Ben Bell Scott (1851-1886)

SCOTT, BELL, TRUESDELL

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 12/7/2015 at 22:58:34

From Nevada Representative December 15, 1886

Rev. B. B. Scott

Rev. Ben Bell Scott, whose death occured at Khamgaon, Berar, India, November 2d, 1886, was born at Owingsville, Ky., August 26th, 1851. He was a son of Col. John Scott and Selina A. Bell. His mother was a native of Orange county, New York, and a sister of the Rev. and Hon. S. B. Bell, D. D. now of Kansas City, Mo. His mother died before he had completed his third year. He came to Nevada 1858, and this place continued to be his home until 1874. During this period he was absent nearly four years of the war times and three years at the Naval Academy, near Annapolis, Md. While at the Naval Academy he had strong convictions that his life work must lie in the line of religious labor and with brief intervals this thought grew upon him until he entered the ministry of the Methodist Church about 1871. His first work in that line was in the Ontario Circuit, lying in the western part of this county and the eastern part of Boone. He was soon after transferred to the same work at Sioux Falls, Dakota.

During this work in Dakota his religious views changed so that he soon took a position in advance of the Church Discipline and routine work of the ministry, and, severing his connection with the conference, he went to Boston, and engaged in ministerial labors with Dr. Charles Cullis, in the great charities at Grove Hall, Dorchester, and in the Faith Training College on Beacon Hill, Boston. He was for several years a Lecturer in the College. While we write these lines to his memory his friends are assembled in the beautiful chapel that stands in the center of the city of Boston, in the very shadow of the "gilded dome" of the Capitol of Massachusetts, in response to the following notice:

"MEMORIAL SERVICE
will be held at Beacon Hill Church, Boston, Tuesday, December 14, 1886, at 3 P. M.

REV. B. B. SCOTT,
Died at Khamgaon, India, November 2d, 1886. CHARLES CULLIS."

He entered upon his work in India, as he had upon every field of his labor, literally taking no thought for the morrow, what he should eat, what he should drink, nor wherewithal he should be clothed. It was to him meat and drink that he should be found worthy to follow the Divine Master, and labor in a Church whose creed has but two words,--"Jesus Only."

His naturally strong constitution had been sadly impaired by a severe illness when only two years of age, and from which he never fully recovered. Overwork at the Academy again prostrated him, and the illness left him with impaired strength. A careful man in his condition might have borne the prostrating influences of the torrid climate of India, and have lived for many years, but to such a religious enthusiast as he to be sent among the millions of idolaters and followers of the false prophets, was to send him to his doom."

His disease is reported at typhoid and intermittent fever. He was ill about ten days, but neither he nor his attendants, all of whom were unacquainted with the disease as it exhibits itself in India, were alarmed over condition until he was actually dying.

He leaves a daughter aged eleven and a son aged nine, both of whom are with his father in this place; and a son aged five who is at Khamgaon. It is to be hoped that the mother, a most estimable woman, has been spared to these children who are loved by all who know them.

In an article beside the above:

SCOTT--At Khamgaon, India, on November 2d, 1886, the Rev. B. B. Scott, died of the fever incident to the climate, after a brief illness. He was the surviving child of Col. Scott's first marriage, lived in this town during his boyhood and early manhood, and was well known to all our elder residents. He went to India in the summer of 1885 as a missionary of the "Church of Jesus," accompanied by his wife and the younger son, a child now five years old. The two older children, a daughter aged eleven and a son aged nine, have been with their grandfather since their father went abroad. He was in the 36th year of his age when his life was taken in the service in which it was offered with a rare devotion to the sense of duty.

There is a mail but once a week from Bombay to Europe, and when the letter was written giving information of his death, his wife was not expected to recover from a similar illness.

A letter from Khamgaon, India under the date of November 10th, reports Mrs. B. B. Scott* is supposed to be improving, but requiring constant watching, and put out of danger. This was received on last Monday.

*SUBMITTER'S NOTE: "Mrs. B. B. Scott" was Emma Jane Truesdell.