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HENRY BENJAMIN WHIPPLE:
An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
Creator:
Whipple, Henry Benjamin,
1822-1901, creator.
Title:
Henry B. Whipple papers.
Dates:
1833-1934.
Language:
Materials in English and German.
Abstract:
Personal and semi-official papers, including correspondence,
diaries, sermons, reminiscences, and other materials, of Henry Benjamin Whipple, the
first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota (1859-1901) and a
reformer of the United States Indian service. The papers provide information on
ecclesiastical policy, Diocese of Minnesota matters, Indian missions, government
relations with the Indians, and the Indian rights movement of the latter 19th
century.
Quantity:
19.25 linear ft. (46 boxes, including
78 volumes); 11 items in Reserve.
Location:
P823: See
Detailed Description
for
shelf locations.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Henry B. Whipple was born February
15, 1822, in Adams, New York, the son of John Hall and Elizabeth Wager Whipple. He
was educated at a private boarding school in Clinton, New York, and at Jefferson
County Institute in Watertown, New York. In 1838 and 1839 he attended Oberlin
Collegiate Institute, but his health failed and his physician recommended an active
business life. During the 1840s he worked for his father, a country merchant,
purchasing goods from local farmers. He became active in New York politics as a
conservative Democrat, and made many political friends who later used their
influence in support of his efforts to reform the United States Indian
administration.
In March of 1848, Whipple began studying for the ministry in the Protestant Episcopal
Church. He was ordained deacon in August, 1849, became rector of Zion Church in
Rome, New York, in November, 1849, and was ordained priest in 1850. Whipple served
as rector of Zion Church from 1849 to 1857, becoming known both for the size and
wealth of his parish and for his work among the poor.
In 1857, upon the urging of Albert E. Neely and others of Chicago, Illinois, Whipple
helped organize and became the first rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, on
Chicago’s south side, the first free church in the city. He drew his parishioners
from “the highways and hedges” -- clerks, laborers, railroad men, travelers, and
derelicts -- sought converts among the city’s Swedish population, and regularly
officiated in a Chicago prison.
On June 30, 1859, Whipple was elected the first Protestant Episcopal bishop of
Minnesota, an office he held until his death more than forty years later. He was
consecrated bishop on October 13, 1859, and in December of that year made his first
visitation of his diocese, including the Chippewa missions of E. Steele Peake and
John Johnson Enmegahbowh. In the spring of 1860 he moved his family to Faribault,
establishing it as the see city of the diocese.
During his episcopate, Whipple guided the development of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Minnesota from a few missionary parishes to a flourishing and prosperous
diocese. For many years, especially during the first two decades of his episcopate,
he made regular missionary sojourns by wagon or coach through the rural areas of the
state, often in mid-winter, preaching in cabins, school houses, stores, saloons, and
Indian villages. Until the diocese was financially secure, he pledged himself to
personally support several of its missionary clergy and assumed many other financial
obligations of the church. He unified a diocese that at his election was divided
into two quarrelling factions.
In 1860, Whipple incorporated the Bishop Seabury Mission in Faribault, building it
upon the foundations laid by James Lloyd Breck and Solon W. Manney, who in 1858 had
founded a divinity school and school for boys and girls. With the help of gifts from
eastern donors, the mission developed into three separate but closely connected
schools: Seabury Divinity School, Shattuck School for boys, and St. Mary’s Hall for
the education of daughters of the clergy. Whipple also helped found the Breck School
in Wilder, Minnesota, to educate the children of farmers.
Whipple was best known outside of Minnesota for his dedication to the welfare of the
American Indians and for his missionary work among the Sioux and Chippewa of
Minnesota. He returned from his first visitation of his diocese with a firm
commitment to the establishment of Indian missions and the reform of the United
States Indian system. He regularly included Indian villages on his visitations,
built up the Episcopal mission to the Chippewa based at the White Earth Reservation,
and appealed for support of Indian missions by addresses throughout the United
States and in Europe.
As an outspoken and prestigious advocate of Indian administration reform, Whipple was
looked to as a leader by individuals and organizations concerned with the Indians’
welfare. He corresponded with congressmen, army officers, officials of the United
States Department of the Interior, and the Presidents of the United States, urging
that the Indians be dealt with honestly, justly and humanely, and that the existing
system of Indian administration be thoroughly revised to permit the Indian to live
in dignity and decency. He made numerous trips to Washington, D.C., especially
during the 1860s, to plead in person for Indian reform and to expose abuses in the
Indian service, appealed for support through newspapers and church publications, and
lectured on Indian affairs.
Whipple’s suggestions for reform of the Indian system included treating tribes as
wards of the government instead of as independent nations; paying annuities in kind
rather than in cash; providing practical industrial education for Indians and
separate homesteads for those who wanted them; appointing honest Indian agents;
dealing with Indians as individuals rather than as tribes; enforcing laws through
the use of native police and through trial, by a United States Indian commissioner,
of any white men who violated Indian Laws; concentrating different bands of a tribe
onto a single reservation; and refusing to permit liquor to be sold to Indians.
In addition to being consulted on Indian affairs by government officials, Whipple
served on several commissions authorized to negotiate treaties or to oversee the
Indian’s welfare, including the Sioux Commission (1876), the Northwest Indian
Commission (1887), several commissions appointed to oversee annuity payments to the
Chippewa of Minnesota (1860s), and the United States Board of Indian Commissioners
(1895-1901). He also attended several Lake Mohonk Conferences of Friends of the
Indian and served on the Episcopal Church’s Joint Committee to Secure Protection of
the Civil Law for the Indians (1878-1883).
In the early years of his episcopate, Whipple’s espousal of Indian reform and
commitment to Indian missions earned him the enmity of many whites who hated
Indians, and led some of his fellow bishops to look upon him as a fanatic. His
attitude was denounced most bitterly after Minnesota’s Sioux Uprising of 1862, when,
in appeals to the President and in the public press, he opposed wholesale executions
and extermination or deportation of the Sioux.
Whipple was acquainted with most of the Episcopal Church leaders of his day, and with
many Anglican bishops of the British Isles and Canada. He made several trips to
Europe for his health and to attend ecclesiastical conferences. Although a high
churchman in doctrine, he preached tolerance of all views which fell within the
scope of the church’s basic teachings. Urging that the church’s task was to “preach
Christ crucified” and that sectarian quarrels hindered this mission, he pled for
unity among all branches of the Episcopal and Anglican communions and for harmonious
relations among members of all Christian denominations. Both in Chicago and in
Minnesota, he worked closely with ministers and communicants of the national Swedish
Church. His interest in the church’s missionary efforts was reflected in his
presidency of the Western Church Building Society (1880-1893), his service on
several committees and commissions of the General Convention concerned with
missionary affairs, and in special missions to Cuba and to Puerto Rico. During the
1880s and 1890s, his health compelled him to spend several months each year at his
winter home in Maitland, Florida, where he held missionary services and built the
Church of the Good Shepherd. Whipple married Cornelia Wright, daughter of Benjamin
and Sarah Wright of Adams, New York, in 1842; they had six children. Cornelia
Whipple died in 1890 from injuries suffered in a railroad accident, and in 1896
Whipple married Evangeline Marrs Simpson, widow of industrialist Michael Hodge
Simpson.
Henry B. Whipple died on September 16, 1901.
Chronology
Date
Event
February 15, 1822
H.B. Whipple born in Adams, New York.
1838-1839
Attends Oberlin Collegiate Institute.
circa 1840-1848
In mercantile business with his father. Active in New York
politics.
October 5, 1842
Marries Cornelia Wright.
October 1843 – May 1844
Spends winter traveling in the South.
1847
Secretary of New York State Democratic convention.
March 1848
Begins study for Protestant Episcopal ministry.
August 26, 1849
Ordained to diaconate.
November 1849
Becomes rector of Zion Church, Rome, New York.
February 1850
Ordained to the priesthood.
1853-1854
Mrs. Whipple ill with typhoid. They spend the winter in St.
Augustine, Florida, where Whipple serves as temporary rector of Trinity
Church.
March 1857
Becomes rector of Church of the Holy Communion, Chicago,
Illinois.
June 30, 1859
Elected Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota.
October 13, 1859
Consecrated bishop at St. James Church, Richmond, Virginia.
November 10, 1859
Holds his first service in Minnesota, at Wabasha.
December 1859
First visitation of his diocese.
Spring 1860
Makes permanent residence at Faribault.
May 22, 1860
Bishop Seabury Mission incorporated.
May 27, 1861
Elected chaplain of the 1st Minnesota Regiment. Declines.
July 16, 1862
Lays cornerstone of the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior,
Faribault.
July 17, 1862
Lays cornerstone of Seabury Hall, first permanent building of Bishop
Seabury Mission.
August 1862
Sioux Uprising. Whipple helps care for the wounded at St.
Peter.
September 1862
Goes to Washington to plead mercy for the Sioux. Writes “The Duty of
Citizens Concerning the Indian Massacre.”
Spring 1863
Whipple and Alexander Faribault take the families of loyal Sioux to
Faribault.
May 9, 1863
Appointed to Board of Visitors to the Chippewa, to attend annuity
payments.
Autumn 1863
Visits Lincoln, to whom he gives an account of the Sioux Uprising,
and presents a petition on behalf of the Indians signed by attendants at
the Protestant Episcopal Church General Convention.
September 1863
Chippewa treaty ceding Red River Valley to whites.
March-April 1864
Goes to Washington with Chippewa chiefs of Red Lake and Pembina to
plead for more favorable treaty.
Fall 1864
Seabury Hall opens, housing boys’ school and divinity
department.
September 1864-June 1865
Vacations in Europe as guest of R. B. Minturn, resting from overwork.
Travels in England, Paris, Italy, Egypt, Palestine. Almost dies of
Syrian fever.
1865
Shattuck School organized.
July 26, 1866
Foundation laid for Shattuck Hall.
[October?] 1866
Attends meeting of Board of Missions in New York. Refuses to accept
resolution offering its “cordial sympathy” but with no appropriation for
Indian missions. Bishops Whipple, Randall, Clarkson assigned to prepare
report on condition of North American Indians.
November 1, 1866
St. Mary’s Hall opens in Whipple’s home.
1868
Shattuck Hall built.
October 1868
Whipple’s report on “The Moral and Temporal Condition of the Indian
Tribes” presented to Board of Missions and read at Cooper Institute, New
York City.
Winter 1868
Whipple and Dr. Jared W. Daniels buy and distribute goods to Sisseton
and Wahpeton Sioux in Dakota.
June 24, 1869
Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior, Faribault, consecrated.
October 1869-May 1870
Travels in England and Spain.
1871
Offered bishopric of Sandwich Islands. Declines.
March 1871
Investigates moral and religious conditions of foreigners in Cuba,
and holds its first Protestant service.
June 21, 1871
Cornerstone of Shumway Memorial Chapel (“Memorial Chapel of the Good
Shepherd”) laid.
