Otis Robinson Bacheler : fifty-three years missionary to India

Front matter

R 722.32 . BJ 2 S82 1904 Stacy, Thomas H.

Otis Robinson Bacheler

JO.

Preface

IN undertaking to set in order a record of the life of Dr. Bacheler, together with that of Mrs. Bacheler — a work which we felt obliged to decline at first, on account of other pressing duties — we were led to do so from two considerations. The first was, the fact that the record of such a noble and useful life ought to be preserved, to stimulate the church which he so faithfully served, and to profit the entire Christian world. The second was, love for the man through personal relations. In the highest sense he was to us a brother exemplary.

To those who have assisted us in this work, we wish to return thanks. We have had access to all of our denominational as well as other literature and records; have used the brief autobiography left by him ; taken what information we needed from his book “ Hinduism and Christianity in Orissa”; gleaned from diaries, private letters, and Records of the Free Baptist Foreign Mission Society.

PREFACE

We are under special obligation to “ cBatchelder BatcheUer Genealogy" — F. C. Pierce, editor — for facts concerning Rev. Stephen Bachiler, and for the BatcheUer coat of arms; to The Morning Star, for which Dr. and Mrs. Bacheler wrote much throughout their missionary service ; to the Annual India Report; and to Dr. Mary W. Bacheler, who placed in our hands a large amount of material of both a public and a private character, and who rendered much valuable personal assistance. Great pains have been taken to verify dates and statements, and we are assured that the record, which covers a direct period of more than eighty-four years, containing a great variety of changing events, is reliable.

The English spelling of Indian proper names remains a mystery. The word Jellasoie the spelling is that always given in the India Report— is spelled in at least four different ways; other words appear in about the same variety of form. After much perturbation of spirit we have conconcluded to use the spelling to which the missionaries were accustomed, in familiar names , while for those not frequently used by them we

PREFACE have adopted the spelling of Sir William Hunter, who is a recognized authority.

Letters of Dr. and Mrs. Bacheler have been introduced, in the belief that through their own words their lives would be better understood. It is very fortunate that so many communications from them were published, and thus preserved ; for by this means we are not only able to secure much data concerning their lives, but also many historical facts connected with the mission. A book composed entirely of their correspondence which is now in existence would greatly enrich the mission literature of the world.

We desire to call attention to the fact, here, that the published correspondence of missionaries, setting forth the conditions of the field as the Bachelers did it, has been very meager during the last score of years ; for the last two years there has been improvement in that direction. On account of this it would be somewhat difficult to write the history of that period. Would not such communications call forth financial response now as then? If novelty has worn off, there is still unfamiliarity with the field and its needs.

In attempting to chronicle the life of Dr.

PREFACE

Bacbeler we have not satisfied ourselves ; but we have constantly prayed that, while revealing his strong, sterling character, we might be as modest and unassuming for him as he was for himself.

May this record, gathered up and sent forth, increase the usefulness of the lives of those who thus speak to us, having passed on.

Thomas H. Stacy.

Concord, N. H., January, 1904.

Contents

CHAPTER

I. The Mission Century; ancestry; early

life i

Chapter I The Mission Century— Ancestry— Early Life

“CENTURY of missions” is a name which has been given to the nineteenth century. And properly so, for it developed a greater effort in diffusing the gospel than all the previous centuries of the Christian era combined. The apparent results have also been proportionately marked.

The conditions for this remarkable work did not appear suddenly ; they developed out of the eighteenth century from possibilities produced by the seventeenth.

From 1737 to 1739 Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd in America, and the Wesleys and Whitefield in England, were at the same time, through deep consecration and mighty conviction, awakening many to fervent religious activity, — a condition necessary to the production of mission zeal and missionaries.

The Wesleys were largely indebted to Christian David and Peter Bohler, Moravians, for their induction into that spiritual experience which gave rise to a new denomination, and aided in hastening the great modern mission movement. Already James Spener and August Hermann Franke had become the spiritual fathers of the Danish Halle Mission and the Moravian Mission, respectively.

The first part of the eighteenth century (1706) saw Ziegenbalg in India — her first Protestant missionary. In the last part of the century (1792) William Carey preached a sermon in Nottingham, England, which made the barriers between him and India tremble. In the following year he went to that country. To him has been ascribed the honor of being the father of organized missions.

To have lived through any considerable portion of the nineteenth century with a keen interest in the progressive work of missions, has been surpassed, in point of privilege and blessing, only by being a missionary in the field during the same period.

