USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 17
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Miss Bumstead, a native of Boston, and grand- daughter of the venerable Deacon Josiah Bumstead, re- ceiving appointment as art teacher, sailed for Cape Town by way of England, 1882. During her five years' service at the Huguenot Seminary, in drawing and water colors,
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she had a share in Bible instruction, and in conducting devotional meetings, as well as certain other responsibili- ties. Her service, though not formally, was really in the line of mission work. Three or four branch seminaries have been formed, besides a college at Wellington; and in 1897 these institutions reported a membership of eight hundred.
Miss Bumstead is now a representative in this coun- try of the South African General Mission, of which Rev. Andrew Murray is president. She collects funds, and during one part of the year a weekly half-hour prayer meeting for the cause is held in Boston.
13. MISS MARY G. BUMSTEAD.
A younger sister of Miss Anna Bumstead, and a de- scendant of Thomas Bumstead, who, coming from England in 1640, united with the First Church, Roxbury, of which John Eliot was pastor. He afterwards removed to Boston, taking a letter to the Old South Church. There were members of that name in successive generations, till Josiah Bumstead, grandfather of these two young ladies, left the Old South to form, with others, the Park Street Church
of Boston. In that he was a deacon for over half a cen- tury until his death (1859), at the age of eighty-eight. Miss Bumstead's father was for twenty-seven years clerk of the Eliot Church, and the records show a most com- mendable fidelity.
A decidedly missionary spirit existed in the family of
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Deacon Josiah Bumstead. Miss Mary, a granddaughter, was a native of Roxbury; and in 1884, two years after her sister Anna's embarkation for South Africa, she hav- ing pursued a course at the Normal Art School, followed under an engagement to teach in the school at Worcester, one hundred miles from Cape Town. The Rev. William Murray, a brother of Andrew Murray, was the pastor of a Dutch Reformed Church in that place, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the school, which was founded in 1876. The institution is a boarding and day school like the Huguenot Seminary at Wellington, for the daughters of white settlers, and is pervaded by a similar religious atmosphere. It has a training department for preparing young women to enter upon missionary work; and a num- ber of the alumna are thus engaged, while many are scattered as Christian teachers in the Cape Colony, in the Orange Free State, and in the Transvaal. During the last year's stay at Worcester, Miss Mary Bumstead had charge of the overflow department, which occupied a large building by itself. After a service of seven years at Worcester she returned home.
In 1893 she went to Colorado on account of her health, which was speedily benefited. The next year she was in- vited to act, for a couple of weeks, as pastor of the church at Highlandlake, Colorado; and a month later was accepted by the Congregational Home Missionary Society as one of their missionaries, and became the settled pastor of the afore- named church. At that time there was a congregation of
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only thirty-five, who worshiped in a small schoolhouse. The next year Miss Bumstead came East and obtained aid from friends, which, together with five hundred dollars from the Church Building Society, sufficed, with what the people could do, to secure a meeting house and parsonage, which were dedicated free from debt. The congregation doubled in attendance, and the Sunday School meanwhile increased. It was on her wedding tour, and under an attack of pneumonia, that Mary Bumstead Coates died at Denver, March 24, 1898. Indirectly and in spirit, though not in an immediate and technical sense, the South African experience of these sisters belongs to the category of for- eign missions.
14. REV. CHARLES W. MUNROE.
In Mr. Munroe our Sunday School had an early member, who was born in Boston, October 21, 1821. He graduated at Harvard College (1847) and at Andover Semi- nary (1849), and immediately entered upon home missionary service in the West. Wisconsin was his field, and he gathered the first church in Appleton. Mr. Munroe came East (1856) to assist his father in business; and now resides in Cambridge, where he is a valued officer of the First Church.
