> > Subject: [ALCOOSA] Mission schools? > Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 00:21:13 EDT > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > What are these mission schools? I have family from Cowetta Co GA who ended > up in Coosa Co AL. Perhaps my folks would be involved in this too. Wiggins, > Gunn, Hill? > > Jeanne Swanstrom > [email protected] Jeanne, >From what I understand, these mission schools were set up by churches or groups of churches to minister to the "savages". Basically, the children were enrolled, taught English and basic subjects, their hair cut, dressed like white people, etc., and they could be very cruel in their attempts to "civilize" them. There are quite a few books on the subject, including a very good one called "My Heart Is On the Ground", which is a child's diary of her time at a mission school, not specifically a Creek one, but of the same type school, available at amazon.com. There was supposedly a very large one in Coosa County, AL, and during the early years of 1800, most of the people living near it were either Creek or worked at the mission school, which was started and run by the Methodists. I have heard that many of the records for this school are held in the archives at the University of Georgia and are not accessible because of their age and fragility, but I was hoping someone might know something about these schools and who were some of the Creek families who had children enrolled, who lived nearby, etc. The surnames I'm researching in the Coosa and Chambers county, AL areas are Willingham, Owen, Strong, Herring, and others related. There were also mission schools in Georgia, but I'm most interested in the one at Coosa. I'm also interested in the Creek records for the area of Coweta, which was a main Creek town, since my families seem to have gone back and forth between Coweta, GA and Coosa, AL. Anyone who has any info on these schools or the Creek families nearby, please contact me, especially if one of my surnames. Thanks, Laurie -- ...»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«....*@*....»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«... Laurie L. Wicks, Phoenix, Arizona Website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~papashouse/ Researching in the areas of VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, and New England - Stowe, Kemp, Camp, Corbin, Willingham, Hunt, Brand, Whitener/Weidner, Willingham, Strong, Owen, Herring and mixed Creek/Cherokee ...»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«....*@*....»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«...