William Scott Ament

William Scott Ament was a missionary to China for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1877, and was known as the "Father of Christian Endeavor in China." Ament became prominent as a result of his activism during the Boxer Uprising and controversial in its aftermath because of the personal attacks on him by American writer Mark Twain for his collection of punitive indemnities from northern Chinese villages.

Biographical details

William Scott Ament was born of Dutch and French Huguenot ancestry on 14 September 1851 in Owosso, Michigan, the eldest son of Winfield Scott Ament, an ironworker, and Emily Hammond Ament, and the younger brother of Claribel Ament Leggat.

Spiritual background

At the age of twelve, Will Ament became a member of the Congregational church at Owosso, Michigan, which had been organised on 18 January 1853. About the time of his father's death, when he was 14, Ament had a deeper spiritual experience as a result of a religious revival in his home church. While studying at Oberlin Academy, Ament underwent "a new and deep spiritual impulse" and transferred his church membership to the Second Congregational Church at Oberlin, Ohio. According to Porter, "From that time on he was hearty, aggressive and fearless in meeting those who opposed Christianity, and made the service of Christ the chief thing of life."

Education

Ament attended the Owosso High School, and upon graduation enrolled in the Oberlin Academy in Oberlin, Ohio, a preparatory school, in the fall of 1867. Two years later he enrolled at Oberlin College. Ament was "the second boy to go from here to college and the first to graduate." While at Oberlin College, Ament was influenced by the example of Oberlin's recently retired president, revivalist Charles Grandison Finney. Ament had to work his way through college. While studying at Oberlin College, Ament became the supervisor of the Richfield Central high school at Richfield, Ohio.
After graduation from Oberlin College in 1873, Ament attended the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, New York for three years from 1873. While at Union Seminary, Ament taught at nights, and later was a tutor to the son of a rich man. On Sundays, he taught a class of boys in the mission school on the corner of Elizabeth and Broome Streets. In 1876 Ament transferred to Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in the early summer of 1877 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.

Call to missionary service

As Ament's education advanced, his heart settled itself upon China as his field of service. While studying at Andover, Ament formally applied to the ABCFM for appointment to foreign missionary service under their auspices on 4 November 1876.

Marriage and ordination (1877)

On 23 August 1877, Ament married Mary Alice Penfield, an 1875 Bachelor of Arts graduate in literature of Oberlin College, and the daughter of Professor Charles Henry Penfield, who had taught Greek and Latin at Oberlin College, and his first wife, Margaret Gertrude Wyett ;
Ament was ordained as a missionary in the Owosso Congregational church on 5 September 1877 under the direction of pastor Rev. Lucius O. Lee, who eventually resigned in 1880 to go to Turkey, and who later became President of the Central Turkey Theological
Seminary at Maraş, Turkey.

Ministry (1877–1909)

First missionary term in China (1877–1885)

The Aments departed for China from Oakland, California on 17 October 1877 on the steamer China. After an eleven-week journey, they eventually arrived in Peking, China.

Paotingfu (1878–1880)

Ament served as a Congregational missionary at the North China Mission in Paotingfu, the then capital of Zhili province, China, from 1877 to 1880. At that time there were about 100,000 residents, of whom 22,000 were beggars. Severe famine in the region resulted in their focus on famine relief.
While serving in Paotingfu, the Aments had their first child, Margaret, who died just after her birth.

Peking (1880–1885)

Due to Mary's continued illness, the Aments transferred to Beijing in 1880, where they served until late 1885. Additionally, Ament was the editor of the North China News, and The North China Church Times.
During their first term in Beijing, the Aments had another two children: Philip Wyett Ament ; and Emily Hammond Ament.

Christian Endeavour Unions of China

Ament became one of the founders and president of The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour, known as the Christian Endeavour Unions of China. Ament believed passionately in the importance of Christian Endeavour: "Without doubt Christian Endeavor will have a large share in bringing the new life to awakened China." In 1900 Ament was elected President of the North China Christian Endeavor Union.

First furlough: ministry in Ohio (1885–1888)

Due to the severe illness of Ament's mother, Emily Hammond Ament, Ament accepted the call to pastor a 250 member Congregational church in Medina, Ohio so that he could care for her. During his three years there, he built up a strong church. While in Ohio, Ament became the president of the Ohio Christian Endeavor Union,
In 1887 the Aments had their fourth child, William Sheffield Ament, their only child to survive childhood. Will, Jr. would become a professor of English at Scripps College, Claremont, California, and the co-author of Oxcart to Airplane, "the only general history of California transportation."

Second missionary term in China (1888–1897)

In August 1888, Ament and his family returned to Beijing to resume their missionary duties.