November 1871
Edward Kenney sent to Cuba as resident missionary under Whipple’s
supervision.
September 24, 1872
Shumway Memorial Chapel consecrated.
November 18, 1872
Seabury Hall burns.
1873
Elected a trustee of the Peabody fund for Education in the
South.
1873
Seabury Hall rebuilt. Whipple Hall built to house Shattuck School.
Divinity school and Shattuck School permanently separated.
Early 1874
Counsels with government officials and Chief Flatmouth to settle
Leech Lake timber controversy.
October 1874
Preaches triennial sermon in New York for Society for the Increase of
the Ministry.
August 1875
Preaches opening sermon at synod in Rupert’s Land, Canada.
September-October 1876
Visits Sioux bands on Missouri River as member of Sioux
Commission.
1877
Writes “The True Policy Toward the Indian Tribes” and “The Present
Montana Indian War.” Confers with government officials regarding the
Sioux and Nez Perce.
June 19, 1882
Cornerstone of new St. Mary’s Hall laid.
September 1884-April 1885
Travels in England and Europe.
1886
Appointed member of Northwest Indian Commission.
June 10, 1886
Mahlon Norris Gilbert elected Assistant Bishop of Minnesota.
August 22-September 1, 1887
Visits Alaska. Urges missionary jurisdiction and bishop.
September 1887
Shumway Hall built.
May 15, 1888
Lays cornerstone of Johnston Hall for Seabury Divinity
School.
June-August 1888
Attends Lambeth Conference, London, England.
July 3, 1888
Preaches opening sermon, Lambeth Conference, on “The Church of the
Reconciliation.”
October 2, 1889
Preaches opening sermon at centennial of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in New York.
November 23, 1889
Railroad accident near Albany; Mrs. Whipple injured.
July 16, 1890
Mrs. Whipple dies.
November 1890-May 1891
Travels in England, Europe, Egypt.
December 7, 1890
Private interview with Queen Victoria.
1895
Diocese of Minnesota is divided, and Missionary District of Duluth
created.
February 1895
Appointed to Board of Indian Commissioners.
October 1895
General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church held in
Minnesota.
October 22, 1896
Marries Evangeline Marrs Simpson.
May-September 1897
Presiding bishop of the American Church at Third Pan-Anglican
(Lambeth) Conference, London. Travels and preaches in England.
April-May 1899
Represents Protestant Episcopal Church at celebration of the
centenary of the Church Missionary Society of England, and delivers
opening address.
November 1899
Publishes Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate.
February 1, 1900
Visits Puerto Rico for the Board of Missions.
March 2, 1900
Bishop Gilbert dies; Whipple reassumes sole management of
diocese.
June 6, 1901
Samuel Cook Edsall elected Coadjutor Bishop of Minnesota.
September 16, 1901
Whipple dies in Faribault, Minnesota, aged 79.
Return to top
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
Nearly the entire collection covers Whipple’s years as Protestant Episcopal Bishop of
Minnesota (1859-1901), with a few papers from his early years in central New York
and his rectorships of Zion Church, Rome, New York, and the Church of the Holy
Communion, Chicago, Illinois. The papers document the growth of the Episcopal Church
in Minnesota from a few scattered parishes to two flourishing dioceses; the history
of the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota as they gradually accommodated themselves to
reservation life, to a pastoral economy, to Christianity, and to the white man’s
values; and the refinement of a national policy for the administration of Indian
affairs. They also provide insight into Episcopal doctrine and the dichotomy between
high and low churchmen, the relations of the Episcopal with the Anglican church, the
Indian rights movement of the latter 19th century, Minnesota’s Sioux Uprising of
1862 and the condition of the Sioux in subsequent years, the Episcopal Church’s
missionary program, and the affairs of other Episcopal dioceses.
Whipple corresponded with clergymen, laymen, government officials, politicians,
philanthropists, and personal friends and acquaintances throughout the United
States, in Canada, and in England. Most of the correspondence consists of letters
written to Whipple; his outgoing correspondence is represented by letterbooks for
the years 1857-1864 and 1869-1870, and by a few scattered letters and articles
written in other years.
The few papers from the years 1833-1848, before Whipple entered the ministry, include
letters from his father, John Hall Whipple, his uncle, David Wager, his cousin,
Henry Wager Halleck, and other relatives, and a few letters (1846-1848) mentioning
New York politics. His “Southern Diary” of 1843-1844 records his observations on
slavery, culture, and economic and political conditions during a winter’s residence
and travel in the South (see volumes 9 and 10).
During his study for the ministry and his rectorship of Zion Church, Whipple received
letters from Bishop William Heathcote DeLancey, giving advice on his clerical
studies, his pastoral work, and his proposed move to Chicago. Letters from other
clergymen and lay friends, and Whipple’s diaries for 1853-1857, relate to his
rectorship of Zion Church and of a church in St. Augustine, Florida (1853-1854).
Volume 70 contains a register of his services and visits in St. Augustine and Rome,
1853-1856. In an exchange of newspaper articles with Henry Ward Beecher in 1855,
Whipple argued the need for an Episcopal liturgy.
Correspondence from 1856 to early 1859 covers the organization in Chicago of the
Church of the Holy Communion and Whipple’s rectorship of this church, and includes
letters from Robert Harper Clarkson, Albert E. Neely, and Henry John Whitehouse, as
well as many of Whipple’s own letters (see Letterbooks 1 and 2). The letters pertain
more to the administrative aspects of the parish than to Whipple’s missionary
efforts among Chicago’s south side citizenry. They include several comments on the
free church movement within the Episcopal Church. Even at this time, Whipple was
receiving letters from clergymen in Minnesota; many of them, especially those from
E.G. Gear, reveal the dissentions within the diocese with which Whipple had to cope
upon his election as bishop. Whipple also corresponded with Gustaf Unonius, who was
pastor of the Swedish church of St. Ansgarius in Chicago before he returned to
Sweden in 1858.
About 350 of Whipple’s sermons from 1849 to 1901 are also among the papers (Boxes
27-32). A leather padded volume presented by Whipple to the Bishop Seabury Divinity
School in Faribault contains manuscript sermons written between 1888 and 1889.
Published copies of sermons 1, 2 and 4 from
Project
Canterbury: Five Sermons by the Right Rev. H. B. Whipple
are laid into
this volume.
Whipple’s correspondence for 1859 is concerned almost entirely with his election and
consecration as Bishop of Minnesota, and includes congratulations upon his election
and letters concerning the administration of the diocese. His letters (see
Letterbooks 1 and 2) discuss his preparations for removal to Minnesota and express
his sense of inadequacy in his new calling. The remainder of the papers, from 1859
to 1901, concern his activities as Bishop of Minnesota.
Church Affairs
Whipple’s correspondence regarding doctrine, administration, and other affairs of
the Protestant Episcopal and Anglican churches extends throughout North America
and into Europe. He exchanged letters at various times with most of the bishops
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, particularly with John
Williams, with his close friends Robert Harper Clarkson and Henry Codman Potter,
and with three bishops who had served under him in Minnesota before their
election to the episcopate: David Buel Knickerbacker, Edward Randolph Welles,
and Elisha Smith Thomas. He received letters from many missionary bishops of the
frontier West, such as Leigh Richmond Brewer, William Hobart Hare, Thomas
Ingraham Kip, Benjamin W. Morris, John F. Spaulding, and Daniel S. Tuttle. There
are occasional letters from bishops and clergymen of the Church of England in
England, Scotland, and Canada, particularly the bishops of Rupertsland and
Montreal. Bishops Gregory T. Bedell, Thomas M. Clark, Arthur Cleveland Coxe,
William H. DeLancy, William C. Doane, Jackson Kemper, and William Stevens Perry
were also among his frequent correspondents. They wrote to him regarding the
affairs of their diocese and church policy and practice in general.
Throughout the papers are found letters and official announcements from other
dioceses regarding the election of bishops and the consecration, transfer, and
deposition of ministers and deacons. Episcopal rectors and concerned laymen, as
well as persons of other denominations, wrote to Whipple regarding his
missionary work among whites and Indians, and his diocesan schools. Many sent
contributions of money and clothing.
Also scattered through the collection are letters regarding the national church’s
educational and missionary organizations, particularly from officers of its
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, from bishops and administrators of
diocesan schools in other states, and from persons asking Whipple to support or
to promote the circulation of religious books, periodicals, and tracts. Other
letters, as well as Whipple’s diary entries, discuss arrangements for the
triennial General Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church (the convention
of 1895 was held in Minneapolis). There are frequent invitations to Whipple to
preach and speak and to write articles for church publications.
Whipple’s interest in Episcopal missionary endeavors is apparent in his
correspondence with other frontier bishops, with William Langford (secretary of
the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society), and occasionally with missionaries
and teachers in western states. Their most frequent topics of discussion are the
success of missionary activities among the Indians and financial support for
missionaries. During the 1880s, in particular, the correspondence shows the
frontier of established residential missionary work shifting westward from
Minnesota.
Whipple also urged the expansion of foreign missionary work, especially into
Latin America. During the 1870s he sponsored the Cuban Mission of Reverend
Edward Kenney. Kenney sent him several detailed letters describing his work on
the island; letters from other interested churchmen (especially 1871-1879) also
discuss the establishment and support of the Cuban mission. On behalf of the
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, Whipple made inspection trips to Havana
(March 1871, March 1872, February 1887), Haiti (March 1872) and Puerto Rico
(1900); these trips are mentioned in his diaries and correspondence. A few other
letters mention missionary work in Hawaii, Japan and Mexico, and missions to
Negroes in Florida (1892-1895) and in Minneapolis and St. Paul (1900).
A persistent subject of discussion is the controversy between high churchmen and
low or evangelical churchmen over the introduction of increased ritual into
Episcopal worship and over the need for a less rigid liturgy. Many evangelicals
criticized Whipple as a high churchman and “Romish,” although he himself
repeatedly avowed that he considered such matters subordinate to a clergyman’s
primary duty to “preach Christ crucified.” In a letter of August, 1867, Whipple
explains his doctrinal views, his concept of Christian duty, and his
differentiation between high church worship and Roman Catholicism.
Several specific instances of the conflict between high and low church worship
are highlighted in the correspondence, including: (1) Charles E. Cheney’s
deposition from the ministry for omitting from the Baptismal Office the passages
asserting that spiritual regeneration is inseparable from baptism (1871). In a
letter to Henry John Whitehouse (May 1871), Whipple gives his views on church
unity and on the definition of “regeneration.” (2) The schism of George David
Cummins, a leader of the militant evangelicals, who in 1874 withdrew from the
Protestant Episcopal Church and organized the Reformed Episcopal Church
(1874-1875). (3) A controversy over the election of the bishops of Iowa and
Illinois (1874-1875). (4) The election of Phillips Brooks as Bishop of
Massachusetts (1892-1893). (5) The nature of the episcopacy (1891-1894).
