Mardock Mission
SE of Stella off OK 9, Stella, OKThe Mardock Mission is significant because it is the only remaining building associated with the Big Jim Band of Absentee Shawnee Indians, the Quaker Missionaries, and a pre-World War I socialist movement.
The Absentee Shawnee were so named because in 1845 they had left the rest of the tribe in Kansas and settled along the Canadian River in Indian Territory. Big Jim, Wapameepto, grandson of Tecumseh, was the chief of the Kispicotha, better known as the Absentee Shawnee. The group numbered in 1904, 459.
In 1897 the Maine Branch of the Women's National Indian Association established a mission at the location, which is 12 miles west and 4 miles south of Tecumseh. The mission was to serve as school, religious community and agricultural experiment station for the Indians. Buildings were constructed, an orchard planted and cropland cultivated. In 1898 or 1899 the Mission was transferred to the Associated Executive Committee of Friends who continued to operate the Mission under the direction of John T. Mardock. A Mr. Bohannon deeded the land to Mardock.
The Big Jim Band was relatively non-progressive and although they were receptive to the farming and community activities, they resisted the missionizing efforts. However, the mission persisted and in the early 1900s, began to minister to the growing white population in the nearby community of Mardock. Many activities were centered at the mission; Bible talks, night evangelistic meetings, singing, group recreation and during berry season, berries were harvested and sold. Monthly farmers meetings were held and in 1929 about 35 Indian farmers still attended. The Mission was also an unofficial center for the Jones Family, a group active in the socialist movement during World War I. It is thought that some members participated in the Green Corn Rebellion activities of 1917. At any rate, young members were advised to resist the draft. After 1929 the concentrated mission effort ceased though the church did function as a church for area white people until about 1955, when the settlement was abandoned. The property was sold to a local farmer who used the church to store hay. Sometime later an independent missionary to the Big Jim Band, Rev. Ted Reynolds, repaired the church and briefly used it. Today the church, again abandoned, is the only remaining building of the original mission property.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.