For the Souls and Soils of India: From Ohio Farm Land to the Mission Fields of India

Copyright © 2011 by Helen C. Maybury.

ISBN: Softcover    978-1-4628-5264-2

ISBN: Ebook         978-1-4628-5265-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

Orders@Xlibris.com

96830

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction:      India: A Survey of Historic Events

The Presbyterian Mission in Western India

Chapter One:      The Early Years before India

Chapter Two:       First Term in India (1923-1928)

Chapter Three:    Second Term in India (1930-1937)

Sangli in the Deccan

Chapter Four:     Third Term in India (1938-1949)

Islampur in the Deccan

Chapter Five:     Fourth and Last Term in India (1950-1960)

Miraj in the Deccan

Chapter Six:      Wider Dimensions of Forest Conser’s Mission Work

Observation Tours

Interests in Agriculture

Meaningful Contacts

Muslim Friendships

Chapter Seven:      Retirement and Home Missions (1960-1972)

Chapter Eight:       Final Retirement to Westminster Gardens Duarte, California (1972-1989)

Appendix               Citation

                                Mission Stations Served

                                Farewell Letters

                                Papers written by Forest Conser:

Personal Theological Statement

My Ideas of Visitation Evangelism

Afghanistan - a Long Look

Labor Intensive Light Industry in India

Forest Conser’s Valedictory

PREFACE

A Chinese poet once said, To re-create something in words is like being alive twice. In a very real sense I have found this to be true as I have been compiling this record of my parents’ life. As missionaries in India from 1923-1960 they had written regularly to me and other family members in the United States. In addition, my father wrote many informative circular letters to his supporting churches. Unfortunately, some letters were lost, but in the end there was a suitcase full of correspondence. I couldn’t throw them away. They were my meaningful link to my parents. So last summer, with the encouragement of my husband and children, I bought a laptop computer and started writing this story as a tribute to the remarkable and dedicated life of my parents, concentrating particularly on their life together as missionaries, followed by 17 years in Home Missions. In the process I have re-lived those early years and true to the Chinese poet’s words, I feel that I have been alive twice.

The reader will notice capitalization of certain words in my father’s letters, where capitals are not customarily used. I believe it was his way of emphasizing words which he considered important.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to my children and my husband for their encouragement as I started to gather and organize the many letters that tell the story of my parents’ lives.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the staff at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, who made available the extensive files of official letters and other valuable papers received from my parents during the years 1923-1960 while they served in India. I have included a number of these papers which bring additional meaning to their story.

INTRODUCTION

India: A Survey of Historic Events

What kind of country did my parents as missionaries come to in the early 1920s? As I begin to write, India is observing the anniversary of 50 years of independence, however her rich culture and traditions go back thousands of years. In 500 B.C., the great teacher and reformer, Gautama Buddha, made a profound impact that spread throughout Asia. That same period saw Sanskrit become established as the national language and Hinduism a widespread religion. The 3rd century A.D. marked the classical age of Indian civilization with the Gupta dynasty. It was one of the most creative periods of Indian history, when literature, art, science, and philosophy flourished.

Invasions of India began early in her history. The Greeks came in the 2nd century, the Portuguese in the 15th century. The Dutch and French established their colonies in the 17th century. Perhaps the longest lasting invasion was that of the Moguls from Persia in the 16th century, who established one of the most powerful and splendid empires. Akbar was the greatest of their emperors, and his grandson, Shah Jehan, built many beautiful buildings, the best known being the Taj Mahal. The Moguls are still appreciated today for their outstanding architecture, gardens, art and literature.

The British first came to India in the late 16th century for reasons of commerce, adventure, and rivalry with other European countries. A group of London merchants formed an association for direct trade with the East Indies and established the first English factories on the mainland of India. Despite internal disputes and political intrigue, the East India Company prospered until the 1850s.

Missionaries first came to India early in the 1800s. Their introduction of western ideas and methods of education, as well as the English language, challenged the social and religious beliefs of the Hindu orthodoxy. The humanitarian movement led by the missions resulted in reforms which went even deeper than the political level of society. It is thought that the Indian mutiny of 1858, or the Sepoy Rebellion, was not so much a revolt against foreign political domination as a protest against westernization.

