Nanibala (Biswas) Burrus, The Eleven-year Old Widow: First Convert from Non-Christians

Nanibala, only eleven years old, but already widowed, first encountered Adventists when Georgia Burrus visited their home which was only a few doors from the school that the Adventists had just opened at 154 Bow Bazar in 1896).  Attracted more than any other family member to the hymns Georgia sang and the Bible stories she told, Nanibala urged Georgia to return again and again.

Nanibala with her family members (2nd  Rt)

The child-widow soon confessed her love for Jesus and her belief in the new faith with her family members and soon declined to bow down to the household idols. The family could not tolerate this and soon her father banned Georgia Burrus from entering their home,and locked Nanibala in her room.  He threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.  Nanibala was afraid to eat lest her food be poisoned.

One Sabbath the Adventists prayed earnestly for the girl, not knowing if she were dead or alive, The same day Nanibala discovered that workmen who had been repairing their home had left a ladder in the courtyard around which all their rooms were built and realized a way of escape had been provided. After midnight while all the other family members were asleep an aunt who was sympathetic to Nanibala's plight helped her hoist the ladder against the wall and held it while the girl scrambled to the terrace. Making her way to the outer edge, she jumped to the ground and ran to the school.  She managed to get the attention of the Bengali teacher who took her to Georgia.

Of course her family knew where she had fled to and they attempted several times unsuccessfully to take her back. When all else had failed her father approached another mission and asked for their help, thinking that if his daughter had to be a Christian at least she could belong to a more popular denomination than this new sect that had just arrived.

Accordingly, one day a lady in a beautiful carriage drove up to the mission house and informed the Adventists that her church had been given custody of Nanibala.  Georgia politely informed her that she would not stand in the way but that Nanibala should decide for herself. In fluent Bengali, the lady presented all the advantages of their large school and its comforts, and described the fellowship with other girls. Then she told the child to get her things and come with her.

Smiling brightly, Nanibala replied "Aami jabo na. (I'm not coming)." Astonished, the lady repeated her call with stronger arguments thinking that the child may not have understood her properly.  Again the girl responded simply, "Aami jabo na." With that the encounter ended and the lady left.

Nanibala with Georgia Burgess around 1916



Nanibala joined the school and after a little more Bible instruction was baptized. The girl learnt to read and write Bengali and then English. then she joined the training class for nurses that Dr O G Place started at the Sanitarium.  When the doctor and his wife returned permanently to the US in 1901 Nanibala accompanied them to continue her studies first at the Glendale Sanitarium and then at Battle Creek. Though she lived with the family of Dr Place, she adopted the family name of Burrus. 

Nanibala Burrus became a registered nurse and masseuse and settled in Attleboro, Massachusetts and opened her own health and massage centre. She never forgot the kindness and support that others had expended to her and in turn she also

helped numerous young people in their college studies. She passed away in 1958.
________________________

Burgess, L J, Mrs, "The Blessed Pioneer," Eastern Tidings, Pioneer Number Extra, 36 (May 8,

     1941):2, 3

Burrus, Georgia, "Visiting the Homes in India," Bible Training School, 15 (Dec 1916), 117-118

__________, Beginning School Work in India, Bible Training School, 15 (Nov 1916): 99-100

Burrus, Noni B., (Obituary), Reveiw & Herald, 136 (Feb 26, 1959): 26

"Noonibala Burros Visits Seventh-day Campgrounds" Attleboro Sun, July 17, 1954

Thanks to Dr Senseman for these photographs which were given to Pastor W G Jenson and who then passed them on to me when he left India on PR

Nanibala at her residence in Attleboro, USA, 1954

Mookerjees--First Indian Family to Join the Adventists

 




(1) A Grandfather Wall Clock Owned by the Mookerjees.  Given to Pastor W G Jenson by N G Mookerjee and passed on to Gordon Christo. Now in the Heritage Centre.  Estimated to be about 90 years old.

