AFR-LIBERIA-L Archives

From: Doris Waggoner <>
Subject: N.S. BASTION, Methodist Missionary 1850
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 01:29:30 -0800

Are there any records in Liberia of Methodist missionaries?

My ancestor, N.S. BASTION, sometimes spelled BASTIAN, arrived in Monrovia
in Sept. 1849 to head the Methodist mission. He brought with him his
wife Sarah Miller BASTION and their infant son, John Tenbrook BASTION.
On Oct. 31, 1849, the child, about 15 months old, died. According to one
history of Methodist missions in Liberia, he was buried near the memorial
to an earlier missionary, named COX. I saw a 19th c. photo of this
memorial, and it was quite large and elaborate. But the book did not say
where in Monrovia it was, or whether it was in a cemetery.

BASTION wanted to build a school which would have been much more
ambitious than the schools previous missionaries had built. Students
would have been the freedmen returning from America, and the curriculum
would have been a classical education typical of the time, including
Greek, the Bible, geography, etc., eight grades. Previous buildings had
been of wood, and had deteriorated rapidly. He wanted to build of stone
and brick. I have his original architectural drawing for a two-story
building. The first floor would have had four rooms, three classrooms
and a library-laboratory. The second would have been a dormitory for
students. Probably in order to get political backing in Liberia to help
get backing from the Methodist Mission Board back in New York City, the
drawing includes the signatures of President Roberts and the first
Supreme Court Justice of the new Republic of Liberia.

In the meantime, BASTION's wife Sarah had started the first school for
females among the free blacks.

In January, 1850, BASTION left Monrovia for New York, heading first to
London to raise money and recruit teachers. His wife was planning to go
along, but then refused to leave her students. Perhaps she also did not
want to leave her dead child. On March 15, 1850, she died in Monrovia.
I do not know where she is buried, whether next to her son, or somewhere
else. This is one of the things I would like to know.

BASTION did not know of his wife's death until he reached New York in the
end of June 1850. He had been recalled from the mission field for
wanting spend too much money on the school, though in fact he had raised
enough on his own to completely cover the cost. But he didn't know about
the recall either, until he reached New York. He was finally exonerated
of wrongdoing, but apparently he and the bishop in charge of missions had
a falling out, and he never returned to Liberia.

So with that background, here are my questions:

Is the location of Cox's memorial known? Was it in a cemetery? Is it
still there?
Is it known whether John Tenbrook was buried there?
Where was Sarah Miller Bastion buried?
I believe Bastion's school was built, later in the 1850s. His plan
called it "Liberia Conference Seminary" though it might have ended up
called something else. Where was it? Are there pictures of it? How
long did it exist?
And are there any other records in Monrovia pertaining to Bastion?

I would greatly appreciate anything anyone can help me find on this
ancestor. I'm not even invested in it being good.

Thanks,
Doris Waggoner
Seattle, Washington, USA

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• N.S. BASTION, Methodist Missionary 1850 by Doris Waggoner <>