15. REV. SAMUEL GREENE.
A son of the Rev. David Greene, born in Boston, December 9, 1835. He enjoyed in Roxbury the advantages of good schools, including the Latin School, and also
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a year in Thetford Academy, Vermont. First religious impressions, outside of home, are ascribed to an evening spent, with other boys, in the writer's study. Public profession was made at Westborough, Massachusetts, whither the family had removed in 1849. Seven years later he removed to Muscatine, Iowa, and joined the church of which the Rev. A. B. Robbins was pastor. Thoughts of the ministry as his calling mingled with the aspirations of boyhood, and Dr. Robbins encouraged him to give up business pursuits, and his parting words when Mr. Greene left for St. Louis were, "Young man, if you feel as you say you do, and do not enter the minis- try, you will never be prospered as long as you live and refuse." Reverses in business at Chicago occurred ; and removal to Washington Territory took place with a view to Christian work. The second day after arriving there a Congregational minister came to him, reporting that he had a place for him. It was on an Indian reservation where he labored for the greater part of a year. Leaving there he engaged in organizing Sunday Schools, and at length a church also, of which he was chosen the pastor. License to preach was given by the Oregon and Wash- ington Association, and later (1880) he was installed, by an Ecclesiastical Council, pastor of a church which he had gathered at Houghton, seven miles from Seattle. There he remained for ten years, till invited to become Superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society for Washington and Northern
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Idaho. In that position he has continued to the present time.
Mr. Greene is one of the leading ministers of Wash- ington. He has more than once been Moderator of the State Congregational Association, President of the Wash- ington Home Missionary Society, and has held other positions of trust. When he went to that region (1874) the population was sparse, and but little had been done toward gathering churches of any denomination, there being only six of the Congregational order, all of them weak, the largest not having more than twenty-five mem- bers. In the course of a decade (1887-97) he, together with his assistants, organized nearly five hundred Sunday Schools; while during the same period ninety churches were gathered and received into the fellowship of Asso- ciations, sixty of which churches resulted from the Sun- day Schools. For the past ten years Mr. Greene has, upon an average, preached more than three times a week; and for the last seven years has annually traveled over twenty-five thousand miles. In a broad sense his entire work on that wide field has been home missionary.
16. MISS ELIZABETH ELLEN BACKUP.
Her parents were of a good stock, and had been trained in the Scottish ways of Sunday observance, Bible study and rehearsal of the Catechism. They came from Paisley to this country immediately upon their marriage. Miss Backup was born in Wrentham, Massachusetts. At
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the age of eighteen she graduated at the Bridgewater State Normal School, and at once became a teacher; but health soon broke down completely and has since re- mained delicate. In 1870 she went to Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, and remained through the academic year, having charge of what was then termed the Gram- mar School Department. She mingled as freely as pos- sible in the families of her day-pupils, and also taught in the Sunday School. She had long been interested in evangelistic work, and this labor at Nashville was de- signed to be and was of a decidedly missionary character. Bereavement in a brother's family called her back to Bos- ton that she might take charge of three motherless chil- dren. Interest in Christian work has for many years exceeded the strength required for much active service. At present Miss Backup is president of the " Asso- ciated Missionary Circles " of our Church, and also of the " Woman's Home Missionary Association."
17. MISS SUSAN MARIA UNDERWOOD.
Among those engaged in city mission work was Miss Underwood, the only daughter of a physician then practic- ing in Andover, Massachusetts. When she was seven years of age her excellent Christian mother died, and the funeral was held in the chapel of the Theological Semi- nary, the venerable Dr. Woods conducting the service. At seventeen Miss Underwood became a teacher in one of the Roxbury public schools, and in 1850 was received to
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the Eliot Church on profession of faith. Her religious experience was of a type much more than usually decided, and her character developed in a form of exceptional beauty and certitude. She was sprightly as well as pecu- liarly sympathetic and disinterested. With no sign of any morbid element she gave herself, in conscientious earnestness, to cultivating spiritual growth by observing the requirements of Holy Writ. Early every morning a text of Scripture was selected for immediate special aid during the day. Such writers as Baxter, Edwards, Brain- erd and the Wesleys were favorites. Seldom is any one met with less given to saying aught to the discredit of another, or more ready to lend a helping hand. She was able early to say, " I desire for myself no more temporal blessings than I now have. I am more than satisfied." Late in life she wrote, " If I were to send you a portrait of myself as I am spiritually, it would be holding a cup overflowing, on which is engraved 'Mercies.'"
