Monroe Mission

"We're on a journey along the Natchez Trace Parkway traveling north from Natchez, Mississippi heading up to Nashville, Tennessee. Today we visit an exhibit located in the northern part of the Tombigbee National Forest, 15 miles south of Tupelo, Mississippi.

"The Chickasaw's first contact with Christianity and with formal education came in 1822 at the site of MONROE MISSION. Many of the Indians who became Chickasaw leaders in Oklahoma were taught in one of three missionary schools. One of those schools was MONROE MISSION STATION.

"The church there was only 16 feet square, but 150 people were baptized in it. In school the students had classroom work, and in addition, the girls were taught spinning and weaving, and the boys, farming and carpentry. In 1827, eighty-one students attended school there, and that year they cultivated land, which totaled 100 acres.

"Join us next time when we will stop by the exhibit for Tockshish. For Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com