Occom—some­times giv­en as “Ock­um” or “Occ­um”—was a Mo­hican In­di­an (the tribe im­mor­tal­ized in James Fen­ni­more Coop­er’s Last of the Mo­hi­cans). He came to Christ un­der George White­field around 1740, and was ed­u­cat­ed by Revs. El­e­a­zor Wheel­ock and Ben­ja­min Pom­er­oy. In 1748, he moved to Mon­tauk, Long Is­land, New York, where he worked among a rem­nant of In­di­ans there. In 1759, he was or­dained a Pres­by­ter­i­an min­is­ter. In 1766-1767, he traveled to Eng­land. As he was the first In­di­an preach­er who had vis­it­ed there, he drew im­mense au­di­enc­es. In a lit­tle over a year, he preached four hun­dred ser­mons (in­clud­ing once for John New­ton at Oln­ey), and col­lect­ed over $45,000 for his cause of an In­di­an Char­i­ty School, but El­e­azor Wheel­ock be­trayed Occom and used the funds to pur­chase land for him­self and help fund what is now Dart­mouth Coll­ege.

Occom spent his la­ter life among the In­di­ans on Long Is­land, and, from 1786 on, in Onei­da Coun­ty, New York. His works in­clude:

• An Account of the Customs and Man­ners of the Mon­tauks
• Choice Col­lection of Hys. and Spir­it­u­al Songs was pub­lished in New Lon­don, Con­nec­t­i­cut, in 1774 (se­cond edi­tion, 1785)

Sources

Hymns

1. Awaked by Sinai’s Awful Sound
2. Now the Shades of Night Are Gone
3. O Turn Ye, for Why Will Ye Die?
4. When Shall We Three Meet Again?