Following the Sepoy Rebellion, which was led by Indian troops in the service of the British Government, the East India Company reluctantly relinquished its extensive possessions, and the government of India passed directly into the hands of the British parliament and crown. A viceroy was appointed to represent the crown and in 1876 Queen Victoria was officially proclaimed Empress of India. Until 1947, when India gained her independence from Great Britain, she was to remain the brightest jewel in the imperial crown.

During the period of the British rule, India was divided. Two-thirds of the area was governed directly by the British, whereas one-third was made up of some 565 princely states, ruled by maharajas, and nizams. Nizam was the title given to the ruler of the realm. These rulers were allowed to keep their titles and their lands in return for swearing allegiance to the British. The state of Hyderabad was one of the largest and wealthiest. Its nizam was the richest person in the world at that period. The other princely states were small in comparison.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century a new nationalist reform movement began to take hold in India. A group of young, wealthy, educated Indians believed that it was time for the British to go. They founded the Indian National Congress in 1885, which first met in Bombay. Gradually, self-rule for India became its aim. In 1906 the Muslim League was founded as a means of maintaining Muslim power, and eventually it brought about the establishment of the state of Pakistan, but this was not until after partition.

One of the most important and influential figures in the Indian independence movement was Mohandas K. Gandhi. He returned to India in 1915, after having spent 20 years in South Africa, where he had worked to lessen discrimination against the Indians who lived in Africa. He worked with the Indian National Congress, but he also spread the message of independence to the masses of India’s population as he visited thousands of villages throughout the country. Rabindranath Tagore, India’s well-known poet and Nobel prize winner in 1913, hailed him as the Mahatma or Great Soul.

In May 1915 Gandhi founded a satyagraha ashram at Ahmedabad in the Gujurat with 25 adherents. He urged his people to follow a policy of nonviolence and passive resistance. He also preached swadesh, or belonging to one’s own country. He encouraged people to stop buying British-made cloth and to wear khadi, which was hand-spun and hand-woven on the charka, or spinning wheel. Spinning centers were established in more than 5,000 villages. In time, the spinning wheel became the symbol of independence. This same symbol is part of their national flag today.

Gandhi was widely regarded as the father of the Indian nation and insisted on living in rural surroundings. Since the majority of the people of India live in villages, he chose a place known as Sevagram where he had a hut built. The cost of the hut was not to exceed Rupees 100 (approximately $ 20.00), the price that any poor man could afford, and it was from this primitive hut, furnished with a simple bedroll, a pillow, a lantern, a pen, and two inkpots that he dealt with the mighty British Empire!

Jawaharlal Nehru was another of India’s outstanding leaders. Gandhi and Nehru first met in 1915. Gandhi’s new instrument of political action was based on truth and nonviolence. He called it satyagraha. This weapon was first used in April 1917 when the indigo workers went on strike. They had been compelled by law to plant indigo, which was sold to European planters. It was at that time that Nehru cast his lot with Gandhi and thus began a close association that endured 30 years until Gandhi’s death.

It was in the 1920s, the decade that my parents arrived in India, that Mohandas K. Gandhi had become the leader of the National Congress and had begun his agitation for independence. The party leaders had done considerable thinking and planning before independence. Thus the Congress was able to adopt a constitution based on the model that had been drawn up in 1928.

Nehru was elected President of Congress in 1929. On January 26, 1930, thousands of meetings were held all over India where the people pledged themselves to the inalienable right of the Indian people to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil.

On March 12, 1930 Gandhi, with 78 followers, left his ashram in the Gujarat and began his famous 200-mile walk to Dandi, on the Arabian Sea, with a vow to break the salt law. This was a novel move and symbolic of a new mood of defiance. It stirred the entire nation.

