William Scott Ament

William Scott Ament (Chinese Names: 梅子明 and 梅威良 Mei Wei Liang) (14 September 1851 – 6 January 1909 in San Francisco) was a missionary to China for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from 1877, and was known as the "Father of Christian Endeavor in China." Ament became prominent as a result of his activism during the Boxer Uprising and controversial in its aftermath because of the personal attacks on him by American writer Mark Twain for his collection of punitive indemnities from northern Chinese villages. Biographical details William Scott Ament was born of Dutch and French Huguenot ancestry on 14 September 1851 in Owosso, Michigan, the eldest son of Winfield Scott Ament ( – 1865), an ironworker, and Emily Hammond Ament (born 3 May 1818; married 4 September 1848; died April 1908 in Oberlin, Ohio), and the younger brother of Claribel Ament Leggat (born in Owosso, Michigan; died 1881 in Butte, Montana). Spiritual background At the age of twelve, Will Ament became a member of the Congregational church (now the Owosso First Congregational Church United Church of Christ) at Owosso, Michigan, which had been organised on 18 January 1853. About the time of his father's death, when he was 14, Ament had a deeper spiritual experience as a result of a religious revival in his home church. While studying at Oberlin Academy, Ament underwent "a new and deep spiritual impulse" and transferred his church membership to the Second Congregational Church at Oberlin, Ohio. According to Porter, "From that time on he was hearty, aggressive and fearless in meeting those who opposed Christianity, and made the service of Christ the chief thing of life." Education Ament attended the Owosso High School, and upon graduation enrolled in the Oberlin Academy in Oberlin, Ohio, a preparatory school, in the fall of 1867. Two years later he enrolled at Oberlin College. Ament was "the second boy to go from here [Owosso] to college and the first to graduate." While at Oberlin College, Ament was influenced by the example of Oberlin's recently retired president, revivalist Charles Grandison Finney. Ament had to work his way through college. While studying at Oberlin College, Ament became the supervisor (principal) of the Richfield Central high school at Richfield, Ohio (since the early 1950s, Revere High School).