Introduction

Biography

Often mis­iden­ti­fied as Will­iam, Win­field was the son of Con­verse C. Ma­com­ber and Ma­ria Lew­is.

He 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.