Podcasts about delaware indians

In May 1782, Colonel William Crawford led over 450 volunteers across Ohio to attack British-allied Native Americans who had been raiding the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia for years. An experienced yet reluctant commander, Crawford and his men clashed with a similarly sized force of British Rangers and Wyandot, Delaware, and Shawnee Indians on the Sandusky River in early June. After three days, the Americans were routed in one of the worst defeats American arms suffered on the frontier during the American Revolution. During the retreat, Native American warriors captured dozens of men, including Colonel Crawford. Many were horrifically tortured to death in revenge for the Gnadenhutten massacre earlier that spring, when American volunteers bludgeoned nearly one hundred unarmed and unresisting Delaware Indians to death. Join us for a recorded talk with historian and author Eric Sterner as he discusses Crawford's Campaign and his new book "The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782" due out this spring.

In this episode, Steve and I discuss how to best handle challenging religious conversations with our kids, specifically polygamy and racism in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As parents, we want to help our kids understand both their religion, and how to talk about it in a healthy, open way. To learn more about working with me, please visit heatherfrazier.com About my guest: Steven C. Harper is a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. In 2012 Steve was appointed as the managing historian and a general editor of Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. He was named editor in chief of BYU Studies Quarterly in September 2018. He served in the Canada Winnipeg Mission (1990-1991) and married Jennifer Sebring (1992). They graduated from BYU (1994). He earned an MA in American history from Utah State University, where his thesis analyzed determinants of conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1830s. Chapters were published in the Journal of Mormon History and Religion and American Culture and awarded by the Mormon History Association with the T. Edgar Lyon Award for best article of the year and the Juanita Brooks Award for the best graduate student paper. Steve earned a PhD in early American history from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He began teaching courses in religion and history at BYU Hawaii in 2000 and joined the Religious Education faculty at BYU in 2002. That year he also became a volume editor of The Joseph Smith Papers and the document editor for BYU Studies. He taught at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies in 2011–2012. His first book was Promised Land (Lehigh University Press, 2006), a study of Lenape or Delaware Indians' responses to a fraudulent 1737 land deal in colonial Pennsylvania. He also authored Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants (Deseret Book, 2008), Joseph Smith's First Vision (Deseret Book, 2012), and First Vision: Memory and Mormon Origins (Oxford University Press, 2019), along with dozens of articles.

David Brainerd (1718 – 1747) was an American missionary to the Native Americans who had a particularly fruitful ministry among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey. During his short life he was beset by many difficulties but his godly character and devotion have made his biography a source of inspiration and encouragement to many Christians. Missionaries such as William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, as well John Wesley among others have been helped by him.(Recorded May 30, 2021)

BECOME A PRODUCER! http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast   Find The Midnight Train Podcast: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com www.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpc www.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp   And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.   Subscribe to our official YouTube channel: OUR YOUTUBE          Today, my friends, we have another installment in our creepy places series. We are taking a trip to the east coast. We've covered probably the most known creepy story about this state already in a past episode, and now we're back for more creepiness! We know there are more than a few listeners from this particular state, so if we fuck up, we know we’ll hear about it. At the same time we would love to hear more stories about anything we cover from the people who are around it and may have visited these spots or encountered any of the crazy stuff we discuss. So without further ado...the train is pulling out of the station and heading east to none other than New Jersey. Keep your hands inside of the train and watch out for raccoons!          So a little less than a year ago, at the beginning of this whole covid plague, we did a quarantine mashup. We discussed Springheeled Jack, The Wendigo, and the one and only Leeds devil, aka The Jersey Devil! If you are looking for our take on the Jersey Devil Go back and listen to that episode, we will not be discussing him(it?) today. But we are going to head to a bunch of different creepy spots. First Up we head to Totowa (toe tuh wuh) NJ.          Totowa is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Totowa in its current iteration has been around since 1898, but the land that is Totowa has been occupied since the 1600’s. Its been around for a long time. Having been around for so long there are destined to be tons of creepy tales, like our first one!            First up is the legendary “Ghost Of Annie”.  For more generations than anyone can seem to remember, Totowa’s Riverview Drive has been more commonly known to locals as “Annie’s Road.”  And for just as long, it has played host to innumerable carloads of late night thrill seekers. What these adventurous night riders are looking for is the spectral figure of Annie herself, an other-worldly apparition that has long been associated with this snaking riverside byway. Running along the Totowa side of the Passaic River, Riverview Drive, or “Reefer Road” as it has been dubbed by many a partying teen, seems to be just brimming with the stuff from which local legends are made. At night it is a dark and treacherous drive that leaves little room for error between the steep hillside on one side, and the muddy slough of the Passaic on the other. It is a remote and wooded road, right in the heart of a densely populated area. There are mythical places to be discovered here as well, or so many have alleged. The isolated community located on Norwood Terrace, an oxbow street found on one of Riverview’s many curves, has long had the reputation of being New Jersey’s much fabled “Midgetville.” We are not going to discuss midgetville here as it is one of the more famous Jersey legends. But what really beckons people to Annie’s Road year after year, decade after decade, is the quest to see Annie herself. The lure of experiencing the supernatural first hand, has been the catalyst for countless late night adventures over the generations, and several notorious misadventures as well. In most cases, these ghost hunters and seekers of Midgetville are nothing more than carloads of bored suburban youth, looking for some harmless late night thrills. Annie’s Road has however, on more than one occasion led its nightriders down a pathway to danger, and even death.  Riverview Drive is no stranger to severe auto accidents, and Annie is not the only soul who has been lost there. What better way to get to the heart of the legend than to hear it from the locals! This is the story of her death as recounted by a local who was young when it happened:                              “As I have been a resident of Totowa all my life, I can tell you the actual story of this poor girl’s fate. Annie was walking home from her prom at school in Little Falls. The shortest and perhaps the easiest route to take was Riverview Drive. She was passing the Laurel Grove Cemetery when a large truck plowed her over and dragged her about 50 feet or so. Her blood can still be seen on the side of the road she had been dragged. If she is to be seen she is a short ways down the road from the blood. This is very close to the place where her tomb once is. My brother has been to the plot in the Laurel Grove Cemetery that was created for her. Though I was little, I do remember hearing that for no apparent reason at all, the tomb caved inward and looked somewhat like a cave”. —Court Well Thanks Court for the info!!! Another story we came across was that back in the 1960s, a couple was driving down the road in Totowa when they got into a huge fight which led the man to open the car door and throw out his partner. Ah, the 60’s! Alone, scared, and injured, the woman began wandering on the street only to be hit by a truck and die on the spot. Even worse, her dress got tangled in the car and she was dragged along the road, taking off her face. Sounds like a cannibal corpse song.  While the stories may vary, they both have the same stories attached. The main one is that there is a trail of old blood on the road from where she was dragged and a splatter of blood on a guardrail as well. Here’s a story about the blood splatter from another local:                                      “ I have heard many stories about this road, and have been there numerous time. I was told roughly the same story that she was killed on her wedding night, and was killed on the road and dragged along it. The first time I went there my friends told me that there was a bloodstain on the road, and a splatter on the guardrail. It WAS there, whatever it was, and it scared the shit out of me. I have taken other friends there throughout the years, and have told them the same story. “Annie’s Lane,” as I have often heard it called, is a great place to bring people for a scary experience. —Marcus Freeman” Sounds crazy right! So the cool part about researching all of these legends is finding different people recounting their stories and seeing all of the crazy variations on the legends. One story has her ghost appearing at midnight while another swears it's at 2am. There's the prom story, the couple story,  then there was another that is positive that her cousin's uncle's brother's friend's grandpa was at the scene and that she was decapitated during a car accident. Then you have the tales of the blood on the asphalt and blood on the guardrail. There's a variation on that story that says that her deranged father would come back every year on the anniversary of her death and paint the guardrail red to keep the memory of his daughter alive and meet with her ghost. Regardless of what version you want to believe, it seems that overall the stretch of road is pretty creepy. There is a cemetery nearby where she is buried and supposedly is a hotspot for paranormal happenings as well. There are reports of video cameras being drained of their batteries, strange lights being caught on camera but not being seen by the naked eye, and some have reported seeing Annie's Ghost at the cemetery as well. Some people also have attributed the “hail mary murders” in NJ as having something to do with this story. We found this tale on another website. It goes as such : It was 1992, and six high school boys spent their days fixated by Annie’s tale. Believing she was run over by a car and that she now haunted the road, they spent their nights at Norwood Terrace, near the house she supposedly lived in, then they would drive up and down River View Dr, before ending up at the mausoleum where they thought she was buried.   Eventually though 5 of the boys felt that they no longer wanted to hang around with the 6th boy, and decided to make him leave. They made several botched attempts to burn his car, but they all failed. Eventually realizing that they couldn’t make him go away, they decided he needed to be eliminated. (and all this because they were bored with his company mind you) They tried to stuff an aerosol can into his gas tank in the hopes of causing an explosion. It didn’t fit. They tried to convince him to be handcuffed to the steering wheel, after which they would stick a flaming rag into the gas tank. He refused. After so many botched attempts to scare him and even eliminate him, some of the boys wondered if he wasn’t protected by Annie herself… They finally settled on a simpler method, and tragically it worked. One day they all drove out to the HS and parked in back. They all began to recite the Catholic “Hail Mary”, and then one of the boys in back took out an electrical cord and strangled the victim from behind, garrote style. Putting his feet on the headrest, the victim didn’t have a chance, and the other boys continued to recite the Hail Mary, until after nearly 10 minutes, he was dead. They tried to cover up the crime by outing the body in the trunk and causing an explosion, but it didn’t work. They ditched the car, and predictably, were caught, arrested, and convicted.   Although this makes for a great story, after going through more than a few articles about the Hail Mary Murders, not one of them had any mention of the Annie legend in them. Doesnt mean its not true but we didn't come up with any proof! Sounds fun...we’re there! Anyone out there experienced Annie’s ghost, or have you been there to check it out? Let us know!        There is, or once was, a legendary place off a dirt road called Disbrow Hill in Monroe Township (Middlesex County) known as Crematory Hill in local lore. As the stories go, back in the 1970s it was one of those scary places where at night anything could happen. The legend of this place was that it was a structure where bodies were cremated, with the remains either shipped out or buried in the graveyard adjacent to the building. It is said that it was abandoned long ago due to the presence of ghosts and spirits. We thought this would make a really cool story but it was hard to find a ton about this legend! There was a story that was on Weird NJ website that we found that has the most info and it came from a local so we are going to relay that story because it is pretty cool!                 “Back when I was in East Brunswick High School, ’69-’72, it was a great place to go with friends or your date and get a good scare, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. It was considered a real rite of passage. There was usually clothing and unrecognizable stuff hanging off the trees at the start of the road leading to Crematory Hill and sometimes further on down. On several trips, we saw a large wooden sign painted in red propped up on the side of the road with the warning: WELCOME TO HELL. That was the signal it was going to be a hell of a ride! Screaming sounds were often heard from the woods, but we drove on, excited and expecting anything! On the way, there was one house close to the dirt road, always with the lights on, where it was rumored that you would see the family living there hitting each other with hammers in the windows. We never saw that, but even with the lights on, it really didn’t look like anyone lived there and it had a weird presence, stuck out there in the middle of nowhere. After passing that landmark, we would look for the opening in the woods off the dirt road that would lead to the Crematory. It was on the right side. This is where the courage factor came into play. It was dark, real dark, and the woods were thick. Weird sounds startled you. You didn’t know what was out there. All we had were a flashlight and our nerve. We walked the dirt path, adrenaline pumping, always aware that something was out there, and in the beams of the flashlights, the structure loomed. Covered with graffiti, it was imposing in the darkness, yet waiting for us to enter and explore. The large, empty building was built up on a dirt hill. It was made out of bricks, stone, and cement. There were openings for windows and doors; there was rubble in the basement. To get to the basement, you had to jump through a hole in the floor. There were some pipes through the floor, which were supposed to be part of the crematory equipment. The structure was probably built in the 19th century. After exploring the Crematory, more courage was mustered to walk the grounds and find the cemetery. There was a low wall, which you followed to find the graveyard, taking you deeper into the woods, further away from your car, the only means to escape if anything happened. This took a lot more of your courage.         