1866–1948
Summary
Georgia Burrus Burgess was the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary to the Indian subcontinent and the first single Adventist woman sent to a non-Christian country. Born in California on July 19, 1866, she became an Adventist at sixteen against family opposition, trained at Healdsburg College and the Oakland Bible Training School, and at twenty-eight sailed alone for India on the SS Bengal in December 1894, arriving in Calcutta on January 23, 1895. Over the next thirty-nine years she learned Bengali, Hindustani, and Khasi; her witness produced the first two baptisms in India (Kheroda Bose and Nanibala); she married Luther J. Burgess in 1902; and with him she pioneered Adventist work in Bengal, the foothills of the Himalayas, the Punjab, and the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya. Failing health forced their permanent return to California in 1934, and she died at National City on September 25, 1948.
From California to Calcutta (1866–1895)
Per Gordon E. Christo’s article in the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Georgia Anna Burrus was born on July 19, 1866. Despite the opposition of her family she joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church at sixteen, worked her way through Healdsburg College, taught at the Bible Training School in Oakland, and in 1893 was voted by the General Conference to be sent to India with Myrtle Griffis. Her companion’s failing health prevented Griffis from sailing, but Georgia herself recovered from a medical setback and took the recovery as a sign of the Lord’s call. She enrolled in the nursing course at St. Helena and a special class at Battle Creek for foreign mission service, then in December 1894 sailed alone on the SS Bengal, arriving in Calcutta on January 23, 1895.
Ella May White Robinson’s Over My Shoulder records the original 1894 appointment: “During the spring of 1894 two young women, Georgia Burrus, a house-to-house Bible instructor in the California Conference, and Myrtle Griffis, from the Oakland City Mission, were appointed to go to India and begin pioneer work among the women” (Over My Shoulder, p. 43, par. 4; refcode OMS 43.4).
Loughborough’s Great Second Advent Movement records her arrival and immediate language work: “In 1895 Miss Georgia Burrus left California for India. On arriving there she at once began the study of the Bengali language, and soon entered upon the mission work” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 439, par. 1; refcode GSAM 439.1). The same paragraph records the first fruits: “Up to 1896 several persons had begun the observance of the Lord’s Sabbath through association with our workers” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 439, par. 1; refcode GSAM 439.1).
Pioneer Work in Bengal (1895–1902)
Loughborough’s Great Second Advent Movement records the arrival of reinforcements in 1896: “The laborers in the field in 1896 were Elder D. A. Robinson and his wife. Miss May Taylor and Miss Georgia Burrus were Bible workers” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 439, par. 2; refcode GSAM 439.2). The same paragraph records the bereavement that followed: “Both he and Elder D. A. Robinson died at Karmatar, Bengal, India, the last of December, 1899” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 439, par. 2; refcode GSAM 439.2).
Per ESDA, Georgia and Martha May Taylor founded the first Adventist school in India. Kheroda Bose, who joined Georgia in teaching at the school, became the first Indian convert baptized in the SDA Church; Nanibala — a young Bengali woman whom Georgia visited regularly in her home — became the first non-Christian convert baptized in India. Both baptisms came directly out of Georgia’s personal house-to-house work.
The 1901 General Conference Bulletin records the long isolation of her zenana work: “Look at the millions of homes in India to be reached only by the zenana work. Most of the time we have for this work only Sister Burrus, who has gone in and out among the people. Her work does not shine out much in statistics, but she knows of many homes where the inmates are almost believers, though bound by social laws and caste, by a peculiar kind of domestic life” (General Conference Bulletin, April 16, 1901, p. 258, par. 2; refcode GCB April 16, 1901, page 258.2).
A week later, the same Bulletin recorded the field’s scope and her transfer to Chandernagore: “In the women of India, in their homes, or zenanas, we have a tremendous field” (General Conference Bulletin, April 23, 1901, p. 435, par. 4; refcode GCB April 23, 1901, page 435.4).