That Miss Underwood should be intent on usefulness was a matter of course. She went to Hartford, Connec- ticut (1856), to attend upon the usual preparation for ser- vice under the care of the Board of National Popular Education at the West, of which the Hon. William Slade was the Corresponding Secretary. The ladies having in charge the preparatory course at Hartford were impressed with her remarkable fitness for foreign missionary service, and she received appointment by the American Board as a teacher in a female boarding school at Madura, India.
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It was arranged that she should accompany the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Capron, who were destined to that mission. Her eyes, however, came to be in such a state as made it plain that she ought not to attempt the work in India. The next year (1857) she began city mission labor in Boston. It was, as we well know, arduous, often dis- couraging, and sometimes disclosing scenes that are pain- fully repulsive. But she was one of the perseveringly faith- ful. After two years of indefatigable work she was seized with a hemorrhage from the lungs. A voyage to Malaga, Spain, under very favorable circumstances, proved ser- viceable, and the exhausting work was resumed. Attacks of hemorrhage, six in number, were repeated till, on the morning of August 14, 1861, she awoke where the sun goeth no more down.
In our Sunday School Miss Underwood was a highly valued teacher, and when obliged to leave she wrote, " Dear, delightful Roxbury." I have seldom, if ever, known any one whose calm, whole-souled and joyful trust in our Saviour surpassed hers. In one of her last letters she wrote: "I can look up and find rest in Him, who having loved his own loved them to the end. I lay my weary soul at his feet." Intellectually she was a superior young woman. Her published contributions to religious journals and her poetic effusions were far from being of an inferior stamp.'
1 Mrs. Dr. Anderson prepared a Memoir of her - 250 pages - entitled, Following after Jesus ; a Memorial of Susan Maria Underwood, which was published by the American Tract Society in 1863.
CHAPTER XIX.
EDUCATORS AND LITTERATEURS.
I. REV. JACOB ABBOTT.
THE second name on the original roll of the church is that of Rev. Jacob A'bbott. Although licensed to preach six years previously, he was ordained as an evangelist the same year in which this church was gathered. One of the recent encyclopediaas ascribes the founding of the Eliot Church to him; in another he is said to have organized it. Neither staternent is correct. No one man was perhaps ever properly the founder of a Congregational church; nor did Mr. Abbott organize the Eliot Church. But he was one of numerous individuals who were active in secur- ing its establishment. After it had been duly organized in the usual way by an ecclesiastical council, he supplied the pulpit for a considerable part of a year before his brother, Rev. John S. C. Abbott, became its installed pastor.
Mr. Jacob Abbott was born at Hallowell, Maine, No- vember 30, 1803. He graduated at Bowdoin College, 1820; was tutor and then professor of mathematics in Amherst College from 1825 to 1829. On coming to this neighbor- hood he was associated for a time with Rev. William C. Woodbridge in editing The Annals of Education. Five
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years later he started, in Boston, the popular Mount Vernon School for Young Ladies, and afterwards was principal of a school in New York, where two of his brothers were associated with him.
Mr. Abbott paid repeated visits to Europe, six or more, and was well known as an author, not only in this country, but abroad also. His earlier books were chiefly of a religious character - The Young Christian ; The Corner Stone ; and The Way to God. Other works, consisting each of one volume, were educational, historical, and descrip- tive - The Teacher, Gentle Measures in Training the Young ; Discovery of America ; Aboriginal America ; Hoary Head and McDonner ; A Summer in Scotland.
His serial writings are more numerous - Histories of Celebrated Sovereigns ; American History, 8 vols .; Marco Paul's Adventures, 6 vols .; The Little Learner Series, 5 vols .; Science for the Young; John Gay, or Work for Boys ; William Gay, or Play for Boys; Mary Gay, or Work for Girls ; June Stories ; August Stories ; each 4 vols .; The Harlie Stories and The Florence Stories, each 6 vols. Other similar series consist severally of an unequal num- ber of books- The Rollo and Lucy Books of Poetry, 3 vols .; Rainbow and Lucy Series, 5 vols .; The Franconia Stories, IO vols .; The Rollo Books, 28 vols .; and Harper's Story Books, 36 vols.