After locating the burial ground, the walk back seemed longer and scarier. When you got closer to the road and the car came into view in the flashlight beam, you breathed a sigh of relief, quickening your steps until the key was in the door and you were back in the car. One time we got out of the car at the Crematory, started walking, and heard some rustling in the trees. All of a sudden from the dark came a combination of howling voices and figures, trying to attack us. We were close enough to the car and I had the key in hand fast enough for us to pile in and for me to spin my wheels in gear to get out of there like a bat out of hell. Luckily we escaped uninjured. One of my friends looked back and saw dark outlines of figures, but there were no cars around for them to follow us in. How and why they were there is a mystery. I was told that the Crematory was used by Rutgers fraternities and Douglass sororities as part of the pledging/initiation processes since the 1940s. Crematory Hill provided lots of unpredictable excitement for us teenagers. The ride itself was scary enough, but you were always drawn to walk in the woods, to face the unknown.” –Lewis Sofman      There were other stories of people hearing howls and screams when they would travel through the woods to get to the site. There are stories of people being shot at while they were there. People claimed to have been chased but god knows what. It's odd cus there seems to be tons of local stories but there isn't much outside of that. Which is great for legends and myths though not so much for research.  It does appear that the building was definitely there, there are old pictures of the building that you can see, we’ll definitely post them. Unfortunately for everyone the building has been demolished and condos now reside on the spot where the building used to be. We were unable to find any concrete evidence that the building was actually crematory either. If any of you folks from jersey can shed more light on this one we’d love to hear it, meanwhile we’ll keep digging!               Now we are gonna switch it up and talk cryptids. There are more cryptids than just the Jersey devil roaming and swimming around. First up we have the The Sandyhook Sea Serpent.               The North Shrewsbury (Navesink) River is one of the most scenic estuaries on the Eastern Coast of America. Known for luxury yachts, stately homes, and iceboating, it is hardly the place you would expect to find the legend of a sea serpent. But, in the late nineteenth century it was the location of one of many well-documented and unexplained sightings of mysterious sea creatures that plagued the waters of the North Atlantic. The creature in question was seen by several people, all who were familiar with local sea life. While returning from a daylong outing, Marcus P. Sherman, Lloyd Eglinton, Stephen Allen and William Tinton, all of Red Bank, encountered the monster. The Red Bank Register reported the witnesses to be sober and respectable local merchants. At around 10:00 P.M. the yacht Tillie S., owned by Sherman, was making its way back to Red Bank after a picnic at Highlands Beach. The men had enjoyed a pleasant Sunday evening escaping the warm early summer weather. The moon was shining bright, providing for high visibility as the yacht cut through the water. A stiff summer breeze was blowing and they rounded the Highlands and headed toward Red Bank. At the tiller of the Tillie S., Marcus Sherman steered through the familiar waters. At the bow was Lloyd Eglinton, who kept watch for debris in the water ahead.   Suddenly Eglinton yelled that there was something in the water dead ahead. Sherman steered “hard to port” to avoid the collision. As they looked to see what the obstacle was, they were shocked. There ahead of them was the Sandy Hook Sea Serpent that had been sighted many times over the preceding two years. So credible were the sightings of the Serpent two years earlier, that Scientific American had run an article issuing an opinion that the monster was in fact a Giant Squid. The article, complete with drawings, appeared in the December 27, 1887, edition of the prestigious scientific periodical. The earlier sighting at Sandy Hook had been made by several credible witnesses. Most notably the members of the Sandy Hook Life Saving Service. The crew members had sighted a large monster in the cold waters just off Sandy Hook in November 1879. The sighting was so credible that scientists were dispatched to take statements. It is from these descriptive statements that it was determined the Sandy Hook Sea Monster was, in fact, a giant squid. For the next several years there were reports of all types of sea serpent sightings up and down the east Atlantic Coast.             What the Red Bank men saw was surely no giant squid. It was described as about 50-foot long and serpentine in shape. It swam with snakelike undulations slowly and steadily through the water. As it passed halfway past the bow, its head rose from the water giving forth a mighty roar. The head was described as small and somewhat resembling a bulldog’s in shape. It had two short rounded horns on its head just above its eyes. The eyes we said to be the size of silver dollars. Bristles adorned the upper lip of the monster, much like those that would be found on a cat. The beast’s nostrils were quite large and flattened. The serpent-like body tapered to a sword-like pointed tail. The frightened men stared in disbelief as it slowly and leisurely swam toward the shore of Hartshorne’s Cove. As the monster disappeared into the night, the men made their way back to Red Bank with a monster of a story to tell. The men of the Tillie S. were not the only ones to see the creature. Other boaters on the water saw the serpent and gave near identical descriptions. In all over a dozen boaters had seen the strange creature on his nocturnal swim. Over the next months and years there would be other sightings of the monster in the Navesink. In time it came to be known as the Shrewsbury Sea Serpent. No scientific explanation was ever given for the sightings, as had been done for the so-called Sandy Hook Sea Serpent, however the description is not totally without merit. Other than the size, the description is very similar to that of the Oarfish. In any case the mystery remains as to the true identity and fate of the Sea Serpent.         Next up we have the blobs….yes the blobs. On  August 6 a large mysterious blob appeared in a Little Egg Harbor tributary in 2003. The Jersey State Police’s marine unit was called in and the Department of Environmental Protection poked and probed the blob and determined that it was not hazardous, though they could not say for sure just what it was. The gooey mass was eventually towed out into the Great Bay using a 50-foot rope and then released. The following year in May of 2004 another gooey, putrid mass surfaced in another waterway in the lagoon community of Beach Haven West, miles away from the original Blob encounter. This smaller “Son of Blob” was only about 10 feet in diameter, but terrorized the beach community nevertheless. “It’s miserable, ugly and disgusting,” said resident Nancy Olivia in the Press of Atlantic City. Olivia called Ocean County officials to say “I went to work today, and I have a Blob in my backyard!” The NJ Department of Environmental Protection, the NJ State Police and Ocean County Health Department were called in to inspect the mass, and samples were taken. The inspectors believed that it was not the same blob that appeared in Little Egg Harbor the prior year, but still didn’t have a clue as to what it consisted of.  It smelled like rotten eggs and measured about 8ft.x10ft.  Most scientists think it was just a mass of algae or plant waste. We like to think its something creepier.  The blob might just be the most disgusting and frightening thing ever encountered at the Jersey Shore, with the possible exception of some cast members from the TV show of the same name. The blob may still be at large, lurking in the depths––so BEWARE!     On top of those there are the numerous bigfoot sightings! These are my people. They are out there and we know they are! In some areas of Jersey they use the nickname Big Red Eye as many reports state he has glowing red eyes! Sussex and Burlington counties seem to be hotspots as they are the top counties for sightings. Here are a few sightings, just cus we love bigfoot sightings.  In 1975, five people reported in a local Sussex County newspaper that a large creature, about nine-feet-tall, was spotted near the Bear Swamp, south of Lake Owassa in the farthest reaches of Sussex County.  The creature walked upright, and was covered with shaggy gray hair. Locals who hunt and fish in the surrounding forest said that it’s possible that something like that could exist because of the remoteness of the area.          In May of 1977, a Sussex County farmer in the town of Wantage reported that a large brown, hairy, Bigfoot-like creature with no neck and glowing red eyes had broken down a one-inch thick oak door and killed his rabbits. Some of the bunnies’ heads were torn off, while other hares were crushed and twisted. The man said there was an unusual absence of blood at the scene. Four men waited with loaded guns the following night for the creature to return. It reappeared at dusk, was shot at, and reportedly hit at least three or four times before running away growling. Although there was an account of the wounded beast re-emerging a few days later, no carcass was ever found. Bob Warth, a member of S.I.T.U. (The Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained based in Little Silver, NJ), claims these Bigfoot-like entities may be UFO related. “We know what robots are,” says Warth. “Is there a possibility that these bigfoots with super-human strength are an extraterrestrial biological robot up in North Jersey? These farmers encountered a bigfoot stealing animals from their barn, they shot at it, hit it right in the body cavity, but there was no blood. It then ran away. When you witness something like that, the first thing you do is relate it to yourself—physically and mentally. If you shoot it, you’re going to shoot where you know the heart is, or whatever, to be to bring it down. First of all, you don’t know what kind of armor it has, and secondly the brain (or control system) may be in his feet for that very purpose…if it is a biological robot.” According to the report on The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website, this witness and his brother-in-law were hunting in an area that they had frequented for several years and heard a sound that neither of them could explain. The sighting,which took place in 2006, was recounted as follows: The deer stood there for about a minute or two mostly looking to the north and east, then turned directly south and walked away. Shortly after this moment I heard a screaming sound coming from the east. The sound had a human quality to it and sounded more angry than distressed. I immediately thought my brother-in-law was hollering for some reason as he was in that direction but chose not to contact him via radio. There were several short 10 second screams lasting a little over a minute and then stopped. I sat there completely perplexed having never heard a sound like that before. After this I noticed the conspicuous absence of any sound or movement in the forest. Prior to this the woods had been filled with the sound of twittering birds and chattering squirrels. After this, the forest was dead quiet. This was the most eerie part of the whole event. After this incident, the witness found a sound file from another website dedicated to Bigfoot encounters. He and his brother-in-law agreed that it was similar to what they had heard. And then there are the stories of “the big hairy man”. No it's not Moody either, he's only been to Jersey a couple of times and we're pretty sure the timelines don't match up to any sightings, well maybe 1 or 2. A Bigfoot-like entity has been seen in the regions of Somerset County, including the Great Swamp area and the Somerset Hills. The locals call it “The Big Hairy Man,” and he has even been spotted as far away as Hillside. According to eyewitness reports The Big Hairy Man stands about eight-feet tall and is covered with hair the color of a deer’s. He walks upright with a human gait, according to a bone specialist and a physical therapist who encountered the Big Hairy Man while taking a shortcut through the Great Swamp on Lord Stirling Road in a hurry to reach the airport.   They claimed the Big Hairy Man walked in front of their car and hopped the fence alongside the road. They could not see his face because he (or it) was looking down. These sightings, according to the Folklore Project in Bernardsville, have occurred for many years. We’ll finish up with a story about Big Red Eye:                             Not that I’m a big believer of urban legend and folklore, but I must tell you this story because after reading about The Big Red Eye in a recent issue, I got the chills! My wife and I live in Westwood now, but we’re formerly from Mahwah. One night, early last summer, we were walking our dog in our condo development (Paddington Square in Mahwah) and heard this guttural sound that scared us so much that we called the police. I’ve heard just about every animal noise imaginable and I’ve got to tell you this was the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t a dog, or bear, but it was big and angry, and had red eyes. I estimate it was roughly 30 yards from us. We were standing by a street light on the sidewalk. I told my wife to pick up the dog and go into the street and walk home slowly. I was shaking in my boots as I slowly backed up, keeping my eyes on the brush. We made it home and called the police, not once, but twice, to find out what the hell that thing was. They investigated but found nothing. To this day my wife and I wonder what it was.  –Mike V. So now with some cryptids out of the way, we have another creepy haunted road. Texas has shitloads of haunted bridges...Jersey has haunted roads, there's always something. This may be the greatest road name ever though. It is called Shades Of Death Road. Yes that's the real name. It’s a two-lane rural road of about 7 miles (11.2 km) in length weaving from farm country just off I-80 along a portion of Jenny Jump State Forest, riding the edge of the unofficially-but-aptly-named Ghost Lake. The road is the subject of folklore and numerous local legends.           One tale relating to murder says that the original inhabitants of the area surrounding Shades of Death were an unruly band of squatters. Often, men from this vile gang would get into fights over women, and the squabbles would result in the death of one of the participants. As the reputation of these murderous bandits grew, the area they inhabited was named “Shades of Death.” When the civilized world encroached on and disbanded the bandits, the last remnant of their control over the meadows was restricted to one road that retained the name they made famous. Another murder theory says that the road was originally known as “The Shades,” because of the low hanging trees which formed a canopy over the length of the street. Legend says that over time, many murders occurred there, and many stayed unsolved, causing local residents to add the sinister “of Death” twist to the formerly pleasant “Shades” name.       One of those legends is that many years ago, a car of teenagers was driving down a country road in Hackettstown, NJ after the prom. The road was slippery that night and it curved sharply to the left and right, winding into the dark. The driver lost control and the car crashed into a ditch killing one of the passengers. To this day, on dark and slippery nights, you can still see the girl who died wandering that murderous curve wearing her prom dress.         There are the stories of the random pillars of steam rising from the lake that people attribute to the souls of dead Indians that settlers tossed into the lake. The phenomena is also called The Great Meadows Fog. People claim to see the dead walking in the mist. The road was also the site of many deaths that were once attributed to a curse in the area. The deaths are also sometimes blamed on a plague caused by the waters in the lake, said to have been a malaria outbreak.  Lenape Lane is an unpaved one-lane dead-end street about three-quarter mile (1.1 km) in length running eastward off Shades just north of I-80. It ends at a farmhouse for which it is little more than a driveway, but halfway down there is space to park or turn around next to a wooden structure described as looking like an abandoned stable.                       Weird New Jersey writes that visitors to this stable site at night have reported extremely local fog surrounding it and seeing apparitions in it, or sometimes even in clear weather, and also claimed the air is sometimes unusually chilly, and feeling general unease in the area for no immediately apparent reason. An additional legend claims that sometimes nocturnal visitors to Lenape see an orb of white light appear near the end of the road which chases vehicles back out to Shades Of Death, and if it turns red in the process, those who see it will die. This may be due to an old tree near the end of Lenape that was never cut down when the road was built. As a result, the road forks right before the tree, and a big red reflector has been nailed to the tree to warn drivers. Another legend says that if one circles around the tree and drives down the road again at midnight, a red light will shine and the driver will never survive.                