Excerpt from Williams College and Foreign Missions: Biographical Sketches of Williams College Men, Who Have Rendered Special Service, to the of Foreign Missions Of the 127 persons whose biographies are given in this volume, nearly all served as missionaries in foreign fields; a few being sent under appointment of the American Board, in the earlier years of the last century, to labor among the American Indians. The whole list includes the names of three persons who rendered efficient and distinguished services to the cause of foreign missions in the important offices they held under the American or Presbyterian Board. It also properly came within the scope of the work to include sketches of all of the Men of the Haystack and of all of the first signers of the constitution of the first Missionary Society that was formed in America, although some members of these two groups did not themselves become missionaries. It has not been the purpose to treat of home missions, although Williams College sustains an important relation to that field also. The completion of 100 years since Gordon Hall began his work in India makes the present a fitting time in which to commemorate the lives of the heroic men who have done so much to introduce Christian civilization into heathen lands and have given to Williams College its chiefest distinction. It is hoped that, for a further perpetuation of their memory, a bronze tablet bearing their names may some day be placed in one of the halls of the College. The movement out of which sprang the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was one of a series of important events which occurred about the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.