Note 213 — Chapter XXIV

Samson Occum, whom Lady Huntingdon considered one of the most interesting and extraordinary characters of her time, was born at Mohegan, near Norwich, Connecticut, about the year 1723. His parents, like other Indians, led a wandering life, depending chiefly upon hunting and fishing for subsistence. Not one then cultivated the land, and all dwelt in wigwams. None of them could read. During the religious excitement in America, about the year 1740, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Gilbert Tennant, and several other ministers, visited these Mohegan Indians, after which many of them used to repair to the neighbouring churches. Occum, at this period, became the subject of religious impressions, and was soon desirous of becoming the teacher of his tribe. In a year or two he learned to read the Bible. At the age of nineteen he went to the Indian school of Dr. Wheeloch, of Lebanon, and remained with him four years. He afterwards kept a school amongst the Indians for ten or eleven years; and was eventually ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery, in 1759, after which he became very zealous in preaching amongst the scattered remnants of the Mohegan Indians.