Edwin W. Clark

Edward Winter Clark (E. W. Clark) (1830-1913 ) was a 19th-century missionary to Nagaland, India. In 1872, Clark and his wife opened their first mission station in the Naga Hills near Ao Naga, after a 40-year gap following the previous and first Baptist missionary, Reverend Miles Bronson, to work with the Naga people. Clark and his wife would spend the periods of 1872-1901 and 1904-1911 in Nagaland.

Clark was born 5 February 1830 in Dutchess County, New York, and baptized into the Baptist faith at age 14. He attended Worcester Academy from 1839 to 1841 and earned his master's degree from Brown University in 1857, and was ordained a preacher in 1859.

E. W. Clark and his wife sailed from Boston on October 20, 1868 under the Baptist Missionary Union as Missionaries and Printers. The hills beyond their Sibsagar mission were the Naga Hills. The Nagas were known for their practice of headhunting.

They arrived in Sibsagar in March 1869. During their stay at Sibsagar the Clarks had opportunity of meeting some Nagas roaming in search of food. The Clarks developed a burden for the Nagas and wrote to the Home Mission Board in 1871: “Tribe upon tribe of Nagas are accessible to the Gospel. It is certainly painful for us at Sibsagar to be unable to lift our eyes without seeing these hills and thinking of them who have no knowledge of Christ.”

Clark sent an evangelist to penetrate the Naga Hills. The evangelist came down with nine others and they were baptized by Clark on November 11, 1872. Clark was at this time not permitted to enter Nagaland by the British Government and his own mission board was hesitant to approve his plan to enter the Naga Hills. On December 23, 1872 Clark organized the First Baptist Church at Molungkimong in Nagaland.

It was an important day in Naga history when the first Baptist Church was formed. It is no wonder Clark knew his calling would henceforth be with the Nagas. “’I believe I have found my life-work,’ exclaimed Mr. Clark, as he entered the old press bungalow on his return from his twelve days’ absence in the wilds of barbarism.”

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