection mainly documents Adams' tenure as United States Indian agent to the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota located on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, Dakota Territory. There are also papers detailing his years as Presbyterian missionary at Lac Qui Parle and in home mission work in Nicollet County, both in Minnesota Territory; as American Bible Society agent for Minnesota, United States Army chaplain at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, and missionary on the Lake Traverse Reservation; and following his retirement in St. Paul. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence and related papers, financial documents and accounts, Dakota council minutes, biographical materials, newspaper clippings, and official agency statistics and returns. Adams' Dakota/English lexicon (volume 1) and Manual Labor Boarding School accounts (volumes 8-9) are also present.
NOTE: All materials described on the following pages refer to Moses N. Adams unless specifically attributed to another person.
Accession number: 1895B1
Processed by: Cheryl Norenberg Thies, December 1984
Catalog ID number: 09-00022946
Contains handwritten (1899) and typed (1900) versions of Adams' autobiographical sketch and a memorial sketch written by Edward P. Lewis (1902).
The bulk of the correspondence covers Adams' tenure (1871-1875) as U. S. Indian agent on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation. It mainly details (a) daily agency business, particularly the ordering, transport, and issuance of provisions and supplies to the reservation's population, and (b) Adams' contact and interaction with the reservation's two opposing Indian factions, the "Scout party" led by Chief Gabriel Renville and made up of the more traditional Dakota and the "church faction" led by the native clergy of the reservation's six Presbyterian churches. It also covers Adams' dealings with the U.S. Army troops at nearby Fort Wadsworth, the Department of the Interior's Indian Affairs Office in Washington, D.C., and the ABCFM. There are two major series of correspondence. One is with the Indian Affairs Office (IAO), particularly commissioners F. A. Walker (1871-1873) and Edward P. Smith (1873-1875) and acting commissioner H. R. Clum (1871-1875), and mainly concerns the IAO's authority over the agency. The other is with the agency's many suppliers and includes bids, vouchers, contracts, billings, and receipts. Also scattered throughout the correspondence are quarterly statements of items used at the agency and employee pay vouchers, quarterly and annual estimates of supplies and funds for the reservation, minutes of Dakota councils, agent expense statements, and itemized lists of supplies and provisions received by the reservation's Indians and signed for by the chiefs and headmen.
There are also a small number of letters and financial records documenting Adams' home mission work in Nicollet County, Minnesota Territory (1853-1860) and his years as American Bible Society agent in Minnesota (1860-1869) and U.S. Army chaplain at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (1876-1879).
NOTE: Many of Adams' letters appear in several drafts spread over a several-day period.
Includes Adams' personal financial accounts (1853-1863), letters from Adams' brother James and sister Julia Adams Jones discussing family matters (Oct.-Nov. 1854), and a letter from Adams in Glencoe, Minnesota detailing his work as American Bible Society agent (Oct. 1861).
Contains 1870s undated materials and 1871 papers. Includes Adams' letter of appointment as Indian agent and an outline of his duties (Nov. 7), his itemized travel expenses from Lake Crystal, Minnesota to the agency (Dec. 8) and report of conditions upon his arrival (Dec. 9), an invoice of property transferred from the former agent, Jared W. Daniels (Dec. 14), a series of telegrams with IAO commissioner Walker concerning emergency supplies for the Indians (Dec. 28-30), and a list of all agency employees (Dec. 31).
The 1872 materials continue the correspondence between Adams and both the IAO and the agency's many suppliers. The letters with the IAO cover such issues as the agency's need for a physician (Jan. 3, 10); the Indians' wish to organize a small police force (March 11); a petition by the reservation's "Scout party" asking for Adams' removal and outlining their complaints against him (March 16), Adams' answer to their charges (March 20), and the IAO's support of Adams (April 3); and both Adams' and the Indians' request to use 100,000 bricks made at the agency during 1871 to construct a Manual Labor Boarding School (MLBS) and two additional government operated schools and to know the location of any moneys made on the sale of the Dakotas' former lands at Yellow Medicine and Lac Qui Parle, Minnesota (March 29).
