Awakening the Hermit Kingdom : Pioneer American Women Missionaries in Korea [1 ed.] 9780878086399, 9780878080120

Citation preview

Awakening the Hermit Kingdom: Pioneer American Women Missionaries in Korea is timely, needed, remarkably well researched and filled with delightful detail about the lives of women missionaries. Although the book is a scholarly piece of work it is still written in story form with fascinating details about the women missionaries’ lives, personal struggles, and other aspects that make the reading engaging and inspiring. Samuel Hugh Moffett Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission, Emeritus Princeton Theological Seminary

Wilbert R. Shenk Senior Professor of Mission History Fuller Graduate School of Intercultural Studies

Katherine H. Lee Ahn, Ph.D., teaches as a regular Adjunct Assistant Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She is also an ordained minister and has served local church ministries and missions for seventeen years. She has recently established a research center to support minority women in ministry and mission.

Katherine H. Lee Ahn

This study of the first generation of missionary work in Korea focuses on the crucial role Western women played. Their dynamic vision and courage was remarkable. Relying on diaries and letters written by the missionaries, Dr. Katherine Lee Ahn captures this story admirably. She shows that the pioneering work of these missionary women established precedents that opened the way for pioneering work by Korean women in church and society. This is an indispensable part of the history of the modern mission movement.

Awakening the Hermit Kingdom

Although women made up more than half of the pioneer Protestant missionaries in Korea, their stories have not taken any significant place in the discussion of the history of Korean Christianity. Awakening the Hermit Kingdom recovers the identity and contributions of American women who were pioneers in planting Protestant Christianity in the reclusive kingdom of Korea during the last decades of its last dynasty. It includes their stories of trans-Pacific journeys, friendship with the Korean queen, courageous itinerant work in the interior regions, and other fascinating facets of their missionary lives. The author reveals that the women missionaries were not just “helpers” of the male missionaries, but that they were true pioneers in every aspect. By providing the female side of the early Protestant missionary life and work in Korea, this book brings a fresh and new perspective on the history of the birth of Korean Christianity.

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

“This inspiring book provides a fascinating narrative of American women missionaries to Korea, from the beginnings in 1884 through 1907. Based on archives in both the United States and Korea, the work is engagingly written and carefully documented throughout and offers us the first comprehensive picture of the contribution of women to Korean Protestant missions. This compelling synthesis gives us fresh insights into the remarkable vision, the unstinting courage, and the heretofore untold story of the everyday lives of missionary women to Korea.” James E. Bradley Geoffrey W. Bromiley Professor of Church History Fuller Theological Seminary

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM Pioneer American Women Missionaries in Korea

Katherine H. Lee Ahn, Ph.D.

Awakening the Hermit Kingdom: Pioneer American Women Missionaries in Korea Copyright © 2009 Katherine H. Lee Ahn. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. Published by William Carey Library 1605 E. Elizabeth Street Pasadena, California USA 91104 www.missionbooks.org A ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission www.uscwm.org All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. ©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. Jonathon Pon, graphic designer Naomi McSwain, editorial manager Johanna Deming, assistant editor Cover photo courtesy of Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine and Homeopathy: Rosetta Sherwood Hall M.D. with Korean female doctors Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11 10 7 6 5 4 3 2 CH _____________________________________________________________ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ahn, Katherine H. Lee. Awakening the hermit kingdom : pioneer american women missionaries in Korea / By Katherine H. Lee Ahn. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-87808-012-0 1. Ahn, Katherine H. Lee. 2. Women missionaries--Korea--Biography. 3. Women missionaries--United States--Biography. I. Title. BV3462.A36A3 2009 266’.0237305190922--dc22 2009016148

Dedicated to all the brave women who gave their lives for the Gospel.

Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1

2

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

i iii 1

9

The Making of Pioneer Women Missionaries for Korea

29

3

Journey to Korea

55

4

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

79

5

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

115

6

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884-1889

153

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890-1907

189

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890-1907

247

7

8

Conclusion

305

Endnotes Bibliography Images Index

313 387 399 405

Foreword

I

t is my great pleasure to see this manuscript published and available to the public. I read the text once a few years ago in draft form and even then thought it should be published. It is timely, needed, remarkably well researched and filled with delightful detail about the lives of women missionaries. Although the book is a scholarly piece of work it is still written in story form with fascinating details about the women missionaries’ lives, personal struggles, and other aspects that make the reading engaging and inspiring. Dr. Ahn’s book tells the story of the first twenty-three years of contact (1884-1907) between American Protestant Christian women missionaries and Korean women in a nation and culture which for two thousand years had been a Hermit Kingdom wary of foreign influence and penetration. Korean culture was paternalistic. It was dismissive of its women except for their importance in child-bearing and in the care of their households. Dr. Ahn tells from a Korean perspective how American women came with their husbands (and in many cases incomprehensively without husbands) all the way across the ocean to little isolated Korea bearing the good news of Jesus Christ to their long-neglected sisters in Korea. What happened? Well, what happened is sometimes called “the Korea Miracle.” This is Dr. Ahn’s story—the first twenty-three years of miracle church growth. It covers only the beginnings, but the author does it beautifully and candidly. She very clearly points out how missionary histories of those early days tend to pay much more attention to the successes of the men in the mission to the neglect of the remarkable ministry of the single

i

women and missionary wives. She then describes in detail the level of involvement and great ministry successes women accomplished both independently and in cooperation with the male missionaries in the same country at the same time. It is no accident that the largest Christian women’s university in the world is in Seoul, Korea (Ewha Women’s University). Dr. Ahn helps to reveal the significance of women missionaries’ role and contributions behind the miracle of Christian growth in Korea. The book has added value because its author is a Korean woman. This is foreign mission as viewed from the receiving end. Dr. Katherine Ahn, like the vast majority of Korean Christians, is Christ-centered, Biblically evangelistic and enthusiastically missional. The author clearly keeps to her subject but enriches the text with significant insights from her native Korean culture. These insights are sharpened by three important factors: the author’s ethnicity, her gender and her years of residence in the United States. This book should attract a broad readership, for it corrects decades or centuries of comparative inattention, with a few exceptions, to the role of women in church and mission history without disparaging the male side of the same history. I most heartily commend it to your attention. Samuel Hugh Moffett Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission, Emeritus Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton, New Jersey

ii

Acknowledgments

I

find it difficult to express adequate gratitude to the great number of people who have been contributors to completion and publishing of this book. I must express my most sincere thanks to my former professors and staff at Fuller Theological Seminary where I received such a great support and wrote the manuscript from which this book originates. Among them comes first James Bradley, my former doctoral program mentor who has become one of my dearest life mentors. I could have never come to this place without his continuous faith in my ability and value of my research. Diane Bradley also contributed to the completion of this book by proof reading the original manuscript and supporting my publishing effort. I am grateful to Wilbert Shenk for his critical input and suggestions from the view point of a missiologist and for serving as a reader of the original manuscript. I also need to express gratitude to David Scholer, my former New Testament professor, who recently went to be with the Lord, and Jeannette Scholer, the former director of academic programs at Fuller. Their support and confidence in me have been great sources of strength in my life. My deep gratitude is also for Timothy Kiho Park, who provided the most valuable advice regarding publishing the book. My sincere gratitude also goes to the Church History department faculty members at Fuller, who have given me the opportunity to continue my standing at Fuller, thus allowing me to pursue teaching and writing. At the same time, I thank Linda Peacore and Cathy Kelly of the Academic Programs Office at Fuller, who have been so supportive of my teaching and writing.

iii

I have been also helped by scholars outside of Fuller to a significant level. Dana Robert of Boston University provided the most valuable direction of how to start the research. Her many writings on American women missionaries not only provided valuable sources, but also served as the best models for my own writing. My special gratitude also goes to Samuel H. Moffett and Eileen Moffett. Both contributed to the birth and progress of this book. I am extremely blessed not only to be supported by one of the greatest mission historians of our time, but also to have been personally encouraged by the warmth of their hearts. Eileen Moffett’s own collection of Samuel A. Moffett’s records and letters became an important primary source for this book. This work would not have been possible without the cooperation of the numerous staff working at the many archives. I spent days at the Methodist Archive at Drew University, Presbyterian historical societies and archives both in Philadelphia and Montreat (North Carolina), Yale Divinity School Archive, and others. I was personally assisted by the staff who did not mind getting precious files and copying so many papers over and over again. I also thank Howard Moffett, M.D., Samuel H. Moffett’s brother and a retired medical missionary in Korea, for allowing me to interview him at his own home. I would also like to give my special thanks to Naomi Bradley and other staff at William Carey Library. I appreciate her experience, knowledge, efficiency, and wise advices. The support and prayer I have received from my own family cannot be described adequately. My husband, Theodore Ahn, has always believed in the value of my study more than I have. He shouldered so many responsibilities and endured months of my absence during my research trips to help me write and make the stories of these women known to the world. My daughter’s life coincides with this book. I began writing the original manuscript, when Phoebe was in my womb. She is a treasure in my life and taught me something much more

iv

precious than just pursuing my own dreams. This book also stands upon the years of prayer my parents have lifted up to heavens, asking that our Heavenly Father would use their daughter for His glory, although their culture told them she was only a girl.

v

Introduction

T

he woman, who was called “The Mother of Pyeng Yang” (today’s Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea) by the early Korean Protestants, was an American named Rosetta Sherwood Hall. Rosetta Sherwood first came to Korea in 1890 as one of the first Western doctors and missionaries in the country. Her life in Korea was a difficult one with many personal trials. Only two years after she entered into a happy marriage with William Hall, a Canadian missionary doctor, he died of typhus. Then she lost her little daughter to dysentery four years later. In spite of such devastating losses, Hall remained in Korea and left an indelible mark upon the birth of Protestant churches and development of modern education in Korea. During her forty-four years of missionary service, Hall founded four hospitals, the first school for the blind and deaf, and the first women's medical college in Korea, in addition to ministering to tens of thousands as a missionary doctor and evangelist. Her labor touched the nation so significantly that the Korean people publicly and officially honored her on several special occasions before her retirement. Though Hall was only a “single” female medical missionary, she had a lasting influence upon all major areas of Christian service—evangelistic, medical, educational, and literary. Her legacy continued after her retirement through the educational and medical institutions she established and the Korean Christians she trained during her life-long service, including the first group of Korean female doctors and nurses, the first Korean blind and deaf educators, and her own son and daughter-in-law, who both served as medical missionaries in Korea.1

1

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Rosetta Sherwood Hall was one of more than two hundred American women who came to Korea as pioneer missionaries during the first twenty-three years of Protestant missions in Korea.2 The exceptional success of the early Protestant missionary work in Korea would have been difficult to achieve without the contribution of the American women missionary force. However, in spite of their extraordinary legacy, these women have thus far received little attention, and little is known about the impact they left in Korea. Dana Robert wrote in her study of American women in mission published in 1996 that women had been generally perceived as “marginal to the central tasks of mission.”3 This perception is still pervasive and strong in the case of the women missionaries who served in Korea. The scarcity of focused studies on women missionaries to Korea reinforces this perception, and their contribution and historical significance in the development of Korean Christianity continues to be overlooked to a large degree. Both scholarly and popular histories of Korean Christianity give unbalanced attention to the work of a few male missionaries, who are widely known and revered by Korean Christians, while less known missionaries’ contributions remain largely untold. The lack of mention about women missionaries particularly gives the impression that only a few heroic male missionaries were responsible for all of the great work of founding the Protestant mission in Korea, establishing the first Protestant churches and institutions, developing Korean Christian leaders, and thus bringing significant cultural and social changes. Consequently, the women missionaries continue to be perceived to have served principally as domestic supporters to their missionary husbands, and their impact upon Korean religion and society was minimal and insignificant. This book is written with the intention to challenge the continual perception and ignorance regarding women missionaries to Korea by giving a focused look at the pioneer women missionaries to the Hermit Kingdom, as the missionaries often called Korea. Based on private papers and documents in

2

INTRODUCTION

Presbyterian and Methodist mission boards, this study explores the life and work of the American women missionaries who came to Korea from the first year of the Protestant mission in 1884 up until 1907, the year of the great Korean Revival. As their identity and contributions are revealed, it must bring not only a new light to the history of early Protestant missionaries in Korea, but also a better understanding of the level of religious and social impact that the women left in Korea as the result of their presence and work. It was not easy to draw any picture of the missionary women’s lives and analysis based upon recently published materials, as little could be found about women who went and worked in Korea.4 While a few studies mention names of several women missionaries, such studies provide little coherent pictures and analysis of their identity and contributions.5 One can find more relevant materials among the studies written in the Korean language. Since the late 1970s, Korean historians have produced some significant studies of women in the Korean Christian history. The Methodist studies are particularly excellent and include substantial amount of information about early Methodist missionary women.6 Still, the Korean studies leave much room for further investigation of American women missionaries, as their interest continues to focus on Koreans themselves. American Presbyterian and Methodist mission records hold vast amount of information about missionary activities in Korea. However, the mission boards’ formal records often fail to reveal the full extent of the missionary work and methods led by the women missionaries. Rather, the women’s personal records–diaries, letters to their families, and correspondence with women’s missionary societies—and their stories published in women’s missionary magazines reveal more abundant and vivid details of their everyday lives and work in Korea. This study explored the experiences of the early American women missionaries in Korea largely based upon their own writings. Most of the records retrieved for this study are from four major American denominational missions–Northern and

3

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Southern Presbyterian missions and the Northern and Southern Methodist missions of the United States. Although women of other national and denominational missionary organizations also came to Korea as pioneers during the period, these four missions dominated the early Protestant work in Korea and supplied the great majority of missionaries to Korea. Therefore, it is safe to say that the women missionaries’ experience of the four American missions represented most of the women missionaries’ experiences in Korea. One of the easiest ways to recognize the significance of their impact on the birth and development of Korean Protestant Christianity is by simply looking at the number of pioneer women missionaries. Historians have not given much attention to the exact number of women missionaries who came to Korea during the first decades of Protestant missions. But Presbyterian and Methodist mission records of the pioneering period reveal that women consistently outnumbered male missionaries. Missionary wives and single women together made up nearly sixty percent of the entire American missionary force in Korea during the first three decades of Protestant missions. Without the presence of such a significant number of women missionaries, the American Protestant mission would not be have been so effective and fruitful in Korea.7 It is not just the number that reveals women’s influence in the pioneering mission in Korea. Women missionaries’ significance lies in their labor and result of their missionary work in both evangelistic and humanitarian areas, which had great impact on early development of Protestant Christianity and modern Korea. The missionary women were first and foremost active evangelists, whether serving as itinerant evangelists, medical workers, or educators. Their primary purpose was to bring the Gospel to the Korean people. In a society where gender segregation was strictly enforced, the women missionaries served as the chief evangelistic agents to the female population. They were able to penetrate into the most inaccessible group of people in the Korean society, namely women, with the hope of the Gospel.

4

INTRODUCTION

Their missionary activities also left important influence on the general Korean culture, society, and history, not just their religion. Women missionaries’ educational and medical activities were important factors behind the radical social changes that began to take place in Korea. Women missionaries’ work in Korea followed the same pattern of the “holistic” mission approach that American women assumed around the world.8 Their educational, medical, and charitable activities always accompanied and complemented their evangelistic efforts. In the process, the women missionaries became pioneers of modern hospitals, educational institutions, and humanitarian organizations in Korea, which in turn transformed the Korean society and culture. In a sense, American women missionaries helped accelerate the process of modernization in Korea through their own examples of open lifestyle, professionalism, and active social engagement. In providing the overall missionary endeavors by the pioneer women missionaries, this study first describes their evangelistic work and how they contributed to the early growth of the Protestant churches in Korea. After the discussions on evangelistic work, the study will present the scope of their social, educational, medical, literary, and other benevolent activities, which were conducted along with their evangelistic efforts and initiated radical social reconstruction in Korea. The study also attempts to provide a faithful description of the Korean context in which the missionaries labored. American women became important agents of change through the challenges they faced as the first Westerners and the first foreign women to live and work in the pre-modern Korea. Only when we understand the physical and cultural context of the place they lived, we can grasp the broader significance of their labor and service in Korea. In this book, the women missionaries’ stories are told more or less in a chronological order. A brief historical overview of the Protestant missions in Korea is first given to help the readers understand the larger historical context of Korea during the period. Then the next chapter examines the social and religious

5

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

background of the women who came to Korea as pioneers and outlines the general process that it took for them to become missionaries. Some knowledge of their background can help understand the nature of their impact upon the early Korean Christian churches and women. The following three chapters describe their first journey to Korea, the physical and cultural challenges they faced upon arrival, the social and cultural context of Korean society, and how they adjusted to their new environment. Understanding the Korean context is essential, as it would be impossible to comprehend the significance of the women missionaries’ presence and work without it. Finally, the last three chapters provide an analysis of the women’s missionary work and contributions. Chapter six explains how the missionary women initiated their work during the most challenging first five years in Korea. It describes the adversities they faced in starting their missionary tasks and what methods they adapted to overcome the obstacles and to begin their work. The most extensive analysis of the women’s evangelistic influence is made in the seventh chapter; it depicts the types of evangelistic activities in which they were engaged to communicate the Gospel and the results among Koreans brought by their evangelistic efforts during the period. The last chapter provides an overview of the missionary women’s medical and educational work, which began to make a significant impact upon many aspects of the Korean society, including gender roles, status of women, education of Korean children and women, and social care program for the disabled. This study ends with the year 1907, the year marked by a revival in Korea. The revival seemed to have concluded the pioneering period of Protestant missions in the country. Since the beginning of the revival, which brought the massive growth of the Korean churches, missionaries increasingly withdrew from direct evangelism in order to give more administrative attention to the growing number of churches and to the development of Korean leaders. In addition, the political changes that came with the declaration of the Japanese protectorate of Korea in

6

INTRODUCTION

1907 and the annexation in 1910 brought drastic changes to the missionaries’ status in Korea. For such reasons, the year 1907 has been judged an appropriate time to end the story of the pioneer missionary women. Although the main purpose of this study is to analyze the scope of the impact that the women missionaries left in Korea, much effort has been given to describe their personal experience beyond their official missionary work. Women missionaries themselves wrote about their own personal struggles and feelings in their records, revealing their desire to be understood and sympathized with their human weaknesses, struggles, hardships, and sorrow, and to share their personal longings, desires, and joys. Such personal experiences all reflect the real human context in which the missionaries carried out their tasks and sought to make differences in Korea. One cannot fully explain the magnitude of their influence upon its society without mentioning the impact they had upon the thoughts, perspectives, and emotions of the people, as well as upon the social and religious systems of the society. This book, therefore, tries to give voice to the missionary women and to bring their experiences to life by including some of their personal stories. In doing so, this study presents an analysis of their work with a more balanced and realistic approach. This study first aims to challenge the view that perceives missionary women’s role as marginal to “real” missionary role and contributions. But at the same time, this study presents how they lived and worked as “real” missionaries, not just as missionary educators, doctors, and evangelists, but also as missionary wives, mothers, grandmothers, and single women in the Korea mission field in one of the most volatile periods of her history.

7

CHAPTER 1

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

A

merican Protestant women’s missionary work in Korea was a part of the widespread global Protestant foreign mission movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Korea was one of numerous new mission fields into which Protestant Christianity entered, and American women missionaries actively cooperated with fellow missionary men and saw the fruit of their united efforts in the new Korea mission field during the period. In order to understand the exact nature of the women missionaries’ role and their significance in the initial opening of Korea to the Gospel, it is thus important to have some general understanding of the early Protestant missions to Korea in the first three decades through the following brief synopsis of the early Christian mission history in Korea. BEGINNING OF AMERICAN PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA When the first pioneer Protestant missionaries arrived from North America in 1884, they found a kingdom with five thousand years of history, but little known to the world, even to her immediate neighboring countries such as China and Japan.1 It was no accident that missionaries often spoke of Korea as the “Hermit Kingdom” in their descriptions of the country. William E. Griffis once said that writing about Korea in the early days of the Protestant missions

9

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

was “like talking about a ‘strange seashell,’ picked up from an unknown strand in the far Orient.”2 While many other Asian countries had been in contact and made treatises with western countries more than a century earlier, this tiny country was left unknown to the world, hidden between conspicuous China and Japan, until the end of the nineteenth century.3 One of the first things that the pioneer missionaries began studying about Korea was Korea’s religions, and many missionaries felt that Korea’s ancient religions were in a state of decay.4 Although Buddhism had exerted powerful influence during the Koryo dynasty between the tenth and fourteenth century, it was denounced and diminished in its hold on the people during the last Yi dynasty, which adopted Confucianism as the new national religions. However, Confucianism also seemed inadequate to meet the religious needs of the people. According to Homer B. Hulbert, an early American missionary and author of Korean history, Confucianism was “too cold and materialistic to appeal to the emotional side of his (a Korean’s) nature,” while Buddhism was “too mystical to appeal to the people in its more philosophic aspects.”5 While the state religions were unable to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of most Koreans, the majority practiced “the practical religion,” which included “animism, shamanism, fetishism, and nature-worship generally.”6 Although the Confucian ideas still dominated the social customs and practices, Shamanism had a strong hold upon the majority of the Korean people’s beliefs, and they worshipped a vast number of spirits. Hulbert thus explains the religious condition of the Korean people: “As a general thing, we may say that the all-round Korean will be a Confucianist when in society, a Buddhist when he philosophizes and a spirit-worshipper when he is in trouble.”7 When the American missionaries first came to Korea, they seemed to have found a people in need of a religion that could meet all of their emotional, spiritual, and social needs. Roman Catholicism was first introduced to Korea before the Protestants came. The origin of the Korean Catholic Church

10

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

is traced to a group of young Korean scholars who started studying a Roman Catholic tract written in Chinese in 1777.8 The group desired to gain a clearer understanding of its message and religion and finally dispatched one young member to Peking to meet a Jesuit priest in 1783. This young man not only met a priest, but was also baptized as Peter Yi, becoming the first Korean Roman Catholic believer.9 After he returned to Korea in 1784, he made new converts, and the converts made more new converts. As the number of Roman Catholics grew rapidly, suspicion arose and persecution broke out. As the result, “the century of Roman Catholic missions” from 1784 to 1884 also became the century of great persecution and martyrdom in Korea.10 Although no foreign missionary had yet come into Korea during the first ten years of Roman Catholicism, persecution had already claimed several lives among the Korean Catholics.11 A Chinese priest entered the country in 1794 as the first foreign missionary to Korea, followed by several European priests who entered Korea from China by crawling through sewers and traveling disguised in mourners’ clothes. However, most of these missionaries were discovered and beheaded by the Korean government officials who feared foreign penetration. Persecution against Catholics continued throughout the early nineteenth century, but the final and greatest outbreak of persecution occurred in 1866 under the fearful rule of the Regent Tai Won Kun. No one knows exactly how many Korean Catholics died, but it is estimated that more than two thousand perished during that year.12 There were still about 17,500 Catholics in Korea in the late nineteenth century, but they were so scattered and driven underground that the earliest Protestant missionaries could find little trace of them at first.13 In spite of the Korean government’s severe reaction to the foreign religion, Protestants also began to attempt at entering Korea. The first recorded attempt was by Carl Gutzlaff, a German missionary, who traveled and visited briefly along the west coast of Korea. A more significant attempt was made by an English missionary in China, Robert J. Thomson, who embarked on an American commercial ship, the “General Sherman,”

11

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

which sailed into Korea to open trade in 1866. Unfortunately, the ship was attacked and burned by hostile and fear-stricken Koreans, and Thomson was killed at the sword of a Korean as he was offering the man a Bible.14 Protestant missions finally succeeded in reaching the forbidden land through the work of two Scottish Presbyterian missionaries, John Ross and John McIntyre. They were stationed in Manchuria and were able to win converts among the Koreans living in eastern Manchuria. Ross and McIntyre published the first Korean New Testament in 1887 with the help of these converts. This first Bible in Korean brought significant evangelistic results, as the converts made their way back into Korea with the Bibles and began preaching. Through their voluntary efforts, the first Korean Protestant churches were born, and their numbers multiplied in northern villages. The most famous birth of a Protestant church was in Sorai, a little village in the northwestern region of the Whang Hai province. Suh Sang Yun was one of those baptized by John Ross in 1876 in Manchuria. He soon traveled back to his native town of Sorai, started preaching, and formed the first Protestant church. Early Protestant missionaries called Sorai the “cradle of Protestant Christianity in Korea.”15 When the first group of American missionaries came to Korea, they found Suh preaching in Seoul and learned from him about the existence of Korean Christians.16 While missionaries in China were trying to reach Koreans, Protestant missionaries in Japan were also working to open Korea for missionary work. The National Bible Society of Scotland sent a Japanese Christian agent to Fusan in 1883, and several American missionaries made exploratory visits to Korea and urged the American boards to start missions there. More significantly, a Korean Christian man in Japan known as Rijutei was also making important attempts to bring Protestant Christianity to Korea. He translated the Gospel of Mark into Korean on his own and sent several letters to American churches through the help of missionaries, asking them to send missionaries to Korea.17 While the work and pleas of the missionaries and Korean

12

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

Christians started to catch the attention of American mission boards, political changes helped to open Korea to western influence and to allow Protestant missionaries to enter. Korean government’s attitude and policy toward Western nations began to change mostly because of the abdication of the powerful Regent Tai Won Kun. Although he ruled Korea with an iron fist for nearly ten years on behalf of the young king Kojong, his own hand-picked daughter-in-law, Queen Min, eventually pushed him out of the court. Unlike the conservative Tai Won Kun, the progressive queen felt the need to open the country to foreign relations with Western powers. Soon after the fall of the Tai Won Kun in 1874, Korea concluded treaties with foreign powers, first with Japan in 1876 and then with Western countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany, and Russia, in the following ten years.18 Even though no provision was made for missionary activities in these treaties, churches in America felt that the time had come to start missionary activity in Korea. The first American missionaries to arrive as resident missionaries were Horace G. Allen, M.D., and his wife, Fannie. They were initially appointed to China by the Presbyterian Church in the USA, but were transferred to Korea in 1884. Horace Allen started his work in Korea as the physician of the American legation in Seoul. However, he won the favor of the Korean royal court by saving the life of the queen’s nephew who had been seriously injured by an assassin’s sword during a coup d’etat in 1884, and he received permission to open the government hospital with the Presbyterian Board’s support.19 As Allen was making these significant advances for the mission, the first groups of Presbyterian (Presbyterian Church, USA) and Methodist (Northern Methodist Episcopal Church) missionaries arrived at the port of Chemulpo (today’s Inchon) together in 1885. After the Northern Presbyterian and Northern Methodist Missions started their work in Korea in the mid-1880s, the Southern Presbyterian Mission (Presbyterian Church of the U.S.) and the Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission followed the northern missions into Korea in the 1890s.20 Representatives

13

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

of other Protestant missions also came, not only from the U.S., but also from Australia, Canada, and England during the 1890s and the early twentieth century.21 However, the American Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries greatly outnumbered representatives of all other missions and dominated much of the missionary activity during the first quarter century of Protestant missions in Korea. A BRIEF HISTORY OF EARLY AMERICAN PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA The first twenty-three years of the Protestant missions in Korea can be discussed in three periodical divisions here in giving a brief historical overview of early American Protestant missions in Korea. This division of the period was first introduced by George L. Paik in The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, and was adopted by Allen D. Clark in his popular work, A History of the Church in Korea. This periodization helps explaining the rapid advance of Protestantism in Korea during the early years that led up to the Great Revival of 1907. The Pioneering Years (1884-1891) During these first seven years of Protestant missions in Korea, medical missionaries played critical role in opening the country to missionary work, as first shown by Horace Allen’s dramatic success in saving the life of the queen’s nephew and in opening of the Government Hospital with the full support and approval of the royal court. After the inauguration of the Government Hospital in February of 1885 under Allen’s direction, more medical missions began by other American missionary doctors who started arriving in Korea from 1885 and on. The first few Presbyterian medical missionaries served as personal physicians of the Korean royal family, introduced by Allen who was highly regarded by the court. Their medical activities in Seoul were critically important in gaining the respect and trust of the

14

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

Korean government and the people. While the Presbyterian missionaries worked mainly through the Government Hospital, Methodist missionaries established their first hospitals in Seoul near the American legation and began offering treatment to common people. The pioneer medical missionaries made great sacrifices in becoming the chief agents in opening mission opportunities in Korea. The few medical missionaries were the only Western medical doctors in the entire country, and they were all compelled to treat thousands of patients with little rest. They conducted all kinds of surgical operations in poorly equipped hospitals, which were in reality just small Korean huts. Due to the tremendous workload and the unhealthy working environment, the medical missionaries often suffered poor health, and Korea ended up claiming the lives of several medical missionaries during these early years of the missions.22 While the medical missionaries were working through hospitals and dispensaries in Seoul, the other missionaries began their work in Korea by organizing schools for children in the city. Since the missionaries were strongly warned not to conduct public evangelistic work, they had to begin their missions through medical and educational work. By first establishing the schools for Korean children, the missionaries began to reach into the Korean society with Christian messages and teachings.23 Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries had both started several schools in Seoul by 1886. The first school for girls in Korea was opened immediately in 1885 by Mary Scranton, and the first Methodist boys’ school was also formed in the same year by Henry Appenzeller.24 The Presbyterian missionaries opened two schools during this period, one for boys and one for girls. Horace Underwood opened the orphanage for boys and added school work to the institution later. But the school was run with difficulty due to a dramatic cut of the Mission board’s appropriation for the school.25 The Presbyterian girls’ school was also formed by the efforts of several early missionary women between 1886 and 1890. The stories of how these girls’

15

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Methodist Cogregation in Seoul

schools were started will be discussed further in later chapters. In the beginning the mission schools were held mostly in small Korean huts with thatched roofs. Nevertheless, these early efforts marked the beginning of modern education in Korea. Most of these first missionary schools eventually became the first class universities in Korea.26 Although Protestant missionary work in Korea began by the indirect method of medical and educational work and “quiet evangelistic work” of personal contacts in the hospitals and schools, the missions still made significant evangelistic advances during this period.27 As early as July of 1886, a Korean man was baptized by the Presbyterian missionaries in Seoul, the first known Protestant baptism performed within the boundary of Korea.28 The Methodist missionaries also baptized in 1887 their first Korean convert, a student at the Methodist Pai Chai School for boys.29 By the end of 1887, the two missions also started holding

16

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

formal Sunday services for Koreans in Seoul. The Presbyterians organized a church, Saimoonan Church, and celebrated her first service in September of 1887. The Methodists subsequently opened their first church, the Chong Dong Church, in October of the same year. These were the first two Protestant churches that came to exist in Korea, and they exerted great influence upon the Protestant movement in the country for many years.30 In spite of tremendous challenges that the missionaries faced as pioneers during these first years, an important foundation was laid in all the major areas of missionary work. The missionaries were able to prepare for expanded missionary endeavors beyond Seoul, although no one could predict in these initial years the scale of the expansion that was to come within the next two decades in Korea. Occupation of the Field (1891-1897) The next seven years were a tumultuous period when foreign powers intensified their contest for the control of the Korean peninsula. The Korean government declined to its weakest and most corrupt condition during the period, just as the encroaching foreign powers increased their influence upon the country’s affairs. Korea was no longer a Hermit Kingdom or a Forbidden Land, but was becoming a pawn in the international power struggle over East Asia. The increasing influence of the foreign powers, especially of Japan, was clearly revealed through the Sino-Japanese War, which took place largely in Korea, and the shocking assassination of Queen Min by the Japanese militia in 1895.31 During these disheartening years, American Protestant missionaries gained greater trust of the Korean court through their personal assistance and protection of the royal family.32 As Koreans’ trust of American missionaries grew, their missionary activities were less prohibited and welcomed more. Protestant missions experienced significant expansion during this period, as they began establishing many new mission stations throughout the country.

17

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

After having gained a firm footing in the capital city, the missionaries desired to reach the interior regions. In order to gain better knowledge of the country and to find potential areas for new missions in the interior, the missionaries made frequent and extensive evangelistic trips, making itinerancy a regular part of the evangelistic work of Protestant missionaries in Korea. After Horace G. Underwood and Henry G. Appenzeller made the first trips into the interior in 1887 and 1888, other missionaries made similar trips and began to pioneer new mission stations all over the country. By the end of this period, mission stations were opened in two most important northern cities, Pyengyang (Pyongyang of North Korea today), and Wonsan, while starting missionary work in the northeastern region of Ham Kyung Province. Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries also established mission stations in the southern provinces of Cholla and Chung Chong as well. The missionary work in the interior was strengthened further by the arrival of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission and the Southern Presbyterian Mission, as well as an independent missionary group sent by the Clarendon Street Baptist Church of Boston.33 These new missionaries immediately began to pioneer stations in the regions that had not yet been touched by the earlier missions, even though the scale of their work was much smaller compared to the work conducted by the northern missions.34 In the medical line of the work, one of the most important developments was the complete reorganization of the Government Hospital. The hospital work had been suffering because of corrupt Korean government officials who embezzled government funds. Oliver R. Avision, M.D., who came to Korea as the new head of the hospital, finally made drastic changes to organize it anew. He removed corrupt Korean government employees and made the hospital come under the full financial responsibility of the Northern Presbyterian Mission. The reorganization brought the hospital under the full control of the missionaries and made more evangelistic activities possible through the hospital work.35 The Presbyterian hospital and other mission hospitals in Seoul began to operate more effectively,

18

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

making it possible for the medical missionaries to treat a larger number of patients. The medical work continued to help gaining the trust of the Korean people in the missionaries. Koreans were especially impressed with the results of the missionaries’ surgical operations, which were feared in the early years.36 Missionaries’ contribution to eliminating the disease during the great cholera epidemic of 1895 helped to bring down Korean suspicion toward the Americans. The epidemic of that year was especially deadly, as nearly 5,000 people in Seoul and its vicinity died within just a couple of weeks. During the epidemic, American missionaries displayed heroic services to ease the suffering of Koreans. A “stiff fight” against the epidemic was put up by the entire missionary force in Seoul “over a period of seven weeks, during which time many thousands of patients were treated in the hospital and in their [missionaries’] houses,” writes O. R. Avison.37 Largely due to the coordinated effort of the missionaries, thousands of lives were saved, and the epidemic was stopped rather quickly. Clark describes the incident as “a united campaign against cholera” by all the missionaries and “the first gesture toward the union medical work of the later years.”38 The genuine concern shown by the missionaries during the epidemic impressed many Koreans, who were previously skeptical of the missionaries’ motives. At the end of the epidemic, the Korean government formally acknowledged its gratitude to the missionaries.39 As the Korean attitude toward western medicine changed positively, the missions used medical work not only for winning their trust in missionaries, but also for establishing evangelistic and educational centers in the 1890s.40 Medical work was also instrumental in opening new mission stations in the interior. The hardships and trials borne by the first medical missionaries in Seoul were repeated in the lives of pioneer medical missionaries of new interior stations. They commonly started their medical missions without facilities or helpers while they had to face thousands of desperately ill people alone. The medical missionaries were also daily exposed to deadly diseases,

19

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

such as malaria, dysentery, smallpox, and typhus fever.41 Due to the lack of medical personnel, poor working conditions, fatigue, and constant exposure to diseases, early medical missionaries often had to pay a high personal price for the evangelization of Korea.42 During this period of the pioneering years, the missions in Korea adopted several important policies which would have a significant impact upon the future of missions in Korea. First, agreements of cooperation were made, first between the northern and southern missions of the same traditions, and then between the Presbyterians and Methodists. In order to avoid competition and duplication of efforts among the missionaries, the missions agreed to assign different geographical region to each mission. As an instant, the Council of Presbyterian Missions in 1893 assigned the southern regions of Cholla and Chung Chong provinces to the Southern Presbyterian missionaries, who had just arrived in Korea.43 A set of comity rules was also worked out between the Northern Presbyterian and Northern Methodist missionaries in 1892, and the regions that used to be occupied by both missions were divided and re-assigned to different missions. As the result, thousands of Koreans Methodists woke one morning to find that they had become Presbyterians, and vice versa.44 In terms of mission strategies, the Presbyterian missionaries concluded at their first meeting of the Council of Presbyterian Missions in Korea in 1893 that it was better to work at the conversion of the working class than that of the conservative gentry class. It also emphasized that special efforts were needed to start primary schools at interior centers in order to educate Christian teachers. All of the missions, in addition, agreed to make every effort to translate the entire Bible in Korean, and the medical workers were encouraged to use their medical work for the evangelization of Korean patients. Among all these policies developed during this period, the most important was the “Nevius method” adopted by the Presbyterian missionaries in Korea. Dr. and Mrs. John Nevius

20

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

were American Presbyterian missionaries serving in Chefoo, China, and they advocated a mission method that would produce self-supporting native churches. The Nevius were asked by the young missionaries in Korea to visit them in 1890 and to share their ideas that would become the foundational methods for the pioneer Presbyterian missionary work in Korea. “After long and prayerful consideration,” the Presbyterian missionaries decided to adopt the Nevius method as the principle of their work in Korea.45 The Nevius method has been often summarized by three points—self-support, self-propagation, and self-government— all of which promote development of independent native churches.46 Even though the Nevius plan was a policy adopted mainly by the Northern Presbyterian Mission, it influenced the majority of early American missionaries and their work in Korea. One of the most important principles stressed by the Nevius method was teaching of the Bible to national Christians. Consequently, the missionaries strove to deepen the knowledge of the Scriptures among Korean Christians by holding systematic Bible study classes. As the result of this particular emphasis, Korean Christians were becoming a people of the Book, and Korean leaders were learning to be able to teach the Bible to their own people. While they struggled to develop effective mission methods and strategies as pioneers, the missionaries also had to deal with cultural and ethical problems that arose in the lives of Korean Christians. The most urgent problems they had to resolve immediately were the practices of ancestral worship and polygamy. The decision on the missions’ policy toward ancestral worship was rather easily decided, as the large majority of the missionaries and Korean Christians were convinced that the practice was against the Christian faith and should be prohibited among believers. However, the question of whether to baptize those who practiced polygamy was a harder one to decide, since so many Korean men were already married to more than one wife. After many painful discussions, the Methodist missionaries first decided in 1895 at their annual meeting to exclude a probationer

21

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

on account of polygamous relations. The Presbyterians studied and discussed the matter even more carefully, since some of the missionaries felt that it was too severe not to baptize those who had been married to more than one wife before becoming Christians. However, in the end, the Presbyterians also adopted a strong stance against polygamy in the church.47 This decade of the 1890s was a critical period for the American Protestant missions in Korea. During this period, the most important decisions of methods and principles were made for the future work of the missionaries and the Korean Protestant churches. It was also this period during which the missionaries made the first significant geographical advances as they succeeded in planting mission stations in several important interior cities. Even though the scale of the missionary work was still small, signs were everywhere that the field was ripe for harvest. Mission policies, methods, and strategies developed during these years helped them be prepared for the incredible growth and advances of the Korean Protestant churches in the coming century. The Rise of the Church and the Revival (1897-1907) The missionaries who worked in Korea during these last few years of the pioneering mission period witnessed a number of political events that permanently changed the fate of the Korean kingdom. The most important turn of political events was Japan’s military triumph over China and Russia, which gave her the control over poor Korea. Soon after Japan won the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese protectorate over Korea was declared. Japan eventually annexed Korea in 1910, ending the last of the Korean dynasties. It was the end of Korea as an independent kingdom. During the years leading up to the annexation, Koreans had to experience great change of their society that was “threatening to Korea’s thousand years customs more than in any other time,” pressured by foreign influences from all sides.48

22

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

In the midst of national uncertainty, churches in Korea experienced growth of unprecedented magnitude as the people flooded the churches seeking to find new hope. Existing churches were filled with crowds of people, and new churches rose all over the country even in villages and towns where no missionary had ever visited. The missionaries saw major expansion and growth in all areas of missionary activities during this first decade of the twentieth century. The growth eventually reached its peak with the coming of “The Great Revival” of 1907, the first nation-wide revival in Korea. The greatest advance was made in the evangelistic line of missionary work during this decade. The northwest region particularly experienced a great evangelistic success after the Sino-Japanese War. The Pyengyang mission station grew to become the main center for Christian work in the northwest, and churches in the area experienced incredibly rapid growth. So great were the successes in Pyengyang that the famous world traveler and author, Isabella Bird Bishop, once declared that the missionary work in this city was the best of all places she had visited in the world.49 Presbyterians and Methodists were now engaged in work throughout the northern provinces, having established important mission stations in a number of large cities besides Pyengyang. By 1905 the Presbyterian churches in the north were able to report 2,500 church members and 400 catechumens, and the Methodists reported 648 full members and 1,403 probationers.50 Missionary work in the southern provinces, although growth was slower than in the north, was also advancing steadily, with reports of 127 different Christian groups and over 2,000 believers by the same year of 1905.51 A large number among the people coming to churches were trained through the Bible class systems that were developed by the missionaries. Even though no Korean was yet ordained, the missionaries trained and produced local preachers, evangelists, exhorters, and Bible women, who were called “helpers,” through the Bible classes. These Korean “helpers” were almost fully

23

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

responsible in carrying on the church work in their own areas and served with great dedication and effectiveness. However, as the need for better-trained Christian leaders increased, the missionaries began to take serious steps toward providing formal theological education for Korean Christians. The first theological seminary was opened in Pyengyang in 1905 and named Union Theological Seminary. During these years, the Presbyterian missions began to take definite steps toward the establishment of self-governing Korean churches. The American Presbyterian missionaries, in cooperation with the Canadian and Australian Presbyterians, decided to work toward forming one single Presbyterian Church in Korea and to prepare Koreans to govern their own churches. The formal organization of the Presbyterian Church of Korea finally came into being in 1907. The Methodist missionaries also moved along similar lines of action, ordaining two Korean Christian leaders as the first Methodist deacons in 1901, a status that gave them the authority to administer baptism and perform marriages. Important advances were also made in educational mission work, although educational mission was sometimes overshadowed by the evangelistic work during the period. Generally the Methodists kept up their schools better than the Presbyterians who tended to emphasize direct evangelistic work more. A large number of day schools were established all over the country to start Christian training and education of Korean children. The most important educational advance made during this decade was the emergence of secondary schools and a college. The first academy was opened in Pyengyang in 1900 in order to provide secondary education to the primary school graduates. The first college-level education was begun in Pyengyang in 1905 by the Northern Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries who worked together without any formal rule of union. The college department was opened with twelve students in 1906, which was the beginning of Union Christian College, and this institution eventually became Soongsil University, a name which still stands as one of the best in South Korea.

24

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

As the opportunities for direct evangelism were opening wide in Korea, the mission policy that viewed medical work mainly as the mean to open evangelistic opportunities was no longer as applicable. The time seemed to have come, especially in the older stations, when evangelists did not need the help of physicians to gather audiences for their message. Medical missionaries, therefore, gradually came to view the medical work as an agent of Christian love, displayed “in the care of the sick in the name of Jesus Christ apart from any opening of doors for evangelism.”52 Although still closely related with the evangelistic efforts of the missions, the medical work increasingly embraced the humanitarian ideal of the Gospel, and medical missionaries gave more efforts to training of Koreans in medical work.53 The number of mission hospitals also grew all around the country during this period. Meanwhile, medical mission in Seoul experienced a major advance with the establishment of new Severance Hospital. It was the first modern hospital in Korea and the outgrowth of the former Government Hospital of the Presbyterian Mission. O. R. Avison received a large offering from Louis H. Severance during his furlough in the U.S. and thereby built the first large-scale and fully equipped modern hospital in Korea. He also united many small, poorly-equipped hospitals in Seoul.54 With the establishment of Severance Hospital, it became possible to offer formal medical classes for Korean students. Severance Hospital was opened in September 1904, and a seven-year course of medical education was begun in 1905 with twelve Korean students. This was the beginning of Severance Union Medical College. Important missionary accomplishments were also made in the area of literary work in these years. The missionaries were engaged in literary work “for the Koreans, for the missionaries on the field, and in the interest of the people at the home base,” as Paik categorizes their work.55 In spite of the great difficulties in learning the language, the missionaries produced volumes of language aids, translated materials in Korean, and historical and cultural studies of Korea for English readers. Among all of

25

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

their literary achievements, the greatest from the missionary perspective was the translation of the entire Bible. After the early American missionaries organized the Korean Religious Tract Society in 1889, the translation of the New Testament was completed in 1900 and the Old Testament in 1910. This was the first Korean Bible translated in its entirety. As the Bible became available for Koreans, the missionaries further emphasized the study of the Scripture and encouraged every Christian to own a copy. As the result, the circulation of the Bible increased from 2,997 in 1896 to 127,269 in 1906, and the most remarkable evangelistic results came about in the following year.56 THE GREAT REVIVAL Only twenty years after the arrival of the first American Protestant missionaries in Korea, Korean churches experienced a spiritual revival of great magnitude. The intensity and the effect of the revival were even compared with the revivals in the time of John Wesley by an English observer: You have only to read the journal of John Wesley and compare it with the account of the manifestation at Pyeng yang to realize that the phenomena are very closely. There is in both cases an extraordinary manifestation of power;… The Koreans who were at the original meetings have gone forth, like Wesley’s converts, their preaching has been wonderfully successful…57

The origin of the Korean revival is traced to a meeting in Wonsan among Southern Methodist missionaries who gathered for prayer and Bible study.58 R. A. Hardie, M.D., who experienced “the filling of the Holy Spirit” at this meeting, played an important leadership role during the following years of revival by speaking at various conferences.59 After the first conference in Wonsan in 1903, the news of the Wonsan experience spread, and similar conferences began to be held in many other cities. Then revival began to break out at so many conferences, meetings,

26

American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907

and prayer gathering that it spread with amazing speed and results. After a few years of many local outbreaks, the revival reached its greatest intensity in 1907. Many reports and writings left by missionaries and Korean Christians reveal the nature of this “great awakening.” The revival was not only intensely emotional, but it also brought a great movement of repentance and genuine spiritual and moral changes among the people. The revival had profound impact upon the Protestant churches throughout Korea and deeply influenced both the missionaries and Korean Christians. Many non-Christians turned away from being “drunkards, gamblers, thieves, adulterers, murderers, self-righteous Confucianists, dead Buddhists and… devil-worshippers” and became Christians.60 It also raised the spiritual standard of Korean Christians and caused a dramatic growth of Protestant churches. During the revival years, Korean Protestant churches experienced a record inflow of believers and grew “from a few scattered believers in 1885, 50,000 adherents in 1905” to “more than 200,000 by 1909.”61 Korea was referred as “a nation on the run to God” in these years.62 Some even also expected that Korea would be “the first in the non-Christian world to become a Christian nation.”63 The fruit of the pioneer missionaries’ labor in Korea was borne to an unexpectedly large measure within less than twenty-five years after their first coming. Korean churches were growing strong and self-sufficient, and the Great Revival brought additional breath of God that strengthened their moral standards and spiritual experience. Although many had soaring optimism about the future of the Korean Protestant church at the time of the revival, it was realized later how much the young Korean Church needed to be prepared for the years of great trial after the revival. As Japan annexed Korea in 1910, Korean Christians began facing severe tests of their faith. The Great Revival played a critical role in building the inner strength that Korean Christians needed to endure the following years of storm. Protestant missionaries began their work in Korea during one of the most tumultuous periods of the nation’s history.

27

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The pioneer American missionaries, who lived in Korea right through this time, witnessed how rapidly the medieval world of the “Land of Morning Calm” was turned into “The Land of the Midnight Storm” through the political upheavals.64 More than half of these pioneers were women, and they risked their lives to sow the seeds of the Gospel in this troubled land. The women pioneer missionaries labored along with the male missionaries in all areas of missionary activities and made significant contributions to firmly establish Protestant Christianity in Korea. The following chapters will follow these pioneer women’s path of life and work as missionaries, starting with their missionary preparation in America to their missionary life and work in Korea.

28

CHAPTER 2

The Making of Pioneer Women Missionaries for Korea Oh, to do something, my heart kept repeating; Something so beautiful, noble, or fine, .......................... The pitiful struggle for merest existence That mockery makes of the thing we call life And I gave to a child that was wailing with hunger, The comfort, the beauty, of everyday bread; .......................... Oh, rich this new field for my thought and my labor! And soothed was my longing for beauty and art; For a flower sweetly bloomed on my own barren pathway, A star rose in my own shadowed heart. 1

T

his poem, which appeared in 1893 with the title, “Wanted: A Career,” in Heathen Women’s Friend, represents the popular sentiment among young American evangelical women—the desire for a more “useful life” or a life with a meaningful career. In the late nineteenth century, more American women began receiving higher education and could no longer be satisfied with traditional role of wife and mother. They longed to use their skills and knowledge in the wider world. Combined with this growing desire to be engaged in professional activities, the evangelical revivals of the nineteenth century further fueled the American evangelical women’s longing to lead a life that could contribute to the fulfillment of God’s kingdom on earth and

29

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

made the missionary career extremely appealing to them. The American women, who came to Korea as pioneer missionaries, were of this generation, and their perspectives and activities as missionaries clearly reflected their evangelical commitment, as well as their generation’s growing belief in women’s professional involvement in the society. Such beliefs and attitudes played significant role in the way that the women missionaries influenced Koreans, particularly Korean women. In spite of the enormous social, cultural, and religious impact their background would have upon their missionary life and influence on the Korean church and society, it is not an easy task to learn the exact background of the pioneer missionary women to Korea. Personal information about the women is not easy to locate. It is particularly difficult to find personal information about the missionary women of the southern denominations. For many of the married southern women missionaries, even their first and maiden family names remain unknown, let alone any information about their personal background prior to their marriage and missionary life.2 In spite of the difficulties, it is still important to attempt at studying the women missionaries and their background in order to properly understand the nature and impact of their missionary work in Korea. This section of the study consequently depends more heavily upon the information found regarding the missionary women of the northern missions. However, since the northern missionaries greatly outnumbered the southern missionaries in Korea during the period, their background can still represent the general characteristics of the pioneer missionary women to Korea. We can learn what types of American women went as the first white women in the Hermit Kingdom and what motivated them to volunteer as pioneers through an analysis of their personal backgrounds, religious experiences, and missionary preparations prior to going to Korea.

30

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

AMERICAN WOMEN AND FOREIGN MISSIONS Powerful revivals of the nineteenth century that swept through North America largely shaped American Evangelicalism, which in turn shaped American culture to a great degree. During the post Civil War era, revivalistic evangelical Christianity grew as a powerful established religious force in America. A number of extremely popular preachers, such as Dwight L. Moody, Philip Brooks, Henry Ward Beecher, Josiah Strong, and Russell H. Conwell, continued to nurture the religious enthusiasm that had been born during the Second Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century and increasingly had greater influence upon the popular opinion and national sentiment. The mighty current of religious enthusiasm also spilled over into various religious, benevolent, and humanitarian endeavors and social reform movements of the late nineteenth century.3 Of all the religious and social movements spurred by the revivalism, a great amount of energy was poured into the foreign mission movement, as the zeal to take the Gospel around the world spread among the evangelicals. Foreign missions were also powerfully promoted by revival leaders, among whom Dwight L. Moody was one of the leading promoters of missions in the late nineteenth century.4 His endeavor for missions was epitomized by the founding of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM). After the SVM was founded following the famous summer missions conferences held by Moody for Young Men's Christian Association leaders in Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1886, thousands of students were recruited through the movement for foreign missions well into the twentieth century.5 In order to respond to the overwhelming number of volunteers for foreign missions and to train potential missionaries, many Bible institutes and mission training schools were established by various denominations, independent mission organizations, and prominent Christian leaders. Moody's Bible training center in Chicago (later the Moody Bible Institute) and A. J. Gordon's Boston Missionary Training Institute are examples of such

31

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

institutions. The later part of the nineteenth century was indeed a period of great foreign mission activity in America. The pioneer missionaries to Korea, both male and female, were of such a generation, swept up by the missionary zeal of the time and deeply influenced by visionary leaders like D. L. Moody.6 One of the notable characteristics of the late nineteenthcentury American mission movement was women’s active involvement in foreign missions. Inspired by the nineteenthcentury evangelical preaching which emphasized the Christian responsibility of sharing the Gospel, American women found ways to get involved in missions. When women were not allowed to go out as single missionaries in the early nineteenth century, they went out to foreign fields as missionary wives.7 Although the need for single women was apparent in the foreign fields from the beginning, denominational mission boards hesitated in sending single women overseas as missionaries during the early nineteenth century.8 However, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, doors of missionary opportunities opened up widely to single women. American Protestant women began to form their own women’s missionary societies and boards and started to appoint single women missionaries to foreign fields. American women had been already pulling their resources together to promote the cause of missions "to spread the light of divine truth in many parts of the world” from the very beginning of the nineteenth century.9 Although they started by forming small “cent” societies in the beginning, which gathered pennies to support missions, their informal organizations grew dramatically in their capacity and size by the end of the century. By the end of the nineteenth century, American women were managing over forty denominational women's societies with three million active women members, supporting more than 1,200 missionaries.10 These women’s mission boards and societies began to provide single women workers to foreign mission fields by sending out single women as missionary doctors, teachers, and evangelists, and supporting their work all over the world independent of denominational mission boards.11 With a large

32

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

number of single women entering foreign missions, women missionaries also began to outnumber male missionaries.12 With the rise of women's participation in foreign missions, a mission theory unique to American women was also developed by the end of the century, which was summarized in the popular phrase, “Woman's Work for Woman.” Dana Robert explains that the missiology of “Woman's Work for Woman” had in its core the early nineteenth-century woman's mission theory and focus on evangelization for salvation. But it was enlarged over the century to embrace a missiology of education and “social uplift” in the later part of the nineteenth century.13 Robert explains the theory further: “Woman's Work for Woman” was based on a maternalistic, albeit idealistic, belief that non-Christian religions trapped and degraded women, yet all women in the world were sisters and should support each other. Late-nineteenth-century mission theory continued belief in the “rottenness of paganism” from early-nineteenth-century mission theory, but it analyzed women's victimization under non-Christian religions more sharply and more consistently… “Woman's Work for Woman” aimed to put into place instruments of education, medical work, and evangelization that would “raise” women to the status they presumably held in Christian countries.14

American evangelical women were repulsed by the missionary reports on the degraded status of women in non-Christian cultures and took upon themselves the responsibility to bring the Gospel to their sisters in heathen lands, not only for the salvation of their souls, but also for the improvement of their lives through Christian education and medical benefits. It was their mission to bring both spiritual and physical freedom to women suffering under oppressive paganism.15 Pioneer missionary women to Korea clearly shared this nineteenth-century mission theory of American Protestant women, as their writings and reports would prove.