(2) A Steel Mirror and Its Cloth Pouch. Used by N G Mookerjee on his travels and given by his wife to my mother Mrs G J Christo. See the reflection of the pencil sharpener.

    Later Corrections [made on June 19, 2020]. 
1. I have been informed by descendants of the Mookerjee family that Lal Chand was not the son of Krishna Pal's daughter, but of a second wife of Bhyrub Mookerjee. Therrefore LGM only mentions that he is a descendant of  Carey's first Brahmin convert (Bhyrub)
2. The manuscript mailed to my father which had no name was erroneously attributed to J O Wilson by my dad. It is by E M Meleen.
3.According to the obituary of Noni Gopal Mookerjee he was born on Oct 29, 1900. He would not have been born when the family became Adventists in 1896-97 as a result of the treatment of Noppo Gopal the second son. Noni would have been 28 when he was baptized, 44 when he was married and 60 when he was posted in Goa, and 80 at the timeof his death However, according to his own handwritten account, he was born on Jan 28, 1894, he was in fact the boy who was treated in 1896-7 when the family joined the church. If this is correct, then he was baptized at the age of 44, married at the age of 60, and died a day after his 97th birthday.

Lal Chand Mookerjee

Grandfather Mookerjee was the grandson of Krishna Pal, a carpenter who in his thirties became William Carey's first convert when he went to the missionaries with a broken arm for treatment.

[We know the names of Krishna Pal's four daughters born to him by his wife Rasoo (the second woman to be baptized, after her sister Jeyamoni) from The Memoirs of Krishna Pal, and The Life of William Carey DD--Shoemaker and Missionary by George Smith, and From Krishna Pal to Lal Behari Dey: Indian Builders of the Church in India or Native Agency in Bengal 1800-1880 by E Jackson]

The first daughter Golook had been betrothed as an infant to Mohun, a Hindu who came to claim her when she came of age. The second daughter Ananda married the first converted Brahmin, Krishna Prasad. The third Kesaree married Bhyrub (Bhairab) Chandra Mookhpadya another Brahmin whose last name was anglicized to Mookerjee. The last Neelu married Raju a school teacher.

Bhyrub and Kesaree had a son Lal Chand who married Prosonnomoyee in 1854. The first of six sons was Akshay Coomar whose three sons were Lal Gopal, Noppo Gopal and Noni Gopal.
The Adventists refereed to Lal Chand as Grandfather Mookerjee. He accepted the message from literature supplied by his son A C Mookerjee. (See  J E Fulton, “An Early Indian Believer,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 98, Oct 6, 1921: 9 (http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19211006-V98-40.pdf) and invited the Adventists to hold meetings at his home too. There is a picture of Grandfather Mookerjee at an outdoor pulpit at his home in the above article.



Noni Gopal informs us that the Mookerjees had for centuries been priests of the Kali Temple in Serampur and that for a while Bhyrub had assisted William Carey in translation of the Bible into Bengali.

Akshay Coomar Mookerjee

Father A C Mookerjee accepted the message in 1896, introduced by Colporteur Ellery Robinson who arrived in India on Oct 12, 1896 (See Ellery Robinson, “India,” Supplement to Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 73, Dec 1, 1896: 3). Ellery visited the Mookerjees who lived in the vicinity of Sealdah station close to the 154 Bow Bazar headquarters of the Adventists.  In three weekly visits to A C Mookerjee, Ellery sold Patriarchs and Prophets, The Great Controversy, and Thoughts on Daniel and Revelation. Father Mookerjee translated these into Bengali for family worship every evening day.  A C Mookerjee translated and printed Adventist tracts in Bengali at his own expense (L G Mookerjee, “A Comprehensive Survey of the Early Work,” Eastern Tidings—Pioneer Number Extra, 36-9, May 8, 1941:7) in his own printing press in Baitakhana (W A Spicer, "Some Facts About the Early Work in India," Eastern Tidings--Pioneer Number Extra, 36-9, May 8, 1941:6)

Lal Gopal Mookerjee

Born in 1882, and having joined the Adventists in 1896 with his father Lal Gopal Mookerjee worked at the Sanitarium and Health Foods Company from 1901-1903, and then at the treatment rooms till 1905. Meanwhile on Feb 9, 1904 he married Grace Kellogg who had come to work as a self-supporting nurse in 1903. Grace (no relation to Dr J H Kellogg), was the cousin of Louis Kellogg, former mayor of Rippon and a senator from Wisconsin. 

