Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 36

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Vermont > Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I > Part 36

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REV. LEWIS GROUT.

The Rev. Abner Morse, the distinguished genealogical historian, traces the lineage of the Grout family to Sir Richard Groutte, of Walton, in the county of Derby, England, who was knighted in 1587 and belonged to an ancient

family that had its home at one time in Corn- wall, in the western part of England. The family originated in Germany, where they bore the name of Grotius or Groot, alias Grote, and were be- lieved to be the descendants of the Grudii or the "Great," of whom Caesar speaks as among the courageous and daring tribes of Belgic Gaul, upwards of fifty years previous to the Christian era. Captain John Grout, a son of Sir

RESIDENCE OF LEWIS GROUT.

Richard, came to this country about 1634 and settled in Watertown and Dudley, Massachusetts, whence his grandson, John, eventually came to Westminster, Vermont, where he had a son. also named John, who, in 1810, began to make his home on a new hill-top and heavily timbered farm in the southwestern part of Newfane. In 18II he married Miss Azubah Dunklee, a daugh- ter of Jonathan Dunklee, who came from Brim- field, Connecticut, to West Brattleboro among the earliest settlers of the town. Mr. and Mrs. Grout had nine children, eight sons and one daughter.

Lewis Grout, the eldest of the nine children. was born on the farm at Newfane on the 28th of January, 1815, and there began to drink in the beauty, fragrance and freshness of that natural scenery, the love of which grew with his years and eventually led to the writing of the two renowned sermons, "God in Nature" and "All Nature a Witness for God," which recently found their way into print. For the privilege of giving him his christening name, his grand- father Grout made him a small present, with the fruit of which, sixty dollars, together with a

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

strong danh in the grace of that God he had promised to serve, he began after coming of age, to prepare for college, supplementing his slender means from time to time by teaching, first in a alistrict school and afterward in a ladies' semi- mary at New Haven, and for two years after Jis graduation in a classical, mathematical and military school, a feeder of the academy at West Point. Entering Vale in 1838, the prizes he there won and the high appointments he held at the junior and senior exhibitions testified to his diligence and success in study, while his religious activity as a Christian worker in both the col- lege and in the city, especially during that time of great spiritual awakening under the evange- listic labors of Elder Knapp and Dr. Kirk, whom he heard daily for two months and whom he tried to aid in their day by day overcrowded inquiry meetings, was a good preparation for his mission work in later years. For two years he pursued his theological studies at Yale, and for one year was a student at Andover, where he graduated in 1846.

After a few months of rest, or rather of change from study and teaching to business en- terprises and preaching, on the 8th of October, 1846. Mr. Grout appeared before an ecclesi- astical council in Springfield, Vermont, by which he was ordained as a missionary of the Ameri- can board for America. At the close of the ordaining sermon, which was preached by Professor Park, of Andover, he was married to Miss Lydia Bates, of Springfield, with whom, after supper, he started on a bridal tour, their faces set toward the east. The next day brought them to Boston, and the following found them on board a gallant ship rushing their way in the van of a storm to the haven they sought beyond the sea. Two months of speedy sailing brought them to the Cape of Good Hope, where they re- mained for six weeks, during which time they formed the acquaintance of many people and learned much that proved helpful to them in after years in mission work. Finally landing at Natal after a rough and adventurous voyage, they there changed their ship for a tented wagon, the standard number of twelve oxen and the needed number of Zulus to man the team, to go to the home of another missionary, who, with his family, had come with a similar team to escort

them to their abode, some forty miles distant. On account of heavy rains and swollen streams, the journey, usually made in two days, was pro- longed to four, and during the trip they had a thrilling adventure in fording a stream. Having given a few months to the study of the Zulu language, and an exploration of the field, Mr. Gront made choice of a beautiful site for a mis- sion station at the source of the Umsunduzi, about thirty miles north of Durban, to which the enterprising chieftain, Umusi, of the Amagabe tribe gave him a hearty welcome. The morning after his arrival the herder boys from the sur- rounding hills coming down to see him, hailed him as "white man, teacher, king," and inquired for the book they heard he would bring. Of these and their mates, boys and girls, he soon formed a school, which sometimes numbered twenty or thirty pupils. And from these and others he eventually organized a small church, to which additions were made from time to time during the years of his labors in that field, in which he was greatly aided from the first by his wife and eventually by his daughter.

