Rev. Samuel Stearns Day was Canada's first Baptist minister and later the founder of the American Baptist Telegus Mission in India. He was born in Upper Canada, now known as Ontario, the son of Jeremiah Day and Submit (Stearns) Day; his father was a United Empire Loyalist [UEL, aka Tory in America] during the Rev. War and retreated to Canada afterward. His early years were those of any normal boy. At age 16 he reported in his diary that he'd, "gone all astray dancing and singing". He later taught school and farmed until his entrance in 1831 to the Hamilton [NY] Literary and Theological Institution, now Colgate University. He married Roenna (Clark) Day [oldest child of Thomas Clark and Rhoda (Kinney) Clark, both born in New Hampshire in the 1780's], on August 23, 1835 in Homer, Cortland, NY. Both were immediately appointed foreign missionaries to the Telugus in the southeastern part of India, in the Bay of Bengal, in Hindustan, where all of his children were eventually born. They arrived first in Calcutta in February of 1836, and he served in Madras and Nellore until health problems [hepatic] forced him and his family back to America in 1845. After somewhat regaining his health, he returned alone to India in 1848 and served again until 1853, when his health once more forced him to leave India, this time never to return. He continued to serve in the pulpit and lecture on mission work for several years afterward before his death.
Click on the photo of the stained glass window to read its story.
Story taken from the online publication,"The Lone Star, The History of the Telugu Mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union" (1893) (Downie):
"During the erection of the [family] bungalow [in Nellore], an incident occurred which shows the gross superstition of the people at that time, and the progress that has been made in dispelling their darkness. The foot-path between two of the petttas or hamlets of Nellore lay directly through what is now the mission compound. The native who superintended the work had been much annoyed by the constant passing and repassing of the people. To get rid of them, he secretly informed a few that the missionary, in order to make his building more secure, intended capturing a lot of the children, and having cut off their heads, and offering them in sacrifice to his God, would bury them in the deep holes (foundations} he was digging. This not only had the desired effect, but it so terrified the whole community that for many months Mr. Day had the greatest difficulty to persuade the people of the utter groundlessness of the story. But the gentle spirit and unmistakable love for the natives which so marked Mr. Day’s character could not be resisted, and in time, all traces of distrust died away.”
A New York newspaper reported his last words to his daughter were, "Oh dear, how bad I feel," just before his death from a heart attack. He was living with his wife, Roenna, in the household of daughter Martha (Day) Holt, Mrs. Thomas A. Holt, in Homer, Cortland, NY in 1870's US Census.
After his death in 1871, the 'Baptist Missionary Magazine' noted: "Rev. Samuel S. Day, the founder of the Mission to the Teloogoos, and who spent over seventeen years among that people, retiring only when broken health compelled him to do so, has also entered into rest. He lived to see the seed he sowed in prayer and faith bear much fruit, though others entered into his labors ere he passed to his reward. Though consigned by the will of God to inactivity after his return to the United States, his heart was still deeply interested for the mission he had planted, and his name will long be fragrant, not only among the redeemed Teloogoos, but among the churches of the Western World."
There is much online that you can Google about the life of Rev. Samuel Stearns Day.
Lineage names previously provided by Glen Handy.
Click on the photo of the stained glass window to read its story.
Story taken from the online publication,"The Lone Star, The History of the Telugu Mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union" (1893) (Downie):
"During the erection of the [family] bungalow [in Nellore], an incident occurred which shows the gross superstition of the people at that time, and the progress that has been made in dispelling their darkness. The foot-path between two of the petttas or hamlets of Nellore lay directly through what is now the mission compound. The native who superintended the work had been much annoyed by the constant passing and repassing of the people. To get rid of them, he secretly informed a few that the missionary, in order to make his building more secure, intended capturing a lot of the children, and having cut off their heads, and offering them in sacrifice to his God, would bury them in the deep holes (foundations} he was digging. This not only had the desired effect, but it so terrified the whole community that for many months Mr. Day had the greatest difficulty to persuade the people of the utter groundlessness of the story. But the gentle spirit and unmistakable love for the natives which so marked Mr. Day’s character could not be resisted, and in time, all traces of distrust died away.”
A New York newspaper reported his last words to his daughter were, "Oh dear, how bad I feel," just before his death from a heart attack. He was living with his wife, Roenna, in the household of daughter Martha (Day) Holt, Mrs. Thomas A. Holt, in Homer, Cortland, NY in 1870's US Census.
After his death in 1871, the 'Baptist Missionary Magazine' noted: "Rev. Samuel S. Day, the founder of the Mission to the Teloogoos, and who spent over seventeen years among that people, retiring only when broken health compelled him to do so, has also entered into rest. He lived to see the seed he sowed in prayer and faith bear much fruit, though others entered into his labors ere he passed to his reward. Though consigned by the will of God to inactivity after his return to the United States, his heart was still deeply interested for the mission he had planted, and his name will long be fragrant, not only among the redeemed Teloogoos, but among the churches of the Western World."
There is much online that you can Google about the life of Rev. Samuel Stearns Day.
Lineage names previously provided by Glen Handy.