There are some legends concerning a Native American spirit guide who supposedly takes the shape of a deer and appears at various points along the road at night. If drivers see him and do not slow down sufficiently enough to avoid a collision, they will soon get into a serious accident with a deer.   Another legend tells of a bridge where, if drivers stop past midnight with their high beams on and honk their horns three times, they will see the ghosts of two young children who were run over while playing in the road. This legend actually refers to a bridge over the Flatbrook on Old Mine Road, not far from Shades of Death. The bridge is no longer accessible by car as a newer, larger bridge has been built next to it. The original bridge can still be reached on foot.   And then there are the polaroids. The site Weird NJ, which is all about weird stuff in New Jersey, and quite on the nose, has a page about Shades of Death Road. Now, if you go to their page for Shades of Death Road and check out the tags at the bottom of the page, you’ll see one that says “Polaroids” but the story article itself never mentions Polaroids. From what we could find, back in the 1990s, when Weird NJ was a magazine, they shared a story from two readers who claimed to have found hundreds of odd photos while checking out Shades of Death Road. Some of the Polaroids showed a TV on different channels, and others showed various women bound and apparently in distress. Weird NJ turned the photos over to the local police but after that the story kind of weirdly ends with the police supposedly losing the Polaroids. Were the Polaroids taken by a serial killer similar to that of the BTK Killer in Kansas? Or were they a hoax? The lack of any solid information on them, and the idea that the police lost hundreds of Polaroids makes most think hoax. Still, if you Google for Shades of Death Road Polaroids, some of the images will come up          Ok, how about some good old haunted buildings? Everyone loves haunted buildings, except pussies, they don't like haunted buildings. At any rate, first up is the so-called Spy House.            One of the most haunted houses in America is the Spy House, built in 1648, added on to and moved to its present day site. As a tavern during the Revolutionary war, it was frequented by British troops. The tavern owner would tell the Colonial troops about British plans of attack. For many years it was open to the public as a historical museum, but just a couple of years ago it was closed to the public. Quite simply, it is one of the most haunted houses in the country with not one but up to five different spirits haunting it. A female spirit dressed in white has been seen walking from room to room looking for her crying baby. A full bearded old sea captain is also known to roam the grounds and halls, and a small ghost of a boy has been seen peering out of windows. Even the infamous pirate Captain Morgan was known to hide treasure in the house's basement and conduct sordid business and tortures in the old house. He's been seen in a ghostly form threatening children and others who visited the museum. This ghostly activity has been going on for years.   The Spy House once touted 22 active ghosts. Longtime volunteer curator Gertrude Needlinger would show videos of the seances! In October, 1993, Neidlinger was locked out of the museum after a dispute with the Spy House Museum Corp. The board claimed she continued to lead ghost tours through the house, with visitors carrying lit candles and posing a fire hazard. In 1992, while it was still an antique-cluttered, spirit-infested treasure of the Jersey bayshore, 13 nights of ghost tours drew about 1,800 people. Gertrude, an elderly woman who, by most accounts, was a colorful character with a vivid imagination, would spin yarns of the house’s past, weaving in threads of ghosts and espionage as she walked visitors around the museum. Though most historians today bristle at the tales she told, they will admit that Neidlinger’s narratives gained quite a bit of attention for the house in the public’s eye. ghost stories that began to circulate about the Spy House soon became the primary focus of the homestead’s appeal, much to the chagrin of the local historians. Here's a couple tales of ghostly happenings:          Spy House Ghost Boy One morning my friend Dave’s parents went to visit the old Spy House Museum in Port Monmouth. They were there at the appointed opening time but the curator wasn’t there. After about a half hour of waiting they said “the hell with it,” and left. As they were getting back into their car, my friend’s father looked up and pointed out a kid about 10 or12-years-old, looking at them from the upstairs window. His dad said that the kid had on one of those puffy shirts that they used to wear in the old days. As they watched, he slowly backed away from the window. Just then the curator drove up and apologized for being late. They told her that they had seen a young boy in the upstairs window. She said no one is supposed to be in there. She opened the house up and together they searched the place, but found no one. –Ray     ROCKING CHAIR GHOST         On the way back from a very fun day at the water park in Keansburg, my dad decided to show my sister and myself the Spy House. When we got there we looked into the windows. It was extremely dark inside, and everything was locked. When we made it to the left side of the house my dad noticed something moving inside the house. I just shrugged it off as nothing, but then when I was looking in the same upstairs window I noticed that the rocking chair moved! I was scanning all the windows to see if I could see anything else unusual, and I clearly saw a man sitting in a rocking chair reading. It couldn’t have been a ranger because he was wearing old clothes and was sitting in the dark, reading, in a locked up house. We snapped a picture and ran, and as we pulled away, a ranger pulled up and unlocked the doors, so we assume it must have been a ghost. –Ali Creepy! Ringwood Manor According to the caretakers, Ringwood Manor is one of the most haunted places on the east coast. It has layer upon layer of legend, myth and folklore. The Native Americans would even call it the Haunted Woods. In fact, before the home was built, prehistoric artifacts were found on the grounds of Ringwood confirming Native American occupation of the site dating back to the Archaic and Woodlands periods of prehistory. These Munsee-speaking Lenape peoples lived in a hunting and farming paradise at the head of the “Topomopack” or Ringwood River Valley and traded with other natives in the Pompton area. The Lenapi recognized special earth forces at work here, and as long as their memory is, this has been sacred ground with supernatural occurrences attributed to the area. Perhaps it is the earth’s immense magnetism at Ringwood that affects all type of matter. It is said that the Highlands region was a gathering place for all of the diverse prehistoric Native Americans of the Northeast.   While the “forces” remain a mystery, it was known that there were lots of iron in the hills and valleys of Ringwood. As such, in 1742, the Ogden family established the Ringwood Company and built the first blast furnace to begin mining and selling the iron. By 1771, the last ironmaster of the American Iron Company, Robert Erskine, was sent from England. He would manage the company during the Revolutionary War. The iron mined at the site helped to supply the Continental Army with components of the chain system used to defend the Hudson River, camp ovens, and domestic tools and hardware.       After the war, Martin J. Ryerson purchased the historic ironworks in 1807 and began building the first section of the present Manor circa 1810. The home was a small, 10-room, Federal style building. In 1853, the Ryerson’s house and property were purchased by Peter Cooper. Cooper purchased the 19,000 acre site, which included the Long Pond ironworks area, for $100,000. Cooper’s iron business, Trenton Ironworks, was managed by his son Edward and his son’s business partner, Abram S. Hewitt. Additions to the Manor were constructed in 1864, 1875, 1900, and 1910. Eventually, the iron industry moved further west in America and Ringwood’s iron mines finally closed. In 1938, the Hewitt family donated Ringwood Manor and its contents to the State of New Jersey. Preserved as a historic house museum and State Park, Ringwood Manor and its grounds are excellent examples of Victorian wealth and lifestyle.   The Ringwood Manor Hauntings In total there are four different places that are said to be haunted. If you wander the halls of the Manor House at night, guests commonly meet the ghost of a servant known as Jackson White who haunts a small bedroom on the second floor. Legend states that in the early 1900’s Jackson worked as a servant for the family, but was caught stealing food from the pantry in the middle of the night. One of the white workers beat the man to death in this room. Many visitors have heard noises coming from the empty room – footsteps, sounds of heavy objects dropping, soft crying. And they keep finding the bedroom door ajar and the bed rumpled.   Behind the Manor pond is the grave where Owner/ General Robert Erskine is buried. The locals are afraid to come near the graves because at dusk General Erskine can be seen sitting on his grave gazing across the pond. The pond itself was created for a young woman known as Sally who can also be seen around the graves. She meets guests with music as well as flowery fragrances. The French Soldiers Also near Erskine it is said there is an unmarked grave filled with the remains of French soldiers who fought during the Revolutionary War. During the day, all you can see is a depression in the grass near the General’s grave. But it is believed that, at night, when the lights are out and the moon hangs brightly over the manor, the dead return to walk around the pond, and gaze over the shore in search of their loved ones. Sometimes, you can hear soft, sad voices speaking in French.   The last haunting is the grounds itself which were said to hold an ancient Indian burial ground. When the house was build over these remains, along came a curse and haunting which was resulting in various strange occurrences to visitors who say that a dark energy can be felt. Others claim that spirits come home with them. Sounds fun!   "A purported meeting place for the KKK, notorious suicide site and rumored gateway to the depths of hell".         This was the first description of The Devil's Tree that we found, kind of had to put it in. While it's not exactly a building, Thrillest named The devil's tree one of the most haunted places in America and the most haunted in New Jersey! the Devil's Tree is infamous among locals and has evolved into a chilling tourist attraction," according to Thrillist. "Legend has it, anyone who harms the tree will suffer swift and violent retribution — so naturally, it has become a tradition for ballsy teens across the Garden State to pee on its trunk.             The infamous tree stands alone in an open field off Mountain Road in Bernards Township right on the border of the Martinsville section of Bridgewater and continues to draw in thrill seekers from all over the Garden State and beyond.           Legend has it that the tree has been cursed since as far back as the 1920s when a group of KKK members were rumored to hold cross burnings and hangings off the limbs of the tree.       Basking Ridge historian, or also known as mrlocalhistory.org, Brooks Betz confirmed there was in fact an active KKK clan located just down the road on the Bridgewater side near Route 202/206 and Brown Road, where the Hindu temple now stands. However, the clan activities have not been proven.         "One of the different rumors is that one of the guys, a grand wizard of the clan, who owned the property in Bridgewater would hold a series of KKK activity and cross burnings. And instead of doing it on the Bridgewater property they did it on the tree. There were tales of lynching and cross burning. But nothing was substantiated," Betz said.        Another rumor revolves around a farmer — who lived in the white farmhouse that had stood adjacent to the tree — who murdered his entire family at the home and then hung himself on the tree.        Betz said there is no record of the murders ever being reported.       "The property then laid dormant until the 1960s when a couple of local kids invented a story about a rogue white pickup truck that would come up over the hill and kill you," Betz said.          Betz said he spoke with one of those boys later on who told him that they made up the story and drove the "haunted" pickup in an attempt to keep people off the property so they could hang out and drink by the tree.         The tree has since been called "a portal to hell" because of all the rumors.         "Supposedly anyone who tries to cut down the unholy oak comes to an untimely end, as it is now cursed. It is said that the souls of those killed at the spot give the tree an unnatural warmth, and even in the dead of winter no snow will fall around it," Betz wrote in a piece about the tree years ago.         The tree gained much more attention after Weird NJ published a story on the tree in 2012.       To this day, thrill seekers come out to the tree and try to press their luck and see if they end up cursed.      Some try to touch the tree, while others pee on it or try to cut it or burn it down. You can still see the ax and burn marks permanently branded onto the tree. Many took pieces of the bark as a souvenir or proof they were at the tree.      With much commotion surrounding the tree the township designated the area a park where the field and tree are now sanctioned and protected. The tree has a protective chain link fencing around the trunk and the park remains closed with Bernards Township Police patrolling the area for trespassers.         Betz noted that there is "some element of truth" when you look at the rumors "but when you dig deeper" it doesn't all check out.         "Was there a clan there? Yeah. A white truck? Yeah. There were no hangings proven," Betz said. "You decide for yourself. Is it real? Is there any truth to it? Or is just some tree. You decide." How about another road? INDIAN CURSE ROAD Route 55 has a long history of curious occurrences.   Home state HauntingsIn March of 1983, the Department Of Transportation started construction on a field just off Route 47 in Deptford, between Mantua and Franklin Township, to build a new 7.2 mile stretch of Route 55. Two months later mysterious deaths began to befall the workers involved with the project.   “All they had to do was detour around the field maybe three or four miles and nothing would have happened,” said Carl Pierce in a newspaper article at the time. Pierce, or Sachem Wayandaga, the chief and medicine man of the Delaware Indians, said the land was an ancient Indian burial ground, and therefore sacred.   “I told them what would happen if they didn’t stop the desecration, Pierce was quoted as saying. “The damage is done. The problem is I feel sorry for some of the people who will be traveling that road in the future.”   The first unfortunate incident was that of a 34-year-old worker who was run over by an asphalt roller truck. Another worker fell to his death when he was working on an overpass, swept up by unexpected high winds that had apparently come out of nowhere.   Soon after those incidents, an inspector fell dead on the job from a brain aneurysm. Other workers, or members of their families, suffered strange maladies. One worker’s feet turned black, while other workers’ family members developed cancer. Then a van carrying five Department Of Transportation employees caught fire and blew up. The parents of killed asphalt worker died during the first week of construction, and a brother and father of another worker died that same week.   A D.O.T. employee, who asked not to be identified because he fears the curse, said that Karl Kruger, the site engineer for the project, would often speak about the curse, and the coincidence of the events. The employee informed Weird N.J. that Mr. Kruger had died of cancer shortly thereafter. Yet another victim of the curse? DEVILS TOWER The Devil's Tower was built in 1910 by a millionaire sugar importer named Manuel Rionda. Before it received the name Devil's Tower, it was formerly known as Rio Vista. According to reporting from Forbes, the tower was built and dedicated to Rionda’s wife, Harriet Rionda, who was buried on nearby land but later moved to Brookside Cemetery, Englewood. Rumor has it that Mr. Rionda built the tower for his wife so she could look out at the New York City skyline. Others believe he built it as a mausoleum or for religious purposes. But, even with Mrs. Rionda’s death and later Mr. Rionda’s death in the mid 1900’s, many believe Harriet Rionda’s spirit still lives on at the tower.   