Background
Though the Indians were closest neighbors to the American Methodists in practically all the territories into which the circuit riding Methodist preachers went, the work of evangelizing them was slow in starting. The first instance of the conversion of an Indian by a Methodist preachers took place as late as 1801 in Canada. A young boy was baptized, probably in Credit River, and given the name of the preacher who baptized him -- Joseph Sawyer.

The first really successful and sustained Methodist work among the Native Peoples was with the Wyandotts in northern Ohio. The Mission was established by a free-born mulatto, John Stewart, a poverty stricken, alcoholic, who had been himself converted at a camp meeting in 1814. Through a hired interpreter, he began preaching to the Wyndotts, resulting in the conversion of his interpreter and several chiefs. He baptized, performed marriages and administered the Sacraments, even though he was not approved for licensing as a preacher until 1818. On August 7, 1819, the Ohio Annual Conference established the first official Methodist mission to the Indians and assigned James Montgomery, a local preacher, as its first missionary.

It should be noted that in these early days of Methodist mission work, that "missionary" and "preacher" were used almost interchangeably. That is because the evangelistic aims of the Methodists in this early period were generally the same as their missionary purpose. Thus, missionary work, as a part of a wider program of evangelism, expanded primarily through the work of Annual Conferences rather than a church-wide mission society.

When it is ascertained that there is a tract of country lying beyond the limits of our regular itinerant work, with a population sufficient to justify the employment of a missionary, one is selected, the field of his labor is prescribed his instructions furnished him, and he is sent forth to preach the gospel, raise societies, and form a circuit. Being successful in this enterprise, he returns to the ensuing Conference, and reports the results of his mission. The circuit thus formed is embraced in the regular plan of appointments, and supports the ministry in the ordinary way.
...Bishop Joshua Joule, Seventh Annual Report of the Missionary Society, 1825-26, p.45

The Mission Thrust into the Kansas Territory
In 1830, the new and relatively weak Missouri Annual Conference began to assume responsibility for work among the Indians who had either voluntarily moved westward from their homelands or were forcibly removed by the United States government into the Kansas Territory. However, the decision to assume this work did not occur spontaneously. It was preceded by other events that some would call "providential."

It was due to Daniel Morgan Boone (aka Morgan Boone), son of the famed western frontiersman, Daniel Boone, that the Methodists first became interested in working with the Indians in Kansas. In 1825/26 he was appointed as Government Farmer, by the U.S. government to act as an agricultural adviser to the Indians in Kansas and located on the Kansas River in present Jefferson County. Boone was part of an overall program enacted in September 1819 -- The Civilization Bill -- by the US Congress to "civilize" the Indians, i.e., turn them into farmers. The statute authorized the President

to employ persons of good moral character, to instruct...[the Indians] in the mode of agriculture suited to their situation; and for teaching their children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and performing such other duties as may be enjoined, according to such instructions and rules as the President may give and prescribe for the regulation of their conduct, in the discharge of their duties.

Also, in numerous cases Indian treaties made the government the custodian of funds procured from the sale of lands ceded by the tribes from which annual annuities were to be paid them. From the funds, stipulations in the treaties provided, appropriations might be made for schools. In other cases, as an inducement to acceptance of the treaties by the Indians, the government pledged itself to make appropriations for tribal education.

Sometime, probably in late 1829 or early 1830, Boone wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, Rev. Alexander McAlister, urging the early establishment of a mission to the Indians of Kansas. Rev. McAlister, a leading member of the Missouri Conference, followed up the request by writing to Jesse Greene, the Presiding Elder of the Missouri District, whose region included the western frontier of Missouri.

Salurbia, April 2, 1830. Dear Bro. Greene: -- I have just time to write a few lines by Bro. Perry, in which I wish to call you attention to the Caw [sic] Indians, on your frontiers. Col. Daniel Boon, [sic] who is the Government's Farmer among those Indians, married Mrs. McAlister's sister, which circumstance has led to a correspondence between him and myself and the Government Agent of those Indians. Boon is among them, perhaps thirty or forty miles from Fort Osage. He promises to do all he can for the support of a school among that tribe. The Agent also promises to assist, as far as he can, and informs me that the Caw Indians, according to the provision of a treaty with the Government, have a considerable sum of money set apart to support schools among themselves, and the Agent advises us to get in there immediately and secure that fund, and improve it to their benefit. I think you might visit them, and know all about it soon, and perhaps get some pious young man to go and commence school among them before Conference. In haste, your obedient Servant, A. McAlister.

