Isaac McCoy
Encyclopedia
Isaac McCoy was a Baptist
missionary
among the Native Americans
in present-day Indiana
, Michigan
and Missouri
. He was an advocate of Indian removal
from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas
, Nebraska
, and Oklahoma
. He also played an instrumental role in the founding of Grand Rapids, Michigan
and Kansas City, Missouri
.
. In 1789, the McCoys, father, mother and six children, rafted down the Ohio River to Kentucky, settling first near Louisville
and ln 1792 in Shelby County
. Isaac McCoy's father was a Baptist Minister and the son followed in his footsteps. He departed Kentucky for Vincennes, Indiana
in 1804 shortly after his marriage to Christiana Polke, age 16, a cousin of future President James K. Polk
. Although he had no training and little formal education he became a part time preacher. In 1808 the Silver Creek Baptist Church, the first Baptist Church in Indiana, granted McCoy a license "to preach the Gospel wherever God in His providence might cast his lot.” In 1809 McCoy became pastor of Maria Creek Church near Vincennes and in 1810 the Church ordained him. Possessed of a restless spirit, and despite illness and poverty, McCoy traveled widely on the frontier promoting various causes. In 1817, the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions appointed him as a missionary to the settlers and Indians in Indiana
and Illinois
Territory. His interests and concern for Indians quickly began to dominate his work.
, became his father's helpmate and prominent in his own right in the early history of the Kansas
and Missouri
frontiers. McCoy's wife, Christiana, died in Kansas City in 1851. A stream in Elkhart County, Indiana
and a lake in Cass County, Michigan
are named for her.
on Raccoon Creek adjacent to the Wea
Indian reservation. Most of his students were the children of White settlers as the Wea showed little interest in the school. In 1820, the McCoy family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana
to set up a mission to the Miami tribe
. His school at Fort Wayne attracted 40 Miami, Potawatomi
, and mixed-blood children. In 1821, McCoy made the first of his many visits to Washington, DC to ask the government, unsuccessfully on this occasion, to allow him to appoint teachers, blacksmiths, and other “agents of civilization” to be provided the Indians under newly-ratified treaties.
In December 1822, McCoy left Fort Wayne and moved his family and 18 Indian students to a site on the St. Joseph River
near the present-day city of Niles
in southeastern Michigan
to open a mission to the Potawatomi. The Carey Mission
as he named it was 100 miles from the nearest White settlement. Unlike his earlier contacts with the Indians, the Pottawatomi gave him a relatively warm welcome and, in fact, helped feed his large family and Indian students. McCoy enjoyed more success here than in his earlier endeavors, soon managing a school of 76 Indian children, four Indian employees, five missionaries, six children, and a millwright. In 1826, he was on the move again, further into the wilderness, establishing the Thomas Mission to the Odawa people
at what was later to become Grand Rapids, Michigan
. McCoy and his missionaries were the first European-American settlers in Niles and Grand Rapids.
Although McCoy thought of himself as the future leader of Indian Canaan (as he called it) he had little confidence in his fellow missionaries. They never accomplished more than ‘to soften the pillows of the dying’ and had “too recently been transplanted from the sterile plains of religious bigotry, to expand with liberal views of the character, and of the just rights of man.” Rather he placed his faith in the government to create for the Indians “a country of their own” where they could “feel their importance, where they can hope to enjoy, unmolested, the fruits of their labours, and their national recovery need not be doubted.” His proposed Indian colony, to become subsequently a Territory and then a State within the United States, would be guided by a benign U.S. government and missionaries with whiskey dealers and dishonest merchants banned.
What McCoy failed to foresee was that the frontier of White settlement was expanding so rapidly that his Indian Canaan would be overrun by White settlers before Indians could enjoy “unmolested, the fruits of their labours.” Moreover, he overestimated the good will and capacity of the government. During the great Indian Removal forced on the Indians by the U.S. govenment in the 1830s and later, thousands of Indians would die of neglect and arrive at their new homes impoverished and starving, such as those on the Trail of Tears
.
and the Kaw
ceded large portions of their lands in Kansas and Oklahoma to the United States. In 1828, Congress authorized McCoy to lead an expedition to survey lands to which the Chickasaw
, Choctaw
, and Creek could be relocated. McCoy also invited representatives of the Potawatomi and Odawa to join the expedition. With the unenthusiastic Indians McCoy traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma laying out potential reservations for Indians and devising in his mind the organization of an Indian State.