In March of 1878, Bishop William H. Hare of Niobrara removed Samuel D. Hinman
(see below, under “Indian Affairs”) from his post at the Niobrara (Sioux)
Mission, countercharges that developed out of this incident resulted in a libel
suit by Hinman against Bishop Hare. This case has been interpreted as another
reflection of the dichotomy between high and low churchmen, as well as of
differing interpretations of the church’s missionary calling. Whipple’s
correspondence for 1887 contains several letters regarding this case, which was
under litigation for several years.
Another frequently mentioned topic is interdenominational harmony among all
Christians, of which Whipple was a leading proponent, both in his correspondence
and in his addresses before church conferences. He particularly stressed the
similarity in doctrine of the Scandinavian, especially the Swedish, churches and
the Protestant Episcopal Church, and in both Chicago and Minnesota provided
church services to Scandinavians; members of the Swedish National Church were
incorporated into the Episcopal communion in Minnesota, and during the 1890s
Olof A. Toffteen, pastor of the Swedish Church of St. Ansgarius, Minneapolis,
was registered as an Episcopal minister.
The Roman Catholics appear as the chief ecclesiastical foes in Minnesota,
particularly in view of their competition with the Episcopalians for control of
the religious loyalty and the administration of the Chippewa reservation in
Minnesota. The Episcopal deacons, Enmegahbowh and Gilfillan, and the Roman
Catholic priest Ignatius Tomaszin write with particular bitterness about each
other during the 1870s, when Tomaszin was stationed at White Earth Reservation.
A few anti-Catholic tracts also appear among the papers. Occasional letters to
Whipple from Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul, however, indicate that they
enjoyed cordial personal relations.
Whipple attended the Pan-Anglican (Lambeth) Conferences of 1888 and 1897, held in
London. His papers for these occasions include programs and reports of the
conferences (particularly for 1897), letters from friends in England,
invitations to social events, and invitations to preach at various churches and
to speak at meetings of missionary, temperance, and benevolent societies.
Several letters mention current disagreements between the Protestant Episcopal
and Anglican churches over doctrine, and comment on the need for Christian unity
and Anglican reunion. A few letters relate to the Lambeth Conferences of 1867
and 1878.
A group of printed and published items about the Anglican and Episcopal churches
(Boxes 35-36) includes published sermons and tracts and materials on theology,
missionary activities, the Lambeth conferences, and the church’s social
responsibilities.
Additional subjects discussed in the papers include: Nashotah Theological
Seminary, Delafield, Wisconsin (1859-1864); effects of the Civil War on the
Protestant Episcopal Church, and movements toward reconciliation of its northern
and southern branches (1860s); Church recognition of divorcees (1872-1873);
financial problems of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (1876-1877);
Episcopal church and mission work in Florida, especially near Whipple’s winter
home at Maitland (1880s, 1890s); science vs. religion (1880s); conflict between
the Anglican churches in England and Scotland over usages in prayer and
communion (1884-1886, 1889-1891); Protestant Episcopal liturgy, lay baptism, and
the proposed modification of the seniority system in choosing the presiding
bishop (1889-1891); and the centenary celebration of the Church Missionary
Society of England (1899).
Correspondents: Church Affairs
Correspondent
Episcopate
Years
Anderson, David
Bishop of Rubert’s Land, 1849-1864
1861-1864
Armitage, William Edmond
Assistant Bishop and Bishop of Wisconsin,
1866-1873
1866-1872
Barker, William Morris
Bishop of Western Colorado, 1893; Missionary
Bishop of Olympia, 1894-1901
1892-1893, 1900
Beckwith, John Watrous
Bishop of Georgia, 1868-1890
1883
Bedell, Gregory Thurston
Assistant Bishop and Bishop of Ohio,
1859-1889
1860-1889
Brewer, Leigh Richmond
Missionary Bishop of Montana, 1880-1916
1882-1887, 1900
Brooks, Phillips
Bishop of Massachusetts, 1891-1893
1891 (copies)
Brown, John Henry Hobart
Bishop of Fond du Lac, 1875-1888
1877-1882
Burgess, Alexander
Bishop of Quincy, 1878-1901
1882-1884, 1900
Burgess, George
Bishop of Maine, 1847-1866
1859, 1864
Clark, Thomas March
Bishop of Rhode Island, 1854-1903
1860-1884, 1900
Clarkson, Robert Harper
Bishop of Nebraska, 1865-1883
1856-1883
Cotterill, Henry
Bishop of Edinburgh, 1871-1886
1882-1884
Courtney, Frederic
Bishop of Nova Scotia, 1888-1904
circa 1900-1901
Coxe, Arthur Cleveland
Bishop of Western New York, 1865-1896
1860-1888
Davidson, Randall Thomas
Dean of Windsor, 1883-1891; Bishop of Rochester
[England], 1891-1895
1883-1891, 1894?
De Lancey, William Heathcote
Bishop of Western New York, 1839-1865
1849-1862
Doane, William Croswell
Bishop of Albany, 1869-1913
1878-1884, 1893-1900
Douglas, Arthur G.
Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney,
1883-1906.
1886, 1891
Dudley, Thomas Underwood
Bishop of Kentucky, 1875-1904
before 1893?, 1893-1896
Dunn, Andrew Hunter
Bishop of Quebec, 1892-1914
1892-1897
Edsall, Samuel Cook
Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, 1899-1901;
Coadjutor Bishop of Minnesota, 1901
1898-1901
Gilbert, Mahlon Norris
Assistant [Coadjutor] Bishop of Minnesota,
1886-1900
1882-1890, 1898-1899
Gray, William Crane
Missionary Bishop of Southern Florida, 1893-ca
1914
1893-1900
Gregg, Alexander
Bishop of Texas, 1859-1892
1865-1866, 1884, 1889
Hale, Charles Reuben
Bishop of Cairo [Illinois], 1892-1900
1896, 1900
Hare, William Hobartund
Missionary Bishop of Niobrara, 1873-1883; Bishop
of South Dakota, 1883-1909
1865, 1871-1887
Harris, Samuel Smith
Bishop of Michigan, 1879-1888
1882, 1887
Hopkins, John Henry
Bishop of Vermont, 1832-1868
1864-1868
Horden, John
Bishop of Moosonee, 1872-1893
1892
How, William Walsham
Bishop of Bedford, 1879-1888
1884
Huntington, Frederic Dan
Bishop of Central New York, 1869-1904
1862-1873, 1884, 1899
Kemper, Jackson
Bishop of Wisconsin, 1854-1870
1857-1864
Kerfoot, John Barrett
Bishop of Pittsburgh, 1866-1881
1867, 1870, 1878, 1880
Kip, William Ingraham
Bishop of California, 1853-1893
1852?, 1866-1880, 1889
Knickerbacker, David Buel
Rector, Minneapolis, 1856-1883; Bishop of
Indiana, 1883-1894
1859-1885
Lawrence, William
Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893-1926
1888-1893, 1900
Lee, Alfred
Bishop of Delaware, 1841-1887
1871, 1885-1886
Lee, Henry Washington
Bishop of Iowa, 1854-1874
1864, 1867, 1873
Leonard, William Andrew
Bishop of Ohio, 1889-1930
1878, 1885, 1900
Littlejohn, Abram Newkirk
Bishop of Long Island, 1869-1901
1879-1900
McIlvaine, Charles Pettit
Bishop of Ohio, 1832-1873
1866, 1872
Machray, Robert
Bishop of Rupert’s Land, 1865-1904
1865-1901
Millspaugh, Frank Rosebrook
Rector in Brainerd and Minneapolis, Bishop of
Kansas, 1895-1916
1887, 1895, 1896
Morris, Benjamin Wistar
Missionary Bishop of Oregon & Washington,
1868-1880; of Oregon, 1880-1906
1863, 1872-1886
Morrison, James Dow
Missionary Bishop & Bishop of Duluth,
1897-1922
1899-1901
Neely, Henry Adams
Bishop of Maine, 1867-1899
1852-1866, 1884, 1893
Nichols, William Ford
Assistant Bishop & Bishop of California,
1890-1924
1893, 1897, 1900
Odenheimer, William Henry
Bishop of New Jersey, 1869-1874; of Northern
Diocese of New Jersey, 1874-1879
1871, 1877
Oxenden, Ashton
Bishop of Montreal, 1869-1878
1875, 1882
Paddock, Benjamin Henry
Bishop of Massachusetts, 1873-1891
1872-1883
Paddock, John Adams
Missionary Bishop of Washington Territory,
1880-1892; of Olympia, 1892-1894
1872, 1876, 1884
Paret, William
Bishop of Maryland, 1885-1911
1884, 1891, 1900
Perry, William Stevens
Bishop of Iowa, 1876-1898
1876-1884, 1893, 1898
Potter, Alonzo
Bishop of Pennsylvania, 1845-1865
1853, 1860-1861
Potter, Henry Codman
Assistant Bishop & Bishop of New York,
1883-1908
1863, 1872-1901
Potter, Horatio
Provisional Bishop & Bishop of New York,
1854-1887
1866-1883
Satterlee, Henry Yates
Bishop of Washington, 1896-1908
1895-1901
Seymour, George Franklin
Professor, General Theological Seminary,
1865-1879, Bishop of Springfield, 1878-1906
1868-1879, 1892, 1900
Smith, Benjamin Bosworth
Bishop of Kentucky, 1832-1884
1878-1880
Spalding, John Franklin
Bishop of Colorado, 1873-1902
1875-1887
Talbot, Joseph Cruikshank
Bishop of Indiana, 1860-1883
1864-1875
Temple, Frederick
Bishop of London, 1885-1897; Archbishop of
Canterbury, 1897-1902
1897
Thomas, Elisha Smith
Rector, Faribault, Minneapolis & St Paul,
1864-1887; Assistant Bishop and Bishop of Kansas,
1887-1895.
1865-1893
Tuttle, Daniel Sylvester
Missionary Bishop of Montana, Idaho, & Utah,
1867-1886; Bishop of Missouri, 1886-1923
1872-1900
Vail, Thomas Hubbard
Bishop of Kansas, 1864-1889
1878-1888
Walker, William David
Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, 1883-1896,
Bishop of Western New York, 1896-1917
1884-1888, 1896
Welles, Edward Randolph
Missionary, Red Wing, 1858-1874, Bishop of
Wisconsin, 1874-1888
1859-1888
Whitehead, Cortlandt
Bishop of Pittsburgh, 1882-1922
1882-1884
Whitehouse, Henry John
Bishop of Illinois, 1851-1874
1857-1872
Whittingham, William Rollinson
Bishop of Maryland, 1840-1879
1860-1872
Williams, John
Assistant Bishop & Bishop of Connecticut,
1865-1899
1864-1897
Worthington, George
Bishop of Nebraska, 1885-1908
1884-1893
Diocese of Minnesota
Most of Whipple’s correspondence regarding the diocese of Minnesota concerns
aspects of administration, particularly the recruitment and support of
clergymen, church building, church services, Whipple’s visitations and preaching
engagements, confirmations and baptisms, and finances. His diaries also concern
themselves primarily with his pastoral activities and the administration of the
diocese.