When the first church was organised in Calcutta in 1908, Lal Gopal was ordained as an elder--the first Indian to be ordained so. The couple worked in East Bengal establishing the work in Gopalganj till Grace suffered attacks from tropical illnesses and they moved to the US where Lal Gopal studied at the Washington Adventist Seminary while Grace recuperated. The couple returned to East Bengal where Grace Kellogg succumbed to cerebral meningitis in 1910.  

In 1911 LGM  married Clara Loveday and they started a boarding section at Gopalgunj. Lal Gopal was ordained to the gospel ministry on  June 24, 1917. When he joined administrative work of the East Bengal mission, Clara ran the school till 1926 putting in much of family funds. They also started another school in Jarlipar. Then Lal Gopal was called to be president of the entire Bengal Section. From 1931-1934 Lal Gopal taught in the South India Training School at Bangalore. In 1937 he was called to take charge of the the Northeast Training School at Karmatar (which was later moved to Babumohal and then to Falakata). From 1940-1946 he served as Home Missionary, Sabbath School, and YPMV secretary for the Northeast India Union in headquartered in Ranchi. Returning from the 1946 GC session, he worked at the Voice of Prophecy School in Poona, and from 1948 till his retirement in 1950 he worked as Director of the Religious Liberty and Temperance departments of the Southern Asia Division. (See Obituary of L G Mookerjee in Tidings 47-10, May 15, 1952; and Gordon Christo “Taking Root—The First Indigenous Pastors, Tidings,  1910 Heritage Special Issue, Nov 2010, pp 21-23).  Lal Gopal had a son Marcus who settled in the US.

Noppo Gopal Mookerjee
ACM's younger son, Noppo Gopal Mookerjee at this time was suffering from a malignant form of malaria and ACM instructed a servant to call for Dr L V Mitter, the family Hindu physician.  The servant made a mistake and called for N Mitter, a Bengali Christian assisting Dr O G Place at the newly opened Treatment Room in 154 Bow Bazar street, and whom also the Mookerjees were acquainted with.  On friday the young Noppo Gopal was taken to the treatment room and in the evening while leaving Father Mookerjee heard the sound of hymn singing upstairs. He attended the vespers service and eventually the whole family joined the Adventists. (L G Mookerjee, Personal Letter, Feb 25, 1951, quoted in J O Wilson, untitled, mss, 99-100. The mss typed on onion skin paper was mailed by Gertrude Ayala to my father G J Christo in 2013.  Chapter VII is titled “Beginnings of the Work and Half a Century of Progress.”  The author does not name himself, but based on a few facts supplied about himself, my father was able to deduce who he was. The mss dated in the 1950s was intended for publication but too much work remained.) Not much more is known about Noppo.

Noney (Noni) Gopal Mookerjee

Born on Oct 29,1900 after the family had already joined the Adventists Noney left his successful insurance business in 1928 to join the Adventist task force first as an evangelistic assistant in Calcutta. Following some work in Karmatar, N G Mookerjee served as principal of the Kellogg Mookerjee school (named after his sister-in-law) in East Bengal.  In 1944 he married Norine Dowman and was transferred to Ranchi.

While pastoring in Calcutta Noney was ordained in 1947.  The next year he was moved to Poona where he served first as Business Manager and then as Field Secretary of the Voice of Prophecy School. In between he briefly served as a pastor in Krishnarajapuram (Bangalore). In 1960 the Mookerjees entered Goa as pioneers and served there till his retirement in 1966 whereupon they moved back to Ranchi.  N G Mookerjee passed away on Jan 29, 1981—one of the last links to the pioneers of Adventism in India (See the Obituary of N G Mookerjee in Tidings 76, Mar 1981.)

