Boachman, Mackenaw

Boachman, Mackenaw a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was a native Potawatamie. He was reared without the advantages of a Christian training, and was left, when very small, a poor orphan boy, with few kindred and scarcely any earthly comforts. The Shawnee Indians took him, taught him their language and mode of life, gave him one of their women for a wife, and he spent many years among them hunting and trapping. Finally a Methodist mission was established among the Shawnees, and Mr. Boachman heard the Gospel preached, and its thoughts followed him until he gave himself to Christ. He became first an interpreter, then a local preacher, and finally, in 1845, a regular itinerant minister in the Indian Mission Conference. He spent his remaining years trying to bring to Christ the people who had adopted him. He died May 18, 1848. Mr. Boachman was acquainted with most of the Indian languages. He learned to read the Bible in English, and was a very useful preacher. See Minutes of Annual Conferences of the M. E. Church South, 1848, p. 170.