Perhaps the largest number of letters among Whipple’s correspondence are from
individuals and churches in the East who contributed money, clothing, books,
furniture and other goods to Whipple’s church work, Indian missions and diocesan
schools. In addition to hundreds of modest contributors, several philanthropist,
many of who were also Whipple’s personal friends, sent regular and substantial
donations. Among them were Isaac, Frances and Mathew Carey Lea; Junius S.
Morgan; George Cheyne Shattuck, who provided the first funds for the building of
Shattuck School; members of the Vanderbilt family; Mary Coles; Robert M. and
Ellen F. Mason of Boston; Robert B. Minturn of New York; and Augusta M. Shumway,
who contributed funds for several of the Seabury Mission buildings and endowed a
professorship at Seabury Divinity School.
The correspondence for the 1860s is concerned almost exclusively with Indian
affairs (discussed below) and with the building up of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Minnesota. It reflects the challenges and hardships, especially the
financial hardships, of church and missionary work in a sparsely settled
frontier region. Letters to and from Whipple (see also Letterbook 3) indicate
his constant concern with recruiting men suited to a missionary field and
spreading them widely enough to meet the need for church services, and reflect
his worry over how to provide living wages for his clergy, many of whom could
not be adequately supported either by their parishes or by the national church’s
Board of Missions. The correspondence shows how heavily he relied in these early
years upon benefactors in the East for support of missionaries and for funds to
build churches and the diocesan schools.
Other letters, particularly during the 1860s, discuss the organization of
parishes and include many deeds for newly-erected churches. The divisions within
the Episcopal church in Minnesota, which plagued Whipple upon his election as
bishop, are also expressed in the correspondence, particularly in 1859-1861 and
during the later 1860s.
During the 1870s and 1880s the correspondence indicates an increasingly settled
and stable condition in the diocese, as the church expanded its activities upon
a firmer foundation. Church building and services, recruiting and support of
clergymen, donations from Eastern benefactors, and financial support for
parishes continue to be emphasized. Christian education and improved church
buildings are discussed more, while clergy support and Whipple’s visitations to
the remote corners of the diocese are treated with less urgency. Other letters
are concerned with the celebration of the 20th (1879) and the 25th (1884)
anniversaries of Whipple’s election to the episcopate, a factional split in St.
Mark’s Church in Minneapolis (1880), St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Paul
(1879-1880), diocesan landholdings (late 1880s), and George Clinton Tanner’s
proposed history of the Diocese of Minnesota (1889).
Correspondence during the 1890s concentrates largely on contributions to
Whipple’s church work, affairs of the diocesan schools, Episcopal church work
among the Swedes in Minnesota, church building, diocesan landholdings and
finances, and the calling of ministers. Also discussed are the separation of the
Diocese of Duluth from the Diocese of Minnesota (1895); the 1895 General
Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held in Minneapolis (see also
newspaper clippings, 1895); construction of St. Clement’s Church in St. Paul,
designed by Cass Gilbert (1895); celebration of the 40th anniversary of
Whipple’s election to the episcopate (1899); and the Church Deaconess Home
Association in St. Paul (1900). The years 1900-1901 show another concentration
of letters regarding Whipple’s pastoral activities, when he resumed active
management of all diocesan affairs after the death of his coadjutor bishop,
Mahlon N. Gilbert.
Printed copies of many of Whipple’s major sermons and addresses during his
episcopate (1862-1901) are also included (boxes 31-32 and 46).
Papers concerned with the
diocesan schools -- Seabury Divinity School, Shattuck School, and St. Mary’s
Hall -- and the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior begin soon after Whipple’s
election to the episcopate, when he began to plan the creation of a cathedral
and a diocesan college. Construction of the cathedral is mentioned in the
correspondence of the 1860s; volume 59 contains accounts of expenditures for the
construction. Discussion of the schools’ affairs, including letters from their
professors and officers, continues throughout the papers. It concentrates on
financial support through donations and endowments, recruitment of teachers and
pupils, constructions of new buildings, administration of the schools, and their
curricula. Among other topics discussed are school life (especially 1886-1887)
and dress regulations at St. Mary’s Hall, the assignment of army officers to
Shattuck School as military science instructors, financial problems after the
panic of 1873, the “insubordination” of students at the schools (1887-1888), a
controversy over teaching and governing policies at Seabury (1892), and
Seabury’s financial problems in the late 1890s. Occasional mention is also made
of the Breck School in Wilder, Minnesota, construction of the Bishop Whipple
School in Moorhead (1882-1883), and several proposals for educating Indian
children in church-sponsored schools. An article by Whipple entitled “The
History of the Schools at Faribault” (June 1883) is also included.
Two boxes of diocesan records (boxes 37-38) include lists of confirmands
(1859-1901), scriptural vows taken by candidates for the ministry (1878-1887),
and examination papers from Seabury Divinity School (1873).
Correspondents: Minnesota Episcopal Clergymen
Correspondent
Years
Allen, Thomas K.
1882, 1887, 1900-1901
Andrews, Charles Denison
1887, 1900
Appleby, Thomas Henry Montague Villiers
1882-1887, 1896
Batterson, Hermon G.
1863-1869
Benedict, Edwin
1880s
Booth, Daniel T.
1879-1900
Breck, James Lloyd
1855, 1861
Brown, Ella F. (Principal, St. Mary’s
Hall)
1887
Burleson, Solomon S.
1861-1873
Butler, Alford Augustus
1897-1901
Chapin, Densmore D.
1878-1882
Chapman, Joseph E.
1862-1870
Chase, George Leonard
1864-1883
Coer, Charles T.
1876-1879
Davis, George Henry
1876-1901
Dickey, Thomas E.
1868, 1876-1887, 1900
Dobbin, James
1869, 1870, 1881-1887, 1897
DuBois, George W.
1868, 1874
Enmegahbowh, John Johnson
undated, 1860-1902
Faudé, John Jacob
1890-1901
Gardam, William
1882-1893
Gear, Ezekiel Gilbert
1856-1869
Gilbert, Mahlon Norris
1882-1890, 1898-1899
Gilfillan, Joseph Alexander
undated, 1870-1899
Gunn, David Griffin
1880-1887
Haupt, Charles Edgar
1893, 1900-1901
Hills, Horace
1864-1882
Hinman, Samuel Dutton
1861-1889
Hoskins, Francis D.
1887-1888
Kedney, John Steinfort
1871-1899
Kelley, Charles Wallace
circa 1860-1868
Kittson, Henry
1879-1887
Knickerbacker, David Buel
1859-1885
Livermore, Edward
1860-1880
McMasters, Sterling Yancey
1868-1874
Manney, Solon W.
1860-1866, 1873?
Millspaugh, Frank Rosebrook
1887, 1895, 1896
Nichols, Harry Peirce
1892-1900
Officer, Harvey, Jr.
1899-1900
Olds, Mark L.
1859-1861
Palmer, Francis Leseure
1900
Paterson, Andrew Bell
1859-1875
Peake, Ebenezer Steele
1860-1866, 1878-1900
Plummer, Charles H.
1872-1879, 1887, 1900
Pope, William Cox
1866-1900
Purves, Stuart B.
1898-1900
Rollit, Charles C.
1893-1900
St. Clair, George Whipple
1871-1877
Seabrease, A. W.
circa 1872-1873, 1880-1881
Slattery Charles Lewis
1890s, 1901
Smith, Frederick Willis
1879-1882, 1903
Sterrett, J. Macbride
before 1887, 1887, 1892
Stowe, Andrew David
1870s?, 1880-1887, 1897-1901
Tanner, George Clinton
1865-1901
Ten Broeck, William P.
1874-1880, 1899-1900
Thomas, Elisha Smith
1865-1893
Thurston, Theodore Payne
1890-1901
Toffteen, Olof A.
1892-1901
Van Ingen, John Visger
undated, 1859-1861, 1872
Waterbury, J. H.
1861-1864
Welles, Edward Randolph
1859-1888
Whipple, George Brayton
1865-1873, 1881
White, John Hazen
1891-1894
Wilcoxson, Timothy
1863-1870, 1878
Wilson, Arthur J[ames?]
1873-1874, 1888
Wilson, E. Stuart
1879, 1885, 1887
Wright, Charles
1887, 1892
Indian Affairs
Next to the growth and administration of the Diocese of Minnesota, the major
concentration of Whipple’s papers is on Indian affairs. He carried on an
extensive correspondence with government officials and with people concerned
with the Indians’ welfare, particularly during the 1860s and 1870s when the need
for drastic reform seemed most obvious. They wrote to him about the United
States government’s Indian policy and suggestions for its reform, the
appointment of Indian agents, allegations of dishonesty among agents and other
government employees on the reservations, removals of the Sioux and other
Indians, treaty provisions, land and timber sales, the whiskey trade, plans to
“civilize” the Indians and teach them agriculture and industrial skills,
missionary work among various tribes, and attempts to obtain investigations of
treaty violations and to lobby in Congress on behalf of the Indians. An
occasional letter expresses views on the Indians’ possessory right to their land
and timber, and their status as United States citizens.
Whipple’s correspondents included William Welsh; Herbert Welsh, and other members
of the Indian Rights Association, particularly during the 1890s; Benjamin
Hallowell of the Baltimore Friends’ Standing Committee on the Indian Concern
(1866-1869); members of the Protestant Episcopal Church’s Indian Commission
(1870s); several of the Sioux and Chippewa Indians of Minnesota and Dakota; and
members of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners. He received
expressions of support from many Episcopal bishops and clergy, particularly
those who served in western dioceses and were familiar with the Indians’
problems, and from well-wishers in the East who sent contributions to his
missionary work. His occasional correspondence with Indian agents kept him
informed of events on reservations in other parts of the country as well as in
Minnesota.
Whipple also regularly exchanged letters with government officials in a position
to influence Indian policy: the Secretaries of the Interior, the Commissioners
of Indian Affairs, army officers, Congressmen and other men prominent in public
life, particularly Minnesota’s Henry H. Sibley and Henry M. Rice. With them he
discussed official Indian policies as they affected the Indians of both
Minnesota and the nation as a whole, specific policies and directives regarding
the Sioux and Chippewa, proposals for reform, allegations of official
misconduct, and appointment of Indian agents. On several occasions he appealed
to the President of the Untied States, particularly to President Lincoln.
General William T. Sherman, whom Whipple respected as a personal friend despite
their differences of opinion on Indian policy, expresses his views on Indians in
letters of February 1877 and December 1878.
Whipple’s own writings reflect his concern for the physical welfare and the
spiritual salvation of the Indians of Minnesota and the West, and his desire to
see them given just treatment and an honest system of administration. His
letterbooks of 1860-1864 and 1870 (letterbooks 3-7) include many letters both to
government officials and to private citizens expressing his anguish over the
degraded conditions of the Chippewa and Sioux in Minnesota, his indignation at
the injustice and indifference they were suffering at the hands of white traders
and government agents, and his faith in their ability to respond to missionary
efforts in their behalf by becoming useful Christian citizens.
