Abel Bingham was born in New Hampshire in 1786. He served in the War of 1812, then settled on a farm in Wheatland, New York. Feeling called to missionary service, he worked with the Seneca Indians on the Tonawanda Reservation near Buffalo (1822-1828). In the fall of 1828, he moved to Sault Ste. Marie to preach and teach among the Ojibwa Indians of that vicinity. Returning briefly to Wheatland where he was ordained, Bingham moved his family to Sault Ste. Marie in the summer of 1829 where he opened a school and built a mission house for himself and his family. A church of six members was organized in 1830; and in 1833, the church had increased in size to fifty (including area soldiers). Bingham's labors in the Upper Peninsula covered a period of twenty-seven years, but with the decline in number of the Indians, Bingham in the fall of 1855 moved to Grand Rapids. He continued preaching until his death in 1866.
From the guide to the Abel Bingham Family Papers, 1817-1910, 1828-1866, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)
