Sam Higginbottom served as an agricultural missionary in India.^[1] Higginbottom, the founder of Allahabad Agricultural Institute, played a pivotal role in the advent of agricultural missions in India during the early 20^th century when Christian overseas missions underwent a shift globally from a focus on proselytising to social work.^[2]

Sam Higginbottom was born on October 27, 1874, in Manchester^[3] to an English father and a Welsh-speaking mother who attended a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel. They first relocated to Ty'n-y-Groes in the Conwy Valley and later to Llandudno when he was a young child. While Sam was raised in the English-speaking Presbyterian Church of Wales, his mother was a devout member of the Rehoboth Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Llandudno. He became a communicant at the Presbyterian Church of Wales under the ministerial care of Rev. C. T. Astley.^[4]

Higginbottom was raised in impoverished rural circumstances. He paid for his education by selling milk and working odd jobs to supplement his income.^[5] In 1894, at age 20, Higginbottom left Llandudno, England and migrated to the United States to study at the Mt. Hermon School in Massachusetts.^[6] He pursued undergraduate studies at Amherst College and then attended Princeton University receiving his degree in 1903. Sam Higginbottom married Jane Ethelind Cody on October 28, 1904, and they had three children, Gertrude, Laddie and Elizabeth Baines.^[7]

Higginbottom initially aspired to become a missionary in China, Africa or Latin America. However, after listening to Henry Forman, a missionary from India speak at Princeton, he was convinced to help the uneducated and impoverished people of India, despite his initial reservations about the country. His original plan upon arriving in Calcutta in November 1903 was to serve in Etah in present Uttar Pradesh. However, a scarcity of missionaries led to him being convinced to take a teaching position at the Allahabad Christian College instead, which American Presbyterians ran.^[8]

Higginbottom started as an economics instructor and experimented with creative approaches to teaching, learning, and problem-solving. He soon understood how desperately India's peasant farmers needed leadership. The extreme poverty experienced by the farmers in the nearby villages and districts, where the land was unusable and the output of agriculture was extremely poor, severely unsettled his mind. He came to understand that his life's mission would be to use modern agriculture to alleviate the condition of Indian farmers. Given that the majority of the farmers made less than half a penny a day, it was understandable why they lacked the stamina necessary to do their everyday chores. He instructed them in animal husbandry, home hygiene, and scientific land farming. With his wife Ethelind's assistance, he decided to open an agriculture school close to Sangam in Naini.^[9]

Unlike government agricultural institutions, which prepared students for desk jobs in agricultural departments, he designed an agricultural school that would prepare individuals to work with farmers.^[10] He believed that he needed additional training to be able to assist the masses in this way, so he went back to the United States and enrolled in the University of Ohio in 1909 to study agriculture.^[11] After two years, Higginbottom returned to India with almost $10,000 to continue working on his project. To build a farm and an agricultural college close to Allahabad, he purchased 300 acres of land that bordered the River Jumna. With the gradual increase in both student and faculty numbers, this new college rose to prominence as one of the leading agricultural education hubs in all of India. Thus, India's most distinctive and successful agriculture education programme was devised by Higginbottom.^[12]

As such, Sam and Ethel Higginbottom made multiple trips back to the United States to gather money for the Allahabad Agricultural Institute. These visits took place in 1909–11, 1914–15, 1919–21, and 1932–33. The school's greatest growth and accomplishments occurred in the 1920s and 1930s.[ ^[13] High-yielding seed production, animal husbandry, dairy technology, agricultural engineering, and farm management were among the courses offered in the school.^[14] He also called on the churches to provide for the financial needs he saw in India.^[15] Higginbottom maintained constant communication with his Presbyterian Church associates during his time in India. Because of his numerous public appearances to raise money, church officials began to recognise them more and more. As a result, agricultural missions overcame strong early resistance from the evangelistic faction which initially wanted Higginbottom to teach in the college as a missionary. Hence, the agricultural mission endeavours progressed gradually. 

Agricultural missions received a resounding endorsement during the 1928 International Missionary Council meeting in Jerusalem. Consequently, a prominent American spokesman for the movement, Kenyon Butterfield conducted a thorough tour of the Indian stations.^[16] Later in 1939, Higginbottom was chosen as the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America.^[17]

Higginbottom's suggestions for the improvement of Indian living captivated well-known Indians like Mahatma Gandhi. Also, Higginbottom counselled Indian princes on farming methods. He became a close personal friend of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi, gained immense fame as a missionary, and was twice awarded the King George V Kaiser-i-Hind medals for his services. A prolific author, Higginbottom is also well known for his work, The Gospel and the Plough or The Old Gospel and Modern Farming in Ancient India.

Higginbottom was the driving force for the founding of two hospitals: one for the blind and one for lepers; and served as a temporary superintendent at both  He took the lead in the development of the Naini Leper Asylum.^[18] Higginbottom was awarded the first-ever Doctorate in Humanity by Princeton University in 1930, an accolade which was well deserved. Higginbottom eventually retired to the USA in Frostproof, Florida in the year 1945.^[19]

Until his passing, Higginbottom was well-informed on events occurring in India. He attempted to open a Christian Service Training Centre in the 1950s to prepare missionaries for work in agriculture but was unsuccessful.^[20] Dr Sam Higginbottom passed away in June 1958 in Florida, where he had retired thirteen years prior.^[21]