Also among the papers are four of Whipple’s major articles on Indian affairs:
“The duty of Citizens Concerning the Indian Massacre,” (1862, in letterbook 3),
in which he discusses the causes of the Sioux Uprising; “A Report on the Moral
and Temporal Condition of the Indians” (1868, volume 65), commissioned by the
Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church; “The True Policy Toward
the Indian Tribes” (1877); and the “The Present Montana Indian War” (1877),
prompted by the Nez Perce war of that year. Several minor articles, a few
scattered letters from other years, and the many letters written to him
regarding Indian affairs also indicate his opinions.
Whipple’s writing shows that his attitude toward the Indian was that of much of
the liberal clerical thought of his day, reflecting current concepts of
civilization and the proper approach to an alien people. He viewed the Indian as
a naturally noble and innately decent human being, heathen in religion and
degraded by the white man’s treatment of him, but capable, if treated justly, of
becoming civilized through adoption of Christianity and of the white man’s
culture and values. To this end, he emphasized the urgent need for Christian
missions to all tribes, vocational education for Indians, agricultural
assistance, and adoption of the white man’s way of life and style of dress. A
letter to H. H. Montgomery, Bishop of Tasmania (July 1, 1901) gives an
especially full statement of his views on the intellectual and moral capacities
of the Indian in comparison to the Negro, and on interracial marriage.
During the months following the Sioux Uprising of 1863 in Minnesota, Whipple
wrote many letters placing the burden of guilt for the massacre on the United
States Indian policies and pleading for moderation in the trial and punishment
of the guilty Sioux (letterbooks 3 and 4). Although his incoming correspondence
for this period contains frequent mention of the uprising, it contains few
letters representative of the hostility that Whipple’s position aroused in many
people. Letters during this period and for several years afterward, including
letters from many Sioux, discuss the causes and effects of the uprising, the
trial and punishment of the guilty Sioux (1863), removal of the Sioux from
Minnesota to Dakota (1863-1864), means of providing for their welfare, and
appropriations for annuity payments, for relief to the destitute, and for
compensation to those Sioux who served with the United States Army or otherwise
helped to save the lives of settlers during the uprising.
Whipple’s interest in the Sioux continued after their expulsion from Minnesota.
Periodic correspondence, until 1901, continues to deal with remuneration and
economic assistance for the loyal Sioux and their descendants, as well as with
the administration of the Sioux agencies in Dakota Territory. During the 1860s
and 1870s there are occasional letters from Samuel D. Hinman, who was appointed
missionary to the Sioux at Minnesota’s Lower Agency in 1860 and who accompanied
them in their exile to Dakota. He describes the generally wretched living
conditions at the new agency, difficulty in obtaining adequate annuity payments,
education, and agricultural progress.
An act of Congress of July, 1868, appropriated funds for the purchase and
distribution of supplies to the Sisseton and Wahpeton Sioux at Devil’s Lake and
Lake Traverse, in Dakota Territory, and authorized Whipple to carry out the
provisions of the act. Many of Whipple’s papers from August, 1868, to mid-1870
consist of correspondence, receipts and accounts regarding his activities,
assisted by Dr. Jared W. Daniels, in fulfilling this assignment. Other letters
discuss expansion of aid to other Sioux bands and Dr. Daniel’s appointment as
agent to the Sisseton and Wahpeton (July 1869).
The proposed transfer of the Office of Indian Affairs from the Department of the
Interior to the War department is a subject of periodic discussion from 1868 to
1878, particularly during the years 1876-1878. Whipple and his friends opposed
this plan, fearing that to place the Indians under the jurisdiction of a
military department would be tantamount to maintaining a state of perpetual war
and would preclude any attempt at effective assimilation and education of the
Indians.
A few comments during the 1870s reveal the growing hostility of the prairie Sioux
which culminated in the Sioux War of 1876. Two letters written by Whipple for
newspaper publication (March and May, 1876) predict the war, blaming the
Indians’ hostility on treaty violations by whites. Correspondence and diary
entries from August to December 1876, and a few letters early in 1877, discuss
the war and the work of the Sioux Commission, appointed to negotiate the cession
of the Black Hills. Some letters from October 1876 though 1877 are concerned
with the disarming of the Sioux, their resettlement on a new reservation near
the Missouri River, and the justice of the United States’ Indian policy as
reflected in its relations with the Sioux.
The correspondence for the 1880s and 1890s contains more references to Indians in
other states: living conditions, agency administration, education, atrocities
and maltreatment by the United States army and government, and appeals for
aid.
In the late 1870s, some of the Sioux who had been expelled from the Lower Sioux
Agency in 1862 began to return to the area. Good Thunder and others bought land
and settled in the vicinity of Birch Coulee, and in the later 1880s a government
appropriation permitted the purchase of land in Redwood County for what was
called the Lower Sioux Community. In 1886[?], following his removal from the
Niobrara mission, Samuel D. Hinman was employed as a temporary teacher at the
Birch Coulee settlement. He remained there until his death in 1890. During this
period his frequent letters to Whipple discuss the relocation of several Sioux
families onto lands in Minnesota, the growth and development of the settlement,
construction of a school and other buildings, living conditions, agriculture,
and education. After Hinman’s death, a few letters from R. V. Belt (1890), R. B.
Benton (early 1890s), Good Thunder, Charles E. Flandrau (1892), and Elisha
Whittle set (1895-1896) also mention the settlement.
Whipple was also deeply interested in plans for educating Indians, particularly
in the establishment of vocational and industrial schools. In addition to
correspondence regarding the education of the Chippewa in Minnesota (see below)
and Hinman’s work among the Sioux, he received a few letters from missionaries
and teacher from various schools and reservations throughout the country,
describing their educational efforts. Occasional exchanges of letters between
Whipple and Captain R.H. Prate, superintendent of the United States Indian
School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, discuss the condition of the Kiowa, Cheyenne,
and Arapaho prisoners under his supervision at Fort Marion, St. Augustine,
Florida (1876); his plans for educating them and his efforts to have some sent
to Faribault (1878); and the educational programs of Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute (1878) and Carlisle (1879, 1882). Some of the Indian
students at these schools also wrote to him.
Other educational activities include: education of Indians at Shattuck School and
Seabury Divinity School; S.C. Armstrong’s recommendations for educating girls as
well as boys (August 1878); proposals for establishing an Episcopalian Indian
school at Fort Ripley (1882-1883); a proposal to establish a school for Indian
girls in Faribault (1884); proposed school for Dakota Indians (1886); proposed
Indian Industrial School at Lapway, Idaho (1889); and Indian training schools in
North Dakota and Wisconsin (circa 1889-1891, 1895).
Additional topics relating to Indian affairs which are briefly mentioned in the
papers include: land cessions by Indians outside of Minnesota and the Dakotas;
several of the Lake Mohonk Conferences of Friends of the Indian (1884, 1893,
1897); atrocities committed by the United States Army against Indians, including
a massacre of Apache children in 1872 or 1873 (1896); the report to the
President of the Indian Peace Commission (January 1868); the work of the United
States Board of Indian Commissioners (1870, 1871, 1880, 1890s); the work of the
Protestant Episcopal Church’s Indian Commission (circa 1872-1874, 1881); the
Modoc War (1873); campaigns against the Cheyenne (January 1877); letters from
Helen Hunt Jackson as she was preparing her book, A Century of Dishonor (1880);
a possible railroad route through the Sioux reservation (1880); removal of the
Turtle Mountain Indians from their land in Dakota (1882, 1900); education of the
Arapaho missionary, Sherman Coolidge (1877-1882), and his expulsion from the
Shoshone Agency, Wyoming (1887); the platform of the Indian Land Adjustment
League (1895); erection of a monument to the loyal Sioux (1899); and affairs of
various western tribes, including the Utes in Colorado (July 1870), the Oneida
in Wisconsin (1877, 1895, 1896), the Nez Perce in Idaho (1877, 1889), the
Seminole in Florida (1891-1897, with letters from James E. Ingraham and William
Crane Gray), the Menarche in Washington (1895), and the Navajo (1895).
There are also a few newspaper clippings on Indian affairs (box 35).
Consult the correspondent list for names of the United States Secretaries of the
Interior and Commissioners of Indian Affairs with whom Whipple most frequently
corresponded.
Correspondents: United States Secretaries of the Interior
Correspondent
Term
Years
Browning, Orville Hickman
September 1866-March 1869
1866-1869
Cox, Jacob Dolson
March 1869-October 1870
1869-1870
Delano, Columbus
November 1869-October 1875
1871-1884
Harlan, James
May 1865-July 1866
1864-1869
Lamar, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus
March 1885-January 1888
1886
Schurz, Carl
March 1877-March 1881
1877-1880
Smith, Caleb Blood
March 1861-January 1863
1862
Smith, Hoke
March 1893-September 1896
1862
Teller, Henry Moore
April 1882-March 1885
1882
Usher, John P.
January 1863-May 1865
1863
Vilas, William Freeman
January 1888-March 1889
1888-1889
Correspondents: United States Commissioners of Indian Affairs
Correspondent
Term
Years
Atkins, John DeWitt Clinton
Commissioner, 1885-1888
1886, 1888
Belt, R. V.
Acting Commissioner, 1890
1890
Browning, D. M.
Commissioner, 1893-1897?
1893, 1897
Copley, D. N.
Commissioner, 1865-February 1867
1866
Dole, William P.
Commissioner, 1861-1865
1863-1864
Hoyt, E. A.
Commissioner, 1877-January 1880
1879
Jones, W. A.
Commissioner,
1897-circa 1905, 1899, 1901, 1903
Mix, Charles E.
Acting Commissioner, 1867-1868
1867, 1868
Morgan, Thomas Jefferson
Commissioner, July 1889-1893
1891-1892
Oberly, John H.
Commissioner, 1888-1889
1889
Parker, Ely S.
Commissioner, 1869-July 1871
1869
Price, Hiram
Commissioner, 1881-1885
1882-1884
Smith, Edward Parmelee
Commissioner, 1873-1875
undated, 1873-1875
Smith, John Quincy
Commissioner, 1876-1877
1876-1877
Smith, Thomas P.
Acting Commissioner, 1895
1895
Tanner, A. C.
Acting Commissioner, 1901
1901
Taylor, Nathaniel Green
Commissioner, March 1867-April 1869
1867-1869
Upshaw, A. B.
Acting Commissioner, 1885-1887
1885-1887
Van Valkenburgh, Robert Bruce
Acting Commissioner, 1865
1865
Walker, Francis A.
