The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-07


and experiences. He is in feeble health
and it is doubtful whether he will be able
TO return TO his field of labor and of tri-
umph. To me. at least. he is the most pic
turesque character present. How much
this estimate may be due to the quasi
touch 1 have so long had with him,
through the Indiana contributions to his
missionary band. do not undertake to
say, but, independent of all this. he has a
record that no other man has or ever can
have, because the conditions which devel-
oped him can hardly ever be duplicated.
A NATIVE OF OHIO.
He was born in Ohio in 1886. His educa-
tional advantages were only such as in
those days came to young men of will. His
father died when he was quite young and
he literally worked his way through AL
legheny College by teaching school and
other self-reliant methods, and he was
graduated in 1857 He at once entered the
postgraduate Methodist school of that Pc
riod and was sent to large circuit at a
salary of 500 per year and board, the
boarding to be with the people of his flock,
wherever night should overtake him. SO
that wherever he and his saddlebags were
together he was at home. He read the call
for volunteers to India and his heart was
drawn in that direction. SO that when DR..
Durbin and Bishop James visited the Ohio
Conference in the fall of 1858 they found
receptive youth, twenty-five years of age,
ready to their hand. and he at once began
to prepare for his lifework. The band
could not be got together before April, 1859.
when he and the four others, all with wives
but him. sailed for Calcutta. 1t was Sep
tember before they reached their destina-
ton. They were met there by DR.. Butter,
the explorer, and were at once assigned to
their respective stations"
1t is no part of the purpose of this paper
to detail the experiences of these mission
aries separated from each other in that
land of strangers, though / may, as mat
ter of local interest to the readers Of the
Journal say that Mr.. Downey was sent to
Lucknow. Here his principal work was the
opening of a school. He lived only two or
three years, but his school lives on and, as
is becoming. hardly as an accident but as
logical sequence, the daughter of our
townsman. Capt Charles w. Brouse. a
nephew of the founder of the school, is to-
day one of the teachers in that Lucknow
incidences if not the sequences of life.
Later Mr.. Thoburn married the widow of
Mr.. Downey. thus more conspicuously ally
ing him with Indianapolis Methodism. But
that mission field was to have another bond
OF union to US. The work grew and the
demand for women became so urgent that
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society
was organized and among the first to vol
unteer was Miss Jennie Tinsley. of In
oianapolis, a sister of the Rev. Charles w.
Tinsiey, the present pastor of Fletcher
place NJ. E. Church, Indianapolis. After the
death of the wife of Missionary Waugh
she was married to him. Mr.. Waugh 5
health failing, he and his wife are now
residing at Delaware, o., with two daugh-
ters training for the missionary field.
Mr.. Thoburn's first appointment was to
Naini Tai. beautiful mountain city on the
lower slopes of the Himalayas, 1000 feet
above sea level. Here In sight of eternal
snow, he began his life work The Sepoy
rebellion, from which Mr.. Butter had suf-
fered, was over and his person was safe,
though he was received coldly as mis-
sionary so that If he had ever entertained
any romantic notions of missionary life
however, in preaching in English to few
British soldiers, stationed at Naini Tai,
while he was learning the Hindustani Ian
guage.
SOON MADE HIS WAY.
He soon mingled informally with ma
tives. singly and In groups, so that they
began to respect and love him personally
and thus, little by little. the door was
IL - 4 81 a.
tie the door opened wider and wider. His
colleagues, increased in number, were also
successful in their several stations He
soon developed such admirable executive
abilities that he was given the oversight Of
the entire India mission in the office of
presiding elder when only thirty three
years old. From that day to this he has
been practically at the head of that mis-
sion. 1t became a part of his work. and it
was great work for him to organize and
utilize the work of William Taylor, who
had gone through parts of India creating
much interest in the Christian religion,
but organizing nothing. In Taylors wake
he found some work that could be utilized
and he gathered the uninstructed converts
into a Christian fold. He was not slow to
discover that women In India needed wom-
en- as teachers and he proposed to his sis
ter in America that she devote herself to
the cause of missions in India. His presen-
tation of the case was successful. But how
to support her was unsolved problem,
but with the demand came the supply The
call of Miss Thoburn to the women of In
dia was the occasion of the formation of
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society,
and Miss Thoburn went out as their first
representative and only the allweighing
Master knows which crown shall have the
more jewels when the jewels are gathered,
If indeed there can be any difference where
each has done the best in his or her
sphere. Evidently he built wiser than he
knew when he invited that heroine sister to
| join him in the Christianizing of India, and
when. as concomitant of this, the Wom-
ans Foreign Missionary Society sprang
into life and activity.
At the General Conference of 1883 DR..
Thoburn was elected to the office of ..Bish-
op of India and Malaysia" which practical
ly means bishop of all eastern Asia and the
| islands Of the Pacific ocean thereto adioin-
| ing. So broad was his field that when. by
the fortunes Of war. the Philippine group
| was open to the gospel he at once entered
| and began to preach and to organize the
Methodist Episcopal Church In Luzon.
The church in India now numbers $500
workers, all self-supporting. There are
lxx-ffl, oh o -.