Otis Robinson Bacheler, whose life we attempt to record, lived through the Mission Century, after its first sixteen years had passed. For fifty-three years he was an active missionary, with few, if any, superiors. His part in the movement was a substantial one; to it his life was thoroughly consecrated. He loved it so intensely that after returning on his last furlough, and a few years before his death, he said in General Conference, “ I could almost wish that the Hindu idea of the transmigration of souls were true, and that 1 could come back to this world in a new body, and give myself to India again.”

A brief account of his ancestry may be of interest here. Otis R. Bacheler was a descendant from Rev. Stephen Bachiler (Odlin, Benjamin, John, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Stephen). The ancestry of Stephen is uncertain, but it is probable that he descended from a French family which migrated to Southampton, England, and formed an important part of the French Protestant church there. Stephen was born in 1560 or ’61. He matriculated at the newlyestablished college of St. John, Oxford, on Nov. 17th, 1581; here he took his degree in 1585 or ’86, and was installed as vicar in the church at Wherewell, in Hants, on July 15th, 1587. He was strongly Nonconformist, and was excommunicated from the church, leaving his Wherewell vicarage probably about 1605. At about the time of his coming to this country he was pastor of a Nonconformist church in Hampton, Suffolk County, near London. With his church he emigrated to New England for the sake of greater religious liberty, sailing March 9, 1632, on the William and Francis, and reaching Boston on the 5th of the following June. A colony was formed on the seacoast of New Hampshire, and the locality was named Hampton, after the old English home town. He was a reformer, and rebelled at the union of Church and State, which the strong Puritan covenant enforced. This brought him into opposition to the party in power. His experience in New England was not smooth or sunny, but, instead, it was rough and vigorous. Although of great physical endurance these things told upon him. In 1654 he returned to England. The last entry concerning him reads as follows: “The ancient Stephen Bachiler, of Hampton, N. H., died at Huckney, a village and parish in Middlesex, two miles from London, in 1660, in the 100th year of his age.” ( Batchelder , Batcheller Genealogy. Frederick C. Pierce .)

The family name is spelled in at least forty-five different ways, and its meaning is uncertain. Various significations are suggested, as follows : (a) A young gentleman who aspires to be a knight; (&) A student who has taken his first degree at a university ; ( c ) An unmarried man — a lover. The Family Herald, an English magazine (Aug. io, 1895), says : “ The term ‘ Bacheler ’ is from the Latin baccalaureus, one crowned with laurel. In the French it became ‘ a young squire, not made a knight.’ ” (Tlatcbelder , Batcheller Genealogy.) We should note here that there were six other immigrants of the Bachiler name who came to this country. What, if any, relationship existed between them we-do not know, excepting in two or three instances. For many years the name was confined largely to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but later it spread over the country. Otis R., when speaking of his family once, said, “ There have been no great men, as the world counts greatness, in our ancestral record, but in every generation, so far as we can learn, there has been a large number of ministers, and doctors, but I have never known a lawyer by the name of Bacheler.” An examination of that branch of the family discloses some lawyers, less than a dozen. Great men have come from this stock, among whom are Whittier, Webster, B. F. Butler, and the sculptor Franklin Simmons. The grandfather of Otis, Ensign Benjamin Bacheler of Candia, N. H., was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and was with Arnold in his fruitless attack on Quebec. The following incident, illustrating his self-forgetfulness, has been handed down. He was sent with a squad of men to watch an important point on the banks of the river opposite Quebec, with strict orders to lie flat and keep concealed. To his astonishment an officer appeared after a time with an order for his arrest. He was hurried away to headquarters, where he demanded an explanation. “ Were you not ordered to lie close and keep concealed?” he was asked. “Yes, sir, and we have done it,” was the reply. “ No, you haven’t. You were standing up all the time,” was the retort. He had provided for the safety of his men, but had forgotten his own. He was dismissed with a reprimand. His experience in the army was not especially interesting, and in due time he returned to his home in Candia. By trade he was a tanner, currier, and shoemaker combined, not an unusual thing in those days. He owned a small farm, had a comfortable home, and, although he continued in business up to old age, it does not appear that he accumulated much property. His last days were spent with his children at Andover, N. H., where he is buried near the center of the town. His wife was a Prescott, a cousin of Colonel Prescott of Bunker Hill fame.

