Abraham

first name (variants): Abram; Abraham Primus; Abraham Major; Great Abraham
Birth: Unknown
Death: Unknown
Affiliation

Moor’s Indian Charity School; Mohawk

Education

Moor's Indian Charity School 1762-1765, certified as usher on March 12, 1765

Nationality

Mohawk

Occupation

Usher near Canajoharie, July 1765-December 1765

Residence(s)
  • Moor's Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut (from 1762 to 1765-03)
  • Canajoharie (from 1765-07 to 1765-12)
  • Schoharry (from 1765-12)
Biography

Abraham major (aka Abraham primus), a Mohawk Indian, served as an usher or junior teacher along with Abraham Secundus and Peter. All three kept separate schools. Abraham major's school, a short ride from Abraham minor’s, was outside of Canajoharie; it began Friday, July 12, 1765. As of July 17, 1765, he had 15 or 16 students, primarily male. These schools seem to have operated from July 1765 (they were still traveling in June, and Theophilus Chamberlain described their schools in late July) until December 1765, when Chamberlain reported that the Abrahams had departed, and that Abraham major was in Schoharry. Both Abrahams' schools were taken over in 1766. Abraham major must not be confused with Greater Abraham, a high-ranking Mohawk, the brother of King Peter Hendrick and uncle of Chief Abraham (not to be confused with Little Abraham, the Moor's student), who lived in Canajoharie at the same time.

Sources

Hinderaker, Eric. The Two Hendricks. Harvard Press 2010: Contrast with King Peter Hendrick's Abrahams. McCallum, James. The Letters of Eleazar Wheelock’s Indians. Dartmouth College Press 1932: Information about graduation, career. Wheelock, Eleazar. A continuation of the narrative of the Indian charity-school : begun in Lebanon, in Connecticut ; now incorporated with Dartmouth College, in Hanover, in the province of New Hampshire. Hartford 1766: Graduation and usher career.

General note

Also appears in a letter from Chamberlain to Wheelock from Canajoharie on July 17, 1765, transcribed in Wheelock’s 1766 narrative.