Samuel Hopkins was born on a farm near Waterbury, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale in 1741 and two years later was ordained a Congregational minister. A follower of Jonathan Edwards, his stern presentation of New England theology and his outspoken opposition to slavery made him a leader in his denomination. He wrote in favor of emancipation of African-Americans as early as 1776 and a systematic theology titled System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation, Explained and Defended.
Walter Gowans was born in Canada. With Rowland Bingham and Thomas Kent, he went to open a mission door in East Africa, thereby becoming a co-founder of the Sudan Interior Mission. However, he died of malaria within a year.
Tommie Titcomb was born near Swindon, Wiltshire, England. Upon the death of his father, Tommie went to work to help support his mother, earning $1.25 a week as an apprentice to a moulder in a railroad shop. His hours were 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days a week. When almost through his term of apprenticeship, he was driven during a rainstorm into a Salvation Army barracks where a meeting was in progress. He was converted. Eventually he felt the call to missions, completed training, was turned down by his mission board and made his way to Africa on his own, where God used him for 22 years.
