Rev. William Dean & the Missionary Movement

The missionary movement of the early 1800’s was very much a part of our local history, and doing the research on it has been interesting and informative. While on my search for information on the different missionaries from the Eaton area, I came across an interesting bit of information on the Reverend Dr. William Dean.

 I knew of his fame but was never able to put words to it.  After much searching and reading I came across a site on the Anniversary of the Hong Kong Baptist Mission which marked in 2002 their 160^th year.  There smack dab in the middle, was the honored story of the Reverend William Dean and his wife.  

I did some more digging and have come up with a wealth of information that links him to many things in the missionary movement.  In the biography of Emily Chubbuck I found out that it is Dr. Dean who baptized her when as a young women she was finally formally entered into the Baptist Faith.  Dr. Dean was also the corresponding secretary as a young man for the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution.

 In an interesting letter that was sent to Dean as recording secretary was a reply by Andoniram Judson, American missionary to Burma.  In the letter Judson says:

     “I feel called upon to answer, for you ask my advice on several important points.  There is, also, in the sentiments you express, something so congenial to my own, that I feel my heart knit to the members of your association, and instead of commonplace reply, am desirous of setting down a few items which may be profitable to you in your future course.  Brief items they must be, for want of time forbids my expatiating.”

The rules basically covered rules for those contemplating the missionary life.  Among them are remarks that include his telling them to come out to the missionary field for “life” not just for a limited term.  He also gives them information which I still laugh over and my women readers will enjoy-please read:

     “In choosing a companion for life, have particular regard to a good constitution, and not wantonly, or without good cause, bring a burden on yourselves and the mission.”

We can only assume he had what he considered “good cause” when Judson married for the third time a very unhealthy young lady by the name of Emily Chubbuck!

 William Dean was born in Eaton, N.Y. on June 21 of 1807.  Eaton had just become a town and early settlements were started in 1793, so his family was one of the early residents.  Dean being a brilliant student went on to attend the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, which became Madison University then Colgate University.  In 1833 he was ordained a Baptist minister and sailed for Siam to become a missionary for the Baptist Missionary Union to the Chinese in Bangkok, arriving in Thailand in 1835.  

Of note* He received his confirmation just before he “Baptized Emily,” we learn this from her biography!  Dr. Dean was the first pastor of the Baptist church organized there in 1837.

 In the year 1842 he moved his labors to Hong Kong where he founded a Swatow-speaking Baptist church in 1843.  Dean remained in Hong Kong until 1845, when he returned for a year to America.  Dean returned to Hong Kong and continued working in the missionary field there until 1865.

His worked included publication of mainly translations and tracts on the Bible to the Chinese language.  Many of them were translations of the New Testament in part and unbelievably some early texts were printed by local printers (in Chinese) using wooden blocks.  

Canal History, Reservoirs, Chengo River & More

The Canal is really an interesting and important part of Eaton’s history.  In reality though...only a small part of it is in Eaton…but that small part was probably the most important part of it, as it is through Eaton that all the water for the main section of the canal flowed to fill it.  

The waters of the Leland Ponds, Woodman Pond, Lebanon Reservoir (once know as Kingsley Brook Reservoir), Hatch’s Lake, Bradley Brook and Eatonbrook Reservoir met there.  Yes even Lebanon Reservoir's runoff makes a turn and runs north to join the canal at that spot near Pecksport.  

If you stop at the bridge on 46 going to Hamilton and look back over the fishing section of the canal just off Wendover Road and glance east you can see where all the waters enter.

When originally surveyed by James Geddes it was decided that near this spot all the manmade reservoirs could be built above it and their waters could flow toward the Erie Canal on one side and south toward Pennsylvania on the other.  Today all the remains to mark the spot is a sign for NYS fishing.

In the earliest days of settlement, it was a special fishing spot for the Native Tribes who set up their summer camps at the flat spot up and down the ponds and near the Chenango.  Joseph Morse lived on that side of the hill before moving to Eaton Village at the turn of the century, his house foundation is at the foot of Hamilton Hill Road on the right... and family letters mention the children playing together.

The other interesting thing about the area was the ingenuity of Josiah Peck and his son Alonzo who dug out an area that would allow more than one canal boat to unload at the same time.  Alonzo who also ran the Chenango Canal Boat Lines, erected a large warehouse at what would become known as Pecksport... to allowed an overflow of goods to be stored from either the northern or southern routes.

