Person:John Brainerd (1)

An Account of the Career of Rev. John Brainerd, Prepared by Historian and Genealogist Homer Worthington Brainard, for Inclusion in the Brainerd-Brainard Genealogy

"John Brainerd, the younger brother and successor of David Brainerd in the work of evangelizing the Indians, though a kindred spirit and perhaps equal in moral worth, did not possess the great talents nor the large acquisitions of his brother, David, yet his work was hardly inferior to his elder brother in the great qualities which go to make up the missionary character. The materials for an account of his life are scanty, and while the fame of his brother's life and work has gone over the earth, the name and work of John Brainerd are almost forgotten.

He was born Feb. 28, 1720, in Haddam. Left an orphan at the age of twelve, he doubtless found a home with some one of his married brothers or sisters. What his early education was we may infer from what has been told of the early days of David Brainerd. But John does not appear to have suffered from melancholy distress of soul as did his more sensitive brother. He entered Yale College in 1742 and graduated in 1746. What effect the expulsion of David from the college had upon his brother we are not informed. As there was always much affection between them, doubtless John was much distressed by the event. But for reasons which we may easily imagine, he completed his course without apparently breaking with the college authorities.

With whom John studied theology after his graduation is not certainly known, probably with Mills or Bellamy, as David had done. Our first introduction to John Brainerd after his graduation is by the diary of his brother, David, under the date of Apr. 10, 1747. He says, 'Spent the forenoon in Presbyterial business. In the afternoon rode to Elizabethtown; found my brother, John, there; spent some time in conversation with him.' David, worn out by his trials and privations, and the prodigious labors he had performed, was on his way eastward, knowing that he could not resume the care of his beloved Indians. His chief care now was to find a successor for the work. In his brother he found a man of like temper with himself, who was willing to make the sacrifices and undergo the foils necessary to the work among the poor Indians. The selection was approved by the managers of the mission, and John at once — four days after the meeting of David at Elizabethtown — went to David's people at Cranberry, N. J., and took up his abode in the cabin David had built there with his own hands. The Indians welcomed him joyfully. They had largely abandoned their roaming life and were endeavoring here to form a Christian village, yet we must suppose that great poverty and much savagery still clung to them. The Indians numbered over one hundred and twenty, seventy-eight of whom had been baptized. The church members numbered about forty. There were fifty Indians on the Rancocas, near Mount Holly, and a few scattered families elsewhere. Besides ministering to these, the new missionary was expected to continue the work, as he had opportunity, of his brother at the Forks of the Delaware, and in the Susquehanna Valley. This was his parish, and here he continued to labor until 1755. In the first summer he was much distressed by the sickness among the Indians, by which some of the most religious of the converts died, and the heathen Indians were not slow to attribute this to the anger of the Indian gods against those who had become Christians. This attitude was very unfavorable to further success in the mission, but the missionary did not despair. In September he journeyed to Northampton to see David again, who was now on his death bed, and carried with him the precious diary which occupied the last days of the dying saint, he reading and revising as long as strength remained. John tarried one week and returned to New Jersey on urgent business, where he was detained by the sickness of the Indians. But true to his promise he returned again to Northampton, which he reached two days before David's death.

Up to this time John had regarded himself as only David's substitute in the mission. But now, returning again to Cranberry, he was ordained, February, 17-18, and received the appointment from the society in Scotland to be missionary. During this winter he had with him Rev. Elihu Spencer and Rev. Job Strong, two young men chosen by David Brainerd to go as missionaries among the Six Nations in western New York. By failure of his health Mr. Strong soon gave up his efforts for the Indians, and settled in the ministry at Portsmouth, N. H. Mr. Spencer established his mission at Onohauouanga, about one hundred and eighty miles west of Albany, among the Oneidas. The mission was a failure, though by no fault of his own. Discouraged by failure, and attracted by the vicinity of Brainerd, he abandoned the mission and was settled in the ministry at Elizabethtown, N. J., Feb. 7, 1750. He labored many years in New Jersey, and was one of Brainerd's intimate friends. For two years the work at Cranberry may be considered to have been on the whole successful. But the increasing pressure of the white settlers, and their successful attempts in depriving the Indians of their lands, greatly disturbed them, and unjustly forced them to remove, and rendered missionary work more and more difficult. September 27, 1749, Mr. Brainerd received the master's degree from the College of New Jersey at Brunswick, since Princeton. For the next few years he worked for the Indians as much as possible, making long journeys to reach them, and expended much effort to enlist the interest of the authorities in their behalf, but from necessity more and more connected with the work of ministering among the settled white population. At last, in 1755, the state of the country became so threatening through prospect of war, and the Indians at Bethel (Cranberry) having parted with their lands and removed, that the missionary society, doubtless alarmed by the panic and confusion of the times, suddenly dismissed Mr. Brainerd from his office. This dismissal was a source of pain to Brainerd and his friends. Without complaint, however, he removed to Newark, where he had charge of the church until June, 1756, still longing for his work among the Indians. Then suddenly the society, seeing perhaps new openings for the mission, invited Mr. Brainerd to resume the mission, and again dismissed him within a year's time, a most remarkable policy, but perhaps justified by the trouble and difficulty of the times. We need to remember that the great struggle for Anglo-Saxon supremacy was then going on, which was to end in 1763 with the complete victory of the English, but this result was still far in the future in 1756, and the dread of the French and their savage allies was enough to paralyze all missionary efforts.