In June 1829, McCoy moved his family to Fayette, Missouri
. That fall, at his own expense, he carried out a survey on the Kaw lands and in 1830, with Kaw mixed blood Joseph James
as his guide he surveyed and established the boundaries of a reservation for the Delaware
tribe who were persuaded to move there from their territories in southern Missouri.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which formally authorized the removal of eastern Indians to the West. For the next ten years McCoy was engaged in surveying boundaries of reservations for more than twenty Indian tribes who moved west. Often they comprised often only a pitiful remnant of formerly powerful peoples. McCoy had hoped to be one of the three commissioners appointed to oversee Indian Territory, but he was passed over and his dreams of becoming the government’s chief representative to the Indian tribes were dashed.
McCoy was well aware of the fraud, abuse, and neglect involved in the removal of Indians westward, but rationalized that it was for the greater good of having Indian lands secured for perpetuity. Perpetuity was to last little more than two decades.
McCoy, with his strong views, was often at odds with the Baptist mission board and other missionaries. In 1832, a smallpox epidemic was killing thousands of Indians and McCoy journeyed again to Washington, this time to seek funds from Congress for a vaccination program for Indians. He found little enthusiasm for such a bill. The Missouri Senator, Alexander Buckner
, said to him about Indians, “if they were all dead it would be a blessing for our country.” Partially due to his efforts, Congress eventually passed a modest bill to finance Indian vaccinations. In 1833, McCoy intervened to protect a group of Mormons
from a mob in Independence, Missouri
.
Although he continued to be involved in innumerable projects on behalf of what he perceived as the best interest of Indians, McCoy was nearly destitute during much of the 1830s, taking in boarders and working as bookkeeper in a neighboring store. He still harbored hopes that he would be appointed as the government overseer of Indians and labored in Washington and on the frontier seeking, unsuccessfully, for U.S. government recognition of the Indian lands as an official U.S. Territory.
In 1840, McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Midwestern Native American tribes, The History of Baptist Indian Missions. In 1842 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky. There he directed the Baptist American Indian Mission Association and wrote additional works. He died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery.
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
among the Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
in present-day Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
and Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. He was an advocate of Indian removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, and Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. He also played an instrumental role in the founding of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
and Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
.
Early life
McCoy was born in Uniontown, PennsylvaniaUniontown, Pennsylvania
Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. Population in 1900, 7,344; in 1910, 13,344; in 1920, 15,692; and in 1940, 21,819. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census...
. In 1789, the McCoys, father, mother and six children, rafted down the Ohio River to Kentucky, settling first near Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
and ln 1792 in Shelby County
Shelby County, Kentucky
Shelby County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2010, the population was 42,074. Its name is in honor of Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky. Its county seat is Shelbyville...
. Isaac McCoy's father was a Baptist Minister and the son followed in his footsteps. He departed Kentucky for Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...
in 1804 shortly after his marriage to Christiana Polke, age 16, a cousin of future President James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
. Although he had no training and little formal education he became a part time preacher. In 1808 the Silver Creek Baptist Church, the first Baptist Church in Indiana, granted McCoy a license "to preach the Gospel wherever God in His providence might cast his lot.” In 1809 McCoy became pastor of Maria Creek Church near Vincennes and in 1810 the Church ordained him. Possessed of a restless spirit, and despite illness and poverty, McCoy traveled widely on the frontier promoting various causes. In 1817, the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions appointed him as a missionary to the settlers and Indians in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
Territory. His interests and concern for Indians quickly began to dominate his work.
Family
McCoy and wife Christiana had 14 children, of whom only four survived their father. McCoy also owned a female slave named Chainy acquired in 1835. McCoy stated that he was opposed to slavery, but had purchased Chainy to avoid her being separated from her husband and children by being sold through a slave market. In his will he made provision for granting freedom to her, provided she pay back her purchase price of $415 plus interest. Chainy's children were to be freed at age 24. McCoy's son, John Calvin McCoyJohn Calvin McCoy
John Calvin McCoy is considered the "father of Kansas City."McCoy was born in Vincennes, Indiana. He studied at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, during 1826-1827...