Odlin, the father of Otis, adopted the trade of his father, and was in business with him for several years. While living in Candia seven children— four sons and three daughters — were born into the family, but in consequence of intemperate habits brought about by medical treatment through a long and painful illness, Odlin Bacheler was reduced to comparative poverty, and, gathering the little left in his possession, he moved to the backwoods of Andover, purchased a small tract of land, and set to work, hewing out a farm amid primeval forest. He built a small house with two ground rooms and an attic, also a barn. Here the family might have been comfortable had it not been for the drink habit which clung to the head of the family. For nearly twenty years the family lived in Andover upon the proceeds of the farm, always in poor circumstances, sometimes in want. Here, near the Wilmot line, almost under the shadow of Kearsarge Mountain, Otis was born on January 17th, 1817, the youngest of the children who survived infancy. Two other children were born here, Frederick L. and a girl who died at birth.

Longevity, hardiness, and constitutional strength belonged to the Bacheler family in a large measure. The grandfather of Otis lived to be ninety, the father eighty-four, an uncle died at eighty-seven. None of his brothers and sisters who survived infancy died under seventy-five. John reached eighty-nine ; when Otis passed away he lacked only sixteen days of being eighty-four. Frederick L., still living, was born Jan. 17, 1815.

Huldah L. (Searl) Bacheler, the mother of Otis, was a brave woman, and many of her excellent qualities were imparted to her children. In the midst of poverty, hardship, and affliction she kept her children together until they were able to provide for themselves. As the boys grew up, one after the other, William, Benjamin,

John, and George found their way to Holliston, Mass., where, being shoemakers from boyhood, they went into that business, grew as it grew, and in time became thriving manufacturers among the prominent and wealthy men of the place. All of them became members of the Congregational church.

The child life of “ little Otis,” as he was called, was uneventful ; the world to him was very small, and yet as we consider those limitations, and note the hardships, the economy, and the brave, determined struggle of those days and on, to his going to the mission field, we plainly see how through those experiences he was being fitted to become the devoted, painstaking, inventive, and economical missionary who did so much for India, and who won our confidence and love. I would that children and youth might learn from this sweet and noble life that such limitations were not designed to circumscribe but to develop. Otis tells us that his earliest recollection was of a new garment, made from an old one which belonged to his sister Mary. It was red, and it pleased him so much that, when he put it on the first time, he celebrated the event by dancing about the room in high glee. This excited the dog, and he, joining in the frolic, made a sad rent in the new garment. He was probably not more than four years old at that time.

Money was very scarce and but little used among the people in those backwoods. Otis’s first experience in finance was at about the same time with his red dress episode. A friend of the

family called and gave him a cent. This first cent he held onto. When six years old he was one day at the wood-pile chopping wood, when his father pointed out to him a log and told him that if he would chop it up, he would give him a cent. It was late in the afternoon, but he worked away at it lustily until almost dark, and so earned his first money. Those two cents formed the nucleus of what seemed to him a fortune ; by gathering stumps, burning them, and selling the ashes at ten cents per bushel, he added to those two cents, so that at the age of ten years, when the home at Andover was broken up, he had accumulated i6f cents — a New England shilling. He afterward declared that then he felt rich. To this he added, from time to time, by doing extra work, until two or three years later he made his first investment of $4.44, for which he received a note, bearing interest. “ Then,” he says, “ I was independent.”

Concerning those early years, Otis said later in life : “ During the time we lived in Andover, our circumstances must have been very straitened, yet I never heard a complaint, for our brave mother with careful economy managed to keep us all comfortably clothed and fed. We planted potatoes, corn, and rye, and sometimes a little wheat, and that constituted our daily food. 1 never knew of any but the common necessaries of life, except now and then a jug of molasses.

“ We sowed a little flax, and kept a few sheep, and from these our clothes were manufactured by our thrifty mother. My lullaby was the sound of the spinning-wheel and loom during the long winter evenings, as I lay in my trundle-bed in the common living-room. A hog was slaughtered every fall, and this afforded our supply of meat for the year, except an occasional fowl from the hen-roost.

“On the plain fare 1 have spoken of, mother raised eight children, six sons and two daughters, all of them stalwart men and women, all of whom without much sickness lived to a good old age. My brothers were all six-footers, and exceptionally strong and muscular. 1 went on to the shoe bench at ten, and never grew so strong and large as they, only reaching five feet eight inches.

“ No butcher’s or baker’s cart, or milkman, or peddler of any kind ever came to our door, and for a good reason : there was no money. The only articles we ever took to market, as well as I can remember, were ashes, a little wool, hay, and a little bark to the tannery. How we managed to live under such circumstances, I cannot now understand, but I have no recollection of ever suffering from want, and 1 think we were as well off as most of our neighbors.”

