Jamaica's history - always something new to find out!
  • home
    • start here >
      • links
      • about me
      • my blog >
        • comments
      • another blog
      • facebook page
      • just something special
    • my articles >
      • Sam Sharpe - a note 1831
      • PKB Memorial Fund
      • Mrs Seacole & Queen Emma
      • 1891 Exhibition
      • All but unique: H. A. Joseph
      • Three Historic Buildings
      • Andrew Bogle
      • Jamaican politics 1866-1920
  • people
    • - 'ordinary' people >
      • 'extraordinary' lives >
        • Marie Francis
        • William Henry Hinson
        • James H Blackwood >
          • teacher
          • politician
          • bee-farmer
          • Human Rights activist
    • remarkable families >
      • family of C E Moody >
        • Harold Moody
        • Elise Moody
        • Charles Aston Moody
        • Ludlow Moody
        • Ronald Moody
        • Locksley Moody
      • family of R M Nicholas
      • family of C A D Phang >
        • Rosalind
        • May
        • Hilda
      • family of H B Phillips
      • family of A T Stewart
    • in the churches >
      • George Fox and early Friends >
        • 1692 and beyond
      • Rev. S. J. Washington
      • Rev. W. Theo Bailey
      • Rev. E. E. Brown
      • Rev. I. N. D. Gordon
      • Rev. J. J. Fuller
      • Church of England >
        • Rev. Francis Humberstone
        • Rev. J. M. Trew
        • Edward Maunde Thompson
        • Rev. R. Gordon
        • Rev Dr Hugh Croskery
        • Rev. T. Banbury
        • Rev. R. O. Taylor
        • Rev. H. L. Phillips >
          • as an Episcopalian priest
        • Rev. C. C. Douce
        • Rev. A. Cole
        • A. L. "Teacher" Walcott
        • Rev. and Mrs W. A. Burris
        • Rev. W. L. Brown
      • the Moravians >
        • Rev. W. V. Moses
    • in education >
      • brief lives >
        • Thomas Terence Sherlock
      • Francis Williams
      • ~ Woodlawn 1896
      • Matthew Josephs
      • T. B. Stephenson
      • Robert Lindsay
      • W Thomas Linton
      • S. C. Thompson
      • W. H. Plant
      • Sigismund C. Walker
      • Thomas I. Brown
      • E. Luther Brookes
    • in legal professions >
      • Peter Moncrieffe
      • J. T. Palache
      • A. A. Fleming
      • H. R. Walters
      • H. A. Joseph
      • M. H. Spencer Joseph
      • J. L. King
    • in medical professions >
      • - doctors >
        • Sampson Altman
        • J. J. Edwards
        • A. J. Thomas
        • R. M. Stimpson
        • E. C. Kinkead
        • E. V. Smith
        • T. A. Dryden
        • Cicely Williams
        • Roderick Atkinson
        • - in the U.S.A. >
          • Simeon I. Battiste
          • David Newton Emanuel Campbell >
            • portable window fire-escape ladder
          • A. E. Forsyth
      • - dentists >
        • Pedro Pompey
        • A. T. Cooper
        • E. E. Clark
        • J. H. Nicholson
      • - dispensers >
        • Anthan F Berry
        • Charles E Moody
      • - nurses
      • - psychiatrists
    • in politics & public affairs >
      • early Black politicians [slideshow]
      • Edward Jordon
      • Jim Russell >
        • the 'Great War'
      • Colonel George Hicks
      • Samuel Page Smeeton
    • in business >
      • drogher/droguer women
      • Edward Vickars
      • Charles Phillip Lazarus >
        • Charles Philip Lazarus remembered
        • foundry >
          • - 'City of Kingston'
          • - Jamaica Cycle Company
        • building contracts
        • politics and public affairs >
          • 1909 Party of Progress
      • J. H. & J. O. Milke
      • beekeepers >
        • Hill/Darwin correspondence
      • Robert Mitchell Nicholas
      • Joseph Milward Gordon >
        • Gall's News Letter 1890
      • John Cassis
      • Jacob Hume Stewart
      • Christopher L Barnes
      • Ernest Clarke
      • Lance E. Drysdale
    • on the land >
      • John S. Levy
    • in sports >
      • athletics >