, became his father's helpmate and prominent in his own right in the early history of the Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
and Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
frontiers. McCoy's wife, Christiana, died in Kansas City in 1851. A stream in Elkhart County, Indiana
Elkhart County, Indiana
Elkhart County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. Much of the county is in the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka Combined Statistical Area...
and a lake in Cass County, Michigan
Cass County, Michigan
Cass County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the population was 51,104. It is part of the South Bend–Mishawaka, IN-MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area which has a total population of 316,663 and is sometimes considered part of Greater Michiana...
are named for her.
Missions in Indiana and Michigan
McCoy founded his first mission and school to the Indians in 1818 in Parke County, IndianaParke County, Indiana
Parke County is a county in the western part of the U.S. state of Indiana. It was formed in 1821 out of a portion of Vigo County. The county seat is Rockville....
on Raccoon Creek adjacent to the Wea
Wea
The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking tribe originally located in western Indiana, closely related to the Miami. The name Wea is used today as the a shortened version of their many recorded names...
Indian reservation. Most of his students were the children of White settlers as the Wea showed little interest in the school. In 1820, the McCoy family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the county seat of Allen County. The population was 253,691 at the 2010 Census making it the 74th largest city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana...
to set up a mission to the Miami tribe
Miami tribe
The Miami are a Native American nation originally found in what is now Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio. The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States...
. His school at Fort Wayne attracted 40 Miami, Potawatomi
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
, and mixed-blood children. In 1821, McCoy made the first of his many visits to Washington, DC to ask the government, unsuccessfully on this occasion, to allow him to appoint teachers, blacksmiths, and other “agents of civilization” to be provided the Indians under newly-ratified treaties.
In December 1822, McCoy left Fort Wayne and moved his family and 18 Indian students to a site on the St. Joseph River
St. Joseph River (Maumee River)
The St. Joseph River is an tributary of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio, and northeastern Indiana in the United States, with headwater tributaries rising in southern Michigan. It drains a primarily rural farming region in the watershed of Lake Erie. It shares its name with the St...
near the present-day city of Niles
Niles, Michigan
Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. The population was 11,600 at the 2010 census. It is the greater populated of two principal cities of and included in the Niles-Benton Harbor, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a...
in southeastern Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
to open a mission to the Potawatomi. The Carey Mission
Carey Mission
The Carey Mission was established by Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy among the Potawatomi tribe of American Indians on the St. Joseph River near Niles, Michigan, USA in December, 1822. It was named for William Carey, a noted English Baptist missionary...
as he named it was 100 miles from the nearest White settlement. Unlike his earlier contacts with the Indians, the Pottawatomi gave him a relatively warm welcome and, in fact, helped feed his large family and Indian students. McCoy enjoyed more success here than in his earlier endeavors, soon managing a school of 76 Indian children, four Indian employees, five missionaries, six children, and a millwright. In 1826, he was on the move again, further into the wilderness, establishing the Thomas Mission to the Odawa people
Odawa people
The Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...
at what was later to become Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
. McCoy and his missionaries were the first European-American settlers in Niles and Grand Rapids.
Indian Removal
With good intentions, McCoy began in 1823 to advocate that the Indian nations of the East be moved west “beyond the frontiers of the White settlement.” He believed that getting the tribes to their own, isolated places, away from the reach of those white men that were exploiting them, would give them a better chance of surviving — and becoming good Christians. McCoy’s ideas for removal of the Indians were not new, but he promoted successfully the new idea that the U.S. government should fund “civilization programs” to educate the Indians and make of them farmers and Christians. McCoy expanded his concept later to propose the creation of an Indian state making up most of the land area of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.Although McCoy thought of himself as the future leader of Indian Canaan (as he called it) he had little confidence in his fellow missionaries. They never accomplished more than ‘to soften the pillows of the dying’ and had “too recently been transplanted from the sterile plains of religious bigotry, to expand with liberal views of the character, and of the just rights of man.” Rather he placed his faith in the government to create for the Indians “a country of their own” where they could “feel their importance, where they can hope to enjoy, unmolested, the fruits of their labours, and their national recovery need not be doubted.” His proposed Indian colony, to become subsequently a Territory and then a State within the United States, would be guided by a benign U.S. government and missionaries with whiskey dealers and dishonest merchants banned.
What McCoy failed to foresee was that the frontier of White settlement was expanding so rapidly that his Indian Canaan would be overrun by White settlers before Indians could enjoy “unmolested, the fruits of their labours.” Moreover, he overestimated the good will and capacity of the government. During the great Indian Removal forced on the Indians by the U.S. govenment in the 1830s and later, thousands of Indians would die of neglect and arrive at their new homes impoverished and starving, such as those on the Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...
