Born: Sep­tem­ber 15, 1865, Bucks­port, Maine.

Died: Oc­to­ber 19, 1896, Lis­bon, Por­tu­gal.

Often mis­i­den­ti­fied as “Will­iam,” Ma­com­ber came to Christ at age 16, then worked dis­trib­ut­ing ma­ter­i­als for the Amer­i­can Bi­ble So­ci­e­ty. In 1890, he en­rolled at the New York Miss­ion­ary Train­ing In­sti­tute (later re­named Ny­ack Coll­ege), and in 1892 went to the Con­go for the In­ter­na­tion­al Mis­sion­a­ry Al­li­ance. He re­turned to Amer­i­ca a year later for health rea­sons, and in 1894 be­gan teach­ing the Con­go­lese lang­uage at his al­ma ma­ter. He com­piled an Eng­lish-Fi­o­ti gram­mar and dic­tion­a­ry for use by mis­sion­ar­ies, and in 1896 re­turned to mis­sion­a­ry work in the Con­go. Once again, ill health forced his de­part­ure, but he ne­ver made it to Amer­i­ca, and suc­cumbed in Por­tu­gal.

Sources

Hymns

1. Christ Is Com­ing
2. Held in His Mighty Arms