Worcester, S. A. (Samuel Austin), 1798-1859

Worcester worked as a missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1825 to 1859, serving the Cherokee Nation at Brainerd Mission, Tennessee; New Echota, Georgia; and in Indian Territory [Oklahoma]. During the state of Georgia's attempt to remove the Cherokee, Worcester refused to cooperate fully and was imprisoned from 1831 to 1833. In 1835, he and his wife Ann moved to Indian Territory where he set up his printing press at Dwight Mission and later Park Hill. During his career, he published many books and pamphlets in Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee.

From the description of Journals, 1831-1841 [microform]. (Presbyterian Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 57239741

From the description of Journals, 1831-1841 [microform]. (Presbyterian Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 57239722

Samuel A. Worcester went to Cherokee Nation in 1825 as a missionary, and established his mission in Cherokee territory. He defied an 1830 Georgia law that required white men in Cherokee country to take an oath of allegiance to the state and receive a license from the Governor, for which he was jailed. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, Worcester vs. State of Georgia, and Worcester won.

From the description of Letter : Penitentiary, Milledgeville, [Georgia], to Rev. Ebenezer Porter, Charleston, S.C., 1832 Nov 12. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702162453

From the description of Letter : Penitentiary, Milledgeville, [Georgia], to Rev. Ebenezer Porter, Charleston, S.C., 1832 Nov 12. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84410338

Worcester was a missionary who lived with the Cherokee Indians in Georgia. He worked on translating religious texts into the Cherokee language. He and fellow missionary Elizur Butler were sent to jail in 1831 for violating an 1830 law that forbade white person, except for those specifically licensed by the governor, to live among the Cherokees. Despite winning an appeal in the Supreme Court case, Worcester v Georgia, both served two years of hard labor. The intention of their appeal was not to grant their release, but to challenge the State of Georgia's jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation as unconstitutional. President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the Court's decision, but both were eventually granted clemency by the governor of Georgia.

Alice Robertson was a Congresswoman from Oklahoma, born a member of the Creek Nation. She also served as a clerk in the Indian Office in Washington D.C. and taught at several Indian schools.

From the description of Samuel Austin Worcester correspondence and provenance, 1826-1832. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 64063662

Missionary to the Cherokee Indians, and translator and printer of the Bible and other works in the Cherokee language.

Worcester began his missionary work with the Cherokee Indians in East Tennesse in 1825, and moved to New Echota, Ga. in 1827. In 1831 he and Elizur Butler were arrested and imprisoned for violating a Georgia ordinance forbidding white persons to live among the Indians without taking an oath of allegiance to the state and obtaining a license. The case was appealed in 1832 to the Supreme Court, which declared the Georgia law unconstitutional, but Worcester and Butler were not released until 1833. In 1835 Worcester established the Park Hill Mission among the Cherokees residing west of the Mississippi in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

From the description of Letter : Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, [Indian Territory], to Rev. W.B. Sprague, Albany, N.Y., 1840 Feb. 24. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 40998986