An Alaska Anthology: Interpreting the Past

The Early Ministry of S. Hall Young, 1878-1888

The Early Ministry of S. Hall Young, 1878-1888 TED C. HINCKLEY American missionaries first arrived in Alaska 70 years after its purchase by the United States. It is apparent today that the missionaries' own cultural and intellectual heritage led many of them (although not all) to view all cultures as either superior or inferior to their own. They simply had no concept of the value of cultural diversity. Their own culture, they believed, was undeniably superior; "inferior " societies, including those ofAlaska's Native inhabitants, had merely not yet evolved from hunting and gathering through herding and then agriculture to reach the most fully "civilized" form, that of industrial democracy. One of their tasks, the missionaries felt, was to assist this evolutionary process so that Alaska Natives (but not necessarily their cultures) might survive into the 20th century. Thus, they were assimilationists as well as Christianizers. One is most likely to think ofthe Presbyterian leader Sheldon Jackson when one hears the word missionary. But Jackson never engaged in parish work in Alaska at all. Instead, he organized missionary activity, directed the acculturation of Alaska Natives, and raised public and private funds for both purposes from the contiguous United States. From 7885 until 7906 Jackson also served as General Agent of Education in Alaska, a position established by the Organic Act of 7884. To accomplish his goals, Jackson maintained residency in Washington, D.C., and traveled extensively throughout the rest of the country, visiting Alaska each summer. The historian Ted C. Hinckley, Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University, has written a number ofarticles about Jackson and his contemporaries. Hinckley's research extends to other aspects ofAlaskans' experiences during the early American period as well. His publications include accounts of William Seward's only visit to Alaska, of the U.S. Navy's shelling of the vii/age ofAngoon in 7882, and of the Tlingits' concerns about non-Native encroachment onto their lands and traditional fishing sites. Hinckley's major books include The Americanization of Alaska, This article appeared originally in Journal ofPresbyterian History 46 (September 1968): 175-96; it is reprinted here by permission. 134 The Early Ministry of S. Hall Young 135 1867-1897 (Palo Alto, Calif.: Pacific Books, Publishers, 7972) and a biography of the gold rush era governorAlaskan John G. Brady: Missionary, Businessman, Judge, and Governor, 1878-1918 (published for Miami University by Ohio State University Press, 7982). Hinckleypresently is preparing a history of the Tlingit people following United States acquisition of Alaska. In the following selection, Hinckley discusses Samuel Hall Young, the resident Presbyterian leader in Alaska for many years. The article suggests that the missionary experience in Alaska was more varied than readers familiar only with Jackson might suppose. It also demonstrates that Jackson had both rivals and critics. The survival and durability of the Puritan tradition into nineteenthand even twentieth-century America is a remarkable phenomenon. A splendid example of this legacy in action is the career of Samuel Hall Young. An evaluation of his early Christian labor in and for Alaska is particularly valuable as the forty-ninth state celebrates its 1867-1967 centennial. Samuel Hall Young was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, on September 2, 1847. Young's parentage was of solid Calvinist persuasion. His mother, Margaret (Johnston) Young, was particularly proud of one extension of the family tree-none other than Oliver Cromwell's eldest daughter. Typically independent-minded, her American forebears had come to represent every type of Presbyterianism: Seceders, Oldside Covenanters, Newside Covenanters, United Presbyterians, ad infinitum. Sectarian divisiveness was no less evident on S. Hall Young's father's side. The Young andJohnston families, like their Puritan ancestors, seem to have respected the power of a formal education. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, after the New England grandfather Robert Young had moved his family into western Virginia, he served as a part-time teacher. One of his sons, S. Hall's father, Loyal Young, completed his education at Allegheny's Western Theological Seminary. His graduation occurred in 1832. That same year America's western champion was triumphantly reelected , and Andrew Jackson's "Democracy" revealed a nation burgeoning with unpredictable confidence. Many years later Loyal's son reflected how well the young Republic's amazing social mix had diluted Puritan predestination. "I would not emphasize heredity too strongly," S. Hall Young wrote. "We are what we are. Our blood may have power to sway us this way or that, and environment is still more potent; but every strong...