33

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

An important factor behind the development of the American women’s mission theory and practice was the innovation of female education in nineteenth-century America. During the Revolutionary period, every citizen was viewed as a vital member and contributor to this process of forming the new Republic. Women were also perceived as important contributors with a special emphasis on their nurturing role. They were referred to as the Mothers of the Republic, the nurturers of the future leaders of the nation.16 In order to fulfill their national and social responsibility of nurturing the next generation, women needed to be better educated, and unprecedented educational opportunities began to be available to young women in America. Many female academies were established which gave girls training for teaching. During the early nineteenth century, the word “academy” began to be replaced with “seminary,” which had the more serious connotation of preparing women for the profession of teaching.17 Some of the female seminaries began to offer broader training for intellectual development, among which Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Seminary was the leader. After the Civil War, women’s colleges also began to emerge, which often followed Mount Holyoke’s educational model that provided the full curriculum of a liberal arts college.18 By the end of the nineteenth century, many famous female colleges came into existence, including Wellesley, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and Smith, and large universities also began establishing female departments. Since higher education became more available for American women, a large percentage of women missionaries in the late nineteenth century were seminary or college graduates. The great need of educated female missionaries was recognized from early on in foreign mission fields. By the time the first group of women missionaries came to Korea, most American denominational missions had required levels of education for women missionary candidates.19 One of the most important educational innovations for American women during the nineteenth century was the founding of women’s medical colleges. After Elizabeth Blackwell graduated in 1849 from the Medical Department of

34

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

Geneva College, New York, as the first woman to graduate from a medical school in the U.S., the first medical college for women was founded in Philadelphia in 1850.20 Following the model of this first women’s medical college, many more medical colleges for women were established in the following years. These women’s medical schools produced a large number of much-needed female missionary doctors. Foreign missions also provided one of the most open and meaningful opportunities for women medical graduates to practice their medical training in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.21 The Korea mission received the benefit of such an educational innovation in America, as women missionary doctors made immense contributions to the Protestant missions and its advance from their very beginning in Korea. The women missionaries who came to Korea in the 1880s and 1890s were part of the American women’s missionary movement, which had matured through the century’s experiences and innovations. American women served not only as indispensable supporters of foreign missions, but also became competent missionaries themselves. They managed many of the best mission agencies which supported thousands of women missionaries who built hospitals and schools for women and children all around the world. It was during this great period of American women’s foreign mission movement that the first women missionaries arrived in Korea. THE MAKING OF PIONEER WOMEN MISSIONARIES FOR THE HERMIT KINGDOM The social and religious backgrounds of the early women missionaries to Korea reflect the status women held in American society and churches at the turn of the century. A brief look at their personal backgrounds and experiences prior to becoming missionaries can show how the larger social and religious movements in America influenced the women to eventually volunteer as pioneers and the outcome of their work in Korea.

35

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Origin and Family The geographical origins of many women missionaries of the northern missions to Korea show the general trend of the American mission centers moving from New England to the Midwest in the 1880s and 1890s.22 The Midwest with new booming cities and towns was also becoming the center of women’s social and religious activities. Theodore Agnew’s study on the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Movement among the American Methodists in the late nineteenth century clearly shows this trend. Many most prominent leaders of the woman’s foreign missionary movement were from the Midwest, and the Midwest served as a geographical center for several important female movements of the time. While the conferences in the eastern states had seen to neglect women, the Methodist annual conferences in the Midwest were more receptive to them.23 The missionary movement led by Moody’s revivals and the Student Volunteer Movement in the Chicago area also contributed to igniting missionary zeal among women in the Midwest.24 Among the American women missionaries of the northern denominations who came to Korea between 1884 and 1905, the large majority came from the Midwest cities and towns and less so from the New England as well. Among the thirty-five women missionaries of the northern missions whose geographical origins are known, nearly thirty grew up in the Midwest regions. The cities and towns that are most frequently mentioned in their personal records are Topeka, Kansas; Delaware, Ohio; Pomeroy, Ohio; Chicago, and other smaller towns and cities in the Midwest. Among the regional branches of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Cincinnati and New York Branches sent and supported the largest number of single women missionaries to Korea between 1885 and 1905. Nine women were sent from Ohio regions and seven from western New York State, out of the twenty-three women sent to Korea by the WFMS. Two more were sent by the other Midwest branches and four by the Philadelphia Branch,

36

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

while only one missionary was sent by the New England Branch during the period.25 In her analysis of American women missionaries to China sent by the American Board at the turn of the century, Jane Hunter reports that the missionaries tended to be from towns or rural areas of the Midwest and over a quarter of the missionaries were farmers’ daughters.26 Considering the fact that the U.S. was still largely rural, it is not strange for the majority of the missionaries to be from rural areas. Although the records of the women missionaries to Korea are not complete, the evidence still indicates that the majority were from smaller towns and rural areas, and quite a few among them were indeed from farming families.27 For a number of other missionary women, their fathers were engaged in some kind of business venture which caused their families to move to Midwest towns.28 What is clear about the general economic status of the missionary women to Korea is that they tended to be of the middle-class. Many were “neither very rich nor very poor,” as Annie Adams Baird’s family was described, although occasionally women from wealthy families are found among the pioneer missionaries.29 The large percentage of seminary or college graduates among the women missionaries to Korea indicates that their families had means to support their daughters’ higher education.30 Dae Young Ryu’s socio-economic study of the early missionaries also proves that the general background of the pioneer missionaries to Korea were largely from middle-class families. Ryu derives this conclusion from a couple of factors in the missionaries’ background. First, the pioneer missionaries belonged to the mainline white American denominations, which were largely composed of middle-class people. But, more importantly, the large majority of the missionaries were recruited through the Student Volunteer Movement. Since the SVM recruited students of middle-class families attending universities, colleges, and seminaries, the pioneer missionaries’ close relationship with the SVM also supports Ryu’s conclusion about their social origin.31 Although Ryu mentions mostly the cases of male missionaries,

37

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

his study still helps to prove that the majority of the women missionaries were also from middle-class families. One can safely make this conclusion since the majority of the missionary women shared with the missionary men the two decisive factors in their background; The women missionaries, at least of the northern missions, were mostly recipients of higher education and had been influenced by the SVM in becoming missionaries. More than geographical and social origins, the women’s family religious backgrounds had important implications for their decision to become missionaries. Many women missionaries who came to Korea had parents with strong religious commitment and zeal for Christian ministries. More than half of the women, whose religious backgrounds are known, had ordained pastors among their immediate family members. For instance, Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton, a widow who entered Korea in her mid-fifties as one of the first Methodist missionaries, was described as “preeminently a child of Methodism,” since her late husband, brother, nephew, and son were all well-known Methodist clergymen.32 Bertha Schweinfurth Ohlinger’s father was also a noted circuit rider in the Midwest, who served many congregations in Michigan and Ohio.33 The pioneer and leader of women’s work of the Southern Methodist Mission in Korea, Mrs. Josephine P. Campbell, was also a granddaughter of a Methodist preacher and was married to an ordained Methodist minister in Texas before she was widowed and became a missionary.34 Although not as active in missionary work as most other women in Korea, Mrs. Loulie Arms Scranton was a granddaughter of Hiram Phelps Arms, a pastor of forty years at First Congregational Church in Connecticut.35 Even if there was no minister in their immediate families, many other women grew up in families that had strong associations with church ministries and missions. While some of their fathers were church officers, many of their mothers had deep interests in foreign missions and were often involved in local women’s missionary societies. In some cases, their mothers had thought about becoming missionaries themselves. Leonora

38

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

Horton Egan, missionary Lillias Horton Underwood’s sister, tells how their mother impressed upon them from childhood the idea of becoming missionaries to India, a call that she could not fulfill.36 Even for many other women missionaries whose family religious backgrounds are not clearly recorded, one can still find allusions to their religious upbringing.37 It is certain that a large percentage of the female missionaries to Korea had had evangelical upbringing by parents of more than nominal faith and commitment. Religious Experiences In addition to their family background, the late nineteenth century Evangelical movements and women’s missionary movement had powerful impact upon the women missionaries to Korea. Many among the women missionaries to Korea had had active involvement in Christian student movements or mission endeavors of their time and experienced personal religious renewals that had brought conversion to evangelical faith and commitment to Christian causes. Though detailed accounts of the women’s early religious experiences are difficult to find, their applications and roll calls submitted to the mission boards and missionary societies reveal something about the religious experiences they had previous to applying for missionary service. Many of their records speak of their “conversion” experience, which often took place during their teen years. Most of these women had some kind of religious background and upbringing previous to their conversion experiences. But their conversion experiences had given the women life-changing and personal spiritual awakening, which characterize the late nineteenth-century Evangelical movement and its emphasis on experiential rebirth of souls. For example, Margaret Bengel (later Mrs. George H. Herber) with the German Methodist Episcopal Church background had her conversion experience at the age of sixteen, which made her a willing applicant for missionary work within a few years. E. J. Shepping, one of the

39

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women missionaries who came to Korea in the early twentieth century, was originally from a Roman Catholic family. But she “accepted Jesus as her Savior according to the Protestant Church” as a young woman and was cut off from her Catholic family.38 After such conversion experiences, the women frequently joined the churches of the denominations where they were converted. For some others, there is no record of any kind of conversion experience, and they seem to have grown up with natural religious devoutness in them. Leonora Horton Egan writes how deeply her mother’s religious attitude struck root in her sister without difficulty: She was a true daughter of the Pilgrim fathers, but added to it was a tremendous streak of imagination when she read of the sufferings of early Christians, and such books were given to her while she was small… The Sabbath laws, of course, were very strict for people who considered themselves Christians, but Lillie exceeded them. When Saturday night came at five o’clock, she put away all her toys and dolls of her own accord and got ready for Sunday… But it is certain Lillie was sincere.39

Annie Adams Baird also developed such sincere religious interest from early in her life under her parents’ influence that “she could not remember a time when she did not love the Lord Jesus Christ.”40 Records of Lulu Frey, one of the WFMS missionaries in Korea, also indicate that she was deeply religious since her youth, as shown by the fact that she “began missionary work as a young child for those in need in her town.”41 Whether the future women missionaries to Korea had transforming conversion experience or grew up with unfaltering faith since childhood, they all seemed to have been deeply influenced by the contemporary Christian movements which caused many American young people to devote their lives to Christian services. William Baird’s description of his wife’s early life in the late 1880s shows how influential the evangelical

40

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

movements were among young people like her: She [Annie Adams] had some definite religious experience, and came into touch with some great religious teachers. At different times, she came under the teaching of men like Major Whittle, D. L. Moody, Dr. James H. Brooks, Dr. Gratton Guinness and others. At that time many of the young people of Kansas became enthusiastic Christian workers and some were called to the mission field… She took an influential part in arousing and organizing the interest of the young people in religious work. At that time the YMCA and YWCA were truly and purely religious organizations, their prime purpose being to help in the work of saving souls. The Divine command to preach the gospel to every creature was very often preached and foreign missions was greatly stressed in the young people’s work. Whole bands of earnest young Christians offered themselves as missionaries to the heathen… Annie Adam’s and her brother James Edward were heart and soul in this movement.42

Even for other women whose early lives are not well recorded, there are many indications that most of the female missionaries who came to Korea at the turn of the century were heavily influenced by the movements of the time. Dana Robert explains that young college age women were being swept up in the Student Volunteer Movement since its founding: “Although there were no women among the “’Mount Hermon 100’, as the original volunteers were called, women responded enthusiastically to the formation of the SVM.”43 The women missionaries to Korea were definitely part of the movement. Many individuals such as Mary Cutler had been student volunteers.44 It was often through involvement in popular student movements and missionary societies that the women were led to the calling of mission work.

41

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Missionary Call As we have seen thus far, the geographical origins, family background, spiritual renewal experiences, and student and mission movements during the period were all important factors that led the women to choose the missionary vocation. There were also other social and personal reasons for which they chose this calling. Limited professional opportunities for female college graduates certainly encouraged many American women to consider a missionary career.45 The stories of female heroism in distant and exotic lands also motivated young women to pursue a more meaningful and exciting life. The idea of an adventurous life as a missionary had real attraction for many nineteenth-century women, but the actual decision and pursuit of the missionary life required much more than the simple attraction to such an idea. By the late nineteenth century, American women knew well about the sacrifices required of women missionaries in foreign mission fields. They would have to leave their comfortable home in America and make a home in unfamiliar countries among strange people under unhealthy and undesirable living conditions. Single women missionaries had to also accept the prospect that they could easily remain unmarried, since women outnumbered male missionaries in most of the foreign fields. The high mortality rate of female missionaries and frequent rumors of native uprisings and hostility against foreigners made Americans aware of the great risks missionaries were facing. For such reasons, an actual response to a missionary call was not a simple career choice. It involved intense struggle over the calling and years of preparation. The pioneer female missionaries to Korea share some common determinative factors that helped their decisions to become foreign missionaries, in addition to individual reasons. Since many grew up in deeply religious families and environments, some developed interests in missionary work from early ages. Mary Cutler said that she “had interest in missionaries and

42

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

their work from childhood;”46 Ethel Mary Estey answered a question about her missionary calling by saying, “from a child, [I] had felt that if a Christian, [I] must be a missionary.”47 But for many others, a missionary call came relatively late, often after some experiences of spiritual renewal and commitment. Several prominent factors in their environments contributed to developing their missionary calling. Popular missionary literature of the late nineteenth century was one of the important motivators. Missionary literature, that included women’s mission magazines, missionary biographies, and missionaries’ writings on mission fields, was a powerful influence on American Protestant women. Women’s missionary societies of all the major denominations published their own monthly magazines, which presented letters, pictures, and descriptions of mission work in various regions, written and sent by female missionaries. The Heathen Woman’s Friend of the northern Methodist women, Woman’s Missionary Advocate of the southern Methodist women, and Woman’s Work for Woman and Our Mission Field of the northern Presbyterian women were just a few among the most popular mission magazines of the major denominations. Besides the magazines, books about missions became popular reading materials among young women in America. Interesting readings on missionary life and work and the great needs in mission fields heightened the growing interest in missions and contributed greatly in recruiting new missionaries. Women’s missionary societies also published children’s mission story books and included short stories in their women’s magazines for young children as well. Thus, the women missionaries had plenty of mission stories to grow up with. Missionary writings often left deep impressions upon the young women and caused many to seriously consider the missionary career. As a child, Lillias Horton not only read books on the sufferings of early Christians, she also read “many tales of children of her own period who heroically chose the rugged path even if they died following it,” and “she liked to imagine herself also poor and heroic.”48 It would not be wrong to assume

43

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

for many other women missionaries, whose parents were church officers, members of missionary societies, and ordained pastors, that they grew up reading mission stories. For some women like Lulu Frey, reading a missionary writing provided a definite moment of divine call to missions. When she was about eighteen years old, Lulu borrowed from a neighbor a copy of The Heathen Woman’s Friend, a monthly mission magazine published by the WFMS, to prepare a paper for a young people’s meeting. In it was a letter from Lucy Rider Meyer to young ladies entitled, “Why Should I Not Go?” Reading this letter became the moment of the call to missions for Frey. She wrote of this experience in a letter: Before I had finished reading, every excuse I could offer had been answered by Mrs. Meyer and I sat there with the paper in my hands and my heart breaking so fast, a moment or so, then bursting in tears, I asked the Lord to make me willing of it were his will. I had never thought of being a missionary before, it came just as suddenly as I have described it.49

While missionary writings had powerful impact upon many women, personal encounters with actual missionaries and leaders of mission movements had even more powerful influence upon them. Women missionaries on furlough in the U.S. often traveled throughout the country and spoke at many regional and national women’s missionary societies. They also met with young women at such meetings, told them about the great need for Christian female workers in the fields, and encouraged them to join foreign missions. Their descriptions of the awful living conditions that native women endured in non-Christian cultures inspired young women to volunteer as missionary candidates with the idea that they could do something to improve the lives of their “heathen” sisters. Annie Ellers Bunker, the first female single missionary sent by the Presbyterian Board to Korea, recalls a meeting she had with a missionary from Persia who was on furlough in 1885. This meeting made her think seriously about becoming a medical

44

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

missionary and applying to the mission board as a missionary volunteer.50 Lillias Horton’s decision to become a missionary was also made after a meeting with an English woman from India, who told her about the great need for women physicians for Indian women. This meeting eventually led Lillie to study medicine and become a missionary.51 Likewise, Lulu Frey wrote in her diary about “a providential meeting and conversation” with Bell Allen in 1888, a missionary on furlough from Japan.52 Pioneer missionary women to Korea also actively promoted the work in Korea and appealed for female missionaries to join their work by constant writing, speaking, and meeting with young women during their furloughs. Their efforts were gradually rewarded as more women volunteered to serve in Korea.53 Another important factor for becoming missionaries for the missionary women to Korea was their marriage to missionary candidates. A marriage proposal from a male missionary candidate could be considered as the confirmation of God’s missionary calling for women who already had plans to become missionaries. The case of Annie L. Adams illustrates an example. She had long been ready to go as a missionary and was waiting on God for the right time and place, when "her call to Korea was made definite by a proposal of marriage." Annie Adams and William M. Baird were married on November 18, 1890, and sailed from San Francisco to Korea on December 18th, exactly one month after the wedding.54 Mattie L. Wilcox and William A. Noble were also among those who came to Korea shortly after they were married. During her last semester at Wyoming Seminary, Mattie left the seminary to prepare to go as a missionary, probably having been proposed to by William, a missionary candidate for Korea.55 They were married in June of 1892 and left for Korea in the following month of August. Her quick decision to leave the seminary and to go to Korea suggests that she was already prepared to be a foreign missionary, even before she met William Noble. She will prove to be one of the most effective and longest resident missionaries among the pioneers in Korea.

45

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Although there is not enough material on the motivation of many other women who came to Korea as young brides, their willingness to marry future missionaries speaks much about their own Christian commitment. Many letters written by the men indeed show that they could share a common vision about missionary service with their future brides. Records of Henry G. Appenzeller, the best known Methodist pioneer to Korea, show that while studying at Drew Seminary for the purpose of going to Korea, he shared with his fiancée, Ella Dodge, many of his deepest thoughts about serving God as missionaries.56 Henry M. Bruen of the northern Presbyterian Mission also sent numerous letters from Korea to Martha Scott in the U.S. before they were married in 1902. In his letters, he shared with her all the details of missionary life and work in Korea and his desire to serve God with her: "May He whose Name is Love, and by whose love we learned our own, bring us yet again to clasp our hands, and pledge again our lives anew to the great Lover of mankind. Amen."57 These young women, who received and accepted marriage proposals, actively prepared themselves for a missionary life and eventually became some of the most effective and dedicated missionaries in Korea. Most of the pioneer women missionaries in Korea were thus young women in their twenties and thirties, either single or married. But there were some older women among them. Most of the older women were widows and came to Korea accompanying their missionary children. Some of these women were formally appointed missionaries, while others came to Korea voluntarily to support their children’s work without being appointed by any mission. In either case, their presence and contributions to pioneering missionary work were indispensable. Mary F. Scranton of the northern Methodist Mission and Josephine Campbell of the southern Methodist Mission were two more mature missionaries appointed by the denomination’s women’s societies, and were also the pioneers and pillars of the women’s work for the both missions in Korea. When her son was appointed as a medical missionary to Korea, Mary Scranton was ready to go to Korea just

46

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

as a supportive mother in her mid-fifties. But the WFMS decided to appoint her as its first missionary to Korea, since she had many years of experience as the secretary of the WFMS. She ended up having an extremely successful missionary career of twenty-five long years in Korea. Josephine P. Campbell was also a widow and had first-hand missionary experiences prior to coming to Korea. As a young woman, she married a Methodist pastor from North Carolina and had two children. But in her late twenties, she lost her husband and one of her children, and then even the other child of hers died from scarlet fever within just two years. Instead of surrendering herself to grief and despair, she decided to volunteer for missionary service. She first received her degree from a nursing school in Chicago and then went to China as a missionary sent by the Women’s Board of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church. She had ten years of a successful missionary career in China before coming to Korea. In Korea, she served as the pioneer and leader of the Southern Methodist Mission’s women’s work for over twenty years.58 Besides Scranton and Campbell, there were a number of other older women who came to Korea and served in the missions for a number of years, though never formally appointed as missionaries.59 Although the names of many older women who came to Korea are difficult to locate, they brought great amount of wisdom, support, encouragement, and leadership to the young missionary community in Korea. Although Korea would eventually receive more than two hundred American women missionaries during the pioneering period, it was not an easy decision for them to come as missionaries. Evidences show that many of the women struggled over their call for years. Josephine Paine wrote briefly about her struggle, “I believed God called me and it was the question I was obliged to settle before I had peace with Him.”60 Even after the dramatic experience of God’s “beeswax call” to missions, Lulu Frey wrestled with the missionary calling for several years and kept it secret, fearing her family’s objections.61 Meanwhile she had many talks with her minister and encouraging meetings with missionaries and leaders, and she was finally ready to

47

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

go wherever she was needed the most. Likewise, it took Mary Cutler more than five years to actually enter the mission field after she had volunteered to be a missionary. During these years, she had rejected two opportunities to leave home. In the case of Loulie Arms Scranton, she had to struggle with her husband’s missionary call, rather than her own. She had long been married when her husband suddenly committed himself to missionary career. She had to struggle greatly before coming to accept her husband’s call.62 Becoming pioneer missionaries to Korea was not an easy matter for the women, even for those with a strong sense of missionary calling. Unable to ignore God’s call to missions, many women struggled with this “calling” in their hearts for many years. Jane Hunter also includes in her study several factors that led American women to China and concludes her analysis by saying: “The indirectness of many of these ‘recruitments’ suggests that missionary fervor frequently lay dormant, only waiting for the remotest kind of focus.”63 The experiences of the women missionaries to Korea reveal that they too had missionary fervor lying dormant in them until some significant event ignited their fervor into a flame of action. What is clear is that the women had just as a sincere and genuine sense of divine “call” to be missionaries as male missionaries did, and they too obeyed the call.64 Preparation The pioneer American women missionaries in Korea prepared themselves for missionary work through several years of education and training before going to Korea, in accordance with the policies of the denominational mission boards. At least seventy percent of the women missionaries of the northern missions to Korea were college or seminary graduates. Many had also attended missionary training schools. The Bible Training School in Chicago, founded under Moody's SVM, was one of the most popular schools for northern missionaries. Although

48

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

New Women Missionaries Present at the Conference of June 1913

fewer southern women had college degrees, many prepared themselves by attending Bible schools, and some of the southern women also received medical training. Mattie Ingold of the southern Presbyterian Mission went to a medical school in the north before coming to Korea. Josephine Campbell received a nursing degree in Chicago. Several women missionaries of the Southern Methodist Mission were graduates of Scarritt Bible and Training School, opened by the Woman’s Board in 1891. In the case of Rudy Kendrick, who came to Korea in 1907, attended a woman’s Bible school in Kansas.65 The college graduates of the northern missions were mostly from women’s colleges in the Midwest, while few attended co-educational institutions. Women’s colleges in late-nineteenth-century America usually offered classical education in liberal arts, while missionary training schools provided them more practical training for mission work. In either case, it is clear that Korea received some of the best educated American women of the period. The women were also prepared as future missionaries through their working experience in the U.S. The most common working experience that the women missionaries had was teaching. The emergence of secondary and college education for women made teaching the most popular profession for

49

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

educated women, since other professional options for women were still few.66 A number of women missionaries to Korea had held teaching positions in the U.S. Hunter estimates that over seventy percent of the missionary women sent by the American and Methodist boards fell into the category of those who spent some years in teaching.67 Since teaching was one of the most common mission methods in most mission fields, their previous teaching experience were put to good use. A notable characteristic of the early Protestant missionary work in Korea is the important role medical missionaries played in opening Korea to missionary activity. From the very beginning of the Korea mission, medical men and women were recruited vigorously.68 The medical women sent to Korea were mostly graduates of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania or of women’s departments in the medical schools of popular Mid-west universities, such as Northwestern University or the University of Michigan. It usually took them about three years to graduate from the medical schools, and most of the women had experience in medical practice before coming to the mission field. While opening up medical colleges for women after the Civil War, American women medical pioneers also established many hospitals and dispensaries for women and children where women graduates could practice their training. F. F. Ellinwood, a Secretary of the Presbyterian Board, met Lillias Horton for the first time at one of the Chicago hospitals where she was gaining practical experience.69 Others like Mary Cutler had more extensive medical experience before coming to Korea. She had worked in the Woman’s Hospital in Detroit and in the University Hospital at Ann Arbor and finally had a private practice for several years in Pomeroy, Ohio, serving small communities where there was a great need for physicians. Rosetta Sherwood had her internship at the Nursery and Child’s Hospital in Staten Island and then worked as a physician and associate deaconess in a downtown dispensary of New York City in order to prepare for the missionary life and work. Other women also gained working experience through

50

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

their participation in different religious, social, and mission organizations, such as the Deaconess houses, YWCA, and ladies missionary societies. Their involvement in such organizations trained them to be effective public speakers, organizers, and administrators and also helped them understand the cooperative nature of missionary work. Many who had been active participants in the organizations proved to be effective in their work in Korea and in communicating the needs of the mission field to American Christian supporters.70 Some of the pioneer missionaries like Josephine Campbell and Bertha Ohlinger had actual missionary experience in China before coming to Korea and provided much working knowledge and experience to the Korea missions. EXPECTATION AND MOTIVATION Since Korea opened herself to the West only as late as 1882, the average person in America knew almost nothing about the country. Leonora Horton Egan relates: “Everything she [Lillie in Korea] wrote of the country or people we read and reread for almost nothing was known of Korea by anyone in the outside world; even the Post Office department required in addressing a letter that we should add Asia, as no one knew where or what Korea was.”71 Thus many of the early women missionaries did not choose Korea as their mission field, but were rather appointed, and went without knowing exactly what to expect. While it was difficult for the missionary candidates to have any realistic understanding about Korea, one piece of history in Korea haunted the missionaries—the cruel persecution and massacre of Roman Catholics in 1866.72 The horror of that historical event was not easily erased from the memory of both Koreans and westerners, and the American Protestant missionaries were cautioned not to provoke the Korean government in any way. Therefore the pioneer missionary women entered the country

51

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

that was known mostly by its hostility and cruelty toward foreigners and Christians. In spite of many uncertainties about the people and life in Korea, the women missionaries had one thing certain. They were going to Korea to minister to Korean women and girls, in accordance with the popular American women mission theory, “Woman’s Work for Woman.” Not only women missionaries knew of this nature of their work in Korea, but the male missionaries also expected the same thing. William M. Bruen once wrote to his fiancée, Martha Scott, from Korea, “Say, dear, but I do long for some one to do something for these little girls,73 and wrote again later, “Whenever I see my one little girl friend out in our alley, I long for the time when you can do something for them.”74 Knowing the great need of female missionaries in Korea, the women prepared themselves to work with Korean women without questioning their role. They attended missionary training, served in voluntary services, and also received medical training. Through their education and experiences at home, the women equipped themselves for their future service to women and children in the mission field. The need of social, medical, and educational work for Korean women and children definitely motivated the women to enter the mission field. However, the most important motivation that sent the American women to Korea was their desire to share the Gospel, which was their primary purpose for becoming missionaries. Whether they were sent to Korea assigned to teach girls or to treat patients, their supreme desire and calling was to preach the Gospel and bring people to the Savior of their souls. Such evangelistic desire is clearly shown in a number of letters, reports, and writings of women missionaries whose primary responsibility was not necessarily evangelistic work. Alice Fish, M.D., Eva Field, M.D., and Annie L. A. Baird were among those whose letters reveal that their desire was for something deeper than simple educational and medical work. The inner struggle that Lillias Horton felt, when she was cautioned not to speak

52

The Making of Pioneering Women Missionaries for Korea

anything about religion to the Korean queen before her first visit to the palace, illustrates the under girding evangelistic motivation the women carried in their hearts: “I saw the logic of these words, though my heart talked hotly in a very different way; but I went to the palace with my mouth sealed on the one subject I had come to proclaim.75 Arguing against those who tend to view the nineteenthcentury American women’s missionary movement as spurred on by a feminist impulse, Tucker and Liefeld write, “From their private correspondence and published articles, it would seem that the vast majority of women missionaries were motivated by a deep sense of commitment to God far more than by any desire to attain personal recognition or power.”76 The pioneer American women missionaries to Korea certainly support their statement. One can rarely find from their writings demands for equal opportunities or voting rights for women and male missionaries alike. Instead, one only finds common expressions of the desire to be useful for the Kingdom of God through their missionary services. The pioneer women missionaries to Korea were products of the American women’s missionary movement of the late nineteenth century which promoted a holistic definition of mission by arguing that education, medicine, and social reform were essential to the evangelization of women.77 They were educated and equipped to start educational, medical, and social reform work for Korean women. But in their heart, they cherished the real reason for leaving home to live in Korea; it was to tell the Gospel and to see “these dear people learn of the Christ who died so that they might live.”78

53

CHAPTER 3

Journey to Korea

FAREWELL “For five years I have looked forward to this night, the time when with a Godspeed from the dear friends who have so patiently waited for me to complete my preparatory course. I should really say ‘goodbye’ and turn my face toward the scene of my future labors—if God wills—Korea,” wrote Mattie Ingold, M.D. in her journal on the night of her farewell service at First Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina.1 Mattie Ingold’s experience was characteristic of many American women missionaries to Korea as they prepared themselves for their missionary career through years of prayer and training before the day they departed to the land of their destination. In spite of their conviction and many years of prayer and preparation, saying farewell to their loved ones was not easy, and leaving home for a strange foreign land was still hard to imagine. They all knew how difficult it would be to travel across the Pacific to the obscure country in the Far East called Korea. “Korea seemed almost as remote as a country on the planet of Mars,” said one missionary.2 They would be given their first furlough after seven years of service in the field, and some would not live to enjoy the furlough. Special farewell meetings were usually given by their local churches and missionary societies that were sending them to Korea. The Protestant communities to which the missionaries belonged were often proud of the fact that they were sending off

55

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

missionary representatives to a pioneering mission field. The day of the farewell meeting for Louisa Rothweiler on September 7, 1887, was reported as “a memorable day for German Methodism in Cincinnati and vicinity.” The German Methodists took pride in the fact that this pioneer in woman’s work in Korea was a daughter of the German Methodist churches. A very special farewell meeting was held for her “with ten German conferences being present.” The size of the crowd that gathered at the service signified their high interest “in this daughter of the church, as well as her honored parents.”3 Alice Fish also spoke of receiving “a wonderful blessing in the great interest which was aroused in the churches of the Pres. & in many parts of the State” upon her departure for Korea.4 The farewell meetings were often reported to be solemn and inspiring, as many churches and communities gathered to witness talented and attractive young women being commissioned to embark upon the life of pioneer missionaries. At such farewell services one or more pastors gave commissioning sermons, and the departing missionary presented a farewell address to the congregation. Though a woman, Louisa Rothweiler was able to give her own speech to her northern Methodist congregation: “Miss Rothweiler spoke earnest words of thanks for the love and interest shown, and briefly told how the Lord had led her into this work, and her trust in him for all future need.”5 Unlike Rothweiler of the northern Methodist church, Mattie Ingold could not speak to her Southern Presbyterian congregation, but was able to compose a moving farewell speech, which was read by a pastor to the congregation during the farewell service.6 In the cases of farewell meetings for married couples, the husbands gave public addresses about their future work, while the wives remained silent as secondary persons in view of the congregation. However, married women also had ways to share their missionary commitment and inspiration with people at home before departing to Korea. A missionary wife was typically given the chance to share her own thoughts in special meetings held separately for her by women’s missionary societies or by the

56

Journey to Korea

Anabel and John Nisbet, Southern Presbyterian Pioneers

women of the churches. On such occasions, she would usually lead the meetings with fervent speeches and prayers that deeply touched the hearts of the audience. For instance, the women of the Presbyterian Church in Humboldt, North Carolina, held a meeting in honor of Anabel Major Nisbet, who was scheduled to go to Korea with her husband in February of 1907. The meeting was reported to be the most pleasant and profitable among all the social and religious meetings held during the week for the missionary couple. It was reported that “Devotional exercises were led in a sweet spirited and impressive manner by Mrs. S. F. Howard, followed by Mrs. Nisbet with a talk on her work in Korea. This was indeed fine and instructive and showed with what zeal and enthusiasm she enters this life work.”7 The content and manner of these addresses in all their various forms reveal a great deal about the women’s missionary understanding and state of mind at the time of their departure. Their addresses often express mixed emotions of both sadness and fear in leaving their native land, as well as solemn commitment and anticipation about their future work. Mattie

57

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Ingold’s address revealed such mixed feelings: And while I rejoice that I can go, and that God has given me this privilege, still, it is not an easy thing to do. Take away from me the Bible and my faith in it, and there is no inducement you could offer great enough to cause me to go and spend my life alone in that land. Give me the Bible, with its commands and promises, and it shows me my duties so plainly that there is no inducement great enough to keep me from going… 8

Their addresses and speeches also reveal that the women were fully aware of the personal risks involved in going to Korea and the possibility of never returning home: I may never meet you again in this world, but there is another—a fairer—where I hope to meet each one of you, and if there is any one here tonight who has not made his peace with God and secured an entrance to that land, I beg of you to do so now.9

In spite of all the preparation through meetings and speeches, the actual departure from the homeland was a heart-wrenching experience for the women and their families. Although the parents received plenty of sympathy and comforting words from others, and even though they had prepared themselves for the day of separation from their daughters, many found it impossible to hold back their tears when the moment of separation came. Alice Fish, who left San Francisco on a steamer to Korea in 1897, wrote of her mother’s tears and her father who would not say goodbye, praying that he would see his favorite daughter soon again: Mother sent me off on Saturday morning without a tear. Dear little mother was given great strength and courage… Father had said he would not stay till the steamer left. Once as he passed

58

Journey to Korea

me on the deck I caught him by the arm and said, “I want to kiss you every time I have a chance.” “Can’t I have another?” He said,” Yes, indeed, when you come back.” He passed on and—I didn’t see him again. I know he did not intend to say goodbye and I did not want to either and yet I did long to, later.10

Indeed, some women were never to see their loved ones again, either because of their own death or the deaths of their loved ones. Mary Dodson says that her father read a Psalm to her the morning she left for Korea and that “the blessing of that Psalm” followed her through the years, even though she never saw him again.11 Even after many years from the date of the first departure, many women recalled the sadness of the moment: I have come to know that each individual going to the mission field passes through the same experience. Each father and mother at home find the giving up the loved one as hard as every other parent has found it. We all remember the picture of the parting at the station, with the dear girls and boys who stood by us to the end, and kept us from taking life too seriously.12

However, the women’s words also reveal that their sadness was mingled with great excitement and expectation about the adventure of embarking on the journey. In spite of the great cost and sacrifice in becoming missionaries to Korea, the young missionary women looked forward to their new life in a foreign land. The prospect of living an active life as missionaries in fulfillment of God’s calling and of making a difference in the lives of many brought excitement to their hearts. Alice Fish wrote to her cousin while on board the ship on the way to Korea, “Korea will I know be very, very different—more degraded, filthy and repulsive, I expect—yet I am glad, so glad to go on, for it is Korea that has been given to me, and it is the one place where I want to be.”13 Looking back to the days when she first headed to Korea, Annie Ellers also wrote, “How exhilarating on board the steamer! What visions, what longings, what hopes and what

59

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

anticipations of great and wonderful deeds filled the minds and hearts of these simple, inexperienced venturing ones!”14 JAPAN AND KOREA The journey to the Orient at the turn of the century was not a simple one, and it was even more so in the case of traveling to Korea. William M. Baird, who made the first trip to Korea with his wife, Annie L. A. Baird, in 1890, wrote in 1928, “The trip that can now be made quite luxuriously in a palace steamer and Korean railway; in those days meant weeks of harassing travel,…”15 Since the majority of the early missionaries were from the East Coast and the Midwest, they had to first cross the North American continent by train, a journey which took seven to ten days. Once they arrived on the West Coast, they ordered supplies needed for Korea and took steamers, which carried them across the Pacific Ocean to Japan over a period of about twenty days. They usually landed in Yokohama, or other large treaty ports in Japan, and took a break from the sea before they attempted to enter Korea. The first part of the journey on train and steamer to Japan was relatively comfortable for most of the missionaries. Missionaries usually reported a pleasant journey over the continent and the Pacific in their letters, telling many interesting and amusing stories about the experiences that they had enjoyed. Sarah B. Dunninghton Daniel wrote detailed accounts of her experiences to her mother on a steamer called the “Empress of Japan.” She tells how the passengers elected committees on “every variety of sport and entertainment possible,” and describes all kinds of entertaining events and sports which took place on the deck.16 The journey also provided exciting sightseeing opportunities, especially in places like Hawaii. Alice Fish wrote of Hawaii, “I shall not attempt to describe what we saw of the picturesque island city. To us it was like a glimpse of fairyland—a dreamy, romantic charming spot—for a day or week.”17

60

Journey to Korea

The journey across the Pacific also provided the first experience for many to be in a mixed group of people with various ethnic and national backgrounds. “Such a collection of specimens as the Empress is carrying!” exclaimed Sarah D. Daniel; “As you sit in your chair, the procession of promenaders streams by—English, Canadian, Japanese, French, German—all familiarly chatting in their particular jargon… ”18 Some missionaries met Koreans on their ships. In August 1901, a group of six new missionaries, including two single and one married women, was on a ship to Japan when they met a Korean gentleman. Greatly excited at this meeting, they arranged for him to introduce them to the Korean language during the sea journey.19 The time on the ship was also a time for many to be more closely introduced to missionary life and work in the Orient through meetings with experienced missionaries on board. On many of the ships crossing the Pacific, there were a good number of missionaries to the Orient. On the “Empress of Japan” alone, there were “forty-two Protestant missionaries on board, counting families, a good majority of the cabin passengers!”20 The missionaries frequently held meetings on board and shared their experiences and prayed with one another.21 Some new missionaries also had regular hours of studying the Korean language with veteran missionaries, who escorted them to Korea.22 The journey to Japan was usually a time of rest, relaxation, and pleasure with relative ease and comfort for most of the missionaries. However, even traveling on American trains and ships could not guarantee complete safety from unexpected dangers. Some encountered dangerous situations even before reaching the West Coast. Mattie Ingold, for example, wrote about the two train wrecks she witnessed during her trip on a train to San Francisco: At Carlin, a little town in Nevada, we were detained for about 11 hours owing to a freight train wreck about 6 miles from

61

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

there which we ran into… A little farther on, we passed the wreck of a passenger train, which had occurred two or three days previously… Of course these accidents did not tend to make us feel more comfortable as we passed through the dangerous mountain region…”23

In the case of Oliver and Jennie Avison, they had to deal with a number of difficulties during their journey from Toronto, Canada, to Japan. At about the time they were to leave Toronto, their youngest son, a year and a half year old, became seriously ill with an abscess of the ear and pneumonia, even to the point that they despaired of his life. Although the boy survived, they had to take the risk of bringing the weak baby on the 200-mile train ride to Oliver Avison’s grandparents’ home before arriving in Vancouver.24 The long ocean trip from Vancouver to Japan was a difficult one for them as well, since Jennie was pregnant with their fourth child and suffered from seasickness most of the way across the Pacific.25 Some had even more dramatic experiences during their journey, especially those who traveled in the winter season and met with stormy seas. Ella Dodge Appenzeller, a member of the first five Methodist pioneers to Korea, describes their journey as “a difficult voyage,” since they met “a grand storm” during the last week on the ship. She wrote about the experience, telling with some humor how “two ladies fell out of bed” one night.26 Annie L. Adams Baird and her husband also experienced a stormy ocean during their journey in December of 1890, making the long trip extremely unpleasant and fearsome.27 The experience that John and Anabel Nisbet had on their way to Japan was probably the most traumatic. Their steamer, “Dakota,” which departed in February, 1907, struck a hidden rock and sank off the coast of Japan. All the passengers on that ship survived without injury, as they were taken off in small boats “before the vessel settled,” but everyone suffered considerable discomfort by losing all of their belongings and landing in a “sparsely settled land where there were no arrangements for caring for so large a party.”28

62

Journey to Korea

Such examples of occasional accidents and misfortunes that occurred during the journey to Japan reveal that traveling in the “civilized” world was not completely free from danger. However, the trip from America to Japan was considerably more pleasant compared to the short journey from Japan to their destinations in Korea. The nearer they approached to Korea, the level of discomfort increased, making them realize how different their life in Korea would be from their life at home. Those who came to Korea during the earliest years felt this sense of departure from their former life more keenly. Once in Japan, missionaries enjoyed comfort and rest among American missionaries and friends. By the time the first American missionaries to Korea came, Japan was already considered a “civilized” country, and her large cities were equipped with many modern conveniences. There were also large bodies of American missionaries and well-established missionary compounds in many treaty ports. Every missionary going to Korea spent some time in Japan to rest and learn about the Orient before they boarded steamers that carried them to Korea. The first group of Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries who were to open missions in Korea in 1885 were detained for a long time in Japan because of the volatile political and social conditions in Korea. Even though steamers were available from Japan to Korea, most of the early missionaries had to wait in Japan until they received news from Seoul that they could come. Korea had just barely signed the first treaty with a Western nation, and the Korean government’s intense persecution against Catholic Christians was still fresh in everyone’s memory. Therefore, the American officials were cautious about the entrance of missionaries into the country. Besides, only three months before these pioneer missionaries arrived in Japan, there was an unsuccessful coup d’etat attempted by the progressive party of the young Korean elite.29 The American officials were especially nervous about the missionary women entering the dangerous country and felt that the women would bring greater

63

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

burden in their work of protecting Americans in Korea. In late March of 1885, the missionaries waiting in Japan received a green light that they could enter Korea. Once they reached Korea, male missionaries traveling alone without women in their company were allowed to proceed to the capital city, Seoul.30 However, when Henry and Ella Appenzeller arrived at the port of Chemulpo, they were strongly advised to leave the country immediately by an American captain and were forced to turn back to Japan. Remembering “the impassioned speech” that Captain McGlenzie gave them, Ella Appenzeller wrote, “For once I knew that I was a burden, for without me Mr. Appenzeller could have gone to Seoul. As it was, Captain McGlenzie (sic) would not allow another woman to go to the capital. I can see him, yet, talking very vehemently, and becoming much excited at the thought of risking the lives of his men in a possible rescue of poor me.”31 For such a reason, although women missionaries had reached Japan in February of 1885, it was not until June of that year when they could finally enter Korea and join Fannie Allen, who had come into Korea with her husband. During these months, Horace and Fannie Allen, Horace G. Underwood, and William Scranton in Korea waited for a safer time to call the rest of the missionaries, while the other two men and four women (one of whom had a baby) missionaries waited indefinitely in Japan for the day they could depart for Korea. The period of waiting was not easy to endure either for the men or for the women. Although comfortably situated in Japan, waiting three or four months without knowing when they could commence their work in Korea was both disappointing and frustrating. Henry Appenzeller expressed great frustration about being turned back and waiting for something to turn up, “after traveling about 10,000 miles on land and sea.”32 Mary F. Scranton, the first representative of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the northern Methodist Church to Korea, also shared the same feeling of disappointment, although still full of hope: We happen to know that our Charge d’affaires at Seoul has been

64

Journey to Korea

on the point of ordering Mrs. Allen away… Whether we go in the May steamer or wait until June I cannot tell, I only know we shall go as soon as we can… It looks a little discouraging for the ladies, does it not? But I think it will be brighter soon, and that there will be a going forward instead of a retreat.”33

Although the situation did not prove to be most welcoming to women pioneer missionaries, they still made use of their time in Japan to prepare for Korea by first observing the work of missionaries in Japan. Among other things, they witnessed the effective work carried on by women missionaries of the WFMS in Japan, and both the male and female missionaries did not hesitate to give high praise to their work. In his article sent to the WFMS, Henry Appenzeller quoted a statement by a Methodist Bishop regarding women missionaries in India to describe the effectiveness of women’s work in Japan, “. . . these women who now represent our beloved church in India are the equals of any who have adorned our Methodist history and have gone up to their crowns and mansions.”34 Appenzeller ended this report with a statement of hope for the women’s work in Korea; “May these good sisters do a similar grand and glorious work, under Mother Scranton’s [Mary F. Scranton] lead in Korea.”35 In addition to observing and studying missionary work in Japan, Mary F. Scranton’s letters show that she hired a Korean teacher to study the language and was getting know many Korean refugees in Japan. About her time in Japan and her teacher, she wrote, “In the mean time, I am doing my best to get ready for work. I wonder if you have heard about my teacher, Pak Young Ho. He is one of the refugees; the one highest in rank. He is a good teacher, and just as patient and persevering as a common mortal would be.”36 While trying to use their time in Japan productively, the women eagerly looked forward to the day when they could actually start their work in Korea. The waiting finally ended in June of 1885. She wrote jubilantly at anchor off Kobe en route for Korea, “We sailed away from Yokohama on the 11th, at noon. I cannot begin to tell you, how

65

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

thankful I am to come at last to the beginning of the end.”37 So the first group of women missionaries entered Korea without being particularly welcomed by either American officials or Koreans. Unlike the later groups of missionaries, who would be often received by large welcoming parties of both missionaries and Korean Christians, this first group of missionary women received no welcome at the port to help them feel at home. Only after their presence proved to be of great value to the small American community in the country, they were no longer considered as a burden by the American officials. Except in times of war and serious political troubles, later women missionaries went on a boat only after a brief time in Japan and entered Korea with a little more inviting experience than the first group of women did. The pioneers began experiencing the extreme discomfort and hardships of travel, which would be a common feature of the missionaries’ life in Korea, as they crossed the narrow channel of ocean between Japan and Korea. The vessels that set out to Korea were usually small Japanese steamers and far below the quality and comfort that the missionaries were familiar with in American vessels. When Hattie G. Heron, the second Presbyterian woman missionary to enter Korea, boarded “a miserable little steamer” bound for Korea, she heard Japanese locals say that “the only wonder was there should be any ship sailing for that land.”38 Almost every steamer that carried missionaries from Japan to Korea during the pioneer years was described as “miserable” by the American passengers. The vessel that carried the five members of the Avison family in 1893, including very pregnant Jennie Avison, was a small cargo boat that smelled strongly of dried fish, equipped with only a crowded and stuffy sleeping area and a hot and poorly ventilated dining room.39 Another boat that carried six new missionaries to Korea in 1901 was described as “one of the little freighters that swam along the coast of Japan and Korea.”40 Sarah Daniel also tells how crowded her boat to Korea was in 1904:

66

Journey to Korea

The hundreds of coolies were pouring on board,… a seething mass of humanity before, behind and beneath, that you cannot help seeing and hearing, and through which you must fight your way wherever you go up or down. That night they were not even kept off the first class deck as they have been ever since, and a staring, half-naked circle of them watching my every movement made me so grateful when a little Japanese woman moved her chair up close to mine (there were only two chairs on board) with a sympathetic smile that bridged every chasm of race and language.41

While the condition of the vessels was extremely poor, the unexpected condition of the sea brought additional adventure to their experience. The strait between the two countries was often rough, and all new missionaries tell stories of how their small steamers and boats rocked helplessly in the rough sea. Speaking of the experience of this sea voyage, Ella Appenzeller wrote: Let no man pride himself on his ability to enjoy a sea voyage until he has tried the Tsuruga Mary [sic] or her sister along an almost unknown coast, mild rain and seas which apparently go every way at once, especially up and down.42

Another missionary described his experience on this same voyage: “That night, how it stormed! We lay all night desperately ill, longing for the morning.”43 The sea that surrounded Korea eventually took the life of a pioneer missionary, Henry G. Appenzeller, in 1902, when his steamer collided with another Japanese steamer.44 Most missionaries made this last part of their journey to Korea in the company of other missionaries. But some women traveled to Korea alone, which required courage and faith, as they did not know who would be there at the shore to welcome them and help find their way.45 As their steamers neared the land of Korea, the missionary women realized how far they had come from the comfort of their homeland. They were hardly prepared

67

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

for what their eyes would see; it was a truly strange and alien land that was nothing like America. FIRST IMPRESSION Upon entering the land of Korea, Bertha S. Ohlinger felt as though she had come to “the uttermost part(s) of the earth, the jumping off place, untouched and unimproved by the hand of man.”46 For Annie Ellers, death itself seemed to be the first thing that welcomed her to Korea. While riding slowly on a pony into the capital city of Korea for the first time in 1886, she was met by sounds of moaning and crying: Looking here and there I saw huddled forms in the dusk weaving back and forth as they wailed. What was the matter! Houses low, thatched and tiled all around, open evil-smelling gutters in front and all down the sides of the streets narrow and covered with piles of dirt here and there. Where were we? Was it all a bad dream?… I asked what the moaning and crying was. Back came the answer, “Cholera, cholera. Be careful what you drink!” I thought of the drink out of the earthen jar at the half way house!47

In general, the first impression that the pioneer missionaries had of the country was not an encouraging one. Each woman had to deal with their first impressions of the people and country with different attitudes and levels of courage. The port cities of Chemulpo (Inchon) and Fusan (Pusan) were the first two treaty areas in Korea that were used as the landing places for the missionaries to enter the country. Many boats coming from Japan made their first stop in Fusan, located on the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula, and then proceeded to Chemulpo through the Yellow Sea on the west coast. As Chemulpo was only about twenty-five miles distant from Seoul, missionaries usually came through this port in the

68

Journey to Korea

Harbor of Chemulpo

Chemulpo

69

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

early years, and new missionaries usually began their missionary life and work in Seoul, the capital city, where the first Protestant missions were established. After passing the channel between Korea and Japan, the Korean Archipelago Circles of islands in the Korean southern sea provided beautiful sights that helped compensate for the difficult sea journey of several days.48 But as the passengers entered the Yellow Sea, they found the Korean coast looking unattractive and barren. Sarah Daniel described it the “utterly unbeautiful coast of Korea,”49 as they could see from the boat only the muddy water of the Yellow Sea, “harsh, grim, rocky, brown islands, mostly uninhabited,” and treeless barren mountains on the shore.50 Rosetta Sherwood wrote of the sight in 1890, “I can’t say that it looks very inviting, though I am bound to make the best of it…”51 The women’s first impression of Korea did not improve as they approached the ports where they were about to land. Chemulpo and Fusan were the best used harbors in the country, but they were no “harbor” in the eyes of the foreigners. In approaching Fusan, missionaries could see “no intimation of anything like a harbor” until they got into the very entrance and saw small thatched Korean huts and unwooded and uncultivated hills in the background.52 Chemulpo was not better, as the passengers could see only “dreary mud flats, instead of sandy beaches” along the water’s edge with no pier, and it became clear that ships could not approach very near, even at high tide.53 When the ships and boats arrived at low tide, the passengers were often carried over the mud flats on the backs of coolies who offered the service with little pay. Mrs. Bishop Wilson, who visited Korea in 1901 to see the work that was begun by the pioneer women missionaries of the Southern Methodist Mission, described her experience of landing on a Korean shore near Songdo: We landed at low tide and the transportation from the launch through the mud to dry land (a distance of a quarter of a mile) was certainly novel. The impossibility of the situation was

70

Journey to Korea

uppermost in my mind. To travel that way was more than I could undertake. The coolies waded through the mud out to the boat, and all the Koreans, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Collyer, were safely carried over on the backs of the men. They did not dream of any other way; and while it was ludicrous, it looked comfortable.54

Once they finally arrived on dry land, they were immediately “besieged by an undetermined number of Korean, Japanese and Chinese men grabbing at their luggage.”55 In the midst of such tugging and pulling of luggage and boxes, a woman would usually hold on to her hand bag “like grim death.”56 Some submissively followed those who seized and carried off their luggage.57 These men at the port were usually the first Koreans that missionary women saw. Their appearance was disheartening in the eyes of the new missionaries. They were “wild and strangelooking men, uttering wild and strange-sounding speech,” with their long and disheveled black hair braided in a single pigtail or tied on top of the head with a careless attempt.58 Although their appearance did not help a new missionary to have a high view of Koreans, she soon learned that such men were the lowest and roughest class of people and that Chemulpo was “perhaps the most forbidding and unsightly place in Korea.”59 Although the missionaries were now on Korean soil, the difficulty of journey was not over. An overland journey of twenty-five miles to Seoul from Chemulpo was left for a new missionary. Many wrote vivid accounts of their first traveling experiences over this route in the strange land where they had arrived. Newly arriving missionaries were usually met by a couple of missionaries at the port who had come to escort them to Seoul. The escorting missionaries arranged transportation vehicles for the trip—namely Korean ponies and closed sedan chairs. When both human beings and their belongings were packed upon the ponies and the sedan chairs, they would start “a strange looking procession” early in the morning.60 The women missionaries either rode on ponies or in sedan chairs during the

71

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The Korean Pony

eight to nine hours of traveling to the capital city. Neither the ponies nor the chairs provided comfortable method of traveling. Women soon learned that “the pack-saddles on the ponies were made for carrying loads of unfeeling wood and not for sensitive humans!” Annie Ellers recalls how two women missionaries who were her companions in this trip had to be down in bed for three days to a week at the end of the trip.61 The sedan chair, the most common transportation method for women in Korea, was only “a queer little box, with long poles fastened to each side,” carried by coolies. During the travel, the Korean coolies would frequently stop to go into drinking-houses, putting down the chair with the foreign woman in it in the middle of the street. While the woman waited for the coolies, cramped inside the small box, crowds usually gathered around the chair to peep at the foreign woman behind the curtains.62 Recalling the discomfort of this first trip in Korea, Annie Ellers Bunker

72

Journey to Korea

wrote, “Of our fatigue, of our thirst, of our stiff upper lips and our anxious thought I need not speak.”63 Bertha Ohlinger, who took the same trip in the middle of a severe winter in 1886 in a sedan chair, summarized the difficulty of the experience simply by saying: “How long and how cold that journey was!”64 Mary Scranton also wrote to the WFMS from Seoul on July 9, 1885, The getting from the port [Chemulpo] to the capital [Seoul], and getting our goods here, as well, was not a very easy matter… and we were more glad than I could tell you when we passed through the gates into Dr. Allen’s compound…”65

The missionaries used this road and the same transporting methods during the first two decades until a railroad was built between Chemulpo and Seoul around 1900.66 Even though the rest of the country continued to run with the speed of the ancient time, the train between Chemulpo and Seoul at least helped later missionaries to make this first overland trip to Seoul in two easy hours.67 The capital of Korea which came into the sight of the pioneer missionary women was a five hundred year-old ancient city surrounded by high walls with four grand gates. Lillias Horton Underwood wrote of the view, “I was thrilled at the sight of the first walled town I had ever beheld. The walls were very picturesque, built of great blocks of stone, hung with ivy and give an impression of great age.”68 In spite of the pleasant feeling that the picturesque city walls gave to the missionaries, some of them could not really enjoy it, as they were racing against time. The city gates closed at dusk and would not open until the following morning. The slow procession and frequent stops by the coolies made the missionaries worry that the gates might close before their arrival. There were indeed cases as that of Linnie Davies, who did not get to the city on time. She was the first one to arrive in Seoul among the initial seven pioneer missionaries of the Southern Presbyterian Mission in 1892. When

73

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Old Seoul, the Capital City

Seoul and Palace Enclosure

74

Journey to Korea

she arrived, the city gates were closed, and she had to be pulled by ropes over the top of the 40-foot stone wall.69 The first sight of the city did not console the tired bodies and hearts of the foreigners. It was a filthy city with odious smells in the air. A famous English traveler, Isabella Bird Bishop, who traveled in Korea extensively in 1895, wrote of her first impression of Seoul: “I shrink from describing intra-mural Seoul. I thought it the foulest city on earth till I saw Peking, and its smells the most odious, till I encountered those of Shaoshing! For a great city and capital its meanness is indescribable.”70 Rosetta Sherwood also wrote about the city upon her arrival: “… upon the whole, Seoul is the meanest looking most filthy city I ever saw—the dirt of the street is something not to be described.”71 It was a city of narrow and filthy streets crowded with low, mud-walled houses, which had their roofs thatched with straw; only occasionally would one see houses with tiled-roofs. The streets of the city were “barely wide enough for one man to pass a loaded bull, and further narrowed by a series of vile holes or green, slimy ditches, which received the solid and liquid refuse of the houses.”72 In addition to the filth, smell, and crowdedness, there were dead bodies, some headless, covered only by straw mats lying in the streets, where half or wholly naked children were playing in the ditches.73 For some like Annie Ellers, it all seemed like a bad dream.74 One can tell from reading of their impressions of the country that the early missionaries were certainly struck by “culture shock.” As one puts it, “Almost everything is just the reverse of what it is at home.”75 There was little that reminded the women of their homeland in the appearance of the land, the people, their garments, language, actions, and lifestyle. Everything seemed strange and opposite to the ways of home. Rosetta Sherwood provides a good example of the strangeness of the place and people as seen through the eyes of a foreigner: It does seem as if everything went by contrary over here. When we meet in the street, we turn to the right, they [Koreans]

