Eleanor Macomber of Lake Pleasant

Source: "Daughters of America; Or, Women of The Century," by Phebe A. Hanaford, Augusta, Me.; True and Company, 1883. Donated by Laura Perkins.
WOMEN MISSIONARIES.
Eleanor MACOMBER , born in 1801, at Lake Pleasant, Hamilton -County, N.Y., was sent out by the Baptists in 1830, to labor among the Ojibwas in Michigan. In 1836 she went to Maulmain, Burmah, as a missionary. "Here she lived and labored almost alone, doing the great work which was assigned her. In the midst of discouragements she fainted not, but performed labors and endured afflictions almost incred-ible. When she arrived at the scene of her future labors, she found vice and sin reigning triumphant. On every hand intemperance and sensuality were ob-servable. She immediately commenced in their midst the worship of God. On the sabbath the people were drawn together to hear the story of the cross; and during the week her house was thrown open for morning and evening prayers. By her perseverance she soon collected a small school; and in less than a year a church of natives, numbering more than twenty persons, was formed, and placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. STEPHENS. Intemperance, sensuality, and other vices gradually disappeared, and the Christian virtues took their place. The idea of a weak, friendless, and lone woman trusting herself among a drunken and sensual people, and there with no husband, father, or brother, establishing public worship, opening her house for prayer and praise, and gathering schools in the midst of wild and unlettered natives, is one full of moral grandeur. Intelligent, active, and laborious, Miss MACOMBER was not content with teaching all who came to her: she went out to the surrounding tribes, attended only by one or two converts; and fording rivers, crossing ravines, climbing high hills and mountains, she everywhere carried the doctrines of salvation. Even the heathen heart was touched by this spectacle; and this estimable woman was respected and loved by those who hated the gospel she taught. Miss MACOMBER died April 16, 1840, of the jungle fever, at Maulmain, where she had been carried for the purpose of obtaining medical aid. Her death was deeply lamented by the natives; and those who did not love the Saviour mourned the loss of his servant, whose kindness and hospitality they had experienced, and followed her to the grave with wails of sorrow.” Ref. #1 (Mrs. Hale’s Woman’s Record.)