Under this trial and still heavier ones Brainerd bore himself manfully. On Sept 17, 1757, his wife died after a long illness, leaving him with the care of three young children. He was also much affected by the deaths of Presidents Burr and Edwards within a short interval. These had been his staunch friends, and he must have felt much downcast. In 1758 the prospects of the Indians somewhat brightened. By treaty three thousand acres of land near Burlington, N. J., were secured and a new town called Brotherton begun. In the latter part of 1757 Brainerd was one of a committee to wait upon Rev. Jonathan Edwards at Stockbridge, Mass., and invite him to occupy the presidential chair at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). In this he was entirely successful. One unforeseen outcome of this service was Brainerd's invitation to take the work Edwards laid down at Stockbridge, where there was a congregation of Indians. This he declined. In 1759 he served as Chaplain in the army. In the month of May, 1759, by the request of Gov. Bernard and the Society's Correspondents, with the approval of the Synod, he gave up his charge at Newark, which he had held — though frequently absent for considerable periods — since 1765. In November, 1759, he settled again among the Indians. These were greatly reduced in numbers, many having perished or been taken in the war, while fighting on the side of the English. The whole number of Indians was about two hundred, in three or four scattered settlements, from twelve to seventeen miles apart. Brainerd had his headquarters at Brotherton. Two large counties, and parts of two more were in his parish. He says: 'I have preached at eight different places on the Lord's day, and near twenty on other days of the week, and never fail of a considerable congregation, — so large and extensive is this vacancy.' His hearers included many white people, the only other preaching being some efforts by the Quakers. Many of the people were but one remove from a state of heathenism. This was in reality a hard and discouraging field. He worked hard and faithfully, building a dwelling house, schoolhouse, store, and mill for his people. In 1762-3 he was chosen Moderator of the Synod. In 1764-5 he reached the height of his influence in the Synod and in the affairs relating to the Indian mission. He was in correspondence and active sympathy with Dr. Wheelock of Connecticut, whose labors in training Indian boys is well known. At this time it was proposed to send to England the Rev. Sampson Occum, one of the ablest of the Christian Indians, to arouse interest there, and to collect funds to endow the Indian school, which Dr. Wheelock and others were so earnestly promoting. Occum was very successful in England, surpassing even the expectations of his friends. Mr. Brainerd was at the time chosen to go with Occum and others to England. But plans were changed and he did not go, but continued to labor, faithfully, often under discouragement and financial loss, for his Indians and whites until 1777. The detail of these years are too numerous to be mentioned here. The reader who desires to study them is referred to 'The Life of John Brainard,' by Rev. Thomas Brainerd, published in 1865 by the Presbyterian Publication Committee; also for a general account of the Christian Indians, to 'Sampson Occum and the Christian Indians of New England,' by the Rev. W. D. Love of Hartford, Conn.

A word about the subsequent fortunes of the Indians may not be amiss. Their number and strength steadily declined and in 1801, having obtained permission to sell their lands, between seventy and eighty removed in 1802 to a settlement on the Oneida Lake, belonging to the Stockbridge Indians. The united tribes consisting of Christian Indians from New England, New Jersey and New York, again pressed by the whites in 1824, purchased a large tract on the Fox River in Wisconsin. Here they remained unmolested, and there their descendants, though not in large numbers, may be found today, useful and exemplary citizens. So that the work of the Brainerd brothers has survived the changes of a century and a half and still bears fruit.

