Born:Peacham,Vermont , January 19, 1798
Died:Parkhill, Cherokee Nation West, April 20, 1859

Samuel Worcester was the 7th generation of pastors in his family, dating back to when his family lived in England. When Samuel was born his father, the Rev. Leonard Worcester, was a minister in Peacham, Vermont. According to Charles Perry of the Peacham Historical Association, Leonard also worked as a printer in the town during the week.

Young Samuel exhibited an unusual strength in foreign languages. While studying in New England the minister met and befriended Buck Oowatie, a Cherokee Indian who had taken the name Elias Boudinot. Samuel and Elias became close friends. When Worcester joined the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions he requested assignment to a Cherokee village that was in particular need according to Boudinot. Within days of arriving at the community in the vicinity of present-day Brainerd, Tennessee, Worcester was not only preaching, he had taken over duties as blacksmith, carpenter, translator and doctor. His Cherokee name was "The Messenger."

The influence of Boudinot cannot be understated. The two had become close friends over the two years they had known each other. Sequoyah(a.k.a George Gist) developed the "Talking Leaves," Boudinot asked Worcester to help in establishing a Cherokee paper. Worcester, a visionary, saw not only a newspaper, but a tool of Cherokee literacy, a means to draw the loose Cherokee community together and a way of establishing and promoting a Cherokee Nation. Using his missionary connection, Worcester secured funds to build a printing office, buy the printing press and ink, and cast the alphabet's characters(since the "talking leaves" were new, no type existed). The first edition of the Cherokee Phoenix rolled off the presses at New Echota in 1828. From this point on, Worcester probably had input in most Cherokee publications until his death.

The westward push of white settlers had begun to dramatically affect the Cherokee. These valiant American Indians, with the help of Worcester and his benefactor, the American Board, formulated a plan to fight the encroachment in court, their last hope. No other civil authority would support the Cherokee right to live on the land they called home for hundreds of years. The board hired former U.S. Attorney General William Wirt to defend George Tassel, a Cherokee convicted of murder in Hall County. A sympathetic Chief Justice John Marshall rejected the suit on technical grounds, but privately instructed Wirt in presenting an acceptable case.

Shortly after the failure of the first trial Georgia Governor George Gilmer and the state legislature officially adopted a policy of forcible Indian removal and began plans for the Land Lottery of 1832. Worcester and 11 other men of the cloth met at New Echota and published a resolution in protest of a law the assembly had passed requiring all whites to get a license to work on Native American land. Worcester reasoned correctly that obeying the law would, in effect, be tantamount to surrendering the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation. Gilmer ordered the militia to arrest Worcester and the others who signed the document. Quickly brought to trial and convicted, Worcester and the others held firm to their beliefs. William Wirt again argued the case and in late 1832 the Supreme Court ruled the Cherokee Nation was independent and all dealings with them fell under federal jurisdiction. The ruling was ignored by Gilmer and President Andrew Jackson, who continued to hold the men prisoners.

Wilson Lumpkin assumed the governorship early the next year and faced with the Nullification Crisis in neighboring South Carolina he opted to set Worcester and the others free if they agreed to minor concessions. Having won the Supreme Court decision, Worcester thought that he would be more effective outside prison and left. After his release Worcester realized that the battle had been lost because the settlers refused to abide by the decision of their own courts. He moved to Oklahoma in 1835 to prepare for the coming of the Cherokee. Within three years the Cherokee Nation was forced to follow the "Trail of Tears."

After moving to Oklahoma Worcester continued to preach to the Indians and worked tirelessly to help resolved the differences between the Georgia Cherokees and the "Old Settlers", some of whom had been there since the late 1820's.

From John Worcestor

Most interesting to you perhaps is that when I was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1965, my aunt in a rather solemn family moment gave to me the original diary kept by Samuel during the years he was in prison there in Georgia (Milledgeville, I believe).

We vacationed in Cherokee NC and the Great Smokies Park one of the summers we lived out there, and quite by chance attended the panorama outdoor dramatic presentation that depicted the events preceding the deportation, and to the delight of our family, out on the stage walked the characters of Samuel and Ann Worcester.

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