Nehru urged the people to join in this valiant struggle. Six months later he was arrested and very soon after, Gandhi, too, was arrested and imprisoned near Poona. These were only the first of many arrests for both men. Their arrests released a wave of anger and resentment among the Indian people, followed by strikes in textile mills and protests all over India. Nehru was jailed nine times, first in 1921 at the time of the Prince of Wales’ visit, and the last time during the Quit India Movement in 1942. He urged purna swaraj, or complete independence. Between periods in jail, he traveled throughout the country and acquainted himself with the problems of the people, but while in jail he read and wrote extensively.

Gandhi identified himself with the untouchables, whom he called the harijans or children of God. In 1933 he started the magazine, Harijan, which became his mouthpiece. Albert Einstein said of Gandhi, We are fortunate and grateful that fate has bestowed upon us so luminous a contemporary, a beacon to generations to come.

Nehru played an important role in negotiations with Sir Stafford Cripps in 1942 and finally in talks with Lord Mountbatten, which ultimately led to India’s independence in 1947. During his leadership of the Congress, Nehru tried to seek a peaceful settlement with the Muslim League, led by Mr. Jinnah, but the Congress failed and India was divided. This was the beginning of the terrible communal riots that followed partition.

India became an independent country on August 15, 1947 with Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s most famous disciple, as its first prime minister. Nehru, in his eloquent speech given on the eve of independence, said, A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. To create a new, prosperous India, Nehru set up a series of five-year plans.

Gandhi had said of Nehru, He is as pure as crystal; he is truthful beyond suspicion; the nation is safe in his hands. To most Indians, Nehru symbolized everything that was good and noble in life. He served as prime minister until his death in 1964, without having appointed a successor.

The all-India Muslim League, during this period, had been campaigning for a separate Muslim nation, which would include part of the Punjab in the west and Bengal in the East. During the partition of the country in 1947 into India and Pakistan, millions of people were forced to leave their homes and millions more were killed. In the end, Gandhi became a victim of the Hindu-Muslim rivalry, which erupted in violence and rioting in India’s major cities. It was a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, of the Hindu Mahasabha, who killed Gandhi in 1948 when he was on his way to his evening prayers. The Hindu Mahasabha was an extremely orthodox Hindu organization. Godse had opposed Gandhi’s tolerance of other religions, particularly that of the Muslims.

Nehru, when he heard the news of Gandhi’s death, wept like a child and told his people, The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I have a sense of utter shame, both as an individual and as the head of the Government, that we should have failed to keep the greatest treasure that we possessed. A glory has departed and the sun that warmed and brightened our hearts has set and we shiver in the cold and dark.

Some months later he told the nation, We mourn him. We shall always mourn him, because we are human and cannot forget our valued master, but I know that he would not want us to mourn. That is a poor way of doing homage to him. We must pledge ourselves anew, to dedicate ourselves to the great task, which he undertook on our behalf.

The most divisive issue the Congress had to face after independence was over language. Anti-Hindi riots took place largely in south India, where descendants of the Dravidians spoke Tamil, and in 1953 India redrew her state boundaries according to linguistic lines, causing more riots throughout India. Interestingly enough, English remained the official language until 1965, and shortly thereafter Hindi was voted the official language of India.

India had been under British control since 1885. Although the British influence was strongly felt, it remained a land of Mogul palaces, Hindu temples, and Rajput forts. The British had built the grand trunk roads throughout India and planted trees along these roads. They had developed an excellent system of railroads. The public buildings, which still stand today in many of the major cities, were part of the great legacy left by the British. They also left beautiful gardens, golf clubs, and cantonments, where the British army had been headquartered. Not the least important legacy of the British, however was the English language which all educated Indians use today.

India, after China, is the second most populous country in the world. It is predominantly rural with eighty-two percent of the population dependent on agriculture. The Indian population in the year 2000 is approaching one billion. Hindus make up eighty-five percent of the population and within this vast majority there are many sub-castes. Muslims account for ten percent of the population; Christians, two percent, and Sikhs, two percent. Less than one percent are Jains. It is a country of an astonishing diversity, with 14 major languages and 2000 identifiable dialects. Fifty-percent of her people are illiterate, yet with all of her problems, India has become a model of democracy for other nations of the Third World.