When the American Zulu mission first entered upon work in Natal, the entire region was occupied and ruled, as it had been from time immemorial, by the natives, the aboriginal tribes and their chieftains. When the British govern- ment took possession of the district in 1842-3, directly from the Dutch, indirectly from the na- tives, they set apart large portions here and there as reserves, or permanent locations for natives, their word and honor being solemnly pledged to this permanence. But when the colon- ists. Dutch and English, became numerous, they began to study how they could get possession of these reserves by compelling the natives to abandon them and.either leave the colony or enter the service of the white men on such terms as he might dictate, claiming that only about four- teen thousand of that people had any aboriginal right to the colony. Upon all this Mr. Grout looked as false, unjust, unwise and in every way wrong. He had already written an extended history of each and all of the tribes, proving that the natives in Natal, numbering about eighty- three thousand when the English took possession of the country, instead of being "foreigners, aliens and intruders," as the above colonists

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called them, were bona fide aborigines of the dis- trict, fully entitled to a permanent abode in the colony, to a free and ample possession of the soil and to the blessings of personal liberty. But, in a commission appointed by he lieutenant gov- ernor of the colony to take evidence, this report was thrown out. However, this gentleman was soon superceded by another, whose views. the result of minute inquiry, were identical with those given in Mr. Grout's report, and at a later date the Hon. D. Moodie, for many years the able and faithful colonial secretary of the Natal govern- ment and speaker of the legislative council, in a public lecture at the capital, speaking of the very important service the American mission- aries had rendered the government, said: "It is true that when invited to give this evidence one of them gave more of the truth than was desired, and his evidence was specially con- demned in the lieutenant governor's dispatch, as well as included in the general censure, as 'emulating from persons who saw but one side of the picture.' And yet these foreigners gave what their censors did not attempt to meet,- the true side of the picture,-and if they did not conceal their contempt for the conduct pursued in ignoring our just obligations, no honest Englishman will blame them." While Dr. Colenso was considering accepting the appoint- ment as bishop of Natal, he made a vsit of ten weeks in the colony, during which time he spent some days with Mr. Grout. Returning to Eng- land, he published a book in which he criticised the American missionaries' rule not to admit of a man's having more than one wife in the church as "quite unanswerable and opposed to all the plain teachings of our Lord." After rutrning to Natal he published a pamphlet in the samc strain, and the spirited discussions which fol- lowed between these two parties were sent to the New Englander, the editor of which wrote a careful review of them, among other things speaking of the Bishop as "too much of a theorist," and of Mr. Grout as knowing the Zulus thoroughly, further adding that "His. ounce of mother wit is worth more than the Bishop's bushel of learning." After the public discussion was virtually ended, Mr. Grout received a courteous note from the Bishop, in which he sent him "his best thanks" for a copy of his ser-

mon preached at the opening of the Congre- gational chapel, and concluded by saying : "Believe me to be, amidst all our little conflicts, ever your true brother in Christ Jesus."

The night before Mr. and Mrs. Grout sailed for Africa was passed at the home of one of the secretarics of the American board in Boston, who in the course of the evening expressed to Mr. Grout the hope that he would give his best attention to careful study of the Zulu language, analyze it and reduce its forms and principles to a grammatical system. No sooner had he set foot on African soil than he began to study the subject of which he had been put in charge,- a study which he kept steadily in view and in the investigations of which he was ever getting new facts, words, idioms, principles until he had completed his grammar of the language and had it printed a his station, Umsunduzi, in Septem- ber, 1859. It would take too long to name the steps by which he advanced in the prosecution of this enterprise or the difficulties with which he had to contend, some of which are briefly sketched in the "Introduction" to the grammar, and some are briefly referred to in the South African papers. In analyzing the sounds of the Zulu language Mr. Gront found that the alphabet which had been used was neither sufficient nor in all respects appropriate, and moved that something more simple, ample and better fitted to the require- ments of the language be made. He was ap- pointed one of a committee to provide needed letters and make the needed changes, but upon finding that other missionaries in various parts of the wide field were discussing similar movements, he proposed that a general committee be appointed, made up of members in both Africa and other lands, to devise such new letters and a general standard alphabet as might be sufficient and appropriate for all newly written languages, and thus prepare the way for bringing in a general information. Such a committee was named by the American Zulu mission. Mr. Grout prepared an essay on the subject "A plan for effecting a reform orthography of the South African dis- tricts," which was published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society and widely circu- lated. He also wrote an essay for the same journal on the phonology and orthography of the Zulu and kindred districts in South Africa, to aid

