Isaac McCoy, pioneer missionary to the Indians, is one of the most fascinating figures in American Baptist history. Born in Pennsylvania, he went west to Kentucky at age six and to Indiana at age twenty. Isaac and Christiana McCoy were farmers by trade, but he also built spinning wheels, and served as pastor of the tiny Maria Creek Church. This was one of the earliest Baptist churches in Indiana.

Isaac's interest in becoming a missionary was kindled while reading about the work of Adoniram Judson. In 1817 he was appointed missionary to the Indians of Indiana and Illinois. McCoy rode hundreds of miles through the wilderness, crossed swollen streams, and slept on the wet ground to carry out his missions. It was hard for people to understand why the McCoys wanted to start a school for Indian children out in the wilderness. Some churches even threatened to cut off all mission giving if any of their money went to help Indians.Whenever a treaty was about to be signed, Isaac was there to work for Indian rights and education. He fought against the trade in guns and alcohol. He made trips to Washington where he talked with government officials about what disease, alcohol, and hopelessness were doing to the Indians. On some of the trips he would be gone for months. One of McCoy's worst burdens was his absences from home, when sickness and sometimes death would visit his family. Five of his children died while he was absent on missionary journeys.An event in Christiana’s life indicates hardships she also endured. When their fourth child was on the way, she took her three small children and went by open canoe to Vincennes to deliver the baby. This meant paddling a canoe for nine days down a river, making a fire and camping each night in the rain, fighting mosquitoes, having their food spoil, clothes mildew, and being in constant danger from hostile Indians. Three months later returning by land with their new baby and other children, her husband noted in his journal that he realized what a burden he placed on her when he left on his trips. Christiana was left alone to board, room, and teach 47 Indian children, in addition to their own.

For nearly 30 years Isaac was the apostle to the Indians of the West. He was returning home in 1846 from a preaching service when he was caught in a rainstorm. This exposure caused his death a few days later at his home in Louisville, Kentucky. His last words were, "Tell the brethren never to let the Indian mission decline." Did his efforts "pay off?" Charles Journeycake, the last chief of the Delawares, wrote concerning all the broken treaties and promises by the white man: "We try to forget these things, but we would not forget that the white man brought us the blessed Gospel of Christ -- this more than pays for all we have suffered." He could say these words only because he had come to know the meaning of the Cross.