Eleazer Williams

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Canadian-American clergyman

title: "Eleazer Williams" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1788-births", "1858-deaths", "18th-century-canadian-non-fiction-writers", "19th-century-canadian-biographers", "canadian-christian-religious-leaders", "canadian-mohawk-people", "american-episcopal-clergy", "people-from-green-bay,-wisconsin", "history-of-new-york-(state)", "history-of-wisconsin", "dartmouth-college-alumni", "american-freemasons", "people-from-franklin-county,-new-york", "louis-xvii-impostors", "18th-century-canadian-male-writers", "18th-century-canadian-writers", "19th-century-canadian-male-writers", "canadian-male-biographers"] description: "Canadian-American clergyman" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleazer_Williams" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Canadian-American clergyman ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Eleazer_Williams,_attributed_to_Giuseppe_Fagnani,_1853,_oil_on_canvas,from_the_National_Portrait_Gallery-_NPG-NPG_75_40Williams_int.jpg" caption="Eleazer Williams, attributed to [[Giuseppe Fagnani]], 1853"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Williams,_Eleazar.jpg" caption="Canadian-American clergyman}}"] ::

Eleazer Williams (May 1788 – August 28, 1858) was a Canadian-American clergyman and missionary of Mohawk descent. In later years he claimed that he was the French "Lost Dauphin," a claim that made him a pretender to the throne of France.

Williams was born in Sault St. Louis, Quebec, Canada, the son of Thomas Williams, and was educated at Dartmouth College. He published tracts and a spelling book in the Iroquois language, translated the Book of Common Prayer into Iroquois, and wrote a biography of Chief Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen (Thomas Williams).

Missionary career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Eleazar_Williams_1853.jpg" caption="1853 portrait"] ::

In 1815, Williams joined the Episcopal Church. In 1817, Bishop John Henry Hobart appointed Williams to be a missionary to the Oneida people in upstate New York.

In 1820 and 1821, Williams led delegations of Native Americans to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they secured a cession of land from the Menominee and Winnebago tribes in the Fox River Valley at Little Chute and along Duck Creek. Historians have disputed the significance of Williams' leadership to this migration compared to that of the Oneida people themselves, including Oneida leader Daniel Bread. The following year Williams made his home there and married a fourteen-year-old Menominee girl named Marie Madeleine Jourdain, one of his pupils; contemporary accounts noted she was "not a willing party to the contract." In 1826 he was ordained a deacon.

In 1839 and afterwards, Williams began to make the claim that he was the French "Lost Dauphin". During the 1850s he openly became a pretender to the throne of France, but he died in poverty at Hogansburg, New York.

Williams was buried at Saint James' Cemetery in Hogansburg on August 28, 1858. In 1947, his remains and tombstone were moved to Holy Apostles Cemetery in Oneida, Wisconsin. His tombstone at Oneida indicates that he was a Freemason.

Legacy

Main article: Lost Dauphin Park

Williams' plot of 19 acre of land at his Wisconsin home was designated Lost Dauphin State Park by the state. It was later taken off the list of state parks and the house was burned. It remains designated as Lost Dauphin Park with the land remaining state owned. The flagstone foundation of the house remains visible.

Publications

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Williams-Spelling-Book.JPG" caption="Title page for Gaiatonsera ionteweienstakwa"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Iontatretsiarontha.JPG" caption="Title page from Iontatretsiarontha, ne agwegon ahonwan igonrarake, ne raonha ne songwaswens = A caution against our common enemy"] ::

Citations

References

References

  1. (2002). "Chief Daniel Bread and the Oneida Nation of Indians of Wisconsin". University of Oklahoma Press.
  2. (July 25, 1931). "Eleazer Williams, Chief or the 'Lost Dauphin'?". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern.
  3. Schnurr, Rachael. (2021). "A Métis wife's tale: Race, womanhood, and adaptation to settler colonialism in the diaries of Mary Hobart Williams". Eastern Michigan University.
  4. (July 25, 1931). "Eleazer Williams, Chief or the 'Lost Dauphin'?". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern.
  5. (April 22, 1947). "Remains of Famed Indian Missionary to Go to Oneida". Monroe Evening Times.
  6. "Lost Dauphin State Park". Wisconsin State Park System.
  7. "Oneida history". Oneida tribe.
  8. (2005). "Weird Wisconsin: Your Travel Guide to Wisconsin's Local Legends...". Sterling Publishing Company.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1788-births1858-deaths18th-century-canadian-non-fiction-writers19th-century-canadian-biographerscanadian-christian-religious-leaderscanadian-mohawk-peopleamerican-episcopal-clergypeople-from-green-bay,-wisconsinhistory-of-new-york-(state)history-of-wisconsindartmouth-college-alumniamerican-freemasonspeople-from-franklin-county,-new-yorklouis-xvii-impostors18th-century-canadian-male-writers18th-century-canadian-writers19th-century-canadian-male-writerscanadian-male-biographers