William Alexander Barlow was born in Liverpool, England, on April 3, 1862. When he was 27, he sailed to India as a missionary for the Church of England.1 There he transferred to the independent Baptist Bethel Santal Mission, led by Pastor A. Haegert, who was also a physician. Pastor Haegert operated a hospital and two schools 25 miles from Jamtara, a village on the East Indian Railway.2 William learned to speak Santali, and five years later married Pastor Haegert’s daughter Christina, affectionately called Santalie.3 Christina was born in India in 1872—two years before J. N. Andrews went to Switzerland as the first Adventist missionary.
In 1896 Elder D. A. Robinson went to observe Pastor Haegert’s work and invited William to drop by the Adventist mission whenever he came to Calcutta. William did and picked up English and vernacular tracts for distribution, from which he learned to appreciate Adventist teachings.4
A few years later William and Christina moved to Punjab, where he worked with a military chaplain. One day William overheard the chaplain discussing the Sabbath with I. D. Richardson, an Adventist colporteur. William fetched his Bible to show Richardson his errors, but instead discovered that the Scriptures supported the colporteur! After further study, William and Christina decided to join the Adventist Church. Dismissed from his work, William began canvassing with Ellery Robinson.5 The following year (1900), the Barlows were baptized, and returned to ministry among the Santals.6
A Lifetime in the Village
The Barlows did not have money or land, and for three months they lived in a tent under a banyan tree outside Simultala, another village on the East Indian Railway that had a few European homes and several dozen Santali families. They survived storms that blew their tent down, as well as the dreaded cholera.
William started a school with two students. He raised funds through newspaper ads and from businesses in Calcutta and secured a few acres of land a mile and a half from town, where he built a few huts for classrooms. He planted a flower and vegetable garden and long lines of fruit trees. On Sabbaths he took the students to neighboring villages and sang and testified of God’s love.7 Meanwhile, Christina spent some time at the Adventist sanitarium in Calcutta, learning how to treat the sick.8
Even after retirement, the Barlows continued their selfless ministry to the Santals, to whom they had dedicated their lives.
Eager to get closer to the unreached, the Barlows moved to Babumahal, nine miles into the jungle, where he built a large thatched-roof hut, a school, and a church.9 In 1903 Barlow and his school joined the Adventist mission, which employed him to care for the mission station.10
A Lifetime of Service to the Disadvantaged
Christina ministered to the women of the villages. They came day and night to her for treatment, when they were sick, when they needed clothes for babies, for needle and thread, for food, or for whatever they might need. She was like their mother, and her home was their second home.11
When nobody else dared to, William helped a weeping man bury one of his sons and then his wife, who died of cholera. When the father himself died, the Barlows took his other little son and educated him.12 They also took in Chikia, a woman William found thrown out of the village for breaking caste.13 Despite threats to her life from her family, the girl was ultimately baptized and married one of the workers of the Adventist mission.14
William and Christina found time to visit other villages and towns—Koro, Karmatar, Madhopur, attracting crowds on market day with William’s violin. When he spoke in Hindi and Santali about the love of Jesus, many in the crowds nodded. William gave literature to all who could read.
When the India Union voted for William’s retirement in 1914, H. R. Salisbury, chairing the committee, described him as the “Carey of the Santals,” a reference to William Carey, known as the father of modern missions. The Barlows had taken only one furlough, in 1907,15 spending a year in Watford, England, to regain health, to arrange for their children’s education, and to recruit workers for India.16 After retirement, they remained at Babumahal on a portion of the land the church returned to them, continuing their selfless ministry to the Santals, to whom they had dedicated their lives.
In 1926 Christina developed to an infection that turned septic. Seeking medical help, she rode a bullock cart from the jungle 10 miles to the railway station with her two youngest children, but sadly, she succumbed on the train. After her death William continued to travel, distributing literature till 1940, when the church advised him to rest because of his failing health. He retired in the hills of Shillong, where he died in 1942.
1 W. A. Spicer, “A Mission to the Santals,” Review and Herald, July 8, 1902, p. 13.
2 D. A. Robinson, “Among the Santals of India,” Review and Herald, July 14, 1896, p. 441.
3 Freida M. Haegert, “Obituary,” Eastern Tidings, Aug. 15, 1926, p. 4.
4 W. A. Barlow, “How I Became a Seventh-day Adventist,” Review and Herald, Oct. 11, 1923, p. 21.
5 L. G. Mookerjee, “Until the Day Dawn,” Eastern Tidings, Nov. 15, 1942, p. 5.
6 Barlow.
7 H. H. Votaw, Mrs. H. H. Votaw, “An Echo From the India Conference,” The Welcome Visitor, Feb 15, 1905, p. 1.
8 Spicer.
9 W. A. Barlow, “Simultala,” Eastern Tidings, September 1904, p. 35.
10 Advisory Committee of Seventh-day Adventists, Mar. 29, 1903, p. 15, Southern Asia Division archives.
11 Haegert.
12 W. W. Miller, “Little Tulsi,” Youth’s Instructor, Oct 2, 1906, p. 5.
13 W. W. Miller, “Not Forgotten,” Eastern Tidings, November 1905, p. 6.
14 W. A. Barlow, “From Darkness to Light,” Review and Herald, Nov 1, 1923, p. 20.
15 Mookerjee.
16 The Missionary Worker, Mar. 4, 1908, p. 40.