The tower was connected to Rionda’s home by an underground tunnel. According to the local legend story, his wife was looking out of the tower when she saw Manuel with another woman. While she may have suspected infidelity for years, according to reporting from New Jersey Magazine, distraught from the site, she jumped off the tower, killing herself. Since her rumored suicide, there have been many reports of hauntings, including people who have said they have been pushed by something unseen. Others have reported strange noises and because of this, Manuel locked up the tower, filled in the tunnel connecting the home to the tower and even removed the elevator leading to the top of the tower proclaiming, “Nobody will ever go up here again,” according to reporting from Try To Scare Me.   Since that time, people have started calling it Devil's Tower. Witnesses report still hearing noises and smelling perfume, while at other times you can hear a scream as the wife jumps from the tower or a workman falls from it. Her ghostly spirit has also been seen as a shadowy figure in the windows.   Some have said that if you drive or walk backward around the tower a certain number of times, the devil or Manuel's wife appears.   Devil’s Tower and the spirit surrounding it clearly seems to be here for good, keeping a dark cloud around the rich community of Alpine. Even after Mr. Rionda’s death there were plans to demolish the tower by the Town but activities were halted and eventually aborted after several workers fell to their death.     BURLINGTON COUNTY PRISON The Burlington County Prison is a historic museum property, located next to the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. Operating from 1811 to 1965, it was the oldest prison in the nation at the time of its closure. The imposing structure was designed by Robert Mills, considered to be the first native-born American trained as an architect. Mills may be most famous for his government buildings and monuments, including the Treasury Building (featured on the back of the 10-dollar bill) and the Washington Monument, but he also designed several courthouses, churches, and prisons.  The Burlington County Prison, built with 18-inch-thick walls made of stone and brick, was designed to hold 40 inmates. When it opened, the penitentiary didn’t have electricity or running water; it was the first prison in the U.S. constructed to be fireproof, and each cell was heated by a wood-burning fireplace. The first floor, for perpetrators of less severe crimes, had larger windows than the second, which held more serious offenders. A maximum-security cell (known as “the dungeon”) located on the top floor is flanked by niches for additional guards and has a steel ring on the floor to which a prisoner could be chained. In 1876, five men punched a hole through the ceiling of their prison cell, located on the top floor of Burlington County Prison. Four of the men slipped through the hole onto the roof, climbed down a woodpile, and over the prison yard wall to freedom. The fifth man, upset that he was too large to fit through the small opening, didn’t wait long before he snitched on his cellmates. The warden responded immediately to the alarm, but only two of the four escapees were ever caught and returned to the prison. The early laws of NJ required that prisoners convicted of capital crimes had to be executed by the county in which they were convicted. Except for two of the earliest executions in the 1830s (one of which was a woman, the other a young man named Joel Clough), public hangings took place in the prison yard, on gallows erected for each event. The first two mentioned were carried out on public lands at a crossroads a few miles from the prison, and from contemporary accounts, drew quite a crowd. According to records, Joel’s body was later buried in the prison yard in a corner where a large tree now grows. It is believed his ghost is the principle haunt.   Besides the executions, other violent deaths took place at the prison. During the 1920s some inmates managed to escape, making their way through the lowest level. They encountered a trustee near the kitchen and murdered him. A few decades later practically the same scenario occurred, with a second guard being killed in the same corridor.   The last execution to take place at Burlington County Prison was a double bill in March of 1906. Two men, Rufus Johnson and George Small, were executed just two months after their crime. They had murdered an English-born governess at a refuge for homeless children in Moorestown.  Joel Clough had been arrested and convicted of the stabbing death of a woman in Bordentown—apparently she had jilted him. Though he managed to escape, the 29 year old Clough was quickly recaptured and confined to the Death Cell on the upper floor of the prison. A brochure given out at the museum describes the maximum security cell this way:       The “dungeon”, or maximum-security cell, was in the center of the top floor. That location was carefully chosen to prevent escape by digging, to minimize communication with criminals in the cell blocks, and to ensure constant surveillance by guards making rounds. This was the only cell without a fireplace. It is flanked by niches for guards or visitors and has one very high, very small window and an iron ring in the center of the floor to which the prisoner could be chained. As one might expect, tradition states that this cell is haunted.   Policy of the time was to chain the condemned to a ring on the floor, naked. Accordingly, Joel’s spirit has been heard moaning and languishing there, and electro-magnetic indicators (used in ghost hunting) routinely register a “hit.” The Death Cell, complete with its metal ring, and all the “accommodations” at the prison, welcome inspection, and in many cases prisoner graffiti has been preserved on the walls.   The Prison now is a Historic Landmark and a nice museum, a fascinating place to learn about prison life. It still holds a few entities who don’t want to leave. This became evident when in 1999 renovation work began on the run-down building, in order to create this museum for the public. MANIFESTATIONS The Prison now is a Historic Landmark and a nice museum. It still holds a few entities who choose to stay here. There is much psychic research done to support this haunting of the old prison. Thanks the North and South Jersey Paranormal Research groups. In a joint effort, they investigated this prison with video, photos, EVP equipment and came up with some interesting results.   During the renovation work, workmen experienced some paranormal activities. They were treated to loud noises, voices and screams from their new friends – The entities who stayed behind. The workers would find their tools missing and later found on another floor or other location much later in the day. Because the workers were uneasy being the last ones in the building, they started to leave early, prompting the officials to call in the South Jersey Ghost Research team to confirm or deny the claims of the now scared workers, in order to ease their minds. Dave Juliano of theShadowlands.net was in on these early investigations and saw first hand evidence. This was the first of several investigations.   An apparition was seen in the shower area, and a foot print in the dust was found there as well.  The Maximum Security Cell – Haunted by entity or entities who spent their last nights here before being hanged. David Juliano observed with his team that a stretcher next to the maximum security cell moved by itself, and that the movement sensors were set off by a force in the cell itself.   Susan Bove (SJPR) meditates in the “Death Row” cell while two orbs move past.   The gallows which are on display are haunted by the condemned. Possible candidates may include convicted murderers Rufus Johnson and George Small, as well as others who were executed here. Got to love old prisons and asylums! And speaking of asylums… We don't have one...I know I know, but all of the reportedly haunted asylums that sounded awesome to us have been demolished, and honestly… What's the point then? Here's some quick guys for you guys since there's so many things we could cover:  Probably one of the more popular urban legends, the Atco Ghost is said to appear when drivers honk three times on Burnt Mill Road in the Pine Barrens. Legend has it that the ghost boy haunts the site where he was struck by a drunk driver.  The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township. The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. On board were 97 people; there were 36 fatalities. Though the disaster took place 77 years ago, some say that reverberations of the tragic event, of a paranormal nature, can still be felt around the Lakehurst Naval Base to this day––especially in Hangar No. 1.  Ok so there you have some of the creepy things we could find in Jersey. Honestly there's a fucking ton more, but… we saved the craziest,creepiest, and possibly the most tragic story we could find for last. Mad science, murder, and a lasting presence in new Jersey, make this the craziest story you may have ever heard. It goes like this: Rumors had started circulating around the creepy plain building in Hudson county in New Jersey. It sat by itself and seemingly none ever went in or came out. No one knew who owned it or what it purpose was. That is until a mysterious fire gutted the building one night in 1974. After the fire was put out investigators quickly depot in and started to gather what was left and sweep it away without letting anyone see what was there. However, they were not as through as they thought and left behind some interesting evidence that was find by curious townsfolk checking out the site after the fire. As much as could be piecedd together goes like this. Apparently the government owned the building. After WW2 the government brought over Nazi scientists with operation paperclip. Well it looks like this building in Jersey played host to several of the worst. The files showed the scientist were working on some sort of biological weapon and also animal experimentation to train small animals to be weapons. They experimented with mice, rats, possums, raccoons, squirrels, moles, groundhogs, and other small animals trying to find ways to train them to deliver explosives and other biological weapons. When the fire started there were many animals that escaped. Most of them were near death due to mistreatment. But a local family stumbled across possibly the most disturbing pair of animals to have been tested on and experimented with. These two animals, a male and female raccoon, showed many disturbing characteristics that trains should not have. They acted almost human like and communicated with a series of sounds that seemed like their own sort of language. They had very little fur left except on their heads. The couple put it done food for them and the raccoons are the food and then took off. Nobody else saw these two raccoons but there's compelling and creepy evidence that they existed. Wandering the streets of Jersey today you may find yourself in some unsavory places. Within these unsavory places is where you can find the evidence of these raccoons existence. While you may run into many normal raccoons, you may also run into raccoons that are essentially… Human. They walk, talk and wear leather jackets. They are tough and will not hesitate to cut you as many of them carry switchblades. They generally have bad attitudes but have been known on occasion to help you out if you are being threatened by someone from the family Pepitone.  These raccoons are said to be the direct descendants of the two raccoons that escaped from that burning building so many years ago. So when you're in Jersey the takes warn to beware the raccoons! Well there you have it, our first installment of creepy Jersey! There will be another at someone as we've found so many cool creep places and things in Jersey. Because if its age and location there's a ton of really cool historical places there and events that took place there. We recommend checking out the history of the state. While it may have a reputation as being the garbage dump of the United States, there's actually alot to love, especially if you like creepy and haunted…. And raccoons!                               

"If you ever see them, don't be afraid. Talk to them, be nice to them, and they will bring you luck." Kiki defends the honor of the sometimes mischievous Puckwudgies against the brutal onslaught of JC. Kiki takes us on a tour of the great North American legend of the Little People of the Woods with stories from the New England Mohegan tribe, heading down south to the Muskogean tribal legend of the Choctaw and then ending with Pennsylvania's local Algonquian tribal tale from the Lenni Lenapi. Random Chatter ends at 10:00 : #covid19news #neverforget (we don't say the name of the creatures that Kiki won't talk about anymore!) #ghoststoryguys Our musical guest is Foghorn Lonesome out of Sweden with their song "Ghosts of the Oak". Be sure to check them out on Spotify and support them at Bandcamp https://foghornlonesome.bandcamp.com/album/foghorn-lonesome Resources used for this episode are: Online : https://www.native-languages.org and https://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TheLittlePeople-Choctaw.html Books: Adams, Richard C., Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing, Syracuse University Press, 1997 Original publication - 1905. ; (Children's Books) The Good Giants and the Bad Puckwudgies. ; The Deetkatoo: Native American Stories About Little People by John Bierhorst ; Love's Calendar, Lays of the Hudson, and Other Poems By Charles Fenno Hoffman (notes at the end talk about the puckwudgies specifically as not being mean spirited but just spirits of the forest.) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

On March 20, 1747, a twenty-nine year old David Brainerd said goodbye to his congregation of Delaware Indians for the last time. His long battle with tuberculosis ended in Northhampton, Massachusetts, on a bed in the home of Jonathan Edwards. He passed away October 9, 1747. Brainerd had been a missionary for only four years.Continue reading "2.6 — David Brainerd and Power in Weakness"

[EPISODE] Harlem Our guests this week as we journey to Harlem will be Rediscovering New York regular Joyce Gold of Joyce Gold History tours, and Harlem resident and business owner Karl Franz Williams, of 67 Orange Street, and Solomon and Kuff. Segment 1 Jeff introduces his first guest, Joyce Gold of Joyce Gold History Tours, a regular on the show. Joyce goes into the early history of Harlem. The Delaware Indians were the original residents of Harlem when the Dutch first arrived in the area. Harlem was a farming community for much of the Dutch period during the 1650s. Harlem is named after a well-known town in the Netherlands. The British tried to change the name of Harlem but New Yorkers did not allow this to happen. One of the founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, purchased a hill in Harlem and built a magnificent home in the area in the early. This area is now called Harlem Heights. In the late 18th and 19th century, Harlem was mostly a rural community until the introduction of advanced transportation.     Segment 2 Jeff returns the show to Harlem and brings up the lesser known ethnic communities that lived in Harlem. Joyce goes into the different groups Harlem hosted. Joyce mentions houses of worship and food stays in neighborhoods the longest. Jeff explains how there was both active Jewish and Italian mafia in Harlem at once. Joyce goes on to describe the history discrimination in Harlem including when Penn Station was established it caused the uprooting of many African American families sparking riots. In the 1920’s, Joyce explains, Harlem was the center of many social justice movements. Over the Depression Harlem faced a lot of trouble. Residents often resorted to rent parties to survive.  Segment 3 The second interview is with Karl Franz Williams. Karl talks about his education as an engineer and his surprising jump from engineering to marketing with Procter and Gamble. Karl recalls how while living in Puerto Rico the inspiration for 67 Orange Street was planted. Years later, after first opening and running Society Coffee, Karl opened 67 Orange Street in Harlem. Karl speaks on his time with PepsiCo about his work on the innovation team. Jeff recalls his positive experience at 67 Orange Street, particularity the variety of cocktails and spirits. Segment 4 Karl talks about the history of Harlem, its wide streets and  parks all being factors of what makes the area attractive to him. He talks about how he still loves the parks in the area and how he is able to take his family to enjoy them as well. Karl talks about the different personalities you can find in Harlem from someone working out on the corner to the legendary Dapper Dan and the sense of community found among all these characters. Karl discusses the changes he’s seen in Harlem over the years from vacant lots being turned into buildings to drug activity transforming into families. He talks about his feelings on gentrification and the fear of it being about displacement, as well as how he’s been accused of being a gentrifier in the area.

