26/11/2024
Meet Owosso’s Forgotten Son & Hero William Scott Ament. You may not have heard of this international hero since some liberal historians in Owosso, are trying to rewrite history and cancel him out. Ament would be considered a Concervative today. Some local historians will not write on him or even acknowledge him since he was not a liberal. They won't accept history for how it was. They want to create a new narrative fitting only their beliefs. History is what it is and should never be changed to meet a historians politics.
OWOSSO – Meet Owosso’s Forgotten Son & Hero William Scott Ament. Will Ament single-handedly saved hundreds and possibly thousands of lives from Chinese Terrorists in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion in China. While the American, British, French, Russian, Italian, and Japanese soldiers were holed up in Peeking, China, expecting an attack by the Boxers, Chinese Terrorists, Ament armed with only a revo.. and long g.. ventured out not once but several times into the countryside rescuing groups of people being attacked and k.. by the Boxers.
Let’s start at the beginning; William "Will" Scott Ament was born in Owosso on Sept. 14, 1851. Will’s father was an entrepreneur, starting out as a blacksmith and soon owning the only brick building, a hotel, in Owosso, along with a stage stagecoach. Will is the second person ever from Owosso to go to College and the first to graduate.
Will Ament is said to have been a good athlete. He played on Owosso’s champion Blue Sox baseball team, earning the nickname " Run Ament.” He was also a good horseman and was “hearty, aggressive, and fearless.”
Ament attended the 1st Congregational Church in Owosso and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio and the Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Ament, 25, married Mary Penfield, 21, in Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 23, 1877. On October 17, 1877, Ament and his bride were sailing out of California on the “China” to China, where Ament would be starting a church as a missionary in Paoting, China, ninety miles south of Peeking, now called Beijing.
Soon, the pious and sincere missionary was assigned to a large area and many churches. Ament learned Chinese and preached and taught in the native language.
Some things could have gone better in China. The French, Italians, British, Germans, and Japanese, along with other nations, sent delegations, engineers, businesspeople, and missionaries to bring this backward country into the 1800s. The Chinese were very nationalistic and racist and didn’t want anything to do with foreigners or the modern world. They hated the railroads being built and other modern inventions that foreigners were bringing to China.
A nationalistic, racist secret society was formed in China by unemployed ignorant peasants known by Westerners and the Japanese as the “Boxers.” These individuals dressed in outlandish gear and tried to act like the actors who traveled from village to village performing martial arts in plays. These Boxers rallied around an ideology of ki.. all Christians along with all non-Chinese men, women, and children. Their goal was to not only eradicate China from all foreigners and Christians but to also destroy all modern industries, including the railroads, and take China back 1,000 years into the past.
The Boxers rebelled and, armed with swords and spears in the spring of 1900, attacked and k.. all the Chinese Christians as well as all foreigners they could find. The Boxers chopped people’s h.. off, stole all of their possessions, burnt down the churches, and butchered women and children. The Boxers thought that they were “bulletproof” and, when attacking, would stop and do sword and martial arts acts, expecting to put fear in the people they were attacking. It worked with the unarmed Chinese they butchered, but when they tried to put on a show while attacking the Germans, the Germans just opened fire and s.. them all down.
The Boxers ravished the countryside, destroying and k... as they worked their way towards the nation’s capital, Peeking. All the foreigners, including the Chinese Christians, built up fortifications in an area of Peeking. When attacked, less than 500 soldiers from 5 or more countries worked together to repel the attack. Before the attack came, Ament, armed with only a revo and a long g.., made several trips into the countryside, fighting off the Boxers and rescuing groups of people.
This war continued for some time, but the Boxers were ultimately beaten. Ament and others went back into the countryside after the uprising to help those who fled to regain their land and possessions. Under a Chinese tradition, Ament and those who were rescued could demand reoperations back from those who had attacked and persecuted them. Ament and others seized what they could from the enemy and used the proceeds to help those uprooted resettle, rebuild their homes and churches, and care for the orphans.
Ament was called the hero of the rebellion and came under attack from isolationists and socialists of the day, led by Samuel Clemmons (Mark Twain), who believed in a theology that life was only a dream. Clemmons believed that developed nations should not go into 3rd world countries and help develop them but instead leave them to live in poverty and squalor and continue living as their ancestors had lived for thousands of years. Ament was called an imperialist, though all he really was was only a fearless missionary who lived out the Gospel.
Ament lived in China until shortly before he died in 1908. Ament is buried in Owosso.
Movies were made, and books were written about Ament and were slanted towards the writers' agenda. Ament was portrayed by most as a hero, as he was for saving hundreds or thousands of lives and helping them get their lives back, but then vilified by others for helping the people who were attacked in getting their land and possessions back. Clemmons didn’t want any Western nations or the Japanese to influence and build countries but to keep a hands-off approach, so he attacked Ament in the press, not wanting Ament to be known as a hero. Ament believed in the order placed on all Christians by Christ himself, that of taking the Gospel to all people and making Disciples in all nations, while Clemmons, the atheist, believed he was living in a dream and fought for isolationism. History showed “Home Run Ament” as a “Hearty, Aggressive and Fearless Hero.”
So, here we are today in Owosso, with most people who were born and raised here not even knowing that the son of Owosso was internationally known as a Hero who put his life on the line to rescue hundreds of people from terrorists of his day. Be proud, Owosso, of your native son, and share with others.
Lets Cancel the Cancel Culture and be Proud of all of Owosso's Heroes.
