| Jerusha Bingham Kirkland | |
| Birth Name: | Jerusha Bingham |
| Birth Date: | October 15, 1743 |
| Birth Place: | Windham, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Death Date: | January 23, 1788 |
| Death Place: | Clinton, Oneida County, New York, U.S. |
| Other Names: | Jemima Bingham |
| Occupation: | missionary |
| Children: | John Thornton Kirkland |
Jerusha Bingham Kirkland (October 15, 1743 – January 23, 1788) was a prominent colonial American pioneer in the missionary cause.[1] During the years of her residence and labors among the Oneida people, where she and her husband, Rev. Dr. Samuel Kirkland, brought about many conversions to Christianity, Mrs. Kirkland was noted for her kind deeds as a nurse and medical benefactor to the Native Americans. Both she and her husband gained a wide influence among the indigenous people of the region, many of whom they were afterwards and during the American Revolutionary War, able to win over to the colonialist cause.
Jerusha (sometimes referred to as "Jemima") Bingham, was born in Windham, Connecticut, October 15, 1743.[2] Her parents were Joseph Bingham of Windham, and Sarah Wheelock,[3] sister to Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, D. D., a successful laborer in missionary work among Indigenous Americans. Kirkland came of a devout Christian family, and was reared amid the privileges of her Connecticut home.
In Connecticut, in 1769, she married Rev. Dr. Samuel Kirkland, the missionary. who had taken up the missionary work among the Oneidas. Entering with a sustained enthusiasm into the plans of her husband, she shortly, after her marriage, accompanied him to his post of duty in the wilderness near Fort Stanwix, where Rome, New York, is now situated. This was literally on the frontier, in the midst of a dense forest which extended for hundreds of miles in every direction, and was the abode of numerous Native American tribes, some of which were hostile to the colonial settlers. Their forest home, near the "Council House” of the Oneidas, was in the center of the forest. There, the couple, alone and unaided, commenced their joint missionary labors. The gentle manners, courage, and energy of Rev. Kirkland, were supplemented by the admirable qualities of his wife. With sweetness, gentleness, simplicity, and delicacy, her energy and courage were strong, even in danger.
Prior to his marriage, Rev. Kirkland made his home and pursued his missionary labors at the "Council House"; after a house had been prepared for Mrs. Kirkland, he still continued to preach and teach at the "Council House", addressing the Native Americans in their own language, which both he and his wife had acquired.
In 1772, Rev. Kirkland purchased a small homestead in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for Mrs. Kirkland and their children.
Mrs. Kirkland visited the wigwams and instructed the women and children, who in turn flocked to her forest house. The women and children of the tribe were her chosen pupils. Seated in circles on the greensward beneath the spreading arches of giant oaks and maples, they listened to her teachings. She taught the women and children and by her example and patient work brought about a changed condition among these people.[4] She prayed for them in the Oneida language.
Mrs. Kirkland and her husband had the distinction of being recommended by the Continental Congress as adapted to labor among the Native Americans, and as alone able to preserve their neutrality toward the Revolutionary War. During the period when the early wars threatened the destruction of the new nation by the Native Americans, she worked faithfully with her husband in that arduous and responsible work of pacification.[5]
In the midst of her missionary labors, she was also a wife and mother of eleven children.
The twins, George and John, were born at Herkimer, New York, August 17, 1770.[6] When John achieved national prominence as president of Harvard College, his biographer wrote, “It was from a mother of distinguished public spirit, energy, wisdom and devotedness that he received the rudiments of his high intellectual and manly resolutions.”
Daughter Jerusha was the mother of the clergyman, Samuel Kirkland Lothrop.[7]
Jerusha Bingham Kirkland died in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, January 23, 1788.