| Notes |
- Free Press, Greenfield, Iowa 29 Aug 1935: TELL OF DEATH OF BESSIE RIGG Family Receive Details From India This Week
Details of the death of Miss Bessig Rigg, missionary to India, which occurred August 2, were received this week by the Rigg family here.
The communication received by the family follows:
Bessie, as official correspondent for Gujarat Conference, met with the finance and education committees at Baroda in a three day session ending August first. At tea, just before they separated to go to their stations (about 4:30 p.m.) salmon salad was served. It was this that caused the severe illness with which all who ate it were stricken. Bishop and Mrs. Badley, Mrs. Corpron (the doctor's wife), Dr. Huffman, Myrtle Precise (the nurse) Bessie and Fern Carter were the 7 who were ill, 5 were seriously ill. The rest were recovering when the letters were written August 4th and 5th.
Immediately after tea Bessie and Miss Carter went to the statin and took the five o'clock train for Nadiad. Nurse Louise Landon, who had been a guest in another bungalow, was with them on the train when first Miss Carter and then Bessie began to be ill. She helped them home and called the doctors and the other nurse. All four were in constant attendance throughout the night and the following day.
In the morning both seemed stronger. Mess Carter became worse in the forenoon but passed safely through the crisis. Bessie grew worse in the afternoon and passed on at 6:20 p.m.
OBITUARY: Bessie Ellen Rigg, daughter of Charles M. and Sarah E. Rigg, was born on the home farm near Greenfield, Iowa, on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1896, and grew to womanhood in this community. On August 2, 1935, death took her in the prime of life at her mission home in Nadiad, Bompay Presidency, India. Friends of both communities mourn her loss.
Bessie received her school training in the Greenfield high school, Iowa State Teachers college, and John Fletcher college from which she was graduated in 1924. She taught five years in the rural schools of Adair County and one year in Orient high school before taking up her real life work in India as an evangelistic missionary under the Women's Foreign Missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In early childhood she attended the Groveland church and after it was closed, joined the Methodist church of Greenfield, where her membership still rests.
As her interest in mission work grew Bessie studied enthusiastically in preparation and was never quite content until she was really in the mission field. Although a great lover of her home, she was very happy during the eight years she spent in India.
Funeral services were held in the M.E. church in Nadiad. As is their custom, native pastors and friends carried the white flower-covered casket from the house to the church. They were followed by a long procession of Christian people, quietly mourning. The services were simple and beautiful. After the singing of a hymn, Rev. C.H. Conley of Godhra spoke of her home and family, whom he had visited, as the people all wanted to know about her dear ones. Ishwardas Narsing, the District Supt., then spoke a few words followed by the reading of the 23rd Psalm by Rev. C.B. Hill of Baroda. The service closed with prayer by the Nadiad pastor, James Mithabhai. Besides the church members, those in attendance included people of other missions and Parsis, Hindus and Mohammedans who had known her.
The casket was borne from the church on her own car, with her driver at the wheel and her house servants, James and Vishram, on either side--a great crowd of her friends following slowly in motors and on foot. After singing a hymn, the Methodist ritual was read by several of the Indian pastors. Burial was on a pleasant knoll in the cemetery a short distance east of Nadiad where she rests in her beloved India.
Of her immediate family, she is survived by her mother, Mrs. Sarah E. Rigg and her brothers and sisters: Mrs. Sidney W. Cooper of Ft. Collins, Colo.; Mrs Ira Launder of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Elstun, Charles W., Theadore, Mrs. Rolla Hollingsworth, Cleoma, John and Mary of Greenfield.
PAYS TRIBUTE TO MISS BESSIE RIGG
Editor's note: The following tribute was paid to Miss Bessie Rigg, missionary to India by the Rev. C.H. Conley, at the funeral services for Miss Rigg held at the M.E. Chuch at Nadiad, India.
Miss Bessie E. Rigg: For the second time in three weeks the Church in Gujarat is in mourning. Miss Bessie E. Rigg spent three busy days in Baroda, in the mid-year meetings of the Conference Board of Christian Education, the Field Reference and other committees. As always, she carried a generous share of the burdens of committee work, looking a little tired, but was cheerful and full of hope and enthusiasm for the future. She returned to her station to take up once more the rouds of her varied activities, and passed away within one brief day of reaching her home in Nadiad.
Miss Rigg was in the prime of life and had completed slightly less than ten years missionary service. She was regarded by her fellow workers as one of the most efficient missionaries who has ever served in this field. Her interests were broad and she showed a keen sympathy toward all the varied phases of Christian service, evangelism, education, social and economic reform, and the betterment of health. At the same time she had a remarkable capacity for minute detail, ever seeking to be thoroughly informed, and systematically keeping her information ready for ready use.
Evangelism always seemed natural to her, and was so because she had a deep religious experience which she was ever eager to share with others. She was a radiant Chrisian, of great influence in the Central Church and throughout the districts. Much of her time and thought were given to village Christian education and in this she was making a very real contribution. She was quite familiar with all the difficulties of this type of work, but here, as also in her evangelistic efforts, she forged ahead because of her untiring zeal, her fitness as a lear of others, her high courage, a wonderful patience, and her faith in the people, no matter how humble their origin. For herself, her co-workers and villagers both old and young, she set a high aim. Her belief in others helped them to believe in themselves. Her deep and abiding faith in God was a dynamic power.
Poise, balance and self-control were outstanding in Miss Rigg's character. How well rounded and symmetrical had been her growth in the Christian life. Hers was a beautiful and pleasing personality. She was a loyal friend and greatly loved by her friends. Her own troubles were always secondary and the needs of others held first place in her thoughts. She was tactful and kind but knew how to be frank and firm without being unkind. Her high idealism was combined with practical common sense. We turned to her for wise counsel. She gave such sane advice.
One just feels like going on and on, saying good things about Bessie Rigg, and this was so when she was with us. I am glad that she understood during her life how greatly loved and appreciated she was. We who lived and worked in fellowship with Miss Rigg are better men and women because of her life, and her fine influence will live on in the Church in Gujarat.
|
1896 - 1935 (39 years)
[1, 2]