Death of Emily Ament

At 9.30 am on Monday, 27 February 1893, the Aments' daughter, Emily died in Beijing of diphtheria at the age of eight and a half. after a week's illness. Funds were donated to establish on Fifth Street, Beijing, near the Congregational Church's North Chapel, the Emily Ament Memorial School for the education of Chinese girls. By late 1899, the school was re-located to Sixth Street.

Editor ''North China News''

During 1893 Ament became the editor of the North China News, a Chinese monthly newspaper, with an initial circulation in excess of 550 copies per month.
Among Ament's other duties were being the ABCFM mission treasurer; postmaster for both the ABCFM and Presbyterian Mission; manager of the mission book room; manager of the Bible book store; and pastoral care of three congregations. In addition, he continued to serve as an evangelist. From October 1894, Ament became superintendent of the boys' school, as well as the preacher at the Beijing South Chapel.
In 1896, Ament presented a paper entitled "The Spiritual Needs of Native Christians", in which he decried mere numerical addition of church members, indicating that "The one thing to be arrived at is a spiritual Church in China."

Second furlough (1897–1898)

From spring 1897 Ament spent part of the year on furlough in Owosso, Michigan and was active in his home church, the Owosso First Congregational Church, and was responsible for re-invigorating the missionary focus of that church. During summer 1897 he preached daily at the Owosso Y.M.C.A.

Third missionary term in China (1898–1901)

On 4 September 1898, Ament left his wife and son, Willie, in Owosso to care for his mother, and his deceased sister's daughter. Ament returned to Beijing on 8 October 1898, to confront increased anti-foreign opposition as a consequence of the overthrow of the Chinese emperor in a coup d'état.
In 1898, Ament had a paper "The Religions of China" published in The Student Missionary Appeal: Addresses at the Third International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, in which he indicated: "Some one has said that you cannot tell the truth about the Chinese without lying. They are the most irreligious people on the face of the earth."
In December 1898, Ament was notified that Oberlin College, his alma mater, had decided to award him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.
By the end of 1900, Ament had been responsible for planting 17 of the 22 churches associated with the Peking branch of the China ABCFM mission.

The Boxer Uprising and its aftermath (1900)

Ament was captured by Boxers while on an expedition with another missionary about 100 kilometres from Beijing, however was able to escape unharmed. During the Boxer Uprising of 1900, on Thursday 7 June 1900, Ament requested a military escort from Edwin H. Conger, the United States Minister to China, to allow the evacuation of the besieged ABCFM missionaries in Tungchow . As Conger refused to provide the escort as he believed he needed all his troops in Beijing, Ament himself travelled alone and unarmed to Tungchow by train with 16 carts, and facilitated the successful evacuation of 24 members of the missionary community and a number of Chinese helpers. The Tungchow missionaries "succeeded in getting up to Peking, with their wives and families, on 8 June, thanks to the pluck and energy of Mr. Ament".
During the subsequent attack on the Methodist missionary compound by the Boxers in Beijing, Ament was reportedly the last missionary to leave the compound on the afternoon of Wednesday, 13 June 1900. A week after the evacuation of the Methodist compound, Ament, despite increased Boxer activity, returned to the Methodist compound to assess the possibility of retrieving goods left behind after their evacuation. Ament then organised twenty other missionaries and 60 Chinese to return to the compound to remove as many stores as possible which contributed greatly to their preservation during the siege. "This aid to which so many were indebted was the result of Mr. Ament's investigation." During the subsequent fifty-five-day siege, Ament sheltered in the British Legation in the Beijing Legation Quarter, where he had responsibility for looking after confiscated goods.
While Ament through his own personal initiative was able to rescue the ABCFM missionaries at Tungchow, there was still significant loss of lives. Thirteen ABCFM adult missionaries and five children were killed by the Boxers. Included were Miss Mary Susan Morrill and Miss Annie Allender Gould, among the eleven foreign missionaries, four children, and about fifty Chinese Christians killed in Baoding from 30 June 1900. Additionally, there was much damage to ABCFM property. The ABCFM Mission compound was razed, as was the Emily Ament Memorial School on Sixth Street, Peking. Ament estimated that by the end of July 1900 that losses for the ABCFM Peking station was about $71,000 gold.
From 13 September 1900, Ament, and an assistant, Reverend Elwood Gardner Tewksbury, accompanied by the U.S. 6th Cavalry, searched the areas adjacent to Beijing for Boxers, collecting indemnities for Christians who had been killed by the Boxers, and ordering the burning of some homes and even executing suspected Boxers. Ament had been chosen "as the one who would be honorable and just to all."