Commissioner, 1872-1873
1872
Chippewa of Minnesota
Whipple tried to keep in close touch with Chippewa affairs on Minnesota’s three
main reservations, White Earth, Red Lake and Leech Lake, and with the outlying
bands at Lake Winnibigoshish and Cass Lake. He made summer visitations to the
Chippewa reservations and settlements during most of the years of his
episcopate. John Johnson Enmegahbowh, Chippewa deacon and later priest, whom
Whipple met on his first visitation to Chippewa country, and Joseph Alexander
Gilfillan, who was the Episcopal missionary to the Chippewa from 1873-1898, were
his regular correspondents. They kept him informed about health and living
conditions among the Chippewa, their progress in education and Christianity,
agriculture on the reservations, Chippewa attitudes toward treaties and annuity
payments, administrative problems, conflicts with Indian agents and other
government employees, aid to destitute Indians, illicit whiskey trade, and
appropriations of money for the Chippewa. Many of Enmegahbowh’s letters are
eloquent pleas for help to a people forced into an alien way of life, and
expressions of his hopes and fears for their souls and their future. Letters
from other Chippewa present their problems, ask Whipple’s advice, and request
aid in the form of money, clothing, agricultural supplies, teachers and
missionaries. They occasionally express opinions on the right of mixed blood
Chippewa to government annuity payments and reservation land. Whipple’s
extensive correspondence with the United States Secretaries of the Interior and
Commissioners of Indian Affairs, Indian agents, politicians, and the many people
who sent donations for his missionary work also concentrates heavily on Chippewa
affairs.
Letters from 1862 to 1868 discuss the Sioux Uprising and the plight of the
Chippewa in its aftermath; treaties of 1863-1864 and 1867; Chippewa chief
Hole-in-the-Day’s opposition to new treaties (1862-1868); appointment of Joel B.
Basset as Chippewa agent (1866) and his allegedly dishonest conduct in office
(1867); relocation of the Gull Lake Chippewa at White Earth in 1867-1868; and
the death of Hole-in-the-Day (1868). An incomplete copy of Whipple’s diary of
August, 1862, describes his visitation to the Chippewa at Red Lake, and a few
notes describe another Chippewa visitation in 1866. Letters for 1869 discuss
Basset’s replacement as Chippewa agent.
The regulation of annuity payments to Minnesota’s Indians was one of Whipple’s
earliest concerns, and his correspondence during the 1860s mentioned his service
on several Boards of Visitors to the Chippewa, appointed to oversee the annuity
payments which usually took place in September or October of each year.
Chippewa affairs are a major subject of Whipple’s correspondence during the
1870s. It particularly emphasizes living conditions and agricultural progress,
development of the central Episcopal mission at White Earth Reservation,
Enmegahbowh’s ministry and the achievements of the White Earth Mission,
appointment of agents, relations of the Chippewa and the church with Indian
agents and government employees, and administration of funds appropriated for
the Chippewa’s benefit. Under United States Indian Office policy in the 1870s,
the Episcopal church took a direct interest in the administration of the White
Earth agency by recommending the appointment and replacement of agents at White
Earth. There is also information on the construction of buildings for the White
Earth agency and mission, particularly (1873-1874) the Bishop Whipple Hospital.
Later comments (1870s-1880s) suggest that the hospital failed to attract many of
the Indian sick.
The sale of the Pillager band’s pine lands at Leech Lake is also frequently
discussed, particularly in 1873 and 1874. Agent Edward P. Smith had contracted
with Amherst H. Wilder for the sale to Wilder of timber on the Leech Lake
Reservation, a transaction soon labeled fraudulent by friends of the Chippewa.
Wilder and Smith, federal government officials, Indians, and others concerned
about the legality of the contract discuss the negotiations with the Leech
Laker's, Smith’s character, and the nature of the Indians’ rights to land and
timber. Henry M. Rice is also accused of fraud in connection with the sale, and
a letter from Whipple to William Welsh in August, 1874, states that Whipple,
too, had been accused of condoning corruption in the agency’s
administration.
Other letters (circa 1873-1884) discuss the training, support, and assignments of
several young Chippewa divinity students, some of who were educated at Seabury
Divinity School, and Gilfillan’s plans to use them in expanding his missionary
and education work at the various reservations. A letter from Gilfillan of July
10, 1884, includes a list of the Chippewa clergy. Letters from Gilfillan,
Enmegahbowh, and Roman Catholic missionary Ignatius Tomaszin (1874-circa 1877)
reveal a sharp conflict between the Episcopal and the Roman Catholic missions
for both administrative and religious control of White Earth. Many letters,
beginning in the late 1870s, make apparent the often strained relationship
between Gilfillan, who appears determined to exercise his prerogatives as head
missionary, and Enmegahbowh, who was jealous of Gilfillan’s position.
During the late 1870s and the early 1880s, correspondence regarding the Chippewa
continues to stress living conditions, education and work of the Chippewa
missionaries, mission progress, agency and church buildings, annuity payments,
and agency administration. Health conditions on the reservations are more
frequently mentioned; Enmegahbowh speaks of the high death rate of starvation
among the Pembina Indians (1881-1882), and of his fears of a smallpox epidemic
during the winter of 1882-1883. Letters of 1879 and 1880 discuss W. Thornton
Parker’s appointment as head of the Bishop Whipple Hospital at White Earth, and
his subsequent quarrel with Gilfillan and expulsion from the reservation.
A major topic of discussion during the 1880s (particularly 1881-1886) is the
construction of dams and reservoirs on Leech Lake and Lake Winnebago shush.
Although the War Department had authorized payment for damages to private
property, the Chippewa first opposed the construction of the dams and then
refused to accept what they considered inadequate compensation. Gilfillan, Henry
H. Sibley, and William R. Marshall, commissioned to reassess the government’s
original evaluation of damages sustained by Indians, reported a higher
evaluation of damages and recommended annual compensatory payments. The letters
are concerned with construction of the dams, the extent of damage being done to
reservation land and to the wild rice crop, the work of the commission, and
other attempts to obtain reparations. They reflect the Chippewa’s almost
unanimous opposition to the dams.
Attempts by the United States Office of Indian Affairs to prohibit the Chippewa
from cutting dead and down reservation timber for sale was another topic of some
concern during the middle 1880s.
Throughout the 1880s the correspondence mentions proposals for consolidating the
Chippewa reservations in Minnesota and for dissolving tribal landholdings and
allotting the land to individuals. The Northwest Indian Commission (1886) and
the Chippewa Commission (1889) were authorized to negotiate the removal of all
Minnesota Chippewa to the White Earth and Red Lake reservations and the sale of
the abandoned reservations. The correspondence discussed their work, as well as
the subsequent removal of several bands of Chippewa to White Earth, the sale of
vacated reservation land and ceded pine lands, and the cession of part of the
Red Lake Reservation (1886-1891). The “Act for the Relief and Civilization of
the Chippewa Indians” (Nelson Act), which established the Chippewa Commission,
is criticized as being unjust to the Red Laker's and designed to favor lumber
interests and traders (1889).
During the late 1880s and early 1890s there is again considerable mention of
education and church services for the Chippewa, and the work of the native
missionaries (circa 1887-1894), and of competition with the Roman Catholics for
the loyalty of the Christian Indians (circa 1892-1894). In letters written
during 1890-1894, the period of the Ghost Dance movement, Enmegahbowh and
Gilfillan express considerable concern over the enthusiasm for dancing
manifested by the Chippewa, and over the gambling, the whiskey trade, and the
Indians’ neglect of their farms that accompanied their preoccupation with the
dances. The beginning of the lace-making industry among the Chippewa appears in
letters from Sybil Carter (1892-1893).
Most of Whipple’s correspondence regarding the Chippewa ceases after 1895, when
the diocese of Minnesota was divided and they were committed to the care of the
Bishop of Duluth. Several articles by Gilfillan about the Chippewa are present
(1896). During the last half of the decade, Enmegahbowh writes reminiscent
letters about his early years as a missionary, the growth of Episcopal religion
among the Chippewa, their relations with the United States government, and the
activities of Hole-in-the-Day during the 1860s. The several reminiscences among
the undated papers were probably also written during this period.
African-Americans
Occasional mention of African-Americans and of racial problems can be found
scattered among the papers. They include Whipple’s views on slavery,
African-Americans and Black culture in the South (see his “Southern Diary,”
1843-1844, volumes 9 and 10); two letters from Whipple’s uncle (1862) regretting
Whipple’s and Henry W. Halleck’s apparent indifference to the evils of slavery;
mention of a proposed school in Raleigh, North Carolina (1882); Whipple’s views
on African-Americans’ place in the church (1889); the contract labor system in
the South (1890); the demand of Black Episcopalians for African-American bishops
in the South (1897, in newspaper clippings, box 34); Whipple’s opinions on
African-American moral and intellectual qualities as compared to those of
Indians (1901); religious instruction in the South (1897); and missions to
African-Americans (previously noted ) in Florida (1892-1895) and in Minneapolis
and St. Paul (1900).
Private Affairs
Some of the letters and diary entries also relate to Whipple’s private affairs.
During each of his European trips there are letters from friends, particularly
in England, inquiring after his health and inviting him to their homes.
Letterbooks 5 and 6 contain copies of letters written by Whipple to his wife and
family during his travels in 1864-1865 and 1869-1870. He saved several letters
written by other bishops advising him regarding an offer of the bishopric of the
Sandwich Islands (1871). During the 1880s and 1890s, his winter residence in
Maitland, Florida, and the maintenance of his home and gardens there are
discussed, while other correspondence is concerned with his landholdings in
Florida and Minnesota. Occasional letters regarding the meetings and work of the
Peabody Fund trustees also appear throughout the papers.
Other letters discuss his fishing trips; his financial burdens after the death of
his father (see letterbook 3); the deaths of his son, John Hall Whipple (1878),
his son-in-law, H. A. Scandrett (1883), and his wife Cornelia (1890); a railroad
accident in which Whipple was involved (1886); the illness of his sister, Susan
Letitia Hill, with blood poisoning (1887); his trip to Canada and Alaska (1887);
the writing and publication of Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate
(1895-1900); and Whipple’s courtship and marriage to Evangeline Simpson
(1895-1896). During the 1890s, several reminiscent letters by Whipple, published
in The Churchman, are included. Volumes 56-64 are personal memoranda and account
books.
A typewritten copy of Whipple’s reminiscences, dictated by him to diocesan
registrar George C. Tanner in 1892-1893, and the manuscript of it are also among
the papers (boxes 32-33). Several biographical sketches, articles, memorial
addresses and newspaper clippings discuss his life and activities (box 34).
Miscellaneous
Additional miscellaneous topics mentioned briefly in Whipple’s correspondence
include the Civil War and its effects on the United States; politics and
Reconstruction during the 1860s; the Chicago fire (1871); relief activities
during Minnesota’s grasshopper plague (1874); the assassination of President
Garfield (September 1881); the question of whether to grant a pardon to the
Younger brothers (November 1886); repeal of a provision in the interstate
commerce bill granting half-rate railroad fares to ministers (1887); the
contract labor system in the South (1890); the Spanish-American War (1898); the
work of the National Civil Service Reform League (1880s); occasional mention of
the University of Minnesota; medical public health; and benevolent organizations
in Minnesota.
