1874-1897 



I 



THE frail body of Clara Maria Buchanan went into labor 

 for the fourth time in her life on the twenty- third of 

 December in 1 874. Of previous issues the son had died, leaving 

 two daughters. This time it was again a son; and one destined 

 to live — William Buchanan Wherry. For six years now she had 

 been living in the missionary compound maintained in Lud- 

 hiana of the Pan jab by the Presbyterian board of missions, as 

 the wife of El wood Morris Wherry, who at twenty- four, had 

 pledged himself to this work of the Lord. The density of popu- 

 lation here was great, the density of Christianity, low. The 

 vineyard — so barren — needed working; and Wherry had vol- 

 unteered. Thus the two, both out of Pennsylvania and of 

 sound farmer stock had set forth in 1867 on the five months 

 long sail into India. 



Before venturing afar the missionary had equipped himself 

 well. Born in 1843 (in South Bend, Indiana county, Pennsyl- 

 vania) , he was of sturdy frame, virile — as proclaimed by a 

 flowing beard — and spiritually sure. What he possessed men- 

 tally, was clearly evidenced by a bachelor's degree wrested 

 from Jefferson college (Presbyterian) in Washington, Penn- 

 sylvania, when but nineteen. Thereafter he had taught school 

 for two years in the alma mater. With another three added 

 for sojourn in Princeton's theological seminary (Presbyte- 

 rian) , he felt himself ready for any place to which God might 

 call. This proved to be Ludhiana where at the moment under 

 discussion he was thirty-one. 



The confusion surrounding the new son's arrival was con- 

 siderable. The Christmas holidays were on, even though the 

 right merry Christmas of the British could be extended to but 

 few — the members of the Wherry household, some stray 

 servants of Her Royal Highness's Kingdom at large in the 

 domains beyond the sea, and such East Indians as had forsworn 

 their own mysticism for that out of Palestine. But more than 