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the general committee in what they might at- tempt. The plan was generally approved by missionaries in Africa and by the ablest philo- logical, literary and scientific scholars in other parts of the world with some of whom Mr. Gront had an interesting correspondence on the character and importance of the subject under consideration. At length a certain number of the general committee, secretaries of great mission- ary societies and eminent philologists united in calling Dr. Lepsins, professor of the university and members of the Royal Academy of Berlin, to their aid, and they kindly undertook the work here spoken of and finished the admirable treatise, the "Standard Alphabet." Nor was it long before the "Standard" came to have the hearty approval and high commendation of literary and missionary associations and of dis- tinguished philologists in every part of the world

In the meantime Mr. Grout wrote an elaborate essay on the nature, origin, growth and essential traits of the different families of language, to- gether with the grounds on which they have been classified, all of which were eventually put into the form of two lectures and delivered before the literary and philological club of Maritzburg and other places, and then sent, by request, to Sir George Grey's magnificent library of African books, in Cape Town. At the request of the South African auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society of South Africa, Mr. Grout prepared an essay on the affinities of some of the African languages, in acknowledging the receipt of which the secretary of that society expressed his hearty thanks in well chosen words.

At a later date the Rev. Mr. Grout wrote a critique (which was published) on a work en- titled "A Comparative Grammar of the South African Bantu Languages," by J. Torrend, S. J., of the Zambezi Mission. Of this work he remarks that, while in outward appearance it leaves nothing to be desired, as an authority on the subject of which it treats it is extremely un- satisfactory. He remarks, in the first place, that Mr. Torrend has been singularly unfortunate in his choice of a standard, having ignored the Zulus, together with the other better specimens of the Bantu, and selected the Tongas, in all re-

spects a very insignificent people. Moreover, it appears that all his knowledge of the Tonga language has been derived from three boys whose very identity as Tongas was, to say the least, doubtful. It would seem that Mr. Torrend had not supplemented this very slender epuipment for writing a grammar of the language, by a sojourn among the people by whom it is spoken, since all that he ever knew of the Tonga language he acquired in Cape Colony, and yet on the title- page of his grammar he puts himself down as "of the Zambezi Mission." Mr. Grout remarks that Mr. Torrend appears to be as uninformed in regard to their character as he is evidently ignorant of their language. He speaks of them as "a free, unbroken, independent race," whereas Dr. Livingston and other authorities describe them as "servile, inferior and degraded." While he says that he "equally considers the several groups of Tonga people in different parts of South Africa to represent the aborigines with respect to their neighbors," he really takes "the Tonga of the middle Zambezi" for all com- parative purposes throughout his work. Dr. Livingston and others who follow the Tshuana pronunciation, changing sg into k, generally say Batoka instead of Batonga.

Mr. Grout remarks in conclusion, that the facts which show the degradation of the Tongas might be urged with great force in favor of mission work among that people, but that they can hardly be cited as arguments for the adoption of their language as a standard of linguistic authority. Neither can it be said that this work is calculated as it claims to be, to aid in the best of preparation for the best of mission work in South Africa by increasing the knowledge of historic truth and sound linguistic science, while as an ef- fort in the interests of Bantu scholarship it must. be regarded as a failure.