Correspondents: Minnesota
Correspondent
Years
Aldrich, Cyrus
1862
Andrews, Christopher Columbus
1868, 1869, 1880
Atwater, Isaac
1862-1874, 1882, 1883, 1896
Basset, Joel Bean
1867
Baxter, Hector
1896-1901
Beaulieu, Clement Hudon
1873-1885
Bonga, George
1863-1868, 1874
Brown, Joseph Renshaw
1864, 1868
Carter, Sibyl
1892-1893
Clark, Edwin
1865
Cole, Gordon Earl
1868, 1881
Crooks, William
1864, 1879
Dana, Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh
1856-1869
Daniels, Jared Waldo
1868-1877
Davis, Cushman Kellogg
1874, 1884, 1887, 1896
Dawson, William
1882, 1887
Donnelly, Ignatius
1864
Faribault, Alexander
undated, 1868
Flandrau, Charles Eugene
1892, 1897, 1900, 1901
Flat Mouth
1877-1883
Folwell, William Watts
1870-1883, 1905
Galbraith, Thomas J.
1862
Good Thunder
1862-1892
Grace, Thomas Langdon, Bishop of St. Paul
1862, 1863, 1868
Graves, Charles Hinman
1887
Hall, Osee Matson
1892, 1893, 1901
Hewitt, Charles Nathaniel
1872, 1880
Hill, James Jerome
1887, 1893
Hubbard, Lucius Frederick
1885
Hurd, Rukard
1893, 1894, 1900
Ireland, John, Archbishop of St. Paul
1890-1901
Jewett, Stephen
1887-1900, 1905
King, William Smith
1877
Leading Feather
1865, 1879, 1880, 1881
Lightner, William Hurley
1894, 1898-1901
Lochren, William
1887
McMillan, Samuel James Renwick
1881-1884
Madwaganominde
1864-1869, 1880, 1882
Manidowab, Isaac
1863-1868, 1882-1886
Marshall, William Rainey
1862, 1867, 1886
Matson, Hans
1880, 1882
Merriam, William Rush
1887
Meshakigishick (A. T. Twing)
undated, 1886, 1887
Miller, Stephen
1863
Nelson, Knute
1887, 1896
Northrop, Cyrus
1884, 1887
Officer, Harvey
1865-1898 (scattered)
Parker, W. Thornton
1879-1880
Ramsey, Alexander
1862-1873
Rice, Henry Mower
undated, 1861-1891
Riggs, Stephen Return
1879
Ripley, Christopher Gore
1865-1870
Ripley, Fanny (Mrs. Christopher Gore)
1867-1882
Ruffee, Charles A.
1867-1879
Sabin, Dwight May
1887
Sanborn, John Benjamin
1876, 1887, 1891, 1895
Shaydayence
undated, before 1880?, 1880-1885
Sheehan, Timothy J.
1885
Sibley, Henry Hastings
1861-1888
Simpson, James Hervey
1881
Stowe, Lewis
1877, 1880
Strait, Horace Burton
undated, 1882-1884
Sykes, George
1877
Taopi (Wounded Man)
1864-1869
Thompson, Clark W.
1861
Upham, Warren
1897-1899
Wahbonaquot (White Cloud)
1877?, 1882-1886
Washburn, William Drew
1882, 1884
Wells, Henry Titus
1862-1870
Wheelock, Joseph Albert
1874, 1877
Wilder, Amherst Holcomb
1868-1869, 1878, 1883, 1887
Wilder, Eli Trumbull
1866, 1872-1887, 1896-1901
Williamson, Thomas Smith
1863, 1868
Wilkinson, Morton Smith
1862, 1863
Windom, William
1865, 1867, 1872, 1881, 1882
Wollaston, Percy
1876-1884, 1896
Woodbury, Joseph “Hole-in-the-Day”
1886
Wright, Sela Goodrich
1868, 1869, 1877, 1880
Correspondents: General
Correspondent
Years
Adams, Edward Dean
1866-1867
Appleton, William Henry
1891
Armstrong, Samuel Chapman
1878-1885
Aspinwall, William Henry
1865-1874
Astor, John Jacob
1872, 1873, 1885
Auchmuty, Ellen S.
1870-1871
Baldwin, Henry Porter
1879, 1881
Bayard, Thomas Francis
1887, 1888
Belknap, William Worth
1871, 1872
Bolles, James Aaron
1861-1872, 1884-1891
Brown, Joseph Emerson
1882
Brunot, Felix Reville
1864, 1870, 1876, 1877, 1883
Caird, Edward (Loch Long, Scotland)
1869, 1873, 1884-1887
Caird, James K.
1869, 1878-1899
Cameron, Angus
1876
Carder, J. Dixon
1864-1865
Cass, Lewis
1852
Cheney, Charles Edward
1874
Clark, John W.
1859-1866, 1878
Cleveland, Frances Folsom (Mrs. Grover)
1895
Cleveland, Rose Elizabeth
1895
Coit, Henry Augustus
1873-1877, 1890
Coles, Mary (Mrs. S. L.)
1870s-1888, 1901
Congdon, Henry M., architect
1870-1872, 1875
Conkling, Roscoe
1872
Cooke, Jay
1867, 1872?, 1892
Coolidge, Sherman
1877-1887
Courtenay, William Ashmead
1892-1898
Crook, George
1876 (copy)
Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe (General Agent, Peabody
Fund)
1895-1901
Custer, George Armstrong
1870s (1 letter: copy)
Dawes, Henry Laurens
1887, 1890
Dix, John Adams
1851, 1859, 1860, 1870
Draper, William Franklin
1895
Drexel, Anthony Joseph
1886-1887
Dutton, Edward Payson
1884
Dyer, Heman
1872-1879, 1884, 1892
Eaton, John
1876
Edmunds, Newton
1876-1879
Fish, Hamilton
1872-1892
Fiske, Haley
1887
Forbes, Theodore Frelinghuysen
1883-1884
Gates, Merrill Edwards
1895, 1900
Gibbon, John
1876
Gilbert, Cass
1895
Gilman, Daniel Coit
1884, 1892
Gladstone, William Ewart
1897
Hale, Charles
1865, 1868
Hale, Edward Everett
1888
Hall, Charles, Henry
1861-1881, 1890
Halleck, Elizabeth (Mrs. Henry Wager)
1871-1877, 1883
Halleck, Henry Wager
1841, 1861-1864, 1868
Hallowell, Benjamin
1866-1869
Hay, John
1874, 1881-1888, 1896-1901
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard
1880, 1889, 1890
Hewitt, Abram Stevens
1885
Hoffman, Eugene Augustus
1861-1862, 1869-1882
Houston, Henry Howard
1883, 1885, 1892
Howard, Oliver Otis
1893-1894, 1897
Hungerford, Orville
1846, 1850
Jackson, Helen Hunt
1880
Jordon, David Starr
1901
Kenney, Edward
1871-1883
Lamont, Daniel Scott (Private Secretary to
President Cleveland)
1886
Langford, William
1887-1896
Larrabee, Charles F.
undated, 1886-1896
Lea, Frances
1868-1892
Lea, Isaac
1876-1879, 1885
Lea, Mathew Carey
1887, 1891-1897
Lear, Henrietta S. Sidney
1870-1873, 1888-1891
Leeds, George
1850, 1862, 1867-1881
Lincoln, Robert
1884
Low, Seth
1879
McAll, R. W. (Missionary, Paris)
1888, 1890
McClellan, George Brinton
1872, 1880
Mackay, M. (T.M.?)
1870-1875
McKinley, William
1896, 1897
Mansfield, L. Delos
1878-1883, 1887
Manypenny, George Washington
1876-1878, 1886
Mason, Ellen F.
1879-1892
Mason, Robert M.
1866-1878
Meade, George Gordon
1868
Miles, Nelson Appleton
1892
Minturn, Robert Bowne
1856, 1863-1869, 1877
Morgan, Frances Tracy (Mrs. J. Pierpont)
1885-1896
Morgan, Junius Spencer
Morgan, William F.
1866-1873, 1887
Muhlenberg, William Augustus
1858-1859
Neely, Albert E.
1856-1857, 1882
Newton, Richard Heber
1892
Norton, Charles Eliot
1864
Pettigrew, Richard Franklin
1882
Potts, William
1881
Prate, Richard Henry
1876-1882, 1896, 1901
Ponsonby, Henry (Private Secretary to Queen
Victoria)
1891
Reid, Whitelaw
1879
Rogers, William K. (Private Secretary to
President Hayes)
1877, 1880
Sargent, Homer E.
1880
Schofield, John McAllister
1868
Schultz, Sir John Christian
1888
Scott, Robert Nicholson
1872-1881
Seymour, Horatio
1856, 1864, 1868, 1873
Shattuck, George Cheyne
1859-1886, early 1890s?
Shaw, Albert Duane
1885, 1888
Sheridan Philip Henry
1876 (copy)
Sherman, William Tecumseh
1872, 1876-1877, 1883, 1888
Shumway, Augusta M.
1865-1883
Sibley, Hiram
1864, 1865
Sigourney, Lydia Howard Huntley
1861-1863
Smiley, Albert Keith
1884, 1893
Stanford, Leland
1884
Strong, Thomas Nelson
1887
Swift, John H.
1865-1870
Terry, Alfred Howe
1879
Thurber, Henry T. (Private Secretary to President
Cleveland)
1893, 1895
Townsend, Edward Davis
1872, 1873
Twing, Mary A.
1880s
Unionius, Gustaf
1858-1859, 1874, 1896, 1898
Vanderbilt, Cornelius
1879, 1886-1894
Villard, Henry
1882, 1884
von Zollikofer
1882-1887
Wagner, Cosima (Mrs. Richard)
1889
Waite, Morrison Remick
1875, 1880-1887
Washburn, Edward Abiel
1866-1878
Washington, Booker Taliaferro
1901
Welsh, Herbert
1888-1900
Welsh, John
1878, 1884
Welsh, William
1868-1876
Wheeler, Everett Pepperrell
1863, 1875, 1881, 1887
White, Andrew Dickson
1876, 1882
Whittle set, Elisha
1877, 1884, 1895-1901
Willard, Frances Elizabeth Caroline
1893
Wilcox, William H.
1881-1883
Winthrop, Robert Charles
1884
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ARRANGEMENT
The papers are organized into the following series:
Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers
Sermons and Addresses
Biographical Materials
Newspaper Clippings
Printed Materials
Diocesan Records
Letterbooks
Diaries
Cash Accounts
Reserve Items
Data Sheets
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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]
. Henry
B. Whipple Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional
examples.