Episode Notes: In 1758, Delaware Indians kidnapped a Pennsylvania girl as a surrogate for a tribal chief's dead granddaughter, and brought her with them to live in the Ohio country. For nearly a century, books, paintings and commemorative plaques held that the girl, Mary Campbell, lived with her captors in a cave in what is now Gorge Metro Park in Cuyahoga Falls. We explore what parts of this story are true, and which are really only a mystery.   www.ohiomysteries.com   feedback@ohiomysteries.com   www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries   www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio   www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music:Audionautix- The Great Unknown Alderin- New Horizon

During the early eighteenth century, three phratries or tribes (Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf) of Delaware Indians left their traditional homeland in the Delaware River watershed and moved west to the Allegheny Valley of western Pennsylvania and eventually across the Ohio River into the Muskingum River valley. As newcomers to the colonial American borderlands, these bands of Delawares detached themselves from their past in the east, developed a sense of common cause, and created for themselves a new regional identity in western Pennsylvania. The Western Delaware Indian Nation, 1730-1795: Warriors and Diplomats is a case study of the western Delaware Indian experience, offering critical insight into the dynamics of Native American migrations to new environments and the process of reconstructing social and political systems to adjust to new circumstances. The Ohio backcountry brought to center stage the masculine activities of hunting, trade, war-making, diplomacy and was instrumental in the transformation of Delaware society and with that change, the advance of a western Delaware nation. This nation, however, was forged in a time of insecurity as it faced the turmoil of imperial conflict during the Seven Years' War and the backcountry racial violence brought about by the American Revolution. The stress of factionalism in the council house among Delaware leaders such as Tamaqua, White Eyes, Killbuck, and Captain Pipe constantly undermined the stability of a lasting political western Delaware nation. This narrative of western Delaware nationhood is a story of the fight for independence and regional unity and the futile effort to create and maintain an enduring nation. In the end the western Delaware nation became fragmented and forced as in the past, to journey west in search of a new beginning. The Western Delaware Indian Nation, 1730-1795: Warriors and Diplomats is an account of an Indian people and their dramatic and arduous struggle for autonomy, identity, political union, and a permanent homeland. Richard S. Grimes is currently adjunct faculty at La Roche College and Community College of Allegheny County. Description courtesy of Lehigh University Press.

The history of Indian removal has often followed a single narrative arc, one that begins with President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 and follows the Cherokee Trail of Tears. In that conventional account, the Black Hawk War of 1832 encapsulates the experience of tribes in the territories north of the Ohio River. But Indian removal in the Old Northwest was much more complicated—involving many Indian peoples and more than just one policy, event, or politician. In Land Too Good for Indians, historian John P. Bowes takes a long-needed closer, more expansive look at northern Indian removal—and in so doing amplifies the history of Indian removal and of the United States.Bowes focuses on four case studies that exemplify particular elements of removal in the Old Northwest. He traces the paths taken by Delaware Indians in response to Euro-American expansion and U.S. policies in the decades prior to the Indian Removal Act. He also considers the removal experience among the Seneca-Cayugas, Wyandots, and other Indian communities in the Sandusky River region of northwestern Ohio. Bowes uses the 1833 Treaty of Chicago as a lens through which to examine the forces that drove the divergent removals of various Potawatomi communities from northern Illinois and Indiana. And in exploring the experiences of the Odawas and Ojibwes in Michigan Territory, he analyzes the historical context and choices that enabled some Indian communities to avoid relocation west of the Mississippi River.John P. Bowes is Professor of History at Eastern Kentucky University and received his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of several books, including Exiles and Pioneers: Eastern Indians in the Trans-Mississippi West, The Trail of Tears: Removal in the South, Black Hawk and the War of 1832: Removal in the North, The Choctaw, and Land Too Good for Indians: Northern Indian Removal.

When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly independent United States savored its victory and hoped for a great future. And yet the republic soon found itself losing an escalating military conflict on its borderlands. In 1791, years of skirmishes, raids, and quagmire climaxed in the grisly defeat of American militiamen by a brilliantly organized confederation of Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware Indians. With nearly one thousand U.S. casualties, this was the worst defeat the nation would ever suffer at native hands. Americans were shocked, perhaps none more so than their commander in chief, George Washington, who saw in the debacle an urgent lesson: the United States needed an army. “Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West” tells the overlooked story of how Washington achieved his aim. In evocative and absorbing prose, William Hogeland conjures up the woodland battles and the hardball politics that formed the Legion of the United States, our first true standing army. His memorable portraits of leaders on both sides—from the daring war chiefs Blue Jacket and Little Turtle to the doomed commander Richard Butler and a steely, even ruthless Washington—drive a tale of horrific violence, brilliant strategizing, stupendous blunders, and valorous deeds. This sweeping account, at once exciting and dark, builds to a crescendo as Washington and Alexander Hamilton, at enormous risk, outmaneuver Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other skeptics of standing armies—and Washington appoints the seemingly disreputable Anthony Wayne, known as Mad Anthony, to lead the legion. Wayne marches into the forests of the Old Northwest, where the very Indians he is charged with defeating will bestow on him, with grudging admiration, a new name: the Black Snake. William Hogeland is the author of three books on founding U.S. history—“The Whiskey Rebellion,” “Declaration,” and “Founding Finance”—as well as a collection of essays, “Inventing American History.” Born in Virginia and raised in Brooklyn, he lives in New York City.

In 1791 an American military expedition led by General Arthur St. Clair to assert U.S. claims in the region north and west of the Ohio River was attacked by a confederation of Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware Indians that hoped to stop the country's westward expansion. With nearly one thousand U.S. casualties, the American defeat was the worst the country would ever suffer at native hands. Americans were shocked, perhaps none more so than their commander in chief, George Washington, who saw in the debacle an urgent lesson: the United States needed an army. Lewis H. Lapham talks with William Hogeland, author of Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West, about the United States' first standing army and its victory over the coalition of native forces that sought to halt the country's expansion. Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Delaware Indians kidnapped five year old Francis in 1778, it would be sixty years before she would see any of her family again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the spoken word be a reliable record of past events? For many Native people, the answer is unequivocally affirmative. Histories of family, tribe, and nation, narratives of origin and migration, foodways and ceremonies, and the provisions of countless treaties have been passed down through successive generations without written documents. The colonizing society has maintained a starkly different view, elevating the written word to a position of authority and dismissing the authenticity of oral tradition. Are these two views irreconcilable? Exploring the contested memorialization of four controversial episodes in the history of the Delaware (or Lenape) Indians’ encounter with settlers, Andrew Newman finds unexpected connections between colonial documents, recorded oral traditions, and material culture. On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) is a thoughtful meditation on how we know the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the spoken word be a reliable record of past events? For many Native people, the answer is unequivocally affirmative. Histories of family, tribe, and nation, narratives of origin and migration, foodways and ceremonies, and the provisions of countless treaties have been passed down through successive generations without written documents. The colonizing society has maintained a starkly different view, elevating the written word to a position of authority and dismissing the authenticity of oral tradition. Are these two views irreconcilable? Exploring the contested memorialization of four controversial episodes in the history of the Delaware (or Lenape) Indians’ encounter with settlers, Andrew Newman finds unexpected connections between colonial documents, recorded oral traditions, and material culture. On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) is a thoughtful meditation on how we know the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the spoken word be a reliable record of past events? For many Native people, the answer is unequivocally affirmative. Histories of family, tribe, and nation, narratives of origin and migration, foodways and ceremonies, and the provisions of countless treaties have been passed down through successive generations without written documents. The colonizing society has maintained a starkly different view, elevating the written word to a position of authority and dismissing the authenticity of oral tradition. Are these two views irreconcilable? Exploring the contested memorialization of four controversial episodes in the history of the Delaware (or Lenape) Indians’ encounter with settlers, Andrew Newman finds unexpected connections between colonial documents, recorded oral traditions, and material culture. On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) is a thoughtful meditation on how we know the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the spoken word be a reliable record of past events? For many Native people, the answer is unequivocally affirmative. Histories of family, tribe, and nation, narratives of origin and migration, foodways and ceremonies, and the provisions of countless treaties have been passed down through successive generations without written documents. The colonizing society has maintained a starkly different view, elevating the written word to a position of authority and dismissing the authenticity of oral tradition. Are these two views irreconcilable? Exploring the contested memorialization of four controversial episodes in the history of the Delaware (or Lenape) Indians’ encounter with settlers, Andrew Newman finds unexpected connections between colonial documents, recorded oral traditions, and material culture. On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) is a thoughtful meditation on how we know the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I. The Center of our Salvation: Almighty God Some verses just unfold like a cave of treasure or like one of those little toys you get that has all these little secret hidden compartments and you keep learning. It's this cleverly made thing. Made of wood perhaps, with little secret compartments and you have to learn how each one of them opens, and inside each one, there's a gold ring or a silver chain or some new thing. And that's the way I look at this passage that we're going look at today, especially verse 10. I was saying to some of the men as we're praying, as I worked on the sermon this morning, it was 27 minutes on verse 10 alone. So if 27 minutes from now, we're still on verse 10, don't despair, just listen and take it in because it's an astonishing verse. But all of them are magnificent. And so we're going to learn from this text, the greatness of Christ, the greatness of his salvation that he works for us. But we're going to go immediately right away to the center of the universe. We're going to go right away to the center of everything, and that is to God. God is the focus of verse 10. God's thoughts, what God is doing in salvation, what it was fitting for God to do. God is the center of verse 10, as God as the center of all things. God is the center of the universe. And so the author right away in verse 10 emphasizes God's central role in the universe. "For it was fitting for him, [God, was fitting for him] for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." So we're going right away to the idea of God and how healthy is it for us to do that. We talked recently about how we are tempted constantly to drift away from God, away from Christ. We need to know that everything in this universe exists for God. Through God. By God. That God is the center of all things. We are living in God's house. We are playing with God's things. We are eating at God's table. We are sleeping under God's roof. We are breathing God's air. We are wearing God's clothes. This is God's universe that we're in. We are welcome guests as created beings, created in his image. We are adopted sons and daughters through Christ but it's God's universe. The Essence of Our Sinfulness: Putting Man at the Center Now, the essence of our sinfulness is to put man at the center of all things and to relegate God increasingly to nothingness. A practical atheism. And here, the word that comes to my mind is the word secular. We live in a secular world, a secular society. And what is the essence of our secular society of secular education in secular schools of secular banter on talk radio of secular perspectives and the news media of secular mentality and political debates? The essence of secular America is one central lesson and is being drummed into us every day. God, if he even exists, is irrelevant. That's the lesson. If he even exists, and it's up to you to decide, you can do what you want in your own little private world but if he even exists, God is irrelevant to this world. Irrelevant to your chemistry midterm. He's irrelevant to who wins the big football game on Saturday afternoon. He's irrelevant to your plans for a career. He's irrelevant to the scenery at Yosemite National Park. Irrelevant to the economic conditions in the United States. God just doesn't matter because I notice he's not really brought up in any of those discussions. He's never mentioned at all. But when you enter the world of the Bible, it's an entirely different issue. When you step into God's world through the scripture, it's a whole different thing. Amen? You walk in through Genesis 1 and right away it's, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, 'let there be light' and there was light." This is God's universe. And God isn't confused about that, by the way. He knows it's his universe. He wants us to know it too by faith. And so in Romans 11, Eric already quoted it, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen." And so, a God-centered salvation really is the story of the whole Bible. That's what it's about. God is the alpha and the omega of human salvation. Human sinfulness mars God's universe and God will have it out, and God alone can remedy this pollution and bring us to glory. God Crafted a God-Honoring Salvation: “It was fitting...” So, we're talking in verse 10, in Hebrews 2:10 about a God fitting salvation. A salvation that's appropriate for God. It's fitting for God. The author speaks about what's fitting. The fitting nature of God's plan of salvation. It was fitting. It was appropriate. It was well suited to God and to his nature. God can do nothing that violates his nature. He never will. Everything God does lines up well with who he is and what he wills to do. God is never passive, friends. He's never along for the ride. He's never a victim taken where he doesn't want to go. And he's never waiting for man to make the final decision so he'll know what to do. If God wanted to save sinners, and he does, thank God for that. If God wanted to save sinners and bring them to glory, he had to do it in a fitting way. And so what is the destination of our salvation? It is a fitting destination. It