.
Surveyor of Indian Territory
The possibility of removing eastern Indians west of the Mississippi River was enhanced In 1825 when the OsageOsage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
and the Kaw
Kaw (tribe)
The Kaw Nation are an American Indian people of the central Midwestern United States. The tribe known as Kaw have also been known as the "People of the South wind", "People of water", Kansa, Kaza, Kosa, and Kasa. Their tribal language is Kansa, classified as a Siouan language.The toponym "Kansas"...
ceded large portions of their lands in Kansas and Oklahoma to the United States. In 1828, Congress authorized McCoy to lead an expedition to survey lands to which the Chickasaw
Chickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American nation, located in Oklahoma. They are one of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Five Civilized Tribes were differentiated from other Indian reservations in that they had semi-autonomous constitutional governments and...
, Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
, and Creek could be relocated. McCoy also invited representatives of the Potawatomi and Odawa to join the expedition. With the unenthusiastic Indians McCoy traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma laying out potential reservations for Indians and devising in his mind the organization of an Indian State.
In June 1829, McCoy moved his family to Fayette, Missouri
Fayette, Missouri
Fayette is a city in Howard County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,793 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Howard County. It is in the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
. That fall, at his own expense, he carried out a survey on the Kaw lands and in 1830, with Kaw mixed blood Joseph James
Joseph James and Joseph James, Jr.
Joseph James is the name of two Kaw/Osage/French interpreters on the Kansas and Oklahoma frontier in the nineteenth century. Both were usually called “Joe Jim” or “Jojim.”-Joe Jim:...
as his guide he surveyed and established the boundaries of a reservation for the Delaware
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
tribe who were persuaded to move there from their territories in southern Missouri.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which formally authorized the removal of eastern Indians to the West. For the next ten years McCoy was engaged in surveying boundaries of reservations for more than twenty Indian tribes who moved west. Often they comprised often only a pitiful remnant of formerly powerful peoples. McCoy had hoped to be one of the three commissioners appointed to oversee Indian Territory, but he was passed over and his dreams of becoming the government’s chief representative to the Indian tribes were dashed.
McCoy was well aware of the fraud, abuse, and neglect involved in the removal of Indians westward, but rationalized that it was for the greater good of having Indian lands secured for perpetuity. Perpetuity was to last little more than two decades.
Missionary Work in the 1830s
McCoy, his son John, his daughter Delilah and her missionary husband Johnston Lykins focused on missionary work among the Shawnee and Delaware and moved to what is now Kansas City, Missouri on the border of Indian Territory and near the reservations of those two tribes. The younger McCoy established a trading post at Westport, Missouri, and was among the first organizers of Kansas City. Lykins became one of the city's first mayors.McCoy, with his strong views, was often at odds with the Baptist mission board and other missionaries. In 1832, a smallpox epidemic was killing thousands of Indians and McCoy journeyed again to Washington, this time to seek funds from Congress for a vaccination program for Indians. He found little enthusiasm for such a bill. The Missouri Senator, Alexander Buckner
Alexander Buckner
Alexander Buckner was a United States Senator from Missouri. Born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, he studied law and moved to Charleston, Indiana in 1812. He moved to Missouri in 1818 and settled near Jackson; he practiced law and also engaged in agricultural pursuits...
, said to him about Indians, “if they were all dead it would be a blessing for our country.” Partially due to his efforts, Congress eventually passed a modest bill to finance Indian vaccinations. In 1833, McCoy intervened to protect a group of Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
from a mob in Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
.
Although he continued to be involved in innumerable projects on behalf of what he perceived as the best interest of Indians, McCoy was nearly destitute during much of the 1830s, taking in boarders and working as bookkeeper in a neighboring store. He still harbored hopes that he would be appointed as the government overseer of Indians and labored in Washington and on the frontier seeking, unsuccessfully, for U.S. government recognition of the Indian lands as an official U.S. Territory.
In 1840, McCoy wrote one of the earliest, most personally informed reports on the Midwestern Native American tribes, The History of Baptist Indian Missions. In 1842 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky. There he directed the Baptist American Indian Mission Association and wrote additional works. He died there in 1846 and was buried in Western Cemetery.