Accession Information:
Accession numbers: 1752M; 1765F; 1768B; 1790A3; 1802F9; 1894; 2853; 3390; 3426;
3429; 3458; 3801; 3868; 3937; 5262; 5373; 5389; 6169; 6173; 6428; 6601; 8368;
8716; 8911; 8923; 10,990; 11,405; 11,419; 11,704; 11,988; 16,344
Processing Information:
Processed by: Lydia Lucas, March 1971; Monica Manny Ralston, 2009
Catalog ID number: 990017337130104294
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS
Location
Box
P823
undated and 1833-1855.
1856-February 1862.
March 1862-June 1864.
July 1864-March 1867.
April 1867-September 1868.
October 1868-May 1869.
June 1869-February 1870.
March 1870-December 1871.
undated and 1872-May 1873.
10
June 1873-October 1874.
11
November 1874-October 1876.
12
November 1876-March 1878.
13
April 1878-July 1879.
14
August 1879-October 1880.
15
November 1880-March 1882.
16
April 1882-August 1883.
17
September 1883-May 1885.
18
June 1885-January 1887.
19
February-June 30, 1887.
20
July 18, 1887-December 1888.
21
January 1889-December 1891.
22
January 1892-December 1894.
23
January 1895-March 1897.
24
April 1897-May 1898.
25
June 1898-May 1900.
26
June 1900-1934.
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SERMONS AND ADDRESSES
Location
Box
P823
27
Sermon notes, undated.
Sermons, fragments.
Sermons, undated.
28
Sermons, undated.
Sermons 1-162, 1848-1851.
29
Sermons 163-329, 1851-1853.
30
Sermons 331-473, 1853-1856.
31
Sermons 481-516, 1857-February 1859.
Sermons and addresses, April 1859-November 1883.
32
Sermons and addresses, 1884-1901.
Sermons and addresses, unidentified.
45
Volume 72. Biblical Passages and Sermon Notes, circa 1881-1883.
Volume 75. Notebook, undated.
Notes for speech or paper on England.
46
Volume 76. Manuscript sermons by the Right Rev. H.B. Whipple,
D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Minnesota presented by him to the Library of the
Bishop Seabury Divinity School, Faribault, [1888]-1889.
Project Canterbury sermon texts, July 3, 1888, April 30, 1889, October 2, 1889.
Printed from
Project Canterbury
www.anglicanhistory.org/usa/whipple/five/index.html
(accessed November 13, 2008).
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BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
Location
Box
P823
32
Personal reminiscences, 1892-1893.
33
Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate.
34
Biographical materials, undated and 1860’s-1931.
45
Volume 66. Passport, 1864.
Volume 67. Passport, March 28, 1870.
Volume 73. Address Book, undated.
Volume 74. Address Book, undated.
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NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS
Location
Box
P823
34
Clippings about Whipple, undated and 1863-1926.
35
Clippings of interest to Whipple, undated and 1867, 1890’s-1903.
Indians, undated and 1862-1902.
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PRINTED MATERIALS
Location
Box
P823
35
Protestant Episcopal Church, undated and 1841, 1865-1886.
36
Protestant Episcopal Church, 1887-1906.
45
Volume 65. Report on the Moral and Temporal Condition of the
Indians, 1868.
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DIOCESAN RECORDS
Location
Box
P823
37
List of confirmands, undated and 1853, 1859-1876.
38
List of confirmands, 1877-1901.
Scriptural vows, undated and 1878-1887.
Examination papers, 1873.
42
Volume 8. Wright, Benjamin. “A Syllabus of Texts proving the
Divinity of ...Christ,” undated.
45
Volume 68. Church Rituals, Forms, undated.
Volume 69. Hobart, John Henry. The Clergyman’s Companion [Prayer
Book, Protestant Episcopal Church], 1847.
Volume 70. Register of Services, 1853-1856, 1862.
Volume 71. Scriptural Vows, 1859-1877.
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LETTERBOOKS
Whipple’s Letterbooks (volumes 1-7) are in fragile condition, and many of the
letters are no longer legible. Typed copies have been made of Letterbooks
1-4, and part of Letterbook 5.
Location
Box
P823
39
Copies of Letterbooks:
Letterbooks 1 and 2, 1857-1859.
Letterbook 3, February 23, 1861-May 14, 1862.
40
Letterbook 3, June 26, 1862-August 11, 1864.
Letterbooks 4 and 5, October 1862-186?.
41
Volume 1. Letterbook 1, 1857, 1859.
Volume 2. Letterbook 2, July 12-30, 1859.
Volume 3. Letterbook 3, February 1861-August 1864.
Volume 4. Letterbook 4, October 1862-September 1864.
Volume 5. Letterbook 5, September 1864-April 1865.
Volume 6. Letterbook 6, October 1869-May 1870, November 1870.
42
Volume 7. Letterbook 7, September-October 1870.
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DIARIES
Most of Whipple’s diaries consist only of very brief notations of his daily
activities and comments on his health. An 1897 diary kept by Evangeline
Whipple is also included.
Location
Box
P823
42
Volume 8a. Whipple, George B. Notebook, 1868.
Volume 9. Diary, October 12, 1843-circa May 1844.
Whipple’s “Southern Diary.”
Volume 10. Diary, October 12, 1843-circa May 1844.
Typewritten copy, edited by Lester B. Shippee, 1934.
Volume 11. Diary, February 13-November 25, 1853.
Volume 12. Private Journal, No. 1, October 25-November 17, 1853.
Volume 13. Private Journal, No. 2, November 19, 1863-January 24, 1864.
43
Volume 14. Diary, 1856.
Volume 15. Diary, 1857.
Volume 16. Diary, 1859.
Volume 17. Diary, 1864.
Volume 18. Diary, 1865.
Volume 19. Diary, May 15-June 27, 1865.
Volume 20. Diary, 1866.
Volume 21. Diary, 1867.
Volume 22. Diary, 1868.
Volume 23. Diary, 1869.
Volume 24. Diary, 1870.
Volume 25. Diary, 1871.
Volume 26. Diary, 1872.
Volume 27. Diary, 1873.
Volume 28. Diary, 1874.
Volume 29. Diary, 1875.
Volume 30. Diary, 1876.
Volume 31. Diary, 1877.
Volume 32. Diary, 1878.
Volume 33. Diary, 1879.
Volume 34. Diary, 1880.
44
Volume 35. Diary, 1881.
Volume 36. Diary, 1882.
Volume 37. Diary, 1883.
Volume 38. Diary, 1884.
Volume 39. Diary, 1885.
Volume 40. Diary, 1886.
Volume 41. Diary, 1887.
Volume 42. Diary, 1888.
Volume 43. Diary, 1889.
Volume 44. Diary, 1890.
Volume 44a. Diary, 1890-1891.
Volume 45. Diary, 1891.
Volume 46. Diary, 1892.
Volume 47. Diary, 1893.
Volume 48. Diary, 1894.
Volume 49. Diary, 1895.
Volume 50. Diary, 1896.
Volume 51. Diary, 1897.
Volume 52. Diary, 1898.
Volume 53. Diary, 1899.
Volume 54. Diary, 1900.
Volume 55. Diary, Evangeline Whipple, 1897.
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CASH ACCOUNTS
Location
Box
P823
45
Volume 56. Cash Account Book, 1850-1852.
Volume 57. Receipt Book, 1864-1865.
Volume 58. Memoranda and Cash Account Book, 1864-1865.
Volume 59. Cathedral Building Account, 1866-1867.
Volume 60. Memoranda and Cash Account Book, 1880-1883.
Volume 61. Memoranda and Cash Account Book, circa 1880-1881, 1890-1891.
Volume 62. Memoranda and Cash Account Book, circa 1882.
Volume 63. Cash Account Book, 1884-1885?
Volume 64. Cash Account Book, 1887-1889.
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RESERVE ITEMS
Location
Reserve 3
Grant, Ulysses Simpson. Letter to H. B. Whipple, November 10, 1876.
He will be able to meet Bishop Whipple tomorrow morning.
Ibsen, Henrik und Frau. Letter to Mrs Whipple, January 11, 1889.
Responds to a note of greeting sent by Bishop and Mrs. Whipple. In
German.
Lincoln, Abraham. Letter to H. B. Whipple, March 27, 1862.
Acknowledges receipt of a letter by Whipple and states that the President
forwarded Whipple's concerns to the Secretary of the Interior.
Digital version
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Letter to H. B. Whipple, January 23, 1876.
Acknowledges receipt of a letter by Whipple.
Sherman, W. T. Letter to H. B. Whipple, April 6, 1883.
He will be unable to visit Faribault during his summer inspection trip.
Digital version
Sherman, W. T. Letter to H. B. Whipple, April 25, 1876.
Grants tacit consent for Captain Lancaster to remain another year as
military instructor at Shattuck School.
Digital version
Sherman, W. T. Letter to H. B. Whipple, February 25, 1877.
Lieutenant James M. Lancaster's tenure as Shattuck School military
instructor; survival of the fittest, and displacement of inferior races,
applies to Americans and Dakota.
Digital version
Sherman, W. T. Letter to Bishop Whipple, February 26, 1877.
Lieutenant Lancaster must resume active duty.
Digital version
Sherman, W. T. Letter to H. B. Whipple, September 19, 1872.
Has just returned from a long trip abroad. Captain Scott may remain at
Faribault to the end of the academic year. Glad you have the son of
General Halleck in your keeping.
Digital version
Washington, George. Signature. undated.
Authenticated by W. C. Benjamin, New York.
Whittier, John Greenleaf. Letter to my dear friends, undated.
Regrets he missed seeing them and asks can they call on him tomorrow.
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DATA SHEETS
Location
Box
P823
46
Data Sheets, 1971
Data sheets were prepared by the Minnesota Historical Society at the time
the collection was processed. These sheets further amplify the inventory
of the Whipple Papers.
Data sheets for each box note the topics which receive particular
emphasis within the papers found in that box. Data sheets for each
folder and volume pinpoint letters and documents of particular
interest.
The folder sheets are selective, concentrating on letters from prominent
public and political figures and from government officials, on documents
such as Indian treaties in which Whipple was interested, and on letters,
papers and volumes containing considerable information on particular
topics. Data sheets are also included for subject matter outside the
scope of Whipple’s major interests that are not mentioned in the
foregoing inventory.
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RELATED MATERIAL
Whipple’s official
diocesan
diaries
and a small quantity of his correspondence are found among the
papers of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of Minnesota. Additional Whipple
personal correspondence as well as papers relating to his children and grandchildren
are cataloged as the Whipple-Scandrett Family Papers. Two scrapbooks (1850-1932)
kept by Whipple and members of his family are also available on microfilm (call
number M179).
Whipple's photograph collection
is also available. These photographs
consist primarily of views of Native American Indians from the midwestern United
States. Minnesota views include people and buildings at Morton and Birch Coulee and
on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Other images focus on the Episcopal ministry
at these locations, Henry B. Whipple, his family and home, Reverend Henry Whipple
St. Clair, and the Shattuck and St. Mary’s schools in Faribault, Minnesota.
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