THE PRESBYTERIAN MISSION IN WESTERN INDIA

The Presbyterian Church was committed to being a missionary church from the colonial period in our country. The church established a Board of Foreign Missions in 1837, which was the beginning of a worldwide missionary effort which extended to fifteen countries, located on four different continents.

The Western India Mission, where my parents served for 37 years, was founded in 1853. Earlier Presbyterian missions had been established in the Punjab in 1834, and in North India in 1836. Missionaries founded schools, hospitals and churches, thereby raising the level of literacy, providing medical care, as well as promoting God’s love for all mankind. Mission work was largely centered in the villages where poverty was in direct contrast to the wealth of the high-caste Brahmin.

Presbyterian missions always stressed the importance of education. Their motto was teach not only the heart, but the head. They had faith in the wholeness of the human being. In the first 100 years of missions, forty educational institutions were founded. These institutions promoted Christianity in their classrooms. From these mission schools, which emphasized character building and moral values, large numbers of Indians have gone out to become leaders in their country and abroad. Twelve missionaries in the Presbyterian Mission were awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind medal by the British Government for their outstanding contribution to India.

The mission schools taught a wide variety of practical tasks, such as tailoring, carpentry, mechanics, gardening, and poultry raising. They promoted education for girls. Thus their horizons were broadened, as Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh children studied and played together. Isabella Thoburn College, the first college for women in India, was founded in Lucknow in 1886.

Missionaries established fine hospitals, as healing was an essential part of the mission of the Christian church. Dr. William J. Wanless, who was knighted for his outstanding contribution to India, founded the Miraj Hospital. It is considered one of the finest medical centers in India, with schools of medicine and pathology.

Dr. Robert H. H. Goheen founded St. Luke’s Hospital in Vengurla in the early 1900s. His first patients were cared for in a dispensary set up in a humble building. Later, when St. Luke’s Hospital was built, it was customary for the family of the patient to come to the hospital, bringing with them their supply of food and cooking utensils. Missionary doctors regularly held clinics in outlying villages, in addition to their work in the hospital.

Dr. Robert E. Speer, President of the Board of Foreign Missions and a prominent mission administrator and historian, served on the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions for over 40 years. Dr. Robert Speer was genuinely dedicated to the idea of an ecumenical church, and shared his vision for foreign missions in his many books and articles, such as in Missionary Principles and Practice (1902), and The Unfinished Task of Foreign Missions (1926) where he emphasized God’s love for the whole world.

Dr. E. M. Dodds, secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions during my parents’ term in India, wrote after visiting the mission field, Mission hospitals are strong on character, friendliness, personal care, and sound professional work. There is no discrimination. The poor are treated along with the wealthy who come from all over India. The only lack, however, is adequate equipment and personnel.

Many of the churches established by the missionaries in the nineteenth century were mature enough by the twentieth century to assume responsibility for the mission of the church. In 1956 the Lake Mohonk Conference in New York recognized the new day of twentieth century missions and formed COEMAR ( Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations) which encouraged the growth of the indigenous churches and the transfer of responsibilities to these national churches. Indianization was the term adopted after the merger. Several of my father’s letters, written in his last term in India, refer to the merger that took place in the Western India Mission. He was proud to have been part in this historic action.

COEMAR prepared its own missionaries, now referred to as fraternal workers, to work together with the indigenous churches in this new relationship. After 1958, the mission as an entity or organization was merged within the life of the church in that country. These churches now assume responsibility for the decisions that had formerly been made by the Mission Board. This attitude, as early as 1956, has had far-reaching consequences for the development of a world-wide Christian Church.

The Western India Mission Stations in 1948

( See the accompanying map of India)

Kolhapur was the first mission station, founded in 1870. It was the only station in an independent native state. Kolhapur was a large city, with a mixture of ancient and modern. It was located 30 miles from Miraj, with its own hospital of 75 beds. In 1948 there were seven churches, six schools, and about 3,000 Christians.