was fitting for God to bring us to a certain destination. And what is it? Glory. I'm going to speak more about this destination in a moment. But it was fitting for that to be the destination of this God-centered salvation, glory, which is God. That we would see the glory of God, and drink it in and immerse ourselves in it. It was fitting that that should be the destination of our salvation. It was fitting to bring many sons to glory. It lined up with the holiness of God. It lined up with the goodness of God to bring us to glory. It was fitting. And not only was the destination of our salvation fitting, it was fitting for God to bring us to glory, the means by which He brought us to glory was fitting. And what are those means? In Hebrews 2:10, it's Christ's suffering. That's what we're talking about here. It was appropriate. It was fitting for God to make Christ suffer in order to bring us to glory. That's very deep, isn't it? That's a profound concept. The author's point here is, it was especially fitting for God to bring many sons to glory by making Christ perfect through suffering. Look again in verse 10, "For it was fitting for Him, from whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering." So, for God to vindicate his holiness and to vindicate, to put his justice on display, it was appropriate for him to crush his only begotten, his beloved son. It was fitting for Him to do it. That's what the author's saying here. Romans 3:25-26 says, "God presented Him as a propitiation to faith in His blood." That word means a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice that takes away wrath. That's what propitiation means. God presented Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood. "He did this to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance, he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." So it's fitting for God to make Jesus suffer. The perfection of our salvation as it lines up with God's nature, it lines up with his attributes. He's saved us in the most appropriate and fitting way. Amen? II. The Destination of Salvation: Our Glory Alright, so let's look more at this destination of our salvation, and that is our glory in bringing... The NIV puts the glory part first. I've been giving you the NAS this morning because it puts God first, and that's what it doesn't agree. But the NIV then right away says, "In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God," etcetera. The focus of salvation here are many sons, and we're going to talk more about the family aspect of salvation in a moment. But we're focused on many sons and in bringing many sons to glory, God is bringing us to glory. The aspect of bringing is a focus on God's activity, God's energy, God's leadership, God's power. God comes to lead us out of a place and bring us to another place. Picture the exodus. And so He's bringing us to glory. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life as we sang. Isn’t that beautiful? I love that song. I almost broke decorum and said, "Eric, sing it again one more time." Couldn't do it. But I wouldn't have mind if somebody else did it. I would have been happy to sing it. Don't do it, though, please. But anyway. I'd go up and talk to say, "Yeah, sing it again." But I just love it. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the way we get to glory. There's a journey to be traveled here. We're going to a promised land, and the name of that promised land is glory. It's glory land, friends. That's where we're heading. He's bringing many sons to glory. And there's a richness to that expression, "many sons." Just zero in on the word "many." He's not saving just a few people. He's saving a lavish number of people. There's a multitude greater than anyone could count. It says in Revelations 7 that it is a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe and language and people and nation, standing around the throne, giving praise to the Lamb. And they're dressed in white robes, and they're praising God. It's a lavish, generous amount of the human race that's being saved here, many sons. And the word glory, I think is both a destination and a condition. In heaven, we will both see glory and we will be glory. You almost can't imagine the sights you're going to see. It's beyond imagination, like Paul caught up to the third heaven came back down and said, "Look, inexpressible." It's inexpressible. I can't put it into words. In one of the songs we sang this morning, it says, "We're going to say goodbye to words. No more words." Hey, look, words are fine. That's what you're listening to right now. This right now, this preaching, this time in the Bible, is the essence of what it means to see through a glass darkly. We're not blind. We're seeing, but we're just seeing through a glass darkly, through nouns and verbs, through preaching, through the Word, through texts and paragraphs. But we will gladly trade it all, and no disrespect to the Word because the Word itself will live forever. But the printed page and this, it's gone for the reality itself. Amen? You're not going to be staring at love letters from your fiancé after you're married, right? It's just, no, you don't. There he is, there she is. We're going to see the bridegroom face to face. All the sights we're going to see. We're going to see glory. Revelation 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice coming from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them.'" That's God saying that, saying, "At last, we get to be together and you get to see my glory." Awesome. Revelation 21:11 and 12, the New Jerusalem, it says shown with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. And it had a great high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates. And it said later in that chapter, "I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp." And so the entire city of God and the new heavens and the new earth are just gonna be radiant with the glory of God. It's just going to shine with the glory of God through Jesus. It's going to be magnificent. The colors will be beautiful, the proportions perfect in every way. The entire universe will glow, openly glow with the glory of God in bringing many sons to glory. That's what that means, that's where we're heading. A world of glory. God wanted to bring his adopted sons and daughters to the most glorious place imaginable, and that is to him to see his own glory and to worship him forever. So we will see glory but we're also going to be glory ourselves. Remember, we're talking about what it was fitting for. It was fitting for God in bringing many sons to glory. Friends, it would not be fitting for us to be there and not be glorious too. For us to be there in ugly, wretched, stinking clothes of rebellion and sin, it would not be fitting. We would mar the place, we would be like black holes of darkness sucking the light in and making it disappear. We spent enough time doing that, amen? It's time to be done with that and so we're going to be made glorious ourselves so that we can fit right in. It would not be fitting any other way. And so we must be glorious ourselves, and we will... It says in Matthew 13, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." You're going to just shine with the radiant glory of Jesus. The finished work of your salvation, glorification. You will shine with it, and your own good works and your achievements and that of the whole church will make the place glorious in a marvelous way. It says again in Revelation 21, "The nations will walk by the light of the glory of God and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it." So the kings are going to bring their own kind of glory into the New Jerusalem, and the glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it and nothing impure will ever enter it nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And so there will be our glorious deeds, purified by the blood of Jesus, purified by the fire of judgment day, but they'll be there and they will shine with their own unique glory, your own contributions to the glory of that city. The courage of the martyrs will shine in that place. So also the sacrifice of the missionaries who gave up everything to go to a distant land and tell people about Christ. The generosity of those who gave money, and time, and energy, and even a cup of cold water to advance the kingdom of Christ will shine there. Even those simple cups of cold water. That's a good hope for me, friends. I may not be a martyr but I can give a cup of cold water today. Amen? Matthew 10. Let's have lots of that, but it's just going to shine with the good deeds done by faith. The best sermons preached by Spurgeon, and Luther, and Robert Murray McCheyne, and any of these other great preachers will shine there in a marvelous way. The boldness of George Whitefield's field preaching to the coal miners in Bristol. Nobody had ever done that before, that moment's just going to shine there. And so we're going to see glory and we're going to be glory, and our own holiness is a big part of that. We must be holy, so that if you look at verse 11, don't misunderstand, we're not done with verse 10. You know that, don't you? Okay. We're not. So those of you that are timing, and I hope no one is timing me. Alright. But we're not done with verse 10, but just look at verse 11, it says, "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family." So the essence of our glory is our holiness. Our holiness, friends. God is light, and in Him, there's no darkness at all. We must be made holy. And that's what it means to be being brought to glory, we're being sanctified, we're being made progressively more like Jesus. That's what it means to be that we're being brought to glory. I just see sanctification all over that. I actually believe that sanctification is just a subset of glorification. I say that with all seriousness, meditate on that and tell me what you think, but I think it is because it's just skipped in Romans chapter 8. It says in Romans 8:29-30, "For those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." That's glory, friends. That we might be glory, conformed to the image of Jesus, that he might be the first born among many brothers. That's that family aspect, we'll get to that in a minute. And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called, he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified. Now, you, systematic theologians say, "What happened to sanctification?" It's in there. It's just called glorification. We are being brought from glory to glory. We're being made ever more glorious by putting sin to death and becoming more like Jesus. That's what it means to bring many sons to glory. And so, it was fitting that God should do that to us. And how does he do it? He does it through Jesus. It was fitting that God through whom and for whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. III. The Pioneer of our Salvation: Jesus Christ Now we're talking about Jesus at last. God's bringing you to glory through Jesus and no other way. There is no other way. And so, we're focusing on Jesus. Now, who is this, this author of our salvation? What an incredible word. The Greek word is archegos. And so NIV has author of our salvation. So you could picture some great author sitting at a desk and writing an incredible novel, like Leo Tolstoy sitting at his desk there in his farm, in Yasnaya Polyana, in Russia. In 1862, he begins writing War and Peace, crafting arguably the greatest novel in literary history. Sprawling tale of Czarist Russia and Napoleonic invasion told through the eyes of five aristocratic families, 580 different named characters in the story, 580 of them. A complex psychological drama of immense scope and detail. All of it flowing from the mind through the pen of an author, who many have called the greatest author of all time, Leo Tolstoy. Well, he is not the greatest author of all time. Amen? Jesus is the greatest author of all time. By the way, I went to Barnes & Noble and bought War and Peace. I'm on page two. I'm excited about that. I think my son called it a geek book. But I like historical novels so we'll see. I'll tell you in 12 years how it is. But Jesus is the author of our salvation, writing it out. Writing all of it out. That's an incredible conception and not just my salvation, but the salvation of that multitude from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. What a complex tale. Not 580 characters but a multitude greater than anyone could count. And the complexity of weaving their lives together with unbelievers and with culture and language and missionaries, and what a story. What a story. He's the author of our salvation, isn't that awesome? Christ wrote our salvation story. He says in Revelations 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." Those are letters. Those are Greek letters. I wrote the first letter and I'll write the last letter. I'm the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end. That's who I am. So your life story is salvation in Jesus. That's your story, if you're a Christian. And it was written in Jesus' blood before God said, "Let there be light." Psalm 139, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." And this verse says it's Jesus that wrote the story, he's the author of your salvation. He comes up with a story line, the plot, the characters, plot, twist, climax; they knew them all. All of that, Jesus wrote it, written in his blood and he had to pay the price for it. So archegos can be translated author, but I don't even think that's the best translation. I don't think that's the best translation of this word. Other versions have captain of our salvation. I like captain, but I like pioneer better. Because both captain and pioneer get at something like what I think the Greek word... The home base of this Greek word is, usually refers to some kind of a hero. A great warrior who's a trailblazer and who through military conquest subdued an area and founded a city. He's then a patriarchal leader who has sons and grandsons. And he's looked on as the founder of the whole city and the surrounding region. That's what archegos tends to be in the Greek. ESV translates it's founder of our salvation. One who established a city in which you could live, pioneer maybe. So Jesus is our pioneer. He goes on ahead of us boldly. He carves a trail that we must follow if we are to reach the promised land. There's no other way. So we're going to follow Jesus, the trailblazer our salvation. Trailblazer hero has to be a warrior with immense courage for the promised land has to be taken by force. Later in chapter 2, it talks about how he destroyed the one who held the power of death, that is the devil and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. He's a hero. He's a conqueror. He's a fighter, warrior. You could picture the exploits maybe of a Daniel Boone carving his way through the Appalachian Mountains in 1778, blazing the wilderness trail to the fertile soil of Kentucky. He has to fight off the Cherokee and Shawnee and Delaware Indians who don't want settlers in their hunting grounds. With great knowledge and courage, he widens the wilderness trail by felling trees with an ax. Try chopping down an oak tree with an ax. Just do it like in real life and see what it's like. I've done it. The tree was like this big in diameter, it took me a long time. But these guys were chopping down trees making corduroy roads. And before the end of the 18th century, that wilderness trail that he helped trailblaze was followed by over 200,000 settlers through the Cumberland Gap. He is a kind of an archegos, a warrior pioneer whose courage enables him to establish an ancestral town in enemy territory, where his descendants can flourish. But Jesus is the archegos of our salvation. That's what this word means. The bold pioneer who carves the way and destroys the enemy and founds a city. But now here's the deal. He had to pay for it with his life, friends. He had to suffer and die in order to bring us to glory. That's what verse 10 is talking about. