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Dr. Sam Higginbottom is known the world over for his work as
India's foremost farmer. He was born on October 27, 1874, in
Greenheyes, Manchester. He was christened "Sam" after a
Jewish friend of his father Sam Mendal.
He was
very much influence by his mother who laid deep interest in
things unseen. What we call theology, the queen of sciences
because it overshadows the significance of every other
science, was much more to him than a study of religious
formulas. It was a search into the truth of everything
within and around, not only exercising the intellect but
satisfying the soul.
At the age of ten he went to Deansgate Higher Grade Board
School. There he met a teacher, Sam Parrish who imbued in
him a love for the Old Testament, covering the books of
Joshua and Judges in successive years. Dr. Sam
memorized many of the Psalms, also the Beatitudes and the
charity chapter in First Corinthians. In all of his life he
had realized how great a possession was this first hand
absorption of scripture. The interpretations that teacher
gave to these passages were an introduction, not only to
theology in the narrow sense of that word, but to philosophy
and life itself for Dr. Sam.
Due to poverty Dr. Sam could not continue his studies
further for few years. His bed was at times a bundle of
straw placed on the floor, and sometimes oatmeal provided
the chief sustenance. Dr. Sam served as a butcher's boy for a
time. At thirteen he became the youngest licensed cab-
driver in Manchester. After leaving school he also worked
among horses, cows and chicken to support his father's
family income. Being spending several hours a day between
morning and evening delivering milk, he wanted to be rich
more than he to be righteous. And like Jacob he set out to
bargain with God. He read about the tithe, giving to God one
fifth on his profits instead of one tenth if only God would
help him to be rich. But to be rich and honest as a
business- man did not satisfy him.
As he
went on reading the gospels and the more he read, the more
clear did it become that he should find no other way out but
complete surrender to Christ. Dr. Sam was willing to be
anything that God wanted him to be, even a preacher, if it
had to that way, or a missionary.
So he
made his decision and, having made it, he went to his father
and told him of all that he had been through. He confessed
that he did not have much to offer to God, and he recalled
the law of sacrifice in the Old Testament according to which
only the perfect victims could be accepted for the altar.
His mind was wild and undisciplined and he needed further
education that might take him away from his home.
Through
his elder brother David, Dr. Sam came in contact to the
spiritual giant, D. L. Moody, the evangelist, the founder of
the Mount Hermon School, Northfield who directly and
indirectly influenced the later career of Dr. Sam.
After
attending Mount Hermon school during the last five years of
D. L. Moody's life, Sam Higginbottom went on to Amherst and
Princeton. Then, as a result of one of those coincidences
that sometimes change the course of a man's life, he found
himself on the way to India to do village evangelistic work
among converts from the untouchables. There he saw the
deplorable poverty of millions of people earning their
living from the soil, with no knowledge of scientific
farming, and this was the factor in his determination to
study agricultural himself. Fighting with Herculean effort
against tremendous difficulties, Higginbottom started the
Allahabad Agricultural Institute. Developed out of almost
nothing. It is continuing to revolutionize rural life in a
land which possesses one- third of the world.
But Dr.
Higginbottom's work did not stop with the Institute. He and
his wife, a cousin of Buffalo Bill, administered a leper
colony. They made trips back to the United States to collect money for their work. Mrs. Higginbottom
started a dispensary on the back verandah (court yard), thus
was enable to learn more about the plight of the women of
India. Besides these activities, the Higginbottoms were in
charge of a boarding house for the Jumna Mission School
students. They knew
Gandhi and
Dr. Higginbottom tells of his many meetings with the
Mahatma.
Written simply and honesty, Sam Higginbottom, Farmer is the
story of one man's fight to bring some measure of relief to
the tragically poor villagers of India. But, more than that,
it is the story of the man himself- of his faith and his
great courage.
He
hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his
righteousness remaineth forever.
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