Kheroda Bose, The First Indian Adventist[i]

The teen-aged Kheroda Bose[ii] and other girls were bathing by the river with their mother-in-law when a missionary lady and a few other Bengali girls from the Baptist mission approached in a boat.  This was the first time Kheroda encountered a white lady and she was drawn to her.  Her mother-in-law showed no interest in the lady or her talk on Jesus.  She was however, attracted to her beautiful dress and when she discovered that it she had done the fine needlework herself the mother-in-law grudgingly invited the missionary to teach her sew.  This the missionary agreed to provided she was permitted to teach some religious things too.  Thus Kheroda received her introduction to Christianity.[iii] Despite the carefulness of the ladies to keep these visits secret, one day the menfolk returned unexpectedly and assaulted the missionary lady, throwing a brick at her.  She escaped death, but fell to the ground wounded.

Kheroda’s husband disappeared one day and no one ever discovered what happened to him. Thus Kheroda was widowed in her teen age years itself.[iv] The Bose family then moved to Benaras where Kheroda languished wishing she could meet the missionary lady again. Then one day the missionary appeared at their door. Though her mother-in-law tried to send her away, she recognized the family and asked for Kheroda. Despite the mother-in-law's strong disapproval the missionary was able to speak comforting words to Kheroda for a while. Soon after that in connivance with the family's servant girl whose support she bought with Rs 5 which the girl needed, Kheroda slipped out the house and into a carriage which was standing at the door. She urged the driver to go straight ahead not knowing what to do since it was her first time out of the house alone, and first time speaking to a male stranger.  Providentially she encountered the same missionary lady distributing tracts and who took her to another city and later stood by her as she faced the police and the court which finally let her go free. She was 16 years old at the time. The Baptist mission helped her complete a teacher training course in their school.

At the school Kheroda chanced upon some handbills announcing meetings where prophecies of the Bible would be explained. She slipped out of the school and found her way to the address but the watchman at the meeting place refused to let her in. A few days later a missionary from the Baptist school invited several of the Bengali girls to accompany her to the same meetings. She suspected that the Adventists were Jewish because they kept the seventh day Sabbath. At the meetings Kheroda learnt so much more of the Bible, but soon the missionary lady from the Baptist mission decided that they should stop attending the meetings.  However, before they did, Kheroda asked the Adventists if they had any work for her.  Georgia Burrus was most pleased because she had been looking for another Bengali teacher.[v]

After some Bible studies by Elder D A Robinson, Kheroda joined the Adventists. In time she joined the nurses training course and joined Dr O G Place working in the Sanitarium. In later years Kheroda did much to visit women and girls in their homes where no men could enter.

---

     [i]There are several who erroneously state that Nanibala Biswas was the first convert of the Adventists in India. Nanibala herself states that she was the first convert from Hiinduism (see Noonaballa Burros Visits Seventh-day Campgrounds, Attleboro Sun, July 17, 1954), and Kheroda informs us that she was the first Indian Convert. See Mrs Kheroda Bose, “I Was the First Indian Convert,”Eastern Tidings—Southern Asia Division, 36:10 (May 15, 1941), p. 14.  In a table of “firsts” the editor lists Kheroda as the first convert, then the Mookerjee family, and then Nanibala, followed by B N Mitter.

     [ii] I have preferred the spelling “Kheroda” which Kheroda used rather than the spelling “Korada” as in the book about her by Elder G G Lowry who also certainly knew her personally.

     [iii] Most of the details of this story are excerpted from G G Lowry, Korada, A Child Widow of India, Southern Publishing Association (Nashville, TN: 1931).