        • Alfred Reynolds Downer >
          • education
          • athletics career >
            • - amateur
            • - professional
          • . . . but after that
      • boxing
      • chess >
        • Arthur Ford Mackenzie >
          • tributes
      • cricket >
        • J. K. Holt, snr
        • S C Snow
        • O. C. 'Tommy' Scott
      • cycling >
        • Johnnie Weir
        • A. A. "Bill" Johnson
        • Washington 'Teacher' Battiste
      • football
      • horse racing
      • tennis
    • Maroons in Jamaica >
      • Gleaner references
      • 1796 Richard Brinsley Sheridan
      • 1802 Maria, Lady Nugent
      • 1836 Popular Encyclopedia
      • 1844 Edwin Tregellies
      • 1844 Philip Henry Gosse
      • 1859 Richard Hill
      • 1860 Atlantic Monthly
      • 1862 Edward Cust
      • 1865 Col. Fyfe
      • 1865 Once a Week
      • 1866 Charles Town Maroons
      • 1867 Trip to the Tropics
      • 1890 Historical Geography
      • 1898 New York Tribune
      • 1898 Edith, Lady Blake
      • my articles: >
        • 1996 'Trouble with the Maroons'
        • 2001 'A brave and loyal people'
    • . . . some more Jamaicans
    • and even more
  • places
    • Kingston & St Andrew >
      • various places >
        • Knutsford Pen
      • street corner cannons
      • the Old H-W-T Courthouse >
        • four 18th century houses >
          • Hibbert House >
            • Hibbert House - over time
          • Constantine House
          • Bull House >
            • Peter Blaise Desnoes
            • North Street Villa
          • Harmony Hall
        • 19th century
      • Kingston Market
      • Kingston Race Course >
        • Pratter's/Prater's Pond
      • Retreat Pen >
        • Peter Alexander Espeut >
          • P A Espeut interview
      • Waireka >
        • a trip to 'Wareka' 1896
      • Park Lodge >
        • Susan and Mary Burton >
          • Mount Mansfield
      • Date Tree Hall >
        • Blundell/Blundle Hall
        • Barkly/Clarendon Hall
      • the Parade >
        • - the Church
        • - Barracks
        • - Theatre
        • - Coke Chapel
        • - other buildings
        • Parade Gardens
      • Harbour Street >
        • The Treasury >
          • the Treasury clock
        • Streadwick's Marine Gardens
        • Breezy Castle
      • Up Park Camp
      • Admiral's Pen
      • Rockford Gardens
      • "Babbin's" Church
    • other parishes >
      • Old Harbour
      • Bog Walk Gorge
      • Fern Gully
      • Moneague Lakes
      • Colbeck Castle
      • Blue Mountain Estate
    • Botanical Gardens >
      • Wallen's Cold Spring
  • institutions
    • education >
      • elementary & all-age schools >
        • West Branch
        • Miss Knibb's School, Falmouth
      • secondary schools >
        • Collegiate School >
          • 1850s & '60s
          • 1870s
          • 1880s
          • 1890s
          • 1900 & after
          • headmasters
          • alumni
          • cricket
        • Potsdam
        • York Castle
        • Mary Villa College
        • Kingston High School for Girls
        • Kingston Technical High School
      • tertiary institutions >
        • 'the Mico'
        • Montego Bay Academy
        • University College
        • Kingston Commercial College
    • culture >
      • Victoria Institute >
        • - 'Victoria Quarterly'
    • sport >
      • athletics
      • boxing
      • cricket >
        • Kingston Cricket Club
        • Clovelly Cricket Club
      • cycling
      • football
      • golf
      • horse racing
      • tennis
    • security >
      • constabulary
      • West India Regiments
  • the arts
    • theatre >
      • Kingston's theatres >
        • Kingston Theatre
        • Theatre Royal
        • new Theatre Royal
        • Aaron Mendes Sollas >
          • Joshua A M Sollas
          • the Sollas family in Jamaica
      • actors & actresses >
        • Rudolph De Cordova
      • the comic tradition >
        • the Murray family >
          • H. G. Murray
