REVEREND AMOS ABBOT

Born 2nd June 1812 - Died 24th April 1889

 


© Frank Dean

 

A son of Jeremiah Abbot, he was born in Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA on 2nd June 1812, and died on 24th July 1889. On 12th May 1834 he married Anstice Wilson, born in Salem, Massachusetts, the daughter of Captain David Wilson and Elizabeth Barker of Wilton. She was born on 3rd February 1812. They both died at the home of their daughter Mrs Chloe Evans, in Ryde, the Isle of Wight, England, he on 24th April 1889, and she on 29th July of the same year. They had children:

1 Augusta Elizabeth, born at Ahmednuggur, India, on 12th May 1835, and died 12th February 1916. She married Samuel Chase Dean.
2 Abigail Ann, born at Ahmednuggur on 29th July 1838, and died there on 1st August 1838.
3 Anstice, born at Ahmednuggur on 16th August 1839, and died on 15th November 1921.
4 Chloe, born at Ahmednuggur, India, on 20th September 1841, and died 3rd October 1931. She married Samuel Harrison Evans MD.
5 Amos Wilson, born at Ahmednuggur on 6th January 1844, and died 27th February 1927 at Minneapolis, Minesota.
6 Emily, born at Ahmednuggur on 8th June 1845, and died on 8th June 1921. She married Colonel George Adolphus Jacob.
7 Albert Armstrong, born at Wilton, New Hampshire, USA, on 6th October 1847, and died at Minneapolis on 13th May 1940.
8 Bertha, born at Piscataway, New Hampshire, on 11th March 1850, and died at Steele City, Nebraska, on 25th January 1875.
6 Justin Edwards, born at Portsmouth on 25th December 1853, and died on 19th June 1932 at Summit, New Jersey.

When about sixten Amos attended Philips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, intending to go to college, but at the end of a year ill health obliged him to return home. Subsequenty he decided to become a teacher, and after qualifying at Andover, he received various offers of employment. He accepted one from the ABCFM as superintendent of the Mahratta Mission in India. Soon after his marriage he and his wife sailed on 23rd March 1834 from Boston to Bombay.

After a voyage of four months they reached their destination and went on overland to Ahmednuggur, a mission station, some 170 miles in the interior. They found there a Mahratta school for boys, as also an English school. After nine months study of the people and their language, Amos and Anstice drew up a system for the management of the schools and the pay of the teachers, and started several more schools in Ahmedbuggur and the vicinity. In the autumn of 1835 they organised a normal boarding school, called the Boys' Seminary, in which Anstice had charge of the boys' clothing and the religious teaching of the mothers who brought their food. She also superintended the girls' school. Amos taught in the boys' school. This system was continued some fourteen years with some variations. Time was also taken up in studying the language and preparing school books and religious tracts in the native language.

In 1846 Amos was licensed as a preacher, but ill health forced him and Anstice, with their five children, to return to America in 1847. Back in America his health improved and he spent several years canvassing for the Bible Society, in teaching and in domestic missions in Portsmouth, Manchester and elsewhere in his native state.

With his health re-established and a yearning to return to the former missionary field, came urgent invitations to them from the missionaries and native Christians and, with the approval of the Prudential Committee, they went to Andover in 1856-7 where Amos attended the Theological Seminary for one year, and was ordained at Portsmouth as a foreign missionary. They then returned to India, taking with them their four younger children, and leaving three older ones in America. Their eldest daughter Elizabeth Augusta had married the Reverend Samuel Chase Dean, and had joined the Mahratta Mission several months before. Amos and Anstice on their return to India moved to Rahuri, a village some 24 miles north of Ahmednuggur. They were placed in charge of a church and were mostly engaged in teaching and preaching there and in the surrounding district. Four more churches were soon organised. In 1867 Amos left Rahuri and took charge of the Satara field and its out-stations. Here there were two churches and several schools with native assistants. In 1869 ill health for both of them again forced them to return to America and seek release from the board. After their second return Amos increased his medical knowledge and went through a course of study in the medical college in Philadelphia, received a diploma, and in 1874 they moved to Nebraska. Thereafter they moved to the Isle of Wight, England, to live with their daughter Chloe, who had married Dr Samuel Harrison Evans MD.

During his last years his favourite pastime was mathematics. When over 70 years of age he learned the German language in order to read certain scientific works. He was also of an inventive turn of mind. His three sons were all graduates of Dartmouth College.

For letters written by Amos Abbott and other members of his family, please click HERE.

Sources:

Major Lemuel Abijay Abbott, Descendants of George Abbott of Rowley, Mass., Volume 2, 1906.
Information supplied by Frank Dean, USA
Frank Deane's 'Deane Project' on Rootsweb.
Charles Greeley Abbott, Uncles, ©
Correspondence (Jacob MSS)
IGI Ancestral File on Abbott

 

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