Goodwater Choctaw Mission/Koonsha Female Seminary

Why the mission and school closed is a story about slavery. Many of the American Board's missionaries were New Englanders with abolitionist views, which made them suspect to the mostly Southern Indian agents. Cyrus Kingsbury, one of the founders the sign names, opposed slavery himself but held that preaching to enslaved and free alike came first, and that left him caught between his Northern sponsors and slaveholding Choctaws. In 1858 the board withdrew its support from the Choctaw missions. When war came Kingsbury suspended his work, and Koonsha never reopened.

What the plaque says

Goodwater Choctaw Mission Koonsha Female Seminary Goodwater Choctaw Mission was established in Indian Territory in 1832 after the forced removal of the Choctaw from Mississippi. As a Presbyterian mission supported by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Goodwater had several notable founding members, including the Reverends Cyrus Byington, Cyrus Kingsbury, and Ebenezer Hotchkin, with Hotchkin serving as the head of the church and mission. Hotchkin was a member of Goshen Church in Mississippi. It is possible that Hotchkin reestablished the church at Goodwater after removal in 1832. In 1842 the Choctaw Nation opened Koonsha Female Seminary in conjunction with the mission. Hotchkin served as school superintendent until his resignation in September 1850. Allen Wright and George Ainslie also served as superin- tendents. Although there is conflicting information regarding how long the mission and seminary remained active, sources tend to agree that both institutions closed by the beginning of the Civil War. Some of the instructors who taught at the school are buried in the mission cemetery, which is located about seven miles south of Sawyer. One headstone reads, "Here sleeps a Missionary."

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Towson Historic Site — 6.1 mi
  The 1824 Red River post where arriving Choctaw and Chickasaw families were dispersed after removal, beside the site of Doaksville, the Choctaw capital where Stand Watie surrendered in 1865.
• Wheelock Academy Historic Site — 22 mi
  The Choctaw Nation's academy for girls, rebuilt in 1884 near Millerton and a boarding school until 1955, with its museum in the old teachers' dormitory.

More markers nearby

• Spencer Academy — steps away
• Doaksville — 5.4 mi
• Stand Watie's Surrender — 5.4 mi
• Transportation Crossroads — 6.1 mi