Sam Higginbottom

Samuel "Sam" Higginbottom (27 October 1874 – 11 June 1958) was an English-born Christian missionary in Allahabad, India, where he founded the Allahabad Agricultural Institute. Higginbottom was born in Manchester, England.[1]

Samuel Higginbottom
Born(1874-10-27)27 October 1874
Manchester, England
Died11 July 1958(1958-07-11) (aged 83)
Frostproof, Florida, USA
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipEngland
Alma materPrinceton University
Ohio State University
Spouse(s)Ethel Higginbottam
Scientific career
FieldsAgricultural economics
Rural sociology
InstitutionsSam Higginbottam University of science and agriculture ,Mahewa naini Allahabad 211007

Early life

He grew up in poverty, having arrived as a young child in America with his parents. He left school early and working at different times as a butcher's boy, cab driver, and milk deliverer.[1] However, he had a strong youthful interest in the Christian gospel, and resolved to become a preacher or missionary.[1] Higginbottom attended Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts from 1894 to 1899.[1] Higginbottom continued his education at Amherst College and Princeton University in the United States, receiving a bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1903.[1][2][3]

Work in India

On the recommendation of Henry Formam, Higginbottom arrived in India in 1903 as part of the North India Mission of the Presbyterian Church.[4] From then until 1909 he taught economics and science in Allahabad Christian College (now Ewing Christian College).[2][4] In 1904 he married Jane Ethelind Cody, of Cleveland, Ohio, who joined him in his work.[3] They had five children together.[2]

In 1909, he returned to the United States and spent three years studying agriculture at Ohio State University, after which he went back to Allahabad to teach scientific methods of farming.[2][3] His educational programs grew into the founding of Allahabad Agricultural Institute in 1919. In 2009, Allahabad Agricultural Institute was rechristened as Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS) in honour of the founder.[5]

Higginbottom wrote two books: a book about his work published in 1921 and an autobiography published in 1949. While being in India, he developed close friendship with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru[2] He retired in Florida in 1945. Higginbottom died in Frostproof, Florida at the home of his daughter, Mrs Charles Coates.[6]

Collections

Higginbottom's papers are housed at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.[6]

Bibliography
  • Sam Higginbottom. The Gospel and the Plough, Or, The Old Gospel and Modern Farming in Ancient India. 1921. London: Central Board of Missions and Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Republished in 2006: ISBN 1-4254-8665-7
  • Sam Higginbottom. Sam Higginbottom, Farmer: An Autobiography. 1949. Republished in 2007: ISBN 978-0-548-44200-5

References
  1. History, Allahabad Agricultural Institute website
  2. Rees, David Benjamin (2002). Vehicles of Grace and Hope: Welsh Missionaries in India 1800-1970. William Carey Library. p. 59.
  3. Padre Sahib, Time magazine, 19 September 1949
  4. Dr. Sam Higginbottom (1874-1958), Allahabad Agricultural Institute website.
  5. http://www.shiats.edu.in/notice_chName.asp
  6. "A Guide to the Additional Papers of Sam Higginbottom and Jane Ethelind Cody Higginbottom 1844-1971". University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
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