"Bro. Greene" acted quickly and went to Indian country where he met the Agent, George Vashon, along with the Government Blacksmith, Harmon Davis, and some of the Indian leaders. He may possibly have met with Boone as well. He learned that Vashon had already requested the American Board (an ecumenical mission agency of the Congregational, Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed denominations) to start mission work but that they had declined because of their limited resources. Vashon made a similar plea to the Methodists through Greene, and put that request in writing, either at the request of Greene, or at the urging of the Shawnee chief, Fish.

Indian Agency, near Kansas, July 1830. Reverend Sir: --

I have the pleasure now to make the communication which I promised, when I had the happiness of conversing with you in my office, on the subject of establishing a mission for the instruction of the hapless portion of the human family entrusted to my care in this part of the agency.... And I now have the pleasure to inform you that I have this day been requested by Fish, a Shawnee Chief, alias Wm. Jackson, a white man, raised with the Shawnees, to make application for the establishment of a mission among them, for the education of their children, and I most earnestly solicit your attention to the subject.

Fish... has a son...Paskal, who was put to school when he was a boy; he can speak english [sic] very well. He is a sober, steady, moral, good man. He has an Indian family, and is industriously employed in farming, and I think he would make the most efficient male interpreter that could be procured.

Having freely and fully communicated what appeared to my mind as necessary at this time upon this very interesting subject, permit me the privilege of offering up my fervent prayers to Almighty God for the influence and teaching of His Holy Spirit, to guide and direct the labors of all the human family. With sentiments of the highest respect and esteem, I remain, dear sire, Your most humble Servant, Geo. Vashon.

On September 10, 1830, at the 15th session of the Missouri Annual Conference meeting in St. Louis, the members voted to accept Morgan Boone's challenge, "to get in there immediately and secure that fund" for a mission not just to the Caw (Kansas) Indians but also to establish one for the Shawnees. A society was formed, the constitution of which set forth that:

The members of the Missouri conference, considering the great necessity for missionary exertions, and feeling a willingness to aid in the great work of sending the Gospel among all people, formed themselves into a missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal church.

September 16, the closing day of the Conference, Bishop Robert R. Roberts read the appointments of the preachers for the following year. They included: "Shawnee Mission, Thomas Johnson; Kansas or Kaw Mission, Wm. Johnson."

The Arrival in Kansas of the Rev. Thomas Johnson and his wife, Sarah; Methodist Missionaries to the Shawnees
On November 20, Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary and government agent wrote:

Messrs. McCalister & Johnson, Methodist preachers, arrived last night. They purpose establishing a school &c. among the Kanzas [sic]. they or, some others of that society had been here previously. I knew nothing of their intentions until since I spoke to Clark [subagent] yesterday. They have, also, a few days since, made proposals to the Shawanoes [sic] to furnish them with a school, &c. I told them that our society had made formal proposals to the Sec. War, a year and a half ago, to establish a mission among the Kanzas. Also, that I had spoken to the Shawanoes on my way up, & expected to receive their answer on my way down. But, I wished not to throw any obstacle in their way. They united in supposing there would be no disagreeing between them and us -- manifested no solicitude about our propositions, and spoke with a good deal of confidence relative to carrying forward their propositions...

The tension between Mr. McCoy and the new missionary endeavors of Methodists was not so easily resolved, however. The main leadership of the Shawnees were loyal to McCoy and wanted to accept the proposals he had made to them for a school. McCoy wrote:

[The] chiefs, [Captain Cornstalk and Captain William Perry]...and most of the Shawanoes, consented to my propositions rather through courtesy, than on account of a desire really to enjoy the advantages of education. Like most Indians, not much advanced in civilization, they felt little desire for schools, and still less to hear preaching.

The matter was resolved, however, when the band of Shawnees led by Fish, immediately accepted the Methodist proposal because, as McCoy wrote: they appreciated in a good degree the [schools] and were favorably inclined to the [preaching].

