The Eleazer Williams papers document some aspects of Williams' early life and education; his missionary activities among the Oneida Indians in New York; his efforts to secure land for the Oneida Indians in Wisconsin; his relationship with land companies, French fur traders, government and church officials, and official councils of the Oneida Tribe; his repudiation by the Oneida Indians in 1832; and the “lost dauphin” controversy. They also include some clippings about Williams, materials collected by him primarily concerning his New England Puritan ancestors, and some printed materials from his library. The papers are arranged in three series: Materials by Williams, 1800-1856; Papers about Williams, 1819-1964; and Materials Collected by Williams, 1634-1880.
The MATERIALS BY WILLIAMS include his correspondence, most of which is arranged in two parallel chronological files. The first file of correspondence is from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin's original collection while the second is from the Neville Public Museum. The two files are similar in all other respects. The correspondence concerns some aspects of Williams' education, his attempts to secure land in Wisconsin for the New York Indians, his connections with the Ogden Land Company and several French fur traders, his relationship with the Protestant Episcopal Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society and with government officials, his contact with relatives, and his repudiation by the Oneida Indians. Much of the later correspondence pertains to the “lost dauphin” controversy. Among the correspondence are letters to John C. Calhoun, Bishop Henry Onderdonk, Bishop Jackson Kemper, and Eleazer Root concerning missionary activities and Indian affairs; correspondence with Deacon Nathaniel Ely and Albert G. Ellis; and several letters to the chiefs and warriors of some of the New York Indian tribes. Some of the letters are handwritten copies; many are rough drafts which lack date and name of correspondent in many cases. The correspondence on microfilm consists of a letter to Williams from Aaron Burt, 1802; several letters pertaining to relocation of the Oneida Indians in 1822; a letter to Mary Williams, 1838, pertaining to Williams' travels and to their son, John L. Williams; and a letter to General William Dickinson, 1848, exposing Williams' opinion of the Masonic Lodge. The correspondence also includes the photocopies of 28 letters by Williams, 1822, 1838-47, relating to his work to secure better treatment for the Indians, copied from originals in the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library. Correspondents include P.R. Fendall, Morgan L. Martin, W. Medill, John Schermerhorn, and William Woodbridge.
The Materials by Williams also include his writings and speeches. Included are undated autobiographies in rough draft for covering Williams' life to about 1833; manuscript copies of biographies of Eunice Williams and the Reverend John Williams; notes pertaining to the geography of the Great Lakes region; and undated historical notes covering the eleventh, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and 1811. The historical notes pertain primarily to exploration, trading, and missionary activities among the North American Indians, especially the Six Iroquois Nations, and to the French monarchy. Among the journals are two fragments from Williams' diary, which discuss his meeting with Prince de Joinville in 1841 and the possibility of his being the “lost dauphin” in 1848. Sermons and notes comprise the bulk of Williams' writings and speeches. Most of the sermons and notes are in English and written in Williams' hand, but many probably are copies of sermons delivered by his clerical ancestors and some are translations from French. There are occasional sermons in an Indian language, presumably Mohawk or Iroquois, as well as some in other handwritings. The miscellaneous documents consist of indexes of sermons and catalogs of personal libraries in English and French, several manuscript song books, and a few notes. The undated speeches appear to have been addressed to the Oneida Indians concerning preparations for their removal to Wisconsin, the threat of white settlers to the Indians, and the “grounds and reasons which moved the Right Rev. Jackson Kemper to censure and forbid the speaker to perform his ministerial functions in Wisconsin in 1842.” The speech on microfilm is a patriotic address to “friends and fellow citizens,” July 4, 1823.
Copies of some of Williams' published works are filed among the printed materials with the Materials Collected by Williams. These include a spelling book in Iroquois, 1820; a Mohawk or Iroquois translation of The Book of Common Prayer, 1875; and copies of two pamphlets by Eleazer Williams, one entitled Prayers for Families and for Particular Persons translated into the language of the Six Iroquois Nations from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer in 1816 and the other entitled The Salvation of Sinners through the Riches of Divine Grace consisting of two homilies delivered to an audience of Oneida Indians in 1841.
