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Gideon Hawley THE UNINSPIRED REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1727 November 5 (Old Style): Gideon Hawley was born in the Stratfield section of Stratford (now Bridgeport, Connecticut), son of Gideon Hawley and Hannah Bennett Hawley (his gravestone provides no indication that his mother Hannah Bennett Hawley had died in giving birth). Gideon Hawley 1807 In memory of Rev Gideon Hawley who was born at Stratford, Connecticut, Nov 5 O S 1727 graduated at Yale College 1749 ordained in Boston July 31 1754 a missionary to the Indians at Onohaguage or the Six Nations installed at Mashpee April 10 1758 died Oct’r 3 1807 AEt 80 There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest (This infant was a great-grandson of the Captain Joseph Hawley who had started this family line in America in 1629 and a great-great-grandson of Governor Thomas Welles of the Colony of Connecticut.) NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1730 Gideon Hawley died. Since his wife Hannah Bennett Hawley had died while giving birth to his son Gideon Hawley, that 3-year-old became at this point an orphan. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1749 Ezra Stiles was licensed to preach and became a tutor at Yale College. Gideon Hawley graduated from Yale. When the Reverend Elihu Spencer, a 1746 graduate of Yale, attempted to establish a mission to the Six Nations at the town of Oquaga on the Susquehanna River near what is now Windsor, New York, his missionary attempt failed. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1750 May: Gideon Hawley was licensed to preach. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1752 February 5, Wednesday (Old Style): Gideon Hawley accepted a position with the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians under the supervision of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards (who after being dismissed in 1750 by his parishioners in Northampton had become a preacher to the white settlers and the Housatonic native tribe in Stockbridge, Massachusetts). DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1753 In 1749, the Reverend Elihu Spencer had made an attempt to be a missionary to the Six Nations at the town of Oquaga on the Susquehanna River near what is now Windsor, New York. That attempt had failed. In this year the Commissioners of Indian affairs asked Gideon Hawley to make a new attempt there. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1754 July 31, Wednesday: Gideon Hawley was ordained at the Old South meetinghouse in Boston (the Reverend Doctor Sewall preached on the occasion and the Reverend Mr. Prince gave the charge). He would be sent to minister among the Six Nations at the town of Oquaga on the Susquehanna River near what is now Windsor, New York. Besides acting as a missionary, he would serve as an interpreter. He would instruct Mohawk, Oneida, and Tuscarora natives, with the Reverend Jonathan Edwards occasionally visiting to observe and offer advice. THE REV. HAWLEY’S REPORT HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1756 The beginning of the Seven Year War (Prussia and Britain versus France, Austria, and Russia), which, as its name implies, would not come to its completion until 1763. Curiously, also in this year the British government purchased the right to export 600,000 Russian trees each year, to supply the Royal Navy. Having received merely an elementary education, Samuel Hearne joined the Royal Navy as midshipman under the fighting captain Samuel Hood. He would remain with Hood throughout the war, seeing considerable action including the bombardment of Le Havre. Due to the French and Indian War (which is the name this Seven Year War would travel under in the New World), the Reverend Gideon Hawley needed to retreat from his missionary station among the Six Nations at the town of Oquaga on the Susquehanna River near what is now Windsor, New York. Traveling to Boston, he became chaplain of Colonel Richard Gridley’s regiment. Relative quiet prevailed on the Great Lakes of North America. Both sides there were, however, feverishly preparing for the inevitable confrontation that lay ahead. The French continued their construction of the massive new works at Fort Carillon while the British continued fortifying the head of Lake George. At Lake George a massive fleet of bateaus was constructed, and two small sloops. On the lake and on shore, there were skirmishes between Roger’s Rangers and the French. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Winter: After serving as chaplain to the regiment of Colonel Richard Gridley during their French and Indian campaign, when the Reverend Gideon Hawley attempted to return to his mission among the Iroquois, he found the area still too hazardous and needed to spend this winter in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Reverend Gideon Hawley “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1757 Spring: The Reverend Gideon Hawley made a 2d attempt to return to his mission among the Six Nations at the town of Oquaga on the Susquehanna River near what is now Windsor, New York, but this was made impossible by an outbreak of small pox among the natives. HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1758 April 10, Monday: The commissioners of the Society for Propagating the Gospel installed the Reverend Gideon Hawley as pastor on the reservation at Mashpee, Massachusetts (he would serve there for the remainder of his life). HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1763 The Reverend Gideon Hawley wrote to the Reverend Joseph Bellamy, another person who had served under the instruction of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, pointing out that such religious attitudes were unpopular: “I don’t know of but two clergymen however in the country that appear to like your principles.” HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1794 July 31, Thursday: The Reverend Gideon Hawley of Marshpee provided an account of his services among the Indians of Massachusetts and New-York, and a narrative of his adventurous 1754 journey to Onohoghgwage. THE REV. HAWLEY’S REPORT (In about 1849, Henry Thoreau would make notes on this in his Indian Notebook #2.) HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1800 October 2, Thursday: Nathaniel “Nat” Turner was born in Southampton County, Virginia, near the Great Dismal Swamp in which as an adult he would seek refuge. Nat1 was given the name Turner because his mother was a piece of property belonging to a white man named Benjamin Turner, and because under Virginia law the legal standing of the mother of a child determined the legal standing of her child. He emerged from his mother’s womb as the property of this Mr. Turner — but in the end he would find himself being hanged for having committed an act of violence and violation against another human being! He would dictate a confession, but in his confession, despite the fact that his contemporaries acknowledge him to have been an exceedingly intelligent man, he would have difficulty getting this to make any sense at all. SLAVERY The Reverend Timothy Dwight visited the Reverend Gideon Hawley on the reservation at Mashpee, Massachusetts.2 In TRAVELS IN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK, published in 1821/1823 in London, the Reverend Dwight, who hadn’t seen Hawley since he had been a teenager, would write that “this gentleman was a most intimate friend of my parents. From his youth he had sustained as amiable and unexceptionable a character as can perhaps be found among uninspired men” (now there’s a lefthanded compliment, if ever there was one). 1. “Nat” = Nathaniel, but should we not use the name taught us by Frederick Douglass? Otherwise, for consistency, wouldn’t we have to refer to Frederick Douglass and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Dred Douglass and Nat Hawthorne, or perhaps Dred Bailey and Nat Hathorne? PC-people, here’s something to chew on! 2. The Reverend Dwight was a grandson of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, under whose instruction the Reverend Hawley had served. HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1801 April 29, Wednesday: During the visit of the Reverend Timothy Dwight with the Reverend Gideon Hawley on the reservation at Mashpee, Massachusetts in the previous October, the Reverend Hawley’s son James Hawley had been seriously ill. At this point, in a letter to the Reverend Dwight, the father mentioned that after this visit his son had survived only for an additional eight days. HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY REVEREND GIDEON HAWLEY 1802 September 21, Tuesday: The Reverend Gideon Hawley again wrote to his friend the Reverend Timothy Dwight. This letter also would be included in the Reverend Dwight’s TRAVELS IN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK, published in 1823 in London.
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