May 1901 – One of the very first papers written in English about the Promised Messiahas was by Hervey De Witt Griswold. Hervey De Witt Griswold was born on May 24, 1860 in Dryden, New York. He attended Union College in Schenectady, New York from 1881 to 1885, and then went to Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1885 to 1888. During the following two years Griswold had a fellowship at Oxford and Berlin Universities. Griswold began his 36-year-long career as a Christian missionary in 1890 in Jhansi, India as a representative of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. In 1894 Griswold became Professor of Philosophy at Forman Christian College in Lahore.[1]
Hervey De Witt Griswold visited Qadian in May 1901 and a long conversation persued on the claims of the Promised Messiahas. The detailed account of the meeting was published in the three publications of Al-Hakam on 10, 17 and 14 May 1901. Prof. Griswold later published two papers were “Mirza Ghulam Ahmad the Mahdi Messiah of Qadian” which was read out in Ludhiana India in 1902 and “The Messiah of Qadian” which was read at the Victoria Institute in London on 15 May 1905.
