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As a child, he and his brother John were sent to school in Massachusetts. In 1803 Eleazer wrote a letter his brother – first thanking God for his multitude of tender mercies, and reminding John - “oh, remember that we are born to die and must soon appear before him.” In another letter to John, in January 1804, he wrote: “It is my ernest [sic] wish for your salvation and good. I hope God will make you happy - in this world and more in that which is to come - I commend you to the care of God…”[1]
Several other early letters reveal his religious thoughts:
- 1806 to friend Charles Sheldon: “We must remember, my friend, that we are probationers for eternity, placed here on Earth, we are bound to neither state of existence - to a world of light & joy or that region of darkness & woe-- If we mean to be prosperous in this world. We must love and keep his commandments and trust in him.” [2]
- and 1806 to his cousin Rev. Elisha Williams in Beverly, Massachusetts on the death of Elisha’s child: “Truly life is uncertain & how short it is our abode in this world and soon shall we bid adieu to it, We are all glideing down the stream of time, and shall soon reach the ocean of eternity; who can promise himself years to come? what is our life. It is like vapour that offereth for a little time & then vanesheth away.”[3]
Eleazer was exposed early to Catholicism at Caughnawaga, but he later rejected these teachings and those of his Calvinistic mentors in New England. In 1815 Eleazer took his first communion and was confirmed at St. John’s Episcopal Church in New York City by Bishop John Henry Hobart.[4] In 1816 Hobart established a Mission at Oneida Castle, NY, where Eleazer became a lay catechist, reader, and teacher to the Indians in their native tongue, supported by the Episcopal Church.[5] There, he converted many Oneida’s to the Episcopal faith, and translated the Book of Common Prayer and some hymns into the Mohawk language. He also interpreted for Baptist missionaries with the Oneidas and Stockbridge tribes.[6]
At this time, he also began assisting some Oneida and Stockbridge Indians to relocate to Green Bay, Wisconsin, due to pressure from whites wanting to settle on their lands. After the Revolution, it had become government policy to remove all Indians west of the Mississippi, and Eleazer became involved in some land deals, especially as a negotiator for the Ogden Land Company. Although appearing to help the Indians, he was really assisting the land company, causing many Indians to mistrust him.[7] During the 1820s and 1830s, he moved back and forth frequently between Wisconsin and the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation on the New York -Canadian border. Back in Wisconsin, he married Madeleine (Mary) Jourdain in 1823, daughter of Joseph Jourdain, a blacksmith of the Green Bay Indian Agency. Their son John was born there in 1825.[8] In 1826 Eleazer was ordained an Episcopal deacon in New York.[9] He was appointed schoolmaster at St. Regis Mission in 1835, but he came into conflict with the Catholic missionaries there and was forced to leave a year later.[10]
During the 1840s, he continued to travel frequently, preaching and lecturing. However, he had again come into conflict, this time with the Episcopal hierarchy and the Oneida tribe in Wisconsin. There were complaints about his conduct and that he was representing other denominations. In 1842 he published “The Salvation of Sinners through the riches of Divine Grace.” This was a speech he gave at Oneida Castle on the eighth triennial anniversary of the Indians conversion to Christianity.[11]
Eleazer Williams played many roles during his life – preacher, teacher, lecturer, negotiator, and interpreter. He was also a storyteller and at times stretched the truth. In the late 1850s, he wrote a biography of this father, Thomas [Indian name Tehoragwanegen], and apparently embellished some of it, especially Thomas’ roles during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812.[12] Another story that has been perpetuated for many years is that Eleazer claimed to be the “lost dauphin” of France, the real son of King Louis XVI. It was a time when he was no longer supported by the church and needed money. He was adept at manipulating situations and people as he sought prestige and prominence.
He played up this fraudulent tale into the 1850s and newspapers all over the country printed the story, wondering if he could really be the dauphin and of French Bourbon blood. It was quite an intriguing story and was apparently passed down through his family, as his son John L., in the 1880 census of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, listed his father as being born in France! Ultimately, the story was recently proved untrue, as DNA analysis in 2000 of the presumed heart of the long-dead child king [Louis XVII] matched the DNA of a hair sample from Marie Antoinette.[13]
Sadly, Eleazer died on 28 August 1858,[14] poor and alone at the St. Regis reservation in New York. The Albany Morning Express stated he had “gone to the spirit land where that mystery in regard to his parentage is made plain.”[15] Although often cast in a negative light, it is important to recognize that he, as an Indian, struggled with dual identities and was often marginalized. James A. Clifton writes, “Looking back on his life career of serial assumed identities from the perspective of our era, we can see in him a person who vaulted from one persona to another… Was there, however, a stable, core identity behind the many masks he wore?” [16] He had noble aspirations, but his desire for prestige and claims to fame got the best of him. His wife Mary continued to live in Wisconsin, where several censuses list degrees of Indian ethnicity for her and adopted Indian children and grandchildren.