Rev. Samuel Stearns Day was Canada's first Baptist minister and later the founder of the American Baptist Telegus Mission in India. He was born in Upper Canada, now known as Ontario, the son of Jeremiah Day and Submit (Stearns) Day; his father was a United Empire Loyalist [UEL, aka Tory in America] during the Rev. War and retreated to Canada afterward. His early years were those of any normal boy. At age 16 he reported in his diary that he'd, "gone all astray dancing and singing". He later taught school and farmed until his entrance in 1831 to the Hamilton [NY] Literary and Theological Institution, now Colgate University. He married Roenna (Clark) Day [oldest child of Thomas Clark and Rhoda (Kinney) Clark, both born in New Hampshire in the 1780's], on August 23, 1835 in Homer, Cortland, NY. Both were immediately appointed foreign missionaries to the Telugus in the southeastern part of India, in the Bay of Bengal, in Hindustan, where all of his children were eventually born. They arrived first in Calcutta in February of 1836, and he served in Madras and Nellore until health problems [hepatic] forced him and his family back to America in 1845. After somewhat regaining his health, he returned alone to India in 1848 and served again until 1853, when his health once more forced him to leave India, this time never to return. He continued to serve in the pulpit and lecture on mission work for several years afterward before his death.
Click on the photo of the stained glass window to read its story.
Story taken from the online publication,"The Lone Star, The History of the Telugu Mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union" (1893) (Downie):
"During the erection of the [family] bungalow [in Nellore], an incident occurred which shows the gross superstition of the people at that time, and the progress that has been made in dispelling their darkness. The foot-path between two of the petttas or hamlets of Nellore lay directly through what is now the mission compound. The native who superintended the work had been much annoyed by the constant passing and repassing of the people. To get rid of them, he secretly informed a few that the missionary, in order to make his building more secure, intended capturing a lot of the children, and having cut off their heads, and offering them in sacrifice to his God, would bury them in the deep holes (foundations} he was digging. This not only had the desired effect, but it so terrified the whole community that for many months Mr. Day had the greatest difficulty to persuade the people of the utter groundlessness of the story. But the gentle spirit and unmistakable love for the natives which so marked Mr. Day’s character could not be resisted, and in time, all traces of distrust died away.”
A New York newspaper reported his last words to his daughter were, "Oh dear, how bad I feel," just before his death from a heart attack. He was living with his wife, Roenna, in the household of daughter Martha (Day) Holt, Mrs. Thomas A. Holt, in Homer, Cortland, NY in 1870's US Census.
After his death in 1871, the 'Baptist Missionary Magazine' noted: "Rev. Samuel S. Day, the founder of the Mission to the Teloogoos, and who spent over seventeen years among that people, retiring only when broken health compelled him to do so, has also entered into rest. He lived to see the seed he sowed in prayer and faith bear much fruit, though others entered into his labors ere he passed to his reward. Though consigned by the will of God to inactivity after his return to the United States, his heart was still deeply interested for the mission he had planted, and his name will long be fragrant, not only among the redeemed Teloogoos, but among the churches of the Western World."
There is much online that you can Google about the life of Rev. Samuel Stearns Day.
Lineage names previously provided by Glen Handy.
Click on the photo of the stained glass window to read its story.
Story taken from the online publication,"The Lone Star, The History of the Telugu Mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union" (1893) (Downie):
"During the erection of the [family] bungalow [in Nellore], an incident occurred which shows the gross superstition of the people at that time, and the progress that has been made in dispelling their darkness. The foot-path between two of the petttas or hamlets of Nellore lay directly through what is now the mission compound. The native who superintended the work had been much annoyed by the constant passing and repassing of the people. To get rid of them, he secretly informed a few that the missionary, in order to make his building more secure, intended capturing a lot of the children, and having cut off their heads, and offering them in sacrifice to his God, would bury them in the deep holes (foundations} he was digging. This not only had the desired effect, but it so terrified the whole community that for many months Mr. Day had the greatest difficulty to persuade the people of the utter groundlessness of the story. But the gentle spirit and unmistakable love for the natives which so marked Mr. Day’s character could not be resisted, and in time, all traces of distrust died away.”
A New York newspaper reported his last words to his daughter were, "Oh dear, how bad I feel," just before his death from a heart attack. He was living with his wife, Roenna, in the household of daughter Martha (Day) Holt, Mrs. Thomas A. Holt, in Homer, Cortland, NY in 1870's US Census.
After his death in 1871, the 'Baptist Missionary Magazine' noted: "Rev. Samuel S. Day, the founder of the Mission to the Teloogoos, and who spent over seventeen years among that people, retiring only when broken health compelled him to do so, has also entered into rest. He lived to see the seed he sowed in prayer and faith bear much fruit, though others entered into his labors ere he passed to his reward. Though consigned by the will of God to inactivity after his return to the United States, his heart was still deeply interested for the mission he had planted, and his name will long be fragrant, not only among the redeemed Teloogoos, but among the churches of the Western World."
There is much online that you can Google about the life of Rev. Samuel Stearns Day.
Lineage names previously provided by Glen Handy.
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