75

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

turn to the left. We shake hands with each other, they shake their own hands. We wear black boots, they white. When in mourning, we put on a black hat, they put on a white one. We uncover our heads as a mark of respect, they keep theirs covered. Our doors swing and our windows shove as a rule, but as a rule, their doors shove and their windows swing. In reading or writing our columns run horizontally, and from left to right—theirs run perpendicularly and from right to left. We put footnotes at the bottom of a page, they at the top. We say ‘North, East, South, West.’ They say ‘East, West, South, North.’ And they consider it a great compliment to tell you that you look old.76

So strange everything seemed for Annie Ellers that she refused to write much about her first impression of the country in her first letter to the Board; “I would rather not say much… It is all so strange to me.”77 Indeed, there were missionaries who left the field only a few months after their arrival due to such “culture shock.”78 The culture shock was obviously more intense for missionaries who came in the earlier years. The later missionary women could learn more about Korea from the writings of the earlier missionaries that they seemed more prepared to accept the changes of the environment. Having read enough about the land and the people of Korea, Sarah Daniel frankly wrote her response to questions about her first impression: “But the truth is I expected absolutely nothing of attraction in either the country or people, so have felt no disappointment …”79 Mattie Ingold’s letters that describe her arrival in Korea also gives an impression of a calm acceptance of the strangeness of the place. Her letters reveal that the reality was actually not as bad as she expected. “The people were, as a rule, not so dirty as I expected to see them, and many of the gentlemen’s white clothes were spotless and looked real nice.”80 If the strangeness of the land, the people, and the customs induced culture shock, the first impressions also stirred up their

76

Journey to Korea

missionary sense of calling as well. In the eyes of the missionary women, Korea seemed to be as “heathen” as it could be.81 The appearance of helplessness and misery that they saw upon landing in Korea convinced the women that they had come to a people who truly needed the Gospel. Mattie Ingold wrote, “I know that my very first impressions… were that I had come to a people very much in need of the Gospel, and that I had before me a sad illustration of what a people are without this best of all gifts, and of what we would doubtless be without it.82 This impression of the Koreans as unhappy-looking people in need of the Gospel was commonly shared among the missionaries. Samuel A. Moffett wrote a similar assessment of the Korean people: Arriving here my first impression, deepened as time goes by, was that the people show an utter lack of positive happiness. They seem to have a look of settled submission to an unsatisfying life. The first happy face which I saw was that of our native evangelist and to me the contrast was a very marked one and impressed me very strongly. I do not see how the first impression can be aught else than that the people do greatly need the gospel.83

These first impressions also reminded the missionary women of their purpose in coming to Korea. Mattie Ingold wrote on the night of her arrival in Seoul, I can never forget my first impressions on landing yesterday and seeing the crowd of mild looking people struggling to get our baggage and who had to be driven off in self-defense. Such a hopeless, pitiful looking lot of humanity brought the tears to my eyes and gratitude to my heart that God had not allotted me to such a life and that he had brought me here to tell of His love and power to bless and to save these people and to pray that I may be faithful to the great trust.84

77

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Lillias Horton also reminded herself that it was to work among these people that she had chosen this country, instead of the “groves and templed hills” of her “dear native land.” She wrote, “My heart swelled, and lifted up an earnest prayer that it might not be in vain.”85 While the first impressions of the people and the country were indeed “strange” in their eyes, many missionary women were also firmly convinced that they had come to the right place in fulfillment of God’s will in their lives; . . . I suppose it will not seem strange to you when I say that Korea seems like home to me… Dr. Fish, Miss Shield and I have all come to the same conclusion about the whole matter and that is that our Father who wanted us to work right here and that is why He has made us all feel so much at home in a strange country and among strange people.86

78

CHAPTER 4

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

T

he missionary women realized just by the first impression of Korea that they had come to live in a radically different society from that of America. They would also soon realize that the conditions of life in Korea were even more complicated than what their first impressions could tell them. The political condition in and around the country was particularly unsettling for the missionaries throughout the entire pioneering period. The life of pioneer women missionaries would also be deeply affected by age-old Korean customs that gave peculiar places to women in society. It was indeed a formidable take for the missionary women to start a life and work in the ancient Oriental country where they had to deal with both ancient social rules and modern political troubles. POLITICAL CONDITIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE LIFE OF THE MISSIONARIES Throughout this period of early Protestant missions, Korea was situated in a whirlpool of political rivalries both inside and outside of the country. The early American missionaries witnessed the entire process of the Yi Dynasty, the last of all Korean dynasties, slowly ebbing away. The early missionary women were personal witnesses of such tragic events as the two bloody wars of Japan with China and Russia taking place

79

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

in Korea and the process of Japan securing control over Korea. Lulu Frey, who had served as a WFMS missionary in Korea since 1893, was remembered as one who “saw two wars and one revolution pass with hands of death and suffering among them during her twenty-eight years of residence with the Koreans.”1 Rosetta Sherwood Hall, who worked as a medical missionary in Korea for over forty years, lived to see Korea involved in four wars during her lifetime.2 In so many ways, pioneer missionary women became living witnesses to historical moments during one of the most uncertain and chaotic periods of Korean history, and the political restlessness certainly had its impact upon their own lives as well. The Beginning Years The first Protestant missionaries entered Korea under the treaty that permitted American citizens to reside and carry out commercial activities in “treaty areas.” By the time the first groups of missionaries arrived in Korea, there was already an American legation stationed in Seoul, as well as an American Marine detachment at Chemulpo for the protection of American citizens in Korea. Once the first missionaries entered the country, they were strongly cautioned not to take any direct action, as there was not yet any provision for missionary work made in the treaty, and since the Korean view of the foreigners was apt to change at any moment. The initial five years of Protestant missions were, therefore, years of quiet paving of the foundation for more active missionary work of the future.3 The first groups of American missionaries were received with warm welcome by the Korean royal court after Horace Allen saved the life of the queen’s nephew from his wounds. However, the Korean government still resisted to tolerate foreign religions mainly because of its experience with the Roman Catholics. In fact, the Roman Catholics continued to be a source of trouble for the Korean royal court and for the Protestant missionaries, who were trying to establish trusting relationship with the

80

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

government. One of the early hindrances to missionary work due to the government’s trouble with Catholics was the issuing of a decree that forbade teaching of foreign religions in the ports in 1888.4 Although there was no provision for open missionary work in the treaty, the activities of Protestant missionaries were largely tolerated by the government authorities in Seoul up to that time. However, on April 28, 1888, the American Minister in Seoul called back Horace G. Underwood and Henry G. Appenzeller from their itinerating trip in Pyengyang, informing them that the Korean Foreign Office had issued a statement that forbade further teaching of the Christian religion.5 This interdict was provoked because the French Roman Catholics defied a Korean royal edict and secretly purchased an elevated site for erection of a cathedral from which one could look down on the palace.6 While such government actions hindered the progress of the early missionary work, Korean distrust of foreigners among the people posed a greater threat to the missionaries’ life and work in Korea. In June of 1888, just a couple of months after the government’s interdict against Christian teaching was issued, more serious trouble occurred that threatened the missionaries’ safety. A rumor spread widely in Seoul that the foreigners were kidnapping Korean children to use their body parts at the hospital: “it was said that some of the organs were used for medicine, the eyes for photography and the flesh was being eaten at the legations.”7 This false rumor brought angry mobs out into the streets. One or two Koreans were killed because they were thought to be helping the foreigners to obtain children for this purpose.8 Bertha Ohlinger’s account of the incident explains the nature and the magnitude of the incident: Two years later we were once again interrupted in our work when it was reported that an army of 10,000 strong was marching on Seoul to kill every white man, woman and child… Queer stories were circulated about us in the spring of ’88. The report was current that we were a very barbarous people, who came there to kidnap their children, [and] that we

81

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

fattened them in our cellars and feasted on them. The report was spread that our American Minister had eaten three fat babies at one sitting. Placards were posted up in conspicuous places calling on the people to massacre the strangers.9

This incident, which is called the Baby Riots, caused great concern among foreigners. Although the riots came under control relatively quickly by the Korean government’s police action, the missionaries endured hours of considerable fear and danger as the entire foreign community prepared themselves for possible attack on their homes by the mob at the time of the riot.10 In spite of such unsettling experiences, the small community of early missionaries still carried out a good amount of missionary work during the first few years, using their “extra-territorial rights” as citizens of the United States. The missionaries established mission hospitals and schools, which enjoyed extraterritorial privileges in management, and took advantage of the favorable treaty clause to settle in the interior and acquire property.11 In these early years, the interior cities would not receive foreigners unless they carried special passports issued by the Korean government which ordered local magistrates to provide lodging and assistance to the visiting foreigners. Lillias Underwood’s description of her honeymoon trip with Horace Underwood into the interior tells that missionaries with passports usually received good lodging and treatment from local magistrates.12 Although the missionaries had to endure many moments of uncertainty due to the ever changing attitude of Koreans toward westerners, the Americans were generally viewed by Koreans as people from a powerful country who received the favor of the Korean court and possessed special privileges. The initial period of Protestant missions in Korea was a time of testing the land and people of Korea. The missionaries still knew little of Korea, and the Koreans’ attitude toward foreigners was difficult to predict. The missionaries constantly lived in tension and fear that the door for the Gospel might be closed again, and

82

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

they had to be extremely cautious not to make any detrimental mistakes while laying down a foundation for their work, as Lillias Underwood explains, “As yet somewhat uncertain of our foothold, ignorant to a large extent of the people with whom we had to deal, we trembled lest some inadvertence might close the door, only so lately and unwillingly opened.”13 As Mary F. Scranton wrote, their life and work, therefore, had to be severely limited through these first years of the Protestant missions in Korea: “The presence of the foreigner was not desired. We were counseled by our United States representatives to use the utmost caution in manner and speech. We were not expected to make manifest in any way the designs we had in coming to the country.14 Changing Attitudes and Continuing Political Turmoil In spite of the difficulties of the first years, the missionaries’ growing understanding of the Korean culture, language, and people began to bring positive changes to their circumstances and status. By the 1890s, missionaries came to enjoy much greater freedom in their work than they did in the first years, especially in Seoul and its vicinity. Not only did their medical work helped to gain the trust and respect of the people, educational and evangelistic missionaries also helped to ease the native fear of the foreigners by developing personal contacts and relationships. While the Koreans slowly began to trust the American missionaries who seemed trustworthy and sympathetic, the missionaries were also learning that Koreans were generally friendly and good-natured people. Bertha S. Ohlinger wrote: “We found Koreans a very amiable people. They treated us kindly and with respect and we soon felt quite at home among them.”15 The early itinerating missionaries also reported finding the Korean people in the country usually friendly and generous. Horace Underwood, who was the first Protestant missionary to travel into the interior, wrote of his experiences with Koreans during his years of traveling:

83

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

In all these places a hearty welcome seems to await all who come and behave like gentlemen. I have never met with any serious difficulty in Korea, except by the hands of bandits, but have always found the hospitable Koreans ready to do what they can to help on a traveler or to entertain a guest.16

Lillias Horton Underwood also wrote, telling about an incident when her coolies took provocative actions during a trip, “A similar occurrence in either China or Japan would almost certainly have ended very differently for us. The Koreans do not bear malice, nor are they very revengeful or cruel without great provocation.”17 The missionaries were also moved frequently by the sincerity of early Korean Christians. With their amiable characteristics, the Koreans were winning the hearts of many missionaries, as Mary F. Scranton testified, “Whether we won the people’s hearts or not, it is certain they won ours, and the desire grew more and more intense to be a blessing to them.”18 In spite of such progress, potential danger and risks to their safety continued to linger as the country struggled with political turmoil. The deep corruption of government officials and the growing influence of foreign powers continued to weaken the government and added to the suffering of the Korean people. Consequently, violent rebellions against the government and foreign powers arose in several regions. The greatest of the rebellions was the Tonghak Rebellion, which brought untold number of victims throughout the country. At the outbreak of the Rebellion, Mattie S. Tate was stationed in a southern city, Chunju, with her brother, Lewis Boyd Tate. They were quickly called back to the capital and narrowly escaped the hands of the Tonghaks. Shortly after their departure, the rebel army seized Chunju, and one-fourth of the city was destroyed in a pitched battle between the rebels and the government troops.19 Although the great anti-foreign movement of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in China did not have much effect in Korea, missionaries often faced threatening circumstances. Horace and Lillias Underwood,

84

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

for example, were taking an extensive trip in 1900 with their little son and two women missionaries when they received a letter containing a news that there was “a secret edict circulating among various magistrates, commanding all Confucianists to gather at night on the second of the next month (about fifteen days later)… to go in a body and kill all Westerners and followers of Western doctrines,...”20 Upon receiving the news, they sent a secret message written in Latin to the American minister in Seoul, informing him of the conspiracy. Even though the incident was quickly under control by arresting the supposed authors of the edict, Lillias H. Underwood remembers losing many nights of sleep over the incident.21 The uncertainty of life was augmented further by the competing foreign powers, which caused two bloody wars to take place in Korea in an interval of only ten years. During the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, American missionaries could not escape experiencing the impact of the battles, although they were in far less danger than common Koreans who received little protection from their powerless government. Although missionaries wrote to their friends and relatives at home not to worry about their safety, expressing their confidence in God and the protection provided by the American officials, there were still hardships to be borne by anyone living through a war. As the Japanese soldiers took control over the palace and the city of Seoul on July 23, 1894, the missionaries were told by the American minister to hoist American flags in all their compounds. Soon the mission hospitals were filled with the wounded, while hundreds of Koreans poured into the missionary compounds seeking safety from the Japanese soldiers: “They came with their bags of rice, their loads of wood, cooking utensils, kimtchi pots, and naked children, and seemed to have no thought but we could find room for all, and that no harm could come to them if they could only be near us.”22 Although the compounds were patrolled by American soldiers, the situation was quite uncertain for everyone. Foreign visitors were advised to leave the country, and Mary Scranton wrote to

85

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

two single women missionaries, who were taking a brief leave of absence in Japan, not to return until matters became quieter. Watching hundreds and thousands of Koreans fleeing into the country, she saw signs of great suffering falling upon the people. Certain degree of hardships also fell on the missionaries during the war, as she wrote to her WFMS sisters in America: It has become a difficult matter for us to get meat, but since the weather is intensely hot we do not as yet feel it a great deprivation. Butter is one dollar per pound. As you can readily believe, we eat it only on the rarest occasions. Flour is 3 1/2 dollars per bag, and scarce at that. In these days when the clouds hang dark and heavy over poor little Korea and her oppressed people,… [it is a] comfort to us to know that the church at home does not forget to pray for us…23

Although Scranton spoke only of the problem of food shortage, American missionaries in Japan were more anxious for the safety of those in Korea, as a missionary woman’s letter reveals: Whether we can reach Korea is yet uncertain. “War and rumors of war” are all about us, gun-boats are in the harbor, and China, Japan and Korea are in a tumult. We wait the issue, while we commend our Korean missionaries to the care of Him “who never slumbers or sleeps.”24

Soon after the Sino-Japanese War brought death and dismay into thousands of homes in Korea, the Russo-Japanese War broke out again in 1904.25 The war brought another set of suffering and hardships to everyone in Korea. In the beginning of the war, as heavy firing began to be heard on the other side of the Yalu River, a number of missionaries of large missionary stations in northern cities had to prepare for a retreat. The situation in Seoul seemed even more serious, as the king’s palace, which was directly in front of the Methodist compound, was burned, and the sparks flew in all directions.26 Although the missionaries were issued

86

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

red, white and blue badges by the Japanese to distinguish them from the Russians, physical dangers were always near them and their families. Sherwood Hall, a missionary child in Pyengyang, was once grabbed and arrested by a group of Japanese soldiers who thought that he could be a Russian spy. The Japanese solders had already shot several so-called spies on the merest suspicion.27 The missionaries living in smaller cities and southern towns did not seem to be affected as greatly and directly as those living in major northern cities, where most of the political actions were taking place. John and Annie Preston, who were stationed in the small southern port of Mokpo during the Russo-Japanese War, did not seem to feel much danger from the war, except for the inconvenience of being isolated because of irregular news and mail. To his mother, John Preston wrote: Well, the war between Japan and Russia has broken out at last. Though we are seemingly so close to it, we hear nothing very promptly, as communication in Korea is not good… We have had no mail for a week until this morning, when we received a little on a Korean steamer coming from Fusan. It is on this steamer, bound for Chemulpo, that we wish to send some letters as we are not sure when another chance will present itself… 28

Even though missionaries usually did not suffer direct harm from the violence of the war, the impact of the war still brought casualties in the missionary communities. During the SinoJapanese War, missionaries in Seoul were not able to leave the city to the mountain retreat places where they would usually escape from the extremely unhealthy and disease-filled city during the heat of mid-summer. As a result, C. C. Vinton and Letitia Coulter Vinton lost their baby boy, whose life could not be sustained in the unhealthy condition of Seoul. Mourning the loss of his life, Graham Lee wrote, “If Dr. and Mrs. Vinton could only have gotten away to the mountains somewhere even for a few days the little one’s life might have been spared, but the war prevented that.”29 There were casualties of the war in

87

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

the Methodist missions as well. James Hall, Rosetta Sherwood Hall’s husband and a medical doctor, contracted typhus while treating patients during the last battle between the Chinese and Japanese armies in Pyengyang. He died soon after he was carried to Seoul, leaving behind him Rosetta Hall and their son and unborn baby.30 The Final Decade Japan defeated both China and Russia by 1904 and became the exclusive foreign power in Korea. It soon became evident that the Japanese dominance would bring a dramatic change to the fate of Korea and her people, while it also brought serious effects on the lives of the missionaries in the first decade of the twentieth century. Japan began to build a permanent foothold in Korea immediately after her victory over Russia. They enacted various reforms that went against Korean traditions and customs, while thousands of Japanese civilians moved into Korea, forcefully taking Koreans’ properties and land. Homer Hulbert, a Presbyterian missionary, wrote what he and his fellow Americans witnessed how much injustice and suffering that the Korean people had to endure increasingly under the Japanese dominance: “The most elementary laws of human right and justice have been daily and hourly trampled under foot. Hardly an effort has been made to carry out any reform that would better the condition of the Korean people.”31 Koreans were not the only ones who suffered the unlawful cruelty of the Japanese imperialism in Korea. Hulbert records an incident when a few American missionaries narrowly escaped with their lives from an attack of a gang of Japanese coolies and other incidents when American citizens’ properties were taken unjustly by the Japanese during a major act of confiscating lands.32 By the time Japan declared its protectorate and finally annexed Korea in 1910, the Korean sentiment was driven toward intense hatred of the Japanese.

88

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

During this first decade of 1900’s, the missionaries had to face new difficulties caused by the political changes in the country. The missionaries no longer worried about objections to their presence and work from Koreans or Korean government. While their old problems were fading away, missionaries now had to face a different challenge, the challenge of ministering to a people who had lost all hope of national independence. Korean sentiments were boiling with intense nationalism and hatred, and many joined churches with the hope that the American missionaries would support their fight against the Japanese. Consequently, the Protestant churches came under the increasing suspicion of the Japanese, who saw them as dangerous organizations that supported Korean independence movement. In such a volatile period, the missionary women, along with their male missionary partners, had to face the huge challenge of caring for the mass of people pouring into the churches, seeking relief and safety from foreign aggressors, while they tried to keep the churches pure of political motivations. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONDITION IN KOREA In addition to the political developments in and around the country, the social and cultural conditions in Korea posed equally difficult challenges to their life and work. The Korean perspective of women and their status in the Korean society were particularly challenging elements that had huge impact upon the women missionaries’ life. At the same time the general economic condition and the unique social customs in Korea were also causes of adjustment of lifestyle for the missionary women. Economic Conditions and the Culture The pioneer women missionaries found the living conditions in Korea extremely primitive and poor. Coming from a country with more than one-century-old history of the industrial revolution,

89

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

the pre-industrial life of Koreans made them feel as though they were “suddenly transplanted to the Middle Ages.”33 Even Bertha Ohlinger, who had lived in China for more than ten years before coming to Korea with her husband in 1887, was just as greatly surprised at the condition of life in Korea. She wrote, “Not even matches had been introduced, and matches are about the first commodities that find themselves into a new country… The Koreans were still using the flint and steel.”34 Even though Koreans survived on their agricultural crops, their agricultural methods seemed just as primitive. Except for the use of oxen and ponies, everything was done by human labor, and Korea’s natural resources seemed entirely undeveloped.35 However, as primitive and poor as Korea was, the Koreans were still surprisingly self-sufficient and produced more than enough to feed the nation’s millions.36 The early missionaries proved to be excellent students of Korean history and culture and contributed greatly in disseminating information about Korea to the outside world. The first aspect of Korea under the Yi Dynasty that they realized was how much Confucianist teachings and customary laws were rooted in the society. One missionary writer wrote, “Although Confucianism originated in China, the Koreans have out-Chinesed [them] in practicing its precepts.”37 Ancient Confucian teachings and customary laws ruled the mind and actions of the people, and the Koreans were consequently “highly conservative,” as Hulbert explains their nature: “[A Korean’s] face is always turned back toward the past. He sees no statesmen, warriors, scholars or artists today that are in any way comparable with those of the olden times… ”38 Missionaries often compared Koreans with her closest neighbors, the Chinese and the Japanese to explain Korean’s unique characteristics. H. G. Underwood describes the Koreans “not as phlegmatic as the Chinese nor as volatile as the Japanese,”39 and quoted from another missionary, “Whereas in China the cast of mind is commercial, giving us a nation of merchants, and in Japan it is military, giving us a nation of warriors, in Korea it is literary, giving us a nation of scholars.”40

90

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

One of the most striking characteristics of the Koreans that the missionaries experienced was their extreme generosity and open-handedness. The Korean was “no miser,” wrote Hulbert, “He [Korean] is generally lavish with his money when he has any, and when he has none he is quite willing to be lavish with some one else’s money. Most foreigners have had a wider acquaintance with the latter than with the former.”41 A missionary woman would frequently see a Korean housewife killing her only chicken to offer a feast to her foreign lady guest, in spite of the missionary’s strong protest against such an action. Koreans would often prepare a huge meal for the missionary visitor and insist that the guest consume all of the food. A few missionary women confessed that such extreme generosity of Koreans was often one of the hardships they faced as missionaries.42 There were certainly many cultural and social characteristics in the Korean culture that were common in other Oriental countries.43 However, the missionaries came to realize over many years of living in Korea how different one Oriental race was from another, as they learned the unique history, culture, and personality of the Korean people. Social and Cultural Understanding of Women in Korea Among all the strange customs of the country, Korean customs related to women were of significant cultural issue to understand and deal with for the pioneer women missionaries. Strict seclusion of women from the public scene especially stood out as the oddest custom in the eyes of all the missionaries. Foreigners were struck by the effect of this custom from the time of their arrival in Korea because of the “conspicuous absence from Korean streets” of women.44 They would soon come to feel that the fate of women was the most pitiful of all in Korea as they became more familiar with Korean people. The condition of women’s lives in Korea was much discussed by the early missionaries, and several excellent studies on their

91

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

A Korean Lady

social and cultural status were presented as the result.45 In terms of the origin of the Korean understanding of women’s place in the society, George H. Jones explains that the Korean view of womankind was shaped under a dualistic eastern philosophy, which viewed all of nature in terms of pairs of opposites.46 In light of the dualistic view of things, male and female were judged not as equals, but one as superior and the other as inferior. Naturally woman was “theoretically regarded as man’s inferior,” and her proper attitude in his presence was “one of submission and subjection.”47 A Korean boy would grow up learning this theory from his youth. All of the native Korean books that Korean boys and young men studied—“The Youth’s Primer, Historical Summaries, and the Little Learning”—impressed this inferior view of women upon them, and they received daily re-enforcement of this view as they began to mix with men.48 A paragraph from The Youth’s Primer was quoted as an example of the accepted view: “The husband must manifest dignity and the

92

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

Groom Returning with His Bride

wife docility ere the house will be well governed… A man honors himself by governing his wife, and a woman honors herself by subordinating herself to her husband.”49 Korean women seemed to bear this yoke of inferiority “as their natural lot,” and the idea of breaking the custom seemed never to occur to them.50 Women who refused to be subordinate or who caused scandals were frequently beaten severely, especially in the lower classes.51 In addition to the universally accepted theory of women’s inferiority in Korea, Korean women were also subjected to the inexorable law of seclusion. The degree of seclusion of Korean woman was described as very rigid, more rigid than that in China and Japan. Some stated that the seclusion of Korean women was almost as strict as that of India.52 From the age of six or seven the Korean girl was completely secluded in the inner quarter of her house, first in her father’s house and then in her husband’s house. Women of high social status were most strictly secluded, and their lack of freedom constantly surprised even veteran missionary women. A missionary woman tells about a case where a woman of a high class family had not been outside of her compound since she had entered it as a bride thirty years before.53 A famous world-traveler from England, Isabella Bird

93

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Bishop, recalls a conversation she had with the Korean woman of the highest status, Queen Min, who said enviously of Bishop’s journeys in Korea that she herself knew nothing of Korea except the short route to the royal graves that the royal family took annually.54 Missionary women also knew many Korean women, who had never seen the streets outside of their homes during the daylight. It was only at night after all men had gone into their homes that the women were allowed to go out, if they were allowed to leave home at all. Only women of the lowest class were seen outside during the daytime, and even they were “wrapped up so that not much more than the eyes appear.”55 These women in their outdoor clothes in the streets looked like “a mass of moving clothes.”56 If a woman of a respected family had to leave the house for a visit to her relatives, she had to travel in a closed chair, which was carried to the very door of the relative’s home.57 Consequently, Korean women lived with extremely limited view of the world. Even though missionaries viewed the seclusion of women as “one of the baneful effects of the dogma of inferiority” and sympathized with Korean women greatly, some missionaries came to see why the custom came to be.58 George H. Jones testifies that a Korean man once frankly told him that “men seclude their wives not because they distrust them but because they distrust one another.”59 Missionary women like Anabel Nisbet felt that it was because of the “low moral standards among the Korean men” that the seclusion of women became a necessary evil for the protection of women.60 Homer B. Hulbert even wrote, “under existing moral conditions the seclusion of women in the Far East is a blessing and not a curse, and its immediate abolishment would result in a moral chaos rather than as some suppose in the elevation of society.”61 In addition to being subjected to seclusion, Korean girls were married extremely young, usually between twelve and fifteen years of age, and it would become “a matter of public scandal if a girl passes her twentieth year without settling in a home.”62 In the mind of the Korean, marriage was the manifest destiny

94

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

A Korean Wife in Pyengyang with Her Headcovering

Bridal Feast after the Ceremony: Women Missionaries Sitting Next to the Groom as Guests of Honor

95

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Women Ironing Clothes

of every girl.63 As marriages were arranged between families often with the help of professional “go-between,” many girls were manipulated by the “go-between” to marry absolutely undesirable partners.64 Many girls would be unknowingly married to men with great age difference and even with wives and children. The Korean custom also prohibited much expression of love and affection between spouses even in marriage. The bride and groom customarily did not see each other until the day of wedding, and the bride had to stay silent, “as mute as a statue,” at least for several days after the wedding; “This custom of silence is observed with the greatest rigidity in the higher classes. It may be a week or several months before the husband knows the sound of his wife’s voice, and even after that for a length of time she only opens her mouth for necessary speech.”65 Not only it was considered a virtue for a bride to stay silent and docile, it was also considered a virtue for a man to show his indifference toward his bride.66 When a man treated his wife as a companion

96

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

Korean Women at Work

or with affection, he was subjected to ridicule and scorn. While many Korean girls entered into unhappy lives by being married to absolute strangers, Korean men intensified their unhappiness as they brought one or more concubines into their homes. Once a girl was married, she lost her connection with her father’s family and moved from her father’s house to her husband’s house, where she began a life of drudgery with endless work for her husband and his family under the constant supervision of the mother-in-law.67 According to Isabella Bird Bishop’s accurate description, “[a Korean woman] makes all the clothing of the household, does all the cooking, husks and cleans rice with a heavy pestle and mortar, carries heavy loads to market on her head, draws water, in remote districts work in the fields, rises early and takes rest late, spins and weaves, and as a rule has many children, who are not weaned till the age 3.”68 Korean women were especially “slaves to the laundry,” since Koreans

97

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Girls named First-Borne, Secondly, and Sorrowfully

wore mostly white clothes that had to be washed frequently, all by women and never by men.69 The Korean peasant woman’s life thus appeared as “nothing but a drudge, till she can transfer some of the drudgery to her daughter-in-law.”70 As a result of the hard life, Korean women commonly appeared unattractive to foreign observers: “At thirty, she looks like fifty, and at forty is frequently toothless.”71 Lillias Horton Underwood once wrote, Korean women as a rule are not beautiful. I,… who look upon them as my own sisters, must confess this. Sorrow, hopelessness, hard labor, sickness, lovelessness, ignorance, often, too often, shame, have dulled their eyes and hardened and scarred their faces, so that one looks in vain for a semblance of beauty among women over twenty-five years of age.72

When the first women missionaries arrived in Korea, they found no school for girls in Korea. Korean boys learned Chinese classics in native schools, and good education for boys was regarded as

98

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

Korean Teacher with Boy Pupils

very important. But it was estimated that not more than one in thousand women could read the native Korean script, let alone the Chinese characters, as girls were given no education, except for training in household skills.73 It was also considered that an educated girl was less suitable for marriage. Therefore girls who tried to read were often stopped by their own family members. Helen Kim, the first Korean female college president, wrote how her mother had to study in secret from her father, who severely punished her for learning to read.74 Many Korean girls had to “steal their education, hiding behind the screen while their brothers were being taught by hired teachers.”75 Induk Pahk, an early Korean female educator and writer, was able to receive early education, because of her mother who disguised her as a boy and sent her to a boys’ school.76 Since girls were considered so much less valuable than boys by Korean families, girls were most often without names, as Rosetta Sherwood explained: “Though it is customary to observe a sort of formal politeness toward woman… yet the Koreans

99

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

believe her to be without a soul and unworthy even of a name… ”77 Korean women, therefore, spent their lives known only as daughters of their fathers, wives of their husbands, and mothers of their sons without names of their own.78 On the other hand, a boy’s name was given with the greatest care. It was believed that much of a boy’s future would be determined by his name, and many families spent time and money to go to professional namers to receive the best possible names for their sons. Because of the great value given to sons, a woman who could not give birth to a son was liable to legal divorce, a practice taught and enforced by Confucian teaching.79 Since the women received no education and little opportunity for personal development, they usually became deeply superstitious and lived in constant fear of evil spirits. Many missionaries sympathized greatly with Korean women and lamented of their usual fate: “In what a narrow world do they pass their lives… In view of these facts, can we wonder that the habitual thinking of Korean women is petty, or superstitious, or vulgar? Poor things!”80 While an ordinary Korean woman’s life caused a missionary to sympathize well enough, there were other classes of women —widows, the handicapped, and dancing girls—whose lives made missionaries feel the greatest pity and even anger at the cruelty of the society. Women missionaries wrote about such lives in order to help their women readers at home to understand the magnitude of degradation that Korean women endured. Mattie Ingold once wrote of a blind Korean woman’s life story. As a girl, born blind, she grew up neglected and abused and was eventually sold as a concubine to a man who made her work as an exorcist. Although she gave birth to a son, the boy died of smallpox. She eventually fled the house, unable to stand the beatings and abuse of the man and his wife. While wandering in a neighboring town, she met a poor peddler who took her home as his wife. She made a living as an exorcist until she and her husband became Christians. Mattie Ingold concluded telling of this story with her own reflection:

100

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

A Korean Coolie and a Coolie’s Wife

As the missionary [Mattie Ingold] sat recently in their poor little room, and heard her life story from the little woman whose mind and face are so bright and whose life has been so full of sadness and suffering, she realized more fully than ever before what we women of America owe to the Gospel.81

Anabel M. Nisbet also wrote of a case that came to her attention, a case of a young Korean widow. She was a good-looking and industrious married woman. But when her husband died, several “no-account widowers” camped in front of her house at night to steal the widow. Nisbet explained that “among the heathen Koreans a widow is an ‘imjar umnan saram’ (that is an ‘ownerlacking person’) and almost anyone can come along and claim her.”82 The night when the “old rascals” attacked her home, the girl escaped and ran to the home of one of the Christians crying, “Save me.” At her parents’ plea for her protection, the Christians arranged a marriage for her with a nice Christian widower with a comfortable home. “I hope gratitude for his protection will teach

101

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

her to love him,” wrote Anabel Nisbet.83 Having seen and heard of so many sad stories, some women missionaries wrote fictional stories that illustrated in detail the sufferings and inhumane treatments endured by Korean women.84 Annie L. Adams Baird wrote one such fictional book about a story of a Korean girl who endured an incredibly difficult life before becoming a Christian. She introduced her story with the following words, “The contents of the following pages are little more than a compilation and rearrangement of facts and incidents such as come daily under the observation of missionaries in Korea.”85 In spite of the great injustice and contempt placed upon the lives of women in Korea, the missionaries realized that Korean women still occupied a higher position and influence in Korean society than men would grant them, mainly by the force of their character.86 Although women enjoyed few legal rights and were theoretically considered men’s inferior, they rose above their circumstances and occupied an influential place in life. In speaking of Korean women’s strength that gave them status in real life, George H. Jones wrote, “In her essential qualities she is diligent, forceful in character, resourceful in an emergency, superstitious, persevering, indomitable, devoted… Korean women are withal inveterate intriguantes, exercising an unseen but powerful hand in general affairs—all the more powerful because unseen.”87 Missionaries saw repeatedly how resourceful and capable Korean women were in handling crisis. Even though a Korean wife would stand serving her husband while he ate and smoked in good times, when a crisis arose in the family, she would “take the helm (that is to say, the top-knot [of her husband]) in hand, and put the ship about.”88 The best illustration of the unseen power of Korean women was Queen Min. She was invisible to all men, except to her husband and sons, hidden carefully away in the queen’s palace. Her powerful influence, however, was felt everywhere in the country. When no one dared to stand against the ferocious old Regent, Tai Won Kun, the young queen drove him out of the

102

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

court. It was also no secret that the queen was the one who set the political direction for the country. The missionaries also saw from the queen her powers of mind and will that would have rendered her a striking figure in any age.89 She was assassinated by the Japanese in 1895, since they saw her as the most formidable obstacle to achieving their ambition. In remembering the extraordinary character and influence that were possessed by the queen, who was so foully slain, Herbert Jones lamented, “Where is the boasted self-appropriated superiority of the male in the face of the measures found necessary to remove the unfortunate lady… as though afraid of her, dead—heaven and earth moved to blacken her memory and enshroud her fate in mystery.”90 Of all the influences that women held in the Korean society, their religious influence was especially important from the perspective of the missionaries. Women were the most enthusiastic promoters and participants of the animistic folk religion and worship of demons. Pioneer missionaries learned from the beginning how strong women’s religious influence was in Korea and how important it was for missionaries to reach Korean women with the Gospel, if Christianity was to take root there. One of the first Korean Protestants in Japan, known to the missionaries as Rijutei, wrote a letter to the Presbyterian Church, USA, in August 1884, telling of the absolute necessity of sending women missionaries to Korea. He explained that not only was the Korean wife’s power often greater than the husband’s in domestic affairs, but wives were also the most fond of worshipping “gods of the mountains, of the rocks, and of water,” while their husbands idly followed their wives. Knowing the powerful religious and spiritual influence women had in Korea, Rijutei believed that it was of the first importance for the American Mission to send women missionaries to evangelize Korean women.91 In so many ways, importance of reaching Korean women in religious matters was well recognized by the missionaries from the beginning of the missions.

103

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Missionary Women in Korean Society and Culture In spite of their feeling of disagreements with many Korean customs, missionary women developed respectful attitude toward the Korean culture and people.92 However, for themselves, the missionary women continued to live by their American customs in the mission communities and did not keep themselves strictly secluded from Korean men, as they carried on an active lifestyle and conducted a variety of missionary tasks. On the other hand, although the missionary women did not live by the Korean customs, the customs still had significant effects on the daily life of the missionary women. While the missionary women enjoyed the freedom of active social interactions among foreigners, they were not free to travel openly outside their mission compounds into the public streets. Even to make short trips within the city, they had to hire closed sedan chairs with coolies and avoid being viewed in public. They needed to comply with the Korean customs more rigidly when traveling far into the interior, where people tended to be more conservative and had never seen foreigners. When Horace and Lillias Underwood were out among the country people during their honeymoon, Lillias was brought in her closed chair right to the door of the room where they were lodging, knowing that a woman who permitted herself to be viewed by strange men was not respected in Korea.93 In many other ways, missionary women took extra care not to breach the native customs. J. L. Gerdine of the Southern Methodist Mission once wrote how Arrena Carroll and Mary Knowles, more experienced single missionaries, avoided being seen in the public with the male missionary companions during their journey from Seoul to Wonsan: “If we [J. L. Gerdine and J. B. Ross] stopped at a village for the night the ladies would pass on to the next stop even though it required traveling after dark. If we started early they would start late. . . At all times and under every circumstance they knew how to “avoid every appearance of sociability.”94

104

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

The restrictions caused by the Korean custom of women’s seclusion often contributed to what Annie Baird called “the trial of inactivity” for women missionaries.95 According to Baird, many young missionaries endured this trial and the resulting frustration upon arriving on the field, as they experienced long delays of work due to the conditions in Korea and grueling language study.96 This trial of inactivity pressed heavily upon women missionaries from the moment they landed in Korea. It was a difficult trial for young American women, who had formerly enjoyed great freedom of outdoor life and activities in America, and they were forced to find other ways to alleviate their pent-up energy. Isabella Bishop, who gained in-depth understanding of missionary life through her extensive traveling, made a keen observation of the peculiar hardship that women missionaries commonly faced in the Orient: …if a man feels that there is friction, and that his associates are not perhaps treating him quite as they ought, he can go on an itinerating journey, or he can take a long walk, or perhaps even a good gallop, and the breezes blow it all away.… But with a woman the case is different… Then, by the custom of all oriental countries, a woman is deprived of these outlets which do so much to make life possible for a man. She is shut up within the courtyard, or goes out only in a close chair. And so the thing grows and grows, till a remark which may not have had any meaning at all comes to embitter her life—till some fortunate breeze blows it away.97

In addition to the custom of women’s seclusion, the Korean understanding of a woman’s life and duty had other subtle, but significant, effects upon the lives of many missionary women. For instance, the Korean’s disrespect for spinsterhood had a significant impact upon the lives of single women missionaries. Koreans considered it more than scandalous for a girl above sixteen or seventeen to be left unmarried. Only dancing girls, Buddhist nuns, and the handicapped were considered unsuitable for marriage,

105

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

since they were thought to be living below sanctity.98 It was, therefore, difficult for single women missionaries in their twenties and thirties to escape from the negative view of them by Koreans who saw them with suspicion, prejudices, and misunderstanding. Even a half century after the first missionary woman landed in Korea, single women were still viewed as abnormal human kind, as a Korean Christian woman told a missionary: “Yes, we unmarried women in Korea are still looked upon with suspicion and lifted eyebrows, for traditionally from ancient times the only unmarried women were dancing girls… ”99 In addition to the prejudice, the Korean customs generally had more restrictions on single women’s lives than on married women with children. While married women could enjoy some degree of social protection and freedom in the presence of their husbands, young single women had to be always careful not to be portrayed as undignified in the eyes of the Koreans. For such reasons, at the news of Rosetta Sherwood’s engagement to James Hall, her nonChristian friends were jubilant, saying that her status would be “at last normalized.”100 Later a Korean Christian who understood the purpose of the single women coming to Korea said, “They [single missionary women] are brave souls, and I know that God will bless their efforts.”101 While the Koreans observed the foreign women through their own social and cultural lenses, missionary women also developed their own interpretation of the reasons for the cultural and social customs of the Koreans. The missionary women felt that the oppressed status of Korean women was a result from a civilization without Christ and that only the Gospel could bring freedom to the Korean women. The missionary women were convinced of the positive moral impact that Christianity had on a human civilization and shared their conviction in their letters to those in America. They always reminded female readers in America how fortunate it was for them to be born in America, as they shared stories about Korean women’s lives and suffering.102 The missionary women became more motivated in their missionary cause, as they witnessed the degraded status of life women endured in Korea,

106

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

Korean Shops

and firmly believed that Gospel alone presented the hope of transforming Korean women’s lives and culture. LIVING CONDITION IN KOREA Early missionary women faced many challenges in starting a life in Korea with tumultuous political conditions. However, the women had to face not only challenges caused by the political uneasiness and cultural differences, but also practical problems caused by the different lifestyles and economic conditions of Korea. When the first missionaries came to Korea, they found the country extremely undeveloped with little material wealth to boast. Having been closed to the outside world for centuries, Korea did little trading with other countries, and consequently few foreign items were available during the early period of the missions. Even though Koreans normally produced an adequate

107

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

supply of rice for the population, drought and famine often brought desperate situations among the poor. Bertha Ohlinger wrote that she saw families digging in the frozen ground for some roots to eat during her first winter in Korea.103 The corrupt government that usurped the upper-class and engaged in unfair tax practices made it extremely difficult for ordinary Koreans to accumulate wealth. The missionaries traveling in and out of the little country could see how poor Korea was compared to her neighbors, China and Japan. While traveling down on the Yalu River that separated China and Korea, Lillias H. Underwood wrote, “It was easy for the passing traveler to see which country bore the greater appearance of prosperity and thrift.”104 The poor living conditions in Korea also presented many difficulties for missionaries, who were arriving fresh from a prosperous environment in America. In addition, hardly any part of the Korean lifestyle seemed compatible with the American way of life. Most of the Korean houses were made with mud walls, stone floors, and thatched roofs. The thatched roofs had to be replaced with new straw every year or more frequently, in order to avoid major leaking during the monsoon season. The houses were usually very small and low in height with only two or three small rooms averaging about eight feet square.105 Some tileroofed houses could be found in towns and cities, and they were owned by the wealthiest in the area. Although these tile-roofed houses were better built than the thatched houses, they were still small to the Americans. When Bertha Ohlinger arrived in Korea in 1887, the only house built in western style that she saw was a grocery of foreign goods kept by a Chinese merchant.106 Korean houses, especially the most common thatched ones, proved to be extremely unhealthy and uncomfortable for foreigners. The kitchens and wells in such houses tended to be only a few feet distant from the out-houses, and the kitchens were not equipped with ovens, which were essential for American cooking. Another unique feature of the Korean houses was their heating system. All Korean houses were designed in such a way that when a fire was started in the kitchen, the heat of the fire was carried below

108

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

the stone floors in the room through a flue. Although this design could be efficiently used in the winter, the foreigners found themselves baked alive in Korean houses during the summer. In such small and low houses, Koreans used very few pieces of furniture. They sat and slept on their warm stone floors, using only thin cotton mattresses that were folded out at night and folded away during the day. The only piece of furniture that the missionaries saw in most Korean houses was a wooden dresser in which they kept their mattresses. Another basic problem that the missionaries had to deal with in Korea was the nature and quality of food. The Korean diet was dramatically different from theirs, just as everything else was. For the earliest arriving missionaries, acquiring edible and palatable food presented a major difficulty. The basic diet for most Koreans was comprised of rice and pickled turnips. Koreans were very fond of mixing hot red pepper in most of their food, and beef was not commonly found except on very special occasions. Korean food was not palatable to foreign tongues, and many missionaries could not enjoy it even after many years of living there.107 The missionaries also found it difficult to find fruit and vegetables that they enjoyed. Although Koreans grew some variety of vegetables and fruit, they had no means of preventing insects from devouring their products and thus typically picked them green and unripe. But perhaps the greatest food problem for foreigners was the absence of milk. Koreans did not milk their cows and no dairy products could be found.108 The absence of milk was particularly trying especially for missionary parents with infants and young children. For the western missionaries, who grew up with a rich protein supply from dairy products and meat, Korea was a difficult place to live. Some missionaries, like Bertha Ohlinger, even tried in vain to teach their Korean servants to milk their cows. Even though four of her servants would tackle a cow at once, when they tried to get some milk from her, they never succeeded in getting more than one quart of milk per day.109

109

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

In addition to basic living conditions, general health conditions in Korea was of great concern among the early missionaries. While the climate was similar to the weather in Pennsylvania or Virginia with four seasons, the Korean summer in crowded cities and towns proved to be extremely oppressive and debilitating. Missionaries also found the lack of hygiene in the country most alarming, since the concept of germs was still unknown among the people. In every Korean city, the streets were filthy with open ditches and sewers flowing out of every house into the streets, which made the atmosphere extremely unhealthy. The open sewage attracted innumerous flies and mosquitoes, which inevitably spread germs and diseases. One of the greatest sanitary problems was the polluted water supply. Wells within a city were commonly dug too close to the narrow lanes where all the waste of the city was flowing in open ditches. Contamination of the water supply was almost unavoidable and was the chief cause of diseases.110 As a result, the intestinal diseases, typhus, and malaria were extremely common among the Koreans, while smallpox was almost universal.111 Even though there were Korean doctors who practiced Oriental medicine with ancient acupuncture techniques and prescriptions, missionaries realized that most of the so-called doctors were not properly trained in their profession.112 Another problem was that the people generally understood sickness as being caused by demons. When Korean doctors failed to treat the sick successfully, the patient’s family would call diviners and sorcerers to drive out the evil spirits, paying huge sums of money. But their superstitious practices often made the patient’s condition even worse. In consequence to the lack of proper medical care, Koreans suffered an extremely high mortality rate, especially among young children. Because of the lack of basic understanding of germs, no attempts were made to isolate those with contagious diseases, and sick children were allowed mingle freely with healthy children.113 Smallpox was so common that many mothers thought all children were supposed to have the disease

110

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

and did not bother to count the number of their children until the children had safely survived it. Oliver Avison once met a middle-aged Korean woman who had had eleven children, but every one of them had died of smallpox before they were two years old.114 Other dangerous epidemics also frequently swept through the country and wiped out large number of people each time. In the cholera epidemic of 1895, five hundred Koreans died in Seoul and vicinity alone.115 Induk Pahk remembers how a cholera epidemic during her childhood killed two-thirds of the people living in her village and six members in her family within two months.116 Missionaries knew that they themselves were constantly subjected to the risk of contracting such diseases, since they had daily contacts with Koreans. Miss Lewis of the WFMS in Seoul wrote, “Smallpox plague has threatened us on all sides; it has come to our homes, school, chapel, and dispensary; we have brushed against it in the street and found it in the homes.”117 “Lepers we have always with us,” also wrote Anabel Nisbet, explaining that there was no attempt to segregate the lepers from the healthy in Korea at that time. Missionaries found lepers everywhere, even in their homes sometimes through the Korean servants and cooks they hired.118 The pioneer missionaries had to accept the fact that they had come to a country where sickness and death were part of the daily routine of life. Annie Baird once gave a simple advice to newer missionaries how to deal with the unhygienic condition of the country: “Keep your mind off them… All that one can do is to dismiss the thought (of germs) with the reflection that the same God who made them is able to control their action.”119 Another trying aspect of Korean society was the lack of public services, which they used to take for granted in America.120 Such public stations and personnel as “postman, the baker’s wagon, the grocer’s boy, the woman’s exchange, the telephone, telegraph, the trolley line, city waterworks, lighting companies, etc.” which took care of so many necessary activities of life at home were absent in Korea.121 The inefficiency of the public

111

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

service sector was probably best illustrated in the currency used by the Koreans. The general medium of exchange among the people was “brass coinage about the size of a silver quarter with a hole in the center by means of which it was strung on a straw rope.”122 What troubled the missionaries was that one had to have at least five hundred pieces of the brass coin to buy a dollar’s worth in the market. In order for one to go shopping, she would have to have a coolie with a pannier, called a “jicky,” on his back or with a pack pony or an ox, which would carry the money for her. Horace and Fannie Allen were known to have had a room eight square feet, which was filled to the top with fifty dollars worth of the coins.123 The inefficiency of communication and transportation was especially trying for the missionaries whose lives and work required a great amount of traveling. When Rosetta Sherwood first arrived in Korea in 1890, there was only one telegraph line, run by the Japanese between Fusan and Seoul, in the entire country.124 She also saw “no vehicles of any kind upon wheels” and realized that all traveling were done on foot or upon horseback.125 Even a missionary who came to Korea many years later wrote, “when the writer arrived in 1907, there was not a buggy road. . . All inland travel was afoot, by chair or pony; and freight was carried by pack animal or on coolie’s back.”126 The only kind of vehicle on wheels that the first missionaries saw in Korea was the “extremely primitive” ox-cart with two heavy wooden tires, which was proven by their experience to be unsuitable for human beings to ride on Korean roads.127 Riding in small closed chairs continued to be the most common way for women to travel to anywhere outside of their houses for many years. Since there were no railroads, no hotels, and no roads suitable for wheels, traveling in Korea was not only difficult, but also slow. Crossing the country from Chemulpo to Wonsan, a distance of only two hundred miles, took the missionaries as much time as it would take them journey from New York to San Francisco.128 Although the Japanese began to build railroads in

112

The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women

Roadway by the Shore

Korea for the purpose of achieving their imperialistic goal of expansion, much of the country did not see any improvement of transportation for many years. The first railroad that connected the twenty-five miles between Chemulpo and Seoul came to exist around 1900. The Japanese also built a longer railroad connecting Seoul and Fusan within a few years after the first one. The railroads relieved some of the physical hardships in traveling, even though the rest of the country continued to move in the old ways. Pioneer missionary women often felt at their arrival in Korea as though they had come to the end of the world. The social and cultural customs of the land could not be more different than their own. In this country where they could no longer enjoy the comfort and freedom they had in America, the women missionaries faced the formidable task of establishing their lives anew and introducing Christianity to millions of people who had never heard the Gospel.

113

CHAPTER 5

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

T

he majority of pioneer women missionaries came to Korea expecting to give long-term service, no matter how many years each of them ended up staying in the field. Therefore the first major task the women had to accomplish to stay in the field was to establish healthy living arrangements, in order for them to give many years of missionary service. It was, however, no easy task to build livable houses and to maintain basic living condition in such an underdeveloped and isolated country. An enormous amount of energy and time was required for erecting a building of any size during the pioneering years, but setting up their own living arrangements was the first critical step in starting their missionary work.1 During these early years of missions in Korea, the pioneers had to be jacks-of-all-trades; everything they had ever learned in their life was put to use.2 The early missionaries started their life in Korea by forming exclusive missionary compounds in Seoul first and then gradually built many more mission stations in other parts of the country. The mission compounds gave missionaries not only clean living areas, but also provided them with a close-knit community of missionaries, which served as their physical, emotional and spiritual base. Missionary women were active participants in establishing the early mission buildings, compounds, and stations. Their intuitive and creative senses were put to good use as they faced the challenge of building the first resident mission compounds and communities for westerners in Korea.