When Natal became settled as a British col- ony the Christian portion of the people began to form churches and other such institutions as they had in other lands whence they came, only modi- fying them according to their new environments, in all of which work Mr. Grout was ever ready to lend them such a helping hand as his special mis- sion work would allow. At the dedicating of a Congregational chapel at Durban he preached a sermon in which he aimed to set forth the polity

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and doctrines generally held by that denomina- tion. The sermon was spoken of and printed in the local papers as an eloquent portrayal of the characteristics of true worship and a scriptural constitution of the Church of Christ, peculiarly appropriate to the occasion. In this work of daily teaching, together with preaching at the station and often at an out-station on the Sabbath, teaching architecture, agriculture, or how to train oxen, use the cart, plow, hoe, trying to serve as a magistrate, physician, dentist, to practice, indeed about every kind of profession, trade and pursuit, meantime making tours of observation in the sur- rounding regions, studying the language and writ- ing a grammar, translating the Bible and printing books-in a word, trying to serve every interest of tlie natives and of tlie colonists, Mr, Grout found in time that he was drawing too heavily upon his vital forces, and by the time he had fin- ished his grammar of the Zulu language he was obliged to rest, give up the field and return to his native land. Leaving Natal he arrived with his family in Boston June 7, 1862, and after a season of rest he preached a year at Saxtons River and for two years in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, and while there he completed a valuable work which he had begun in Africa, entitled "Zulu- land," with maps and illustrations largely from original photographs. After a pleasant pastorate of two years at Feeding Hills an urgent call came to Mr. Grout from the American Missionary As- sociation to serve that society in New England, especially in Vermont, and New Hampshire, to- gether with an extended tour through the south, as agent for their work among the freedmen, the Indians and the Chinese. Entering upon this work at the close of the war, he continued therein until 1884, when he withdrew and gave a year to the collection of funds for Atlanta University. He rounded out twenty years, lacking five months, in diligent, faithful and successful service in be- half of the three most despised and needy races that were at that day calling for aid and instruc- tion at our hands. June 14, 1885, he entered upon the duties of a parish at Sudbury, in western Vermont. The importance of the place was en- hanced from its being a popular resort for great numbers of guests from the cities in the summer. Mr. Grout's ministrations were blessed there in many ways, especially in that the church, though

small, was more than trebled in numbers and strength during his little more than three years' labor there.

The health of his family, however, made it necessary for him to be with them and he returned to his abode in West Brattleboro in September, 1888, and there gave himself to other forms of service in his Master's great vineyard. Among these was the writing of eighteen articles for the Funk & Wagnall's "Encyclopedia of Missions," such as sketches of the Soudan, sketches of most of the African races, and sketches of about ten of the different missions among the Zulus and neighboring tribes. Then came a call from Natal and the board in Bos- ton to revise his Zulu grammar for a new edition, to which reference has already been made. In August, 1892, he had the honor of being appointed a member of the advisory council of the World's Congress auxiliary at the Columbia Exposition on African etlinology, where he was also honored with an invitation to address the same congress on "The place and power of each family of Afri- can languages as factors in the development of Africa." With this also came an urgent request from both secretary and chairman to "Be sure to come in person not only to present his own paper but also to take part in the deliberations." Not being able to do this, he sent in his essay, which was greatly complimented by the secretary. Mr. Grout now turned from his more direct mis- sionary, parochial and philological labors, and re- sumed those historical studies which had refer- ence to the origin, growth and experience of the West Brattleboro Congregational church, in which he had been previously interested, and went on to prepare a second discourse on that subject, which was published in 1876 and extended from the dawn of civilization in this region, or from 1724, though the church was not organized until about 1770. In 1876 he made Yale College a gift of a hundred volumes of African books, such as grammars and dictionaries, translations, Afri- can songs, tales, proverbs from tribes in almost every part of the continent, and in 1902 he inade a similar donation of African books to the Smitli- sonian Institute. The part Mr. Grout took with his pen in defending the Boer cause in the late Anglo-Boer strife-in his opinion an effort to de- fend the cause of truth, right, justice and liu-

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manity-should not be forgotten. His address before the Brattleboro Professional Club, No- vember 1.1, 1899, on the Boer and the British in South Africa, grew out of his having been a missionary of the American board for fifteen year's among the natives. The address passed through three editions, had a wide circulation and brought the author many appreciative letters from all directions.

