The Moses Merrill Mission, also known as the Oto Mission, was located about eight miles west of Bellevue, Nebraska

Bellevue, Nebraska

Bellevue is a city in Sarpy County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 50,137 at the 2010 census. Eight miles south of Omaha, Bellevue is part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. Originally settled in the 1830s, It was the first state capitol. Bellevue was incorporated in...

. It was built and occupied by Moses and Eliza Wilcox Merrill, the first missionaries resident in Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

. The first building was part of facilities built in 1835 when the United States Government removed the Otoe about eight miles southwest of Bellevue. Merrill's goal was to convert the local Otoe

Otoe

Otoe may refer to*Otoe tribe, a Native American people*Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma*Otoe, Nebraska*Otoe County, Nebraska...

 tribe to Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

; he had learned the language and translated the Bible and some hymns into Otoe.

The first log cabin had to be replaced after it burned, but by 1835 they had a built a combined school/church building. After Merrill died in 1840 from tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, the Otoe left the mission and moved their village. His wife Eliza Merrill returned to the East with their son. Settlers used the cabin into the 1860s.

As of 2005, the only remainders of the second and larger mission building are its original chimney and the cottonwood trees planted by Eliza Merrill. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1972. The state has placed a highway historical marker near the former site of the Oto Mission.

History

The Reverend Moses Merrill was from Sedgwick, Maine

Sedgwick, Maine

Sedgwick is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,102 at the 2000 census. The town includes the village of Sargentville....

, where his father Daniel was a minister. He went to the Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 Territory and through friends met Eliza Wilcox from Albany, New York

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

. They married and, after receiving training as missionaries for the Baptist Church, they arrived in Bellevue, Nebraska in 1833. The Indian agent offered them space in the former trading post called Fontenelle's

Fontenelle's Post

Fontenelle's Post, first known as Pilcher's Post, and the site of the later city of Bellevue, was built in 1822 in the Nebraska Territory by Joshua Pilcher, then president of the Missouri Fur Company. Located on the Missouri River, it developed as one of the first European-American settlements in...

, then part of buildings used by the Bellevue Indian Agency. Merrill immediately took up studying the Otoe

Otoe

Otoe may refer to*Otoe tribe, a Native American people*Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma*Otoe, Nebraska*Otoe County, Nebraska...

 language and later translated parts of the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 and some hymns into Otoe.

When the US Government removed the Otoe to a location southwest of Bellevue near the mouth of the Platte River

Platte River

The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which in turn is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to...

, the Merrills followed to remain with them. They first used a log cabin provided by the government. In 1835 they quickly established a school and church for the Otoe tribe, whose nearest village and cemetery lay a quarter of a mile directly southeast.

A year after the move, the Merrills' first mission cabin burned down. They built a larger house to replace it, where they also ran a school. Soon after, Merrill encouraged the Otoe to move from their long-occupied village near Yutan

Yutan, Nebraska

Yutan is a city in Saunders County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,216 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Yutan is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land....

 to his mission. The Merrills established a school for Otoe children and held church services there.

Merrill made a lasting contribution by translating the Bible and other works into Otoe. The missionary work was arduous, as the couple tried to protect the Otoe from mercenary traders and unsympathetic settlers, as well as competing Indian factions. Merrill traveled frequently, as the Otoe territory extended to the Elkhorn River

Elkhorn River

The Elkhorn River originates in the eastern Sandhills of Nebraska and is one of the largest tributaries of the Platte River, flowing and joining the Platte just southwest of Omaha, approximately 1 mile south and 3 miles west of Gretna.Located in northeast and north-central Nebraska, the Elkhorn...

. In 1839 he contracted tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, from which he died in 1840. The Otoe left the mission and moved to a new village.

Eliza Merrill left Nebraska soon after the death of her husband to return with their son to Albany, New York

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, where she established an orphanage. Settlers used the old mission for church services past the 1860s.

Structure

The first mission building was a simple shack made of local woods. The second mission building was built after the first one burned down in 1836 or 1837. The new facility included a schoolroom for Otoe children and living quarters, including two bedrooms on the second story. A porch ran across the front of the building between the two end rooms and faced south. It is believed that Eliza Merrill planted at least three of the giant cottonwood trees standing on the site today, which range from 25 to 30 feet in circumference.

The structure was made from poplar

Poplar

Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....

 logs, squared and closely notched at the corners. Lime

Lime (mineral)

Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...

 plaster

Plaster

Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...

 was poured between the log walls and the thin sheathing of planed boards on the interior. A large chimney built of native limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

was "plastered with lime almost as hard as the stone itself," and was located in the center of the building. It was 25 feet tall with a five-foot square base. Today only the chimney and cottonwood trees remain on the site.

Legacy and honors

• The Merrill Mission site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Both the Merrills kept diaries through this period: his cover the period of Nov. 29, 1832 - Sept. 14, 1839, and hers cover May 20, 1832 - July 13, 1841. These are held with their correspondence and other papers by the Nebraska State Historical Society.