Letters and financial records covering the agency's interactions with its many suppliers are found throughout the "Correspondence and Related Papers" series. Among the most consistent of the suppliers represented in the papers are the St. Paul firms of the Press Printing Company, Hills, Griggs and Company, Nicols and Dean, G. Gotzian and Company, Noyes Bros. and Cutler, Beaupre and Kelley, Auerbach, Finch and Scheffer, C. D. Strong and Company, and William S. Combs; Adams, Larson and Sperry, New London, Minnesota; D. M. Ferry and Company, Detroit, Michigan; Nahum Stone, Beaver Falls, Minnesota; and H. C. Burbank, St. Cloud, Minnesota. They supplied the agency with such items as hardware, groceries, cattle, flour, stationery, clothing, dishes, meat, lumber, medicine, candles, and wagons. There is also considerable correspondence with the statements from the First and Second National Banks of St. Paul. Since the remainder of the business materials found in this series are of the same nature there will be no further descriptions of them unless they are unique or in some way highlight another aspect of the agency's activities.
Other papers (July-Dec.) detail Adams' service on the IAO commission to examine and report what title or interest the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands had in land (at Yellow Medicine and Lac Qui Parle, Minnesota) mentioned and described in the 1867 treaty and whether they deserved any compensation for it. Although composed mainly of correspondence between Adams, the IAO, and the other two commissioners, William H. Forbes, Indian agent at Fort Totten, Dakota Territory and James Smith, Jr., of St. Paul, they also include the proceedings of the commission's council with the Dakota (Sept. 19-20), Adams' report to the IAO of the Indians' acceptance of the government plan to disburse money from the land's sale only as it felt necessary for the Indians' welfare, with a list of the Dakota who signed the agreement (Sept. 19), and the commission's formal report to the Secretary of the Interior (Oct. 4).
During 1872 Adams was made acting agent for the Santee Dakota located at Flandreau, Dakota Territory. Papers detailing his Flandreau activities include correspondence with the IAO, David Faribault, a Santee, and Reverend John P. Williamson (Sept.-Dec.) concerning the erection of a government school; and Adams' notes of a council with the Santee and his report to the IAO (Oct. 14-23).
The 1872 correspondence also contains an invoice of ordnance stores left at the agency by Daniels (March 18); letters with various Dakota Territory officials concerning the seizure of illegal stores (liquor) from Francis Rondell, his subsequent arrest for sale to reservation Indians, and his trial (April-Aug.); letters to S. B. Treat, ABCFM secretary, detailing the agency's condition upon Adams' arrival (March 13) and sending a copy of the agency's annual report (Sept. 1, 16); letters concerning a proposed visit of several Ojibwe from the Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota to the Lake Traverse reservation (April-May); a code of laws for the Sisseton and Wahpeton, written in Dakota (May 24); a statement of area missionaries supporting an Indian petition condemning polygamy (June 24); and a series of letters, statements, and invoices documenting a reservation Indian Su Pangi's robbery of the agency's warehouse, arrest, and imprisonment at Fort Wadsworth (Oct. 31 - Nov. 26).
The IAO papers for 1873 include a directive to Adams not to prohibit polygamy on the reservation and to leave management of the reservation's internal affairs to the Indians (Feb. 12); Adams' comments on continuing charges against his methods of administration, both from within and outside the reservation (Feb.-May); details of the IAO's appointment of James Smith, Jr. to investigate the many charges against Adams (March 24); letters, specifications, and descriptions detailing the construction of the MLBS and two schoolhouses (March 29); Adams' proposed method of electing representatives to the reservation's executive council (Aug. 23); and his annual report (Sept. 30).
The 1872 IAO commission made up of Adams, William H. Forbes, and James Smith, Jr. was reconvened in March, 1873 after Congress amended the commission's September, 1872 agreement with the Dakota. They were to take the amended agreement back to the Indians for re-approval. Included are the commission's original report and the amended version (March 25), a letter to S. R. Riggs expressing Adam's doubts that the amended version was in the Indians' best interests (April 10), minutes of the Lake Traverse (May 2) and Fort Totten (May 19) councils, and Adams' reports to the IAO detailing the Indians' approval of the amended agreement at both councils (May 10, 24).