115

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The Foreign Office at Seoul

BUILDING MISSION COMPOUNDS AND MISSIONARY HOUSES Beginning in Seoul The pioneer missionaries who settled in Korea started their work with the purchase of properties for missionary use in Seoul. The first missionaries to Korea had opportunity to see mission compounds in Japan and China before coming to Korea, and they followed the patterns they had seen.3 It was not only easier for the pioneers to follow the examples of older missions, but the missionary compound provided them a sense of security they needed. Since the Korean feeling toward foreigners was unpredictable in the initial years of the missions, it was natural for the missionaries to seek the safety of the walled properties near the American legation. The compound system also allowed the missionaries to build a sanitary system and to get cleaner water sources, separated from the filthy ditches of the streets

116

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

outside their properties.4 The compound, in addition, provided the convenience of having many of the early mission schools and hospitals in one central location and helped to preserve the missionaries’ energy.5 Establishment of the close-knit mission communities was also necessary for the psychological and emotional health of the early missionaries. The first group of American Protestant missionaries who were in Korea by 1885 were only about ten individuals, and they naturally felt the need to stay together for emotional and spiritual support. Since Korean law prohibited public holding of Christian services, the missionaries first met in their homes for services and prayer meetings.6 In the completely strange land that had little to remind them of home, they needed to stay together and gather strength and resources to initiate the small beginning of the Protestant mission in Korea. The missionaries acquired their first mission properties in Seoul on hillsides near the American legation. All foreigners preferred to have their properties located on higher elevation, so that they could have access to cleaner water sources and be less affected by the polluted atmosphere of the city. Both the compounds of the Methodist Episcopal Mission and the Presbyterian Mission were on a hillside, the Methodists being located on a higher elevation on the hill and the Presbyterians occupying “a humbler position below.”7 When the early missionaries found desirable sites for purchase, they also bought some useful tile-roofed Korean houses within the sites. All of the missionaries and their families lived in the mission properties, and many were situated at a relatively close distance from the places of their regular work, whether mission schools or hospitals.8 Women missionaries had their share of work in purchasing the first mission properties in Seoul. Mary F. Scranton, the first WFMS representative of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Korea, was the first woman to acquire a mission property in Korea. She purchased an unusually desirable site on a high elevation as the first WFMS property within four months after arriving in Korea. She sent this exciting news to WFMS in

117

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

America through her letter dated October 29, 1885: “Tidings! Tidings! Be it known unto you that on the twenty-sixth day of October, 1885, the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society came into possession of property at Seoul, Korea.”9 She wrote that her decision about the land was made “in a twinkling,” believing that the grounds were in the best position for them inside the city walls.10 Knowing that the WFMS women would not object to her decision, she quickly paid $450 to secure the land without waiting for direction from home. Even after paying the requested price, she had to go through many of the usual hurdles of oriental dealing, since the selling party would often change their mind and prices. Although it was very discouraging at times, she finally secured the land for the WFMS mission and was able to write, “I am very, very thankful.”11 The property that she purchased was considered one of the best among the mission properties and “perhaps the prettiest grounds in the city” with “a good view of the city and the mountains around.”12 Women of all other missions worked toward acquiring the mission properties in Seoul that was the first step toward establishing both their lives and work in Korea. Missionary women played significant roles in securing the land and buildings for important early mission institutions, such as the John Underwood Shelter of the northern Presbyterian Mission and the Carolina Institute of the Southern Methodist Mission in Seoul. Women missionaries received strong financial support from women’s missionary societies and individual donors interested in their work in Korea. The faithful financial support of many Christian women in America enabled missionary women to acquire a number of buildings for missionary houses, schools, dispensaries, and hospitals necessary for the work among women and children from the beginning. As soon as the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society received the news that Mary Scranton was making the purchase of the first WFMS property in Seoul, Mrs. W. E. Blackstone of Oak Park, Illinois, gave a generous donation of $3,000 which enabled Scranton to finish purchasing the land

118

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

Methodist Episcopal Mission of Korea in 1893

and to erect school buildings quickly. The Southern Methodist women’s work in Korea also thrived from the beginning, as the Woman’s Board provided strong emotional and financial support with full confidence in the character and ability of their missionaries in Korea. Not only did the Woman’s Board provide scholarships for all of the early students of the Carolina Institute under Mrs. Josephine Campbell, but it also provided the fund to purchase the mission properties in Songdo and to build the mission buildings in both Songdo and Wonsan.13 The mission compounds provided the early missionaries relatively healthy and pleasant environment to start their lives in Korea. Once missionaries settled into a new property, it would soon turn into an enclave of western culture and environment, completely different from the rest of the city, even if located in the heart of the nation’s capital. A newly arriving missionary would be delightfully surprised and shocked by the greatly different condition of environment inside the compounds from that of outside, as Lillias Horton wrote about her first entrance into the Presbyterian Mission ground: “It was a great and delightful

119

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

surprise, when suddenly… we left behind us these dirty streets and saw around us a lovely lawn, flower beds, bushes and trees, and a pretty picturesque mission home. It was like magic.”14 Rosetta Sherwood was also “most agreeably surprised” with the house where she was assigned to stay upon her arrival in Seoul and with the atmosphere inside the WFMS compound, as she wrote, “I had heard that it was so damp that mushrooms grew upon its walls, but I have seen nothing of the kind. Upon the contrary, the sanitary condition seems fairly good. It is well drained. Being upon high ground gives good opportunity for this.”15 The WFMS compound and the adjoined Methodist Mission ground were also “very pretty and artistic in appearance” from her perspective.16 The fact that both Lillias Horton and Rosetta Sherwood arrived in Seoul within the first five years of the American Protestant missions in Korea tells much about the earlier missionaries’ labor in making such livable and pleasant arrangements in the mission compounds in such a short time. Ella Dodge Appenzeller refers briefly to their work in developing the first missionary settlement in Korea in her letter dated May 14, 1886: “We, with the Presbyterians and the Legations, are making this end of the city a miniature America. We can show thousands what a home is like, and have made ours as pleasant as possible.”17 As the result of their joint effort, the foreign mission community in Seoul became “a little oasis of western customs and life in the surrounding desert of strange customs, the first contacts of east and west,” according to Henry Dodge Appenzeller who grew in Korea.18 Dispersing of Missionary Bodies to the Country During the early years of the Protestant missions in Korea, almost all American missionaries started their missionary life in Seoul before they were assigned to different regions. The Seoul compounds were where the new missionaries got acquainted with life and work in Korea with the support of a large American

120

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

missionary community around them. However, as the size of the mission communities grew in Seoul, the missionaries began to disperse their forces to new areas in the city and throughout the country. Believing in the theory of self-support according to the Nevius method, the pioneer missionaries were deeply convinced of the importance of making wider contacts with Koreans and developing self-sufficiency among the native churches. They knew that this goal could not be fulfilled if the missionaries stayed together in a few large foreign settlements and worked only through a few mission institutions.19 Although it was necessary in the beginning for the first few missionaries to stay together and gather their meager forces, the growing number of missionaries in the foreign settlements with the steady arrival of new missionaries presented a problem for the missions. The compound system met the missionaries’ personal needs, but it also prevented them from having more frequent contacts with Koreans and slowed down their acquisition of the Korean language. The concentration of the missionaries in one location was obviously not the most effective way to win Korean hearts either. The early missionaries’ motivation to overcome such problems is explicitly explained in a letter by Samuel A. Moffett, who made a strong plea to the Board to allow the Presbyterian Girls’ School to move from the foreign settlement to a new site in Seoul: . . . planting the Girls’ School far over on the other side of the city would be almost equivalent to establishing a new station and that we could not put a minister in a better place for effective and necessary work than to place him there. How I wish you could realize the advantage to be gained by such a move. In this foreign settlement a man’s time is eaten up by all sorts of social duties, committee meetings, etc., and he does not gain that sympathy with and for Koreans and Korean life which is such an element in one’s success. Better far have but two ministers and a doctor here with the Boys’ School and

121

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

let the rest get out of this neighborhood even tho it involves considerable expenses.20

The missionaries began to disperse their population first in Seoul and in its vicinity by opening more places of missionary service. The Methodist Episcopal Mission, for instance, opened new dispensaries and hospitals in different areas of Seoul. After William Scranton opened the first Methodist medical clinic in his own home on the Methodist mission ground in 1885, the Methodist missionaries opened a dispensary at Aogai outside the West Gate of Seoul in 1886, the Woman’s Hospital on the WFMS ground in 1889, and another hospital in the South Gate area in 1890. Other medical projects were proposed to further extend their influence within and outside of Seoul, such as opening more hospitals and dispensaries in other parts of the city and in Chemulpo.21 The Presbyterians also actively sought ways to extend their influence beyond the foreign settlements, as indicated by the moving of the Girls’ School from the foreign settlement to Yun Mot Gol on the eastern side of Seoul. The missionaries also broadened the area of their influence through frequent trips and visits in and around the city. Several missionary families were also assigned to move to new areas near the capital to spread the missionary presence beyond the city walls.22 While the missionary force was being dispersed in and around Seoul, vigorous efforts were also made to open new mission stations in the interior parts of the country. Since it was extremely difficult and dangerous for a foreigner to live and work alone in an isolated interior city, small groups of missionaries were usually assigned to open new mission stations. The missions tried to include a medical missionary and a single woman missionary for every station, if possible, along with evangelistic missionaries and their families. A medical missionary’s presence was critical for the preservation of the missionaries’ lives, as well as for opening the medical missionary work. Single woman missionaries were also needed as those who

122

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

could take full charge of women’s work of the stations with the married women. In many isolated interior stations, missionaries depended on one another heavily to overcome loneliness and hardships, often disregarding their national, denominational, and personal differences. For instance, when Oliver and Jennie Avison arrived in Korea at Fusan in 1893 after a long voyage from America, they could find only “a very lonesome little group” of missionaries, although Fusan was one of the largest port cities in the country. There were less than ten foreigners, members of both American and Australian Presbyterian missions, gathered at the home of William and Annie Baird for Sunday service. Here the large family of the Avisons was warmly welcomed to stay and join the small group of missionaries until they were transferred to Seoul.23 Pioneering a new mission station was an extremely difficult and risky task for the early missionaries. In order to open a new station, a couple of missionaries made several long and arduous trips to the assigned region, separated from their families for months at a time, and looked for a possible property for the mission, while distributing tracts and evangelizing to the local people. When they found an appropriate location for a station, they would try to purchase the ground and houses on it so that they could move their families and other mission members as the first residents of the new station. However, they first had to overcome a great deal of suspicion of the locals, who were alarmed to see foreigners buying houses and moving into their town. Local distrust of foreigners and the lack of the missionaries’ understanding of Korean customs often made acquisition of mission property and opening a new station difficult and time-consuming. For instance, missionaries of the northern Presbyterian Mission could not buy any land for a mission station in certain sections of Fusan in 1891 because foreigners were not wanted in the Korean-only parts of the city.24 Even if a property was successfully purchased, all kinds of problems and complications frequently arose due to local hostility and difference of customs. When James and Rosetta

123

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Hall moved to Pyengyang as the first resident foreigners in the city, the local officials arrested the Korean Christians who were associated with the missionaries, and the missionaries themselves came under serious threat.25 In another case, Southern Presbyterian missionaries faced a problem with the land they purchased outside of Chunju, a city in the southwestern region of the country, in 1897. The missionaries had just built houses on the slope of a mountain and scarcely settled into their new homes when a word came down from the king that the foreigners had to move out. The land on which they had built their houses was on a forbidden mountain that was sacred to the founder of the Yi Dynasty.26 Women missionaries played a major role in this important and challenging process of dispersing the missionary force in the capital and around the country. Missionary institutions established by women functioned as centers for missionary influence in their geographical areas in Seoul, and women missionaries also actively visited many neighbors and towns in and outside the city, influencing both city and country women with their missionary activities.27 Women missionaries played an equally important role in opening new mission stations in the interior as well. Women missionaries were almost always among the first residents in new stations, although the first explorations of new territories were usually assigned to male missionaries. As the resident pioneers of almost every mission station, missionary women were responsible for finding and purchasing a number of mission properties. In the case of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission, where women missionaries greatly outnumbered male missionaries, women played a major role in initiating its work by acquiring mission properties and buildings both in Seoul and in the interior.28 Since male missionaries’ work required more frequent traveling because of the limited number of ordained missionaries, women often remained behind in the lonely stations and took charge of the station’s work and maintenance of property during the absences of male missionaries.29

124

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

As part of the pioneering groups of missionaries in Korea, women missionaries were active founding members of the first missionary communities throughout Korea. Pioneer women missionaries labored, along with male missionaries, in acquiring and developing mission properties into suitable living and working locations. In the process, they faced all types of difficulties and hardships involved in opening mission grounds in Korea that had to be overcome, and they learned to adjust their lives to the local environment. HOUSING Starting a new life in Korea required the missionaries to spend much of their energy in the refurbishing and building of houses, in addition to finding and purchasing properties. Building and renovating structures was actually a never-ending assignment for the pioneer missionaries as long as they lived in Korea. Their annual reports always included sections on building work in every mission station. The time and energy consumed in building projects frustrated many missionaries who desired to do more direct missionary work. However, building was an important part of pioneers’ work that could not be overlooked. One well-built house provided a home for several missionary families for many years, allowing them to work in Korea. Residences of the First Missionaries The missionaries who entered Korea in the early years first lived in Korean houses. Since the common thatched houses were too small and unhealthy, missionaries usually tried to find houses with tile roofs for their first residences. However, even a tileroofed house was “just a native bungalow” for the missionaries, made with mud walls, stone floors, and a low ceiling.30 Living in Korean houses with little renovation caused a great deal of discomfort for the missionaries during the early years. One of the unique features of a Korean house was paper doors and

125

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

windows which were not effective in protecting them from bitter winter air or stormy rain. In addition, during the heavy rainy season, roofs did not stop water from penetrating and flooding the rooms. Lillias H. Underwood described in detail about their annual summer trial with rain leaking through the ceiling: No matter how often one may call menders to replace broken tiles and patch up suspicious places, when the rainy season comes and the fearful floods beat upon those houses, the water streams in under the tiles, and, when it has dripped awhile, down comes a lump of mud here, and another there. It certainly is aggravating to a high degree. The water flows cheerfully down your nice wallpaper, avoiding the buckets you set for it, meandering over your floor from which you have hurriedly removed the rugs, and well, it is moist and to say the least, unpleasant… 31

It was in these houses where missionaries started their work. Horace Underwood once saw an American missionary doctor working in his office during a rainy season, “sitting and writing at his desk, rubber boots and waterproof on, and an umbrella suspended from the ceiling to enable him to pursue his work and keep dry.”32 In spite of so many problems, the early missionaries had little choice but to live in the Korean houses until they renovated them or until better houses were built. Mary Scranton gave an illuminating description to the missionaries, who came to Korea about a decade afterward, of how it was to begin their live in Korean houses in 1885: You who have come more recently, can, I think, scarcely realize the difference between the Korea of today and the country to which we came more than ten years ago… We had no fine houses in those days. My drawing-room and study was eight feet by twelve. On all sides but one, (that leading to my sleeping apartment) there were only paper partitions between me and the outside world… There was no window glass

126

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

anywhere to let in brightness and sunshine, until one happy day Mr. Foulk, our Charge d’affaires, made me a present of three photograph plates. These I thankfully, if not proudly, inserted in the window near my desk, and once more rejoiced in being able to see, at least with one eye at a time the light of Heaven again.33

However, the life in Seoul was still easier compared to the life of missionaries in the other regions. There were at least a good number of tile-roofed houses available for possible purchase in Seoul. But missionaries in the interior towns were often unable to find houses with tile roofs and had to live in straw-thatchedroofed houses for quite a while. The Southern Presbyterian missionaries in Kunsan lived in tiny thatched houses, devoid of glass and chimney, for three years.34 Mattie Ingold, a medical pioneer missionary in the city of Chunju, also lived in a small thatched house with two small rooms measuring eight feet by twelve. Her house basically had no ceiling, and the walls were so crooked that it was difficult to get any furniture near them. She said that she covered the mud walls with white Japanese paper at least to make it look clean.35 These tiny Korean houses were not only uncomfortable, but they were also hazardous to the missionaries’ health and safety. The dampness and leaking of water in the Korean houses during unhealthy summer seasons caused much sickness among the missionaries. Lillias Underwood recalls a terrible struggle that she once had in caring for her husband who was seriously ill with a high fever during a stormy night in a room where water was pouring through the roof, window, and door casements.36 The thatched houses were also so extremely susceptible to fire that the Southern Presbyterian missionary women living in them did all of their cooking on a charcoal brazier, for stoves were dangerous to the straw roofs.37 In so many ways, living in small native houses poses great trials for the women missionaries whose western lifestyle was so radically different from the lifestyle for which the houses were built. Even the missionary

127

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women who came during the later years had to share the trials of living in native houses, as many became pioneers of new interior mission stations, where no westerner had ever visited. Renovation and Building of Missionary Houses The easiest and most common way that the pioneer missionaries resolved their housing problem was to renovate Korean houses or to build semi-foreign houses. Since no American family could live comfortably in a little mud house, they first began building semi-foreign houses. They were nearly all one story brick veneered mud houses, according to Anabel Nisbet, “with tile roof, but the rooms were large and comfortable with glass windows and many American conveniences.”38 The missionaries put glass windows instead of the rice papers and opened up the walls between small rooms to make the space that they needed. Many continued renovating their houses over many years with little additions each time and equipped them with western conveniences. Horace and Lillias Underwood added to their house fireplaces, a furnace, and other conveniences during the fifteen years of their residence in the Korean style house.39 The renovated Korean style houses were quite picturesque in their appearance and presented a nice esthetical effect with the combination of Korean and western styles. The missionaries also created nice gardens with flowers and trees and sowed the seeds that they brought from America. At their first arrival in Seoul, many women were greatly delighted at the nice look of the renovated houses on the mission grounds. Lillias Horton gives a detailed description of the missionary houses that she saw upon her coming to Korea: I found our mission in possession of native houses which had been occupied in the past years by wealthy but now ruined or banished noblemen. They had been purchased at a ridiculously low price in a condition of dilapidation, repaired at little expense and the interiors more or less Europeanized.

128

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

The one which I entered had, with great good taste, been left without other ceiling than its quaint and massive beams and rafters of blackened wood, the walls were prettily papered, and rugs and comfortable furniture and a few pictures and ornaments gave a homelike air. The rooms were spacious, and having been a dwelling of the rich, they were not so low or dark as those I have just described.40

This method of renovating Korean tile roofed houses worked fairly well for many missionaries, as many felt comfortable in their renovated homes and lived in such houses for many years. Both the Underwoods and the Appenzellers lived in their renovated Korean houses for fifteen years until unexpected events forced them to move.41 Most of the missionary houses in Pyengyang, which eventually became the largest mission station in East Asia, were also renovated Korean style houses.42 Although these houses were not large by American standards, they were considered to be the best houses in Pyengyang and served their purpose as missionary houses well for many years.43 While many missionaries lived in renovated Korean houses, some missionaries began to build brand new homes with westernized architecture. A couple of decades after the first missionaries came to Korea, some missionaries began to think that it would be cheaper in the long run to build new houses than to keep on renovating old ones. Since it was not easy to receive adequate funds for house building from the mission boards, some spent their personal savings to complete building projects or to possess ownership of their own houses. For example, Annie Preston put up about three hundred dollars over the amount allowed by the Mission to add several features, such as “large front porch with colonial pillars and ‘old Virginia’ door-way,” when she and John Fairman Preston of Southern Presbyterian Mission built their house in Kwangju.44 Horace and Lillias Underwood also built their second home solely with personal funds after being forced to move out of their home of fifteen years which belonged to the Presbyterian Mission.45

129

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Their new house was equipped with a steam heater, bathrooms, and a conservatory and had a garden that was carefully cared for.46 Although only a few missionaries had such personal fund to spend for their houses as the Underwoods did, the number of new western-styled houses continued to grow over the years, and many missionaries in older stations came to live in comfortable and well-equipped houses. Difficulties Involved in Building Projects During the pioneering period of Protestant missions in Korea, house construction and renovation were no easy task for the missionaries. Since Korean carpenters had never seen a western style house, a missionary had to be the master in every part of a building project. Not only did the missionaries provide the design and blueprint of a building, but they also had to watch over every step of the work. Moreover they had to constantly deal with dishonest contractors and inefficient coolies. Since there was no Korean contractor who could build western building, missionaries often hired Chinese contractors, but they were notorious for dishonest dealing, breaking contracts, and demanding more money in the middle of the work. William and Annie Baird faced this type of problem with their contractors and workers while building their house in Fusan in 1892. They worked with two cheating Chinese contractors and a Chinese construction crew who would not work on all the Chinese holidays, including three weeks of the Chinese New Year. At the finish of the work, the laborers claimed “that the contractor (now out of sight over the horizon) had not given them their due,” and demanded that the Bairds make the payment. When William Baird refused the demand, the entire crew moved into the house with the Bairds and their guests: “Here they spread their mats, cooked, ate, slept, smoked their opium pipes. Appeals to Korean, Japanese and Chinese officials were fruitless.” In the end, William and Annie Baird had to pay them the money to have the house to themselves.47 Korean

130

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

coolies hired for building work were not satisfying workers either. No matter how urgent the missionaries were to have the building work done, they were told that “there was no haste, and one cannot hustle the East beyond a certain point.”48 The coolies stopped for a twenty-minute smoke every two hours, and could not be told to hurry, since they would strike for any reason or dissatisfaction.49 Since there were no good builders and workers they could depend on, the missionaries had to oversee every part of the building process, as Lillias Underwood explains: Every step of the work must be carefully watched, and even during a morning’s absence something important was likely to go so very wrong that it would have to be all pulled down and done over, with delay, expense, and perhaps sulig and strikes on the part of the coolies. One of the Methodists, finding his roofmen were striking,…, simply climbed up and laid his own tiles, and no thanks to anybody…50

Besides the difficulty of working with contractors and laborers, acquiring necessary building materials was extremely difficult in Korea. Since one could find usable logs only in the mountains, men had to be hired to climb up the mountains and push the logs into a nearby river. Then people at the bottom of the river had to catch the logs without falling into the river themselves and bring the logs to the building sites.51 Many other basic building materials—pipes, glasses, bath tubs and even nails—could not be found in Korea and had to be ordered from America, which took months before arriving in Korea and were often broken or lost during the process. In order to save the time and energy spent in acquiring building materials, missionaries sometimes bought Korean houses only to use their materials. That is how the Presbyterian Mission’s Girls’ School was built. Graham Lee wrote to the Board their plan to buy Korean houses for building materials for the school, explaining that “finding that the cost of building materials was very high and on account of the war, and

131

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

also on the same account, that many good Korean houses were cheap” and “that in a Korean house when the timbers are sound can be found seasoned lumber such as is impossible to buy in Korea from lumber merchants or carpenters…” 52 Even though there were so many hardships to endure in the work of building in Korea, the missionaries were actually more frustrated by the mission boards who would refuse to allocate enough funds for building and renovating mission houses. In spite of desperate requests from the missionaries, mission boards were often hesitant or unable to provide adequate building funds. At times, missionaries had to spend their own salaries or personal savings to finish construction work on mission houses that were urgently needed. Samuel A. Moffett once wrote to the Board that the missionaries in Pyengyang were working on the urgently needed alteration of their present quarters, using their private funds “in anticipation of the Board’s appropriations.”53 A few years later, Graham Lee also wrote a letter to the secretary saying that reduction of the budget for house repair meant that the missionaries would have to keep up the houses with their salary. He wrote, “Thus far we have kept our work going in spite of the cut simply because the missionaries were willing to give the last cent they had rather than see the work suffer.”54 It was because of such difficulties with the boards that some missionaries with stronger financial support built their houses entirely with their own money. Construction and renovation of mission houses continued to require much of missionaries’ time and energy throughout the pioneer years. The early missionaries, whether they had any previous experience in building or not, were forced to take up many major construction projects in Korea. The hardship of building work faced by the pioneer missionaries in the interior was even greater. The missionaries annually assigned a group of experienced missionaries to serve as the “building committee” which would assist and oversee building projects in all the mission territories. However, the difficulty of traveling and the limited number of the missionaries forced those in small stations

132

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

to carry on building work by themselves and to wait indefinitely for the completion of permanent homes. Women Missionaries in Building Work Although the formal responsibility of building and repairing work mostly fell upon the shoulders of male missionaries, women missionaries were not strangers to the responsibilities and difficulties of building projects. Since male missionaries skilled in building were not readily available to help in many places, women missionaries often took upon themselves the task of building houses. Women missionaries had to face additional hardships and obstacles during a construction project because of the cultural limitation upon women’s activities in Korea. However, in spite of the additional obstacles, many women were able to execute their building work effectively, and women’s work thrived in comfortable and nicely maintained buildings. A woman missionary’s ability to effectively finish a building project is well found in the case of Eva Field, M.D. In a letter sent to the Presbyterian Board, Graham Lee highly complements Dr. Eva Field for her impressive work in building a women missionaries’ house: When in Seoul… I took particular pains to look over the ladies house that Dr. Field has been building and also gave Dr. Field any suggestions I could. What I wish to say is that Dr. Field is to be highly commended for the house she has built. It is good, well-built substantial house and it certainly is a credit to her. It is no light undertaking for a lady to build a house in this country and on this account Dr. Field deserves the more credit. She has certainly proved that she possesses executive ability to a large degree. I hope some word be sent her showing that her efforts are appreciated.55

Rosetta Sherwood Hall is another woman who succeeded in major mission building projects. After James Hall’s death, Rosetta

133

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

returned to America. But when she later returned Pyengyang as a WFMS missionary with her two young children in 1898, she undertook the work of building the Woman’s Hospital with the Children’s Ward attached to it. The Children’s Wing was to be the first two-storied building in Pyengyang and the first to be clapboarded and to have a galvanized iron roof, a brick chimney, and a large cement cistern. Since there was no sawmill in Korea and no carpenter who had ever seen such a building, great amount of time was consumed in building the hospital. Rosetta S. Hall wrote, “Our funds grew low and the cold weather came on before we were able to complete it; but one ward and the kitchen and helper’s room is finished enough for use this winter, and we hope to be able to finish all, to paint and to paper in the spring.”56 In addition to the technical and financial problems, she had to overcome local superstitions and objections from the city officials. The people of Pyengyang believed that the city was a great big boat and feared that digging a hole for the cistern of the Children’s Wing would cause the boat to sink, and the city officials refused to give a building permit for the Children’s Wing. Rosetta Hall was able to receive permission to proceed with her plan only after convincing them that “by lining the ‘hole’ with brick and cement, Pyengyang would not sink.”57 She successfully finished building the Children’s Ward, which was the first western style building to be built with the first clean water supply in Pyengyang. Women missionaries were involved in building and renovating work of different scales in many stations all over Korea. In remote pioneering stations where male missionaries were often absent from the stations, women took up much of such responsibilities. In Chunju station alone, the two pioneer women missionaries reported that much of their time was consumed in the work of building and maintenance of mission houses. Linnie Davies Harrison wrote in her report of 1901: On returning to Chunju we found that to settle all satisfactorily for the winter another move was necessary so we came back to

134

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

our little house in the city after an absence of two years and a half. It took more than a month of hard work to do the necessary repairs and get our things straightened out, and Mr. Harrison being away much of the time, this work a great part of it has fallen to me so that, together with training a new cook there has been little time left and my report for this fall will have to be of possibilities and hopes rather than actual work done.58

Likewise, Mattie Ingold reported in 1903 that a good deal of her time and energy during the fall and early spring was taken up by the work of renovating her clinic and house, doing the work “such as overseeing fencing, well digging, sodding, etc.” After moving into her house by the late spring, she wrote, “I can never be thankful enough for the nice comfortable home and medical quarters I now have.”59 Much of the building and maintenance of many mission houses had to be credited to the work of pioneer women missionaries, especially in remote stations where women carried on the stations’ work without enough support of men. Women share the burden of construction projects with male missionaries, and some veteran women missionaries became quite competent and experienced builders. Shortage of Mission Houses In spite of continuous efforts to purchase and build homes, early missionaries suffered a shortage of mission houses. Insufficient building funds and the enormous amount of time and energy required to renovate or build a house made it difficult for the missions to provide adequate housing for the growing number of missionaries in Korea. Consequently missionaries often shared houses with one another. Almost every newly arriving missionary first lived in houses that belonged to other missionaries until a more permanent house could be prepared for him or her. Missionary families who were given houses for permanent residence also had to be prepared to share their homes at any

135

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

moment with new arrivals and visiting missionaries passing by the area. When a house was built for a missionary family in a pioneering station, it was assumed that the family would share it with other missionaries whose houses were not yet ready, as illustrated by a letter from Pyengyang written in 1896: We need to get Mr. Lee and his family in their permanent home by next winter if possible. For several years to come they will probably have to keep some of us as boarders while we are in cramped quarters.… 60

Each mission house was usually occupied by several groups of missionaries over many years. When a missionary family was leaving for a furlough, all of their belongings and furniture had to be packed away in order to make their house available for other missionaries who were anxiously waiting to move into a mission house. Some missionary couples volunteered to share their house with others more permanently, as James and Rosetta Hall and W. Arthur and Mattie Noble did. Soon after arriving in Korea, these two couples combined their two households to make housing space available so that another missionary couple could be sent to Korea for two years.61 Arrangements were made for single women missionaries to live with other single women in most cases, even though they were usually boarded with missionary families at the time of their first arrival in Korea. In Seoul, the Northern Methodist single women missionaries all belonged to the WFMS and lived in the houses built in the WFMS compounds. The Northern Presbyterian Mission also tried to have their single women live together as much as possible in order to enhance the necessary companionship among them. Even though a single woman in a new station might be first housed with a missionary couple, the women eventually moved into their own “ladies’ house,” even if it was just a thatched house, where the single women formed their own households.62 When a Korean house was too small for even two women, a single woman could be given a small house

136

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

for residence and work, as Martha Ingold and Linnie Davies did in Chunju and Kunsan.63 The hardships experienced by early missionaries due to housing shortages are evident in many of their stories. The story of the pioneer American missionaries in Fusan (Pusan) illustrates a case of such hardships most clearly. R. A. Hardie, M.D., a faith missionary from Toronto who joined the Methodist Episcopal Mission south, moved to Fusan with his family in 1891. Because of the house shortage in Fusan, the Hardies had to live in a small building on Deer Island (Yung Do) which had been built as a cholera hospital. When William M. Baird of the northern Presbyterian Mission came to Fusan in September to open a station, he stayed in the Hardies’ temporary home. When the Hardies later moved to a house on the mainland, Annie L. A. Baird joined her husband at the Hardies’ new home.64 The situation was further complicated by the unexpected arrival of a group of five Australian missionaries—one married couple and three single women. The American missionaries helped them look for a place, but could find nothing other than a warehouse which was drafty and unsuited for a dwelling. While living through the winter in this warehouse, the Australians lost Mrs. Mackay, the only married woman among them, to pneumonia and had to move back to the Hardies. As a result, “the Hardies’ four-room (no room larger than ten by ten feet) was housing ten adults (the Hardies, the Bairds, Mr. Mackay, three single ladies, a Korean teacher and a Japanese woman servant) and two Hardie children.” According to the missionary report from Fusan written in February of that year, “Mr. Mackay and Miss Perry were suffering from ‘nervous prostration.’”65 Finally the Bairds moved out of the Hardies’ home into an unfinished house that they were building for themselves. The Bairds’ new house soon came to be known among the missionaries as the “Omnibus House” where “everyone climbed aboard.”66 Immediately after they moved into the house, the Bairds had to share it with a single woman missionary as their first guest, “though the plasterers and painters were still working (or stalling, Dr. Baird felt).”67 In late 1892, the Hardies were

137

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

transferred to the interior city of Wonsan and the Australians also moved to inland towns, making the Bairds the only missionaries stationed in the harbor area of Fusan. Every western foreigner, whether a missionary or not, passing through Fusan naturally came to their home. When Oliver and Jennie Avison and their three children came to stay with the Bairds in 1893, the house was occupied by three couples and their children. A few days after the Avisons’ arrival in Fusan, the Bairds received one more guest, Samuel A. Moffett, for whom a mattress was placed in the dining room. As a result, “every room in the house except the kitchen was used as a bedroom” during that summer.68 Although their houses were shared by many, it was still a great joy and relief to missionary women to move into their own permanent houses. When a house was provided for her own family, a missionary woman made it into a little American home with familiar and comfortable things which helped her feel more at home in the strange land. When John F. and Annie Preston of the Southern Presbyterian Mission moved into their new home in 1906 in Kwangju, John Preston found his wife absolutely delighted with the house which had several distinctive southern features. He wrote to his parents about his delighted wife, “[Annie] says that she feels at home for the first time in Korea. What a woman would do in this sombre country without a home, I find it difficult to imagine—materially speaking, it is the only thing we have left of our former life.”69 HOUSEKEEPING The responsibility of housekeeping fell upon the women missionaries in most missionary households. Like everything else in Korea, housekeeping proved to be a challenging task. Since the lifestyle and diet of the Koreans were so extremely different from those of the missionaries, the missionaries had to find ways to meet their needs in creative and resourceful ways. The first and most important challenge of housekeeping was to attain the most basic necessity of life—food. The first

138

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

group of missionaries during the earliest years experienced the greatest difficulty finding edible food sources. Since Korea had little trade with foreign countries in those days, it was almost impossible to find foreign items. Missionaries mention that there was one grocery run by a Chinese merchant named Steward, but its supply was obviously limited and far from meeting the needs of the missionaries.70 Hence, the missionaries had to depend on what they could find in the Korean market—usually rice, chicken, and eggs—and what they brought with them to Korea at first. Bertha Ohlinger, who came to Korea with her husband and children in mid-winter 1886, had brought a barrel of groats from Vancouver, and they ate from this barrel until boxes of their things finally arrived three months later. She wrote that they were so tired of eating groats that they were overjoyed to find Bermuda onions in the boxes that came: The strange thing about it was that we were not… very fond of onions, but so starved were we that there were none left to plant. They were indeed a luxury and our little ones devoured with as much gusto as if they had been so many sugar plums or something equally good.71

Mary Scranton draws another illustrative picture of how the first group of missionaries lived through their very first summer in Korea: I suppose missionaries ought to be so far above the earth as never to think of the “what shall we eat;” but in this respect I am quite confident the first representatives to Korea, during their first summer, signally failed. The meal in the barrel if it did not “waste,” turned sour, which was nearly as bad, and Japan and China were far away. Beef was forbidden, on account of disease among the cattle. Of potatoes and other vegetables, there were none. But there were chickens and eggs. While we were forced to acknowledge that in outward appearance these resembled those we call by that name in the home land, the taste we

139

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

thought as different as the two countries themselves. But we ate them “not one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days. But even a whole month,” two months, “until they came out at our nostrils.” Is it any wonder that even missionaries sometimes longed for “leeks and onions of Egypt.”72

The missionaries dealt with the food problem first by ordering supplies from America. They ordered large quantities of canned food, including condensed or powdered milk. As the number of foreigners grew over the years, the number of foreign groceries also increased in a few large cities in later years. However, the pioneer missionaries continued to order food and supplies from America throughout the pioneering period. The missionaries stationed in the remote interior had to depend more heavily on the supplies delivered directly from America. Patient waiting of several months for food supplies was a common trial that all pioneer missionaries shared. The long distance and inefficiency of transportation make it take an incredibly long time for any shipment to reach the missionaries. The freight had to literally travel around the world before arriving in Korea—if not across the Pacific, across the Atlantic, through the Suez Canal, around the Indian Ocean and finally through the Yellow Sea. Once the boxes of supplies arrived in Korea, they were carried either on men’s back or on ponies all the way into the distant cities and villages where the missionaries and their children were eagerly waiting for the things inside. Missionaries in the earliest years frequently had to wait almost a year to receive their shipment from America.73 It took about four months for shipments to arrive in good seasons, but there were frequent delays of several months, especially in times of political trouble and war. Anabel Major Nisbet once had to wait for her grocery order for sixteen months.74 Even if the boxes arrived, the missionaries often found items missing or broken and errors with the order.75 Some of the missionaries had to also bear with loss of their entire cargo, as William and Annie Baird experienced in 1900. While it took nearly a year before the freight arrived in Korea, the Japanese

140

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

Missionary Child, Betty Campbell, with a Korean Girl Friend

tramp steamer that was carrying their goods caught fire and the entire cargo was lost to the sea.76 While many of their dietary needs were met in the form of canned food, the missionaries gradually devised ways to acquire fresh food more in Korea. In order to supply their tables with meat properly killed and cut, early missionaries in Seoul obtained permits to run their own meat market in Korea.77 Missionaries’ tables were sometimes supplied with game from hunting trips. Finding the country abundant with wild game, missionaries made occasional hunting trips. While Lillias H. Underwood writes emphatically that her husband had gone hunting only once in Korea because of a Korean official’s invitation, other missionaries enjoyed hunting more freely and some even made it regular part of their leisure activities.78 Graham Lee went pheasant shooting so frequently during his first year in Pyengyang that he received a word of advice from the mission secretary not to indulge in the sport.79 Although the missionaries went hunting, not for the need of food, but pheasants and other games were welcomed variety on their dinner tables.80 Gardening was another important way to meet the dietary needs of missionaries. Women missionaries’ records reveal that gardening occupied an important place in their life. Every missionary household with a piece of ground tended a garden in which they planted a variety of vegetables and fruit trees of both Korean and American kinds that supplied them with fresh produce. The missionaries were in fact responsible for

141

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

introducing a number of foreign fruit to Koreans. According to Rosetta Sherwood, foreigners had already introduced cultivated strawberries, black-caps, and other fruits in Korea before 1890, and apple trees were also successfully introduced by W. L. Swallen of the Northern Presbyterian Mission.81 In the process of introducing foreign fruit and vegetables, Protestant missionaries also introduced new agricultural skills and knowledge to the Koreans over the years. By the early twentieth century, Koreans were forwarding orders to leading seed houses in America through the missionaries.82 Gardens were important to missionaries not only for the purpose of supplying vegetable and fruit, but also for aesthetic and recreational purposes. For many missionaries who grew up around the green hillsides and pastures of farming towns and suburbs in America, Korean cities and towns were too barren and unattractive. In the filthy cities with such barren landscape, a garden with a well-tended lawn and many kinds of blooming flowers provided rest to the missionaries and served as a peaceful haven for them.83 While describing an occasion when the missionary children were asked by their school to exhibit the plants they had raised in their gardens, Annie Baird explains the place that gardens occupied in the lives of the missionaries: “This notice reveals the fact that interest in our yards and gardens, or compounds as we call them out here, is not confined to the children. In fact, after the work itself, they constitute the greatest diversion we have.”84 Missionary women did not mention clothing as often as they did about food, since they did not severely suffer from lack of clothes. They ordered clothes, along with other supplies, from large department stores in America. Missionaries usually ordered a two or three-year supply of clothes and items that were unobtainable in Korea during their furlough and shipped them off from America. Since many women knew how to sew and some had sewing machines, their clothes were often products of their own creativity. However, being so far from America for many years, it was no easy matter for the women to keep their

142

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

attire attuned to current fashion in America. Annie Baird writes about some comical experiences women had with their clothes in the mission field: Sometimes all the women of a station have to be assembled to sit in judgment on a hat recently arrived from America, in order to decide which side is the front. It may be that some of us will never know whether hats which we have worn with cheerful unconsciousness year after year were not really hind side before all the time!85

A missionary family’s experience during their first trip back to America on furlough illustrates how far a missionary’s attire could be from “the latest vagaries of fashion,”86 The traveling suits of Mrs. X__ and the children represented the combined skill and ingenuity of the ladies of the station, but when they made their appearance in a large railway station in America, they were aware of a momentary suspension of business, and a sudden access of suppressed hilarity in the air. Finally a scrub-woman at work on the floor voiced the thought of all hearts when she asked, “Whur’d you come frum?”87

Naturally, a furlough was a good time to update one’s wardrobe to meet contemporary trends. The photographs of missionary women of different generations in fact provide an interesting perspective on American women’s fashion at the turn of the century. The very first group of American women missionaries in Korea was clothed in large Victorian dresses with full-blown skirts and puffed sleeves that covered their bodies from the top of the neck down to their toes. On the other hand, the women entering Korea in the early twentieth century wore more practical outfits with smaller hats, slimmer skirts, and light blouses.88 In spite of the difficulties of traveling, missionaries brought quite a few pieces of furniture with them. This was necessary in the early years, as they could not buy furniture they needed in

143

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korea. They could find no chair, no bed, no table, and no desk in Korea unless they taught a Korean carpenter how to make them. Missionaries either brought the furniture with them or ordered pieces from America. Mary Scranton brought several large pieces of furniture and household goods on her first ship to Korea. She describes the difficulties of bringing the goods from Chemulpo to Seoul, which damaged most of her furniture. The getting from the port (Chemulpo) to the capital (Seoul), and getting our good here, as well, was not a very easy matter. . . One poor fellow carried a lounge and sundry other household articles. Another had two wash-stands; another, cot beds; another, chairs piled up five or six feet, and so on… The heaviest of our goods were sent by junk up the Han River to Marpoo, and the remaining five miles they were brought in bullock carts, and ho! What a condition everything is in. Some things were made into kindling wood; one stove is a heap of old iron; my bureau is minus two legs, etc.89

Many missionaries arrived in Korea before their furniture and belongings did and lived with some borrowed furniture from other missionaries for many months. When the Avisons first came to Korea, a call went out to the missionary families in Seoul for the loan of any furniture they could spare, and the Avisons were able to set up housekeeping with the borrowed furniture.90 Amazingly, even though the furniture had to be shipped around the globe and then carried by human power alone in Korea, missionaries still ordered some large and delicate pieces for their homes and work in Korea, such as pianos and baby organs. The Appenzellers, who came to Korea in 1885 as the first Methodist missionaries, had their organ brought to their new house in Seoul. At the arrival of the organ, Ella Appenzeller joyfully wrote home, “The organ just came, and is all right. It is fine. About an hour ago, Harry dedicated it by playing, ‘Praise God From Whom,’ etc.… May it not be long before the whole land shall hear them.”91 Even though it seems outrageous for the

144

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

missionaries to have brought such large items as organs to Korea under the circumstances, musical instruments were greatly appreciated by the pioneer missions in Korea. Korean music sounded queer and crude to foreign ears and even such music could be heard only on special occasions. Most Koreans seemed unable to recognize variations of notes and rhythm when the missionaries tried to teach them Christian hymns. Thus pianos and organs brought not only music to their lives, but were also indispensable instruments in their missionary work.92 Bringing such large items, of course, had its risks, as the odds were great that the delivery would fail in Korea. For instance, a piano was once dropped right into a river in the process of moving it from the boat to dry land on the way to delivering it to a mission station.93 In spite of such risks, missionary women brought many of their personal possessions which were valuable to them, as they came intending to serve in Korea for many years, if not for their lifetime. Although proper house keeping in Korea was a challenging task, missionary women were able to manage their work with the help of servants they employed. Each missionary household hired an average of four Korean servants at the cost of hiring one trained housemaid in America. The missionaries learned that an Oriental servant was “apt to have a very definite idea as to what he will do and what he will not do” and believed he must rest one-third or one-half of a day. Thus each servant was taught to fulfill only a few specific responsibilities, which made it necessary for the missionaries to hire several servants to do the work of the entire household.94 Each missionary home usually had a nurse for the children, a cook, an errand boy, and other servants who took care of other housework. Missionary women were often careful to explain even to their families the reasons for hiring such a troop of servants, fearing that their motivation might be misunderstood, as Annie Preston wrote to her parents-in-law:

145

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Five servants does not sound like “missionary simplicity,” does it? I hope Fairman has explained the reason for this abundance of servants during the summer. If he has not, you will think that you have an awfully extravagant daughter-in-law who will ruin your son in less than a year!95

In spite of the risk of being misunderstood, the missionary women found it necessary to hire many servants. Servants were needed to carry out many tasks that public servants in America would do, such as delivering mail. Missionary women also needed servants even to take care of some simple tasks. For instance, a missionary woman who went shopping needed to be accompanied by a stout servant who would carry Korean copper coins on his back. But the more important reason for hiring so many servants was to give missionary women the time to do missionary work by freeing them from some of their housekeeping chores. As Annie Baird explains explicitly, a missionary could decide to dispense with servants and live on less money, but she would be robbed of the time to learn the language and unable to become as efficient a missionary as she might be with having servants.96 She frankly admits the need of hiring servants for the missionaries: Perhaps we decide, as some have done, to dispense with servants altogether, and do all our own work, even to the issuing of wood and the drawing of water, or if we do employee servants it is with a guilty feeling of self-indulgence. But as time passes on and our mental vision clears, we begin to see that the cheapest and most plentiful thing been under heathen skies is human manual labor, and the scarcest and most precious is missionary time and strength.97

However hiring servants did not automatically or easily free them from housekeeping duties and troubles. Before a servant actually became a help to a missionary, he or she had to be trained. Training of Korean servants required a great deal of

146

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

time and patience on the part of missionary women, since they had to be taught the basics of how a foreign home was designed and managed. For example, training a Korean cook, “who had never seen a cook stove, a table or a piece of soap, who had no knowledge of white flour, sugar, mil, butter, lard, tea or coffee as cooking ingredients,” was a greatly “toilsome operation under any circumstances.” Annie Baird wrote, “ignorance of each other’s language, reducing the possibility of intercommunication entirely to the realm of “signs and wonder.”98 Even after they were trained, servants continued to make mistakes unimaginable to the missionaries. Virtually every missionary woman had stories to tell about their servants that could strike one as both comical and horrible. On one occasion, Eva Field came “very near being struck on the tear side one day when she entered the kitchen and found the wet floor cloth carefully spread over her newly baked bread….”99 Alice Fish also tells of an incident with her servant boy was trained “on the mysteries of bed making.” She wrote, “But I didn’t tell him to take off the under sheet, so that night found me trying to get between the three.”100 A well-trained Korean servant was almost an indispensable person for missionaries. In spite of their slowness in learning, Korean servants often became the most loyal and faithful people in the lives of the missionaries. One can sometimes find affectionate references to their servants in missionary writings. For example, Anabel Nisbet spoke frequently about her cook, whom she warmly called, Chassubby Umni (“mother of Chassub”). The missionary was touched by the Korean woman’s character and faithfulness so much that she wrote, “If I ever wrote a book, it would be the life of my cook; for in that humble, ignorant Korean woman, for twelve years I have daily seen the miracle of new life, a beautiful, unselfish life growing out of the mires of old superstitions and teachings of ages of heathenism.”101 In addition to setting up housekeeping, tending gardens, and training servants, a significant portion of the married women’s time was spent in entertaining constant visitors. As no

147

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

hotel could be found in the entire country, missionary homes were stopping places for all westerners. Missionary wives constantly hosted traveling missionaries, foreign visitors, and new missionaries in their homes, as well as entertaining endless troops of Korean visitors who came to see foreign homes. Even though entertaining visitors consumed much of the women’s time and energy, their service as hostesses was vitally important for harmonious and effective operation of the early missionaries’ life and work in Korea, and missionary women who made good hostesses were much appreciated by members of the missions. ENDURING CRITICISM ON THEIR LIFESTYLE IN KOREA While starting a new life in Korea was full of challenges and hardships, many pioneer missionaries seemed embittered by constant criticisms they received from the home front. Even though the missionaries kept communicating with the mission boards and churches in America, it was practically impossible to explain the motives and reasons behind every action and decision that they made in the field. The American public tended to have unrealistically high expectation of the missionaries’ character and performance, which seemed to be an “impossibly high ideal of the superhuman saintliness” to the missionaries. Because of such a high expectation, even insignificant issues or problems with the missionaries often caused great disappointment and scandalous subjects for discussion in America.102 Among the aspects of missionary life and work that became subjects of such discussions, none came under more criticism than their lifestyle in the mission field, especially their houses. Annie Adams Baird wrote, “Perhaps no feature of missionary life has excited so much senseless, ignorant, not to say malicious criticism as our houses.”103 Nicely maintained missionary homes, accommodated with western conveniences and furniture, seemed far from the expected missionary simplicity and heroism, and the missionaries’ lifestyle seemed too superior to the average lifestyle of the native people in the view of many

148

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

American visitors. Besides their homes, many other aspects of the missionaries’ life became topics of controversy and harsh judgments, as Samuel A. Moffett’s letter reveals: “People will criticize us whatever we do. If we play tennis we are frivolous and worldly minded. If we do not play tennis we are hermits and neglect our health. If a man has money of his own or friends from whom he obtains that which enables him to have a nice home—he is extravagant and is lavish in his use of funds.”104 In order to respond to such criticisms, missionary women sometimes wrote apologetic explanations about the lifestyle they assumed in Korea. Lillias H. Underwood explained indirectly through her writings that missionaries could not survive and work well by assuming the native lifestyle. She once illustrated this point by telling the story of William McKenzie, a young and promising missionary, who died in the interior village of Sorai after living with Koreans and eating Korean food for one year. She emphatically argued that it was impossible for westerners to live healthy and productive lives in Korea without maintaining some level of their own lifestyle and diet.105 She also explained the reason for the need for substantial missionary houses by telling how the secretary of the Presbyterian Mission Board reprimanded them for the condition of their housing in 1889. The secretary, who was visiting Korea, was alarmed at the sight of their mud-walled Korean house flooded by a heavy storm and told them, “missionaries are far too expensive commodities to be so ill protected.”106 Annie Baird also explained that missionaries were not necessarily responsible for the nice and large houses in the field, since they were often built by private funds or by some generous friends of the missionaries.107 Although missionaries came to learn that receiving criticism regarding their life and work was an inescapable part of missionary life, the constant pressure and misunderstanding of their motives still caused great discouragement and took an inevitable toll. Missionaries sometimes expressed their bitter feeling caused by such criticisms, as Samuel A. Moffett once wrote to the Secretary:

149

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

…I do not think anything we do will prevent some people from criticizing us. Was there ever a time when people did not disparage not only missionary work but all Christian work?… If criticisms come from true Christians in earnest sympathy with our work and who know the facts, we ought to be more than glad to hear and profit by them—but if from those who are not Christians or not in sympathy with the real spiritual character of our work—then we can spend half our time in answering such and not satisfy them.108

Lillias H. Underwood also expressed her grief over the fact that missionaries came under so many criticisms. She wrote that missionaries were “so overrated and misunderstood,” saying, “We should be so much better prayed for, more efficiently sympathized with, if people only knew just what we have to contend with.109 The constant criticism indeed had malicious effects in the lives of missionaries, draining their motivation and time in ways that no physical hardship could do. Samuel A. Moffett even placed much of the blame for John W. Heron’s early death to the persistent and unfair criticisms he and others received during his short service in Korea.110 In spite of the anger and grief caused by such criticisms, missionary women reflected deeply about their responsibilities in the issue of missionary lifestyle. The women missionaries, especially the married women, knew that the issue of missionary lifestyle was largely determined by their influence and that they were responsible for much of the life missionaries assumed in the field.111 They were in such a situation in Korea that the simplest lifestyle they assumed was far superior to the average Korean’s lifestyle, and “the plainest missionary home is still a palace in the eyes of the native.”112 In view of the inescapable disparity of wealth, women missionaries had to think about the wisest course they could take in determining the level of their lifestyle. According to Annie L. A. Baird, although “no one who has never visited Korea or who is ever likely to visit Korea has, from their

150

Establishing Missionary Life in Korea

standpoint, the right to utter one word of criticism or reproach” about the missionary lifestyle and motivation, the missionaries were still responsible to ask themselves most closely on the issue of lifestyle, “as Christian workers ready for any sacrifice that may advance the cause of our King.”113 She also made subtle criticisms on the lack of sensitivity on the issue among the missionaries by telling a story about a young missionary woman. She came out to Korea “expecting to find such missionary simplicity.” But she instead found herself getting spoiled by her life in the mission community, where all seemed comfortable and stylish, and was troubled by the feeling that she could not get out of it. Although much of what was perceived as stylish in the missionary houses was acquired through innocent ways with little cost, Annie Baird reminds her fellow missionary women of their Christian responsibilities, “Only let us not turn upon God with the fierce, Cain-like inquiry. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” for we are our brother’s keeper whether we will it or not. And let us not take advantage of our liberty and cause our brother (in this case, a sister) to stumble and offend.”114 Some of the missionary women’s sensitivity and concern over their lifestyle and its effect upon their work in Korea are also shown through their own efforts to live with simpler lifestyle than the one they could enjoy. Single women missionaries of the Australian Presbyterian mission in Fusan, for example, intentionally lived in Korean thatched houses among Koreans in the Korean part of the city for several years and developed close relationship with the local Koreans before they finally moved to a new property on a hill.115 Starting from the most basic issues of life, such as housing and food, establishing life anew in Korea was full of challenges for the missionary women. Although establishing their living areas and keeping households were some of the most draining and time-consuming parts of pioneer missionaries’ activities in Korea, they were the most basic and foundational steps toward fulfilling their long-term mission of brining the Gospel to Korea.

151

CHAPTER 6

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884-1889

E

ven though the missionary women had to work for years to establish their own living quarters, they did not delay in starting their missionary work in Korea. The pioneer missionary women immediately embarked on their work through primarily medical and educational missions, as they were largely prohibited from direct evangelistic efforts. The majority of their work during this period was done on a small scale among women and children. Their work in these first few years show how the women applied various mission methods in the limited circumstances, in order to gain their first and possible permanent foothold in Korea. As they offered benevolent services to the people through the instruments of western medicine and education, they found ways to penetrate the lives of the Korean people with the Gospel. PIONEERING MEDICAL WORK FOR WOMEN The expression, “Korea was opened at the point of the lancet,” was frequently used by the early missionaries to explain how the missions began in Korea.1 The fact of the matter was that the introduction of western medicine by the American medical missionaries was the key to opening the conservative Korean people’s hearts to the influence of western missionaries. The first opportunity for American missionaries to enter and secure

153

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

their place in Korea came through the work of the medical missionaries, especially when Horace Allen, M.D. saved the life of the Queen Min’s nephew. After the incident, the Korean government not only changed its attitude toward the Americans, but was also eager to have more American doctors come to Korea. At the Korean government’s request, the Presbyterian Mission began sending more medical missionaries who could serve as personal physicians to the Korean royal family. The royal court also frequently expressed its appreciation for the American doctors in extravagant ways.2 A large banquet held at the Korean royal palace in honor of the American doctors in February of 1885 illustrates how well the American doctors were received by the Korean government, as Hattie Gibson Heron explains in her report, “particularly of this banquet, that you may estimate the way in which the doctors are received by the Korean government.”3 Because of such Korean government’s acceptance of and trust in American doctors, a large percentage of the first missionaries to Korea were medical missionaries. More than half of the pioneer medical missionaries in the first five years were women physicians.4 The medical women missionaries began to reach into the secret lives of Korean women in both high and low places, starting their work in the palace. In spite of the rigid law of seclusion, women doctors’ medical skills produced confidence among the Koreans, and more and more Korean women opened their homes to the American medical women. G. H. Jones explains how successful women physicians were in penetrating the secluded lives of these women: “Korea strove to guard well its women from the gaze of foreigners, but Christian treatment has begotten a confidence Korea might never otherwise have known, and before which the rigid laws of seclusion gave way.”5 In fact, the first Korean home to be entered by American medical missionary women was the queen’s palace. One of the first requests made by the Korean government to American missionaries was to send a female doctor to serve the queen as her personal physician. No man, other than her immediate family, was allowed to see or touch the Queen, and

154

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

thus, even the queen was deprived of proper medical treatment by Korean doctors, who were all men. Lillias Horton, who served as the Queen’s physician, had heard that the Korean doctors “felt (?) her pulse by using cord, one end of which was fastened about her wrist and the other carried into the next room in the doctor’s fingers,” and they had “the royal tongue… protruded through a slit in a screen for the physician’s observation.”6 At the request of the Korean royal family, the Presbyterian missionaries in Korea urged the board to send a female missionary doctor. The urgent need of a woman physician repeatedly appears in missionary letters sent from Korea in the earliest years. Horace Underwood first wrote a letter to Ellinwood, the Secretary of the Presbyterian Mission Board, on February 17, 1886, asking that they send a female physician immediately. He wrote, “Better send one at once or they will be forestalled by our Sister Mission [the northern Methodist Episcopal Mission].”7 J. W. Heron also wrote to Ellinwood just a couple of months later, making the same request.8 In response to this request, the first medical woman missionary was sent to Korea in the person of Annie Ellers in 1886. She was the first single woman missionary to enter Korea. She was close to completing her medical degree and was hoping to be sent to Persia as a missionary after receiving the degree. However, the urgent call from Korea for a woman physician made the Presbyterian Mission Board persuade Ellers to volunteer for the Korea mission field instead.9 She decided to comply with the request, but only with the understanding that she would serve in Korea for two years and then return to the U.S. to complete her degree and then go to Persia.10 She began to work immediately as the Korean queen’s personal physician, while Horace Allen and J. W. Heron served as personal physicians to the king. Although the fact that she did not receive a medical degree made some missionaries feel nervous, Ellers successfully treated the queen’s ailments.11 Ellers also began to work in the Government Hospital and opened the women’s department in the hospital, while serving the queen. When she

155

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

King Kojong of Korea (Left) Royal Lady (Above)

resigned from her missionary position with the Presbyterian Mission because of her marriage to a Methodist missionary in 1887, Lillias Horton, M.D. was sent by the Presbyterian Board to replace her in March 1888. Horton immediately started serving as the physician for the queen and for the prominent household of Yuan Shi Ka from China. She also continued the medical work for women that Ellers had begun at the Government Hospital.12 Like Ellers, Horton also found a marriage prospect among the missionaries in Korea and was soon married. However, since she married Horace Underwood of the same mission, she was able to continue her medical work for the queen and the Presbyterian Mission. Lillias H. Underwood was the queen’s physician until the queen was tragically assassinated in 1895.