          • A. C. Murray
          • W. C. Murray
          • legacy
          • Dr R. O. Murray
        • Lionel Trim
      • magic >
        • Prof. W. A. Barclay
    • magic lantern & beyond
    • literature
    • music and dance >
      • the classical musicians >
        • - Eleanor Alberga
        • ~ Neville Atkinson
        • - Nerine Barrett
        • - Richard Beckford
        • - Harold St Nicholas Cartier
        • - Frederic H. Cowen
        • - Noel DaCosta
        • - Louis Drysdale
        • - Samuel Felsted
        • - Maxine Franklin
        • - George and Hilda Goode
        • - David Johns
        • - John Lyon
        • - Marie McMarrow
        • - Edmund Reid
        • - Orrett Rhoden
        • - Oswald Russell
        • - Paul Shaw
        • - Don Shirley
        • - Stephen Tucker
        • - George Walker
        • - Curtis Watson
        • - Willard White
      • Jamaica Choir
      • 'practice dances'
    • art >
      • painting >
        • Zithri J Atkinson >
          • Bruce Grit article
        • Frederic E Church
      • sculpture
      • photography
  • events
    • & everything else >
      • - manumissions
      • - drugs >
        • - tobacco
        • - opium
        • - cocaine
        • - cannabis >
          • 1913 legislation
    • public holidays >
      • crop-over
      • May 24th
      • June 7 >
        • Port Royal 1667
        • Great Earthquake 1692
      • August 1st >
        • 1888 - 50 years
      • Christmas >
        • 18th century
        • 19th century >
          • Christmas with Belisario
          • Christmas in Kingston >
            • - Creole Airs
            • Christmas at the Asylum
          • and across the island
          • Christmas Races
        • early 20th century
        • lotteries & raffles
      • other days >
        • Valentine's Day
        • Mother's Day
    • exhibitions >
      • 1891 >
        • the phonograph
        • merry-go-rounds
        • Amphitrite
      • 1932 >
        • the Exhibition starts >
          • a walk around the Exhibition
        • Exhibition extended
        • Exhibition sports
        • - D T Wint
        • - 'Exhibition' Beecher
        • - W A W Mitchell
        • - L. A. Thoywell-Henry
      • 1934
      • 1946 - Exhibition that wasn't
    • natural disasters >
      • earthquakes >
        • - 1692
        • - 1907 >
          • Kingston burning
          • reports >
            • map
            • - Capt. T. T. Lovelace
          • damage
          • who was Joseph E Thomas?
          • afterwards
        • - smaller 'quakes
      • hurricanes >
        • Jamaica's climate
        • Dampier and hurricanes
        • 18th century >
          • 1780s - hurricane decade
        • 19th century >
          • - 1815
          • 1830s & 1840s
          • 1870s & 1880s
        • 20th century
        • 21st century
      • fires >
        • 1843 >
          • 1843 Colonial Magazine
        • 1862
        • 1875
        • 1882
      • diseases >
        • cholera
        • 'Dandy fever'
        • "Spanish" 'flu
Picture
people  >
in the churches  >
Moravians

the Moravians

Picture
Rev. W. V. Moses
in Mosquitia
Peter Denton Blair
Dr Joseph Blair
Frederic Smith
Jacob Lewis
Isaac Lewis
Benjamin Garth
Picture
Picture
The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899,Karl Offen, Terry Rugeley, U of Nebraska Press, Jun 1, 2014
Peter Denton Blair
Peter Blair, the mission's preeminent translator and medical man, served forty-one years (from 1856 to 1897) in at least five mission stations.
Picture
THE WACHOVIA MORAVIAN.
VOLUME IV. NUMBER 47. SALEM, N. C., JANUARY, 1897.
      The senior minister of the Moskito Coast Mission, Bro. Peter Denton Blair, died on the 1st of January, 1897. Bro. Blair was a native of Jamaica, where he was born in 1835. He possessed many excellent traits of character and was a very gifted man His translations into the native tongue will doubtless prove the most far-reaching of all his many careful labors.