In 1777, aged fifty-seven, Mr. Brainerd removed from Brotherton to Deerfield, N. J., and took charge of the church there. He still seems to have retained some oversight of the mission. In the latter years of his life Mr. Brainerd preached the gospel among the whites over a vast, neglected region of New Jersey. When he died his labors were not followed up by the Presbyterians. The churches he built decayed or passed into the hands of the Methodists. The early settlers sold out to strangers of a more straitened class. As a result little remains to tell of Brainerd's labors save the church yards in the forests, the title deeds of the sites whereon he erected church buildings, the congregations which later built on his foundations, and the recollections of him as a holy, benevolent, untiring servant of God. He says that he had seven fixed congregations and twenty occasional preaching places. He was for a time the only minister, and for years the only missionary of his church in that wild and extended region.

His removal to Deerfield was caused by the disturbance of war, then raging, and his declining health. He died at Deerfield March 18, 1781, and was there buried. For seventy years his grave was there unmarked, but at that time some one who revered his memory placed thereon a simple slab.

For many years he was officially connected with Princeton College as trustee, and its early presidents were his personal and intimate friends. His interest in the college was strong, and he was zealous and faithful in discharge of his duties to it, serving it in many important and critical stages of its history.

In determining Brainerd's success we should remember that he was in every respect a pioneer, with no predecessor to be a model; with means of support by no means equal to his needs, and all the time the disturbance and confusion of war. This intercourse with his brethren was regulated by a sense of duty and self-respect His letters indicate careful compliance with the customs of good society and the courtesy of a gentleman. His writings compare favorably with those of his contemporaries in style and finish. He aimed at no display of talent or learning. He was exceedingly simple in preaching, but powerful and impressive. He was prudent sometimes to the point of indecision; modest to the point of timidity. This may have been due to lonely work in the wilderness, and to his dependence on charity for support, and the haunting fear that his labors were unsuccessful and doomed to ultimate failure. He was involved in no contentions, gave way to no show of exasperated feelings, was swept away by no fanatical delusions or theological vagaries. He was a lover of all good men, and seems to have hated nothing but sin. He was holy and spiritual in his life, and his whole career bears testimony to his sympathy with ignorant and needy humanity.

Of his writings but little has survived. A number of letters and a journal or diary, a small manuscript book of seventy-seven pages are mentioned by his biographers. It extends from Aug. 15, 1749, to Nov. 31, 1749. It gives an account of work at Cranberry (Bethel), a journey over the Delaware, a visit to Princeton, various labors among the Indians during the summer and autumn, a tour to Elizabeth town. It is doubtless but a fragment of a more extensive diary which is now lost The minutes of the Scotch Missionary Society at Edinburgh, Scotland, furnish some other details of his life and work. These were used by his biographer. The written materials of his life are thus very brief. The fragment of his diary shows little or nothing of that wonderful spiritual quality which has made David's journals a devotional classic. No specimens of his sermons appear to be extant."

Homer Worthington Brainard.^[3]

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 2. Hezekiah² Brainerd, in Brainard, Lucy Abigail. The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America: 1649-1908. (Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Press. : The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1908)
   2:Hezekiah:43.

   "8. … John (Brainerd), b. Feb. 28, 1719-20, in Haddam, Conn."

2. ↑ Haddam Vital Records [NEHGS], in Connecticut, United States. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records
   18.

   "Brainerd, … John, s. [Hezekiah & Dorothy], b. Feb. 28, 1719/20 [LR2:19]"

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} 8. John³ Brainerd, in Brainard, Lucy Abigail. The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America: 1649-1908. (Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Press. : The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1908)
   2:Hezekiah:71-77.

   "8. John³ Brainerd (Hezekiah², Daniel¹) of Haddam, Middlesex Co., Conn.; … He graduated from Yale College in 1746. In May 9. 1755, he lived in Perth Amboy, N. J. From the New Jersey Colonial Documents. John Brainerd was chosen Nov. 22, 1762, justice of the peace in the Counties of Burlington and Gloucester at a Council held at Perth Amboy, N. J. Aug. 21, 1767, the Governor presented a list of names to be inserted in the Commission of the Peace. At a Council held at Burlington on the above date his name was included in the list. He was clerk of the Trustees of the College of New Jersey. Rev. John Brainerd d. Mch. 18, 1781, ae. 61 yrs., in Deerfield, Cumberland Co., N. J., and was interred in the broad aisle of the meeting house where he had preached the gospel."

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Rev John Brainerd, in Find A Grave.