156

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

Annie Ellers and Lillias Horton left behind them fascinating descriptions of the charming Korean Queen Min, who was also a shrewd politician and the real head of the Korean government during her lifetime. Both Ellers and Horton enjoyed extraordinarily personal relationships with the queen and received much favor from her. When they were first introduced to the queen within a few days after their arrivals in Korea, they were both greatly impressed with her charming and dignified personality.13 Ellers wrote of her as “a woman of education, of wonderful poise, and very bright and clever.14 Lillias Horton Underwood also wrote about her first impression of the queen: Slightly pale and quite thin, with somewhat sharp features and brilliant piercing eyes, she did not strike me at first sight as being beautiful, but no one could help reading force, intellect and strength of character in that face, and as she became engaged in conversation, vivacity, naiveté, wit, all brightened her countenance, and gave it a wonderful charm, far greater than mere physical beauty; and I have seen the queen of Korea when she looked positively beautiful.15

The American women physicians quickly developed cordial relationship with the queen and soon forgot all the nervousness and anxiety they felt at their first meeting with her, The confidence and favor of the queen they enjoyed surprised even their fellow missionaries. Horace Allen once wrote to Ellinwood, “It is simply astounding the way she [Annie Ellers] is allowed to sit when other foreigners must rise… Royal family squat around her [Ellers] and teach her Korean while she teaches them English.”16 The queen also expressed her friendship toward the lady physicians with the Korean extravagance of numerous and generous gifts. Annie Ellers Bunker received a number of beautiful presents from the Queen at her wedding, such as rolls of silk, a leopard skin, many fans, and inlaid silk tobacco boxes, at the time of her wedding, and also receiving two boxes of ginseng and a monetary gift of 500 Mexican dollars, when she

157

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

was leaving to America for ill health.17 Lillias Underwood also wrote about the gifts she received from the queen, including three million Korean coins that were carried to her house through a long march of donkeys and coolies on the day of her wedding.18 While enjoying a trusting relationship with the queen, these women doctors made conscious, but careful, efforts to share the Gospel with her and the women in the palace. Korean law forbade speaking about the Christian religion, and their slightest mistake in the court could cause detrimental consequences in the missionary work. However, the women physicians still found small opportunities to tell the stories of Christ to the queen. Lillias H. Underwood was once able to tell the queen about her faith and “that all who would trust in Jesus were forgiven and purified through him, and so made holy and fit for that country.”19 During these first few critical years of Protestant missions, the two Presbyterian medical women doctors contributed greatly to deepen the trust between the missionaries and the Korean royal family and to lay down the first foundation of missionary work in Korea. Although the pioneer American missionaries avoided getting involved in the political events and issues of the nation, gaining the personal confidence of the Korean royal court was important for the success of Protestant missions in Korea. Unlike in other Asian countries, the missionaries succeeded gaining trust and support of the Korean government, in spite of its own law against the Christian religion.20 The friendly relationship that the medical women missionaries developed with the queen contributed greatly in gaining the favor of the Korean government and helping the missionaries’ position in Korea. However, the medical missionary women’s work was not limited to the queen and women of the high court. They also contributed in making missionary work among the general population possible and breaking down Korean prejudices against foreigners among the commoners. Ellers and Horton first opened a women’s department in the Government Hospital

158

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

Methodist Woman’s Hospital, Seoul

and daily received numerous women and children patients. In addition to the hospital work, Lillias Horton Underwood also opened dispensaries for women in the Chongdong and Mo Wha Kwan areas in Seoul and a special dispensary, named “The Shelter,” that was designed to care for patients with contagious diseases and those abandoned to die on the streets.21 Although the Presbyterian missionary doctors monopolized the medical work in the palace, the Methodist missionaries did not lag behind the Presbyterians in their medical work among common Koreans. The Methodist Mission also felt the great need for women doctors from the beginning. William Scranton, the first medical missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Korea, asked the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society to send a woman physician to Korea from the beginning. Scranton announced the need of female physicians for Korea in The Heathen Woman’s Friend: “The doctor [William Scranton] continues to

159

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

have calls for medicine for women whom he has not seen and whom he cannot see; and he desires to place all such cases in the hands of someone who can come in contact with the patient.”22 Since Korean women patients would die rather than to show their skin to a male doctor, female physicians were needed to have successful medical work among the people. At the urgent call, Meta Howard, M.D. was sent in 1888 by the WFMS as the first Methodist female missionary doctor to Korea. Coming under the care and supervision of “Mother Scranton,” Meta Howard quickly settled down in the WFMS compound in Seoul and soon had her hands full of work. She opened in 1887 the WFMS Hospital on the WFMS ground, the first hospital established solely by women missionaries for women in Korea. The Methodist women missionaries proudly spoke of the hospital as “The first of its kind in Korea,” and one that was established “By women for women.”23 The name of the hospital was granted by the king himself, who “heard that this place had been opened for the relief of the suffering of women of his country,” and “showed his gratitude by sending, through the Foreign Office, a name consisting of four Chinese characters, framed and painted in the royal colors.” The hospital was thus named “Po Goo Nijo Goan,” or “House for Many Sick Women.” The name plate was hung over the great gate of the hospital, so that all pass by knew that it had the king’s approval.24 However, Meta Howard lost her health only after two years of work and had to return to the U.S. In spite of the short years of work, she pioneered one of the most effective missionary institutions for women in Seoul. Soon after she left Korea, the WFMS sent Rosetta Sherwood, M.D. to continue the work begun by Meta Howard. These first women physicians endured working in extremely difficult circumstances as medical pioneers. The missionaries could not find any building suitable for hospital work and had to modify their approaches to work to fit the life conditions and practices in Korea. All of the women’s hospitals and dispensaries were opened in Korean buildings, which had to be remodeled

160

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

for the medical work. The WFMS hospital and dispensary for women and children, for example, were formerly a Korean gentleman’s residence with a tiled roof. It had several small rooms, and these rooms were used for different purposes—a waiting room for patients, a consulting room, a drug room, and an operating room. A smaller building behind the main building was used as the wards, which had capacity for ten inpatients. All these rooms had stone floors, on which the Korean women patients slept after putting down thick mats and cotton mattresses. The hospital was fitted with a high wooden screen in front of the gate, in order to ensure the tight seclusion of women from the public and to help Korean women of higher classes to feel safe to come to the hospital.25 From an American perspective, the WFMS hospital and dispensary were “nothing but Korean houses, modeled over a little.” But they answered the purpose of medical work in Korea quite well, according Rosetta Sherwood. Even though woman doctors had to get used to examining and performing their medical treatments in the rooms without any bed or chair by squatting down on the floor, Sherwood said that the way the hospital was set up was the best, as it was Korean. Korean patients felt comfortable and, more than anything, it was economical.26 In addition to the difficulty of adjusting to the physical condition of life, the Korean people’s distrust of foreign medicine presented a greater challenge to the pioneer missionary doctors. When the rumor spread in Seoul that the foreign doctors killed children for medicine and started the Baby Riot in 1888, the missionary doctors endured a great threat to their safety more than other missionaries did. Lillias Horton’s chair was once surrounded by rough-looking men, who threatened to kill the chair bearers if they carried her to the hospital. Since her chair coolies refused to work for her after that day, she traveled on horseback through the city to the hospital, escorted by Horace Underwood.27 Even after the riot was over, the missionary doctors had to take great caution for a while not to cause any more suspicion about their practice among the people. For that

161

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

reason, when Rosetta Sherwood tried to use real human bones in her medical instruction for the school girls during her first year in Korea, she was quickly cautioned by other missionaries about the possible repercussions.28 The deep distrust of Western medical practice among the Koreans came from widespread superstitious ideas about diseases and ignorance about basic human physiology. The majority of Koreans believed that sicknesses were caused by demons and evil spirits, and their common folk remedies often made medical missionaries horrified. Some of Korean folk remedies were described in the medical women's records. For example, when a woman missionary doctor was called to see a young woman who was seriously ill, “she found her mouth filled with raw rice, placed there for her soul to use on its journey to the spirit land.” Even after the rice was removed from her mouth, the missionary was surprised to see them carefully preserving this rice. “It was a specific remedy for malaria,” she wrote, and “[The] Patient lived for a week longer.”29 The medical notes of Martha Ingold Tate also reveal many examples of common remedies, which were practically harmful and superstitious and showed the great lack of medical help among the people. In one instance, she received a baby whose eyes were destroyed by the arsenic paste that his mother painted on his face with the intention to heal a little eczema. In another case, a serious ill baby brought to her, and everyone told her that the baby got sick because a dog was killed in the village before he was twenty-one days old.30 The missionary doctors also had to deal with extremely heavy work load, since only one woman missionary doctor was available at each hospital or dispensary in most cases. Several Koreans were hired to help the doctors’ work at each hospital. Reports of WFMS missionaries’ medical work in Seoul show who they hired as helpers and how the medical missionary women managed their work with their help. During the early years of the Methodist Woman’s hospital in Seoul, a girl from Mary Scranton's girls' school worked as the matron for the hospital. She was called Pong Soon's mother, since Korean women did

162

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

not have names of their own.31 As the matron and the only nurse at the hospital, she assisted in the work of the missionary doctors faithfully.32 The Methodist missionary doctors also hired another Korean woman as the hospital cook.33 Another indispensable Korean assistant, who was frequently mentioned in the WFMS missionaries’ letters, was the “kuisyu [keysu],” a word that meant “soldier.” He was a Christian, and the missionary women considered him their “right hand man.” He not only accompanied the “doctor lady” in her visits to Korean homes, but also did most of their “Korean marketing, shopping, money exchanging etc.” The missionaries felt that they would not know how to get along without him.34 With the help of these Korean workers and the limited assistance of other missionary women, the missionary doctors directed the growing work among Korean women. From the beginning, hospitals and dispensaries provided great opportunities for evangelism without causing great suspicion. In the WFMS Hospital, the Korean matron, Pong Soon’s mother, was especially instrumental in the evangelistic effort among the patients. She read the Bible in Korean to them and talked and prayed with them. She also brought patients to the religious services in the woman’s church that was organized by the WFMS missionaries on the grounds.35 In addition to the hospital work, the women doctors answered constant medical calls and frequently visited patients’ homes. Even though the hospitals were designed to keep women out of men’s view, those who came to the hospitals and dispensaries for treatments were mostly women of lower classes, since the women of respected families did not venture out of their homes during daylight.36 Korean women of high social standing, therefore, asked the lady doctors to make medical visits to their homes. When such calls came, the lady doctors made the trips in closed sedan chairs accompanied by their soldiers who worked at the missions. Their medical visits to the Korean homes provided opportunities for the missionary doctors to observe the Korean women’s life and learn their customs first hand, while establishing friendships and sphere of influence with the

163

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women of each household. When a missionary visits a Korean home, she was first served with a meal that she felt obligated to eat in front of all the women and children of the household, and even neighbors, who came to see the foreign woman. Such a large gathering of people presented a good opportunity for the doctor to befriend them and share something about the Gospel. She would usually leave chapters of the Gospel or tracts with the women, hoping that the message would reach their hearts.37 In spite of the difficulties, medical work served as “the opening wedge” for Protestant missions in Korea, and women medical missionaries took a significant part of this pioneering work, primarily among the women and children in Seoul.38 The influence of their work was felt widely from the palace down to the dispensaries, where people of the lowest class were treated daily. Missionaries wrote within a decade after the first missionary doctor came to Korea, “The homes of the country have been opened to the Christian physicians in the very heart of Korean life. From the palace of the Queen to the hut of the lowly, the medical women are welcomed.”39 These women medical pioneers opened the first public medical clinics and hospitals in Korea for women, and made it possible for Korean women to safely receive medical care. In spite of the strong Korean distrust of foreign medicine, tender care and effective treatment by the doctors helped to open Korean people’s hearts and build their trust in the missionaries. Rosetta Sherwood describes an incident in which she grafted her own skin to a Korean woman patient and what effect it had among the Koreans. A young Korean woman once came to be treated of three fingers growing together that was a result of a burn accident. When Sherwood was not able to persuade the patient to allow some of her skin to be grafted to the raw surfaces of the hand, the doctor took some of the first grafts from herself in order to convince the patient that it was necessary to help the wounds heal. This act had a great impact among the Koreans, as the news spread that the doctor had given of her skin to a Korean girl, and the news was told in many different

164

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

ways that moved Korean hearts.40 As this incident reveals, the medical women’s work helped break down the Koreans’ prejudice against the missionaries and helped to open Korean hearts to their Christian teachings. As she reflected on the effects of medical work after her first year in Korea, Sherwood wrote, “… yet it does seem to me that medical work is a great help, to say the least, in the mission-field, and I do thank God from the depths of my soul for giving me the privilege of helping a little this way.”41 PIONEERING FEMALE EDUCATION IN KOREA Educational work was another important avenue that women missionaries took to initiate missionary influence in Korea during the first years of the Protestant missions. Even though the Korean government was hesitant to permit religious teachings, it was eager to gain knowledge of western civilization and technology. Thus, starting educational work for Korean children was one of the easiest ways for the missionaries to begin their work in Korea. Almost every missionary woman commenced her efforts among Koreans through educational work during the early pioneering years. Consequently, American missionary women became pioneers of modern education in Korea, especially for women and children. The Beginning In the area of educational work, the Methodist women led the way most efficiently under the leadership of Mary F. Scranton. Mary Scranton founded a school for girls soon after her arrival in 1885. This was the very first school for girls founded in Korea and would eventually grow to be the largest women’s college and university in Asia within the next few decades.42 But its beginning was difficult and meager. Mary Scranton started the school with only one student in 1886. At that time, she was living in a Korean house with her son and his family, while the WFMS

165

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Beginning of a School for Girls: Women Missionaries on the Rear Right Side

property was being readied for occupancy.43 Her first student was a Korean official's concubine, who was sent by her husband. But when the news of her going to a foreigner's house reached the ears of some Koreans, she received many unpleasant remarks and left only after three months of instruction.44 Scranton’s first permanent pupil came in June 1886. She was described as an unruly ten-year-old girl, who grew up "much as Topsy did."45 Then came her second student, "a waif whose mother had been picked up on the city wall and treated by Dr. Scranton."46 William Scranton brought this girl and her sick mother to his mother, and Mary Scranton accepted the little girl as her student and hired her mother as a worker for the WFMS property. While teaching these two first pupils, Mary Scranton oversaw the repair of the Korean huts on the WFMS grounds, which eventually came to be used as the "Girls' School and Home.”

166

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

Mary Scranton (right corner) with Her Students of the Ewha Girls’ School

The school building was completed and occupied in November of 1886.47 In the following year, Mary Scranton succeeded in acquiring a name for the school from the king through the Foreign Office of the Korean government. The Foreign Office gave the school "the royal setting,” a sign of approval by the government, which helped to gain the confidence of the people. The king gave it the name, "Ewha Hakdang," which was translated as the "Pear-Flower School," since Koreans typically called women “pear flowers” in a poetic way.48 When the dignitaries of the Foreign Office came to see the school to consider the possibility of providing it with an official name, Mary Scranton

167

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

presented before them seven clean and well-mannered little girls, whom she was teaching in their nicely renovated Korean buildings. Scranton also entertained the dignitaries in creative ways, using some of her western “oddities,” and it was reported, "such a good time as they all had!"49 Her efforts were rewarded by receipt of the official name for the school, which marked a significant moment in women’s missionary work, as it meant that they now possessed the right to work in Korea.50 Ewha School grew steadily while Mary Scranton supervised it alone for more than one year. She finally received the first missionary co-worker for the school in November 1887 in the person of Louisa Rothweiler.51 The school was growing and her students were making good progress in 1888, as Scranton wrote to the WFMS in America, “Our school now numbers 17; slowly creeping up, you see, and gradually gaining ground in all directions.”52 By June of 1889, its enrollment reached twenty-two.53 The wonderful partnership between the missionaries in Korea and the WFMS women in the U.S. allowed the Methodist pioneer missionary women to carry on effective work in Korea. When Mary Scranton asked the WFMS to purchase the property in Seoul immediately after arriving in the field, a generous donation of $3000 was quickly given from Mrs. W. E. Blackstone of Oak Park, Illinois, which enabled Mary Scranton to purchase and complete the school buildings. This first purchase of WFMS property proved to be such an appropriate purchase that benefited their work for many years to come.54 In 1887, Mary Scranton requested support of the New England Branch of the WFMS, and the branch provided full scholarships for three poor girls’ education and living expenses.55 It was such a close partnership between the missionaries and the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society that aided the first school for girls in Korea to be successfully operated. Presbyterian women missionaries also started a girls’ school, but it developed more slowly than that of the Methodists, partly because the Presbyterian women’s work had less independence

168

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

Ewha School in Seoul

from the Mission Board, unlike the Methodist women did. The Presbyterian girls’ school was first started by Annie Ellers. Although she was primarily a medical worker with medical responsibilities both at the palace and the Government Hospital, she still made the time to gather and teach a few girls, and this gathering became the beginning of the Presbyterian Girls’ School in Seoul.56 The Presbyterian Mission’s Girls’ School was officially opened in 1887 in connection with the Boy’s Orphanage. The girls’ school work continued on the original site inside the foreign settlement until it was moved to Yun Mot Kol. Although Ellers’ official connection with the Presbyterian Mission was severed at her marriage with D. A. Bunker of the Methodist Mission, she taught the group of girls until another Presbyterian woman missionary was ready to take over the responsibility. During the first few beginning years of the school, a number of changes took place with the teaching staff of the school. After Ellers was married, Lillias Horton taught the girls for a short

169

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

period. Then Mary E. Hayden, who came to Korea in the fall of 1888, took charge of them.57 Mary Hayden was soon married to D. L. Gifford and the school work was taken over by another new single missionary, Miss Susan A. Doty, in 1890. She came to Korea specifically “to engage in school work” and brought in stability and development to the school during its early years.58 The school had nine girls in 1890, and they were mostly about eight years old. In 1891 the school adopted a new policy to admit students at ten years of age and to keep them for about five years, if possible.59 During these early years the curriculum at both the Methodist and Presbyterian girls’ schools was simple. The schools primarily focused their efforts and energy on teaching the girls to read and write. The girls at Ewha received instruction in reading and writing in Korean, Chinese, and English.60 The Presbyterian Girls’ School was more conservative in its educational approach and did not include the instruction of English in its curriculum.61 Obstacles to the Educational Work As it was the case with the medical work, the educational work for Korean girls had to overcome a number of opposing forces to begin in Korea. First of all, education for girls was a new idea to Koreans, and the missionary women educators had to overcome a great many objections to recruiting pupils for the schools. When a Korean man heard of the missionaries opening schools for girls, he commented that the next thing he expected from the missionaries would be “schools for Korean cattle.”62 Most Koreans did not understand the necessity of teaching girls and often thought women were incapable of intellectual exercises. In order to overcome such cultural biases and to persuade Korean parents to send their girls to the schools, the missionary women had to frequently visit Korean homes in the beginning. The girls themselves often had to be given incentives to learn.63 The missionary women also had to deal with a number of

170

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

other cultural issues that stood against girls’ education, such as seclusion and selling of girls. All these customary practices hindered the missionaries from recruiting students for the girls’ schools in the first years. Mary Scranton’s early experiences once again illustrate the kinds of problems the women missionaries had to overcome in finding their first students. When she decided to open a school for girls soon after her arrival in Seoul in 1886, she informed the royal family of her intention. Although the king and the queen spoke in commendatory terms, they added that the class of girls that she would want in her school lived in seclusion and could not attend school. Knowing the problem of seclusion, Scranton decided that she would begin her school work by taking in a handful of orphan girls, and she felt certain that she would not have any trouble finding orphan girls. The question for her seemed to be how many she could take in. She gave careful consideration to this question and made a decision, but the result of her plan was again a discouraging one. She wrote I thought and planned, and planned and thought, until morning, and by that time had decided to crowd my accommodations to their utmost capacity, and on my responsibility to take six instead of two. I accordingly sent word to this effect… Several days elapsed before I received an answer, and then it was simply this: “It is difficult to find girls. There are plenty of boys, but the little girls are sold.”64

While girls of respected families could not venture out of their homes to attend the school, girls of the poorest families were not available either, since they were often sold as concubines or dancing girls. When Mary Scranton finally found her first student in the person of “the most unruly and wild little girl from a very poor family,” she was obliged to give a paper to her parents, “agreeing not to control or unduly influence this child after the education is completed, or take her to America against her will.”65

171

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The difficulty of recruiting the first students for the girls’ schools can be contrasted to the success male missionaries had in finding their first students for the boys’ schools. Since no Korean objected to the education of boys, and learning western knowledge was growing popular, the male missionary educators faced little difficulty in securing their first students to start their mission boys’ schools. The Pai Chai Boys’ School, founded by Henry Appenzeller of the Methodist Mission, had an enrollment of twenty students at its opening in 1885, and the Presbyterian Mission’s Boys’ Orphanage was opened with three boys on its first day.66 In addition to the difficulty of finding students, the pioneer missionary women had to deal with a number of other problems during the early developmental stage of the schools. As the majority of the first pupils were from families of the lowest social class and received little disciplinary training in their homes, a great deal of patience was needed on the part of the missionaries to make the unruly girls submit to school rules and become proper students. Many girls resisted following even the simplest rule, such as washing and combing their hair. Mary Scranton’s very first student was well known among all the missionaries. It seemed impossible to teach the girl, and the missionaries expressed their sympathy and admiration for Mary Scranton’s patience in dealing with her. Scranton’s patient work was eventually rewarded, as the girl turned into a fine pupil and even a helper at the school after about six months under her tutoring.67 One of the greatest obstacles to the growth and development of the girls' schools was the custom of early marriage in Korea. Korean girls were commonly given away in marriage at the age of twelve or thirteen. This custom caused much discouragement for the missionary educators, as they had to lose their pupils just when the girls were finally beginning to understand their lessons and when the missionaries began to see potential for help from the girls in school work. Because of this custom, the girls’ schools had to retain the character of primary schools for

172

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

many years. It was not until 1904 that the missionaries at Ewha had enough older girls remaining at the school to open the first secondary education for girls in Korea.68 Another great obstacle to the women’s educational mission in the early years was the missionaries’ inability to speak the Korean language. This problem was more serious for the missionaries at the Presbyterian Girls’ School than at Ewha School. For instance, Lillias Horton Underwood, who took over the school from Ellers soon after coming to Korea, confessed to the fact that "the teacher [Lillias Horton] knew no Korean, and the pupils no English," and that the school "had the unqualified favor of the king."69 Limited understanding of the language among the missionary teachers at the Presbyterian Girls' School continued to be a problem that affected the development of the school. In spite of the fact that the women missionaries of the school did not yet have adequate understanding of the Korean language needed as instructors in this early period, some of the best language learners among the Presbyterian missionaries were still women.70 Although the Methodist women of the WFMS in Seoul were known to have had a better command of the language than the Presbyterian women did, their educational work also suffered a number of setbacks because of lack of teachers. Mary Scranton had to work two full years alone before Louisa Rothweiler came as the first reinforcement sent by the WFMS. The growing popularity of the Ewha School among the Koreans made the WFMS women's work quite overwhelming, even with the coming of more missionaries. In 1890 Mary Scranton had to take a rest in Japan due to ill health.71 During Scranton’s absence, Miss Rothweiler coordinated the educational work for women and girls in Seoul alone, and this overburdening work load resulted in a breakdown of her health as well. Moreover, the frequent loss of single women missionaries to marriage, which led them give up their own work to support their husbands, made women’s educational work to experience discouraging setbacks.

173

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Purpose and Method of the Educational Work for Girls Women missionaries believed in the significant role that education could play in improving the quality of women’s life in Korean society. They sympathized with Korean women whose freedom was significantly compromised by Korean customs and who were deprived of opportunities for self-improvement. The missionary women desired to present a wider world of knowledge and possibility of meaningful future to Korean girls through education. Ella Dodge Appenzeller expressed such a hope at the time when Ewha girls’ school received its official name: “we hope [the official approval and opening of the School] will result in much good to the oppressed women of this land.”72 However, in spite of their desire to improve the lives of Korean women through education, the missionary women's most important motivation behind opening modern schools for girls in Korea was evangelistic. They knew that education could be one of the most effective instruments teaching the Bible to the girls and women of Korea and thus sharing the Gospel. Since their primary goal was in evangelism, they strove not to make the girls unfit as an evangelistic force in Korean society by unnecessarily westernizing them. The women of both the Methodist and Presbyterian missions stated clearly that their intention was not to westernize the girls, but to make them better Koreans. The missionaries at Ewha School also explained that the pupils were not taught foreign ways of living and clarified their position: “We take pleasure in making Koreans better Koreans only. We want Korea to be proud of Korean things, and more, it is a perfect Korea through Christ and his teaching.”73 The Presbyterian missionary women shared similar views and stated that it would be “a great mistake to unfit them [the girls] by a foreign education for the home they are to fill. We seek to make Christian Koreans, not American ladies.”74 The missionaries recognized the home as Korean women’s primary social arena of influence. The missionary women, therefore,

174

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

believed that the girls should be educated to be able to fulfill Korean women’s traditional domestic roles, as Gilmore once put it, “To develop them in such ways as to make them model housewives under the conditions in which they must pass their lives; To make them missionaries of the Cross among their relatives and associates.”75 The instructional method and curriculum of the girls’ schools reflected such evangelistic objectives of the missionaries. Ewha School’s reports show how much importance was placed upon religious instruction and the spiritual development of the students. One such report provides a better picture of their efforts: Our teaching is not at all of a secular character. On the “first day of the week” the little flock is gathered for Bible study. The girls already know something of the provisions of the gospel and are able to tell the story of many wonderful things which Jesus did on earth. Our girls have learned to pray not only in our little Sunday school and weekday opening exercises, but in their own rooms, in their own tongue… We have much faith in our girls, and expect by and by they will be a great blessing to their country.76

The main emphasis of academic instruction at both Presbyterian and Methodist schools was on teaching Korean native script, in order to enable the girls to read the Bible. However, Ewha School in general provided broader instruction in more subjects than the Presbyterian school did. The Presbyterian women taught their girls only the Korean native script and a little Chinese, while the students at Ewha were instructed more thoroughly in Korean, Chinese, and English.77 The Methodist missionary women also gave instruction in more subjects, such as math, geography, and scientific subjects, depending on the availability of teaching staff. Rosetta Sherwood, who had a long-term vision for the medical education of Korean women, even taught basic physiology to her young pupils from her early years in Korea. Both the Methodist and Presbyterian girls’ schools were

175

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

started as boarding schools.78 In the boarding school setting the missionary women had the girls learn Korean domestic arts and skills as they took care of their own house chores at the school. Lessons in cooking and sewing in Korean fashion were included in their daily instructions, and these lessons were considered important especially in the Presbyterian School.79 Despite the missionary women's strong evangelistic and conservative approach to girls' education, their pioneering educational work among Korean girls still played powerful role in bringing modernization and rapid changes to the status of women in Korea in the following years. Although the missionary women did not intend radical social reform in Korea, female education itself was radical enough to defy the Korean cultural and social system. By providing education to Korean girls and through their own examples of independent and active lives, the missionary women were unconsciously bringing a revolutionary influence upon Korean society and the century. BEGINNING OF WOMEN’S EVANGELISTIC WORK Even though the pioneer missionaries were out in Korea "primarily to preach the Gospel," direct evangelistic work had to wait for its time.80 As direct dissemination of Christian teaching was not yet allowed by the law in this early period, missionary women used indirect methods of evangelism. First, the missionary women disseminated the Gospel message in the context of their medical and educational work among Korean girls and women. Secondly, they shared the Gospel through personal contacts and relationships with Korean women. The women missionaries also began to develop more systematic method of training Korean women evangelistic workers to expand women’s evangelists geographically by the end of the first five years. Evangelistic Effort through Medical and Educational Work Both the medical and educational work provided significant opportunities for evangelistic outreach among Korean women.

176

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

The mission hospitals and dispensaries became places for effective teaching of the Gospel. When the missionary doctors could not do the job of preaching because of the lack of time and insufficient knowledge of the language, they brought Korean Bible women to talk to the patients. The early Bible women were either converted at the girls’ schools or through personal contacts with some missionary women. Even though the number of trained Bible women with the ability to teach others was very small, they still provided great help in the missionary women’s evangelistic work in the early years. In the hospitals and dispensaries run by male missionary doctors, the doctors' wives were often the main evangelistic workers who gave much time to minister among women patients.81 The educational work among the girls also provided effective ways to communicate the Gospel. The school curriculum was designed to meet an evangelistic purpose, as it has been already discussed, and the Bible and translated Christian literature were used to teach the students to read and write. The pupils were given regular times to participate in Christian worship and to listen to preaching through chapel times and Sunday school. As the result, many students at the girls’ schools became Christians. Missionary women’s reports explain what kind of impact the religious teachings had among their students. A report from the missionary teacher at Ewha in November 1887, for example, tells about two students who were having reading lessons from Mark’s Gospel. She indicates how much they became interested in miracles and prayer through the lessons: "Last Sunday, I had a little talk with them about prayer. Konimi said… 'Konisi and I want to learn English very fast, so that we can pray, too.' It is the old idea, you see, that our God must be approached in English if the prayer is to be accepted."82 The educational work provided evangelistic opportunities not only among the schoolgirls, but also among their families. The missionaries often became acquainted with the mother and sisters of their students and began to reach them with

177

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

the Christian message. A party hosted by Mary Scranton illustrates the kind of efforts missionary women made to get in touch with the Korean women through the connection of the schoolgirls. Hoping to get in touch with the mothers and sisters of the students, Mary Scranton hosted a party in 1887. Although she invited seven women, twenty additional women came, through working of "Korean tricks and manners.” She wrote, “every mother told her mother, if she had one. If there was no relative of this sort, she managed to find a sister-inlaw, or someone a little farther removed, to bring… “83 Mary Scranton also wrote expressing the pleasure of receiving such an unexpected crowd, “I did not care, however, for I felt as if I got just that nearer the heart of Korea.”84 Such evangelistic effort through the schools began to bring success, and the missionary women soon had large influence upon a great number of Korean women in Seoul. Personal Visits and the Development of Friendships In addition to evangelistic influence through the medical and educational work, missionary women did their evangelistic work by forming a wide range of relationships with Korean women. Making personal contacts and relationships through visitations was in fact one of the most effective evangelistic methods. The missionary women in China also used similar methods of evangelism among the Chinese women through “personal influence and intimate evangelism,” as Jane Hunter explained.”85 This approach of “Hand-to-hand and house-tohouse work” was used by both missionary men and women, as no public preaching was yet allowed.86 The male missionaries were allowed to visit and talk with the male members of the family in the men’s quarter of a Korean home. Meanwhile, missionary women "invaded ‘Anpangs’, the woman’s quarter of a Korea house," which was strictly hidden away from the sight of any man.87 However, the opportunities to visit Korean women’s

178

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

living quarters did not come easily even for the missionary women in the beginning. When the first missionary women came to Korea, it almost seemed impossible for them to approach Koreans, since Korean women and children feared coming near the foreigners, as Mary Scranton explained the situation they faced in the early years: “Our presence on the street in too close proximity to the women’s apartments was often times the signal for the rapid closing of doors and speedy retreat behind screens, while children ran screaming with as much lung power as they could bring to bear on the occasion.”88 It appeared to the first group of missionary women in Korea that the only thing they could try for evangelistic purposes was to win the hearts of individual women and learn the language, “if such a thing lay within the range of possibilities.”89 What made it possible for the missionary women to reach Korean women was their medical and educational work, which helped the missionary women to start forming trusting relationships with them. Slowly the number of Korean women acquaintances grew, and the missionary women had increasing opportunities to visit the homes of Korean women among their patients, students, and their neighbors. Hattie G. Heron’s letter in April of 1885 illustrates how difficult and exciting it was for the first missionary women to be able to meet Korean women. Heron, who knew a son of a Korean gentleman through the Government School in which Americans taught, invited him to bring his mother to visit her, “never dreaming that his father would trust his wife in the house of a foreigner.” However, to her great surprise, the mother came, accompanied by her son and several of her maids. After enjoying the visit at the foreigner’s house which had strange and marvelous furniture and instruments, such as a sewing machine and an organ, she also invited Hattie Heron to visit her Korean home. Upon receiving this invitation, Hattie Heron ecstatically exclaimed in her letter, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates!”90 Despite the lack of freedom to proselytize at this time, such an early opportunity to enter a Korean woman’s home gave the missionary women

179

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

the hope that it was not impossible for them to touch the female population behind the “sealed doors” of their homes. Although Hattie Heron felt sorry for the girls and women living such tightly secluded lives at the Korean home where she visited, she was still hopeful about future work among them; “I am sure the time is not far off when we shall be allowed to teach of Jesus.”91 Starting with such simple opportunities, missionary women began to carry on informal visitations to Korean homes among their acquaintances on a regular basis. During their visits, the missionary women talked to the women about the Gospel message and distributed some Christian literature. As the missionaries’ evangelistic influence grew among the Korean women, the missionary women began to plan Bible classes and religious services for women. Even with the progress made, the women missionaries’ reports until the end of 1887 expressed mostly unfulfilled hopes of reaching more Korean women with the Gospel and explained how limited their evangelistic influence was. However, an important turning point came in 1887 with the first baptism of a Korean woman. The baptized woman was the wife of one of the colporteurs hired by the Methodist missionaries. Although her name is not known, she was the first Korean woman to be baptized as a Protestant Christian.92 The following reports of the WFMS missionaries after her baptism reveal that the WFMS missionaries' evangelistic work among the women began to make more rapid progress. By the end of 1887, the missionaries happily reported that there were other Korean women who were “ready and anxious to receive the ordinance” of Christian baptism.93 The missionary women were also growing “a little more bold” in their presentation of the Gospel by this time. Mary Scranton expressed her own conviction related to this development among the missionary women: “I am coming to believe that when the Master said, ‘Go… ’, he did not mean ‘Go,’ and then wait until it is safe, or until opposition is removed, or the laws reconstructed... I suspect he intended his disciples should really obey his words, and let him take care of the consequences.”94

180

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

Although they still carried on their evangelistic work with caution, they saw increasing opportunities and freedom to do more direct evangelistic work among the growing number of Korean women and girls who were interested in the teachings of the foreigners. As the missionary women grew in boldness, encouraged by the increasing interest in Christianity among the Koreans, their evangelistic work developed more rapidly. Mary Scranton wrote in January, 1888, “Our work is opening up wonderfully among the women—so much faster than we thought possible.”95 She now had a Korean woman distributing copies of the Gospel of Mark and planned "to open regular Sunday services, before January closes, for women and our girls."96 As she planned to give the religious instruction herself, she wrote, "My speech is yet very lame, but I am sure I shall be able to make them understand something of the wonderful things... and the blessed Holy Spirit will do the rest.”97 Within a few weeks after writing the letter, she formerly opened "the first Korean Sunday-school" for women and girls.98 Although the meeting was described as “Sundayschool,” this meeting was in fact the first Protestant Sunday worship service started exclusively for Korean women and girls.99 For the purpose of holding this meeting, Mary Scranton bought a small house with part of the money given by Mrs. C. Miller, who visited Korea with the Methodist Bishop Warren.100 Its first meeting was attended by the women missionaries of the Methodist Mission, the girls from Ewha School, the Korean women workers at the WFMS Home, and Ella D. Appenzeller's Korean nanny.101 The attendance of the Sunday school grew with the average of thirty-five by the fall of that year, and two Korean women were employed as Bible women in the summer of 1888. As the work of the Sunday evening meeting grew and Mary Scranton felt the limitations of her Korean, a Korean Christian colporteur was asked to give instruction at the meetings. Although the women first refused since it was against custom for women to be in view of a man, the problem was solved by putting the colporteur behind a screen, where he could be heard

181

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

by the women but could not be seen or see them.102 The Sunday meeting continued to grow, both in the number of persons who attended and in the faith of the attendees. Mary Scranton reported in late 1888 that the meetings were not only better attended, but were also “growing more interesting than ever.”103 The meetings were attended by more than fifty women on several occasions. While some women and girls came to the meetings out of their curiosity to see what the foreign women were doing and to hear the singing, others came “with a genuine interest and an earnest longing to know what they can about the ‘Jesus doctrine.’”104 Scranton was also increasingly encouraged by their enthusiastic response to the Gospel message. On one occasion, after she had taught the Commandments to the women, she asked, “These are not our words, but God’s words! What are you going to do about them?" To this question, the women responded in an instant by clasping their hands and speaking in united voice, “All these words will we do.”105 In another incident, she was greatly encouraged when one of the school girls came and told her that she loved Jesus and that she was praying everyday.106 In the fall of 1888, less than a year after the women's Sunday meetings was initiated, three Korean women were baptized by the Methodist missionaries. At the time of baptism, the women missionaries gave them the Christian names of “Martha, Miriam and Salome.”107 Thus the conversion of Korean women coincided with the revolutionary practice of women receiving their own names. Even though the women were baptized by ordained missionary men, the first Korean female converts were the fruit of the patient evangelistic efforts of the missionary women. Like the Methodist missionary women, the women of the Presbyterian Mission also carried on active evangelistic work among Korean women and girls along with their medical and educational work in Seoul. They voluntarily opened Bible classes for interested women students in their own homes or in their hospitals and schools. Almost every missionary woman had her own group of girls and women that she was instructing,

182

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

although the missionaries were all recent arrivals during this period. Lillias Horton began to hold a Bible class with a few women in the same year she came to Korea.108 Mary Hayden Gifford opened weekday Bible classes for married women in 1888.109 Although these missionaries were not able to speak the language yet, they found ways to give religious instruction in their Bible classes. Lillias Horton, for example, taught the class “with the aid of a little native boy who had learned English and a former sorceress who could read the Chinese Scripture.”110 She explains how she taught the class: “The woman would read the chapter… . all united in the Lord's prayer in singing the few hymns which were translated at that time… . I talked to the women through the medium of my little interpreter."111 The evangelistic efforts of the Presbyterian missionary women also began to be rewarded with the first three Korean women baptized by the Presbyterian missionaries in 1888. These three women were all from Hattie G. Heron’s Bible class.112 Training of Korean Women Workers for Work among the Women Although the missionary work among women was starting on a small scale mostly in Seoul during these first years, the early pioneer women missionaries had already started to train Korean women for evangelistic work among their own people. It was extremely difficult to find a Korean Christian woman with a mature character, intellectual capacity to teach others, and personal freedom to work among the people, but the missionary women still kept their eyes wide open to find potential Bible women. When a Korean colporteur brought his sister to Mary Scranton in November 1887, Scranton saw a possibility of training her as a Bible woman, as she was a Christian and was able to read Korean letters. Scranton instructed her about the importance of sharing “the good news” with others and waited to see how willing she was to disseminate the Gospel message. Through such vigilance, Mary Scranton was able to have this

183

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Mrs. Kim, an Indefatigable Voluntary Evangelist, of Sorai and Her Family

woman as the first Bible woman for the Methodist women’s work. By January of 1888, this Korean woman was distributing copies of the Gospel of Mark and talking with people about the Christian faith. Scranton reported of her work in the year: “All she has done thus far has been without compensation, but I expect to give her at least enough to pay for her chair coolies, as she is a woman of such position that she could not walk on the streets by day. I know of ten whom she has induced to read the book… 113 While missionary women looked for potential Bible women among Korean Christian women, many of their most effective Bible women were produced through the girls' schools. Although the girls entered the schools at very young ages, they became valuable helpers to the missionary women by the time they were teenagers, and many were able to give significant help to the

184

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

missionaries’ evangelistic work, if they were not taken away to be married early. Only about six years after Ewha School was founded, the WFMS missionaries had two of her students working as their assistants—Mary Whang as their Bible woman and Esther Kim as their interpreter.114 Preparing for Itinerant Missionary Work Although the missionary women’s activity during this period was mainly limited to the capital city, they were preparing for a greater evangelistic outreach to the interior. A few male missionaries made itinerating trips to explore the country during these first five years. They discovered through these early trips several existing Korean Protestant Christian groups in the country, who had been converted through the work of missionaries in Manchuria across the northern boarder. They also came to learn about the active proselytizing work of these Korean converts. Hearing about the Christians scattered in the interior towns and villages, women missionaries felt a strong desire to extend their missionary work among them. Mary Scranton expressed her great interest in the work among women out in the interior and asked for more women missionaries to come for such a work, as she wrote, “I am very much in earnest in regard to those ladies for work in the interior. The more we hear about and know about the opportunities in the country, the surer we are that others ought to be in the field at once. I hear of many Christian women already.”115 Meanwhile, Lillias Horton Underwood of the Presbyterian Mission became the first woman missionary to actually participate in itinerating trips during these first five years. Horace Underwood and Lillias Horton were married in March of 1889 and took their “honeymoon trip” by starting a long journey into the interior of more than one thousand miles for over two months.116 By this time, only a handful of foreign men had ventured out into the area north of the capital, and Lillias Horton Underwood was the first foreign woman to travel into

185

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Country Travel: Mrs. Scranton in Center

the interior. Before they started the trip many tried to stop them from taking such a hazardous adventure for their honeymoon. However, they successfully completed the itinerary, although they faced several dangerous and difficult situations, including an attack by a band of robbers. While traveling through the important northwestern cities of Songdo, Sorai, Pyengyang, and Euiju, Lillias Underwood treated more than six hundred patients with her husband’s assistance.117 They also met about one hundred Korean converts, who wanted to be baptized in a northern town called, Euiju.118 Since Korean law forbade them from being baptized, the missionary couple crossed the Yalu River to the Chinese side to hold a communion service and baptize thirty-three Koreans. Among the baptized were some who came by walking fifteen to twenty miles to meet the

186

The Beginning of Women’s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884–1889

The First Christian Korean Bride and Groom

traveling missionaries and to receive baptism.119 After Lillias H. Underwood initiated for women missionaries the opportunities to take trips to the interior, other missionary women began to take up active evangelistic trips as well. Soon their footsteps would cover every region of the country within the next decade. By the end of the first five years, frequent itinerary trips to the interior became an established method of the Protestant missions' evangelistic work in Korea, and women missionaries were active participants in this method of evangelism. Pioneer American women missionaries were major force in the Protestant Missions in Korea during these first five years that laid down the foundation for the future work. Medical women missionaries were critically important workers who helped the missions to develop cordial and trusting relationship with the Korean government, while educational workers pioneered the first female education in Korea. The evangelistic work of the

187

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women missionaries also began to take a form, as they tried various ways of reaching Korean women and children during these first years. While their evangelistic activities were still done mainly in Seoul through hospitals, schools, personal contacts, and a handful of Bible women in Seoul, the women missionaries were getting ready for a much more aggressive outreach into the rest of Korea that would take place in the following years.

188

CHAPTER 7

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890-1907

O

nce the missionaries endured the difficult first few years of initiating their work in Korea, Protestant missions in Korea could enter into the first fruit-gathering period in 1890s and 1900s. During the rest of the pioneering years of 1890-1907, the missionaries spread their influence well beyond Seoul to major centers of every provincial region and witnessed a great spurt of growth of Korean churches.1 Much of the success was due to their aggressive evangelistic strategies that opened mission stations all over the country. The missionaries began expanding their evangelistic efforts no longer through the cautious and indirect approaches of the first years, but through more aggressive and direct methods that reached the entire country. Women missionaries were active participants in this new phase of missionary work and served as major contributors in pioneering new stations and expanding missionary work to the rest of Korea. As active pioneering members of stations, women missionaries were almost exclusively responsible for starting evangelism among women and children in the majority of the new stations. Along with the rapid growth of missions and churches all over the country, the women missionaries’ evangelism among women and children also bore significant results by the end of the period.

189

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korean Map at the Time of the Early Missionaries

190

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

EVANGELISTIC METHODS OF WOMEN’S WORK The previous chapter has shown how the evangelistic approaches were developed in the first few beginning years in Seoul. While many of the methods developed in the first years were continued to be used in the next two decades by the missionaries, more systematic methods for evangelism were also developed as the missionary work’s scale grew. The missionary approach for the later years was more to organize and administer the overall work of the missions and native Christians. Evangelism through Missionary Homes In one of her studies on missionary theories and practices, Dana Robert argues that the “Christian Home” of the missionaries occupied a position as a major area of mission theory and practice in modern missions. She explains that “cutting across the dichotomy between civilization and evangelization, the ‘Christian Home’ consistently remained both a means and goal of Anglo-American missions.”2 From the early 1800s through the mid-twentieth century, the idea of the Christian home remained as “an enduring component of Anglo-American mission theory,” and missionary women were particularly eager to use the means of the Christian home to be able to participate in various aspects of mission work, “including home-making, evangelism, fundraising, teaching and even social reform.”3 Pioneer American women missionaries’ lives and work in Korea provide a number of cases that support Robert’s argument. Both the actual missionary homes and the idea of the “Christian Home” were commonly used as means of missionary work, especially for women’s work, in Korea. Even though many married women missionaries often felt that their domestic responsibilities hindered them from taking up direct missionary activities, they found ways to reach Koreans through their own homes. Taking advantage of the Koreans’ intense curiosity toward foreigners, missionary women opened their homes to visitors and thereby

191

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

easily reached a large number of Koreans, who visited them constantly. This was one of the best methods for missionary wives and mothers to help opening new stations, as Annie Wiley Preston explained to younger missionaries: In former years this very difference [of lifestyle of the missionaries from that of Koreans] gave us an opportunity to meet hundreds of sight-seers. It has been our privilege to help in opening two new Stations. In both of these it was not necessary to look out for the Koreans, for the whole countryside came to us.4

The women also believed that the missionary home provided useful object lessons to the Koreans, as it showed the visitors what positive effect Christianity had upon family relationships and home life. Missionary women placed great value on the Christian home in missionary work and believed that the Koreans received lessons that could not be given by preaching while visiting the “clean and happy Christian homes of the missionaries.”5 The Protestant missionaries were the first westerners ever seen by the people in most regions, and their coming caused a great deal of excitement. Missionaries of the pioneering years frequently spoke about how exhausting it was to be an object of “sight-seeing” by such crowds, although their curiosity was instrumental in securing contacts with local Koreans. When Rosetta Sherwood Hall first arrived in Pyengyang in 1894, at least fifteen hundred women and children came to see her and her baby. In order to prevent the collapse of the mud walls of the little Korean house from the pushing and shoving of the crowd, Rosetta Hall had to come out of her room and show herself and her baby before the people who had filled the courtyard of the house. In spite of the chaotic experience, the curiosity of the people helped her gain audience for her Christian message among the women who visited her.6 Similarly, when Mattie Tate moved into the new station of Chunju in 1894, a huge native crowd poured into the yard and road in front of the house to see the foreign

192

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

woman. The excitement was even greater, since she was “such a tall one with light hair and light eyes” and proved to be truly “a sight to behold.”7 The crowds pushed to get in to see her so much that the house gate was soon broken down.8 Although the initial troubles subsided in a few days, she still met with crowds of women who came to see her every day. Her daily dealing with hundreds of visitors so exhausted her that her brother once secretly moved her out of the house by a closed sedan chair to a quiet place where she could rest for one or two hours.9 In spite of the trying ordeal, the constant flow of visitors assured her of opportunities to share the Gospel with Korean women, as she wrote, “So the opportunity to tell the glad good news came to them [Mattie Tate and her brother] right in their house.”10 Although such initial ordeal with crowds would ebb away after a few weeks of great excitement at the time of opening a new station, the flow of visitors to missionary homes continued, and receiving visitors continued to be an important evangelistic activity for women missionaries. Over the years, many missionary women systematized the work of receiving visitors, as is clearly illustrated by women missionary reports. In 1899, Josephine Campbell, a Southern Presbyterian missionary in Seoul, reported that the women missionaries and the Bible women at the ladies’ home of the Southern Methodist Mission in Seoul received more than one hundred visitors consistently, as they always kept a room open to receive visitors and to teach them something about the Christian faith.11 While visiting the missionary women, many Korean women became interested in Christian teachings, and some also brought friends and relatives to introduce them to their foreign friends and Christian teachings. For most missionary mothers with little children, whose involvement in direct evangelism was often limited, sharing the Gospel with visitors was one of the most effective ways to continue their missionary activity without having to leave their homes. Because of this, missionary mothers encouraged one another to develop positive attitude toward Korean visitors and to realize what impact they were having upon Koreans through their homes.12

193

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

In addition to receiving visitors, women missionaries also had their evangelistic influence upon Korean servants who worked in their homes. Many Korean servants not only became Christians under their influence, but also became well-respected Christian leaders and ministers of the early Korean churches. Kim Chang Sik, the first ordained minister in Korea, had been a cook at the Ohlinger’s home for five years, and there he became a man of solid Christian faith.13 When Franklin Ohlinger passed away in the early 1920s, Kim sent a personal letter to Bertha Ohlinger, expressing his grief over the death of “pastor Ohlinger.” In the letter he also wrote, “When I first started to believe in God, you taught me Matthew Chap. 5, and catechism, which I could still remember. I appreciated it very much that his wife educated me.”14 Mary F. Scranton’s reports also indicate that she regularly instructed her Korean servants and workers at the WFMS Home and the Woman’s Hospital. She reported that she had daily meetings of prayer and scripture reading with her Korean male servants in her room and the men were growing as Christians. One of the men was her keysu, the soldier who helped the women missionaries run errands and accompanied them during their outings. She once described an incident when he surprised her with his deep insight into Scripture: This morning we had “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together.” I felt as if I would like to say something about that myself, but Kenison [the soldier] took it all out of my hands, and did it a great deal better than I could, . . . Then he went on to say that this was just what the No Ponine (meaning myself) had been trying to do ever since she came to this country–to gather this people as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and so many “would not.” It was a very unexpected turn of the lesson, but I felt after all as if he were coming to understand something of the longings of my heart.15

194

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

This man became so well-known for his exemplary life and capabilities that the Methodist Mission came to ask Mary Scranton whether he could be hired as a regular evangelistic worker.16 Linnie Davis Harrison was another Southern Presbyterian missionary who instructed one of her servants and helped him eventually become a minister, one of the first Korean preachers ordained by the Southern Presbyterian Mission. It is said that he was “drawn nearer to the Master through Mrs. Harrison’s teaching” and wanted to become a preacher.17 This man was later sent to a mission school, and then to Pyengyang for more education, before becoming an ordained missionary to Cheju Island (called Quelparte by the early missionaries).18 Thus the evidence is abundant that the missionary women made important contributions to development of Korean Christian leaders through their home and influence upon their servants.19 In so many ways the missionary home functioned as an important instrument in women missionaries’ evangelistic efforts in Korea. Missionary women were convinced of the effective evangelistic influence their homes had among the Koreans and shared the conviction with younger missionaries. Mary Ames Sharrocks wrote in 1916 in a missionary journal that the home life of the missionary was a public life, and esplained how their homes spread the missionary influence.20 Mattie Wilcox Noble also wrote in 1931, as a veteran missionary of forty-year experience in Korea, Yes, the missionary home should be a blessed light lighting many other homes in the beauty and peace of a well guided household; with its daily family devotions; its fellowship of the husband and wife; its comradeship of well disciplined, respectful, joyous children; in the gracious entertainment of friends and strangers of the various nationalities; in the co-operating fellowship between mistress and servants; in the observance of special Christian anniversaries; in the various kinds of Christian service that emanate from the home.21

195

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

A Missionary Man Speaking to a Crowd in the Street

Visitation Another evangelistic method commonly used by the missionary women was visiting Korean women’s homes. This was an important missionaries’ strategy particularly in the earlier years. Almost every missionary woman participated in this form of evangelistic outreach, whether her primary assignment was in the area of medical, educational, or evangelistic work. Visitation allowed the missionary women to meet women and girls who had never been to missionary homes or meetings. Visiting was also a way not only to follow up with those who had been to missionary homes and women’s meeting, but also to comfort and encourage Christian women who were being persecuted by their families. The missionaries were usually welcomed warmly by the hostesses with great hospitality. The positive effects of visitation

196

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

made most missionary women convinced that visiting was one of the most effective ways of reaching women. Mary Gifford, for instance, explained the importance of visiting in her report of 1894, after making more than one hundred visits to Korean homes in three months: Almost without exception the families have given me the opportunities of following up the instruction begun in the homes by visiting me or attending the meetings. From it seems the most effective way of reaching the women. They lose sight in some reason of any difference, and there is nothing to distract their attention from the teachings.22

Since the evangelistic value of visiting Korean homes was greatly appreciated, missionary women made visitations more regular and systematic. They made long-term plans by reserving certain seasons and months of each year for intense visiting work. They often planned to visit an entire neighborhood or town in a certain period of time. Missionary women’s reports provide a number of examples of such systematic visiting that they planned and carried out. Mary Gifford explained in the report mentioned above that she made one hundred seventeen visits to fifty-nine different homes with her Korean teacher during three months and shared her plan of visiting Korean homes in that autumn,.23 Annie L. A. Baird also reported in 1893 that she planned to have a thorough canvass of her immediate neighborhood in Fusan through a series of afternoon visits.24 Frequent and regular mentions of visitations by both married and single women missionaries in their evangelistic reports show that visiting was becoming important evangelistic method used by all women missionary workers.

197

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Itinerary Trips to the Interior Korea at the end of the nineteenth century was largely a rural country with the majority of the people working in agriculture. The large population living in rural areas and the growing number of churches in the country areas made active itinerancy an essential part of the evangelistic methods of the missionaries throughout the period.25 After Lillias Underwood traveled to the interior as the first foreign woman in 1889, other women missionaries began to travel, and the frequency of their trips increased rapidly. By the mid-1890s, itinerancy became a regular part of women’s evangelistic activities, and both married and single women regularly traveled for evangelistic purpose. Married women often accompanied their husbands and other women missionaries, whenever it was possible for them to travel, to help women’s work in country districts. Some even took their little children on such trips, in spite of the dangers and risks involved.26 Single women missionaries in general traveled more extensively and frequently than married women did. Some single women spent many months of the year away in the country. The twelve-page evangelistic report of Georgiana E. Whiting, M.D. submitted in 1899 describes her trips made to at least twenty country districts and villages. She spent most of the year out in the country, except for a couple of brief periods when she returned to Seoul to teach a Bible class and to treat the illness of her Korean helper.27 Through such itinerant trips missionary women were able to be in contact with the country women and meet many of their physical and spiritual needs at a personal level. While Margaret Best was traveling in the country in 1899, she slept with five Korean women in a room that measured a mere eight by twenty square feet, and she was able to share her faith and love much more deeply in such a setting.28 Marie Chase also reported in the same year that nine country women followed her to Fusan at the end of her country trip. One of the women was a leper who came to Fusan with Chase wanting to be healed by the foreign

198

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Tithers and Bible Women

doctor. At the time when the mission report was submitted, this leper woman was still staying with Chase. By then, the woman was in an improved state of health and had become a believer.29 Although the hardships and discomforts of traveling in Korea were many and not every male missionary was supportive of women itinerating, women missionaries were motivated by many reasons to travel actively.30 More than any other reason, the women missionaries continued to travel widely because of the great need of country churches and women for visiting women missionaries. In small villages and country towns located far from mission stations, young Christian communities often sustained their faith on the strength of the little biblical knowledge they

199

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Women Coming to Training Class

gained from visiting missionaries. When the missionaries were absent, the local church leaders provided teaching for the congregations from their limited store of knowledge. However, the teaching of the male missionaries and Korean leaders was not always accessible or understandable to the simple Korean women of the country churches. The custom of seclusion allowed the women only to hear the teaching behind curtains hidden away from the men. In addition, the women could not interact with the male teachers or ask questions even if they did not understand their teachings. Women in the rural areas were, therefore, overjoyed when missionary women and Bible women visited their villages and provided them rare opportunities to receive personal attention and training. At the end of her lengthy country trip in 1899, Margaret Best reported that there were

200

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

many women in the rural areas interested in following Christ, but they were “as sheep having no shepherd.”31 Missionary women were also motivated to continue itinerancy because they found the work in the country extremely rewarding. Women in the country were often more sincere and eager to receive foreign teachers than city people were. Their expressions of gratitude toward the missionary teachers were great sources of encouragement for them. The simplicity and genuineness of their faith also inspired and touched the missionaries. Some of the missionaries’ happiest and brightest statements are found in their reports of country trips. In the year 1899 alone, one can find a number of such happy reports of women missionaries who had made itinerating trips. Katherine Wambold explained how warmly she was greeted by country Christians: “I had walked from Kimpo, and the people all came out to meet me, and I felt exactly as if I were going home. . . , it seemed as if I were not in a heathen country at all.”32 Lillias Underwood also wrote about her trips to the country, “I cannot help adding that it was a blessed experience I never can forget, to meet with these earnest, fervent women to see how readily and eagerly they grasped the truth, what simple strong faith they received it, and how quickly and tenderly their hearts responded to the story of the Lord’s love.”33 Likewise, Margaret Best wrote at the end of the year, “This country trip was a real pleasure to me, and meeting so many earnest faithful women are inspiration . . . ”34 Although itinerancy required greater personal risk for the missionary women than most other missionary activities did, it obviously provided them more satisfying experiences. Besides, it was one of the most effective methods of evangelism that helped the growth of churches and women’s work in the country districts all over Korea.