At Springfield, Vermont, October 8, 1846, Mr. Grout was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Bates. Their children were: Annie L., born at Unilazi Mission, Natal, July 28, 1847 ; and Lewis Paulinus, born at Umsunduzi Mission, Natal, No- vember 5, 1858, died at the same place, January 2, 1859. On October 8, 1896, they celebrated their golden wedding, and on this occasion Mr. Grout was led to prepare "A Partial List of the Fruits of His Pen," for his many friends. Though not a native of Brattleboro, yet on ac- count of his having come here to live at an early age and from the deep interest he has ever taken in the town, it was a pleasure for Mr. Grout to render it in his later years a pleasant service by writing two sermons on "The Early History of its First Church," and subsequently, in 1899, a monograph on the origin and early life of the town, which was sometimes called "The Olden Times of Brattleboro."

MRS. LYDIA B. GROUT.

Mrs. Grout, the youngest of Deacon Phineas Bates' twelve children, was born in Springfield, Vermont, August 16, 1818, and from her ances- tors, the Lincolns of Lincolnshire, England, and John Rodgers, the martyr, she inherited an inde- pendence of thought and expression which she exercised for nearly eighty years. She acquired her early education in the district school, and this was supplemented by instruction in various higher schools, including a boarding school in Greenfield, taught by a daughter of Noah Webster. The fol- lowing two years were spent as a governess in a slaveholder's family in Maryland, and they were to her years of valuable experience. The fam- ily was large, of high standing, one of the old, distinguished, historic families of the state, and, being members of the Episcopal church, her abode in this family naturally served to develop her social, intellectual and religious life, and

prepared her to entertain several English bishops and other clerical dignitaries with grace and case at her own home in Natal in after years. She was a strong anti-Mason, an abolitionist and a teetotaler, and her natural good sense, tact and wisdom, young as she was, found illustration in her ability to hold her situation and make herself

Mrs. Lydia B. Esauch

desirably permanent as a governess, while at the same time she cherished and expressed the warm- est sympathy to and for the slaves around her and in the family where she was teaching. In 1843, desiring a higher education, she entered Mount Holyoke Seminary, of which Mary Lyon was then principal, and joined the class of '46, which celebrated its semi-centennial by a reunion at the college in 1896. Miss Lyon's teaching, counsel, example and influence proved most help-

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ful, and in all the after years of her life Mrs. Grout never failed to feel the marvelous, inspir- ing and uplifting momentum she received at that institution. A

deep mutual interest in foreign missions, careful study and knowl- edge of the Bible, together with a mutual regard for its teachings as the only in- fallible guide in all matters of religious doctrine and duty, were strong bonds of at- tachment between her teacher and herself. Only a few months after bidding adieu to her alma mater Mrs. Grout accompanied her husband to the foreign field, and in the many peculiar and exhaustive toils and trials which she was forced to endure, found she had abundant need for all the endowments of her nature and for all her at- tainments in knowledge, wisdom, grace and strength. Some portions of the voyage were rough in the extreme, but the only apparent effect upon her was to bring out and strengthen her faith and prove her fitness for the work to which she had been appointed. She was always frail and of a delicate constitution, naturally timid and retiring, yet, in times of great difficulty and threatening danger, her perfectly calm, quiet, yet resolute and courageous spirit, together with the readiness and ease with which she would rise into the fullest measure of trust in God and an unqualified repose in His wisdom and love, were a cheer and marvel to all who knew her. In the very opening of the mission work to which she had given her life, when necessity seemed to be laid upon her to remain alone, save with her infant and two Zulu servants, for weeks, among a rude people and in a region infested with wild beasts, while her husband went inland to pre- pare a humble cottage in which to live, Mrs. Grout's uniform spirit of self-denial, her patience and courage, trust in God and zeal for His work, were truly and grandly heroic. One of her great- est deprivations was the lack of congenial society or opportunity for frequent communion with kin- dred spirits. There were months at a time when she saw no white face except those of her own family, and yet this privation was met in part and relicved in various ways. At one time she had with her the entire mission, parents and chil- dren, numbering nearly fifty, and, at other times, she would have as guests distinguished visitors on an outing from the capital of the colony or

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 36

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed Publication date: 1903 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032