reaching out to Telugu people
Rev.Samuel Day
Baptist presence in India has a very long history. In fact, the first ever protestant missionary to step into the British India was a Baptist missionary, William Carey, who arrived in India in 1793. He was the first missionary sent by the newly formed Baptist Missionary Society in England. Carey’s outstanding missionary work remained for all the subsequent missionaries a beacon of hope and inspiration ever since. A few more missionaries followed to work with Carey. It was not until 1833, when the British government renewed the contract with East India Company, that missionaries from countries other than England were allowed in India.
In coastal Andhra which was under the then Madras Presidency, William Carey’s team had made several efforts to start work in the northern parts, i.e., Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam, but somehow they did not succeed. They managed to come till Orissa where Amos Sutton started working as a Baptist missionary in Cuttack by 1825. Even under the auspices of Sutton, the Baptists could not penetrate the telugu-speaking region.
Samuel S. Day, a Canadian from Porthope, can be said to be the first Baptist missionary to found a mission station in the coastal Andhra region, also called the Northern Circars at that time. He was sent by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Board. This initiative was a result of an appeal made by Sutton to the American Baptists during his visit to the United States in 1835. He made a strong appeal for sending missionaries to Orissa and Andhra. Along with few other missionaries, Samuel Day accompanied Sutton on a ship that sailed to Calcutta from Boston in 1836.
Samuel Day initially worked in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam areas for a couple of months, but gave up since he could not make much progress. After about a year, he moved to Madras and established an English Baptist Church and served as its pastor. During this period he learnt Telugu language and made frequent visits to Nellore and the surrounding areas to locate a suitable place for establishing a mission station to work among Telugus. During these visits he preached in Telugu, and also found that there was practically not a single missionary between Madras and Vizag, a distance of 400 miles. Day was also unhappy that even though he came as a missionary to the Telugus, he has not been able to establish a mission station among them.
Finally, in February 1840, he along with his family moved to Nellore. At that time, the Madras Presidency, under which all the coastal districts came, had about 22 districts. Nellore was one among them with a total population of 12.5 lakhs, and 170 kilometers from Madras town.
David Downie, a Baptist missionary who was also stationed at Nellore much after Samuel Day, gives a fascinating account of the journey made by Day’s family from Madras to Nellore.
‘… the journey in those days, especially with a family of small children, was a considerable undertaking. Mr. Day had the choice of two routes. First there was the great Northern Trunk Road which connects Madras and Secunderabad and passes through Nellore and Ongole. To make the journey by this road would require five or six carts drawn by bullocks, and occupy six nights, stopping during the day at rest houses or bungalows along the way to avoid the heat and to rest and feed both passengers and bullocks. The other route, and the one Mr. Day selected, was by canal to Sulurpett….Mr. Day provided two rude native boats for himself, family, and effects, and started in the evening making the journey to Sulurpet in two nights and one day. That was the easiest part of the journey. From Sulurpet to Nellore is sixty miles, and over the rough road between the two, Mrs. Day and two children were carried in a palanquin ; little Malcom and his ayah (nurse) in a dooly—a sort of extempore palanquin— and the rest in country carts. Thus they reached Nellore in about the same time that would have been required had they gone by road, but with much less fatigue.”
He rented a small bungalow to start his work. In March 1840, one more missionary couple, Van Husen and his wife, joined them. With the help of a local British judge, Mr. Walker, he got some eight acres of land for a mission compound. A bungalow and a chapel were immediately erected on this land by 1841.
In coastal Andhra which was under the then Madras Presidency, William Carey’s team had made several efforts to start work in the northern parts, i.e., Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam, but somehow they did not succeed. They managed to come till Orissa where Amos Sutton started working as a Baptist missionary in Cuttack by 1825. Even under the auspices of Sutton, the Baptists could not penetrate the telugu-speaking region.
Samuel S. Day, a Canadian from Porthope, can be said to be the first Baptist missionary to found a mission station in the coastal Andhra region, also called the Northern Circars at that time. He was sent by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Board. This initiative was a result of an appeal made by Sutton to the American Baptists during his visit to the United States in 1835. He made a strong appeal for sending missionaries to Orissa and Andhra. Along with few other missionaries, Samuel Day accompanied Sutton on a ship that sailed to Calcutta from Boston in 1836.
Samuel Day initially worked in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam areas for a couple of months, but gave up since he could not make much progress. After about a year, he moved to Madras and established an English Baptist Church and served as its pastor. During this period he learnt Telugu language and made frequent visits to Nellore and the surrounding areas to locate a suitable place for establishing a mission station to work among Telugus. During these visits he preached in Telugu, and also found that there was practically not a single missionary between Madras and Vizag, a distance of 400 miles. Day was also unhappy that even though he came as a missionary to the Telugus, he has not been able to establish a mission station among them.
Finally, in February 1840, he along with his family moved to Nellore. At that time, the Madras Presidency, under which all the coastal districts came, had about 22 districts. Nellore was one among them with a total population of 12.5 lakhs, and 170 kilometers from Madras town.
David Downie, a Baptist missionary who was also stationed at Nellore much after Samuel Day, gives a fascinating account of the journey made by Day’s family from Madras to Nellore.
‘… the journey in those days, especially with a family of small children, was a considerable undertaking. Mr. Day had the choice of two routes. First there was the great Northern Trunk Road which connects Madras and Secunderabad and passes through Nellore and Ongole. To make the journey by this road would require five or six carts drawn by bullocks, and occupy six nights, stopping during the day at rest houses or bungalows along the way to avoid the heat and to rest and feed both passengers and bullocks. The other route, and the one Mr. Day selected, was by canal to Sulurpett….Mr. Day provided two rude native boats for himself, family, and effects, and started in the evening making the journey to Sulurpet in two nights and one day. That was the easiest part of the journey. From Sulurpet to Nellore is sixty miles, and over the rough road between the two, Mrs. Day and two children were carried in a palanquin ; little Malcom and his ayah (nurse) in a dooly—a sort of extempore palanquin— and the rest in country carts. Thus they reached Nellore in about the same time that would have been required had they gone by road, but with much less fatigue.”
He rented a small bungalow to start his work. In March 1840, one more missionary couple, Van Husen and his wife, joined them. With the help of a local British judge, Mr. Walker, he got some eight acres of land for a mission compound. A bungalow and a chapel were immediately erected on this land by 1841.