Sangli was the second mission, founded in 1884. The town had a population of about 50,000, among whom were many cultured and well- educated Indians. In 1948 there were 10 mission churches and 12 schools. Its Christian community numbered 5,000.

Miraj was the third mission, founded in 1892, and was the site of the hospital founded by Dr. Wanless. In addition to the hospital, there was the nurses training center and the TB Sanatorium. Miraj had approximately 5,000 Christians in 1948.

Kodoli was founded in 1893, Kodoli is only 12 miles from Kolhapur. It is on the border of the Konkon and the Deccan. It had five churches and a small hospital with 12 beds. There were 5 primary schools and 2,000 Christians when this census was taken.

Vengurla is the only mission station in the Konkon and was founded in 1900. It is about 200 miles south of Bombay. St Luke’s Hospital was founded by Dr. Robert Goheen, who gave 32 years of service there. There is a Leprosarium and the Hillside Tuberculosis Sanatorium, as well as a High School and a church.

Islampur was founded in 1906 by Grace Wilder, it has two organized churches, one being the Grace Wilder Memorial Church, three primary schools, and one small hospital. There were 1,000 Christians in 1948.

Nipani is the youngest of the mission stations and founded in 1910. In 1948 there were estimated to be 500 Christians.

CHAPTER ONE

The Early Years before India

Forest Conser

Hilda Conser

Genealogy of the Conser—Bruere families

Forest Conser meets Hilda Bruere

Fall had come with its cooler days. It was September 1915. Among the freshmen entering Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio were Forest Conser, a native son, and Hilda Bruere, who had traveled all the way from Collingswood, New Jersey. The student body numbered close to five hundred. There was an air of friendliness and expectation on campus. Mount Union College was about one hundred years old, having been founded by the Methodists in the mid-1800s as a school of higher learning for their young people. Their academic standards were excellent. The classical formation was considered important. Greek, Latin, and Hebrew were required subjects for all students.

Every morning the students assembled for chapel. Because they were seated alphabetically, young, stalwart Forest Conser was seated directly behind Hilda Bruere. This was Hilda’s first time away from home, and as she was rather shy by nature she was startled in the first week when she heard the clear greeting, Good morning, Miss Bruere. That first morning she pretended not to hear, but the second morning she looked around and found herself smiling back at a very pleasant-looking young man. He had a wonderful smile.

That was how their friendship began and in the following months Forest and Hilda were seeing a lot of each other and were soon considered steadies. Forest, who was known as Daddy" to his friends, drove a Metz, a sports car that carried at least five passengers. It was said that one seldom saw the car around town with fewer than five or six fellows or girls in it.

Forest had worked as a garage mechanic in Alliance. He and his younger brother, Harvey, sold cars as well. One day, Dean Bowman of Mount Union College came to their shop and bought a Metz from the Conser boys. He was particularly impressed with Forest, and after learning that he had graduated valedictorian of his high school class, he urged him to enroll at Mount Union College.

Life Begins for Forest in Ohio

Country schools in Ohio were often given quaint and homely names, such as Buzzard’s Glory, Wild Duck, and Dumb Corner. It was at a spelling bee at Hornet’s Nest that Forest’s parents, Dora Miller and David Conser, first met. They were married in 1887. Life was a struggle for this young couple. There were no frills and no extravagances. They worked hard to have their homestead. David Conser did diversified farming with great success. In those early years of struggle they had four children, two girls, Ethel and Theda, and two boys, Forest and Harvey. Forest was the older of the two boys.

Eventually the Consers had a prosperous farm of two hundred acres in Sebring, Ohio. This area in the Midwest was essentially the frontier in those early years. They owned forty acres of forest land with a sawmill. A large barn accommodated 10 horses, numerous cows, pigs, sheep, and fowl. Their basic crops were wheat, oats, corn, and hay.

As the children grew older David Conser sold the 200 acres to start a state bank in New Kensington, Ohio. He wanted to put his four children in better schools. The bank was a success. Forest recalled, We were growing up, and high school was in the offing. So the next move was to Alliance, Ohio. Dad was director in a couple of banks. One closed in the depression and the directors were held for double liability.