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author or pioneer or captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Suffering. IV. The Cost of Our Salvation: Christ’s Suffering Now, what suffering did our pioneer have to endure? Well, the suffering of incarnation, the suffering of temptation, the suffering of rejection, of persecution, of torture and physical death, the suffering of the wrath of God on the cross as our substitute, shedding his blood for us. That suffering. All of it. Well, what does it mean that Jesus is made perfect through suffering? It's a difficult phrase. It was fitting for God to make his son perfect through suffering. Well, it's not like us. We were greatly imperfect, wicked even, and we are made perfect through the salvation work of Jesus. That's not what's happening with Jesus. He was in no way ever anything but holy and perfect. What then does it mean that he was made perfect through suffering? Well, I think what it meant is that he had to live it. He had to do it. He had to actually go through that life. He had to be hungry and thirsty, and he had to be rejected and despised, he had to go through it. He had to live it on the earth, and he had to actually get nailed to the cross and shed his actual blood and die. And without that, he couldn't have, I think the Hebrew word really is perfected or completed our salvation. He would've been an incomplete Savior without actually suffering. He had to suffer to be our pioneer, that's what I think it means. Had Jesus not suffered incarnation, he could not have shared our humanity and understood the physical nature of our misery; what it was like to be hungry and tired and feel pain and weariness. If Christ had not suffered temptation, he could not have been our sympathetic and merciful high priest who could say, "I understand what it's like to be tempted. I've been tempted in every way just as you are and so, I can be your merciful and faithful high priest." If he had not suffered rejection by his own people, he would not have been able to perfect God's salvation, complex salvation plan for the Jews, which called for them to reject their own Messiah, and then for God to show mercy on them and bring them back and regraft them back into their own olive tree. Read about it in Romans 11. But he had to go through the suffering of rejection by the Jews. If Christ had not suffered physical torture and death, he could not have destroyed the devil and freed us from our slavery to fear of death. All of it was suffering and he had to go through it. And if he had not suffered the wrath of God, verse 17 says, in order that he might make atonement for the sins of the people, our sins would not be atoned for. But now they are. He's our perfect Savior. Amen? He is the perfect Savior for you and me. And he's been made perfect through suffering, and so, we have atonement for our sins. V. The Reason for our Salvation: Family Ties Why did he do it? What was his reason for doing? What was the connection to us? Well, here's where: I want to bring out the family ties between us and Jesus. We are of the same family as Jesus. Isn't that incredible when you think about that? This whole section here is saturated in family language. Look at verse 11, "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family." So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. Verse 12, he says, I will declare your name to my brothers." Verse 13, again, he says, "Here am I and the children God has given me." On verse 14, "since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity." On verse 16, "For surely it's not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants." In verse 17, "For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way." Go back to verse 16, even though it's not really supposed to be in this sermon because it's supposed to be just on 10 to 13. Is it okay if I look at verse 16 for a minute? Is that alright? Rick said it is, so I can do that. Alright, so look at verse 16. "It's not angels he helps," who does he help? Abraham's family. "Abraham's descendants." He's keeping the promise made to Abraham. You remember that promise? Where God took him out on that starry night and he said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them... So shall your offspring be." Well, we've come to realize in the new covenant that that offspring is not physical, it's not just the physical descendants. Just because you had Abraham as your physical father, it didn't mean you're going to heaven. Romans 9 makes that very plain. Not all Abraham's physical children are the offspring of Abraham. But only those who believe, those who are by faith Abraham's children. And so, even Galatian believers, Gentile believers, who have trusted in Jesus are engrafted into Abraham's family. They're family members. We are members of Abraham's family, he's our father in faith, it says in Romans 4. And so, there is this family. And so, Jesus in verse 16 of Hebrews 2, he doesn't help angels. What angels would need help? Fallen angels, demons, he doesn't... There's no atonement for demons, they're lost, they're going to hell, there's nothing that's going to happen for them. No gospel for them. But he helps Abraham's descendants, Abraham's family, and that's us. We who have trusted in him. And so, it says in verse 11 that Jesus isn't ashamed of us. Isn't that incredible? I mean, just let that roll around in your mind for a little while. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. Ashamed. That's astonishing. Could there be anything in us that would make him ashamed? Might there be anything in your history that would make him ashamed to own you as his brother or sister? Romans 6:21 says, "What benefit did you reap at that time from those things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death." There's all kinds of shameful things in our lives. But Jesus is not ashamed to call you brother or sister. Isn't that incredible? He's not ashamed. Welcomes it. On judgement day, he's going to acknowledge you and say, "He's my brother. She's my sister. They're with me." And in you'll go, through Jesus the door, right into heaven. He's not ashamed of you, not ashamed to own you. Do you see now how wrong it would be for you to act ashamed of Jesus now? Have you ever acted ashamed of Jesus? Have you ever been ashamed to say his name? I don't think there's any of us that could say, "I've never been ashamed to say Jesus' name." It's a great sin actually. Jesus said, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels." I love sports and I like to watch sports. I think of the great moments on the ball fields and all that but I have to tell you, probably my favorite, favorite moment in sports happened January 30, 2000. And it wasn't even an athletic achievement. The athletic achievements had already occurred. It was Super Bowl 34, Kurt Warner had led the St Louis Rams to a very exciting victory over the Tennessee Titans. I couldn't care less about the Rams or the Titans but I watched the game. You know how it is, this is the Super Bowl. And he had led the Rams on a game winning touchdown drive and then the defense had somehow held off the Titans on the two yard line, the game ended. It was exciting game. And so they get Kurt Warner the MVP. And Mike Tirico of ABC stands there with a microphone in front of his face as 50 million people are watching this interview, I guess, or more. Who knows? And I love this, this is my favorite moment in sports, right here. Mike Tirico, "First things first, Kurt, tell us about that final touchdown pass to Isaac." Kurt Warner's answer, "First things first, Mike, I want to give glory to my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus!" He said it louder than that actually. That's my favorite moment in sports. Actually, his foundation is called First Things First Foundation. Isn't that awesome? First things first, I couldn't care less about the touchdown to Isaac, let's talk about Jesus. And not just thank God. Look, there's nothing wrong with saying God. God is fine. But let's say Jesus more. Amen? Let's say Jesus a lot. Thank you, Jesus. It's the name that divides us from the unbelievers. Let's say the name then. Let's not be ashamed of the name. And Kurt Warner said it with the greatest boldness I'd ever seen in my life. He did it again when he led the Arizona Cardinals into the Super Bowl. Same thing. He said, "You know what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. Thank you, Jesus." He said the same thing. First time was better though, it was awesome. I mean, he was just so pumped. Been taken from the Hy-Vee convenience store and arena football to be Super Bowl MVP, and he just was overwhelmed more with his salvation than anything. I want to be with people like that forever. Amen? Saying, as strong as we can, "Thank you, Jesus!" And let's say it to our neighbors, and our co-workers, and our unbelieving family, and all these people, and let's not be ashamed to say the name Jesus. It saves people. Everyone who calls on that name is going to be saved. Let them get all prickly and irritable and frustrated and then... I was like that. I was like that for two years. Boy, did I abuse the guy who led me to Christ. But he kept saying the name Jesus to me. And I eventually called on that name. And so we have fellowship. We're flesh and blood with him and so we share the same family. And Jesus agreed, because the children, verse 14, have flesh and blood. He shared in their humanity in the same family. We're flesh and blood. Like Laban said to Jacob when he came on the journey and he was there and he said, "You are my flesh and blood." And he welcomed him in. That's what Jesus is going to say to you and me. Amen? You are my flesh and blood. You just come right in here. And for Jesus, this was an eternal commitment. An eternal commitment to be flesh and blood with us. Why do I say that? He had to agree to take the body back up again, right? Because without taking the human body back up, it wouldn't be a resurrection. He had to be human before and after. He had to take up the body, you see? And so he said after the resurrection, "Look at my hands and my feet, it is I myself, touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." And so Jesus shares with us in our flesh and blood. He's also a sharer with us in our life of faith. We relate to God only by faith. Remember I said, "We see through a glass darkly. We see him only by faith." And so Jesus is like us in that as well. Or was in his time on earth. Faith is temporary for us and it was for him, but look at verse 13, it says, "And again I will put my trust in him." It's a strange little verse. I had the hardest time when I first went through Hebrews carefully and I was memorizing scriptures and looking, I was like, "What is this here for? I will put my trust in Him." It's right in the middle of nowhere. I'm telling you, the author to Hebrews is a genius. His knowledge of the Bible is deep and real and he assumes a lot. And if you're not tracking him on Isaiah 8:17, that's your problem, not his. He's moving right on. What is going on in Isaiah 8:17? That's what it's a quote of. Well, Isaiah the prophet, living in a time of great danger when the Assyrians were about to invade, and it seemed like God was hiding his face from Israel, said, "I'm going to trust God despite the fact, it seems, you're hiding your face from Israel." This is what 8:17 says, Isaiah 8:17, "I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him." Jesus said that on the cross. Now, in what way was God hiding his face from Jesus at the cross? Well, you know in what way. He said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why are you hiding your face from me? And so he put his trust in God. He entrusted himself to God. It says in 1 Peter 2:23, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats, instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." He trusted his life to God, he trusted his work on the cross to God. He put his trust in God. And so when he calls out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." And I think if you could just add more things, "Father, into your hands I commit this atoning work. Do something with it. I will put my trust in Him." That's what he said. And he's like us in that. He's made like a sinner, really. For whom God is hiding His face, he trust in God anyway, on the cross. And as a result, he loses none of his children. Again, he says, "Here am I and the children God has given me." Isn't that beautiful? You are a child given to Jesus. God the Father gave the elect to Jesus, the children. He said, "Here, save them." And in effect, when it's all done, you know what's going to happen? He's going to stand with all of those children, all of his elect, all the ones he saved and says, "Here am I and the ones you gave me. I didn't lose any of them. I saved them all." And so he says in John 17:6, "I have revealed you to those whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word." And again, John 18:9, Jesus said, "I have not lost one of those you have given me." And again he says in John 6:39, "This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day." And so he says in Hebrews 2:13, "Here am I and all the children you gave me." 100%. Isn't that comforting? If you're God's child through Jesus right now, he's going to someday present you to God and say, "Here they are, all of them. I'm not going to lose any of them." VI. The Consummation of our Salvation: Worship And so what is the consummation of our salvation? It's worship. He says in verse 12, "I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." We have here this great assembly of worship. We're going to a worship time. We're going to an awesome worship time, that's where we're heading. And so, again and again in the Book of Psalms, there's this great assembly that's pictured, assembly of worship. And so in the congregation, in the assembly, he says, "Here are my children, all of them are here." And "I will declare your name to my brothers and in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." The author of Hebrews describes that to Jesus. Jesus says that. This is the best and maybe even only clear verse in the entire Bible on Jesus singing. Aren't you looking forward to hearing Jesus sing at the wedding banquet of the Lamb? The bridegroom stands up and starts to sing, and the topic of his song, the praise of his Father. He's going to sing God's praise in front of us. Isn't that awesome? Isn't that awesome? ! Like Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, sings Narnia into existence and the magician's nephew, he just sings. And as he sings and the song changes in lilts, different parts of Narnia start getting created. That's how CS Lewis pictured creation, Aslan the lion, the Christ-like lion singing and creation coming. Well, it's going to be the end of the story then redemption is done and Jesus is going to rise at the wedding banquet and he's going to sing the praise of God. Isn't that cool? I think that's just an awesome thing. And we will be there and we will join in, and sing a new song, praising God. And we will worship Him forever. VII. Application What application can we take from this? We'll come to Christ, come to Christ now. It could be God brought you here today to hear this message, Jesus shed his blood. You've heard everything you need. I've been very clear about the cross. Very clear about faith. The need for repentance and faith. Apart from Him you're lost. But perhaps you're not lost. God brought you here today. All you need to do is look to Jesus by faith and put your trust in him, like the text says. Trust in him and your sins will be forgiven. And you will be welcomed as a child of God. As many as received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And you'll be one of those that he'll speak of, saying, "Here am I and the children God has given me." For those of you that are already believers, just understand the fellowship of suffering that Jesus has with you. He went through suffering so that he could help you in suffering. And you may be going through suffering right now. You may be going through psychological suffering, emotional, financial suffering, suffering with sin, temptation. Jesus knows and understands. Now, isn't it sweet that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us? Isn't that wonderful? But it's still suffering. And Jesus can help you in your suffering because he's suffered too. And thirdly, anticipate heavenly worship. Picture Christ singing. Can I speak a word to cool teenage boys now for a moment, who don't like to sing? Because it's not cool and none of their friends are singing. Jesus sings, friends. Jesus is cool. You should sing too, from your heart. Don't be embarrassed to sing. We should sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and praise God as Jesus did. So sing. Sing when you're grieving. Sing when you're hurting. Sing when you're suffering. Sing in anticipation of hearing Jesus sing over you. Fourth, be God-centered in your outlook. Fight secularism. Fight it. God matters to everything. At all times, God matters. And be willing to proclaim the name of Jesus in this secular world. Be willing to offend people with Jesus. And don't listen to any Satan back talk to you about "Well, you weren't loving, you weren't sensitive." Look, say the name of Jesus, say it boldly, say it like you're not ashamed of him because he's not ashamed of you. And then finally, meditate on Jesus as the author of your salvation. If you're a literary kind of person, author, you'll like that. If you're more of a military history or kind of thing, go with Pioneer and Captain. But either way, just know this, Jesus is saving you and he's bringing you to glory and nothing's going to stop him. Close with me in prayer.