The 1873 Flandreau materials continue correspondence with the IAO, Faribault, and Williamson, mainly concerning needed supplies (Feb.-March; Sept.), purchase of a lot from Flandreau's Presbyterian church for construction of a school building (Sept.-Oct.), the IAO's denial of Adams' request for a salary increase due to his extra duties (Aug. 1), and its appointment of Williamson as special agent to Flandreau (Nov. 21).
The majority of the December 1873 papers detail an open challenge to Adams' authority as agent by the reservation's "Scout party." Included are minutes of two councils, one specifying the Indians' reasons for attacking two reservation residences, their organization of a police force without Adams' approval, and Adams' claims that these acts violated the 1867 treaty (Dec. 13), and the other outlining Adams' orders to stop the rioting and turn over the leaders (Dec. 17-18). There is correspondence with various U.S. Army officials in St. Paul and at Fort Wadsworth and with the IAO detailing Adams' request for troops, their arrival at the agency, his delivery of two Indian leaders to Fort Wadsworth for imprisonment, and the stationing of ten soldiers at the agency for further protection (Dec. 11-19).
Also contained in the 1873 papers are a letter detailing Su Pangi's escape from the Fort Wadsworth hospital (Feb. 24); letters to Reverend George Whipple, chairman of a U.S. government committee to prepare a code of laws for the Indians, detailing Adams' views on the subject (April 11); letters from a committee of the Dakota Presbytery concerning the sale of their Ascension church, located on the reservation, to the government for use as a schoolhouse (June 17); minutes of a council at which the Indians rejected Adams' proposed code of laws (Jan. 7); a list of subscribers to S. R. Riggs' salary as missionary to the agency (Aug.); council minutes and correspondence detailing a visit to the reservation by IAO commissioner Edward P. Smith and Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano (Aug. 4-18); and the order exercises for the laying of the MLBS cornerstone (Sept. 4).
The 1874 IAO correspondence includes Adams' proposed code of laws for the Indians (Jan. 22-28), his annual report (Sept. 1, 11), letters detailing the purchase of new English/Dakota readers for the reservation's schools (July-Aug.), the emergency purchase of supplies during a grasshopper plague (Nov. 5), and the need to reduce the agency's payroll, including a statement of which employees could be dismissed (Nov. 10 - Dec. 5).
Materials concerning the December 1873 clash between Adams and the "Scout party" include letters debating the February 10th withdrawal of all troops from the agency (Jan. 5 - Feb. 10) and the IAO's directive to release the two Indian prisoners (Jan. 26). There are also several Flandreau-related papers, including letters from Williamson (Jan.) and Faribault (March).
The majority of the October 1874 papers detail an IAO investigation of the agency conducted by Edward C. Kemble. Included are council minutes detailing the Indians' May 15, 1873 petition against Adams' administrative methods, notes on Kemble's examination of the petition's signers and witnesses to the council, and extracts from Kemble's report to the IAO, particularly his finding that most of the difficulties between Adams and the "Scout party" stemmed from their different religious viewpoints and his advice to revise the agency's employee system (Oct. 24, 27).
Also included in the 1874 papers are letters concerning a re-survey of the reservation and an updating of its plats (Feb.-June), the arrest of a Dakota and U.S. Army Scout, Joseph Keoke, for desertion and Adams' efforts to have him discharged as being underage and mentally ill (May), and rumors of Adams' possible removal (Nov. 19), and a circular from Adams to settlers on Minnesota's western border discounting rumors of Indian troubles on the reservation (May 11).