Marriage and Return to the Field (1902–1906)
Per ESDA, in 1902 Georgia married Luther J. Burgess, who had been sent the previous year as Secretary and Treasurer of the India Mission, in a simple ceremony at the Adventist chapel on Free School Street, Calcutta, conducted by J. L. Shaw. The following year Luther laid down his administrative office and the couple moved to Karmatar to take charge of the school and orphanage there. Failing health forced their return to America in mid-1904; with the Mission Board lacking funds for their passage back, they undertook to sell twenty thousand copies of Bible Training School magazine at ten cents each to fund their own return, and at length sailed back in 1906.
Pioneering the North Indian Field (1906–1934)
The 1909 General Conference Bulletin records the launching of their Hindustani work: “Our work among the Hindustani people, of whom there are more than eighty millions, began a little less than four years ago when Brother L. J. Burgess and wife returned to India” (General Conference Bulletin, June 2, 1909, p. 273, par. 3; refcode GCB June 2, 1909, page 273.3).
The same Bulletin’s tribute to their language acquisition continues in the same paragraph: “Through the efforts of Elder Haskell and wife and other good friends in America, Brother and Sister Burgess were given their whole time to the study of the Hindi, and afterward Urdu, which are the two branches of the Hindustani language. God’s blessing has rested upon these workers in a very definite way as they have quietly labored among the people” (General Conference Bulletin, June 2, 1909, p. 273, par. 3; refcode GCB June 2, 1909, page 273.3).
The 1913 General Conference Bulletin records the Garwhal industrial school they launched in 1910: “Nearly three years ago an industrial school was started by Brother and Sister Burgess in the mountains of Garhwal. A beautiful location was obtained among the lofty Himalaya Mountains. A schoolhouse, mission house, two dormitories, and other small buildings, have been erected” (General Conference Bulletin, May 28, 1913, p. 170, par. 15; refcode GCB May 28, 1913, page 170.15).
The same session formally welcomed them as veterans of the field: “Brother and Sister L. J. Burgess, who have been pioneering the way among the Hindustani people in North India for the past seven and one-half years, are at this Conference” (General Conference Bulletin, May 28, 1913, p. 170, par. 13; refcode GCB May 28, 1913, page 170.13).
At the same conference, Mrs. Burgess called to the platform Miss Nonibala Burrus — the Bengali convert who had taken her teacher’s surname — and introduced her to the assembly: “She is the first convert in India from heathenism to our faith. She is in medical work in this country, preparing to go back to work for her own people. She embraced the truth in 1897” (General Conference Bulletin, May 29, 1913, p. 187, par. 7; refcode GCB May 29, 1913, page 187.7).
Ellen White’s Personal Encouragement (1906)
Ellen White’s letter of October 1906 to W. C. White records the encouragement she drew from the Burgess reports: “We have received and read your interesting letter, also the enclosures from Sister Burgess. Thank you for sending these communications. The experiences they relate are very encouraging” (Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 21, Letter 192, 1906, par. 1; refcode 21LtMs, Lt 192, 1906, par. 1).
A year later, Ellen White’s letter of October 1907 records the same: “I am sending you a copy of a letter just received from Brother Haskell, telling of the work of Brother and Sister Burgess in India” (Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 22, Letter 282, 1907, par. 7; refcode 22LtMs, Lt 282, 1907, par. 7).
Last Years and Death (1914–1948)
Per ESDA, Georgia’s health forced a brief return to California in 1914; back in India she and Luther were reassigned to Calcutta, where Luther was appointed Superintendent of the Bengal Mission and Georgia established a Bengali Girls’ School. In 1919 they conducted evangelistic meetings at Shillong in the Khasi Hills (an elevation of about 5,000 feet), drawn there by the Hardinge family whom Georgia had earlier won in Calcutta. Through the 1920s they assisted in opening Ranchi and Hazaribagh, then settled at Shillong to pioneer Adventist work among the Khasi-speaking people of Meghalaya. Failing health finally forced them to return permanently to the United States in 1934, where they settled near Paradise Valley Sanitarium in National City, California. Georgia Burgess died at National City on September 25, 1948, in her eighty-second year.
The first conversions in what is now Bangladesh trace back to a tract Georgia handed out at the Calcutta railway station; the conversion of the Hardinge family followed her vegetarian recipe book; and her decades of patient zenana visiting, language study, and school teaching laid the foundation on which the Adventist Church in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Meghalaya was built.
