Foreign Mission School
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Steward's House-Foreign Mission School
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The Steward's House of the Foreign Mission School
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| Location | 14 Bolton Hill Rd., Cornwall, Connecticut |
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| Coordinates | 41°50′40″N 73°19′57″W / 41.84444°N 73.33250°WCoordinates: 41°50′40″N 73°19′57″W / 41.84444°N 73.33250°W |
| Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
| Built | 1817 |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| NRHP Reference # | 16000858 |
| Added to NRHP | October 31, 2016 |
The Foreign Mission School was an educational institution which existed between 1817 and 1826 in Cornwall, Connecticut. It was established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to bring Christianity and Western culture to non-White people by educating missionaries of their own culture.
The school was called a seminary at the time, "for the purpose of educating youths of Heathen nations, with a view to their being useful in their respective countries" according to Jedidiah Morse. The school was established in the last few months of 1816, and opened in May 1817. The first principal was Edwin Welles Dwight (1789–1841). After the first year, Dwight was replaced by Reverend Herman Daggett (1789–1832) who ran the school for the next six years.
Daggett was nephew of Naphtali Daggett who had been president of Yale College, and Dwight was distant cousin of the Yale president in 1817, Timothy Dwight IV. Approximately one hundred young men from non-European indigenous peoples were trained at the school with the intent of their becoming missionaries, preachers, translators, teachers, and health workers in their native communities.
According to Morse,
From its founding, the school rapidly became a symbol of American Christianity's Second Great Awakening, and connected the small farm town of Cornwall in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills to the early 19th century's clash of civilizations, as epitomized by the Trail of Tears, the conversion of Hawaii to Protestantism, and the worldwide Christian missionary movement. Cornwall had been chosen for the school's location due to the devoutness of the residents and their consequent willingness to donate their efforts, money, and property to a devout cause, as well as their reputation as hard-working people of good character.
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Wikipedia