About the author:
Rebecca Rector is a professional genealogist and retired librarian in Troy, NY. During the pandemic she has been transcribing letters and diaries for Newberry Library in Chicago, and National Archives. One of the Newberry projects was the letters and sermons of Rev. Eleazer Williams. Her work has been published in American Ancestors and NGS Magazine.
[1] Eleazar Williams letters, sermons, and essays, 1758-1858, Newberry Library, Chicago, image 114446, and image 114448.
[2] Eleazer Williams letters, sermons, and essays, 1758-1858, Newberry Library, Chicago, image 114457.
[3] Eleazer Williams letters, sermons, and essays, 1758-1858, Newberry Library, Chicago, image 114459/60.
[4] Michael Oberg, Professional Indian: The American Odyssey of Eleazer Williams (Phila: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), 51.
[5] History of Madison County, State of NY, Chapter 1, online at http://madison.nygenweb.net/books/1872-1b.htm
[6] Michael Oberg, “Flawed Shepard: Eleazer Williams, John Henry Hobart, and the Episcopal Mission to the Oneidas”, in The Wisconsin Oneidas and the Episcopal Church: A Chain Linking Two Traditions, ed. L. Gordon McLester 111 et. al. (Indiana University Press, 2019), 46.
[7] Oberg, Professional Indian, 85-86. For a contemporary Oneida point of view see: Dr. Carol Cornelius, Forces that Impacted Oneida’s Move to Wisconsin, Oneida Cultural Heritage Department, online at FORCES-THAT-IMPACTED-ONEIDAS-MOVE-TO-WISCONSIN-9.13.pdf
[8] John H. Hanson, The Lost Prince (NY: G.P. Putnam & Co., 1854), 300; Publius V. Lawson, Prince, or Creole: The Mystery of Louis XVII (Menasha, WI: George Banta Publishing Co., 1905), 279.
[9] Darren Bonaparte, Eleazer Williams: The Lost Mohawk. Wampum Chronicles, online at http://www.wampumchronicles.com/lostmohawk.html
[10] Dictionary of Canadian Biography, online at http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/williams_eleazer_8E.html
[11] Eleazer Williams. The Salvation of Sinners through the riches of Divine Grace. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t8bg2sp5k&view=1up&seq=5
[12] Eleazer Williams, Life of TE-HO-RA-GWA-NE-GEN, Alias Thomas Williams, A Chief of the Caughnawaga Tribe of Indians in Canada. (Albany, NY: Munsell, 1859). https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.42167/3. Published by Franklin B. Hough. Handwritten copy (mss galley) is at New York State Archives, Franklin B. Hough papers. Much of the war information is unproven.
[13] Crispian Balmer, DNA Test Solves Mystery of French Child King. Reuters article, Paris, April 19 [2000] in The Oneida Nation in Wisconsin has a Long History of Following Fraudsters, online at ONEIDA-NATION-FOLLOWS-SCOUNDRELS-–-DNA-Test-Solves-Mystery-of-Lost-Dauphin(4).pdf
[14] “Death of the Rev. Eleazer Williams, the Pretended Dauphin of France”. New York Times, September 4, 1858, 5.
[15] “A Letter to the Journal of Commerce from Bombay, Franklin County says: the Dauphin, alias Rev. Eleazer Williams, is dead” Albany Morning Express, September 4, 1858, online at Fultonhistory.com.
[16] Geoffrey E. Buerger, “Eleazer Williams: Elitism and Multiple Identity on Two Frontiers”, in Being and Becoming Indian: Biographical Studies of North American Frontiers, ed. James A. Clifton (Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1989), 112. Clifton wrote the introduction to Buerger’s essay.
[1] “A Letter to the Journal of Commerce from Bombay, Franklin County says: the Dauphin, alias Rev. Eleazer Williams, is dead” Albany Morning Express, September 4, 1858, online at Fultonhistory.com.
[1] Geoffrey E. Buerger, “Eleazer Williams: Elitism and Multiple Identity on Two Frontiers”, in Being and Becoming Indian: Biographical Studies of North American Frontiers, ed. James A. Clifton (Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1989), 112. Clifton wrote the introduction to Buerger’s essay.