Today there is nothing to mark the spot historically as the signs and historic markers one by one have disappeared.  This is a sad actually, as the vanished history was an important part of the canal which bought a number of new towns and new families to our area.. not to forget the coal to heat the homes with in this cold part of New York State..

The canal also served as the supply route to take goods out of the area.  Some of the regions largest businesses laid to the west in Eaton... the famous Morse distillery of Eaton, the factory of Wood, Taber & Morse Steam Engine Works, as well as the mills of West Eaton.

Too much history of our area has been lost to time... but the ponds of Col. Leland still provide a gathering spot for fisherman and vacationers who enjoy the waters charm much like the Native Americans did... since this area was summer quarters for many of them.

Dr. Mary E. Walker, clothing reformer - her link to Madison County and the Oneida Community!

Dr. Mary E. Walker is an interesting woman who has been forgotten by many in the history of “Women’s Rights” and Central New York.

She is known perhaps more for her Congressional Medal of Honor (the only one ever awarded to a woman) for serving as a doctor and surgeon during the Civil War and less for her contribution to women’s health and well-being. Born to an unusually free thinking family from Oswego, New York, Walker was encouraged by both her father and mother to enter into fields that in her time were considered men’s alone. 

Her legacy included her lifelong dress reform work that put her in constant rebuke and caused her great friction with the Women’s Movement leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  As a matter of fact she annoyed them so much they practically wrote her out of the “Women’s Rights History Encyclopedia” that they authored with Matilda Gage.   The early advocates of “bloomers style” had eventually stopped wearing them because they felt it drew attention from the “cause”. Mary Walker however continued the practice, especially necessary during her Civil War Service, where she dressed more like a man in uniform. 

Walker was known to wear a bloomer type of costume from its entrance into the reform spotlight when Elizabeth Smith Miller of Madison County introduced it to Amelia Bloomer.....until the day she died.  Her main talking points were that tightfitting corsets and heavy bulky dresses endangered woman’s health, especially when they were working. Her mother was another freethinker who also wore the costume.

To support her stance she endured being spit upon in public, having bricks thrown at her, was followed by male crowds, victimized with rebuffs and even arrested in major cities and towns that did not want her to speak on behalf of woman.

One of her supporters however, leads us right back here to Madison County… On one occasion an Officer Johnson who charged her with appearing in “male costume” and disorderly conduct, arrested her. …The Oneida Community’s periodical “Circular” covered the event since the Oneida Community had long favored reform clothing for its workingwomen.  The “Circular” praised the dress reform movement and called her attire - “sensible and attractive" and said that she should be honored for her “long service as an assistant surgeon during the Civil War.”

She did live long enough to see her costume embraced at the turn of the century for “tennis and bicycling and other athletic endeavors for women”!

I often think about how far we have come with dress reform today! Walker is buried in the Town of Oswego Cemetery just a short distance from where she was born on November 26^th, 1832 and raised.

Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen’s memorial perhaps best fits her:  Dr. Mary’s life should stand out to remind us that when people do not think as we do, do not dress as we do, and do not live as we do, that they are more than a half century ahead of their time, and that we should have for them not ridicule but reverence.”

Here is an interesting little history clip of this famous CNY woman!

 

Epilogue:

Educated as a Doctor in 1850’s at the Syracuse Medical College, she graduated as a medical doctor and eventually married one of her classmates going went into practice with him on Dominick Street in Rome, NY.  Her husband was unfaithful and she sought a divorce from him - another rarity for the times.  In these yearly years women had to prove the unfaithfulness of their husband (which was easy for her) and then have to wait 5 years for the decree – it eventually took 8 years to accomplish.

During the conflict she also acted as a spy for the “Secret Service”.

Walker became a popular speaker and traveled to Europe to lecture on women’s health, clothing reform, women’s rights and more; as a matter of fact she was considered a fabulous public speaker crisscrossing the country stumping for women’s rights and voting reform for much of her life.  In later years she studied court records and was keenly interested in the criminal insanity plea.

A new book by Sharon Harris called Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical is a wonderful read with in-depth information on this woman of indomitable will and courage.