Since last week's episode was titled Westward Ho! As we track the expansion of the Faith into the New World with Spain and Portugal's immersion, this week as we turn to the other Europeans we'll title this week's episode, Westward Ho-Ho, because I'm tired of saying Part 2. I know it's lame, but hey, it's my podcast so I'll call it what I want.Before we dive into this week's content, I wanted to say a huge thanks to all those who've left comments on iTunes and the CS FB page.Last week we ended the episode on the expansion of the Faith into the New World by speaking of the Spanish missions on the West Coast. The Spanish were urgent to press north from what would later be called Southern CA because the Russians were advancing south from their base in Alaska. And as any history buff knows, they'd already established a base at San Francisco.Russians weren't the only Old World power feared by Spain. The French had New World possessions in Louisiana and French Jesuits were active in the Mississippi Valley. Some dreamed of a link between French Canada and the South down the Mississippi River. The gifted linguist Father Marquette, sailed south along the Mississippi and attempted a mission among the Illinois Indians. While in Quebec, he'd made himself master of 7 Algonquin languages and gained a mighty reputation as an Indian-style orator. He combined preacher, pastor, explorer and geographer in one. His writings contributed to local knowledge of Indian peoples, culture, and agriculture. As any high school student knows, the French were to lose New Orleans and Western Mississippi to Spain, while Eastern Mississippi went to the British. But French Carmelites, a 16th C branch of the Franciscans known as the Recollects, and the Jesuits accomplished much in French possessions before the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1763. They'd attempted a failed mission to the Sioux. Nevertheless, French Roman Catholic influence remained strong in Canada.As I tell these ultra-bare sketches of mission work among New World Indians, it can easily become just a pedantic recounting of generalized info. A sort of, “Europeans came, Indians were preached to. Churches were planted. Movements happened, some guys died - blah, blah, blah.”Our goal here is to give the history of the Church in short doses. That means, if we're to make any headway against the flow of it all, we have to summarize a LOT. But that works against real interest in the history and what makes the story exciting.It's the individual stories of specific people that make the tale come alive. à Jesuit, Franciscan, and Protestant missionaries; and just ordinary colonists who weren't set on a specific mission but were real-deal born again followers of Jesus who came to the New World to make a new life for themselves and their descendants, and just happened to share their faith with the Native Americans and they got saved and started a whole new chapter in the Jesus story. è THAT'S where the good stuff is.So, let me mention one of these Jesuit missionaries we've been talking about who brought the Gospel to Canadian Indians.Jean de Brébeuf was born to a family of the French nobility and entered the Jesuit order in 1617. He reached Canada 8 yrs later. He learned Algonquin and lived among the Huron for 3 yrs. After being captured by the British, he returned to France but renewed his mission in 1633. He founded an outpost called St Marie Among the Hurons in 1639. The Mission was destroyed by the Iroquois a decade later.Because De Brébeuf was tall and strongly built, he became known as the Gentle Giant. Like the Jesuits in Paraguay we looked at in the last episode, he could see ahead into how European colonists would bring an unstoppable challenge to the Indian way of life and advocated the Hurons withdraw into a secluded missionary settlement in order to preserve their culture. He's an example of the heroic pioneer Jesuit, of which there were many, whose missionary life ended in martyrdom in the field.De Brébeuf stands as a little known, but ought to be lauded, example of the fact that not all Europeans who came to the New World, especially not all missionaries, conflated following Christ with European culture and lifestyle. That's an assumption many moderns have; that it wasn't until the modern era that missionaries figured out people could remain IN their culture and follow Jesus, that they didn't have to become converts to Western Civilization BEFORE they could become Christians. While it has certainly been true that some missions and eras equated the Faith with a particular cultural milieu, throughout history, MOST believers have understood that the True Gospel is trans-cultural, even super-cultural.Many Jesuit missionaries in the New World like De Brébeuf tried to preserve the native American cultures – while filling them with the Gospel. They saw the emerging European colonies as a THREAT to the Indians and wanted to protect them.With the end of the 7 Years War, or as it's known in the US, the French and Indian War, French Canada became a British possession. The Jesuits, on the verge of their being banned from the New World, expanded their work among the Indians to include the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas, as well as those Algonquins yet unreached in Quebec. While converts were made among the Iroquois tribes, the majority remained hostile. Among the converts, there was a huge problem with disease introduced by the missionaries themselves, and the influence of alcohol brought by Europeans. Indian physiological tolerance to hard alcohol was low and addiction quick. Jesuit missionaries reached the Hudson Bay area and baptized thousands. Even after the British won Canada and the Jesuit order was suppressed, some remained in Canada as late as 1789.In the far NW, Russians entered Alaska in 1741. Russian Orthodox Christianity had begun on Kodiak Island, just off Alaska, in 1794. By ‘96 thousands of Kodiaks and the population of the Aleutian Islands had been baptized. They met hostility from the Russian American Company but the mission received fresh invigoration by the arrival an Orthodox priest from Siberia named Innocent Veniaminoff.  He reached the Aleutians in the 1820s and mastered the local dialect well enough to translate the Gospel of Matthew and write a devotional tract that became a classic, titled = An Indication of the Pathway into the Kingdom of Heaven. After working among the Aleutians for some years, Veniaminoff served among the Tlingit people. After his wife died, he was appointed bishop of a vast region stretching from Alaska to CA. Between 1840 and 68 he carried out a massive work. Although 40 yrs of missionary service, often in conditions of tremendous physical hardship, left him exhausted and longing to retire, he was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow, a position he used to found the Russian Missionary Society as a means of support for Orthodox missions. His outstanding service was recognized in 1977 by the Orthodox Church of America conferring on him the title of ‘Evangelizer of the Aleuts and Apostle to America.'Alaska was sold to the United States in the 1870s but the Orthodox Synod created an independent bishopric to include Alaska in 1872. By 1900 there were some 10,000 Orthodox Christians in the diocese. Of the 65,000 Alaskan and Aleutian people today, some 70% claim to be Christian and many of these belong to the Orthodox community.The Roman Catholic orders had a great advantage in missions due to their central organizing body called The Sacred Propaganda for the Faith. Today this structure is called the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Nations.In contrast to Roman monastic orders and their missionary zeal, Protestant churches had little missionary vision in the 16th C. When they engaged in missions in the 17th they had no organizing center.French Protestants, led by the Huguenot Admiral Coligny, attempted a short-lived experiment off Rio de Janeiro when Admiral Villegagnon established a Calvinist settlement in 1555. It folded when the French were expelled by the Portuguese. A more permanent Calvinist settlement was made by the Dutch when they captured Pernambuco, a region at the eastern tip of Brazil. This settlement remained a Calvinist enclave for 40 years.North America presented a very different scene for missions than Central and South America. The voyage of the Mayflower with its ‘Pilgrims' in 1620 was a historical pointer to the strong influence of Calvinism in what would become New England. The states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire were strongly Congregationalist or Presbyterian in church life and heavily influenced by English Puritanism. At least some of these pioneers felt a responsibility for spreading the Christian faith to the native Americans.John Eliot is regarded as the driving force behind the early evangelization of the Indians. He was the Presbyterian pastor at Roxby, a village near Boston in 1632. He learned the Iroquois language, and like the Jesuits in Paraguay, though surely with no knowledge of their methodology, founded ‘praying towns' for the Indians. These were communities that, over a period of 40 yrs, came to include some 3,000 Christian Indians in Natick and other settlements. Eliot translated the entire Bible into Iroquois by 1663 and trained 24 native American pastors by the time of his death.A remarkable family called The Mayhews were pioneers in missionary work in Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands off Cape Cod. Thomas Mayhew bought the islands in 1641 with an Indian population of around 5,000. His son, Thomas Jr., began a mission and by 1651 200 Indians had come to faith. After the death of Thomas Sr. and Jr., John, youngest son of  Thomas Jr., along with his son Experience Mayhew continued the mission.  Experience had the advantage of fluency in the Indian language with the ability to write it. Zechariah, his son, carried on a tradition that lasted all the way to 1806 and produced many Indian clergy and a Harvard graduate. The ministry of the Mayhews spanned almost 2 centuries.Another New England figure who became a missionary icon to such great spreaders of the faith as William Carey and David Livingstone, was David Brainerd. Brainerd was born in the farming country of Haddam, Connecticut, and studied for the ministry at Yale College, from which he was wrongly expelled in 1741. He impressed the local leadership of the Scottish Society for the Propagation of the Gospel enough for them to employ him for missionary service in 1742. He worked among the Indians of Stockbridge and then, after ordination as a Presbyterian, he worked in western Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. There he experienced genuine religious revival among the Delaware Indians, which he recounted in detail in his journals.Brainerd died young but his diary and the account of his life by the great preacher, theologian, and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards, became immensely influential in the Protestant world. Edwards, also a student at Yale, was himself a missionary at Stockbridge among the Indians from 1750–58.While it's risky to do a diagnosis on someone 270 years later, we glean from David Brainerd's logs that he suffered from at least a mild case of a depression-disorder, and maybe not so mild. It's his honesty in sharing with his journals his emotions that proved to be a tonic to mission-luminaries like Carey and Livingstone.New England Presbyterians and Congregationalists were matched by other Protestants in their efforts among Indians. Episcopalians and the missionary society of the Church of England achieved some success in evangelizing them.Work among the Iroquois of New York was initiated by Governor Lord Bellomont, and a converted Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant, who helped establish a Mohawk church. Queen Anne of England even presented silver communion implements to 4 Mohawk Christians in London in 1704 for use in one of their chapels.In Virginia, the royal charter declared one of the aims of the colony was the conversion of Indians. The first minister of the village of Henrico, Alexander Whitaker, did significant missionary work and introduced the Indian princess, Pocahontas, to the faith.BTW: Pocahontas was her nickname – which translates roughly to “Little Hellion.” Her real name was Matoaka, but she was so precocious as a child her nickname became her favored label.Whitaker established a college at Henrico for the education of Indians and there were appeals for funding for Indian missions back in England by King James I and his archbishops so that 1 of 6 professorships at the College of William and Mary was set apart for teaching Indians.Methodists had the example of John and Charles Wesley when they were Anglican priests and missionaries for the Society of the Proclamation of the Gospel in Georgia from 1735. Though John's primary assignment was a chaplain for the English settlers, he tried to reach out to the Choctaw and Chickasaw. He had little response from the Native Americans. No wonder, since he'd later say he was most likely unconverted at that point.After his break with the Church of England, Wesley's chief lieutenant in the New World was Thomas Coke who became a driving force for Methodist missionary work, attempting a mission in Nova Scotia in 1786 before being re-directed to the West Indies by a storm. Methodist missions came into their own in the 19th C after Coke's death and took the form of frontier preachers and ‘circuit riders' under the direction of Francis Asbury, who traveled some 300,000 miles on horseback in the cause of the Gospel and whose vision included both Indians and black slaves for Methodist outreach. By the time of Asbury's death in 1816 Methodist membership had risen from just 13 to 200,000 over a 30-yr period.The 19th C in North America saw the far north reached by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists.The 19th C was a time of extraordinary development in North America, despite the ravages of the Civil War in the 1860's. Great numbers of immigrants flooded into the country from Europe, estimated at 33 million between 1820 and 1950. Of British emigrants between 1815 and 1900, 65% found their way to the US. Of African-Americans, whereas only some 12% belonged to a church in 1860, by 1910 that number was 44%. Many joined the Baptist and Methodist congregations of the southern states after the abolition of slavery. In the Nation at large, the extraordinary achievement to any non-American was the blending into one nation of so many different peoples, so that their American citizenship was more prominent than their roots as Italian, Irish, Jewish, German, Scandinavian or English. This influx posed great challenges to the churches but Americans largely became a church-going people. And while differences over Religion had become the cause of so much misery and bloodshed in Post-Reformation Europe, Americans learned to live in civil harmony with people of other denominations.