[iv]http://www.samanvaya.com/main/contentframes/knowledge/articles/census1881.html reports that one in five women in the 1880s were widows. Out of 124 million women 21 million were widows.  Of these 669 thousand were below the age of 19, 286 were below the age of 15, and 79,000 were below the 9. Pundita Ramabai, quoted in the Daily Alto California 42: 14187 (July 6, 1888)

     [v] Dorothy Watts, “Our First School In India,” Faith Triumphant, (Pune, ICP: 2006) Dec 11, p 349,  places the contact with Kheroda through a Baptist friend at the YWCA.  Kheroda states that the Baptist missionary was from the school and only when she saw the determination of Kheroda to join the Adventists did she offer to take her there and recommend her (Lowry, 221). Georgia Burrus states that “a well-educated Bengali woman with whom I had become acquainted at the YWCA home and who had begun to keep the Sabbath, was employed to teach secular classes. See Mrs L J Burgess, “The Blessed Pioneer,” Eastern Tidings –Pioneer Number Extra, 36:9 (May 8, 1941), p 3.  Georgia goes on to write “As our girls’ school in Calcutta continued to grow, it became necessary to have an additional teacher. Kheroda, a young Baptist Christian . . .  was recommended by the Baptist missionaries. (Ibid, 4)

Georgia Burrus, First Adventist Missionary to India

Photograph of Georgia Burrus Burgess and Luther Burgess given to Jwinsilies Kharkongor (My great aunt). 

Glass Vase which belonged to Georgia Burrus Burgess given to Jwinsilies Kharkongor and bequeathed to me by her daughter Lucy Kharkongor.

          
  Georgia Anna Burrus, an attractive girl in her early twenties, listened intently as Elder Haskell described his trip across India.  Her heart stirred as he appealed for women missionaries to share the gospel with the women of India who lived in zenanas –enclosed quarters of a dwelling into which no man could enter.  She should go to India, she thought, and volunteered. 

Eventually at the 1893 General Conference the brethren approached her and Myrtle Griffs and requested them to go to India and start studying the language so that they could work among those shut-in women.  The girls enrolled in the nursing course at St. Helena and then joined a course for missionaries going overseas.   Then both girls took ill. Myrtle dropped out of the program but Georgia opted for surgery.  However, though scheduled twice, the operations never took place.  Georgia had prayed and recovered naturally.  She took this as a sign that God approved of her commitment to mission work in India.

The Foreign Mission Secretary instructed Georgia to travel to London with a party of missionaries.  There she would join the D. A. Robinson family and together they would sail for India.  But after buying her ticket and paying off some debts, Georgia found herself with only fifty cents—not enough to take her trunk to the station. 

While she waited in her room, wondering what to do, Brother Hall, in whose home she had been staying, rushed in shocked that she had not yet left.  When Georgia explained her problem, he dashed out of the room and returned with a hundred dollars.  Pressing the money into her hand he said “May the Lord bless you and make you a blessing in India.”  Then he ran out to procure a carriage for her. 

In London Georgia discovered that the Robinson family had postponed their travel to India for the following year.  She sold magazines for a while in England, but decided she’d rather go on ahead alone and start learning the language while waiting.  The Mission Board concurred and paid her fare, but Georgia would have to support herself till the others came.  She set sail on the SS Bengal and reached Calcutta on January 23, 1895.

Not Really Alone

At the Diamond harbor the ship picked up letters to passengers from relatives and friends waiting for them at the pier.  Georgia listened to their excited chatter as they opened letters.  It would have been nice to have someone waiting to meet her.  Then she heard her name.  “Miss Burrus, where is Miss Burrus?”  Who could know her in this strange land!  She tore open her letter as the ship steamed swiftly up the river to the city docks.

Captain Masters and his wife had accepted the Advent message in New Zealand and decided to share it with the people of India where the Captain had served for a while in his youth.  The couple sold literature in India for only a few months but during that time they were able to welcome Georgia. They had even booked a room for Georgia, but found the family had already given it to a relative.   As the sun began to set, they located another room in a respectable home.  It was rather expensive so Georgia could not dream of staying there for long.  Her new friends helped her with her luggage and bade her good bye.

