Elizabeth Taylor Ayer's life spanned nearly the entire nineteenth century. In an era when women rarely had professional careers, her work as a teaching missionary gave her more status and independence than most women enjoyed.
Elizabeth Taylor was born in Heath, Massachusetts in 1803. Unmarried at twenty-five, she joined the staff of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Indian boarding school on Mackinac Island in Michigan Territory. In 1829 Frederick Ayer of Utica, New York visited Mackinac and also became a mission teacher.
In 1830, Protestant fur traders who traded with the Ojibwe asked the ABCFM to send missionaries to their trading posts. Frederick was chosen first. He taught for two years at trader Lyman Warren's home at La Pointe.
Meanwhile, at Mackinac, Elizabeth began studying the Ojibwe language. In 1832 William Aitken brought Frederick to his trading post at Sandy Lake to start a school. The following spring Frederick went east to publish a small textbook in the Ojibwe language.
On Frederick's return to Mackinac, he and Elizabeth married. They then rode in Warren's canoe brigade across Lake Superior. Charles W. Borup transported them up the Brule River and then down the St. Croix to Yellow River and Yellow Lake to open a mission station near Borup's post.
Frederick, Elizabeth, and three colleagues served at Yellow Lake from 1833 to 1835. Local Ojibwe feared they would lure more whites to Indian country. Still, they permitted them to conduct a school, church services, and agricultural projects.
An Ojibwe leader invited the missionaries to locate at Pokegama Lake by the Snake River in present-day Pine County and promised cooperation. Frederick accepted. He finished hauling mission animals and materials to the new station by fall 1836. A few Ojibwe families erected wigwams or cabins by the mission grounds, including those of Biajik and probably Nodin.
The Pokegama mission became a model project. In 1839 the government selected Pokegama for the work site of a treaty-funded blacksmith and farmer who served the western Ojibwe. Elizabeth's sons Lyman and Frederick Jr. were born at Pokegama. Former Mackinaw Mission student Henry Blatchford began his pastoral career there. Elizabeth continued teaching at her school.
Progress ceased in spring 1841 when a group of Dakota attacked the settlement. The Ojibwe dispersed for safety.
The worried Ayers retreated to Ohio but could not forget the Indians. Frederick's enthusiasm inspired new volunteers whom he immediately promised to aid. Elizabeth lingered to study at Oberlin College, then journeyed with her young sons to Boston to report to the Board. In late 1843 she accompanied more recruits to La Pointe where Frederick waited to guide them on the difficult journey to Red Lake. There the Ayers and some of the Ohioans conducted a mission similar to the old Pokegama station.
Elizabeth took her sons to Red River Colony in winter 1847–1848 to attend school. When they returned from Canada they found Frederic ill and unable to preach. Reluctantly, the Ayers retired from the ABCFM.
In 1849 the Ayers started a farm and school at Belle Prairie in the new Minnesota Territory. Belle Prairie Seminary was intended for Indian youth. Elizabeth convinced teachers from New England and Illinois to locate on the Upper Mississippi, including her nephews and a niece. Most were highly qualified.
The Ayers' private school served Ojibwe and mixed-race families as well as some whites. In 1856 the Methodist Conference acquired the school, but the family continued teaching in Morrison County's public schools. Elizabeth also taught at Crow Wing.
The Ayers adopted at least one Ojibwe orphan after young Frederick died in 1850. Their older son, Lyman, got involved in his parents' projects: modern farming, sawmilling, and teaching.
When Lyman served in the Civil War he wrote to his parents about freedmen who needed schooling and suggested they help. Frederick and Elizabeth rented out their farm and in November 1865 arrived in Atlanta, Georgia. Despite dire post-war conditions, the city's African American children and adults eagerly learned to read at American Missionary Association schools.
Frederick died in Atlanta in 1867. In 1868 Elizabeth returned to Belle Prairie. She continued to teach, write letters and articles, and watch over children living along the Upper Mississippi, including a granddaughter who became a teacher. Elizabeth died in 1898.