Call Number:

MC.975.02.019

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

0.06 linear ft. (2 volumes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Henry Simmons letterbooks (HC.MC.975.02.019), Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

1797-1799, undated (inclusive)

Creator:

Simmons, Henry

Form:

Correspondence

Abstract:

Henry Simmons, who belonged to the Middletown Monthly Meeting, spent a year with the Seneca near Cornplanter's village along with Halliday Jackson and Joel Swayne. There, the group of missionaries set up a school and model farm. Simmons's letterbooks are comprised of business and government correspondence related to his work with various Indigenous nations.

Henry Simmons (1768-1807) was born on September 15, 1768, to Henry Simmons Sr. and Mary Paxson, the youngest of the five children. Before he was a year old, Simmons's mother died, and his father married Sarah Dun. Simmons's father and step mother went on to have eight more children. Despite Simmons's relative lack of formal education in his youth, he went on to be a school teacher on the Oneida reservation from 1796 to 1797, and at Cornplanter's village from 1798 to 1799.

Henry Simmons belonged to the Middletown Monthly Meeting, where he first expressed his desire to help Native American populations. After Middletown Monthly Meeting found Simmons suitable for missionary work, he was given a certificate from that meeting recommending him for missionary service to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee. Along with Halliday Jackson and Joel Swayne, Simmons was invited by Cornplanter (Gaiänt'wakê, John Abeel) to spend a year with the Seneca Nation during which the group of missionaries set up a school and model farm.

Henry Simmons married Rachel Preston in 1800, and the couple had four children: Deborah (b. 1804), John (b. 1803), Hannah (b. 1806), and Henryetta (b. 1808). Simmons died in Pennsylvania in 1807.

This collection is comprised of the two volumes of the letterbooks of Henry Simmons and a single folder of related materials. Letterbooks are comprised of business and government correspondence related to Simmons's work with various Indigenous nations.