Shawnee Methodist Mission, near present Turner in Wyandotte County, was established in 1830 by the Rev. Thomas Johnson. In 1838, an agreement between the Methodist church and the U.S. government established a manual labor school for Indian children, and building began in 1839 on the present site in Johnson County. Children of many tribes came to learn English, manual arts, and agriculture. At its height, the school comprised 2,000 acres with 16 buildings, and had nearly 200 boys and girls enrolled. The school was closed in 1862.
The West building was the first permanent building. Begun in January 1839, the front portion was completed that year. Thomas Johnson, mission superintendent, moved his family to the building in October, and school began the same month. In February, 1840, 60 Indian children were enrolled. Others were turned away for lack of room.
In 1839, a 20 foot-square building was erected in the rear, and in 1840 the two were joined by 70-foot walls, making a dining hall. Later, the rear wing was shortened by 50 feet, giving the building its present appearance.
Original plans for the manual labor school included three large buildings, two of which were approximately 100 feet X 30 feet and two stories high. There was also a farmer’s residence and other farm and shop structures. The East building, constructed in 1841, was the second permanent brick structure, and contained 14 school and lodging rooms for teachers and children. A chapel occupied part of the first floor. The attic was a boys dormitory.
In 1848, a classical department was organized. Classes were held in this building. Similar to a modern high school, the department was caled Western Academy, and during its three-year existence offered “all the branches of a complete English education together with the Latin and Greek languages.” Most of the students were young men and women of limited means from Missouri. The Rev. Nathan Scarritt, who had taught in Missouri, was principal, and remained until the summer of 1851 when he resigned to become a minister to the Indians.
The first territorial legislature met here in 1855, following its adjournment from the First Capitol now on the Fort Riley military reservation, and passed the so-called “Bogus Laws” in an attempt to keep slavery in Kansas.
By 1843-1844, the number of Indian children at the school had increased to about 115. The exact figure varied from term to term. To accommodate this increase, a third brick building was erected in 1845. It was 100 feet X 20 feet and two stories high with a piazza across the entire length, except at the ends. (The east end originally was identical to the west, but was razed in later years.)
The building was divided into connecting rooms used as the girls’ school and dormitory. Spinning, weaving, and other domestic arts were taught. At various times teachers and territorial officials lived in the building, and Thomas Johnson and his family also had quarters here.
Classes were held six hours each day, except for Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday teaching was limited to three hours. Boys worked in the shops or on the farm, usually five hours a day. Girls helped with the sewing, washing, cooking, and management of the dairy. The whole school, as a rule, went to bed at 8:00 p.m. and rose at 4:00 a.m.
Miss A. Archbold, who began teaching at the mission in April 1850, wrote a friend: “I am much pleased with the school. the girls are perfectly quiet…. I live in a stately brick house.”
Early in 1983 an extensive rehabilitation program was initiated for the three remaining original buildings. After the completion of this work, the site was reopened to the public in the spring of 1985.
As part of this program, reinterpretation was initiated for the first and second floors of the East building. On the first floor adaptive reuse is evident with a gift and bookstore section, and there are two rooms telling the mission’s history, and two period rooms. The second floor contains an exhibit gallery that highlights construction techniques and the manual arts taught to the Indian students, adn there are period rooms at both ends of the floor. Some of the exhibited artifacts were made by teh Native American students of the mission.
Today the Shawnee Methodist Mission and Indian Manual Labor School is administered by the Kansas State Historical Society. The site, acquired by the state in 1927, contains 12 acres.