Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Teganakoa, Stephen

TEGANAKOA, Stephen, Indian convert, d. in Onondaga, N. Y., in 1690. While still a pagan he was noted for the innocence of his life and manners and his attachment to his wife and children. He went with his family to the mission of Caughnawaga, or Sault Ste. Louis, when he was about thirty-five years old, applied for baptism, and after the usual probation was received with his wife and six children. He was afterward considered a model of every virtue. In August, 1790, he went on a hunting expedition with his wife and another Indian. In the following September the party was attacked by a band of seventeen Cayugas and brought to Onondaga. One of his captors said to Stephen that he might attribute his death to his having left his tribe to live among “the dogs of Christians at the Sault.” Stephen replied: “Do what you will with me, I fear neither your outrages nor your fires. I willingly give my life for a God who shed his blood for me.” The savages then put him to death with slow tortures. He bore his sufferings calmly, and died praying for his murderers.