Agency-related papers include notifications of Adams' resignation to the IAO and American Missionary Association (Jan. 20, 1875); correspondence with his successor, J. G. Hamilton, concerning an agent's duties (Feb.-April 1875), with the IAO about Kemble's 1874 investigation (Jan., March 1875) and the need for immediate vaccination of two-thirds of the reservation's population (Feb. 9, 26, 1875), and with C. P. LaGrange, agency clerk, and Hamilton concerning the agency's change in administration (May-June 1875); Adams' annual report (April 30, 1875); and letters and statements, mainly with the IAO, Hamilton, and the U.S. Treasury Department, concerning Adams' final account as agent (July 1875 - Aug. 1877).
Also included are letters detailing Adams' pursuit of a mission station
among the far western Dakota (June, Sept. 1875), his appointment as a
U.S. Army chaplain (Jan.-Feb. 1876), and his stand against the transfer
of the U.S. Indian Bureau to the War Department (Dec. 9, 1878); a
resolution stating his ideas on the management of the Dakota on
Minnesota's border (Jan. 19, 1876); Adams' 18-page statement defending
President U. S. Grant's "Peace Policy" for Indian administration (Feb.
5, 1876); two 1876
Includes advertisements of bid openings at both Fort Wadsworth (April 1873) and the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation (May 1872; April, June 1874), clippings regarding rumors of alleged problems on the reservation (March-April 1873) and detailing a visit to the reservation by IAO commissioner Edward P. Smith and Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano (Sept. 1873), reports of the Dakota Mission's annual meetings (Sept. 1889 and 1890), Adams' speech entitled "The Dakota Mythology" (June 1890), and several articles covering the Adams' fiftieth wedding anniversary (June-July 1898).
Unless otherwise noted, volumes also date from Adams' tenure as Indian agent on the Lake Traverse Reservation.
784-page handwritten volume containing an alphabetical list of Dakota language words and their English definitions. Written while Adams was a missionary at Lac Qui Parle.
Mainly individual accounts for supplies and provisions issued to agency employees (Jan.-Sept. 1872) and its cookhouse (Dec. 1871 - Feb. 1872); also lists of provisions and supplies issued to those on the reservation's poor list (Jan. 13-20, 1872) and to the reservation's schools (Jan.-March 1872).
Alphabetical list of individual suppliers' accounts, financial memoranda, Jan. 1-14, 1872 diary entries (under "N"), and a small pox/scarlet fever remedy (under "S").
Contains agent's expense (April 1872 - Jan. 1873; pp. 1-5) and individual suppliers' (Sept. 1872 - April 1873; pp. 6-17, 22-37) accounts; agent's business notes (Sept. 1-10, 1872; pp. 18-19); and miscellaneous financial memoranda (April 1872 - Jan. 1873; pp. 20-21, 38-40).
Includes undated notes of the number of Indians and whites settled on the reservation and expenses of a trip to Fargo, Dakota Territory and St. Paul (April 15 - May 1, 1872).
Lists date of issue, check number, to whom issued, amount, and deposits.
Lists date of issue, check number, to whom issued, reason for issue, and amount of disbursement. The First National Bank (pp. 1-35) covered mainly supplies and employees' wages; the Second National Bank (pp. 48-52), mainly farm implements and school construction materials. Pages 36-47 and 53-93 of the volume are empty.
Unless otherwise noted, the oversize materials are series of loose filled-in printed or hand-drawn forms further documenting Adams' role as U.S. Indian agent to the Sisseton and Wahpeton.
List date, voucher number, item paid for, and to whom paid. The majority are divided into A, B, and C sections.
List date written, number, author, content, date of receipt, date of answer, content of answer, and remarks.
Itemized bids from six suppliers.
List suppliers, location, items bid on, amount of bid, and bids accepted.
Contracts and related correspondence.
Contains an estimate of required funds (March), two family rolls, listing head of family and number of males, females, boys, and girls (March, June), and a receipt for provisions (June).
Official returns submitted by Adams to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Indian Affairs during his tenure as U.S. Indian agent to the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, Dakota Territory, as follows:
Include date of purchase, voucher number, from whom purchased, description of each item and quantity purchased from each supplier, total quantity purchased, quantity used in service, and total amount on hand.
Contain the same data as the quarterly property returns, plus to whom the items were issued, date of issue, voucher number, and total quantity issued.
See previous annotation.