The sum of those figures fails to give the whole number of books of which he was the sole author, namely 180, besides 24 others to which he contributed. Such
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fecundity of pen is noteworthy indeed. During the period of productiveness there was an average of four books per annum; none of them, however, of a large size. Many of them were republished in England, and not a few of them were translated into languages of the European Continent, while some appeared also in Asiatic languages.
Mr. Abbott's style is lucid, simple, and pleasing, and his productions contributed to a new era in literature for the young. Success was due in part to the circumstance of their author being a man of quick perception and care- ful observation. He was in the habit of associating with children and observing their ways and capacities in play, in conversation, and in reading. This was noticeable dur- ing his residence here in Roxbury. Such a class of writ- ings does not call for great depth, but rather for skillful adaptation. On the score of circulation, remarkable suc- cess attended Mr. Abbott's literary ventures. Their aim and tone were safe, entertaining, and instructive, though exceptions have been taken to some things in one of his earlier works, The Corner Stone. Mr. Abbott died at Farmington, Maine, the thirty-first of October, 1879.
2. REV. WILLIAM CHANNING WOODBRIDGE.
It is not often that two ministers of the gospel are found among the original members of a local church. Such, however, was the case here when Jacob Abbott and William C. Woodbridge were enrolled with forty- nine others, though neither of them ever became a pastor,
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and both were devoted to education. Mr. Woodbridge was born in Medford, Massachusetts, December 18, 1794, and graduated from Yale College in 1811. He began preparations for the sacred ministry, but ill health, which continued through life, obliged him to relinquish that
object. He devoted himself, so far as strength would allow, to the interests of education, and became the principal of Burlington Academy, New Jersey, 1812-1814. After that he was for some time associated with the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet and M. LeClerc as a teacher in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Hartford, Connecticut, which was opened in 1817, the first institution of the kind established in this country. At length he prepared a well known geography, the first of a scientific stamp, and which marked an epoch in the methods of such works in England as well as in this country. Mr. Wood- bridge visited Europe three times. He made a study of Italy and Sicily, and resided several years in the middle countries of the Continent, becoming widely ac- quainted with literary and learned men, and making con- tributions to educational magazines. He felt a special interest in Baron Tellenberg's institution at Hofwyl, Switzerland.
Upon his return to the United States he conducted, as proprietor and an editor, The American Annals of Education here in Boston (1831-38), a very useful publi- cation. Lyceums and conventions of teachers were largely due for their origin and early usefulness to his influence.
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He advocated the use of the Bible as a classic in educa- tion. Mr. Woodbridge was a man of large benevolence, and of a decidedly religious character; but suffered much from poor health and consequent debility, and died Novem- ber 9, 1845.
3. WILLIAM ALEXANDER ALCOTT, M.D.
Dr. Alcott, a cousin of Bronson Alcott, studied at the Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, and after practicing in his profession for a few years, entered upon other lines of labor, and ceased to be known as a physi- cian. He was born at Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1798, and removed to Boston two years before the Eliot Church was organized. He became associated with William C. Woodbridge in educational authorship and kindred work. There was similar association with Gallaudet and others in Connecticut. He had a share in editing The Annals of Education; also The Juvenile Rambler, the first weekly periodical for children in this country. He contributed many articles at different times to other papers, and one ot them, On the Construction of School Houses, gained a premium. His published works - books and pam- phlets - were more than a hundred in number. Among them are Young Man's Guide, Young Woman's Guide, Young Housekeeper, The House I Live In, Library of Health, six volumes. He was a philanthropist and a reformer. The improvement of public education engaged thought and effort year after year. To forestall and pre-
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vent poverty, vice, and crime by correct physical and moral training was his steady aim. For over twenty years Mr. Alcott delivered lectures during the winter season in various places. He visited even thousands of schools, but his labors were chiefly gratuitous and unrewarded. Peculiarities, especially in regard to diet, were noticeable. In person tall, spare, and ungainly, and with a counte- nance not particularly pleasing, he yet impressed every one as being a kind and conscientiously religious man. Mr. Alcott died at Auburndale, March 29, 1859.
