BRIER, Burgess
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal 26 July 1890 p 3
The Cincinnati Commercial of Saturday contained a lengthy account of the death of Burgess B. Brier, of the class of 86 of Wabash College. Mr. Brier and his wife were missionaries at Bantango, Africa and there it was he met his death. His remains will be returned at his old home in Rob Roy, Ind. - kbz
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Saturday, 9 Aug. 1890
Nearly every reader of The Journal knows something of Rev. Burgess B. Brier, who spent several years in college here, graduating in 1886 with the honor and taking the Baldwin Greek prize. He was universally esteemed and the short announcement of his death a week or two ago caused numerous expressions of regret. He and his bride went to the deadly West Coast of Africa about a year and a half ago. After eleven months of devoted labor, Mr. Brier was attacked by the terrible fever which is so fatal to foreigners, an nine days later died. Mrs. Brier, herself broken in health, has just returned to her father’s home at Rankin, Ills. She first went to convey the last messages of love and farewell from her husband to his parents in Rob Roy, in Warren County. As she passed through Lafayette, a reporter of the Call of that city, gathered many interesting particulars of the life and hardships to which the young missionaries were subjected, from a conversation with her. She said both her husband and herself lay very sick at the same time, each deeply concerned about the other, and each fearing that the other would be first to go. During his sickness, Mr. Brier devoted his hours of consciousness to planning for the future safety and comfort of his companion. He expressed a wish that he might die at sunset and be buried at sunset and his wish was realized. He desired that a broken shaft might mark his grave, indicative of a broken life. At Bantanje, the village where the missionaries were stationed, were two German and four English traders. They and the natives, who loved Mr. Briar very much, did all in their power to assist in the proper burial of the dead, and to lighten the burdens of the wife. They made a crude coffin of plank and lined it with some soft white comforts which Mrs. Briar’s mother had tucked away among their goods, never dreaming of the use that would be made of them.
Mr. Brier was dressed in his wedding suit and the next evening at sunset, he was silently and tenderly carried to the little church where he had been wont to talk to the natives of the religion which he loved. An old native, who especially loved the young missionary, and was a devout Christian, read the funeral service in a trembling voice, and hymns were sung in English and the native tongue. There, on that distant benighted coast, full of horrors for the white man, little known and desolate, the familiar strains of “Safe in the arms of Jesus” arose on the still evening air. As the shadows of night drew upon the place, and the glow of sunset fades across the western waters, the body was laid gently to rest in a lovely spot where the lapping waves sing a continual requiem.