With the arrangements secured with the Fish Band, Rev. Thomas Johnson returned to Missouri to fetch his bride, Sarah T. Davis, whom he had married just days before (September 7, 1830 in Clarksville, Missouri) being appointed to the Shawnee Mission. (Sarah was the daughter of Sarah Rudell and Thomas Davis. Her parents had been captured in 1780 by the British and Shawnees when they were both about 12 and lived among the Shawnees for many years before being released and returning to Virginia where they married.) He then brought his bride, she riding a horse and he walking beside her, and they together become the first Methodists to make their home in Kansas on the wooded bluffs of the Kansas River about 3/4 mile Southeast of the present town of Turner in what is now Wyandotte County (the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter section 24, township 11, range 24, Wyandotte county).

Monument marking site of first Shawnee Methodist Mission and School. Erected in 1916 by the Kansas Methodist Historical Society.

The Johnson's log home, completed by Thomas in the Spring of 1831, housed the original mission and school. Their living quarters were in the east wing on the first floor. The west end was the schoolroom and chapel and the upper floor was for employees and guests.

Children of SARAH DAVIS * and THOMAS JOHNSON * are:

i. ALEXANDER MCALLISTER JOHNSON, b. July 18, 1831, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. August 15, 1831, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas. * (probably the first non-Indian child born in Kansas and may have died as a result of being born during a smallpox outbreak in the area -- named after the Missouri clergyman who first learned of the possibility of a mission from Col. Morgan Boone)

ii. ALEXANDER SOULE JOHNSON, b. July 11, 1832, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. 1904. Military: Civil War, Lt. Col. 13th Infantry, Kansas Militia Occupation: Bet. 1858 - 1862, Assisted father in the Manual Labor School at the Shawnee Mission (middle name after Joshua Soule, a leader in the Methodist Church's first officially recognized missionary society in 1819, later became Bishop. After a visit to the mission in August 1833, he recommended that work also begin with the Kickapoo and Peoria)

iii. ANDREW M. JOHNSON, b. Abt. 1833, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas.

iv. SARAH ELIZABETH JOHNSON, b. August 11, 1834, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. June 08, 1840, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas. 119. *

v. ELIZA S. JOHNSON, b. Abt. 1836, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. July 15, 1865, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas. m. J.B. Wornal *

vi. MARY CUMMINS JOHNSON, b. January 15, 1838, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. March 19, 1838, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas. * (middle name after the Shawnee government agent, Richard Cummins)

vii. WILLIAM THOMAS JOHNSON, b. June 22, 1839, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. April 02, 1840, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas. *

viii. WILLIAM MCKENDREE JOHNSON, b. July 06, 1845, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. February 14, 1924; m. ELIZABETH PRICE. * (named for Bishop William McKendree, a contemporary of Francis Asbury and the driving force behind the Methodist Episcopal Church's mission work throughout his episcopacy)

ix. LAURA L. JOHNSON, b. July 22, 1847, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; d. February 12, 1884, Shawnee Mission, Wyandotte, Kansas; m. unknown WATERMAN. *

x. CORA E. JOHNSON, b. Abt. 1850.

xi. EDNA JOHNSON, b. Abt. 1854.

* Buried in the Shawnee Methodist Mission Cemetery (also Sarah's mother, Sarah Ruddell Davis, is buried there) Note the number of children who died in infancy.

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Shawnee Mission Cemetery
Looking NW in the Shawnee mission burial grounds, 1/4 mile SE of the mission buildings
on US 50. The large center monument marks the graves of the Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Johnson.

The genealogy above is courtesy of Karin Denise Morey Oregon City, OR 97045 United States (503)557-8518 http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/m/o/r/Karin-D-Morey/GENE9-0011.html#CHILD63

For more information about the Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Johnson and the Shawnee Mission visit these sites:

Bibliography
Annals of Shawnee Methodist Mission and Indian Manual Labor School, Caldwell, Martha B., Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, sec. ed. 1977

Early American Methodism, 1769-1844, Vol. Two: To Reform the Nation, Barclay, Wade Crawford, The Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Church, New York, 1950

Fire on the Prairie, Methodism in the History of Kansas, Holter, Don W., Methodist Publishing House, 1969

Johnson County Kansas Cemetery Index, Johnson County Genealogical Society and Library, 1983

The History of American Methodism, Vol. I, ed. Bucke, Emory Stevens, Abingdon Press, New York, 1964