Forest’s mother, Dora, was the daughter of Judge Miller, a highly respected man and a pillar of his community. There were three Miller daughters. Their gracious home still stands today.

David and Dora’s children were taught a sense of responsibility and a respect for hard work. At threshing time and at barn raising, extra workers were laid on, but the children always had their regular chores. When the work was the heaviest, a good neighbor, Mr. Weir, was always on hand to offer his help.

Forest was born in a log cabin on August 10,1895 on a farm in Hanover Township, in Columbiana County, Ohio. At that time 50 percent of the population of the U.S.A. was rural. It seemed an unlikely start for someone who would face the ancient wisdom of the East. But India was 80 percent rural and he was at home with the tillers of the soil. It gave him a contact with the people that many other missionaries lacked.

His early schooling was at Buzzard’s Glory. It was a one-room schoolhouse with a pot-bellied stove in the center of the room. Pupils ranged from 6 to 18 years of age. Some were taller and stronger than the teacher, but the teacher was always treated with respect.

When Forest was a child of 6, the barn was struck by lightning. All the lambs were lost. This event had such a traumatic effect on him that he couldn’t carry on a conversation for years without mentioning the fire. He learned independence early. By the time he was 9 years old his father expected him to earn his keep so he started his first paper route. His sense of responsibility, and his determination to be independent, together with his sense of optimism, became his outstanding traits as he grew into adulthood.

In my search for more information on the early period of my Dad’s life I came across the following statements in letters he had submitted to the Presbyterian Board.

I was left-handed and one of my teachers was determined to change that. She forced me to write with my right hand, which resulted in me developing a definite stammer. I was the butt of a lot of ridicule, but it was not intolerable. It made me a better student, although a somewhat silent one. Then a beloved teacher told me of King’s School of Oratory, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Dad had sold most of his produce. The training and help I received there gave me such confidence that I made the debating team and ended up being the valedictorian of the high school class of 1915.

After President McMaster of Mount Union College met me, I was accepted me as a home boy. I paid my tuition by working 5 nights a week, 13 hours a night in the Alliance Machine Shop. I needed a cat-nap or two, but never in class.

Then in 1918 Uncle Sam was calling, and at the end of my Junior year I was enlisted in the USNRF, Officers Training Corp at Great Lakes Naval Base. I ended as a Deck Officer on the old USS Newport News. The Navy had its attraction, even from boyhood, but the call to the Mission Field had prior claim. I was a student volunteer and was intrigued with the writings of John R. Mott and Robert E. Speer and their slogan, The Evangelization of the World in This Generation. Every need that was presented gripped my heart. Then in Northfield, Massachusetts, Sherwood Eddy made the plea for India so attractive that India became the goal.

The call was strangely confirmed as our old transport sailed from Guam for Cavite. There was a leper in a cage on the aft deck. No one would go near him. He was ‘unclean’ and sadly neglected. My heart went out to him. I followed him to the great leper colony near Manila. Lepers have been a concern all my life. I ministered to them in Miraj and in Vengurla, and in the villages I soon diagnosed leprosy in the early stage, and had the joy of seeing the disease arrested.

The crew of the Newport News was unusual in its composition. Chinese were in the Mess. Santiago, a most trustworthy Filipino, was Chief Steward. The deck force was white and black, with a token contingent of Chamorros. They were my first taste of anthropology in the South Seas.

I had the confidence of this diverse crew and they asked me to be their chaplain. The Skipper readily agreed to 30 minutes at 11 a.m. on Sundays. It was a motley congregation, but we were one-in-Christ, and a good beginning to a life-long ministry.