      A different version of Peter Blair's marriage appears many years later in Jamaica, when Maria Blair died in 1929:
Picture
Daily Gleaner, September 23, 1929
Mrs. Maria Blair Dies At Walderston
From a Correspondent
     At the advanced age of 90 there passed away one who was highly esteemed and greatly beloved throughout the districts around Walderston Mrs. Maria Blair (Grannie Blair). The funeral service was conducted by the Rev. John Kneale of Kingston, now acting Minister of the Mizpah Moravian Church, of which the deceased had been a leading member for over 30 years. In the course of his address, the minister spoke with much feeling of her sterling qualities and of the remarkable influence she had so quietly exerted upon the community. He referred to her years of devoted service as a pioneer missionary in Nicaragua, and to her life long interest in the cause of missions.
      The funeral was well attended, despite inclement weather, and the service was a most impressive one. The body was laid to rest near by the grave of the late Coi. Geo. Hicks, who had been a close friend all these many years. The grave was covered with a profusion of beautiful flowers — including wreaths of roses, lilies and dahlias from Miss Walder, Inspector and Mrs. Neilson, Mrs. S. W. Hicks, Mrs. Kneale, Mrs. Prendergast, Miss. V. Prendergast, Miss C. Prendergast and Miss Gerty Cuthbert.
      Mrs. Blair was the widow of the Rev. P. W.[?D] Blair, she was born in 1839 at Richmond Hill, near Mile Gully, and was a member of the Bethany Moravian Church. She was married in 1870 at Carmel Moravian Church, Westmoreland. In March of that same year her husband was called by the Moravian Church as a Missionary to the Mosquito Coast, Central America, and she bravely accompanied him and took her part in the pioneer work among the Indians. In 1870 she was stationed at Ruyalaya, from 1877-1882 at Pearl Lagoon, then at Tasbapauni till 1886 when she returned to Jamaica for a short visit. The following year she resumed her duties at Tasbapauni where she remained until the death of her husband 1897. She then came back to her native land and resided at her home "Marlie Bank" near Walderston. In 1903 she lost her sight entirely and for the last years of her life, was confined to bed and bore much suffering with great fortitude encouraging all who came to visit her. She passed away very peacefully on the 17th. September 1929 at 4.30 a.m. leaving two devoted daughters to mourn her loss.

[note: possibly Blair had been in Nicaragua earlier and married an Indian woman, who possibly died; after his ordination he might have returned to Jamaica, and married a fellow Jamaican from his home area, Bethany. His son, Joseph Denton Blair, born 1865, was clearly the child of his first wife.]
Dr Joseph Blair
Picture
Periodical Accounts, Moravian Missions, Sept 1892
A Candidate for Medical Mission Service.
In holding services at these out-stations, Br. Walder has the aid of an assistant and of several day-school teachers. The assistant at Mizpah is Br. Joseph Blair, son of Br. Peter Blair of the Moskito Coast Mission. He was trained at Fairfield Normal School, and has been a teacher for some years on the Moskito Coast. Having a desire to study medicine, he returned to Jamaica, where he spent some time in the government hospital acting as dispenser. But finding himself unable to continue his studies, he offered his services to the Jamaica Mission. In an interview I had with him, he expressed his strong desire to become a medical missionary.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Wachovia Moravian, March, 1959
      Medical mission work in Nicaragua began in 1896, when Dr. Joseph Blair, of Pearl Lagoon, and his wife, a trained nurse, served for two years.
Frederic Smith
Frederic Smith worked twenty-six years while serving in at least four Miskito villages. He also made the first exploratory trips to the Wangki River between 1892 and 1895, introducing the mission to the most densely populated Miskito region of Nicaragua.
Picture
Jacob Lewis
Picture
Jacob Lewis served forty-four years and was responsible for establishing the first mission among a Mayangna Indian community at Karawala in 1892.
Isaac Lewis
Picture
Benjamin Garth
Picture
     Another Black man, a Pearl Lagoon Creole, Benjamin Garth, served the mission at least forty years and was the first native Mosquitian to be ordained, in 1900.
     Benjamin Garth was a native son of Pearl Lagoon. He was ordained in 1899, the first Creole and Nicaraguan to become a deacon in the Brethren’s Church. It is not clear when Garth became a missionary, but earlier he had been a rubber trader in Pearl Lagoon . . .

Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.