201

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Bible Classes and Training of Korean Women From the beginning of missions in Korea, the missionary women knew the importance of training Korean women for ministry among their own people. However, such training had to begin with teaching the basics of the Christian faith first. In order to fulfill the dual purpose of evangelism and training, missionary women began holding Sunday school classes and small weekday meetings for women. Women missionaries usually held weekday meetings in their own homes, mission schools, or dispensaries and gave simple instruction in the Bible and Christian catechisms to the women. Although a great number of “sight-seers” tended to crowd these meetings at first, their curiosity gradually died down, and the missionaries were able to give more serious instructions to those with genuine interest. Year after year, the content of instruction at these meetings matured, “as the trying period of working with the merely curious sightseers was gradually giving way to that of more systematic instruction of those who were sufficiently interested to attend the classes with greater regularity.”35 Since many women were slow in grasping new ideas and teachings, same messages had to be repeated through lessons in catechism, reading scripture, and singing hymns.36 Over time, these teachings began to make a strong impression upon the women. As they became increasingly attentive to the teachings, they began to respond to the teachings with questions and even tears.37 Although Sunday schools and weekday meetings led by individual women missionaries provided a basic level of instruction and training to Korean women, the missionaries felt the need of providing them with a more comprehensive and systematic Bible study courses. The missionaries thus began to hold large Bible study classes in mission stations and in country churches where Christians gathered to receive more extensive instruction.38 The Bible classes usually lasted four to ten days. Revival services were held in the evenings and prayer meetings in the mornings, while the classes were offered during the

202

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

daytime.39 The Bible classes held in major mission stations were usually larger, longer, and more intense, as they were designed to develop leadership among the attendants, who came from every group of believers in the region.40 For most of the early period, separate classes were held for women and men, and women missionaries were in full charge of the women’s classes. The Bible classes were appreciated especially by country women, who did not have as many opportunities for instruction as the city women did. Country women often walked long distances to attend the Bible classes; missionary reports frequently spoke of women who walked more than a hundred miles to the classes with babies on their back and bags of food on their heads.41 Most Korean Christian women came to classes at their own expense, in order to learn something new to teach others in their own home churches.42 Although the Bible classes contributed immensely to the initial development of Korean Christian leaders, it became clear that more instructions were necessary for the proper training of Bible teachers and Bible women among them. Thus, training classes started to be organized for a longer period of instruction of a month or six weeks. These longer classes offered for select groups of Korean Christians were usually called “Institutes,” and through these institutes more “systematic work was done in teaching and supervising students” who were preparing to serve as evangelists and Bible teachers.43 When the Southern Presbyterian missionary women decided to hold their first Woman’s Bible Institute in November of 1909, the missionaries had doubts as to whether any woman would come for such a long term of study. But their doubts dissipated when they received fifty-one students in the first year’s class.44 Starting with this first class, the Southern Presbyterian women began training Korean women suitable to become Bible women through the course of study at their Bible institutes that extended over five years with one-month study period per year.45 By the end of the pioneering period of Protestant missions in Korea, training of native Christian workers through Bible

203

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Women’s Bible Institute

classes and institutes seemed no longer sufficient for those who were already giving full time in ministry. The rapidly increasing Christian churches needed better-trained ministers and Bible women, since the small groups of missionaries could no longer reach all the people in the hundreds of country churches. Each mission began to organize more formal Bible schools, and women missionaries initiated Bible schools for women. One of the early Bible schools for women was Alice Cobb Bible School organized in 1909 by the Southern Methodist women in Wonsan. At the inception of the school, the missionaries clearly stated its aim, which also explained the need of such a school: It being impossible for our ladies to visit all the many country churches and hold classes for the instruction of our native Christian women, it is the aim of the Bible School to gather in the most promising representatives of our Churches and instruct them with the hope of making leaders of them and from that number be able to choose many needed Bible women.”46

204

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Graduates of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible Institute with their Missionary Teachers in Pyengyang

The Southern Presbyterian Mission also opened “The Special Bible School for Women,” later changed to “The Mission Bible School,” in 1917.47 Thus began the more formal education of Korean Christian women who were most serious about their calling as Bible women and Bible teachers, and the Bible schools contributed to the concept of women having Christian vocation and career in Korea. The Bible class system, which was initiated by the young missionaries who followed the recommendation by John Nevius in the first years of the Korea Mission, became one of the most fruitful types of evangelistic work. During the period of the Great Revival, the Bible classes were often the places where revivals broke out and where people were most powerfully touched as “the Spirit of God came down in power upon these gatherings.”48 A number of Korean Bible women were found and trained through the Bible classes and became a great force for the rapid evangelization of Korea. Korean Bible women worked with much less salary and recognition than their male

205

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

counterparts did, but they were most serious about their calling to preach the Gospel. The missionaries themselves were often touched by the selfless dedication of the Korean women in carrying the Gospel message; Since Christianity has done so much for them, it is not strange that those Bible women will go through everything to take the “Jesus doctrine” into heathen homes. They walk over mountains, by the dens of wild beasts, and wilder men, sometimes like our Revolutionary soldiers, marking their tracks with their bleeding feet. Encouraged as they are by the missionaries and native pastors, they are doing a great work at immense cost to themselves, and without fee or reward.49

Evangelistic Work for Children Women missionaries’ outreach among the women was carried on simultaneously with evangelistic activities among the children, since many children accompanied their mothers and sisters to women’s meetings and Bible classes. This phenomenon often led the missionary women to hold separate meetings for children. Lillias Underwood’s 1894 report illustrates how the meetings for children would begin. While about twentyfive women attended her Sunday women’s meeting, she often had thirty children in the meeting who came with the women throughout the year. Consequently, she started holding separate meetings for children to entertain them with songs, pictures, and religious teachings.50 The missionaries’ work with children also stimulated evangelism among women, as their mothers often came to see the children’s meetings and were led to attend the women’s meetings. Knowing the value of children’s meetings, many women missionaries started their evangelistic work in new stations by first holding meetings for children. Linnie Davis’ efforts in organizing meetings for children during her first year in the Kunsan Station explains this missionary method in evangelism.51 Evangelism among the children not only helped

206

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

the missionaries to become acquainted with their mothers, but also often turned the children into effective evangelists in their own homes. Evangelistic work among the children was first conducted through Sunday Schools and weekday meetings where Christian parents’ children received religious instructions and the children of non-Christian families were introduced to Christianity. While regular mission schools provided the children with academic and religious instructions, the Sunday schools and weekday meetings were mostly designed to teach Christian songs and the Bible. Susan A. Doty Miller, for instance, started a Sabbath School for boys in her neighborhood in Seoul in conjunction with the weekday mission school for boys in 1894. Even though the Sabbath School was set up for those who attended the weekday school and who had Christian parents, it also drew some irregular attendance of children from non-Christian families. She explained that, although the boys studied the Bible daily at the mission school, the Sabbath School provided better opportunities for “more direct personal application and the more heart to heart talks.”52 The meetings and Sunday Schools for children were often the first places where Koreans were introduced to Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. The women missionaries organized special celebrations for the Korean children and prepared special events and gifts with the supplies sent by their women’s boards and societies in America.53 Such celebrations brought great excitement not only for Korean children but also for their parents who accompanied the children to the events. Korean Christians, especially the children, soon began to comprehend the meaning of the Christian holidays and to celebrate the days as their own holidays. Susan Doty Miller reported in 1894 that the boys of her Sabbath School completely surprised the missionaries by initiating their own celebration of Christmas by decorating a large tree on their hillside with the lanterns and decorations which were normally used for Buddha’s birthday celebration in Korea.54 The Methodist

207

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women missionaries of the WFMS Home also reported about the wonderful Christmas Eve celebration of 1895 that they held for the school girls and women from the neighborhood. Their Christmas decorations and gift bags drew such a crowd that they finally had to lock the gates, “for sitting as they were almost in each other’s laps, and there wasn’t room for another one.”55 In so many ways, the evangelistic meetings for children made powerful impact upon the young Koreans and their families. During this period of geographical expansion of the missionary work, the evangelistic methods used by the women missionaries were both intimate and systematic and helped to overcome a number of unique difficulties involved in ministering to women. They developed various ways to reach Korean women and children, depending on the characteristics and conditions of life in different regions, and were able to accomplish a great deal of success by the end of the period. WOMEN’S WORK IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL CENTERS During the period of aggressive expansion of missionary influence and rapid proliferation of Christian churches in the 1890s and 1900s, women missionaries actively participated in the work of establishing new mission stations in many regional centers. Planting a new mission station in the interior meant that the pioneering missionaries had to overcome similar challenges and difficulties that the very first pioneers experienced upon arriving in Korea in 1884 and 1885. In many cases, the primitive condition of life in the interior caused the missionaries to suffer even greater hardships than the first missionaries endured during the first several years in Seoul. This part of the chapter explains the progress of women’s evangelistic outreach work in different regions of Korea. The beginning and development of American women’s missionary activities in each region can be seen first in their role in opening mission stations and starting women’s work.

208

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Central Korea The central part of Korea was a large region that included several provinces, including Whang Hai Province in the north, Kyeng Keui Province in the middle, Chung Chyong Province in the south, and a part of Kang Won Province in the east. Seoul was located in Kyeng Keui Province, and every mission had its beginning in Seoul. Therefore each denominational mission had important constituents established in the central part of the country.56 Since the pioneering work in Seoul holds an extremely important place for all the American missions in Korea, women’s evangelistic work in Seoul will be discussed first and then the rest of the central region. Evangelistic Work in Seoul The evangelistic work in Seoul that was commenced during the first five years grew rapidly in the subsequent two decades with the help of growing number of resident missionaries who entered Korea. Seoul was the largest mission station in Korea until the Pyengyang work outgrew the Seoul work. In the 1890s, the missionary work in Seoul made a steady progress but with a slow pace. However, the first decade of 1900s brought a period of accelerated growth, aided by the force of the revival that swept through the country. During these two decades, women missionaries expanded the scale of their missionary activity within Seoul by working through increasingly active and aggressive evangelistic methods. During the 1890s, the Northern Presbyterian women missionaries conducted much of their evangelistic work in Seoul in connection with the Presbyterian churches organized in several parts of the city. The first Presbyterian church in Korea– the West Gate Presbyterian Church (Saimunan Church)–was organized in 1887 on the west side of the city, and two other churches also came to exist in Seoul with large attendance by the end of this period.57 Although ordained missionary men were assigned as pastors of the churches and as preachers at all formal

209

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

services, women missionaries were in reality the pastors for women members of the churches. The women missionaries held separate Sunday meetings for women after the regular services and provided them with more direct and personal teaching. At the same time, they regularly visited the women members of the congregation.58 In addition to the church work, the Presbyterian women missionaries also coordinated evangelistic outreach work through weekday meetings and other creative ways. With the arrival of more missionaries in the early 1890s, the Presbyterian women gradually expanded the scope of their work by holding many more women’s meetings. In 1892 only about four to eight small women’s meetings were held every week in Seoul, mostly in the homes of the missionary women.59 But, by the end of 1894, the women’s evangelistic work in Seoul grew to include the work of many larger evangelistic centers, as Mary Gifford’s report tells: Woman’s Work in the Seoul station embraces Mrs. Underwood’s work at the “Shelter,” that of Miss Doty, succeeded by Miss Arbuckle at Kon Dong Kol; the weekly meetings held the greater part of the year by Miss Strong at the home of the evangelist; the work at Miss Doty’s house inside the ___ gate; that opening promisingly at the Girls’ School at Yeun Mo Kol; the work with several hundred sightseers by the ladies at the school before its removal from Chong Dong; Miss Arbuckle’s work at the hospital and at the homes of the patients; the work at Dr. Vinton’s dispensary by Mrs. Vinton with her Bible woman; the Chung Dong church’s woman’s work; and the country work.60

The consistent outreach and instruction by the missionary women resulted not only in a greater number of converted Korean women, but also in their growing maturity and increased participation in evangelism. Lillias Underwood reported on the work taken up by Korean women of Seoul in 1899:

210

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

I wish to note with thankfulness the steadfastness of these Christian women . . . and their constant efforts to preach the gospel to others. Three of them have evidenced this in a special way by gladly leaving their homes to attend Dr. Whiting on long country trips without any promise of salary, beyond the payment of expenses. Two of these women . . . have gone into the country alone and at their own expenses, preaching from village to village and it is thrilling to hear them tell the story of God’s blessing attending the work.61

The growing leadership role of Korean women can be also seen by the growing number of Korean Bible women. The Presbyterian women missionaries in Seoul had the native help of only one Bible woman and just a handful of women volunteer workers in 1892. But in 1907 they had at least seven fully-supported Korean Bible women and a number of women helpers, who worked voluntarily or with partial salaries.62 As the missionary women could rely on Korean Christian women for much of the evangelistic work, they could give more of their time to training native leaders through Bible classes, training classes, and Bible schools. The women of the Northern Methodist Episcopal Mission also continued active and growing evangelistic work in Seoul. The single missionary women of the WFMS conducted active evangelistic work for women at their Ewha Girls’ School and Woman’s Hospital, while married women of the mission evangelized in their own neighborhoods and centered their work at the Methodist churches, dispensaries, and schools in the city. The Northern Methodist mission had already established six places of regular Christian service in Seoul by the year 1893. Among the six, three were Methodist churches founded between 1888 and 1893–Chung Dong church, Baldwin Chapel or East Gate, and Tal Sung church or South Gate. These churches served as centers of evangelistic work, including the work among the women.63 One of the six congregations was

211

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

held at Ewha Girls’ School, composed entirely of women and thrived with steady growth under the dynamic leadership of Mary Scranton.64 Besides the work at Ewah, many Sunday and weekday meetings for women were commenced at different locations in the city during these years. Mary Scranton wrote in 1893 about an encouraging and growing work at the East Gate, which gathered twelve women and fifteen children in a room of six by eight feet on every Sunday.65 While they were pleased with the growth of their work, the Methodist missionary women also expressed the concern about growing pressure from the work. The number of missionary women was always too few for the amount of work brought to them. In 1894 only four single women represented the WFMS in Korea, and they were all in Seoul. Among the four, Mary Scranton was doing most of the evangelistic work as the one with the best knowledge of the Korean language, while the other three were assisting her work as much as they could with their limited use of the language.66 In spite of her age, Mary Scranton also conducted frequent journeys to the nearby country districts for many years.67 Knowing that the few missionary women could never meet all the needs of the churches, Mary Scranton and the other missionary women trained women believers as Bible women, and these Bible women began to offer indispensable assistance to the missionaries both in the city and the country. As her health and strength began to give away, Mary Scranton sent Bible women in her place to continue the evangelistic work among the city and country women.68 After many years of training Korean women through Bible classes that were held two or three times a year in Seoul, Mary Scranton began to hold Bible institutes for more systematic and extensive training of those preparing for ministry.69 Soon the need of a more formal Bible School for women workers was felt keenly, and the Methodist women missionaries in Seoul organized and opened the Methodist Woman’s Bible School in 1906.70 The graduates of this Bible School had great influence and leadership in the churches throughout Korea, and one of the graduates went to

212

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Manchuria as the first woman missionary sent by the Korean Methodist church. 71 Even though the women’s work in Seoul was conducted largely by the missionaries of the two northern denominations, women of the southern missions–the Southern Presbyterian Mission and the Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission–also began their missionary work in Seoul when they entered the country in the 1890s. Among the first seven missionaries of the Southern Presbyterian Mission who arrived in Seoul in 1892, there were two single and two married women. As they began settling in Seoul, the women immediately began evangelistic work by first teaching Korean children in their homes, receiving visitors, and helping the work of the Northern Presbyterian missionaries.72 However, once the Comity agreement was arranged, whereby the Southern Presbyterian Mission would make the southwest region of Korea their pioneering mission field, most of its missionaries were transferred to the assigned provinces to open mission stations. Thus the contribution of the Southern Presbyterian missionaries’ work in Seoul was limited to only the level of assistance and cooperation with the Northern Presbyterian Mission. On the other hand, the Southern Methodist Mission established a fairly strong independent base in Seoul, which was possible only because of the evangelistic advances that its women missionaries gained in the city. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South sent its first missionaries to Korea–Dr. and Mrs. Reid–in 1896. Soon after their arrival, the Woman’s Board of the Foreign Missions (WBFM) received an offering of $3,759 in June of 1897 for the purpose of starting women’s work, and Josephine P. Campbell was appointed as the first Southern Methodist single woman missionary to Korea. In the first thirty years of its mission in Korea, the Woman’s Board of the Southern Methodist Church sent a total of fifty-five single women missionaries to Korea, and Campbell was the first among them.73 She was transferred from her previous mission field in China to Seoul in October 1897, becoming the pioneer of the Southern Methodist woman’s

213

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

work in Korea.74 She came to Korea accompanied by a young Chinese woman doctor by the name of Dora Yui (Yui So Jeu). Dora Yui was one of Campbell’s students who worked closely with Campbell in China. She was also a woman of exceptional ability with “admirable knowledge of English, her speedy acquirement of the Korean tongue, her Oriental viewpoint and withal her spiritual life and power.” She gave valuable service to the Southern Methodist Mission in Korea for six years alongside Campbell.75 These women quickly started dynamic evangelistic work in Seoul, and Josephine P. Campbell provided effective leadership over the women’s work of the mission for more than two decades. In Seoul, Josephine P. Campbell opened a girls’ boarding school, named as the Carolina Institute, which became one of the most important evangelistic centers of the Southern Methodist Mission in the city and in the country. Her mission reports found in the Woman’s Missionary Advocate present a strong impression that much of her evangelistic work in Seoul had to do with training Korean Bible women from the beginning. Within the first two years after her arrival in Korea, she already had eight Bible women under her care and instruction, and they were all supported by the Woman’s Board.76 The missionaries at Carolina Institute trained these Bible women with systematic instructions on the Bible and catechisms for two or more hours each day. The pioneer Southern Methodist women missionaries in Seoul also developed broad contacts with a very large number of local women. Since Campbell’s school and home were located in the northwestern section of Seoul, which was one of the most densely populated sections of the city, she was able to quickly make evangelistic influence over a large number of Korean women. Moreover, they were situated distant from the foreign sections in the city and were able to conduct work among Koreans with less distraction from many social functions among foreigners. Mrs. Wilson of the WBFM wrote while visiting Seoul in 1900, “Mrs. Campbell is making her way into the hundreds of homes in her end of the city, where no

214

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

other foreigner resides.”77 One can easily see from Campbell’s reports how quickly they were gaining evangelistic ground in Seoul. During the quarter that ended in June 1899 alone, the missionaries had received one hundred and two visitors, and twelve meetings were held in the WBFM home.78 The reports of the following year also indicate that the number of women reached by the missionary women and their Bible women was growing consistently. During the second quarter of 1900, one hundred and twenty visits were made to Korean homes, and the attendance on the women’s meeting reached 1,140.79 Campbell also reported that over 175 women packed the women missionaries’ home on the Easter Sunday meeting of the year, and they sat on the hall, dining room, and sitting room floors.80 Largely due to Campbell’s influence, a congregation of about seventy women began to meet regularly on Sundays in the chapel of the Carolina Institute. Starting from the Easter Sunday of 1900, a regular Sunday service began to be held in the chapel, and this was the beginning of Chong-Kyo Church, the first church that represented the Southern Methodist Mission in Seoul.81 A chapel was also completed in the Carolina Institute compound in the following year and was dedicated as the “Louise Walker Chapel.”82 Campbell carried on evangelistic work so effectively that many regarded it “impossible to estimate the number of women and children in the north western section of the city of Seoul who received their first knowledge of Christianity through Mrs. Campbell and those who labored with her” by the end of her career.83 Work Outside of Seoul in Central Korea In the 1890s and the following decade, the missionary work that started in Seoul quickly spread to the rural areas near the city and other parts of central Korea. Three denominational missions–Northern Presbyterian, Northern Methodist and Southern Methodist–were the most active in evangelism in the central part of Korea.

215

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The Northern Presbyterians were especially effective in spreading their evangelistic force broadly in the region through active itinerancy.84 The Presbyterian women missionaries also started their evangelistic work among the country women by taking frequent trips from established mission stations. Many missionary women in Seoul traveled widely throughout the central region and contributed to the growth of churches. Although almost every woman participated in itinerancy, single women evangelistic workers were the most active traveling missionaries, making frequent and longest trips. Katherine Wambold was, for example, one of the most active women evangelistic missionaries in Central Korea and spent much of her time traveling in the country. The mission report in 1907 shows that she spent a part of each of nine consecutive months in the country. Since many married women could not take country trips as often, they helped single women missionaries to hold large Bible classes in Seoul and other locations, where they trained country women leaders. By the 1900s, the Bible classes were attended by more than one hundred women from various country areas and became the most effective way for the missionaries in Seoul to reach and train country women.85 Their active itinerancy and training efforts and the fervent work of native Christian women bore great evangelistic fruit during this period in the central region, especially in Whang Hai Province. Because Whang Hai was located on the coast of the Yellow Sea and could be easily reached from Seoul, the Presbyterian missionaries started their work there from an early date. Women missionaries also made frequent visits to the province, and some of the areas that the women missionaries visited in Whang Hai included islands scattered on the coast. William Hunt reported in 1900 that north central Whang Hai received the full quota of women’s work during the previous year through the trips made by Margaret Best and Mrs. Bertha F. Hunt and that a time came for more regular work for the women of the area.86 In the fall of 1900, four women missionaries–Lillias Underwood, Miss Whiting, M.D., Miss Marie Chase, and Miss Sadie Nourse,

216

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

accompanied by Horace Underwood–visited several groups in western Whang Hai, including the island group at White Wing (Paikyun). On the return trip from White Wing Island, the group was met by a heavy gale that made the missionaries fear that their boat might sink.87 Despite the danger of the sea, missionary women continued to visit and minister to the Christian groups on the islands.88 After so many years of itinerating work from Seoul, the Presbyterian Mission finally opened the first station in Whang Hai by sending three missionary families–Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Hunt, Dr. and Mrs. H. C. Whiting, and Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Koons–to Chairyung in 1906. However, opening the Chairyung station was a costly one. As soon as the station was opened in 1905, it claimed the life of a missionary woman, Bertha Finley Hunt, who had suffered weakened health due to the rigor of moving to the new station.89 In spite of the sacrifice made by the missionaries, the work at Chairyung Station grew quickly. The married women missionaries in Chairyung conducted evangelistic work with great vigor and put special emphasis on the training of local women for evangelistic work by holding a number of classes with the help of itinerating single women missionaries. By the second year of the station, the women missionaries had already begun holding general training classes for all women, as well as special classes for a few select women leaders.90 While the Northern Presbyterians were gathering fruitful results of their evangelistic work, particularly in the Whang Hai Province, the Northern Methodists had their most fruitful country work done around the port city of Chemulpo located west of Seoul.91 The Methodist women’s work in this area was first started when the WFMS missionaries in Seoul sent Helen Pyun, a Songdo widow, as the first Bible woman to the Chemulpo district. Mary Scranton had taught her for three years and sent her to Chemulpo to preach in 1893, when there were only two or three Christians there.92 Soon after the little Korean woman started her work in Chemulpo, George and Margaret

217

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Jones came to this port city as the first resident missionaries. The evangelistic work led by the Jones made outstanding progress, which resulted in the growth of the Methodist church in Chemulpo from 150 members in 1897 to 500 in 1898.93 Although the number of Christian women grew slowly in the first few years, the evangelistic work among women gained momentum, when two single women missionaries–Mary Hillman and Lula Miller–joined the work. They worked diligently with Helen Pyun and traveled widely to visit the women of Chemulpo, the surrounding mainland, and the nearby islands.94 The areas traveled by these women included “the islands of Kangwha, Samsan, and Kyodong; then across the channel, Yunan, and on as far as Haiju [of Whang Hai Province].”95 In addition to active itinerancy, the missionary women also started a Bible study system in the area. It began with a small class of Korean women who seemed too ignorant to be taught. But the Bible study system of the Chemulpo district persisted and made a great contribution to the development of Korean Christian women. After decades of strong growth, the Bible classes grew to eighty-one classes, with nearly 2,000 women and girls by the year 1935.96 The Southern Methodists were the third group of missionaries who joined the evangelistic work in the central region. They opened their first interior station in Songdo, an ancient city located north of Seoul. Soon after the Southern Methodist work was begun in Seoul, the mission decided in 1898 to place the greater portion of its missionary force in Songdo and appointed Dr. and Mrs. R. A. Hardies to start medical work there. Since the number of women missionaries was “phenomenally large in proportion to the total number of missionaries” of the Southern Methodist Mission, a prominent portion of the pioneering work of the mission in the interior was done by women missionaries.97 As the Field Secretary of the Woman’s Board in charge of the entire mission field of Korea, Josephine Campbell helped pioneering women’s work in Songdo. Although stationed in Seoul, she oversaw and planned much of the work in Songdo,

218

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

including the construction of the station’s mission building.98 Her position as the leader of the women’s work required her to take frequent trips to the interior station. A letter sent to the Woman’s Board describes one of her many trips to Songdo, which she took in the middle of winter to give assistance to the missionaries in the station. I left Seoul early in the morning in a snowstorm. I sat in a cane chair carried by four men, and my wrap and rugs had often to be shaken, being readily covered with a thick coating of the beautiful down. We passed out of the gates of the city, where the guards made special inquiry as to our journey and remarked that we would soon be snowbound, as the outlook was for a very heavy fall, and that Songdo was sixty miles away . . . We did not stop to tell them that the call for help from one of our little mission band in these distant lands meant to go through snow and storm to their relief.99

Although Dr. R. A. Hardie started the medical work in Songdo, he was transferred to Seoul in less than a year.100 After the Hardies left, the Songdo work was continued by one couple and two single women missionaries remaining in the station–Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Collyer, Arrena Carroll, and Fannie Hinds. The Songdo mission continued without any missionary doctor until 1907, when W. T. Reid, M.D., the son of Dr. and Mrs. C. F. Reid, arrived to restart the long-waited medical work there.101 Meanwhile, in spite of the absence of medical missionaries, Arrena Carroll and Fannie Hindes began an extremely effective work of receiving visitors and helping the sick with the simple medicines they had. During the year 1900 alone, they received 3,718 visitors at their home.102 Mrs. Wilson, the wife of the Bishop Wilson, who visited these missionaries in 1900, described their work in Songdo as of “wonderful interest” and reported that the two women’s lives were filled with much satisfaction, even though they had to bear with the constant discomfort and disappointments common in missionary life.103 She writes,

219

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Women come to them daily by the score to be taught of the way of eternal life. Early in the morning they are found coming up the hill . . . All day long they fill the little room (Miss Hindes’ bedroom), and when the bright sunlight begins to wane toward the evening hour, the last woman thinks of saying good-by. Everyday and all day the Korean women fill the room of our untiring missionaries. I wonder that their strength holds out, for sometimes there is not a half hour of rest after eleven o’clock until six. But they love their life . . . Their happiest days are those when they can count fifty women who listened to the “old, old story.” Often fifty come, sometimes more, occasionally fewer.104

Mrs. Wilson also explains why the missionary women had such devotion to their work in the artless and affectionate Korean women under their instruction: “They [the Korean women] take hold of my hands and try to tell me how glad they are that Miss Hindes and Miss Carroll came, that they too have Jesus in their heart. Undoubtedly this is the work of the Holy Spirit.”105 It is also interesting to note that Mrs. Wilson was invited to preach to the women’s congregation on Sunday, revealing the fact that the missionary women were leading Sunday services for women in Songdo. By this time, there were already fifty women under constant instruction of the missionary women, besides those who came on Sundays.106 The number of baptized female members and catechumens also doubled between the years 1900 and 1901, showing the rapid growth of the women’s work of the Songdo church during the period. In November of 1901, Arrena Carroll was transferred to Wonsan station, and Miss Sadie B. Harbough came to Songdo to fill her place. Songdo continued as a strong center of the Southern Methodist mission under the effective leadership of Hindes and Harbough and with the dedicated assistance of a number of Korean Bible women.107 Women missionaries extended their evangelistic influence throughout the central region of the country during this period

220

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

of less than twenty years. They first started working with small groups of women in the foreign settlement in Seoul and then began visiting thousands of Korean homes in every neighborhood of the city within its gates. They finally expanded their evangelistic work throughout the region all the way to the islands of the west coast and to the distant villages hidden among the mountains of Kang Won Province on the east coast. Many of the women missionaries were not only participants in the expanding missionary work, but were also pioneers and leaders in many stations of the region. The Northwest In the northwestern part of Korea, Pyengyang (Pyongyang) was the first city to have Protestant mission stations established. As the capital city of the previous Korean dynasty, Pyengyang was a wealthy and strategic city; it eventually became the most important center of the Protestant movement in Korea by the end of this period. Early missionaries, however, called Pyengyang “the Sodom of Korea.” The people of Pyengyang were initially proud and hostile toward foreigners, and it was in this city where the American ship, the General Sherman, was burned and where the missionary R. J. Thomas was killed in 1866.108 In spite of the history of strong hostility against foreigners, the early missionaries still felt it important to open mission stations in Pyengyang. Women missionaries were among the very first pioneers in opening stations in Pyengyang and made significant contributions to the development of missionary work in its region. The first foreign woman to visit Pyengyang was Lillias H. Underwood of the Presbyterian Mission, but the first woman to come to live there as a pioneer missionary was Rosetta Sherwood Hall. Henry Appenzeller proudly wrote about the significance of her going to Pyengyang as a Methodist pioneer, Now Mrs. Hall accompanies her husband, and has the distinguished honor being the first Christian woman to enter

221

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

that city to do work for the Lord. She will be the only foreign lady. Seven years ago this month I had the pleasure to visit the city, never before visited by any missionary, and now a woman with her infant child goes to live there. It makes one feel glad that the days of “heroic Methodists” are not all passed.109

Rosetta S. Hall moved into a Korean house in Pyengyang with her husband and baby in 1894. Coming to Pyengyang as the first resident foreign woman was not an easy task. Not only did she face more than 1,500 Koreans who poured into her house to see her and her baby, but she also had to endure serious opposition and persecution from the local government. As soon as they arrived in Pyengyang, the city magistrate arrested, imprisoned, and tortured several Korean Christian friends of the missionaries, and they threatened the missionaries to leave the city.110 The missionaries’ diaries and letters reveal how close they were to personal calamity and even to death; “We did not know the moment a mob might be upon us . . . We were the only foreigners in a city of one hundred thousand heathen, . . . we were ready to die for His cause . . . ,” wrote James Hall.111 Fortunately the incident was resolved through the involvement of the Korean government officers in Seoul. Once the problem subsided, Rosetta Hall initiated groundbreaking missionary work among the women in the city, although the missionaries in Seoul felt that it was better for her and the baby to return to Seoul. Her work in Pyengyang was shortly interrupted by the Sino-Japanese War, which forced all missionaries to leave the city in 1895. Even though the missionaries escaped the bloody battle taken place in Pyengyang, James Hall became a victim of the deadly condition of the city in the aftermath of the war. He contracted typhus while treating the wounded people in the city died in October of 1895. Her husband’s sudden death forced Rosetta Hall to leave their work and to return to the U.S. with her son and an unborn child in her womb.

222

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

The East Gate of Pyengyang

Although James and Rosetta Hall had to face so many difficulties in pioneering missionary work in this northern city, Pyengyang became an open field to the Protestant missions after the war. Soon after the war was over, a number of missionaries came to Pyengyang and started promising work among the people, who were now much more receptive and open toward them. The Northern Methodist Mission’s evangelistic work in Pyengyang was continued by William and Mattie Noble and Dr. and Mrs. E. D. Follwell. The two married women carried on the evangelistic work for women and children in the city for several years. Although their time and energy were greatly limited due to their family responsibilities, they still saw significant evangelistic fruit born from their efforts. Within the first few years, the Methodists baptized their first Korean woman convert in Pyengyang. Her baptism is vividly described by the missionaries. She was a woman of a high-class family and could not appear before the male missionary who was to baptize her. Hence, she was baptized by putting the top of her head through a hole on a

223

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The Presbyterian Pioneering Station: Off for Pyengyang, May 1, 1896. Taken just before starting by boat.

curtain, which was hung between her and William Noble, who baptized her.112 In 1897 Rosetta Hall returned to Pyengyang after three years of furlough in the U.S. Once back in the city, she gave much time to evangelistic work and took frequent country trips, as well as conducting medical work. Ethel Estey was the first fulltime evangelistic missionary woman of the Methodist Mission to the northwest region. She moved to Pyengyang in 1900, and several other single Methodist women missionaries came in the following years.113 Estey served first in Pyengyang for four years and then moved to Yengbyen (Yongbyon), a city located on the far northern border area. After Charles and Louise O. Morris were sent to Yengbyen to open a station in 1901, Estey joined them in 1905.114 She had already started working in Yengbyen through itinerancy since 1903, when there was not even one Christian woman in the city.115 Estey effectively led the women’s work there, giving special emphasis upon the training of Korean women. One of the characteristics of the women’s work led by Estey in Yengbyen was tithing of time by the Korean women. The Korean women under Estey’s instruction were compelled to offer a tenth of their time to Christian work. The evangelistic work of the station rapidly progressed as a result.116 Although the Methodists were active in the evangelization of the northwestern region, the Northern Presbyterian Mission

224

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

enjoyed greater evangelistic success in the region, and the Presbyterian women missionaries also witnessed dynamic growth of their work. The Presbyterian Mission sent a good number of women missionaries to Pyengyang in the late 1890s to start what became the largest and most successful women’s work in Korea. At the end of the Sino-Japanese War, Samuel A. Moffett and Graham Lee were first sent to re-open the work in Pyengyang in 1895, and then Mrs. Blanche Webb Lee and her mother, Mrs. Webb, moved to the city in May of 1896. With the arrival of the women, the Pyengyang station of the Presbyterian Mission was thoroughly established.117 During the years between 1896 and 1899, seven Presbyterian missionary women and Mrs. Webb lived in Pyengyang and supervised the rapidly growing work among Korean women and children of the station. The mission reports describe how dynamic the Presbyterian women’s evangelistic work was in the Northwest from the beginning. Within less than four years from the beginning of women’s work in Pyengyang, the size of the women’s service so completely outgrew the meeting place that a new Woman’s Chapel–named Marquis Chapel–had to be built in 1900. Blanche Lee explains how unbearably crowded the former meeting became; “Sometimes the room would be so crowded, I [Blanche Lee] would get up to make a little more space and then there would be no more chance for sitting down.”118 By this time, the Presbyterian woman’s Sabbath School was already attended by more than 150 women, and every missionary women and helpers—“Mrs. Wells, Mrs. Moffett, Mrs. Hunt and my mother [Mrs. Webb],” as well as “Mrs. Well’s helper, the girls’ school teacher, Mrs. Moffett’s helper”—were assisting in teaching the class. Not only was the number of Christian women increasing, but their Christian devotion and maturity were also growing, according to the Presbyterian mission reports. The Christian women often gave up their seats to the women who came for a “sight-seeing,” since “they [the sight-seers] might never have another chance to hear the Gospel.” During these early years, the Pyengyang Korean women had already organized the

225

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

“Woman’s Home Missionary Society,” which funded and sent out a number of native women to preach. Many Christian women were already going out to preach at their own expense, and one woman even enlarged her house and used it as a meeting place and a school.119 The dynamic growth of the women’s work in Pyengyang continued in the following years. The report for the year between 1901 and 1902 shows that every woman missionary of the station conducted an evangelistic work of an even larger scale than they did in the previous years, although the missionaries were mostly married women. For example, Annie Laurie Adams Baird was leading a Sunday morning Bible school alone with the attendance of 200 women, a Wednesday prayer meeting with an attendance of thirty to forty women, and a Saturday afternoon class for Sunday school teachers. Other women took up similar responsibilities, such as leading Sunday schools, day schools for girls, classes for young women, weekday women’s classes, teachers’ classes, and other classes, both in their homes and in Marquis Chapel. In addition to leading so many classes for women of all ages, the women continued to visit many homes. Lulu Ribble Wells, for instance, made 100 calls in Korean homes and visited regularly in the hospital wards for evangelistic purposes during the year.120 While some women focused their efforts on the city work inside Pyengyang, others gave much of their time and energy to the country work. Among the Presbyterian women missionaries, no one did more for country women than Miss Margaret Best. She visited eighteen country districts, spending from one to eleven days in each place, during the year between 1899 and 1900, although it was her first year in the Pyengyang station.121 One of the trips during that year was made to a place called Anak on a cold December day. After a hard day’s travel “over mountains covered with snow and along the narrow slippery paths through rice fields” from early morning, Best and her Korean woman helper reached the town at half past eleven o’clock on a Saturday night. They made such a difficult and

226

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Women Missionaries of the Presbyterian Pyengyang Station

dangerous trip late at night in order that they would not miss the Sunday service with the Christian women of Anak122 She also taught eight country Bible classes during the year between 1901 and 1902 and then seven classes in the following year. In her third year in Pyengyang, she visited every district in which there were Christians, except north of Pyengyang. Her traveling during the year included a trip of 175 miles overland to a remote mountain district.123 For many years, Margaret Best was the only single woman worker in Pyengyang and served as the leader of the women’s work of the station, eventually exercising important leadership over the women’s work of the Presbyterian Mission.124 After starting her missionary life as an itinerating missionary, she also became an important organizer of many different evangelistic programs and institutions during her service in Korea. The significance of her contributions was officially recognized in many ways at the end of her missionary career. Her lifetime service in Korea was also recognized by her Alma Mater, Park College, which honored her with the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1934.125 Much of the evangelistic success in Pyengyang was attributed to well-organized Bible training classes that were offered to Korean Christians from the beginning. The Presbyterian missionaries held as many as five country

227

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

classes and two city classes for both men and women in the second year of the Pyengyang station126 Both Methodist and Presbyterian missionary women held Bible classes several times a year to train native Korean women. Women missionaries were able to hold successful Bible classes from the beginning. One of the earliest Bible classes held by the Presbyterian missionaries during the year between 1897 and 1898 was attended by sixty women.127 The number of classes and the attendance in the women’s classes grew dramatically during the following decade. The annual report of the Pyengyang station for the year between 1907 and 1908 shows that eighty-nine women’s Bible training classes were held by the Training Class Committee alone, with thousands of Korean women attending. This figure did not include many smaller classes held by individual missionaries and Korean Christian women during the year.128 In order to instruct native women in the country, the missionary women of Pyengyang also spent many of their days in rural areas throughout the northwestern region holding training classes for country women. For instance, five Presbyterian women missionaries spent 133 days in the country, leading fifteen Bible classes in fourteen different centers during the year between 1902 and 1903.129 As the number of classes held in the country multiplied dramatically, missionary women began to hold several large seasonal classes in Pyengyang for both city and country women, with growing emphasis on training Korean women leaders. Starting from the year 1901, the Presbyterian women held a special winter class for a small number of chosen women from the country with the idea of training them to teach others.130 Among the four women’s classes held in Pyengyang between 1907-1908, attended by more than 4,000 women, two were special classes that were open only to women leaders. The select women were sent to the classes “with a view to their better instruction and training to act as Bible women, pastor’s assistants, and Sabbath School teachers.”131 The Presbyterian Mission also approved of the opening of an institute for the training of Bible women. The

228

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

first class of the institute was held in Pyengyang in 1907 with an attendance of one hundred six women. The Women’s Bible Institute was formally organized in 1910 with Margaret Best as its first principal. The Institute graduated nearly two hundred trained Bible women within the next two decades.132 The missionary success of Pyengyang had its impact upon the rest of the northwest region during this period. Vigorous evangelistic efforts gave birth to many growing churches, and more mission stations were established before 1907 in the region. The Northern Presbyterians first opened a station in Syenchun, 100 miles north of Pyengyang, in 1901. Syenchun had been reached by missionary itinerancy for many years before the station was established. After traveling missionaries had found sixty Christians scattered in six different groups in Syenchun in 1897, A. M. Sharrocks, M.D., Mary Ames Sharrocks, and Margaret Best made their first official visit to the city in 1900.133 Then, in 1901, the Norman Whittemores and the Sharrocks with their infant daughter moved to the city as resident missionaries, and Syenchun became an official mission station. In the following years, they were joined by more missionaries, many among whom were women. Marie L. Chase was the first single woman missionary assigned to the station, and other single missionaries–Esther L. Shields, R. N. and Jane Samuel–came to Syenchun in subsequent years. The married women missionaries stationed in Syenchun in the years before 1907 included Frances Oakley Leck, Daisy Rohrer Kearns, and Susan Shank Ross. The growth of the Syenchun work was incredibly rapid. Only two years after the station was opened, the attendance in the city church numbered 500, which was about ten percent of the city’s population in 1903.134 The growth of churches in its country districts was just as dramatic. The first report of the Syenchun station in 1902 shows that there were already about forty-one Christian groups and 700 baptized believers in the country districts of the station.135 Women missionaries in Syenchun took charge of the work among the women and children through the usual methods of visiting Korean homes, leading Sunday

229

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Kim Que Bansi, Beloved Senior Bible Woman of Syenchun—One of the Presbyterian Missionaries’ Stars

schools, teaching Bible classes and at the Bible Institute, and taking itinerating trips to country churches. Mrs. Daisy Kearns was particularly active in itinerancy and was reportedly the first foreign woman to travel in Sakju County. She traveled 260 miles with her husband in October of 1904 and took another trip in the spring of 1905, visiting sixteen different groups in Euiju districts and traveling a total of 660 miles.136 The women’s work in Syenchun was carried on with the help of several single women missionaries from the Euiju station, including Marie Louise Chase, Esther L. Shields, and Jane Samuel. Jane Samuels permanently joined the Syenchun station as the first single woman in 1903 and worked there for almost a quarter of a century.137 As was the case in Pyengyang, the Syenchun station’s work received much benefit from Bible classes and institutes. The first Bible class for women in Syenchun was held for ten days in 1901, led by Margaret Best of the Pyengyang station with the assistance of Mary A. Sharrocks. One hundred twenty-three women from eight different districts attended this first class, and many of them also walked a great distance of up to one hundred miles to attend

230

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

A Church on a Hill

the Bible class.138 After Marie Louise Chase came to Syenchun in 1901, women’s classes were held regularly each year and the size of the classes grew. By the year 1907, every missionary woman of the station was holding special women’s Bible classes, including sixteen Bible classes held by Jane Samuel alone during that year, with a total enrollment of 2,458 women.139 Witnesses of the women’s classes of the Syenchun station explained how impressive it was to see “so many women assembled in one room; all dressed in white with white turbans on their heads.”140 By the period between 1907-1908, the Syenchun station had twelve resident missionaries, among whom were nine women missionaries, including two single women missionaries. Even though the life of pioneer missionaries in Syenchun during these early years was full of trials with frequent sicknesses and lack of missionary houses, the women missionaries led the work among 13,000 Christian women in the station’s districts effectively with incredible results.141

231

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The Northeast The work of the American missionaries in the northeast was centered in and around Wonsan, which was opened as a treaty port to Japan on the east coast in 1880.142 The Presbyterian Mission first opened a station in Wonsan by sending James S. and Hattie G. Gale to the port city in 1892, and then W. L. and Sallie Swallen joined the Gales there in 1894. While much of James Gale’s time was taken up in translation work, the two married women carried on effective and energetic evangelism among the women. The station reported in 1894 that 900 women had been seen and talked to personally, and the first natives baptized in Wonsan on August 15, 1894, were four women.143 However, when the Gales and the Swallens were transferred to Seoul and Pyengyang, the Northern Presbyterian work of Wonsan was turned over to the Canadian Presbyterian Mission in 1899.144 The Northern Methodist Mission also opened a station in Wonsan by sending Dr. and Mrs. W. B. McGill in 1892, but their work was taken over by the Southern Methodist Mission in 1902.145 Among the six Southern Methodist missionaries who came to work in Wonsan, four were women–Arrena Carroll, Mary Knowles, Mrs. Hardie, and Mrs. Ross, and the women carried the large portion of the pioneering work of the Wonsan station. The Southern Methodist Woman’s Board, represented by the single women missionaries, provided the funds to purchase the mission property in Wonsan from the Northern Methodist Mission and made the transferring of the station possible.146 Arrena Carroll, who had helped plant the Songdo station before being transferred to Wonsan, served as the main leader among the women in Wonsan. She was supported by Mary Knowles, who was new in Korea, Mrs. T. H. Yun, and Naomi Choi, a Bible woman from Songdo. Soon after coming to Wonsan, Carroll organized the first Sunday School class, which was consisted of fifteen women, and also taught them every Thursday afternoon.147 Besides the regular Sunday school and weekday meetings, the missionary women also started holding

232

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Mrs. Swinehart with Korean Christian Workers

Bible Class meetings for women in 1901.148 However, among all their work in Wonsan, the most significant and far-reaching one was their significant contribution to the beginning of the Great Revival in Korea. Wonsan is traced as the origin of the Great Revival of 1907 in Korea. What is significant is that the origin of the revival is commonly traced back to the Bible study meeting of the Southern Methodist missionaries in Wonsan, organized and led by the women missionaries. The resident women missionaries of Wonsan organized a Bible study meeting from August 24th to 30th in 1903, for the purpose of spiritual renewal among the missionaries.149 Besides Carroll and Knowles, Miss Hounshell from Seoul participated, and M. C. White, a visiting woman missionary from China, also had a leading role in the meeting where the missionaries gathered for prayer and

233

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Bible study.150 During one week’s meeting, the participants experienced a powerful “filling of the Holy Spirit” and became leading figures of the Great Revival, which spread throughout the country during the rest of the decade.151 In spite of the common hardships of working in a mountainous region on the east coast, the Southern Methodist women missionaries often expressed their love of Wonsan, where their work began to bear fruitful results and eventually a revival. A little poem by Mattie Ivey, a single woman assigned as an educational worker to Wonsan in 1905, illustrates such love of their work: Wonsan, O Wonsan, my new home to be, How I love thy mountains and thy restless sea! How I love thy people, how I long to be Just What Jesus would have me. In Wonsan, by the sea.152 Rudy Kendrick, who died in 1907 only after one year of service in Wonsan, also expressed her affection for her work: “If I have a thousand lives, Korea should have them all.”153 The Southern Methodist women missionaries extended their pioneering and evangelistic work to other centers in the eastern region especially after 1907. In 1908, Mrs. J. R. Moose was transferred to Choonchun in Kang Won Province and pioneered the women’s work there. They also extended its women’s work in the province to another center in Chulwon after 1920.154 The Southeast Fusan The southeastern part of Korea was occupied mainly by two Presbyterian missions—the Presbyterian Church of Victoria from Australia and the Northern Presbyterian Church of the USA. The work of the Australian Mission in Korea was officially begun by the Fellowship Union and the Presbyterian Women’s

234

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Missionary Union of the Victoria Church, but most of their work was started in reality by a handful of women missionaries of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Union.155 They opened an orphanage and a school for girls and gained significant influence among the Korean people in Fusan and in its country districts. The first three Koreans were baptized as Protestant Christians in Fusan in April of 1894, and they were the fruit of the work of the Australian women missionaries. Jean Perry, one of the Australian women, wrote about the baptism of the three Koreans–a Korean teacher employed by the women missionaries and two Korean women. In April 1894, our three first converts were baptized–Suis Syemany, Archii, and Jeiuchs. You will all understand what we felt at that day, as those ones whom we had prayed so much for long were received in to Christ’s Church. We all felt that our __ of joy just ran over.”156

Shortly before the Australian missionaries came to Korea, the Northern Presbyterian Mission also started its work in Fusan by sending William and Annie L. A. Baird as pioneers in 1891. It was strategically important to open a station in Fusan, the largest port city in Korea, to make the southern region accessible to the missionaries and their activities. During the first sixteen years of the station’s existence, the Northern Presbyterian work among women was carried out largely by married women, since only two single women served a combined term of less than ten years in Fusan during the period.157 Annie L. Adams Baird, Fannie Brown, M.D., and Bertha Irvin were the married women who helped to pioneer the station in the first several years. Louise Marie Chase joined the station in 1896 as the first single woman worker and labored hard in the station’s evangelistic work until she was transferred to the Syenchun station in 1901. The story of Fusan station in the early years is full of missionary hardships and serious illnesses among the pioneers. Women missionaries’ reports from Fusan in the first years explain

235

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Miss Jean Perry and the Korean Matron of the Home for Destitude Children, Seoul

how difficult it was for them to carry on consistent missionary work, as their work was interrupted by frequent sicknesses, births and deaths of children, and duties as homemakers. Fannie Hurd Brown, M.D. wrote in her 1893 report that she was

236

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

able to do consistent work without interruption only during the three or four months of spring.158 During the remainder of the year, sickness in her family and domestic duties made her work irregular and scattered. She then had to leave Korea altogether, as her husband’s health failed in the following year.159 C. H. Irwin, M.D. and Bertha K. Irvin came to Fusan in 1894 to take over the medical and evangelistic work that the Browns had started. However, sicknesses and hardships continued in the Fusan station during that year as well. Bertha Irvin reported that her husband was taken seriously ill for nearly six weeks in May and collapsed again with dysentery and congestion of the kidneys in October. Then, in May of 1894, the station experienced the death of its youngest member–Nancy Rose, William and Annie Baird’s first child, who was nearly two years old.160 In spite of the devastating experiences and trials, the few women still conducted impressive evangelistic work during the period. 161 They made many contacts with the local women and started to give religious instructions to the women. When Annie Baird and Fannie Brown first opened their homes for visitors and short morning services in 1893, a large number of local women visited, either out of curiosity or for medical attention. Most of these visitors were able to hear the Gospel story, and Christian books were sold in a total number of 168 during the year. While Fannie Brown conducted medical work among the women, Annie Baird led the evangelistic work. Annie Baird used one of the rooms of her home for the work among women by equipping it with an organ, pictures, and books, and she always kept it open for visitors. In this room, the two women missionaries of the station started meetings for small groups of Korean women, teaching them the Bible, the Christian catechism, and Christian hymns. Annie Baird also regularly visited Korean homes in her neighborhood, since she had no difficulty in securing listeners and selling books during her visits in the city and near the port.162 Bertha Kimmerer Irvin, who came to Fusan with her husband, was an exceptionally energetic missionary. As soon as she arrived,

237

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

she immediately started her work first by gathering local boys for daily teaching in her own house.163 After Marie L. Chase joined the station in 1895, she and Bertha Irvin worked together with great vigor to extend their influence in and out of the city by making frequent visits to Korean homes and trips to the country districts, including some of the islands.164 The Fusan reports of 1900 show that Bertha Irvin did much of the city work in Fusan, while Marie Chase carried on most of the country work. In that one year, Chase made nearly 130 visits in the villages near the city and six extensive itinerant trips to the country, and the report tells, “She has thus visited our remotest catechumens.”165 Although Marie Chase was soon transferred from Fusan to Syenchun, Bertha Irvin continued to labor among the women and children in Fusan and helped to keep the Fusan station open for many more years than the mission intended.166 The Northern Presbyterian Mission eventually had to withdraw from Fusan in 1919, where the missionaries had experienced a number of set backs and difficulties.167 However, the women missionaries’ work was not fruitless. The Fusan report of 1908 shows that fifty-three Koreans were baptized in Fusan and more than one hundred were baptized in the town of Miryang alone. Moreover, the station had several Bible women teaching and working both in the city and the country by that time.168 Taiku The second major station opened in the southeast during this period was the Taiku station, pioneered by the Northern Presbyterian missionaries. William and Annie Baird were transferred from Fusan for the purpose of opening the Taiku station in 1896. Opening a station in Taiku was also a perilous and risky business for the pioneers. When the Bairds were moving to Taiku, the American Minister warned them that they were going there on their own risk, since Taiku was not a treaty city.169 Besides bearing with the risk of having no security of the treaty, the couple had to endure the difficult process of starting missionary work in a city where no foreigner had

238

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

ever lived. According to William Baird’s report in 1896, there was “no controlling of the crowds,” when they moved into the city. He wrote, “They would break in the gates, tear open the doors, and overturn the water jars in the yard to see the strange foreigners.”170 It was especially difficult for Annie L. A. Baird as she “experienced the fatigues and even the violence of the curious crowds,” who were especially eager to see a foreign woman. Since it was not considered safe for her to walk the streets, she went out “only in a Korean closed chair or covered by a large hat such as the ones Korean women wore.”171 The Bairds bore with all of the hardships in the new station, expecting their life and work to be established permanently in Taiku. However, they were transferred once again and had to leave their pioneering station in the fall of the same year. The rest of the pioneering work fell into the hands of two new missionary couples, James and Nellie Dick Adams and W. O. and Edith Parker Johnson.172 The Adams and Johnson families moved into the Korean buildings on the mission property in 1897, and Taiku was designated as an official station of the Northern Presbyterian Mission in May 1899.173 The two married women started the work among women and children in Taiku. Although several single women were assigned to the Taiku station during the following decade, their marriages frustrated the plan to have a single woman missionary who could take charge of the women’s work. Sadie Nourse came to Taiku as the first single woman assigned to the station in 1899, but was soon taken in marriage by A. G. Welbon within a year after her arrival. After a hard search, the mission assigned two more single women to Taiku, Elizabeth Carson in 1904 and Blanche Essick in 1908. But they were also married within a year or two. Consequently, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Johnson had to lead most of women’s work of the station. In 1902 Martha Scott Bruen joined them in Taiku, coming straight from the U.S. as the new bride of Henry Bruen, adding the needed force to the married women’s work. Nellie Adams and Edith Johnson first started the women’s work in Taiku with the help of Miss Marie L. Chase, who came

239

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

from Fusan and stayed in Taiku for three months in 1899. The work was started with the usual methods of daily receiving visitors, distributing tracts, visiting local Korean homes, and getting acquainted with the women who attended the Sunday services.174 Their report in the first year says that “a difficult beginning of systematic work among the women” was made with an organization of a class that met once a week.175 Because the women were so ignorant and illiterate, the missionaries had to first teach them how to read. Soon the women began to meet both on Sundays after services and in weekly classes and started studying the Bible.176 As the work in the city was getting organized, the women missionaries started to work in country districts as well. In 1905 Nellie Adams took a country trip, dressed in Korean clothes, and visited Kyung-san and Kyung-ju, where she was the first foreign woman to visit.177 Through their endeavor and the help of single missionaries of other stations, the scale of the women’s work in Taiku soon grew well beyond the city work. Consequently, the need for single women missionaries and Bible women grew greater due to the growing need of itinerating.178 However, the Taiku’s women’s work had to continue without much help from such workers during the pioneering period. In spite of the shortage of missionary workers and the difficult housing problems the pioneers suffered, the evangelistic work in Taiku grew with steady results. While there were only two communicants in Taiku when the station was opened in 1899, the number had increased to twenty women and twenty-five men by 1901.179 The number of adherents in Taiku kept growing in the following years, and it reached up to 800 in 1907.180 The evangelistic results in the country districts also grew rapidly, and the number of Christian women and children reached approximately 3,500 in the province surrounding Taiku by the year 1907.181 As the number of converts increased, the missionaries began holding Bible classes and Bible institutes for women. The first Bible class for women in Taiku was held with only two women

240

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

and two girls attending in 1902. But the size of the Bible classes grew rapidly over the next few years, and the winter Bible class for women in 1907 was attended by nearly 400 women.182 The missionary reports also describe signs of growing Christian maturity and commitment among the Korean believers in Taiku. When the Taiku church needed a new building in 1907 because the church attendance had entirely outgrown the meeting place, the Korean believers began to build a new one “in the usual Korean way, more by faith than by sight.”183 In giving offerings for the new building, many men contributed money, rings, and greatly prized watches, while the women gave “their silver ornaments, their bridal hair pins and one woman her hair!”184 The missionary women in Taiku also organized a Dorcas Society in 1907 to cultivate missionary spirit among the women of the church. The women of Dorcas Society met weekly to lead many activities together, such as sewing for the hospital, in support of Christian work.185 Thus, even though smaller in its scale than in the northern regions, the southeast region also experienced success in women’s evangelistic work. It is also notable that the successful work among the women was initiated and carried on for a long time by the small body of women missionaries who served in the region. The Southwest Chunju The southwest region, which consisted mainly of the north and south Chulla provinces, was assigned by the Comity to the Southern Presbyterian Mission. Soon after the first group of Southern Presbyterian missionaries arrived in Korea in 1893, they proceeded to the southwest region to begin their work. L. B. Tate and his sister, Mattie Tate, were the first to move to their first station of Chunju in the north Chulla Province in 1894. Upon their arrival, Mattie Tate had to deal with crowds of curious people and could not venture out on the street, not

241

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The Pioneers of the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Korea

even once, during her first three months in Chunju.186 Although she could not move around freely, she daily shared the Gospel with hundreds of women who came to see the white woman and could start some meaningful work in her own home. However, the Tates had to abandon their work in Chunju only about three months later, as the ravaging Tonghak rebel army was fast approaching the city. They fled the city though Mattie was suffering with malaria and barely escaped the danger after a long and anxious wait for a boat.187

242

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

When the rebellion was finally subdued, they returned to Chunju, and Mattie immediately began evangelistic outreach among the women again. She brought simple remedies for sicknesses from Seoul, which helped her gain the friendship and confidence of many women.188 Mrs. Patsy Bolling Reynolds and Martha Ingold, M.D. also joined the Chunju work, and the women’s mission began to develop much more quickly as the three women coordinated their skills and efforts.189 Mattie Tate first began holding weekly meetings for women, and Patsy Reynolds started Sunday schools for boys and girls.190 The pioneer missionary women of Chunju saw the first fruits of their labor with the baptism of two Korean women. Among the first five converts baptized in Chunju in 1897 were Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Yu, who received Christ through Mattie Tate’s weekly meetings. One of the five baptized was a twelve-year old boy, who was also introduced to the Gospel by coming to Mattie Tate’s meetings with his mother, Mrs. Kim.191 He soon became a valuable help to the missionaries. When Patsy B. Reynolds organized the first Sunday School in Chunju, he helped her as a boy-superintendent. He later became an ordained minister and a missionary to Cheju Island.192 Martha Ingold, M.D. joined Mattie Tate and Patsy Boling Reynolds as the third pioneer woman in Chunju in 1897. Her coming was a significant event in the history of the station, since she was not only a doctor, but also because she would become an important evangelist for the women’s work. Although she was busy as the only physician at the station for many years, she actively participated in the evangelistic activities of visiting Korean women’s homes and taking itinerating trips with Mattie Tate.193 The women’s work in Chunju was also greatly strengthened in 1899 by the coming of Linnie Davis Harrison from the Kunsan Station. She worked as an energetic evangelist until her sudden death in 1903. Within a decade after the Chunju station was opened, the missionaries had earned strong confidence of the people and were winning their hearts. An incident reported by Linnie Davis Harrison illustrates how the missionaries’ lives

243

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

became closely woven together with the lives of the Korean Christians of the station. One day when the missionaries closed their homes and went out for a picnic without announcement, the news spread quickly that the missionaries had returned to the U.S. Hearing the rumor, a Korean woman walked three miles to Chunju to ask whether the rumor was true. This woman later told Linnie Davis Harrison with tears, “None of you know how much we think of you and when I heard you had gone I felt like I had lost my father and mother.” In concluding this story, the missionary wrote, “The lives are so closely drawn at Chunju that I realize as never before how the Christians cling to us, and look to us for sympathy. They have confidence in us–God has given us favor with the people–and while we try to point them to him may they not be disappointed in us.194 Throughout the pioneering period, Mattie Tate served as the key leader of the women’s evangelistic work in Chunju and made immense contributions to the growth of the largest station of the Southern Presbyterian Mission. She was the only single woman missionary in Chunju until about 1914 and remained as a single during her entire missionary life in Korea of nearly forty years.195 Kunsan, Mokpo, and Kwangju After the Southern Presbyterian missionaries opened their first station in Chunju, they proceeded to open more stations in the southwest. In 1896, the mission assigned William and Mary L. Junkin and Dr. A. D. and Lucie Drew to a small city called Kunsan. In the same year, Linnie Davis joined them as the only single woman, and served as the leader in the evangelistic work among women and children of the Kunsan station for two years. She started her work by holding Sunday school classes for children and women, teaching them the Korean characters and Bible lessons, and holding a weekday class for girls.196 Since the Korean children and women had little sense of time and dates, she put up different colors of flags to announce the time of different meetings.197 Because the girls and young women were

244

Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women’s Work, 1890–1907

Women’s Winter Bible Class, Chunju

often prohibited from attending the meetings by their fathers, who feared that they might learn something besides house work, Davis started a sewing class, which helped the girls to come.198 She also extended her evangelistic efforts by holding meetings alternately in two villages a few miles distant from Kunsan, besides visiting the women in their homes.199 In 1899, she was married and transferred to the Chunju station as Mrs. W. B. Harrison. She had such an impressive influence upon the women in Kunsan with “her lovely and capable leadership,” that some even followed her to Chunju.200 She continued to serve as an exceptionally effective evangelistic missionary and developed close relationships with the women of the Chunju station. When she suddenly died from typhus fever, after contracting the disease while visiting a sick Korean woman in the summer of 1903, the entire mission mourned her death as “an irreparable loss.”201 Mokpo was the third station that the Southern Presbyterian Mission opened in the southwest by first assigning Eugene and

245

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Lottie W. Bell and then Dr. and Mrs. C. C. Owen to the city in 1898.202 Mokpo was at that time a small fishing village with intensely ignorant people who were hard to reach. While the missionaries were still building their homes and the church through many difficulties, Lottie Witherspoon Bell died in Mokpo. She was the first Southern Presbyterian missionary to die in Korea.203 After her death, Eugene Bell had to take their children to America, and then the Owens took their furlough in 1902. Mainly because of the scarcity of missionaries, the mission work was transferred to another city, Kwangju, in 1904. However, Mokpo was re-opened as a station in 1907 due to a phenomenal growth of population and growing interest of the natives in Christianity during the years.204 Although the overall results of the evangelistic work by the Southern Presbyterians did not seem so notable until the years of the revival, they had laid important foundation with significant accomplishments in evangelistic work among the women and children in the southwest. Women missionaries served as pioneers and leaders of evangelistic work during the great evangelistic outreach period of the years between 1891 and 1907 in all of the pioneering regions. Many women missionaries paid a great personal price to start missions in the interior, and we see many of their children and their own lives laid down during the period. Their efforts were rewarded with incredible evangelistic results, both in the numerical growth of Christians, and in the maturity of the Christian women in Korea. Such evangelistic accomplishments, however, could not have been possible without effective cooperation of women missionaries’ medical and educational mission. Since the evangelistic work of women in Korea and its results cannot be adequately understood without a discussion about the women’s medical and educational work, such work during the same period will be discussed more in depth. It will show how their humanitarian and educational services not only helped to strengthen Christian churches, but also brought radical changes to women’s lives and culture in Korea.