4. REV. SOLOMON ADAMS.
Was born in Middleton, Massachusetts, March 30, 1797, and he bore the same name as his father, then minis- ter of that place. Mr. Adams graduated at Harvard Col- lege, 1820, and at the Andover Theological Seminary, 1823. He looked upon the ministry as peculiarly attrac- tive; at the same time he entertained a strong predilec- tion for teaching, and regarded himself as better qualified for that than for any other profession. Accordingly, upon leaving Andover, he at once accepted the principalship
of Washington Academy, East Machias, Maine.
That was the best endowed academy in the state, and the only one east of Penobscot River and Bay. Mr. Adams' ' suc- cess was brilliant, and marked an epoch in the progress of education in that section of the state. Thoroughness and accuracy, ability to inspire pupils and control their sentiments, were among his marked characteristics. Dr.
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Samuel Harris, former President of Bowdoin College, and later a Professor at New Haven, writes, as many others would write: "I feel I owe a great debt of gratitude to him for his instruction, his influence in developing my intellect, quickening my interest in study and in all that is right and good, and in shaping the course of my life. His whole influence on his pupils was uplifting and good ; he always manifested a great interest in his pupils, not only in their school work, but in their whole life and development ; he was a man of most eminent ability as a teacher. I always remember him with gratitude, love and high esteem."
In 1828 Mr. Adams opened in Portland the "Free Street Seminary " for young ladies, which, during the twelve years of his connection with it, ranked as the best institution of the kind in Maine. At a later period he opened a similar school in Boston. Owing to medical advice, upon failure of health, he gave up teaching. His methods of instruction, and especially the employment of devices for illustration, were in advance of his day. The practice of daguerreotyping microscopic views, which has become so common in this country and in Europe, originated from a suggestion of his (1845) to Mr. Whipple, a photographer, who for a number of years worshiped with us. While an officer of the American Institute of Education, Mr. Adams was influential in promoting im- proved methods. At East Machias he received ordina- tion as an evangelist (1825), and some of his sermons
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were deeply impressive. In the course of that year there came a religious revival of great power, in which he labored with special earnestness. Benignant, unselfish, unassuming, yet firm, Mr. Adams was greatly respected wherever known. He died at Auburndale, July 20, 1870, much valued in the community for his Christian charac- ter and influence.
5. REV. HORATIO QUINCY BUTTERFIELD, D.D.
Yet others of the early as well as later members of our church were devoted to the cause of education. To this category belongs President Butterfield. The first of his ancestors in this country settled at Charlestown in the year 1638. Dr. Butterfield's grandfather was in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and his great-grandfather, with six sons, enlisted for service in the War of the Revolution.
The town of Phillips, Maine, was Dr. Butterfield's birthplace, August 5, 1827. He graduated at Harvard College in 1848, under the presidency of Mr. Everett, and then for two years had charge of the Roxbury Latin School. During that period he became specially inter- ested in the subject of personal religion. He confessed that whatever of religious thoughtfulness he had had previously was subject to a sad decline in the course of his college life, but while in our congregation he experi- enced a marked spiritual change - all things becoming new - and on confession of faith in Christ, connected himself (1850) with the Eliot Church. One statement of
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his at that time was, "I can now form no idea of real happiness apart from holiness." Then followed three years of study at the Bangor Theological Seminary in his native state, preparatory to pastoral work. To that he was devoted - with the exception of one year at the Andover Theological Seminary -from 1854 till 1866, when he became professor of languages in Washburn College, Kansas. During the last four years there he was President of that institution. Thence he was called to New York City as Secretary of the Society for Pro- moting Western Collegiate Education, which position he held for several years. In 1876 he was elected president
of Olivet College, Michigan. The institution was at that time in a depressed condition, the number of students hav- ing fallen off quite sensibly. In a few years that number was doubled. Scholarships and other equipments were supplied, new buildings erected, and an era of general prosperity opened. In his varied relations and services Dr. Butterfield had large occasion to solicit money, and he met with a fair amount of success. If in any case there might be a failure to secure funds, there could be no failure to secure friends, so gentlemanly was he and so well acquainted with the workings of human nature. In the course of the last year of his life, the college re- ceived through his influence an endowment of $96,000. The key-note of Dr. Butterfield's administration was given in the inaugural (1876): "I know the heart of the needy student; and if I forget him, may my right hand forget
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