Steps were promptly taken to carry out the object aimed at by the projectors, and arrangements were made to construct a village upon Grape Island. The lumber for the buildings was obtained by cutting hemlock saw logs upon the rear part of Tyendinaga, by the river Moira, under the direction of Surveyor Emerson, which were floated down to Jonas Canniff’s saw mill, and there sawed into suitable pieces. These were again floated down in small rafts to the island. During the ensuing winter, the buildings not being as yet erected, a large number encamped upon Grape Island, while the rest went hunting, as usual. Instructions commenced immediately. Preachers visited them from time to time, and two interpreters. William Beaver and Jacob Peter taught them the Lord’s Prayer and Ten Commandments. In January the hunting party returned, and “a meeting, lasting several days, was held in the chapel in Belleville, to instruct them also.” “The tribe mustered about 130 souls, and the Society embraced every adult, about ninety persons.”
A branch of the tribe living in the rear of Kingston, forty in number, came in May, the following Spring, and joined those at the island, and became converts. In this month the buildings were commenced, and some land ploughed and planted. The condition of the people was every day improving. As many as 130 would assemble for worship. Their voices were melodious, and delightful was the singing. A school and meeting-house was built in July, 30 feet by 25 feet. William Smith was the first school-teacher, having thirty scholars in the day school, and fifty in the Sabbath school. The farming operations were under the superintendence of R. Phelps. The girls and women were instructed in knitting, sewing, making straw hats, and other work, by Miss E. Barnes.
“The public property of the Indians comprised a yoke of oxen, three cows, a set of farming tools, and material for houses, as lumber, nails and glass,—contributions of the benevolent. The improvements of the year were expected to cost £250, to be met by benevolence in the United States and Canada. In October, the meeting-house was seated, in connection with which was a room provided for a study and bed for the teacher. The bodies of eleven log houses were put up; eight had shingled roofs, and they were enclosed before winter.”—(Playter).
Soon after, a deputation from Grape Island visited York, with a deputation from Rice Lake, and the Credit Indians, to seek an audience with the Government. A council was held with the Government officers on the 30th January, 1828. The speeches were interpreted by Peter Jones. John Sunday, after referring to their conversion, and having settled by the Bay Quinté, said, “that when they considered the future welfare of their children, they found that the island they claimed would not afford them sufficient wood and pasture for any length of time, and that they had now come to ask their great father, the governor, for a piece of land lying near them.” “He then proceeded to ask the Government in what situation Big Island was considered; whether or not it belonged to the Indians? and, if it did, they asked their father to make those who had settled on it without their consent, pay them a proper rent, as they had hitherto turned them off with two bushels of potatoes for 200 acres of land. In the last place, he asked permission of their great father to cut some timber on the King’s land for their buildings.”—(Peter Jones).
In April of this year, Mr. Case, with John Sunday and Peter Jacobs, attended the anniversary of the Missionary Society in New York. The manifestation of Christianity displayed by these sons of the forest touched the hearts of the people present, and led to a considerable augmentation of the contributions previously supplied by private individuals. They visited other parts of the United States, and returned to the bay, May 12, “accompanied by two pious ladies, Miss Barnes, and Miss Hubbard.” “The ladies came with the benevolent design of assisting the Indians in religion, industry, and education.”
“In the tour Mr. Case received many presents of useful articles for the Indians; and among the rest ticking for straw beds. This was divided among twenty families, and made the first beds they ever slept upon.” Among the conversions of this year, was an Indian woman, practising witchcraft, as the people believe, and a Roman Catholic.
The people were not only persevering in religious duties, but made progress in industry. Mr. Case collected the Indians together one evening, to show what they had manufactured in two weeks. They exhibited 172 axe handles, 6 scoop shovels, 57 ladles, 4 trays, 44 broom-handles, 415 brooms. “The Indians were highly commended for their industry, and some rewards were bestowed to stimulate greater diligence.”—(Playter).
According to the Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, there were “two hundred and twenty natives under the Christian instruction of one missionary, one hundred and twenty of whom are regular communicants, and fifty children are taught in the schools.” Lorenzo Dow visited Grape Island, and writing July 29, 1829, says, “viewing the neatness and uniformity of the village—the conduct of the children even in the streets—and not a drunkard to be found in their borders. Surely what a lesson for the whites!”
The other communities of the Mississaugas that came under the religious teaching of the Methodists are the River Credit Indians, the Rice Lake Indians, and those at Schoogog, Simcoe, and the Thames River.
When the Indians from the Bay Quinté, and from Kingston, left Grape Island, they removed to Alnwick. A Report on Indian Affairs, of 1858, says, “they have now a block of land of 2000 acres divided into 25 acre farms.”