246

CHAPTER 8

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890-1907

T

he pioneer missionaries in Korea placed priority to evangelism over other missionary activities, as their records reveal. Although medical and educational ministries were important to the early missionaries, they saw them as instruments for evangelism. The women missionaries’ medical and educational activities, therefore, accompanied their evangelistic efforts, in order to enhance the evangelistic impact and to spread missionary influence all over the country. But, as the scale of the missionary work grew in Korea, their medical and educational mission also began to expand its purpose. During these last two decades of the period, the medical and educational missions began to move beyond the marginal role of assisting evangelism and toward developing major medical and educational institutions for the purpose of developing native leadership in such fields. Availability of medicine and education to the female population also brought significant changes to the lives of Korean women and caused rapid social and cultural transformation of the country. WOMEN’S MEDICAL WORK The first small medical work that was begun in Seoul by the early missionaries grew dramatically in its scale and influence during these two decades.1 All over the country, the medical

247

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

missionaries helped pioneer mission stations, established the first modern hospitals, and opened medical schools for Koreans. Such dynamic growth of medical missions could not have been attained without the active role played by medical women missionaries. The medical women did not hesitate to labor in some of the most difficult and hostile regions of the country, in spite of the high cost of serving in such places. Every denominational mission in Korea experienced heavy losses of medical missionaries, and women made up a large percentage of the lost medical workers. In the Northern Methodist Mission alone, five doctors out of their eleven medical missionaries died in Korea during the years up to 1907, and among the five were two WFMS doctors, Lillian Harris and Esther Pak.2 As the medical mission increasingly embraced broader humanitarian and educational purposes than simply supporting the evangelistic purpose, women medical missionaries contributed to this development through their innovative application of the medical work.3 They became pioneers particularly of educating Koreans in western medicine by first training Korean girls and women for medical work. Even though their training began in small steps by individual medical women missionaries, it was actually “one of the greatest revolutionary steps taken by medical mission” in Korea.4 In spite of countless cultural obstacles to the medical education of women in Korea, the missionary women still produced fully-trained Korean female doctors and nurses by the first decade of the twentieth century. The history of the early women’s medical mission in Korea is, in a way, a description of the life and work of a few medical women missionaries who provided services in several regional centers. Since medical missionaries were fewer in number than the missionaries in the evangelistic and educational fields of service, each medical woman missionary often represented and embodied the entire medical mission for women in her region. Therefore the description of the women’s medical work naturally highlights the work of a few important medical women missionaries in several regional areas.

248

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Women’s Medical Work in Seoul As the capital city where the Protestant medical mission was started, Seoul served as the most important medical center in the country. Major medical developments continued to take place in Seoul, mostly by the two northern missions. The Seoul station also had a larger number of women medical missionaries than most other mission stations did. Consequently, the women’s medical work in Seoul grew larger and faster than the medical work in other regional centers during this period. The Presbyterian medical women continued to be important contributors to the development of the medical mission in Seoul during the 1890s and 1900s. Lillias H. Underwood led most of the mission’s medical work for women in Seoul in the 1890s. She continued to serve as the queen’s physician until 1895 and also started dispensary work for lower-class women in the city. She opened a dispensary first in her own home and also visited patients who were too ill to come to the dispensary.5 In 1893 she purchased a Korean building in a part of the city called Mo Wha Kwan and made it a special dispensary for abandoned patients with infectious diseases. She named it “The Shelter” and there treated hundreds of people every year.6 During the great cholera epidemic of 1895, which killed five thousand people in Seoul and its vicinity, Lillias Underwood opened the Shelter for the most serious cases and helped save scores of lives and helped raise the people’s trust in the missionaries.7 In addition to the dispensary work, she also opened a small hospital, called Hugh O’Neil Jr. Memorial Hospital, for women and children in 1893.8 Although most of the Presbyterian women’s medical work was done through the small dispensaries and the hospital for women and children in the earlier years, their work increasingly became concentrated at the reformed Government Hospital. After the Government Hospital came under the full control of the Presbyterian Mission, a large modern hospital building was constructed and re-opened as the new Severance Hospital in 1904. Although Oliver R. Avison was leading this development,

249

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Severance Hospital, Seoul

a number of Presbyterian women medical missionaries made indispensable contributions to the establishment of this first modern hospital in Korea. Georgiana Whiting, M.D. and Anna P. Jacobson, R.N. were the first women to come to work at the hospital with Avison in 1895. Anna Jacobson was the first nurse sent by the Presbyterian Mission to Korea after many years of desperate search for a trained nurse by the missionaries in Korea. Unfortunately, less than two years after her arrival, Jacobson contracted amoebic dysentery and died. Although she had been in Korea for only a short time, the entire body of missionaries and Korean Christians in Seoul grieved the loss of her life greatly. A description of her funeral reveals how quickly she had won the hearts of Koreans and how much she was loved by them: When her remains were taken to the cemetery, now becoming rich with much precious dust, her casket was carried on the shoulders of the native Christians, who sang joyful songs of the better land all the way. It was like the return of a conqueror… To carry a dead body is looked upon as very degrading. So

250

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

the fact that the native Christians insisted on doing this, and would not allow hired bearers to touch the dear form, showed how they all loved and honored Miss Jacobson… 9

Soon after Jacobson’s death, the hospital also lost the service of Georgiana Whiting, when she married Clement C. Owen of the Southern Presbyterian Mission and moved to Mokpo in 1900. The places of Whiting and Jacobson were filled by the arrival of two single medical workers—Eva Field, M.D. and Esther L. Shields, R. N. Unlike Whiting and Jacobson, Eva Field and Esther Shields were able to serve the Presbyterian Mission for a number of years and made important contributions to the growth of the hospital and the medical work in Seoul. Eva Field assumed the leadership of the Woman’s Department of Severance Hospital, and she also took charge of the entire hospital during Avison’s first furlough.10 She married A. A. Pieters of the same mission and continued active medical work both in Chairyung and Seoul until her death in 1932.11 Esther Shields worked in Korea until her retirement in 1937 and contributed significantly to the development of the nursing profession in Korea. The first Presbyterian school for nurses and midwives was established in Severance Hospital under her charge in 1906.12 By the year 1908, the school reportedly had seven pupils and had already graduated five students.13 The women missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, North, started medical work in Seoul through the Woman’s Hospital of the WFMS, which Meta Howard, M.D. founded in 1887. After Dr. Howard left Korea due to her failing health, Rosetta Sherwood took charge of the work from 1880 until her marriage and relocation to Pyengyang in 1894, and then Mary Cutler, M.D. succeeded her in Seoul. The reports and letters of the Methodist medical women during the period often mention the fast growth of their medical work in Seoul. Upon arriving in Seoul, Rosetta Sherwood found her hands full with the work at the Woman’s Hospital and started seeing patients on her second day in Seoul.14 Her reports of the number of cases

251

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

she treated in the first two years show the rate of growth of the hospital work; she treated 2,476 cases, of which 277 were surgical cases and 77 were calls to patients in their homes during her first year and then treated a total 4,022 cases, of which 277 were surgical cases and 140 were calls to homes, in her second year. She also expected that the hospital work of her third year would far outgrow the second year.15 When Mary Cutler succeeded the hospital work, she found herself swamped by the work of the hospital from the moment of her arrival in Korea as well; she reported that she often saw more than thirty women and children in one afternoon.16 Besides the Woman’s Hospital, small dispensaries for women also functioned as important centers of medical work for the Methodist missionary women within the city. Rosetta Sherwood opened two dispensaries in 1894 in Seoul, extending the mission’s medical work to the East Gate and South Gate areas of the city. She traveled the three miles’ distance from the Woman’s Hospital to the Baldwin Dispensary at the East Gate several times a week in a closed sedan chair carried by coolies. She once wrote how she bore with the frequent trips with such slow speed; “Sometimes I close my eyes upon the squalid mud huts and the naked children, and imagine I am being borne swiftly along in an elevated car to my work in a home city.”17 From this dispensary work at the East Gate eventually grew the East Gate Church and the Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital.18 Since there was yet no trained nurse or assistant in medical work, many had to start their work in Korea not only as a doctor, but also as a nurse and pharmacist. Rosetta Sherwood of the WFMS started her medical work in Korea in such a way, as she described her many duties: …it took a great deal of time to prepare all the needed mixtures, ointments, and powders, to take temperatures and pulses of inpatients, and see to the giving of their food and medicine regularly, to do all the dressings of ulcers and abscesses, and

252

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Rosetta Sherwood Hall with Her Children

the many other things incident to dispensary and hospital work which do not necessarily need to be done by a doctor.19

Rosetta Sherwood was overjoyed when the WFMS sent Ella A. Lewis in 1891, the first nurse to assist in the work at the Woman’s Hospital. As the only nurse available, Ella Lewis also found herself daily pressed by an overwhelming amount of work. When they opened the children’s ward in the hospital, her work often lasted through the night with surgical and fever cases in the ward.20 Not until 1903 was the second nurse, Margaret J. Edmunds, sent to the WFMS mission in Seoul.

253

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The WFMS women also sought to educate Korean girls in medicine from early on, knowing that the few medical missionaries could never meet the great need for physicians in Korea. Rosetta Sherwood was the first to form an informal medical training class. She started to train one Japanese girl and three girls from the Ewha Girls’ School immediately after her coming to Korea. Although the girls were only between twelve and fourteen years of age and were first afraid of the hospital sights, they soon overcame their fear and became valuable assistants. However, after she lost two of the trained girls to early marriage, she began to train a young widow for the dispensary work.21 The first formal medical training institution established for Korean women was the Nurses’ Training School, founded by Margaret Edmunds and Dr. Mary Cutler in December of 1902. At that time there was not even a word for “nurse” in Korean, so they created the Korean word, “Kanho Won” for “nurse” by taking Chinese characters.22 Margaret Edmunds helped Esther Shields to start the Presbyterian nursing school at the Severance Hospital as well.23 The Methodist medical women missionaries maintained effective medical work in Seoul with the assistance of a few Korean girls and a few other missionary women. Even when the General Hospital of the Methodist Mission in Seoul closed its doors in the early part of the twentieth century, the Women’s Hospital continued its strong existence under Mary Cutler, M.D., and the Baldwin Dispensary at the East Gate also continued its services under Emma Ernsberger, M.D. The Baldwin Dispensary was eventually transformed into the Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital in 1911 with funds furnished by the Cincinnati branch of the WFMS.24 As was the case during the first five years, the medical missionaries of the two northern missions continued to play a critical role in evangelizing the Korean population in Seoul. All the medical women strongly desired to make evangelistic advances through their medical work and intentionally associated their work with constant prayer and preaching

254

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

activities.25 One of Lillias Underwood’s reports clearly expresses the characteristic desire of the medical women missionaries: “I have tried as far as possible in all cases to combine Christian instruction of some kind, with medical advice, and have been happy to be permitted to do at least a little…”26 In order to provide regular preaching to the patients and visitors at the Methodist Women’s Hospital, the WFMS missionaries secured the service of a Bible Woman for the hospital as early as in 1893. The Bible woman, Mary Whang, was a young married girl from the Ewha Girls’ School. Mary Whang and Ella Lewis conducted a service each day in the hospital’s waiting room with the dispensary patients and the in-patients.27 The Bible woman also came to see the hospital patients with her New Testament at every noontime and talked about different Christian topics from it, such as “the Heavenly Father,” “Jesus, the Savior,” “A Holy Rest-day,” “Repentance,” “Salvation,” and “Everlasting life.”28 The evangelistic influence of the medical missionaries was often demonstrated by the receptive attitude that Korean women developed toward missionaries, especially after they had received medical treatment. Many former patients often came back to see the missionaries with other Korean women, not only for medical reason, but also to give others the opportunity to hear the Gospel from the missionaries.29 The medical missionaries also shared the Gospel by regularly visiting the homes of their former patients, especially during the winter season when the hospital had fewer patients. During their visits, they would check up on the condition of the patients, but also taught the women and children “the Gospel, Catechism, prayers and Christian songs.”30 Korean women and patients also began to invite the missionaries, and the number of places for the medical women to visit and preach increased. Besides their work within the city, the women doctors also extended their medical service to surrounding villages and to the country districts by frequently taking itinerant trips.31 As Lillias Horton Underwood’s reports often indicated, the medical women missionaries made trips into the country for both medical

255

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

and evangelistic purposes. Whenever Lillias Underwood made trips into the interior with her husband, she treated numerous patients and thereby helped the people to hear their Christian message more favorably.32 Through such trips as pioneering missionaries, medical women missionaries in Seoul contributed to opening the central region and other parts of the country to the evangelistic influence of the missions. Women’s Medical Work in Other Regions The Southeast–Fusan Drs. Hugh and Fannie Hurd Brown started a medical mission in Fusan shortly after William and Annie Baird opened a missionary station there in 1891. The Browns began their work in a small dispensary in 1891. The building was planned so that a part of it could be used for women until a separate building could be secured for the women’s work. From the beginning, fully half of the patients visiting the dispensary were women. Fannie Brown’s medical reports in these early years describe the difficult conditions of work that she had to endure, as the two physicians shared the same “Go Down” rooms for men and women.33 The arrangement was especially difficult and crowded, since the women had to come at the same hours when Hugh Brown worked. Not having any medical assistant, Fannie Brown also took care of bathing, washing, and prescriptions.34 Although the medical work in Fusan was started under such difficult conditions, the Presbyterian Mission’s medical committee still reported in 1893 that the Browns had “so much success in their medical work.”35 Fanny Brown also combined religious teaching with her medical work and helped Annie Baird lead morning services for women in the dispensary.36 Unfortunately, Fannie Brown’s medical work for women was permanently interrupted when Hugh Brown contracted tuberculosis and fell ill. The seriousness of his sickness forced the Browns to resign and return to America in 1893. Hugh Brown eventually passed away two years later.

256

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

After Fannie Brown returned to America, no other woman physician was assigned to the southeast region. The medical work of Fusan was continued by Dr. C. H. Irvin with the support of his wife, Bertha. Before the American Presbyterian missionaries closed the Fusan station, the station reportedly treated thousands of patients successfully and came to have one of the first modern hospitals in Korea, the Junkin Memorial Hospital, built in 1903.37 Taiku, the other station in the southeast, also had medical work started by W. O. Johnson, M.D., and Christine Cameron, a nurse, came to Taiku as the first medical woman for the station in 1906.38 The Northwest–Pyengyang In this period, Pyengyang became not only the leading evangelistic center in the northwest, but also the most important medical center in the north. Rosetta S. Hall was the indisputable pioneer and leader of the women’s medical mission in Pyengyang for many years. In the process of pioneering medical mission in this northern city, she had to endure great trials, as described by her story in previous chapters. She first started her medical work in Pyengyang immediately after she moved into the city in the spring of 1894, in spite of the hostility and danger that she had faced upon their arrival. Although she had to return to America in 1895 after the sudden death of her husband, she never stopped working for the Pyengyang mission even during the three years back in America. A major contribution she made in America for the medical work in Pyengyang was to raise money for the construction of the first hospital there. Before his death, James Hall started the “Pyong Yang Fund” for the pioneering missionary work in Pyengyang.39 After his death, Rosetta asked the mission to use the money toward the erection of a hospital building, and soon after she gave birth to her daughter in America, she went on to raise the money needed for the completion of the hospital. For this purpose, she published a book, The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M.D. in 1897, and added the proceeds from the book sales

257

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Esther Kim Pak and Her Husband, Mr. Pak

to the hospital fund.40 Thanks to her efforts and those of many other missionaries in Korea, the Hall Memorial Hospital was completed and opened on February 1, 1897. E. Douglas Follwell, M.D., who succeeded Dr. James Hall in Pyengyang, reported that the building of the hospital was completed “without any expense whatever to the Missionary Society,… through the selfdenial of our late beloved Doctor Hall, his wife, also a physician, and their kind friends in Korea and the home land… ”41 Her medical work for Korean women also continued in America through the education of Esther Kim Pak, one of her Korean students whom she brought to America to send her to a medical school. Esther Kim Pak had worked closely with Rosetta Hall as her translator and assistant during Rosetta Sherwood’s first year in Seoul, when Esther was a young pupil at the Ewha Girls’ School. Esther Kim’s relationship with Rosetta Hall grew so deep that Esther and her husband even accompanied the Halls in their perilous first journey to Pyengyang. When James Hall died and Rosetta was preparing to leave Korea, Esther insisted

258

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

that she would follow her teacher to America. Rosetta decided to take Esther and her husband to America, in order to send her to a medical college. Many of her friends in America volunteered to support the education of this Korean girl, “believing in Esther’s education as a practical form of mission work.”42 Rosetta Hall raised enough financial support to send Esther to Women’s Medical College of Baltimore, which would later become a part of Johns Hopkins University. Her extraordinary efforts were rewarded just within a few years when Esther Kim Pak became the very first Korean to receive the M.D. degree and came back to Korea in 1900, appointed as a medical missionary by the WFMS.43 Meanwhile, Rosetta Hall was unable to stay away from Korea and returned to her adopted country in 1897, once again appointed as a single medical missionary by the WFMS. Since she desired to continue her work in Pyengyang, where her husband laid down his life, the WFMS assigned her to the station in 1898. However, a tragedy struck her again soon after her moving to Pyengyang; the unsanitary conditions of the city claimed another life from her dear family—this time, her three-year-old daughter, Edith Margaret Hall. Six months after moving into their house in Pyengyang, Edith died of dysentery.44 As her own report tells, she had to go through “a baptism of great sorrow” again: We fully expected to get settled in our new home by the middle of May and to celebrate May 15th, the day we opened work for women and children in ’94, by re-opening it in ’98. But “man proposes and God disposes.” We were first to pass through a baptism of great sorrow, as in ’94 we had first to go through severe persecution.45

Although the sorrow and the grief of losing Edith were deep, Rosetta Hall amazing pulled herself up to continue the work as a missionary and to fulfill the purpose for which she came to Pyengyang. She re-opened in 1898 the work of the WFMS for

259

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women and children in a U-shaped building that was picked out as the WFMS site in Pyengyang.46 She moved into this building in June and started medical work at the dispensary inside the building, and her clinical work grew considerably. Unlike the former governor of the city who had persecuted Christians at the time of the Halls’ first entrance to Pyengyang, the new governor, whose wife had been successfully treated of illness by Rosetta Hall, gladly granted a name for her new dispensary—“Woman’s Dispensary of Extended Grace.”47 In order to accommodate the growing medical work in Pyengyang, she built the first modern hospital in the city with a separate children’s ward and named the children’s ward after her deceased daughter. She sold Edith’s clothes and added to the little savings account she had for Edith, which became the “nest egg” for the new hospital. The Edith Margaret Ward was first built with this memorial fund, and the main building was added to this wing later.48 When a fire burned the women’s hospital and the children’s ward in 1906, she re-built a new hospital of brick and granite with more modern features. For more than three decades, Rosetta Hall was the leader and pioneer of medical work for women and children in Pyengyang and beyond. Even though Methodist women were few in the region, Dr. Hall had charge of a great portion of the women’s medical work in the northwest. She was indeed the chief power behind the Methodist medical work in the north and often carried it with little help from other medical missionaries. She worked as the only Methodist medical woman in the region until Dr. Lillian Harris came to Pyengyang in 1901. However, the invaluable service of Lillian Harris was abruptly cut short by typhus fever which claimed her life in May 1902.49 Although Dr. Harris’ death was a great loss for the medical work in Pyengyang, Rosetta Hall was comforted by the return of Esther Kim Pak, M.D., who gave herself sacrificially to the healing and evangelization of her own people from the moment of her return. She treated nearly 3,000 cases in her first ten months back in Korea.50 Esther Kim Pak served alongside

260

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Rosetta Hall as her most trusted friend and colleague for the next ten years, until she died of tuberculosis in 1910.51 Rosetta Hall continued to lead developments of women’s medical work for in Pyengyang with other WFMS missionaries in the following decades. More than any other area of medical work, her heart was in training Korean women in medicine. Ever since she returned to Korea in 1897, her slogan was “Medical work for women by women,” and she strove to educate young Korean women to become qualified physicians.52 Mary Cutler, M.D., who shared the same vision with Rosetta Hall and had trained several Korean female medical students in Seoul, joined Hall in Pyengyang in 1913. They began working together with great vigor to produce Korean women doctors, a step that was considered more than revolutionary by fellow missionaries. They pursued the course of producing Korean medical women by first opening the Nurses’ Training School in Pyengyang in 1912 and then by taking in a class of women medical students in 1913.53 Three women from that class became the first female doctors educated in Korea, and two others also graduated from medical schools in Japan and China.54 By 1924, at least twelve Korean women had received their licenses to practice medicine, and the Women’s Medical Institute was also opened with eighteen students. It was in 1937 when Rosetta Hall’s dream of establishing a medical college for women in Korea finally became a reality.55 Through all of the different developmental stages of the women’s medical mission in Pyengyang, Rosetta Hall remained as the leader of the work during the forty-five years of her missionary service in Korea. Rosetta Sherwood Hall and Mary Cutler were in fact the only medical workers of the Methodist Episcopal Church to give lifetime service in Korea. They both worked for more than forty years and made an immeasurable contribution to the development of medical mission and education in Korea.56 During so many years of selfless service, Rosetta Hall’s immense contributions came to be well recognized in Korea and abroad. At the celebration of her twenty-fifth anniversary of coming to

261

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korea in 1925, she was called the “Mother of Pyeng Yang” and was likened to Abraham Lincoln, “liberating the women of Korea as he did the slaves,” by those who gathered to honor her.57 She also received a silver cup from the Japanese Governor-General of Korea in recognition of her “meritorious services rendered for the public good.”58 Her sixtieth birthday was another occasion when Koreans expressed even greater honor and love for her.59 Among the many expressions of gratitude for her thirty-seven years of labor, no other seemed to have better expressed it than a song composed and sung by the East Gate Hospital staff: Deep in the mountains lie hidden silver and gold. Pearls rest on the deep ocean floor. But through the grace of God, Dr. Hall has been placed by Him here. The toil and tears of sixty years Are given without stint, And her life so freely given Is indeed her true memorial.60 The medical work of women and children in Pyengyang, however, was not left only in the hands of the Methodist missionary women. The Presbyterian women missionaries also started active medical work for women and children in Pyengyang. The Presbyterian Mission built its first hospital in Pyengyang, Caroline A. Ladd Hospital, in 1906. In just a short time after the hospital was opened, over a thousand patients were treated at the hospital and dispensary.61 Such an overwhelming number of patients could be treated only because the both medical and non-medical women missionaries provided regular services, although the hospital had no nurse available.62 During the early period of the hospital, Mrs. Lulu Ribble Wells and Dr. Alice Fish Moffett provided regular services at the Presbyterian hospital in Pyengyang.63 While working at the Presbyterian hospital, Alice Fish Moffett, M.D. also opened a dispensary for women and children between 1899 and 1900 and treated

262

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

a total of 415 patients during the seventy-six dispensary days of the first year. As her report reveals, she was happy to have abundant opportunities for evangelism among the patients at the dispensary.64 She conducted the dispensary work for several years in Pyengyang, treating 400 to 700 patients at the dispensary each year.65 Even though her family duties often kept her from doing as much medical work as she could before her marriage, Alice Moffett provided valuable medical service in Pyengyang. Sadly her life was taken abruptly, when she died of a childbirth complication in 1912.66 Although the Methodist and Presbyterian medical missionaries in Pyengyang served mainly through the hospitals and dispensaries established by their own missions, there was a great deal of friendly cooperation among the medical missionaries of the two denominations. The Presbyterian mission report of the Pyengyang Station submitted in 1908, for instance, expresses gratitude for much help received from the three medical missionaries of the Methodist Mission, among whom were Rosetta S. Hall and Miss Hallman.67 It was the common practice throughout the Korea mission field during the pioneering period for the medical missionaries to look after the missionaries of other denominations and their families. Samuel Hugh Moffett, who was born in Pyengyang as a missionary child of the Presbyterian Mission, remembers that his life was saved during his infancy by Rosetta S. Hall of the Methodist Mission.68 Much of the great medical success that took place in Pyengyang was because of such effective cooperation among medical missionaries. The Southwest The missionary who led the medical mission in the southwest was Martha Ingold of the Southern Presbyterian Mission. She joined the pioneering band of missionaries in Chunju in 1898 as the first missionary doctor assigned to the region. During most of her years in the Chunju station, she served as the only doctor of the station and of the region, as the mission was unable to

263

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

provide many more doctors for their work. In spite of her repeated requests for male physicians for the work among men, she had to work for many years as the only medical missionary who took charge of all the medical work of the station.69 Although the Chunju station received a male doctor, Dr. W. H. Forsythe, in 1904, his service lasted only eighteen months due to a severe injury he received from an attack of robbers. He was attacked during a visit in a country district and had to return to America. After describing the story of Dr. Forsythe’s injury, Anabel Nisbet wrote, “Chunju, after waiting ten years for a physician, who could work among the men and boys, again had to make a fresh start with Dr. Ingold, who became Mrs. Tate.”70 After marrying Lewis Tate in 1905, Mattie Ingold Tate tried to focus her time and energy mainly on the evangelistic work, but she still provided medical service, as the need persisted. Thus, in the history of the Chunju station, Martha Ingold was not only the pioneer of medical work for women, but was also the pioneer of the entire medical mission of the station. Ingold’s diaries, letters, and reports provide detailed descriptions of the medical work she conducted in Chunju and other southwestern districts. She started her medical mission in Chunju upon her arrival with some cases among the missionaries of measles and pulling a tooth. But soon afterwards many Koreans came to see her, although she had only a few drugs and no place to work at that time.71 As the only medical pioneer in a brand new interior station, she had to accept patients and make medical trips while building her dispensary.72 The first dispensary she fitted up in Chunju had only two small Korean rooms. One room was used for treatment, and the other room was used as a waiting room where the Gospels, catechisms, and tracts were kept and where a Bible woman taught the women about the Christian faith.73 As the most permanent physician in the southwest, Martha Ingold also watched over the health of the missionaries and the progress of the missionary work both in Chunju and Kunsan stations. Her reports frequently mention the times spent in caring

264

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

for sick missionaries and their children in the two stations. In 1899, she spent much time caring for Bolling Reynolds, son of William and Patsy Reynolds in Chunju, and saved his life.74 Her report of 1903 also tells that she spent a number of days caring for the sick missionaries and their children in Kunsan.75 Ingold’s medical work also contributed significantly in removing the strong Korean prejudice against foreigners in the conservative southwest, as a report of 1900 clearly explains. She received a call during the year to see the wife of an official in Chunju. This was her first professional visit inside the city. Since the people of Chunju were extremely conservative and suspicious of foreigners, her offer to help patients inside the city had been always rejected prior to this invitation. The invitation from the city official indicated that the reputation of her medical work was beginning to break down the strong prejudice, even among the most conservative high officials.76 Speaking of Ingold’s contributions, Anabel Nisbet wrote, “Her treatment of women and children were of incalculable help in removing prejudice and misconceptions and in securing a hearing for the Gospel. ‘A medical missionary is’ indeed ‘a missionary and a half.’”77 The medical work of the Chunju station grew steadily every year under Martha Ingold’s leadership. During the year between 1901 and 1902, she treated 1,586 patients in the dispensary within six and half months when it was open, and made 150 visits to patients in fifty-two homes.78 She also conducted successful evangelistic work alongside her medical work from the beginning by teaching the Gospel and distributing Christian literature in her dispensary’s waiting room to almost everyone who came to the dispensary and by conducting a prayer time every morning for the in-patients and others.79 Many among those who had been to her dispensary began to attend Sunday school, and those who were cured from their sicknesses were often won to the faith. Martha Ingold once wrote about two women who began to attend the church after gaining their sight through a surgery. She wrote, “I was no less brave to undertake it [the cataract operation], as it was my first work in this line.”

265

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

In spite of Ingold’s nervousness, the operations were successful and brought sight back to the women. The women began to attend the church after the operation with “a receptive frame of mind” toward the Christian teaching.80 When Martha Ingold was married to Lewis Tate in 1904, she planned to hand her medical work over to a male physician and to focus her strength more in the evangelistic work with her husband. However, after Dr. Forsythe was injured and returned to the U.S., she was again in charge of Chunju’s medical work until Dr. F. H. Birdman came in 1908.81 As the only medical missionary in Chunju for the most of the pioneering period, Martha Ingold Tate holds an extremely important place not only in the history of the Chunju station but also in the history of the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Korea. She served as one of the premier pioneers of the Mission and contributed immensely to the growth of the missionary work and evangelization in the region. Although medical women missionaries made up only about ten percent of all the women missionaries who came to Korea between 1894 and 1907, their impact went much beyond what their small number suggested.82 The entire missionary body heavily depended on the medical missionaries for their own lives, and their medical work among the Koreans played a critical role in the progress of the missions. Many among the medical women missionaries endured great personal sacrifices to pioneer medical missions in Korea. In spite of the sacrifices, the legacy of the pioneer medical missionary women continued to live through the medical institutions they established and the new generations of Korean medical women. WOMEN’S EDUCATIONAL WORK Education was the most common form of missionary activity for women in foreign mission fields in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Dana Robert explains, “education of women and children was the first open door available to women missionaries under the new women’s mission boards” in the

266

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

nineteenth century when foreign missions became available as a ministry option for American women.83 Not only was teaching considered as the best role for women from the perspective of the nineteenth-century American idea of a woman’s sphere, but it was also the easiest way to start work in mission fields for many women. Women were often held back from engaging in evangelistic role in the earlier years, since it often involved preaching and itinerating, which were seen as men’s activities. They were also kept from taking official church positions even in mission fields, due to the fact that the women could not yet receive formal theological education and ordination. The option of medical missionary role was limited as well, simply because only a small percentage of the missionary women were trained in medicine. On the other hand, most missionary women could easily take part in missionary efforts by teaching women and children. The fact that the women missionaries could be in complete charge of the female schools they established was also an attraction of the educational mission for women. Most of the pioneer missionary women to Korea had received more than secondary education, and it was natural for them to use education to begin their missionary activities in Korea. We have seen how the few American women missionaries established the first schools for Korean girls in Seoul within the first five years. During the next two decades, the women missionaries developed more comprehensive educational system to raise the level of education in Korea, while they extended educational mission to all regions and popularized modern education for girls throughout Korea. Methods of Women’s Educational Work in Korea Although the first two schools for girls in Seoul were started by just a handful of women missionaries who gathered girls available for the most simple instructions, the women’s educational work advanced significantly in the following two decades and brought forth remarkable results. The women

267

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

missionaries adapted different methods to bring such advances in the quality of mission school education and to develop a more comprehensive educational program to accommodate the growing need of modern education in Korea. One of the ways that they advanced female education in Korea was to constantly expand the curriculum at the mission schools. The Methodist and Presbyterian girls’ schools in Seoul were started with the most elementary curriculum. The first pupils at the schools were often very young in age, as young as four or five years old, and the curriculum in the early years included little more than lessons on reading, simple arithmetic, and sewing, and continued to be that way until the early 1890s. Susan Doty’s report in 1893 describes the kinds of instruction the girls received at the Presbyterian Girls’ School in Seoul: In the past year, a combination of work, sewing, study and play… Their work has constituted the combing of their hair, preparation of dinning room work, keeping of their rooms, etc. They are quite skillful with their needle, an important feature of girls’ education and we are planning larger things for their sewing in the coming year.84

During the early 1890s, the missionaries continued to hold a conservative purpose for female education, as many were not yet able to see the great potentiality of educated Korean girls. The report submitted by the Educational Committee of the Presbyterian Mission in 1892, for instance, reveals how different their level of expectation was for the school girls from their expectation for the boys. While they expected “a select band of the boys of the lower class” in their school to become “the pastors and the educators and… of a future generation of this land… ,” they saw the girls in their school mainly as “a charming little community of the future wives of the young men.”85 Although the Methodist women missionaries had a broader approach to the girls’ education at Ewha, they still worked with the assumption that their students’ primary destiny would be domestic life and

268

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

emphasized that the mission school should not make the girls unfit for their destiny.86 However, even though the missionaries had limited vision for Korean girls’ future, the curriculum at the girls’ school continued to expand largely because the girls rapidly advanced in their academic ability. Missionary women with various expertise and academic background were also coming to Korea and contributed to the growth of the curriculum. At times, the school girls themselves insisted that their schools provide more challenging courses for learning. The earliest incident when the students expressed the desire to receive broader education was in 1887, when the Ewha pupils requested a course on written Chinese to be added to their curriculum. Up to that time the girls’ schools in Seoul taught mostly the native Korean script, which was disdained by the educated class as “women’s letters” and was not used in scholarly writings. The girls’ request to study Chinese characters made the missionaries realize that the girls desired to “pursue the same studies as their brothers,” meaning that they wanted to receive equal education with the boys.87 Thus, both the Korean girls’ ability and desire to study and the increasing need of Korean churches for educated women caused missionaries to gradually raise the standard of female education in Korea. The Methodist schools were again leaders in the effort to advance the level of girls’ education, as they generally offered more numerous and advanced subjects than the Presbyterian schools did. The Ewha Girls School, for example, provided from the earlier years regular lessons on geography, music, science, and Old Testament, while the Presbyterian Girls’ School taught merely reading, the Bible, and domestic arts.88 As the pupils advanced in all their subjects and desired to study further, the girls’ mission schools began to provide secondary education to older girls in the later part of the period. Although college education for women was not available in Korea until 1910, the missionary women still saw some of their former students from the early mission schools receive college and higher degrees

269

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

abroad even before the first college for women was established in Korea.89 The women missionaries started to educate Korean women for more practical professions during these years. As mentioned earlier, the pioneer missionary women started training Korean girls for medical work from an early date first as medical assistants and then providing them more expanded medical education. By the end of the pioneering period, nursing schools had been already organized at the Methodist Women’s Hospital and the Severance Hospital in Seoul, and the first medical school for women was ready to open in Pyengyang. Missionary women also started training Korean women for educational profession as well. As the demand for modern education grew dramatically in Korea from the mid-1890s, missionary women organized the “Normal Schools” to train Korean women as educators, in order to meet the growing need of school teachers in the country. The women missionaries also tried to meet the need of better educated female religious workers by opening Bible schools and Bible institutes for women, which provided courses on the Bible and basic Christian theology. Those educated at these schools were sent out as Bible women, which soon became a recognized position for women among the missionaries and Korean churches. The Bible women played an indispensable role in the rapid growth of the churches in Korea. The women missionaries’ educational efforts during the period went further than simply educating girls, but moved to pioneer education for the disabled in Korea. American women missionaries were indeed pioneers in the education for the handicapped, especially the blind and deaf. Educating the blind was an idea foreign in Korea at that time, since those with disabilities were simply perceived as a burden to the society and commonly received sub-human treatment. Until the missionary women organized schools for the blind, no effort was found to educate the blind on the part of Korean society. Although education for the blind started on a small scale, it marked the beginning of hope and life for the people

270

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

with disabilities in Korea.90 Another important way that women missionaries contributed to the development of the educational mission and modern education in Korea was through their literary work. In addition to the first complete translation of the Bible in Korean, the early American missionaries produced volumes of Christian classics, dictionaries, language helps, academic books, textbooks, children’s books, hymnals, Christian fiction, historical accounts, cultural studies, and other kinds of literature for both Koreans and American readers. Women were among the most active literary workers of the pioneer missionaries. While the Bible translation was assigned only to male missionaries who had received formal theological education, missionary women contributed immensely to production of other Christian literature in both Korean and English, which helped the cause of the missions and the early modernization of education in Korea. Their literary contributions have not been recognized well, since it takes painstaking search of obscure sources to discover the level of their participation in the production of such early literature. For example, when Pilgrim’s Progress was first translated and published in Korean, the missionaries exclaimed, “that immortal work, standing next to the Bible, is now in the hands of the people of the ‘Hermit Land.’”91 Although James Gale has been commonly considered to be the translator of the work, it was in fact the result of the combined translating efforts of James and Hattie Gibson Gale.92 Another important literary contribution made by the pioneer missionaries to the growth of the early Korean churches was translation of hymnals, and women missionaries were major contributors in this area of work. In 1896 the Methodist hymnal was one of three hymnals circulating in Korea, and it was compiled by Louisa Rothweiler and George H. Jones. Other women also translated a number of hymns and children’s songs that would be used by early Korean Christians. Annie Baird was particularly important translator of a number of well-sung hymns, and she also prepared one of the first books

271

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

James Gale and Hattie Gibon Gale with their Daughter and Blind Pastor Keel

of play songs and hymns for children with Mrs. A. L. Becker of the Methodist Mission.93 Among the many women’s literary accomplishments that offered tremendous help to the early missions, Fifty Helps for the Study of the Korean Language by Annie A. Baird is worth mentioning. Fifty Helps was a language tool written to help learners of the Korean language and was first published in 1897. It was one of the ground-breaking linguistic guides, produced at a time when the missionaries had almost no help in learning the Korean language. In the beginning of Protestant missions in Korea, there was no dictionary or grammatical aid that the missionaries could use to study Korean, except for a FrenchKorean dictionary produced by Catholic missionaries. So the missionaries often hired Korean teachers to learn the language. However, since the teachers did not know a word of English and the students often not a word of Korean, they frequently resorted to the most primitive pedagogical method of “acting,” as Mary Scranton once described:

272

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Then, too, how could one expect quickly to acquire the language when there were no books, no teachers worthy of the name, and no interpreters whose knowledge went further than the simplest form of speech. It was no great feat to get a vocabulary of nouns, but when it came to verbs and we were obliged to “act” them, it sometimes became puzzling, not to say ludicrous.94

Through such struggles, the pioneer missionaries began to compile a Korean-English dictionary and to produce study aids to help in learning Korean. Annie Baird’s Fifty Helps was one of the first language helps produced during the period.95 As one of the most popular language aids for generations of missionaries, it was put through several editions and used as the standard textbook for missionaries until World War II.96 Another area of early missionary women’s literary contributions was in the work of producing Sunday school materials and school textbooks. A number of instructional materials that were used for decades in the religious and academic education of Koreans were the works of women missionaries. To name a few, Margaret Bengel Jones produced a Korean primer in 1894, and Martha Ingold Tate, M.D. wrote a simple catechism for children.97 Tate’s catechism was the first booklet to be published by the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Korea, and it was so useful for children, women, new believers and even new missionaries that its revisions continued to be published for many years.98 Women missionaries were also major suppliers of translated textbooks to the early modern schools in Korea. In this area of literary work, Annie Baird again stands out as a pioneer and leader. Annie Baird was one of the educational missionary pioneers, who established Pyengyang Academy and College, the leading higher-education institutions in Korea during the period, and translated volumes of secondary and college level textbooks that the students needed. When the medical college was opened at Severance

273

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Hospital, Annie Baird also helped furnish textbooks for the first medical students in Korea with a translation of Gray’s Botany for Common Schools in 1902, while Eva Field, M.D. translated another textbook, Physiology.99 Her contributions were well recognized by her contemporaries. George Paik, a Korean historian who produced the first major history of Protestant missions in Korea, describes her as “a gifted writer,” who was accomplished in natural science and music, and recognizes her as a pioneer in translating textbooks.100 He also testifies how he and hundreds of Korean students of his time were indebted to her for their education; “the large volumes through which hundreds of writer’s contemporaries learned the first lessons in zoology, botany and later general history, are her work.”101 Paik also comments on the significance of her labor, “no one lady missionary who has left more notable literary product than Mrs. Baird.”102 As women missionaries constantly tried to improve the quality of education they provided, they became a major force behind the establishment and modernization of public education in Korea during the period. Their mission schools brought educational opportunity to many Koreans who were previously deprived of education, especially the Korean female population and children of lower social classes. The expanding curriculum at their schools made larger fields of knowledge available to the students, and their effort of producing new literature also contributed greatly to the success of educational mission and the growth of educational institutions in Korea. Benefit from their educational work was not only for the Koreans, but it was also for their own people in the West. The missionaries to Korea frequently spoke at major conferences, churches, and public meetings in America and Europe and wrote numerous magazine articles, reports, tracts, and books about Korea and its people. Women missionaries definitely engaged in this effort of making Korea known to the world and promoting Protestant missions in Korea.103 The women missionaries’ writings are also important sources in the cultural

274

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

and historical study of Korea at the turn of the century. Their written observations of Korean women are especially significant since the American missionary women were basically the first westerners who witnessed Korean women’s private lives. In so many ways, the women missionaries’ educational and literary mission helped to expose Koreans and Americans to the world previously unknown to one another. Women’s Educational Work in Different Regions As was the case with the medical work, educational mission always accompanied the evangelistic mission to various regions throughout Korea. Women missionaries functioned as the pioneers and leaders of the work in most regions by establishing schools of all levels. The women missionaries usually initiated their educational work in a new station by opening small day schools or primary schools. In the earlier years, the Koreans did not feel a great need of educating their children. However, from the mid-1890s, the Korean people’s interest in modern education began to grow, and the country soon entered into a period of educational revolution. The enthusiasm for modern education spread like wild fire even in small villages and country districts at the turn of the century. The zeal for education grew so great that Koreans began to open primary schools of western style by themselves, in spite of the lack of qualified teachers. The mission schools founded in the earlier years became extremely popular among the Koreans and grew to offer higher education to their pupils. As the number of schools and students increased beyond their personal teaching capacity, the missionaries began to give more attention to the training of Korean teachers and educators in the later years. Women’s Educational Work in Seoul Seoul served as an important center of female education in Korea during the entire pioneer period and beyond. The first girls’schools established in Seoul continued to develop as the best schools in

275

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korea in size, quality, and reputation. During the two decades of the 1890s and 1900s, both the Methodist and Presbyterian girls’ schools experienced strong growth and development unlike the mission schools for boys in Seoul. The boys’ schools founded by the two missions in Seoul in the first five years suffered greatly because of the missions’ strong emphasis upon evangelism, which meant that the majority of male missionaries were assigned to evangelistic work. The growth of the boys’ schools was consequently hindered due to the lack of teachers. Pai Chai Haktang of the Northern Methodist Mission had over fifty students and the government promised more students, but the school never had more than two or three missionary teachers in the 1890s. Even though the Southern Methodist missionaries joined in their efforts, the school lost a number of students when they eliminated English from the curriculum in 1903. In spite of this unimpressive record, Pai Chai was still the only boys’ school worthy of the name, since the Presbyterian Boys’ School had an even worse course of existence during the period. The Presbyterian missions were particularly strong in their emphasis upon evangelism, and their educational efforts seemed “almost negligible” during these years.104 Although the school’s aim was to prepare preachers and teachers “who shall bear the truth to their country men,” it could not provide the kind of education that could fulfill the aim. As the school was simply unable to make the necessary progress, the mission had to close the feeble institution in 1897.105 The school was finally reopened in 1902 and had its first proper school building built in 1906.106 Unlike the boys’ schools that struggled to maintain their existence, the girls’ schools in Seoul had a different history with consistent and steady growth during the period. The female missionary societies in America sent a more adequate number of educational missionaries to Korea, whereas the general mission boards often failed to assign enough male missionaries to educational work. Since women missionaries could not take formal clerical roles, they could form a stronger sense of association and ownership with educational work for

276

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

women and children. As a result, the girls’ schools in Seoul grew steadily in the following years and continued to function as important evangelistic centers for women and children in Seoul. Susan Doty’s report in 1892 provides an example of the evangelistic impact which the school work had in the city: “the bright happy faces of the children under foreign discipline, and their confidence in their foreign teacher are strong factors in dispelling prejudices.”107 In the following section, early history of three major girls’ schools in Seoul founded by women missionaries is presented. Ewha Girls’ School Ewha Girls’ School of the Northern Methodist Mission, the first school established for girls in Korea, grew to be the leading female educational institution in the country during this period and beyond. Ewha is now one of the leading universities in South Korea. Mary Scranton’s leadership continued to be an important factor in such steady growth for many years. A number of other missionary women were also sent to work at Ewha by the WFMS during these years. Louisa Rothweiler was the first one to come and help Mary Scranton at Ewha in 1887, and then several other single women missionaries—Margaret Bengel, Josephine O. Paine, and Lulu E. Frey—came between 1891 and 1893. During these early years, the school had one Korean woman assistant and three pupils helping the school work. Although Rothweiler worked as the principal for many years, Josephine Paine and Lulu Frey also took charge of the school during Rothweiler’s absences and illnesses.108 Ewha was still a small school before 1900, but the missionary women taught a variety of subjects to their pupils, showing their growing confidence in the ability of the girls. Esther Kim, one of the oldest girls at Ewha in 1893, wrote for Heathen Woman’s Friend that the women missionaries at the school were teaching such subjects as geography, arithmetic, science, English, physiology, Old Testament, and how to play the organ.109 Instructions at the school were given in Korean,

277

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Chinese, and English, using Scripture as the first text book.110 Besides the Scriptures, Christian catechism, Old Testament stories, and translations of other Christian literature were used to teach the girls.111 By the year 1893, the school was able to boast a healthy number of thirty-four boarding students, ranging from five to seventeen years of age. Some of the oldest girls had been at the school for many years and were serving as valuable helpers for the missionaries.112 According to the missionaries, many of the students were saved from the fate of becoming house servants or concubines when the school took them in. For instance, one school girl named Sooni from a family of humble class had been taken away from her parents by a native official who wanted to take her as a concubine. However, when her deep grief became too burdensome for him, she was brought to Ewha School. Although she was at first frightened to be with foreigners, she soon grew to love the school and her teachers. She was eventually baptized and was given the name Mary and became one of the Bible teachers of the school, and her parents were hired to work at the WFMS home. Mary wrote in her own words about coming to Ewha: “When I came to Mrs. Scranton’s school, I had much trouble, but she would be just like a mother to me.”113 Mary was one of the first female Christian workers that Ewha produced among its students. In less than ten years after Ewha opened its doors to Korean girls, the missionary teachers saw some of their older students becoming valuable helpers for Christian missions in Korea. The school report of 1894 noted that one of the girls was working as a Bible woman in the hospital and another was acting as an interpreter.114 During the first decade of the twentieth-century, Ewha was the largest and best-equipped school in Korea, with a student body of seventy-six in 1901. The curriculum was expanded as the girls desired to study a wider range of subjects, and a new two-story brick school building was completed in 1900 under the leadership of Lulu Frey.115 This new building could accommodate four workers and 120 resident pupils. Other advances also took

278

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

place, such as the establishment of a self-help system which made Ewha one of the fastest growing educational institutions in Korea. By 1910, Ewha entered into a stage of becoming a major institution of higher education, when college grade work was begun during the year.116 As the first girls’ school and the best-organized female educational institution in Korea, Ewha made a tremendous contribution to the development of Christian women leaders in Korea. By the fiftieth anniversary of Ewha, its alumni included the first woman college graduate, the first M.D., the first woman Ph.D. and the first certified kindergarten teacher in Korea.117 Ewha students and alumni also became the leading female Christian force in Korea, as they spearheaded many important efforts for evangelization of the country. Many among the earliest Christian organizations for Korean girls and women founded in Seoul were initiated and led by the students and graduates of Ewha School. The first women’s organization in Korea was the Joyce Chapter, founded in 1897 at Chung Dong Methodist Church in Seoul with the bulk of the members coming from Ewha. Three years after the founding of the Joyce Chapter, a sister organization called “Ladies’ Aid Society” was also organized by the Methodists in Seoul under the leadership of Ewha women.118 Years after these first Christian organizations for women were founded, the Ewha women also initiated the organization of the Korean Y.W.C.A. in 1933.119 These important women’s organizations and activities organized by the Ewha School students and graduates occupied a great portion of Christian movements during the early decades of Protestantism in Korea. Presbyterian Girls’ School As mentioned in the previous chapter, Annie Ellers, the first medical woman missionary of the Presbyterian Mission, started the Presbyterian Girls’ School in Seoul with just a handful of girls. The small school later came under the direction of Susan A. Doty in 1890, and she served as the first permanent principal

279

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

of the school for fifteen years. During those years, several other women missionaries joined her in the educational work at the school; Ellen Strong and Victoria Arbuckle joined Doty for two years in 1892, and Katherine Wambold also joined the staff in 1896.120 During the early 1890s, the school had only about ten students and hardly grew in size. Although the missionaries were aware of the positive influence that education had upon the enrolled students, the small number of pupils continued to be a concern for the Presbyterian Mission. After many discussions, the missionaries finally decided to move the Girls’ School to a new location in the city. A report of 1892 explains that it was necessary for the Presbyterian Girls’ School to be moved away from Ewha School to have a chance for growth: The immediate proximity to the Methodist School for girls [Ewha Haktang] with its large attendance, full curriculum, and wide popularity throughout this region of the city renders it doubly difficult to bring our school up to such a standard of numbers and excellence as our ideal aims at.121

Thus Girls’ School was moved in 1894 from its original location in the Foreign Settlement to a new home built at Yun-mot-kol, two miles from the foreign settlement on the eastern side of the city. This relocation was a strategic move, not only for the school’s future, but also for the mission’s evangelistic purpose in Seoul.122 The new school building was built to fit the needs of the school and other functions much better than the one in the former location, as a chapel and a dispensary were also equipped in connection with the school. After the relocation, the school started to grow rapidly with the help of more single women missionaries arriving in Korea and partly because of the growing enthusiasm for western learning among the Koreans. While the number of the students remained around ten until early 1893, the number quickly grew to twenty-eight in the new school building.123

280

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

The level of curriculum at the school continued to be elementary in the early 1890s.124 It was not until 1892 that the first lesson on geography was given by Mrs. Mary H. Gifford.125 However, with the arrival of Ellen Strong and Victoria Arbuckle, the curriculum at the school began to improve; in 1893 Arbuckle taught geography, arithmetic, and reading of Korean characters to the girls, and Miss Ellen Strong began to conduct kindergarten work among the younger girls of the school.126 In addition to the studies, the girls were taught the work pertaining to a Korean home.127 Sewing was considered an important feature of girls’ education, and several older women helped to teach them sewing and making clothes.128 The school continued to have a strong emphasis on religious education. Most of the reading materials at the school were translated Christian literature and Scriptures, and the students memorized large portions of the Bible. According to Susan Doty’s report in 1892, a virtually blind fourteen-year-old girl memorized the entire Gospel of John by repeating a portion of it daily as she listened, and “some of the younger girls also memorized about one half of the __ Gospel.”129 The girls were also encouraged to participate in daily prayers, prayer meetings, Sunday School, and church services, and many of the girls became baptized Christians. In 1894 four girls were reportedly baptized and accepted into the church, and the missionary women believed that the other girls would soon receive baptism as well.130 In 1896 the educational work at the school grew in its scale, as Katherine Wambold joined the staff and a couple of Korean women assistants were employed. After Susan Doty married F. S. Miller and moved to Chungju in 1905, Wambold succeeded her as the second permanent principal of the school, and then M. B. Barrett took charge of it in the following year.131 Although the educational work of the Presbyterian Mission was greatly overshadowed by the emphasis on evangelism, the evidence still shows that significant advances took place in the educational work of the girls’ school during the first decade of the 1900s.132 By 1907 the Girls’ School had grown to become the Women’s

281

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Academy with the total enrollment of fifty-eight students, and among the students were eighteen young married women or widows. Susan Doty Miller was still largely in charge of the school with the help of other missionaries, and the school enrolled as many students as the buildings could hold. By then, the old industrial department was dropped and the students were charged for board and tuition.133 As a result of the religious education, all twenty-six girls had become communicant members of the Presbyterian Church. The students also advanced in their learning, and eight girls graduated from the school’s intermediate department in 1907.134 The missionaries continued to add new departments to the school during the period; for instance, a music department and a Bible women’s department were added in 1908, as the students advanced in knowledge and abilities. Carolina Institute (Pai Wha Hakdang) Carolina Institute was the third mission school for girls established in Seoul during the period. Josephine P. Campbell came to Korea as the pioneer woman missionary of the Southern Methodist Mission and immediately opened two day schools for girls, one in Seoul and another one in the country twelve miles distant from Seoul. Then in October of 1898 she established a boarding school for girls at Ko-kan-dong in Seoul, and this school grew to become the pride of the Southern Methodist Mission in Korea.135 The school was named Carolina Institute, or Pai Wha Hak Tang in Korean.136 The Carolina Institute was started with five young pupils and two teachers who taught Korean and the Chinese characters.137 Throughout the early period of the school, a large percentage of the students were supported entirely by scholarships from the WBFM, while others supported themselves either partially or wholly. Even though girls were not pressured to unite with the church, the greater part of the students received baptism, and a number of them eventually became school teachers and Bible women.138 The number of students increased rapidly at the Carolina

282

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Institute. Within a year of its founding, the school had thirteen students, who all attended Sunday services, and two among them were baptized believers. The girls were instructed in Korean classics, reading and writing in the colloquial, the Bible, catechisms, some housework and sewing.139 In the following year of 1900, the school had thirty students, which was as many as the school building could accommodate and Campbell could teach alone. As the only missionary teacher in the school, she had to prepare all lessons in Korean “before going to the recitation room.”140 In the beginning, the students of the school were all children of the serving class and were sent to the school because they were not wanted in the homes where their parents worked as servants. However, as the reputation of the school grew and the intelligence of the school girls became known among the Koreans, girls of higher classes began to enter the school and study with the lower class girls side by side within just a few years.141 The number of subjects taught at the school also grew, and the school was already producing native helpers through the school work, as the report of 1903 shows: Year by year our course study is becoming more satisfactory. We have arithmetic(s), readers, physiology, and geography. They study their native history in the Chinese classics. It is interesting to see the growing minds trying to comprehend the fact that they have 208 bones in their little anatomies, and trying to find them. One of the girls is now teaching in the school, and another has gone to Wonsan to assist in the Lucy Cunningham School.142

Day pupils began to be admitted to the Institute starting in 1902, although only thirty students could be admitted due to the lack of space. During the same year, the school buildings were enlarged and the student body grew rapidly along with the space. By 1910 the school reportedly had ninety-one pupils enrolled, and seventy-eight of them were boarding students. The

283

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

school struggled with lack of space almost from the beginning of its existence, and the crowded situation of the school often hindered its growth. The solution to the problem finally came about in 1915 when a new two-story brick building was built on a new site which had been bought by Josephine Campbell years before.143 The history of Carolina Institute cannot be understood apart from the person of Josephine P. Campbell. She was remembered especially for her character and leadership by younger members of the Southern Methodist Mission. They described her as one who “gave her strength and time unreservedly to the people whom she loved most devotedly.”144 Campbell’s legacy continued to live through the successful Carolina Institute, which she founded and directed for many years. It grew to include kindergarten, primary school and high school by the 1920s and became one of the finest and most reputable schools for girls in Korea. After her death, missionaries continued to remember Campbell’s influence upon the school: “Her large vision for the future of the school is still manifest in the life of this institution. One of her last official acts in connection with it was to secure the splendid hillside which the school now proudly crowns.”145 Although Campbell was best known for her connection with the Carolina Institute, her leadership went much beyond the educational work of the school. She was in charge of the Korea mission field as the Field Secretary of the Woman’s Board for many years, and her leadership over the women’s work had profound impact upon almost every area of the Southern Methodist missionary work in Korea. After serving the Korea mission for thirty years as a pioneer and leader of the Southern Methodist mission, Campbell became dangerously ill during her vacation in the U.S. in 1919. Although her friends tried to stop her from returning to Korea in such a serious condition, she left America, saying, “I have dedicated my life to Korea. Therefore, it is right for me to die in Korea.”146 She passed away at the age of sixty-eight on November 12, 1920 in Korea.

