WILSON, John Leighton

[s. 804] : Born in Sumter Co., C, March 28, 1809. Died July 13, 1886. Graduated at Union College 1829, and Theological Seminary of Columbia, S. C, 1833; ordained the same year by Harmony Presbytery, and set S. apart as a mi ionary to Africa. In the summer of 1833 he studied Arabic at And over Seminary, 787 and in the autumn went to Western Africa to explore the coast, returning in the spring, and on the 24th of November, 1834, sailed as a mi ionary of the ABCFM for Cape Palmas, Liberia, arriving in December. He was received with demonstrations of joy by the natives, and found the frame house which he had taken out on his first visit erected on the spot he had selected. In 1836 he made three tours of exploration in the interior, journeying mostly on foot. He had, while at Cape Palmas, where he remained seven years, a boarding-school numbering fifty, a fourth of whom were females; a church of forty members, 180 youths had been educated, the Grebo language was reduced to writing, a grammar and dictionary of the language published, the Gospels of Matthew and John translated and printed, besides several other small volumes. In 1842 he removed to the Gabun River, 1,200 miles south of Cape Palmas, and commenced a new station among the Mpongwe people. This language also he reduced to writing, and published its grammar and vocabulary; he also translated and published portions of the Bible. In 1853 he returned home on account of failing health, and became Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mi ions in New York, editing also the foreign department of the Home and Foreign He served as Secretary till the com Record. men cement of the civil war. when, returning to his Southern home, he organized for the Southern Church a Board of Foreign Mi ions, of which he was appointed Secretary, holding the office till 1885. He established and edited The Mi ionary, He organized also the a monthly magazine. Board of Sustentation. In 1854 he published a volume of 500 pages on Western Africa, its history, condition, and prospects, which was pronounced by Dr. Living stone the best work on He published that part of Africa ever written. also many articles in the Southern Presbyterian He received the degree of D.D. from Review. Lafayette College in 1854. 805