Muskingum County

Variant name of place

Muskingam; Muskingham

Geographic position

39.9700° N, 81.9500° W

Sources

http://www.muskingumcounty.org/mchistorybr.html. http://www.perrycountyohio.us/fphhistory/fphpart5chap3.htm. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Delaware_Indians?rec=584. "Muskingum River." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 17 Sep. 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/399364/Muskingum-River. Blodgett, Harold. Samson Occom. Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1935. Geo coordinates from https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=geographic+coordinates+for+muskingum+county.

General note

Muskingum is a county in eastern Ohio that is divided by a river of the same name, which is derived from the Algonquian word for “by the river.” The Shawnee, Wyandot, and Delaware Indians all lived in proximity to the Muskingum River. In 1772, Wheelock wanted Occom to accompany Levi Frisbie and David McClure on a mission to the Delaware Indians at Muskingum. Wheelock mistakenly thought this Tribe spoke Mohegan, Occom's language. More particularly, relations between Wheelock and Occom had soured after Occom returned from his fundraising tour of Great Britain to find his family in dire financial straits, and the School and Wheelock removed to New Hampshire with very few Native students. Wanting to help out Occom financially and get him away from the scandals in Mohegan (there were allegations of public drunkeness), Wheelock sent several letters to Occom urging him to undertake the mission to Muskingum, but they never arrived. When Frisbie and McClure visited Occom in Mohegan on their way out to Ohio, he protested that the short notice and family responsibilities prevented him from accompanying them, and never went on the mission. Nor would Frisbie and McClure make it all the way to Muskingum.