Jacob Chamberlain

1835-1908. Missionary to India from the (Dutch) Reformed Church in America. Born in Sharon, Connecticut, he studied both theology and medicine and in 1859 joined the Arcot Mission in South India. As a doctor he began two hospitals and conducted several dispensaries. But perhaps his most enduring work was literary. From 1873 to 1894 he chaired a committee to revise the Telugu Bible. He prepared a popular Telugu hymnbook and completed the first volume of a Bible dictionary. Repeated illness obliged him to spend altogether ten years in the USA, where he inspired much missionary interest. Concerned for church union, he became the first moderator of the Synod of South India in 1902. In 1878 he was the first missionary ever chosen to be president of the general synod of his denomination.