The Presbyterian Board of Missions sent the Reverend Samuel M. Irvin to this area to establish an agricultural mission for the Iowa and Sac & Fox, who survived by hunting. Irvin tried to teach them to farm and raise livestock but had little success. The missions board then changed its approach, believing that if the children of the tribes learned these practices from an early age, their culture could be changed. The Reverend Samuel Irvin and his wife, Eliza, were sent to the area in 1837 to establish the Highland Presbyterian Mission.