Hilda Bruere’s Family

Hilda’s grandparents on her mother’s side were Polly Folsom and Mayhew Washington Palmer. They were Bostonians. Hilda’s grandfather was a printer by trade and a volunteer fireman. He was a well-respected man in the community, but while still a young man he died of pneumonia. It was thought that he developed pneumonia after fighting a fire on a bitterly cold night in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hilda’s mother, Carrie Jane Palmer, was born in Boston on April 26, 1860. She was an only child and was only three years old when her father died. Her mother died when Carrie Jane was scarcely nine. After her parents’ deaths Carrie Jane was brought up by two strict, spinster aunts in Lowell, Massachusetts, who were her mother’s sisters. One of these aunts lived to be 100.

Carrie Jane Palmer grew up in a very religious atmosphere. At an early age she felt the call to India, and when she was twenty-four she sailed from Boston for India under Dr. Collison’s Faith Mission. The year was 1885. She had saved enough money to buy a hand organ. It was her most prized possession and one of the few things she managed to take to India.

Hilda’s father, William Wynn Bruere, who was born in Pennington, New Jersey on December 10, 1857, was the son of a well-to-do family in Virginia. His parents were Pierre Bruere and Victoria Gertrude Wynn. Victoria had attended a school for elite young ladies in Virginia and had met Pierre at a dance. Pierre Bruere was of French Huguenot descent. His ancestors had come to America during the persecution of the Huguenots in France. It was the name given in the 16th century to the Protestants in France. Many of the early refugees fled first to Strasbourg, then a free city of the Holy Roman Empire. John Calvin was the most famous of these exiles, and he organized the French community in Strasbourg.

The Bruere family lived in Pennington, New Jersey and later moved to Trenton. As a youth, William Wynn had never been interested in religious matters, but one evening he and his friend, Stevens, were passing a church where Bishop Thoburn of the Methodist Church was holding services. It was raining and they had no umbrella, so to get out of the rain, and with a sense of great curiosity, the two young men entered the church to see what was going on. When they came out two hours later, both had decided that they would go as missionaries to India. That was in 1879.

Several months after these two young men experienced this Epiphany, William Wynn Bruere entered Pennington Seminary near Trenton, New Jersey in preparation for the ministry on the mission field. His first five years in India were in Bombay, where he and his friend, Stevens, shared a room. A large table and a bed were the only furnishings and, as the story went, whoever managed to retire first got to sleep on the bed.

On October 18, 1885 Carrie Jane Palmer’s ship pulled into Bombay Harbor. Young William Wynn Bruere and his friend, Stevens, were at the dock, eager to meet the new missionary recruits. Both young men were greatly attracted to this lovely young woman, but it was William Wynn Bruere who offered to teach her Marathi, the local Indian language, who won her hand. Six months later they were married and settled in Poona, which was considered the intellectual capital of India. Grandfather Bruere became the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Poona.

Famines in India seemed to occur in 17 year cycles. A terrible famine in 1896 left many widows and children desperately needing shelter and food. With the cooperation of Pandita Ramabai, a remarkable Brahmin woman who was considered one of the builders of modern India, Grandfather Bruere was instrumental in helping build the Mukti Mission, which ministered to homeless girls and widows. He usually walked the three dusty miles from Poona to the Mission to minister to the children. Grandma Bruere shared in this special interest and helped to care for unwanted baby girls. In the beginning, 600 girls were gathered from the famine areas, which were largely in the Central Provinces.

By 1900 Mukti Mission, which meant Home of Salvation, had a population of more than 2,000 children. The Mission built homes, provided education, cared for the sick, and established an industrial school, where young boys were trained in manual arts. In 1919, two years before her death, Pandita Ramabai was awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind, a gold medal bestowed by King George.

After they had served more than thirteen years in India, William and Carrie Bruere had two surviving children, Bowen and Carrie. Two older daughters, Agnes and Helen, had died, the former from diphtheria and the latter from a rabid squirrel bite. A third daughter, Hilda, was born in the hill station of Poona in western India on September 19, 1897.

Due to their father’s failing health, the family returned to the States in 1899, when Hilda was still an infant. They settled temporarily in Hackettstown, New Jersey, and it was there that a fourth daughter, Marjorie, was born in 1900.