Georgia glanced out the window and observed a group of natives assembling for some strange religious ceremony.  The unfamiliar sights and sounds reminded her that she now resided in a very strange land and a wave of homesickness swept over her.  She sat on the bed and pulled out her watch.  She had dropped it a few weeks before on the ship and it had stopped running.  Its silence worsened the feeling of homesickness.  She prayed earnestly, “Oh Father, I feel so lonely and homesick I don’t know what to do.  If only I could hear my watch going again I think I would feel better.”  Scarcely had she uttered the words when her watch began to tick again.  Amazing! It was all right and so was she as she realized that she was not really alone in India. 

Led by God

Georgia shifted to the Young Women’s Christian Association which proved to be pleasant, comfortable and reasonably priced.    About a month had passed when the matron of the YWCA came to her excitedly waving an open letter and asked,” Do you know anyone in Africa by the name Haskell?” The matron went on to explain that some time before she had arrived a certain Dr. MacDonald had come with a letter from Elder Haskell asking him to find suitable lodging in Calcutta for her while she learnt the language.  Accordingly, this missionary had approached the YWCA and arranged for them to take in Georgia.  Georgia never received information of this arrangement, but she now knew that God had guided her feet to the very place that had been selected for her.  One of the ladies at the “Y” eventually joined the Adventists.

About a month later, the superintendant told her that she was reducing her monthly bill by Rs 10 because Georgia didn’t drink the tea or eat the meat dishes.  Georgia found that her vegetarian diet also opened many doors for her.   As she walked down the street, children would beg their parents to invite Georgia into their homes exclaiming “She’s just like us.  She does not eat meat.”

Spending so much time on learning the language, Georgia had no time to earn her support.  After two months she suddenly realized that her money would run out in a month.  She tried to suspend her lessons, but the pundit insisted on continuing for free.  Providentially, the very next day Georgia received a check in the mail for twenty-five pounds with a note that she would be receiving a similar amount each quarter for the rest of the year.  An Adventist in Africa had sold his billiard table for a hundred pounds and had decided to use it to support the missionary girl in India.

No Longer Alone

Soon Georgia learnt that Elder Robinson and his wife and child would be arriving with Martha Mae Taylor to join her in Calcutta.  Recalling her difficulty in finding a suitable lodging place for herself, she secured a two-storey bungalow and furnished it.  One happy Sabbath in November she stood at the pier to welcome the new missionaries.  No longer would she be the sole Adventist missionary among the millions in India.   More importantly, she had equipped herself with adequate knowledge of the language to carry forward her mission to the women of Bengal.

Georgia helped open a girls’ school and taught Bible classes by writing out the lessons in Bengali and memorizing them.  In 1903 she married Luther J Burgess, who had come two years earlier to serve as secretary-treasurer of the India Mission field. He gave up his administrative duties and joined Georgia in pioneering the work among Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu speaking peoples.  They ended their mission work in India among the Khasis in the northeast hills.  Elder and Mrs. Burgess returned finally to California in 1935.

Sources:

"From Far-Off India," California Missionary, 2 (July 13, 1896): 2.

Mrs. Georgia Burgess, “Why I Went to India,” Bible Training School, 15 (June 1916): 5-6.

Mrs. Georgia Burgess, “My First Night in Calcutta,” Bible Training School, 15 (July 1916): 24-25.

Georgia Burgess, “How God’s Providences Paid My Bills,” Bible Training School, 15 (July 1916): 86, 87

Mookerjee, L. G. "Pioneers in India." Review & Herald, 107 (February 13, 1930): 20.

Mrs. L.  J. Burgess, “The Blessed Pioneer,” Eastern Tidings, 36 (May 8, 1941): 2-4

Burgess, Luther J. (Obituary), Review & Herald, 123 (July 18, 1946): 20

Burgess, Georgia Burrus (Obituary), Pacific Union Recorder, 48 (October 25, 1948): 11.

W. A. Spicer, "Our First Seed Sowing in India," Review & Herald, 127 (February 9, 1950): 1, 13-14.