During the last of those years in Andover, the father spent but little time at home. He got the hay in summer, fitted up the children with shoes in the fall, but that was about all he did for the family. During the last year, he left the family entirely, and they heard of him as being at work in Lowell.

Debts accumulated, largely on account of drink. Mortgages were foreclosed, sheriff’s attachments put upon all property, and the family were left without a home. A small hired tenement gave them shelter through the winter ; in the spring they planned to go to Holliston, Mass.

Not only did the mother provide faithfully for the temporal needs of the children, but she also taught them religiously. Otis says : —

“ One day, when 1 was about eight years old, a neighbor’s wife came into our house and told my mother that I had been stealing her apples, and that was why I was sick. I instantly denied it, but mother believed old Mother Gwyn instead of me, and though she knew 1 wasn’t well she gave me a smart whipping. I crept under the bed and cried in my rage, and meditated revenge, and a few days after, when 1 was well again, I did go and fill my tow dress skirt with her apples.” Surely such a disposition needed religious training, and this the mother did not fail to see, for he further says : “ 1 know that the many pious talks my mother used to give me in my early childhood, as 1 sat in her lap or stood by her side, have been a precious boon to me through life.” School advantages in those Andover backwoods were very meagre. Meetings were held in the schoolhouse, and the religious interest in the community was excellent. Two ministers of those days made a marked impression upon the mind of “ little Otis,” and were always remembered by him, exerting a more sacred influence upon his life than they were aware of, probably ; they were Elder Cross of Wilmot, and Elder Watson of Andover. A Congregational minister in the neighboring town of Salisbury was held in high esteem by the mother, and when the women of the neighborhood gathered to recognize and name the youngest born, it was decided to name him for the respected minister, Otis Robinson. It is said that at that time the mother faintly expressed a hope that the boy might become a minister, although she was not at that time a professing Christian.

Daniel Webster once said that New Hampshire is a good State to emigrate from. This family seemed to find it so ; Candia and the rocky backwoods farm of Andover produced eight specimens of the genus homo that under more favorable circumstances in Massachusetts grew to be stalwart, attaining to more than average eminence in business, social, and literary circles. The coarse and homely fare, the total absence of luxuries, gave to the children constitutions which disease, hard work, and exposure could make little impression upon. Those early experiences also induced innate independence. Looking back over nearly three-quarters of a century, Dr. Bacheler said : “ Under God, what we have been and what we had in life have been our own production, for which we have been indebted to no man. We have paid our own way in the world ; if any more, it is not for me to say.”

In what has already been said, and especially in what follows in this and the second chapter of this biography, it will be plainly seen that under the guiding hand of God and with the help of a devoted mother, the man of whom we write, the devoted minister to the spiritual needs of the heathen, the faithful physician to their bodies, the loyal Christian brother, the man most respected and loved by those who knew him best, was in the truest sense a self-made man. Conditions which would have discouraged and defeated some, only stimulated and spurred him on to the greatest determination and most persistent endeavor. Sequel — a most successful missionary.

In the spring of 1827, the spring following the surrender of the little home, William, the oldest son, came to Andover and took Frederick and Otis, the only children remaining there, to Holliston. The mother remained with her sister Buzzell until the autumn, when she followed. Frederick, who was twelve years old, went to work in the shop of his brother William, and Otis, who was then ten, went to work in the shop of his brother John. “ From this time onward,” says Otis, “ I say it with pride, we were able to make our own way in the world. Here for some years our business was closing shoes. My recollections of the shoe shop are very pleasant. My brother was an earnest Christian. He usually had six or eight men in the shop ; they were intelligent men of steady habits, and, without exception, church-goers. Profane or vulgar language was never heard there ; the conversation of the shop was always free, intelligent, and frequently religious.”

School advantages in Holliston were superior to those in Andover. A boy of the age of Otis, and like him upon the working list, was supposed to get about ten weeks of school in winter only.

But the people of the town had the advantage of books, newspapers, a lyceum, and a public library, with Sabbath meetings and a Sunday school.

About three years after the family moved from Andover to Holliston the father suddenly appeared, a well dressed and healthful-looking man. A great change in him was apparent ; he had abandoned his intemperate habits, and from that day until his death — a period of twenty-five years — he never tasted liquor of any kind. He became somewhat prominent in society ; being a good singer, and having been engaged in teaching singing schools often, he led the church choir for several years. He held important positions in the town, — for some years was constable. He made a profession of religion, and united with the Congregational church. On the Monday morning succeeding the Lord’s Day on which he united with the church the family were greatly surprised on coming to the breakfast table to see him stand and crave a blessing, and after the • meal to bring out the old family Bible, read a chapter, and pray. This habit of family devotion he continued without interruption through the.

remainder of his life. What a change ! What had God wrought ! Then it was a happy family ; father, mother, Frederick, Otis, and a part of the time George and Mary at home, and probably happier together than they ever had been before.

