Afterwards

Afterwards

PRIL 22, 1850, ten days later, Emily gave birth to her second

child, named Charles, for her father. The child died at birth. She did not learn of Adoniram’s death until the end of August, some four' months later.

There was no reason for her to stay in Moulmein. On January 22, 1851, she sailed for England with Henry, Edward, and Emily Frances. They arrived in Boston aboard the steamer Canada in October, 1851.

She worked with Dr. Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, assembling the material for his great biography of her husband, but her health was broken. On June 1, 1854, she died of tuberculosis.

Abby Ann became a teacher and eventually headmistress of Bradford Academy, which Nancy Hasseltine and Harriet Atwood had once attended. Adoniram, Jr., became a physician; Elnathan and Edward, ministers. Henry fought for the Union and was permanently disabled by wounds. Emily Frances married. George D. Boardman, Sarah’s son by George Boardman, became a minister.

Adoniram’s sister, Abigail, lived on in the old house in Plymouth until 1884, still keeping her brother’s room untouched, just as he left it in 1846. She lived more and more in her memories until in the last years of her life the children of Plymouth, when they saw her antiquely garbed in rusty black, fled from her in fear as if from a witch.

As for Adoniram Judson, the man was dead but his memory lived. A college in Rangoon was given his name. A church in New York came to be known for him. A denominational press is called “the Judson Press.” Then, as the decades passed and the legend faded, new events, one superimposed over another, nearly obliterated the memory, though the influence survived.

This has been an attempt to remove some of the grimy cruSt of time, and reveal, at leaSt a little, the bright features underneath.