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"Sermon preached to 1st Congregational Society in Deerfield, Mass. and in the Hearing of Several Indians of Both Sexes Supposed"

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The Reverend John Fessenden (1804-1881), pastor of the Deerfield church, delivered this sermon in 1835 before, among others, a party of St. Francis Abenakis. The Native people who "attended divine service on Sunday in a divine and orderly manner" claimed to be descendants of Eunice Williams on a visit to the graves of her mother and father, the Reverend and Mrs. Williams. Eunice, however, had lived with the Mohawks in Kahnwake. The thesis of the sermon - that all people are of one blood descended from Adam and Eve - underscored the connection between the Williamses of Deerfield and their "cousins" in Canada, the descendants of Eunice and her husband, Arosen.

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