Samuel John Mills

Background

Samuel John Mills Jr. was the son of Samuel John and Esther (Robbins) Mills. His father was long pastor of the church at Torringford, Connecticut, in which town the younger Samuel was born on April 12, 1783.

Education

Mills's original purpose was to be a farmer, but his religious experiences finally impelled him to enter the ministry. He became much concerned about his spiritual welfare in the revival of 1798, and for two years thereafter felt convinced that he would go to hell. In the autumn of 1801, however, his mother's piety enabled him to rejoice in God's perfections without considering his own future destiny, and he afterwards realized that this was his conversion. Immediately the idea came to him of going abroad to preach the gospel to the heathen, the first time probably that such an enterprise had been seriously considered in the United States. Accordingly, in 1801, he sold a farm which had been bequeathed to him by his grandmother and entered Morris Academy, Litchfield. In 1806 he became a student at Williams College, where, during his first year, he was a leader in a religious revival. He proposed to several of his friends that they should become foreign missionaries and secured from them a favorable response. Graduating in 1809, he spent a few months at Yale, in the hope of enlisting supporters of the missionary project there, but his stay was fruitless save for his discovery of Henry Obookiah, a native of the Sandwich Islands, who had recently found his way to New Haven. Early in 1810, he proceeded to Andover Theological Seminary taking Obookiah with him; Obookiah was converted soon afterwards, and his conversion resulted in the foundation a few years later of the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Massachusetts While in the seminary Mills talked about missions incessantly. In June 1810, he and three of his friends presented a paper to the General Association of Massachusetts, in which they declared their desire to go as missionaries to the heathen and asked for counsel. As a result the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed, which in 1812 sent out ten missionaries to Calcutta, and by 1820 had eighty-one missionaries under its charge.

Career

On his graduation from Andover in 1812, Mills was licensed to preach and was sent by the Connecticut and Massachusetts Home Missionary societies on a tour of the country beyond the Alleghenies, from Cincinnati to New Orleans, in company with John F. Schermerhorn; in 1814-15 he made a second and more extensive journey with Daniel Smith. They preached the gospel, distributed Bibles and tracts, promoted the formation of Bible societies, and collected information about the religious and moral condition of the inhabitants. They endured great hardships and were sometimes in danger of their lives from starvation, Indians, and flooded rivers. In collaboration with Schermerhorn, he published in 1814 A Correct View of That Part of the United States Which Lies West of the Allegany Mountains, with Regard to Religion and Morals, and with Smith, in 1815, Report of a Missionary Tour through That Part of the United States Which Lies West of the Allegany Mountains. On June 21, 1815, Mills was ordained at Newburyport, Massachusetts During the next two years he resided at Albany, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington; and in these years he was the instigator and the chief organizer of the American Bible Society, of the United Foreign Missionary Society (formed by the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches), and of a school for training negro preachers. He also spent some months visiting the poor in the city of New York, and distributing Bibles and tracts. He planned a missionary tour of South America, and hoped finally to accompany Obookiah to the Sandwich Islands. He became particularly interested in the negroes, however, and when the American Colonization Society was formed in 1817 he at once offered his services. With Ebenezer Burgess he was dispatched to Africa to find suitable territory for purchase. They set out for England in November and were almost wrecked in a storm in which their ship was deserted by the captain, but finally made port at St. Malo. After consulting with the leaders of the English antislavery movement they sailed in February 1818 for Sierra Leone, where they spent three months negotiating with a number of native chiefs, and selecting territory for the future colony of Liberia. On the return voyage, begun May 22, 1818, Mills caught a chill, died of fever, and was buried at sea.

Achievements

• Mills is known the father of foreign missionary work in the United States, and the chief creator of four important philanthropic institutions.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Report of a Missionary Tour Through That Part of the United States Which Lies West of the Alleganymountains

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Communications Relative to the Progress of Bible Societies in the United States

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Personality

Few men with such slender natural endowments have accomplished more. Mills was quite undistinguished as a scholar, writer, or preacher; he was slow of tongue, inert in manner, and unimpressive in personality. Nevertheless, he was a good judge of men, and had considerable ability as an organizer.

Connections

Perhaps, Samuel John Mills was never married.

Father:

Samuel John Mills

Mother:

Esther (Robbins) Mills

associate:

Robert Finley

1772 – October 3, 1817 Was briefly the president of the University of Georgia.

niece:

Julia Sherman Mills

1817–1890

References

• Williams Biographical Annals: With an Introduction by Rev. S. Irenæus, D. D (Classic Reprint)
• Memoirs Of The Rev. Samuel J. Mills: Late Missionary To The South Western Section Of The United States, And Agent Of The American Colonization Society, Deputed To Explore The Coast Of Africa
• Samuel J. Mills, Missionary Pathfinder, Pioneer and Promoter (Classic Reprint)
• Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 2: Or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, From the Settlement of ... Hundred and Fifty-Five (Classic Reprint)
• History of Torrington, Connecticut, From its First Settlement in 1737, With Biographies and Genealogies