Rev. Cyrus Byington

In 1820 a Company of missionary colonists and teachers, on their way by boat to their mission work among the Choctaw Indians stopped for a time at Marietta where the people became very much interested in them and made generous contributions for their work. This company was led by Rev. Cyrus Byington who commenced active life as a lawyer but soon consecrated himself to the work of a Christian minister and prepared for service as a Foreign Missionary. When this company started down the river in their flat boats and passed Belpre, Mr. George Dana, Sr., knowing their business wrote in his journal as follows:

"The Missionary Boat has arrived from Marietta on her way to the Choctaw Nation. The plan of enlightening the Savages is certainly philanthropic, to say nothing of the importance of giving them the gospel. They are an injured people; have been driven from their rightful possessions by the whites; have became as it were a remnant that will soon be extinguished unless arrested in their downward career; the plan of Missions and schools has been devised for that purpose. Human generosity and justice conspire to dictate its formation. As they become informed they will become amalgamated with the whites,—be brought under the mild sway of our laws, and become a happy and useful people and be an accession to the nation. And who that has experienced the influence of the gospel would not rejoice in assisting to send it to this dark and benighted people? May prosperity attend the Mission." Mr. Dana did not know what influence these missionaries were to exert upon his family during the coming years.

Mr. Byington continued this missionary service for nearly half a century, occasionally visiting Marietta and Belpre, where he spoke in the churches and people continued their interest in the work. In 1827 he was married to Miss Sophia Nye of Marietta who for forty years shared with him their arduous and self denying work.

In 1852 their daughter, Lucy Byington, born on the Missionary field, was married to Dea George Dana, Jr., and spent the remainder of her life a faithful wife and mother in the Dana home. When her father and mother retired from the Mission after the Civil War in 1866, they came to Belpre and made their home for a time with this daughter. In 1867 Mr. Byington published reminiscences of his work in the New York Observer from which we make the following quotation:

"We left Marieta with our hearts greatly refreshed and encouraged in our undertaking. We had heard of the Blennerhassett Island, named for the wealthy gentleman who settled on it, and built his fine palace and out houses there, and who was visited to his ruin by Aaron Burr. We have read Mr. Wirts description of the Island, the house and the family, a description rarely surpassed by our gifted writers. When we passed along we saw his seat in ruins, burned down, the chimneys still standing. Little could I know or think while gazing on these ruins on our way to the Choctaws, that forty-six years after I should retire, wearied and worn, to find a home, a quiet room for prayer and study, on the banks of the Ohio and adjacent to this same Island, and my own daughter, her husband and their children there to welcome me, feed me, nourish and strengthen me, in the hope that I might do a little more for our blessed Saviour. It is even so. It was in that room I revised the translation and reconstructed and wrote out the Choctaw grammar."

This grammar was published for its literary merit by the "Pensylvania Historical and Philosophical Society." He also prepared a very complete Choctaw Dictionary which was published by the "Smithsonian Institute."

The fact that the Indians in this country have adopted the English as their written language has prevented the continued use of these books, but they will perpetuate an extinct dialect and are a valuable monument of self-denying missionary labor. In Andover Theological Seminary Mr. Byington was associated with Luther Bingham, Pliny Fisk, Levi Parsons, and others who became eminent in Foreign and Home Missionary Work. He was eminent for his scholarship and devoted piety. A friend wrote of him: "Brother Byington's raiment seemed perfumed with spiritual myrrh, and, like Harlan Page, wherever he went his theme was Jesus and his great Salvation. "

Aided by his devoted wife, he reduced the Choctaw language to writing and published in it several books including portions of the Scriptures.

He received into the Churches nine hundred Christian Choctaws, and to all of these he was a Spiritual father. After retiring to Belpre he purchased and removed to a home in which he died December 31, 1868.

Mrs. Sophia Nye Byington spent her last years with her daughter in the Dana home where she died February 4, 1880. Both were buried in Rockland Cemetery. This Providential connection of Belpre with Foreign Missions is interesting and should be remembered by future generations.

Source: A History of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio, by C. E. Dickinson, 1920, Transcribed by C. Anthony