Grandfather Bruere held several pastorates while in the States. It was in Audubon, New Jersey, that he supervised the building of a Methodist church. Once his health was restored, however, he felt he should return to India. It was decided that Grandma would remain in the States with their four children, at least while they were growing up.

Grandfather Bruere was often away in India for long periods of time, sometimes for as long as seven years. On his return to the family, after these long absences, the children did not recognize him. They would run and hide from the bearded stranger, until their mother reassured them that he was indeed their father.

Hilda attended high school in Collingswood, New Jersey. Her life centered in the home and the church. The Bruere home was a favorite gathering place for the young people. It was Bowen Bruere, Hilda’s brother, who had graduated from Mount Union College, in Alliance, Ohio, who encouraged Hilda to attend his alma mater and helped finance her tuition from his meager annual missionary salary of $700.00. He had returned to India as a missionary and was serving in the Methodist Mission in Puntumba, a city near Bombay.

In the early part of the century, a missionary’s salary did not allow for such extravagances as a college education for the children, particularly for a daughter, so Hilda felt very privileged to attend college. Her brother, Bowen, served as a missionary for a very brief period, as he died tragically in his thirties of peritonitis. The doctor who was called to attend him did not provide the appropriate care and of course there were no antibiotics. It was a devastating blow to the family. Uncle Bowen left his wife, Bessie, and two children, David and Betty. They remained in India until 1927, the year that Grandfather Bruere died, and returned to the United States with Grandma Bruere at that time. The girls at Mukti Mission, who revered Grandfather Bruere, wanted his body to be laid to rest in the Mission, but the family decided that he should be buried in Poona.

World War I (1918-1922)

In 1918, with the outbreak of World War 1, Forest had only completed three years at Mount Union College, but he felt he should volunteer to serve in the Navy. His basic training was at Great Lakes Naval Academy, and his officer’s training at Pelham Bay in New Rochelle, New York.

His first duty was aboard a Spanish ship, The Miliero, which plied the seas between Puerto Rico and Cuba. He was then transferred to the U. S. S. Newport, a transport ship at Mare Island, in Vallejo, California. He saw service in Pearl Harbor, Guam, and the Philippines. He was always proud that President Franklyn D. Roosevelt had signed his commission.

Meanwhile, Hilda continued her studies at Mount Union College and graduated in 1919. After graduation, the plan was for her to join Forest on the West Coast, where they were to be married on his ship. Hilda made the trip west by train, with a warning from her mother that she was not to speak to strangers on the train. Hilda took the counsel so seriously that by the end of the four-day journey, when she tried to ask for information, she had literally lost her voice. This first long trip at the age of 23 was just the beginning of an adventure that was to carry her halfway around the world.

Thus, it was on June 18, 1920 that Hilda and Forest were married aboard his ship, The Newport News. Hilda wore the beautiful embroidered white dress that Forest had brought from the Philippines. Shortly after the wedding, Ensign Conser was given an honorary discharge. They spent their honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, at Lake Louise, and then at Yosemite.

Student Life at Princeton Seminary

By autumn they were living in Princeton, New Jersey. Forest had enrolled at Princeton Seminary through the influence of Bowen Bruere even though both Forest and Hilda were members of the Methodist Church. During the first year in Princeton, they shared a rented house with another couple. Their next move was to Yardville, New Jersey to live with their good friends, the Eubanks. Each Sunday the young couple would travel the short distance by trolley to Forest Grove, Pennsylvania, where Forest had his first student pastorate.

To earn extra money, he would often preach in as many as three country churches on Sunday. The parishioners would hold poundings where they brought food by the pound. One man gave several tons of coal in the winter, and others helped furnish their home. Forest often helped the farmers in the congregation pitch hay.

Their first child, Dorothy Lucile, was born January 4, 1922. She was beautiful and they were delighted with her. The year Lucile was born, they lived in the church basement and during several months shared the space with Hilda’s sister, Marjorie, and her baby, Ruth.

A curtain in the middle of the room provided a modicum of privacy.

Forest remained as pastor of the Forest Grove church until he obtained his degree from Princeton Seminary.