Otis speaks of his own conversion as the great event of his life. Let him tell it to us in his own words. He says : —

“ The great event of my life transpired in my fourteenth year. Rev. Mr. Fitch, pastor of the Congregational church, the only church in town, was an earnest Christian worker, a faithful minister of the gospel. Anxious for the salvation of his numerous charges, he arranged for a ‘four days’ meeting,’ the first form of protracted meeting introduced into New England. Several prominent ministers were invited to aid. Business was largely suspended, and good congregations gathered daily. Our father took his boys to the meeting. I was not specially interested at first, for 1 had fully made up my mind that the time had not come for me to be a Christian. 1 would wait till 1 became a man, and that would be time enough. The sermons were argumentative and convincing, particularly those of Mr. Fairchild of

Boston. But I kept saying to myself, ‘ Not yet ; I will wait.’ The interest constantly increased as the days passed, and many were deeply stirred. The last afternoon came. Mr. Fairfield had preached a powerful discourse. I remained firm in my determination. Mr. Wood, pastor of the Congregational church in Upton, rose to make the closing remarks. He was an elderly man and deeply sympathetic. The tones of his voice were tender and melting. His theme was ‘ Love — God’s love to us — Christ’s sufferings for us.’ The whole congregation melted under his loving appeal. Then I broke down. My strong will vanished, and I cried, ‘ Lord, I yield, I will follow thee now.’ The invitation was given for all who wished to manifest their desire for salvation, to retire to the town hall near by. Fully three hundred were gathered there. Some remarks were made, and then the invitation was given for all who were willing to become the followers of Christ to kneel down while prayer would be offered. The Congregationalists were not a kneeling people. 1 had not seen men on their knees since 1 had left the Free Baptist meetings in New Hampshire. It was a crucial test.

Nearly all seemed to fall upon their knees. I hesitated for a moment, then 1 slid down on my knees out of sight. As the result of these meetings, a large number were gathered into the church. 1 had the idea, then quite common, that it would be necessary for one becoming a Christian to have a season of conviction, mourning, and darkness before the light would break, and so I went on mourning for days and weeks, almost discouraged at times, till one evening as I was going home from meeting, and just passing the graveyard (I know the spot well), the light burst in upon my soul, and instantly 1 was filled with joy and gladness, such as I had never known before. Then 1 felt 1 was a new creature, new in Christ. That joy and peace have never left me during these three score years and more. 1 was fourteen years old, not old enough to be noticed much, still 1 found a few, a very few, who would speak kindly to me and help me.”

A number of boys about the age of Otis were converted in this revival, and a deep sympathy grew, up among them; together they attended meetings far and near, but did not take any part ;

there was not the place for young people in the church then which exists now, and they were too young to be generally noticed. As a result of the revival at Holliston many united with the church and became strong Christians ; but restlessness and discontent rested upon those who had resisted the Spirit. It was according to the teaching of Jesus : “ He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”

The next step after rejecting the truth is opposition to it. This was true in this case. In the minds of many of those opposed, the minister had committed a great offence — almost a crime — he had brought about a revival, and disturbed the peace of the community. There must be a change. He must go, that peace might be restored. Much agitation followed, town meetings were called until the opposition carried their point. The minister, Mr. Fitch, was dismissed, and a pall of darkness settled down upon the church, which did not break for many years. Ah, the church at Holliston is not the only church which has faced duty, and refused to do it, until to it the words of Jesus were verified,

“ Your house is left unto you desolate and like Israel in the wilderness it reached the promised land of prosperity only after that generation had passed.

But God does not leave his faithful ones alone. Right here we meet a new condition which probably had much to do with the future course of Otis R. Bacheler. Encouraged by Rev. Mr. Fitch, a Methodist itinerant preacher had occasionally' preached in the place, and won the confidence of the people. Many converts had been left outside of the Congregational church, and now would not unite with it. They were like sheep without a shepherd. The church grew more disorderly and lapsed into spiritual indifference. Under these conditions the Methodist preacher came more frequently, and was heartily welcomed, especially among those converts who had been left outside the church.