In the PAPERS ABOUT WILLIAMS, the correspondence consists of a letter to Lyman Draper from Henry Baird, December 17, 1869, in which Baird discussed his acquaintance with Williams and enclosed a petition by Williams for membership in the Menominee Lodge dated October 7, 1824, in which Williams stated that his birth place was Sault St. Louis; a letter to Draper from C.C. Trowbridge, September 24, 1872, in which Trowbridge discussed his trip to Green Bay with the Williams party in 1821; a letter to Draper from Morgan L. Martin concerning the disposition of the Williams papers following Mrs. Williams' death in 1886; and letters from a few other acquaintances of Williams, including Albert G. Ellis. The most notable item among the materials about Williams is a manuscript by Ellis entitled “Recollections of Many Years of Acquaintance with the Rev. Eleazer Williams,” 1879, in which Ellis detailed Williams' dream of building an Indian empire in Wisconsin and the peculiarities of his personality. A version of this manuscript was published in Wisconsin Historical Collections,nce consists of a letter to Lyman Draper from Henry Baird, December 17, 1869, in which Baird discussed his acquaintance with Williams and enclosed a petition by Williams for membership in the Menominee Lodge dated October 7, 1824, in which Williams stated that his birth place was Sault St. Louis; a letter to Draper from C.C. Trowbridge, September 24, 1872, in which Trowbridge discussed his trip to Green Bay with the Williams party in 1821; a letter to Draper from Morgan L. Martin concerning the disposition of the Williams papers following Mrs. Williams' death in 1886; and letters from a few other acquaintances of Williams, including Albert G. Ellis. The most notable item among the materials about Williams is a manuscript by Ellis entitled “Recollections of Many Years of Acquaintance with the Rev. Eleazer Williams,” 1879, in which Ellis detailed Williams' dream of building an Indian empire in Wisconsin and the peculiarities of his personality. A version of this manuscript was published in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, 1879. The scrapbook, compiled in 1853 and 1854 by Williams, contains articles about the “lost dauphin” controversy.
The MATERIALS COLLECTED BY WILLIAMS are arranged in four subseries: papers of relatives and acquaintances, American Indian materials, miscellaneous materials, and printed materials. Among the papers of relatives and acquaintances are a journal fragment of Albert G. Ellis, in which he described his travels to Green Bay and negotiation of a treaty with the Menominee and Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indians in 1822, and a journal, 1820-1822, of John Sargeant, a missionary and Indian agent among the Stockbridge Indians. Also included are papers from several of William's relatives. Most notable among these papers are a journal fragment, 1689, from the Reverend John Williams and an annotated copy of his diary, 1704, describing his capture and captivity following the Deerfield massacre; deeds and petitions pertaining to property and inheritance of Eleazer Williams' son, John L. Williams, and a manuscript entitled “Patrum Monumenta” containing the drawings and notices of some of the “most ancient and curious monuments in the old burying ground” in Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1837; diaries and a book of penmanship exercises of Mrs. Mary Williams; and journals, letter books, sermons, and notes from other ancestors in the Williams family, all of whom were New England ministers. Among these materials is a biography of Miss Eunice Williams by Solomon Williams, 1741.
The American Indian materials include a small amount of correspondence in Mohawk addressed to Lazar Onsarenhialei, Williams' Indian name. The two bound bilingual dictionaries in English and an Indian language may have been compiled by the Reverend Louis D. Schweinitz of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, whose name appears in both volumes. The Indian language documents, dictionaries, and bound manuscript are presumed to be in Mohawk or Iroquois. Among the treaties and land descriptions are copies of treaties with the Six Iroquois Nations, the Menominees, and Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) in Williams' handwriting. The American Indian materials on microfilm include an attendance record book for the St. Regis Indian School, July 1835, and a declaration of the Oneida chiefs and warriors refuting allegations that Williams had been supporting the Roman Catholic Church while working among the Oneida Indians in New York.
Most notable among the miscellaneous materials are the fur trade accounts and business papers, many of which are in French, pertaining to the activities of fur traders Louis Grignon, George W. Lawe, and Jacques Porlier, all acquaintances of Williams. The sermon book, sermons, and theological notes are similar to materials from Williams' clerical ancestors. They are arranged with the miscellaneous materials because their origin could not be identified.
In addition to the printed materials by Williams, described above, the most outstanding books are Williams' Bible (1800) presented to him by Deacon Nathaniel Ely on November 29, 1809, and a 1634 edition of John Preston's The Breast Plate of Faith and Love. The contents list below includes a complete list of the books and pamphlets in the collection. Also among the printed materials are 17 almanacs spanning the years 1706 to 1839. The printed materials were kept with the manuscript collection because they were included in the deposit by the Neville Public Museum.