284

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

A Korean Christian explained who she was to the Korean church, as he remembered her last words: She also said just a little before her passing away, “I am going to my beloved Father. I am so happy.” Then she breathed out and her spirit fell asleep. Now, Mrs. Campbell is in Heaven with her crown and in glory. As she passed away, the Korean church has lost a true Christian, an able minister and a beloved friend of Korean women and one to whom we are debted.147

American women missionaries’ educational work in Seoul held an extremely important place in the development of Protestant missions and the modernization of the Korean society. Not only had the missionary women first opened the doors of education to the female population in Korea, but they had also helped provide higher education to Korea’s young people without consideration of class distinction. The fruition of the women missionaries’ efforts was best exhibited through the female institutions they founded in Seoul. All of the three girls’ mission schools founded in the pioneering period became the most prestigious schools in Korea, and a college department for women was established at Ewha by the end of the period. However, the missionary women’s contributions to the development of modern education in Seoul were not limited to the girls’ schools only, for they also played important roles in the overall educational missions and development of higher educational institutions in the city. As a simple example, the Presbyterian Mission’s College in Seoul had its cornerstone laid by Lillias H. Underwood, who provided $25,000 for the college from the gift she received from Los Angeles after the death of her husband.148 Women missionaries also filled many of the college’s teaching posts.149 From the beginning of the Protestant missions in Korea, women missionaries were important leaders and contributors to most of the educational work in Seoul at every level. The boys’ schools in Seoul could not have been maintained without the help of women missionaries in both teaching and administration.

285

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

The women missionaries in Seoul also helped in pioneering educational work outside of Seoul as the missions expanded their influence to the rest of the region and mission schools were needed along with such missionary expansion. Methodist Women’s Educational Work in Chemulpo, Songdo and Wonsan American Methodist missions had their stations opened at Chemulpo and Songdo in the central region, besides Seoul, and Wonsan in the northeast region. A major portion of the educational work in these stations that were located in the middle part of the Korean peninsula were pioneered and carried on by the women missionaries of the Northern and Southern Methodist Missions. In all of these stations, women missionaries founded the first mission schools for both boys and girls while leading the evangelistic work among women simultaneously. The women missionaries of the Southern Methodist Mission were particularly important for the Mission’s educational work, since all Southern Methodist mission schools were established and directed by women missionaries during the period, except for one school for boys.150 Although the Southern Methodist women were not engaged in the medical work, since none of them received medical education, their large number allowed them to lead the Mission’s educational work in all of its three stations—Seoul, Songdo, and Wonsan. The Northern Methodist Mission gained a firm foothold in the western district of Chemulpo by 1894 through the work of George and Margaret Jones. Margaret Bengel Jones led successful evangelistic work among the women and also opened mission schools in Chemulpo. She started a day school for twenty-five boys soon after moving to Chemulpo, and then opened the first girls’ school in the western district with thirteen girls when she received a small gift in 1897.151 After two single women missionaries, Mary Hillman and Lula Miller, joined the Jones in 1902, the educational work for girls in Chemulpo advanced more rapidly. The school began accepting girls not only from

286

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Chemulpo, but also from other places on the mainland and from surrounding islands. In 1903 Lula Miller was the principal of the girls’ school with forty-eight students. In that year, the WFMS purchased a property in Chemulpo and a new school building for the girls’ school was built. This school was eventually named the Youngwha School and became one of the best Methodist girls’ schools in Korea.152 The Southern Methodist Mission opened its stations in the interior, first in Songdo in 1898 and then in Wonsan in 1902. In the Songdo station, Littleton S. Collyer started holding a day school in 1899 with “many efforts and much labor,” according to the mission reports in 1900.153 In that year, the school had ten pupils enrolled, nine boys and one girl, while the average attendance at the school was fourteen, and Mrs. Littleton Collyer taught a number of subjects, including Korean script, Chinese classics, penmanship, and singing, as well as the Bible and the catechism.154 Although Mrs. Collyer’s school had to be closed after only a year’s instructions, two day schools for boys were opened again in 1901 at the Methodist churches in Songdo after Miss Sadie B. Harbough came to Songdo.155 Thus, the Southern Methodist women’s educational work in Songdo began with founding of schools for Christian boys. The first day schools for boys organized by Fannie Hinds and Sadie Harbough were “afterwards the nucleus for the development of the famous Songdo Higher Common School.”156 The Songdo Higher Common School would later develop into the Anglo-Korean School, which was considered to be an important educational milestone of the Southern Methodist Mission in Songdo. The Anglo-Korean School was established in 1906 by the Hon. T. H. Yun, an influential government official and a Korean Methodist leader. Even though T. H. Yun was considered to be the official founder of the school, the early boys’ schools started by women missionaries served as the foundation of the Anglo-Korean School, and women missionaries continued to help in running the school.157 While leading and helping the educational work for boys,

287

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

the women missionaries did not neglect girls’ education in Songdo. Harbough began teaching a girls’ class once a week and sent four of her girl students to the Carolina Institute in Seoul in 1903.158 The first boarding school for girls finally came into being in Songdo on December 19 of 1904 through the labor of Arrena Carroll. Carroll had been transferred back to Songdo from Wonsan and received much help in establishing the school from Mrs. W. G. Cram and Miss Ellasue C. Wagner.159 This girls’ school, later named the Holton Institute, was started with eighteen boarding students, and its enrollment grew to forty-nine by 1907. It eventually became an institution with the government’s official recognition under Ellasue Wagner, who began serving as the principal in 1906.160 Along with the Carolina Institute in Seoul, the Holton Institute became a leading female school of the Southern Methodist Mission and produced a number of influential Korean women leaders in the years following the graduation of the first eighteen girls in 1913.161 Less than two years after the founding of the Holton Institute, another female school was organized by Mrs. W. G. Cram in Songdo specifically for widows and married girls. This school was the only school of its kind among the Methodist missions that offered education to older girls and women and was later named the Mary Helm School.162 The contribution of a wealthy Korean widow, known as Junghye Kim, made the founding of the school possible. Junghye Kim’s life had been transformed after meeting the missionary women and joining the church, and she decided to donate her property and funds to start a school for widows and married women. Encouraged by such sacrificial support of the Korean woman, Mrs. Cram started the school in April of 1904 by gathering and teaching eight married women in her home.163 This school provided primary education to the older Korean women and produced a number of early Bible women, who made significant contributions to the evangelistic mission.164 As mentioned earlier, the Northern Presbyterian and Northern Methodist Missions first opened their stations in Wonsan, before the Wonsan work was taken over by the

288

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Canadian Presbyterians and the Southern Methodists in 1904. Although Sallie Swallen of the Northern Presbyterian Mission opened a girls’ school in 1896, the educational mission under the two northern missions remained small.165 The Wonsan station, however, witnessed a significant advance in educational mission after the Southern Methodist women missionaries came and took charge of its work. Arrena Carroll and Mary Knowles became the pioneers of the Methodist Mission in the educational work for girls in Wonsan. They started a boarding school for girls in a brand new building built in the spring of 1903 with ten students and named it the Lucy Cunniggim School after the name of the North Carolina Woman’s Board’s president, who supported the founding of the school.166 The first school building could hold only about ten students, but a new school building built in 1909 was able to hold forty-five girls.167 When Mary D. Myer was appointed to Wonsan in 1906, she took charge of the school, and the school eventually opened high school, primary school, and kindergarten departments by the 1920s, becoming the only girls’ school with a high school department in the Ham Kyung Province.168 In addition to founding of the girls’ school, the missionary women also took charge of a boys’ school in Wonsan. It was first opened by R. A. Hardie, but was later taken over by women missionaries. When Mary Knowles was assigned as its principle in 1903, the school had only thirteen students, but the enrollment increased to twenty-four by 1905. In 1907, the school was named the Mildred Ross Boys’ Day School after the name of the donator of the school building.169 Arrena Carroll, who pioneered the educational work for children in Songdo and Wonsan, was a leading pioneer missionary in both the educational and evangelistic work of the Southern Methodist Mission in the interior. After coming to Korea in 1899 as a single missionary, she was assigned as a pioneer first to Songdo and then to Wonsan, and opened the first schools for girls in both stations.170 She organized the Holston Institute in Songdo with the help of other women

289

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

missionaries and played a significant role in the development of the Lucy Cunningham School in Wonsan.171 She was also a leading evangelistic worker, who directed the work of the Bible women in the two stations for many years and founded the Joy Hardie Bible Institute for women in Songdo. She served the Korea mission for twenty years as an indispensable leader in the educational and evangelistic work for women and children, until she and her husband were transferred to Vladivostock, Russia.172 Naomi Choi, one of the Bible women who Arrena Carroll trained since her time in Songdo became the first Korean woman foreign missionary. Choi was also sent to Vladivostock in 1923 and served as an itinerant evangelist throughout Siberia and Manchuria.173 Presbyterian Women’s Educational Work in the South The Southeast The Northern Presbyterians led the missionary work of the southeastern region during the period, and the Presbyterian women missionaries’ educational work was centered in Fusan and Taiku. As soon as William and Annie Baird opened Fusan as the first mission station in the southeast, they organized a school for boys.174 When the Bairds were transferred to Taiku, Bertha K. Irvin took over the school work in Fusan and led dynamic educational work for Korean children since her arrival in 1894, even though she just began learning the Korean language and was busy caring for the sick members of the station. She reported at the end of 1894, “However little we know of this language, we have taken into our living room a class of little boys who we are daily teaching to read and to do the simpler sums in addition, subtraction, and multiplication.”175 It has been already discussed how difficult the working condition was in Fusan, but Bertha Irvin was still successful in directing effective educational work for children, especially for the girls. While leading a primary school for the boys and helping to establish other boys’ schools, she also labored to

290

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

organize schools for girls. In 1897 she finally started a night school for girls in Fusan. By 1901 the average attendance of the night school grew to twenty-five, and instructions were given to the students three times a week.176 A much-needed building was finally built for the Girls’ School in 1908, and the first classes of the Girls’ Academy began in the fall of 1909.177 The attendance of girls soon exceeded that of boys in the primary schools in Fusan, which shows how much Bertha Irvin succeeded in popularizing education for girls there.178 She had the reputation of having conducted one of the best schools for girls of the Presbyterian Mission.179 Women missionaries also served as founders of mission schools in Taiku, the second station in the region. The married women among the pioneering missionaries of the station started educational work for children on a small scale initially. However, their work grew rapidly due to the enthusiastic support of the Korean Christians for their children’s education. Taiku missionaries also witnessed new schools opened like mushrooms in the city and the country districts by Koreans themselves. In just one year of 1904, the number of boys’ schools in Taiku grew to thirty-seven, and two girls’ schools were also started.180 As boys and girls graduated from these primary schools, the need of a secondary school became great and led the missionaries to eventually organize the first academies for both boys and girls. Sadie Nourse (later Mrs. Arthur G. Welbon) started teaching secondary subjects to a few girls, and in 1902 this work was turned over to two married missionary women, Edith Parker Johnson and Martha Scott Bruen. Martha Bruen took charge of the school in 1903 and directed it until 1910, the year when the request to authorize it as the Girls’ Academy was submitted to the mission.181 The Southwest The missionary women pioneered most of the first schools of the Southern Presbyterian stations in the southwestern region of the Chulla Province. The women’s school work was conducted

291

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

largely by those whose main responsibilities were evangelistic throughout the period. In Kunsan, Mrs. Mary L. Junkin started educational work when she first began teaching boys in her husband’s study. When William Junkin moved the boys to a Korean house and found a Korean teacher for them, Mary Junkin turned her attention to the girls and started teaching them with the help of her Korean amah.182 In the Chunju station, it was Mattie Tate, the leader of evangelistic work among women, who started education for girls in 1901 by teaching a group of them three times a week, while W. B. and Linnie Davis Harrison started a boys’ school.183 As the Koreans’ interest in the girls’ education grew, Tate transformed her class into a day school for girls by securing a Korean teacher.184 F. Rica Straeffer, another single evangelistic worker, started educational work in Mokpo with a few little girls in 1902. Although the school was temporarily closed in 1905, when the station was moved to Kwangju from Mokpo, it was reopened by the Southern Presbyterian missionaries who re-opened the Mokpo station.185 Although educational work in each station was started by women evangelistic missionaries, women missionaries whose main assignment was education began to arrive in the southwestern region and helped the school work to grow in size and quality. In 1907 the schools in Chunju came under the leadership of new educational missionaries: the Girls’ School under the charge of Nellie Rankin and the Boys’ School under John and Anabel Nisbet. With the reinforcement of educational missionaries, the schools in all the stations experienced rapid progress and growth. For example, the enrollment of the boys’ school in Chunju grew to over one hundred with consistent attendance by 1909.186 The two small classess started by Mary Junkin in Kunsan were also developed into fine boys’ and girls’ schools by the succeeding missionaries. When the Junkins moved to Chunju, Mrs. Bull took charge of the girls’ school and laid a firm foundation for the future Mary Baldwin School of Kunsan.187 The girls’ school started by Rica Straeffer in Mokpo continued its existence under alternating supervision of several

292

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Korean Women Teachers at Mary Baldwin School, Kunsan

married and single missionary women in the first few years. The school finally came under permanent management in 1911, when Anabel Nisbet took charge of it. This school, known as the McCallie School for Girls, grew to become “the greatest Christian force in Mokpo territory,” according to missionary records that alludes to the school’s large influence over the region in both educational and religious aspects.188 In starting the schools within the region, the Southern Presbyterian missionaries had to overcome a number of obstacles. The lack of school space was a constant problem, and the missionaries sometimes used their personal funds to expand the schools, as Anabel Nisbet wrote: “we built a little school

293

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

house with our own money, but will only accommodate a few more boys.”189 As the mission schools began accepting children from country districts and islands, the missionaries struggled at first in teaching wild and unruly country children. Anabel Nisbet once wrote: Not all the girls like school at first. I got a little wild savage in from one of the islands about two months ago. When she had to wash her face everyday, bathe twice a week, comb her hair everyday, she declared she would throw herself in the cistern if I did not excuse her from so much cleanliness. But when I asked her last week if she wanted to go home, she smiled… “I don’t think heaven can be as nice as school.”190

It also seemed impossible to feed and clothe all the poor country boys and girls in the station schools with the little funding they received from the Mission Board. In order to resolve this problem, Lois Swinehart initiated the industrial department, which introduced the crochet needle and embroidery frame to the girls’ schools and thereby helped in producing income for the schools.191 In spite of the difficulties, the evangelistic purpose was definitely pursued, along with the academic goals, through the mission schools in the southwest. About one-third of the students at the Chunju boys’ school were from non-Christian homes, while another one-third came from homes of people who had “Jesus believing minds.”192 The school policy required the guardians of the boys to state that they did not object to the children being instructed in Christian teachings, and the Bible was taught in every class. As a result, the school children themselves became evangelistic agents of sharing the Gospel among the Korean families. Anabel Nisbet once wrote about one of her third grade boys who brought her to his home to speak to his unbelieving mother. He so insisted to his mother that he wanted her to go to heaven with him that the boy’s mother ended up promising that she would attend church before the

294

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

missionary left her home.193 About the evangelistic purpose of the schools, Nisbet wrote, “As ‘All roads lead to Rome,’ so all our school work points to Him…”194 Thus the mission schools run by women missionaries often functioned as powerful evangelistic centers of the Southern Presbyterian Mission, as was the case with other missions. Educational Revolution in the Northwest The educational mission brought extraordinary results in the northwest, especially in Pyengyang. Only a decade after the missionaries opened a station, Pyengyang became the most successful educational center of the Protestant missions in Korea. During the pioneering period of the Pyengyang station in the few years between 1897 and 1906, American missionaries established not only Christian primary schools, but also a successful academy and a college. Women missionaries once again played critical roles in the development of the educational mission in Pyengang and its region. After the Sino-Japanese War, Pyengyang experienced just as dramatic a growth of primary schools as the growth of evangelistic activities and churches. Whereas there were only two schools for boys and two schools for girls in Pyengyang under missionary supervision and about ten or a dozen schools in the country districts under Christian influence in 1898, the number of primary schools in the area grew to five hundred in the next three years.195 Korean Christians in Pyengyang supported the primary schools financially almost from the beginning, while the native support of schools was becoming the universal characteristic of all church primary schools in Korea.196 Although the growing interest in modern education and Korean Christians’ participation in the development of the schools were encouraging, missionaries still had to deal with a number of problems in their educational work. Particularly since the primary schools were increasingly left in the hands of Koreans, new issues and problems arose that concerned the missionaries. One of the greatest concerns by the end of the

295

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

period was a secularizing tendency among the primary schools. The Pyengyang report of 1908 reveals that, since the missionaries could not provide direct oversight over all the primary schools, many of the church schools began to yield to popular demand and to admit an increasing number of children from nonChristian families. This trend caused serious concern among the missionaries, who worried that churches might become overwhelmed with a secular spirit, starting with the church schools. The missionaries’ concern was somewhat justified with the incident at the West Gate School in Pyengyang, where a party had been trying to make the school a center for political agitation for some time. When the school committee tried to correct the problems of “all the bad spirit in the school and among the patrons,” an independent school was formed with the support of the disaffected parents. This incident motivated Christians in Pyengyang to place the schools completely under the control of the churches, according to the missionary report.197 In spite of such difficulties, the results of the educational mission in Pyengyang during the period were indeed astonishing. Women missionaries in Pyengyang were among the leaders who brought educational revolution in Korea. As primary schools became widely available in the region, the missionaries in Pyengyang labored to provide more advanced education to young people and also to those of disadvantaged groups. In 1900, the missionaries opened in Pyengyang a boy’s academy for secondary education, “as the first of its kind in Korea.”198 Just a few years later, a college department was also started for the graduates of the academy in 1906. During the fall of 1905, the Presbyterian and Methodist missions joined in their efforts for the work at the boys’ academy, and the total attendance at the academy grew to 160 students as the result.199 Sallie L. Swallen describes in detail the work done through the academy and college in her Pyengyang report of 1908. She wrote that the cooperation of the Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries allowed the educational work at the academy and college to be done on a larger scale and with more effectiveness.

296

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Four missionaries, including Annie L. Adams Baird and Helen McAfee McCune of the Presbyterian Mission, were giving full time in teaching at the institutions, and the total enrollment of the college and academy in that year was 441, among whom nineteen were in the college. In May of 1908, the first graduating exercise of the college was held, and the academy had graduated a total of fifty-nine since its first class of 1904.200 The Pyengyang Academy and College hold an important place in the history of the Protestant church in Korea, since they produced a number of influential leaders for the young Korean churches. Women missionaries were among the major contributors in the development of these important institutions. Although William M. Baird was considered to be the official founder and director of the Boys’ Academy, such a successful educational institution could not have come to exist without the labor of many women missionaries. Among the missionary women who contributed to the growth of the academy and the college, Annie Adams Baird has been appreciated and esteemed above all. She made an indispensable mark upon the birth and growth of the institutions, along with William Baird and Arthur Becker of the Methodist Mission.201 She served the academy and the college as one of the most popular teachers in various subjects and produced volumes of translated textbooks, as mentioned earlier. Her indispensable contribution for the development of the Union Christian College of Pyeng Yang was well recognized, and a monument was erected on the college campus by the Koreans as an expression of their affection and appreciation of her.202 Thus Annie Baird served the Korea missions as a pioneer of three interior stations and as an educational pioneer in many aspects. In regard to her overall service to Protestant missions in Korea, George Paik wrote, “The history of the development of the Church of God in that land can never be properly written without grateful mention of the twenty-six years of this consecrated servant of God devoted to its evangelization.”203

297

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

In addition to helping with the development of the boys’ academy and college, the women missionaries in Pyengyang also made efforts to provide girls with more advanced education than just primary education.204 The Presbyterian women first established the Advanced School for Girls and Women—later named Soong-Eui Girls’ School, and finally Soong-Eui University—in late 1903 with a three-month term, and fortythree students attended this intermediate school. It was opened in a hospital building, but was moved into three small thatched houses on the mission property in the following year under Velma Snook’s supervision and with Mrs. Lee (Graham Lee’s mother) in charge of the boarding department. When the Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries united in their educational efforts in 1905, they also joined their educational work for girls. The intermediate girls’ schools of the two missions were united, and the enrollment grew to eighty-two students, among whom were many young widows. This school was named the “Pyeng Yang Seminary for Women” (SoongEui in Korean) in 1908, and then was re-opened as the “Union Academy for Women” in 1910 with 116 Presbyterian and fortysix Methodist students.205 According to Sallie Swallen’s 1908 report, Velma Snook was still leading the Pyeng Yang Seminary for Women effectively as its principal.206 Among the one hundred fifty students enrolled in that year, thirty-three were Methodists and one hundred seventeen were Presbyterians. The purpose of the school was also stated in the report as not to foreignize the students, but to improve their environment by teaching them to keep their houses clean and improve their untidy habits. The girls at the seminary were, therefore, taught knitting, sewing, and embroidery, in addition to their academic subjects.207 In spite of the conservative beginning of the girls’ mission schools, the academic level and the number of students at the schools rose rapidly, largely due to the Korean enthusiasm for modern education, even among the girls and their parents. Another important female educational institution established in Pyengyang was the Lulu Wells Institute. It was started by

298

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

Mrs. Lulu R. Wells for older girls and young married women. Many among the students were young widows and young deserted wives. The school first offered classes only two or three times a week for those who were past school age, but gradually offered more classes as it grew. It was named the “Woman’s School” in 1903, and three more married women missionaries came to work for the school.208 According to the 1908 report, the “Woman’s School” had forty-eight students enrolled, and instructions were given in such subjects as geography, arithmetic, and the Scriptures.209 The Presbyterian and Methodist women missionaries were joining their forces to teach the enrolled students, and some of the graduates from the Woman’s School moved on to study further at the Pyeng Yang Seminary for Women. The women missionaries also began training Korean women educators. The work of training Korean women teachers and educators was done largely as a joint effort of the Presbyterian and Methodist missions, which resulted in the Union Normal Class for Women in Pyengyang.210 The normal class was offered during certain seasons of each year, where women teachers from the city and country schools gathered to attend. They received instruction in several subjects, which they would later teach at their own schools. Some of the subjects included Bible, Chinese, arithmetic, geography, and practical subjects such as hygiene. During the year between 1907 and 1908, ninety-five Korean women attended the normal class. Although the women’s normal class was smaller in attendance than the men’s normal class, it was still astonishing to have nearly one hundred women being educated as teachers, especially when one considers the fact that there was not even one school for girls in Pyengyang only a decade earlier. In addition to the educational work mentioned up to this point, women missionaries of Pyengyang pioneered another revolutionary educational endeavor—schools for the blind. Rosetta S. Hall was the true pioneer in this line of educational endeavor. She first started teaching a blind girl in 1894, using the

299

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

“New York Point” system of raised letters. When her husband passed away in Pyengyang, she left Korea and spent three years back in America, where she gave birth to her daughter and recovered from the loss of her husband. During this threeyear furlough, she studied the New York point system more thoroughly and devised a way to use it for the Korean language. When she returned to Korea, she prepared parts of a primer and the Ten Commandments by adapting the point system to the Korean alphabet and syllabi and began teaching several blind girls.211 Thus the first educational work for the blind in Korea was started with a few blind girls taught to read “the raised characters, which are made by pricking paper with a needle.”212 The blind students were taught with the textbooks compiled by Rosetta Hall herself.213 She formally opened the first school for the blind in Korea in 1903 in a classroom connected to her dispensary of the Women’s Hospital that she had built in Pyengyang.214 Her purpose in educating the blind was to make “the blind girls of Korea happy, useful members of the Christian home circle.”215 In order to fulfill this purpose, the blind pupils were given lessons in the practical arts, along with regular day school lessons, to help them lead an independent life.216 After Rosetta S. Hall established the first school for blind girls, Alice Fish Moffett of the Presbyterian Mission also started a school for blind boys in Pyengyang in 1904. Like the school for blind girls, this school was started on a very small scale and grew slowly, since Koreans did not yet see the necessity of educating blind children. By its fifth year, the boys’ blind school had seven students enrolled, with a regular attendance of five.217 In spite of the small beginnings, establishment of the schools for the blind was a revolutionary event for the Korean history and society. With it began the slow changes of Koreans’ attitude toward the handicapped in Korea. Rosetta Hall’s work for the people with disabilities did not stop at opening a small school for blind girls. She included education of the deaf in her work in later years and eventually became the head of the Institute for the Blind and Deaf in Pyengyang.218 Many among the blind

300

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

girls who graduated from Rosetta Hall’s school moved on to receive further education, including a number of girls who graduated from high school and one who graduated from Ewha College. The ability of educated blind girls was shown at Rosetta Hall’s sixtieth birthday party, when one of her blind students gave an address in front of a large gathering of people about her teacher’s life and work in three different languages. Including the very first blind student of Rosetta Sherwood Hall, many graduates of her school eventually became teachers at the blind schools, while others went on to lead their lives in a much more meaningful way than they could ever dreamed of without the education.219 American missionary women were the first to attempt to educate the blind and deaf in Korea and to help them to be independent and thereby to change their fate.220 While Pyengyang grew as the leading educational center in the country, the Syenchun station of the Presbyterian Mission in the northwest also experienced a similar educational revolution. Missionaries’ reports during this period claim that an educational revolution was taking place in Syenchun as in other areas of the country and causing a dramatic increase of schools, including many organized by non-believers. During the year between 1907 and 1908, five or six hundred primary and night schools were opened by Korean officials and nonbelievers, while the church schools continued to be the best of all the schools.221 Consequently, the missionaries gave more emphasis on training Christian teachers and providing more advanced education to the Christian students, while directing the primary schools in Syenchun.222 The first Girls’ Academy in Syenchun was opened by the women missionaries in the fall of 1907, and Marie Chase took charge of the school. The first dormitory of the academy was opened in the following year with the help of Susan S. Ross and a Korean graduate, called Sonsie (Mrs. Son), from the Women’s Academy in Seoul. A school for young married women was also organized in 1909, and its first class graduated in 1913. Nearly all of the graduates continued their studies in the Girls’ Academy.223

301

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Thus the revolutionary educational activities begun by the American women missionaries made tremendous advance in the northwest during such a short period. Pyengyang became the most notable educational center by the end of this period, not only of the region, but also of the country. Meanwhile, the native enthusiasm for modern education continued to spread throughout the region. Many of the mission schools established by the women missionaries and through their endeavor in the northwest also became leading Christian institutions that produced numerous national Christian leaders in Korea for the following decades. As the Protestant missionaries opened new stations all over Korea during this period, women missionaries used educational mission to reach young children and women in both urban and rural areas. In the process of opening new stations and searching for evangelistic opportunities through the educational work, women missionaries became pioneers of modern education in Korea. Their influence was not limited merely to the elementary education of Korean women and girls, but extended to the development of higher education for the people of all ages and genders. They even pioneered education for the handicapped in Korea. In so many ways and capacities, American missionary women contributed to the educational advancement of the Korean people at every level; they were school founders, teachers, dormitory matrons, principals, administrators, professors, translators of textbooks, and presidents of the first female college in Korea. Although the significance of their educational role has been little recognized, they were indeed the major force behind the development of modern education, which brought radical changes to the entire Korean society at the turn of the century. Thus, even though the pioneer missionary women in Korea generally shared the common conviction with their missions that all forms of benevolent and educational activities of missionaries should remain mainly as instruments to the primary goal of evangelism, their medical and educational missions still made significant contribution to the transformation of the Korean

302

Women’s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890–1907

society. Their benevolent activities helped to bring the Christian message closer to the Korean people, not just with words, but also with action. In addition, their medical and educational missions also played a significant role of introducing the first examples of Christian social service and public education in Korea, not only for the privileged, but also for the disenfranchised people of the country.

303

Conclusion

I

n this book I have tried to recover the identity and history of the American women who served as pioneer missionaries in Korea, the Hermit Kingdom that turned into one of the greatest success stories in Christian mission history. This is done so by placing the women as the main characters, not as marginal figures, in the early Protestant history of Christianity in Korea. Although there have been numerous studies about the first missionaries to Korea by both American and Korean historians, it is still difficult to understand the significance of women missionaries’ role and influence in the Korean Protestantism’s beginning. It is because women’s stories are usually treated marginally in most studies in which main contents give more attention to male representatives. However, the significance of understanding women’s movements is increasingly recognized in their current effort to understand world Christian movements and history. Dana L. Robert even argues that today’s study of world Christianity should be analyzed as a women’s movement, based on the fact that women constitute the majority of active participants, and asks the question, “What would the study of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin American look like if scholars put women into the center of their research?”1 One cannot effectively restore a history of women, unless women are placed in the center of one’s research as suggested by Robert, since their identity easily becomes obscure when their stories are merged with stories of politically dominant male figures. In most of historical presentations of the beginning of Korean Christianity, male missionaries have always taken the main stages of discussions, although some Korean studies on women have given their attention mainly to Korean women

305

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

leaders. They often fail to provide adequate understanding of American women missionaries’ influence. For such a reason, this book is written to give the full spot light to the women missionaries and a more comprehensive coverage of their historical significance.2 This focused attention on women missionaries has made it possible to give the space to touch upon various aspects of their identity, life, and work, including their American background, journey to Korea, missionary life, as well as their missionary activities and accomplishments. When they become the focus of the research, their stories reveal that the women missionaries were pioneers in every sense, not just assistants to the male pioneers, and that they paved many new trails of life and work for both Americans and Koreans. The women missionaries to Korea were among the pioneers even for Americans. They were from the first generations of American women who received college and medical degrees. They were some of the earliest products of the newly established women’s colleges, medical schools, and missionary training schools in North America. They were educators and medical doctors even before they came to Korea at a time when a woman with higher education was still rarity in the United States. They were also pioneers in unveiling a country and culture formerly unknown to the world, when they came to Korea as the first Western women to live in the country. Korea was indeed a hermit kingdom, known to only her immediate neighbors and extremely secluded from foreign influences. To this unknown land, the women missionaries came, making up more than half of the pioneer missionaries. They discovered a nation and people who were unique and different from any other. They were among the first Westerners to learn the language and culture of Korea and to make it known to the world. But, more than anything else, they were the pioneers who uncovered the existence and fate of Korean women and discovered their great potential. The missionary women were the first to open the doors of direct contact with the female population in Korea,

306

Conclusion

and they were the first foreigners whose influence penetrated into the private lives of Korean women, including the one of the most powerful queens in the Korean history. The women missionaries were also pioneers in creating first missionary homes and families in this Hermit Kingdom at a time when Western goods and conveniences were mostly unavailable in the country. As wives and mothers, not only as missionaries, they had to create ways of living in Korea where diet, lifestyle, and methods of getting work done were all so different. In spite of criticisms they received for creating luxurious lifestyle, compared to that of the poverty-stricken Koreans, the life in Korea for the missionary women was not an easy one. As pioneers of a new mission field, they struggled to get the simplest chores done. They had to constantly deal with sanitary issues that threatened their own health, safety, and survival. In such a difficult environment, the missionary women labored and established stable homes, communal relationships, and lifestyles that could provide safe bases for their families and fellow missionaries to live and work in this unstable country. The women missionaries were also pioneers in an area that male missionaries could not touch upon. They had to minister and work in the Korean society where women were given little value and freedom of movement. How Koreans perceived women affected the life pattern and activities of the women missionaries profoundly and brought great challenges to their missionary work. In overcoming such prejudices and challenges, they were the pioneers in initiating the life of movement and public activities for women in Korea, where women were severely secluded and their work limited only to domestic chores. In spite of the fact that the women missionaries had to abide by the social rule of limitation to a certain degree, their active work and leadership in public areas around the country presented challenges, opportunities, and changes for women in Korea. Sooner or later, Korean Christian women themselves would travel throughout the country sharing the Gospel, and even missionaries were born among them during the period.

307

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

In speaking of the women missionaries as pioneers, it is clear that they were not pioneers only in a passive sense of adjusting to the new environment and discovering what was already present in the culture. They were active pioneers and agents of change in Korea. They were among the first evangelists who pioneered interior mission stations and the itinerant missionaries who traveled throughout the country. The women missionary evangelists provided the real opportunities for Korean women to receive the Gospel and to be trained as Christian workers. They were among the first ones to plant modern educational system for Korean children, and they were the pioneers of female education in Korea. With their coming came the first educational opportunity for Korean girls and women, and the education brought a radical change of women’s lives and status in the Korean society. The women missionaries’ educational endeavor extended to pioneering schools for the blind and deaf, which made a life with dignity possible for the people with disabilities in Korea for the first time. The women missionaries were also among the active pioneers who brought modern medicine to Korea. They made medical treatments and facilities available to Koreans of all classes, both high and low, and to Korean women. The women missionaries established the very first hospitals, including those for women and children and were also pioneers in medical mission in many regions of Korea from the beginning. American women missionary doctors and nurses made it possible for Korean women, not only to receive proper medical treatment, but also to receive training as medical workers. The missionary women were thus pioneers in medical education and produced the very first Korean medical doctor and nurses. Because of their work and contributions, Korea began to produce medical women who could bring healing to their own people. In so many ways, American women missionaries fulfilled all the roles and responsibilities of pioneer missionaries in the Hermit Kingdom. They were true pioneers not only in their resolve, calling, and commitment, but also in their actions, work,

308

Conclusion

and accomplishments. Their achievements cover all aspects of missionary activities which brought such a great beginning of Protestant Christianity in Korea. Their influence, however, went beyond just planting Protestant churches, but made a great contribution to the social reform and modernization of Korea. When the American women missionaries came to Korea, their primary agenda was evangelization of the Korean people. Few had in their mind the goal of transforming or reforming the Korean society and culture. They came to share the Gospel with the people while they tried not to offend the existing culture as much as possible. However, the Gospel they brought in their teachings and lives had power to transform and revolutionize the existing culture. Their Christian message of freedom in Christ, their biblical teachings, their active pioneering spirit, professionalism, and their bold actions of training Korean women all led to the beginning of a great social reform. Their presence and daily actions were enough to cause revolutionary changes in the sleepy hermit kingdom. Their own lives brought about changes in all spheres of lives, including families, children, education, and religion in Korea. But their influence had its greatest impact upon the Christian female population of the country. The true revolution took place among the Christian women, more than in any other groups of people in Korea. As Dana Robert states, “During the twentieth century, Christian women became the first medical doctors, college presidents, social workers, community organizers, and politicians in many countries of the non-Western world.”3 Wherever the missionary women went to evangelize women population in the beginning of the twentieth century, such revolutionary results took place, and Korea was no exception. Korea’s very first medical doctor was a Christian woman, and Korea saw the first female college president and Korean women international representatives within the first fifty years of the Protestantism. This is a remarkable change, when one considers the lowly social status and few opportunities that women held in the previous generation before the entrance of

309

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

the missionary women. The missionary women’s own examples and work initiated a new era for Korean women. However, the women missionaries would not have been satisfied with social changes only, if there was little fruit of faith among the Koreans, which was their primary goal of becoming missionaries. Japan was such a case of disappointment. However, Korea soon proved to be one of the greatest harvest fields of the Gospel, and the women missionaries contributed immensely to one of the greatest religious revolutions in the modern time. Women were active agents of transplanting “the evangelical-revivalistic” Protestantism to Korea, as Dae Young Ryu characterizes the kind of Christianity that the missionaries brought.4 The women themselves were products of the large evangelical and revivalistic movements of the late twentieth century America. The women actively pursued to share their spiritual experience to create revival in Korea. In the end, the women had a significant role in igniting the first major revival in the Korean Christian history, as it has been discussed earlier. It forever changed the place of Korea in world Christianity. Today the pioneer missionaries’ legacy can be partly seen in the great number of believers and large churches in Korea. However, the true legacy of the American women missionaries endeavor and sacrifice is found more clearly in the generations of Korean Christian women evangelists and missionaries. The large female participation and growing leadership of women in Korean Christianity and their influence world wide reveal that the seeds sown one hundred years ago in the tiny little country have come to produce great harvest worldwide. In 2006, Korean missionaries serving around the world numbered nearly 15,000, the second largest national group of missionaries in the world, and women make up the majority, over fifty percent, of the known 15,000 Korean missionaries.5 Like their American women forerunners, these Korean women missionaries penetrate into the lives of women of all cultures and put themselves as examples of freedom and strength found in Christ for vast number of ethnic women living under cultural bondages. Just as their first white

310

Conclusion

sisters’ stories need to be better recorded, the stories of these Korean women missionaries also need to be recorded and told. However, what is clear is that Korean Christian women are now in jungles, deserts, towns, and cities all around the world as representatives of Christ. These Korean women, whose mothers had once lived as prisoners of their own homes and knew little beyond the boundaries of the walls of their houses, now cover the planet with their footsteps. The message of Christian freedom is still carried by the Korean spiritual daughters of the pioneer American women missionaries. Thus, the biblical message that tells of God who “chose weak things of the world to shame the strong” to bring His Gospel throughout earth continues to be proven to be true.6

311

Endnotes

INTRODUCTION 1. More details of Rosetta Sherwood Hall’s life and contributions will be provided in later chapters. 2. The total number of Presbyterian and Methodist women who came to Korea from the United States between 1884 and 1907 was approximately two hundred ten. 3. Dana Robert, American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1996), xvii. 4. Flemming’s book includes several essays on women missionaries to India and to China and one essay about those who served in Japan, but no study on the missionary women in Korea is included. Leslie A. Flemming, ed., Women’s Work for Women: Missionaries and Social Change in Asia (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1989). One of the rare essays about women missionaries to Korea is found in Spirituality and Social Responsibility, edited by Rosemary Skinner Keller, but it is a study of only three Methodist missionary women. See Kyung-Lim Shin-Lee, “Sisters in Christ: American Women Missionaries in Ewha Women’s University,” in Spirituality and Social Responsibility, ed. Rosemary Skinner Keller (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), and Pear Blossom Blooming: The History of American Women Missionaries at Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea: Ewha Womans University Press, 1989). Shin-Lee writes specifically about three individual missionary women, who founded and developed Ewha girls’ school, which later became the largest women’s college and university in Asia. 5. Two best known books written in English on the topic of American missionaries to Korea are: Everett N. Hunt, Jr., Protestant Pioneers in Korea (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1980) and Martha Huntley, To Start A Work: The Foundations of Protestant Mission in Korea (1884-1919), (Seoul, Korea:

313

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Presbyterian Church of Korea, 1987). The popular and shorter edition of the later book has been published as Caring, Growing, Changing: A History of the Protestant Mission in Korea (New York: Friendship Press, 1984). Although this book actually gives some significant attention to the stories of women missionaries, it does not present any kind of coherent history of women’s missionary work in Korea. 6. Pyong-Uk Chong (Byung Wook Chang), Han’guk Kamnigyo Yosongsa, 1885-1945 (The History of Methodist Women in Korea, 1885-1945) (Seoul: Sung Kwang Publishing Co., 1979). This is one of the earliest studies on Christian women in Korea and demonstrates the author’s broad consideration of various materials; Deok-Joo Rhie, Han’guk Kammigyo Yosokyowhe’ye Yoksa, 1897-1990 (A History of The Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 1897-1990) (Seoul, Korea: The Korean Methodist Women’s Society for Christian Service, 1991). These two studies present excellent scholarly research involving thorough investigation of both primary and secondary sources available in Korean and English. Although their studies present excellent historical overviews of missionary women’s activities and the impact they made upon Korean society, their attention is paid mainly to the role of Korean Methodist women. 7. Women made up between fifty-five and seventy percent of the total missionaries of each denominational mission in Korea during the period. The number of women missionaries in Korea seemed to have fallen within the average ratio of American women and men missionaries in foreign mission fields at the turn of the century; “By 1916 the percentage of women in the North American mission force of twenty-four thousand had grown to 62 percent.” Dana Robert, ed., Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2002), 5. 8. Robert, American Women in Mission, 412-3.

CHAPTER 1 1. Korea considered China her “big brother” and sent annual tribute to the Chinese royal court for centuries until the year 1894. In spite of such seemingly close relationship to Korea, the missionaries found that even the Chinese knew little about Korea. See James S. Gale, Korean Sketches (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1898), 194. 2. William E. Griffis, A Modern Pioneer in Korea: The Life Story of Henry G.

314

Endnotes

Appenzeller (New York: Fleming H. Revel Company, 1912), 14. 3. Korea had her first treatise with a western nation in 1882. 4. George L. Paik [Paek], The History of Protestant Missions in Korea (Pyeng Yang, Korea: Union Christian College Press, 1929), 16. 5. Homer B. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea (New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1907), 404. 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid., 403-404. For a more complete discussion on the general religious atmosphere in Korea in Korea during the period, see Harry A. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (Seoul, Chosen: Chosen Mission of Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1934), 47-57. 8. R. G. Tiedemann, “China and Its Neighbors,” in The World History of Christianity, ed. Adrian Hastings (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmann Publishing Company,1999), 403; the young Korean scholars studied Matthew Ricci’s True Doctrine of the Lord of Heaven and even started practicing its teachings. See Samuel H. Moffett, The Christians of Korea (New York; Friendship Press, 1962), 32. 9. Moffett, The Christians of Korea, 32. 10. Ibid., 33. 11. In 1791 the Korean government began taking extreme measures against the Catholic converts by first executing two men who had buried their ancestral tablets. Hulbert, Passing of Korea, 109. 12. Moffett, The Christians of Korea, 33. 13. Ibid. 14. This Korean man took the Bible home and eventually became a Christian. He was in a class of catechumens formed by Samuel A. Moffett, a pioneer missionary to Pyengyang, in 1893. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 45. One of his nephews graduated from the Union Christian College in Pyengyang and assisted W. D. Reynolds in Bible revision work. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 72. 15. Ibid., 75. The Sorai church was also the first Korean church to build its own church building, and it became a model for other Korean churches to follow for many years. 16. Ibid. After meeting Suh for the first time in Seoul in 1886, the missionaries were called by the Christians in Sorai to come and baptize them. During their first itinerating trip in 1887, seven Sorai Christians were first

315

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

baptized. See Horace G. Underwood, The Call of Korea. (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1908), 137. 17. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 71. Rijuitei’s appeal to American churches appeared in several mission newspapers, magazines, and reports. See, for example, Woman’s Work for Woman and Our Mission Field 1, no. 1 (January 1886): 4; Rijutei, “Korean Manners and Customs,” Letter to the Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church, USA, 19 August 1884, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. Rijutei’s Korean name was known to be “Yi Su Chon.” See Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 78. 18. Bong-youn Choy, Korea: A History (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1971), 90. Korea signed a treaty with U.S. in May of 1884 and with Germany and Great Britain in the following autumn. Hulbert, Passing of Korea, 123. 19. The government hospital was called Kwang Hei Won in Korean, which is translated by Paik as “Widespread Relief House,” but is better translated as “Great Relief House.” Paik, The History of the Protestant Church, 91-99. 20. The Southern Presbyterians came in 1892 and the Southern Methodists in 1897. 21. The Seventh Day Adventists, The Salvation Army, and the Oriental Missionary Society also sent their missionaries before 1910. 22. J. W. Heron and William Hall died within the five years, and Meta Howard had to return to America because of ill-health after two years of serving. For more reading about the heavy price paid by medical missionaries, see Martha Huntley, Caring, Growing, Changing: A History of the Protestant Mission in Korea (New York: Friendship Press, 1894), 106-112. 23. The Korean government had opened a government school for modern education of Korean men in 1886 and received three American teachers—George W. Gilmore, D. A. Bunker, and Homer B. Hulbert, who were sent in response to the Korean government’s request. However, disheartened by the corruption of the Korean officials who diverted the school funds, all three resigned and returned to the U.S. Bunker and Hulbert later came back to Korea as Methodist missionaries. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 118. 24. The boys’ school received the name of Pai Chai Hak Tang, “Hall for Rearing Useful Men,” from the king . Ibid., 121.

316

Endnotes

25. Ibid., 122-123. 26. Allen D. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea (Seoul: Christian Literature Society, 1971), 93-95. 27. Ibid., 96. 28. Mr. Noh Tohsa was Heron’s language teacher. He became a Christian by reading a copy of Chinese Gospels that he “stole” from Allen’s home and was later baptized by Horace Underwood. Ibid., 97-98. 29. Before baptizing this Korean student, Appenzeller had already converted and baptized a Japanese settler in Korea on Easter Sunday of 1887. Paik, The History of the Protestant Church, 129. The baptisms were held in secrecy during these early years. In 1887, Horace Underwood asked Homer Hulbert to watch the door while he baptized three converts. Lillias H. Underwood, Underwood of Korea: Being an Intimate Record of the Life and Work of the Rev. H. G. Underwood, D. D., LL D, for Thirty-One Years as a Missionary of the Presbyterian Board in Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1918), 61. 30. Clark, A History of the Church, 100. 31. The Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895, ended with the defeat of China, and Japan became the new dominant power over Korea. Choy, Korea: A History, 112. 32. Immediately following the assassination of the queen, the American missionaries assisted the Korean king and his family. The royal family trusted the American missionaries so much that the crown prince stayed with Horace and Lillias Underwood during the most dangerous time after the assassination. For more detail, see Lillias Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-knots (New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, American Tract Society, 1904), 153-166. 33. Clarendon Street Baptist Church of Boston independently started the Ella Thing Memorial Mission in 1895 and sent three missionaries to Korea. E. C. Pauling, his wife, and Miss Amanda Gerdeline were first sent to Korea, and then F. W. Steadman, his wife, and Miss Aram Ellmer came later. Their work was started in Chung Chong province, but discontinued due to insufficient financial support. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 183-184. 34. The Anglican Church and Canadian and Australian Presbyterian missions and a few other independent missions also started their work in Korea during these years. 35. Ibid., 229. 36. Ibid., 231.

317

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

37. Quoted in Paik, The History of the Protestant Church, 233. For another detailed description of the event, see Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 133-145. 38. Clark, A History of the Church, 123. 39. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 145. 40. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 232. 41. “In those days, the doctors did not know how to protect the staff against many of the diseases that were brought to hospital, such as typhus fever.” Allen D. Clark, Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avision, M.D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 94. 42. Martha Huntley provides some discussion about the difficulties that medical missionaries endured in Korea. See Huntley, Caring, Growing, Changing, 106-112. 43. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 189. 44. Moffett, The Christians of Korea, 46. 45. Clark, A History of the Church, 114. 46. H. G. Underwood summarizes the four cardinal points of the Nevius method that the missionaries in Korea applied in their work. See Underwood, The Call of Korea, 109-110; for a more complete exposition of the Nevius method, see Charles A. Clark, The Korean Church and the Nevius Methods (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1928). 47. William M. Baird, “Should Polygamists be Admitted to the Christian Church? Part I,” The Korean Repository III, no. 7 (1896): 288-292; “Should Polygamists be Admitted to the Christian Church? Part II,” The Korean Repository III, no. 8 and 9 (1896): 323-333; “Should Polygamists be Admitted to the Christian Church? Part III,” III, no. 9 (1896): 350-360. 48. Gale, Korean Sketches, 194. For another eyewitness description of the Yi Dyansty’s end by an American foreign official, see William F. Sands, Cho’sun ui magimoknal (The Last Days of Korea). Translated by Hun Ki into Korean. (Seoul: Mi Won Press, 1986). 49. “The Opening of Mission Work in Pyeng Yang,” The Korean Repository (September 1897): 351. 50. Clark, A History of the Church, 126. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid., 144. 53. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 318-319. 54. Avison received the offering of $10,000 From Louis H. Severance for

318

Endnotes

the building of a hospital in Seoul during his furlough in the U.S. Clark, Avison of Korea, 113. 55. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions,138. 56. Clark, A History of the Church 153. 57. Quoted in Korea Mission Field, Vol. 4, no. 5 (May, 1908); “A British lord, writing later in the London Times, compared the “extraordinary manifestation of power in Korea” with the revivals of John Wesley.” Moffett, Christians of Korea, 52. 58. Clark, A History of the Church, 159. 59. Ibid. 60. Quoted in Clark, A History of the Church, 165-166. 61. Moffett, The Christians of Korea, 50. 62. Ibid., 51. 63. Quoted in Ibid., 49; One of the best and most extensive study of the great revival in Korea is done by Yong Kyu Park, Pongyang Dae’Buhueng Wundong (The Great Revivalism in Korea: Its History, character, and Impact, 1901-1910). (Seoul, Korea: Saengmyong’ui Malsumsa, 2000). 64. Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond, Virginia: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 15.

CHAPTER 2 1. “Our Young Women,” Heathen Women’s Friend XXV, no. 5 (November 1893): 136. 2. The mission records of the southern missions refer to married women missionaries almost always by their husbands’ names and rarely mention even their first names. 3. George Mardsen provides a helpful overview of the powerful state of Evangelicalism in the late nineteenth century. George M. Mardsen, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1991), 9-50; some of the most notable Evangelical organizations and movements were the Christian Endeavor Society, the temperance movement, and the crusade for Sabbath observance. See Ibid., 24-25. 4. George M. Mardsen, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 32; James F. Findley, Jr., Dwight L. Moody: American

319

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Evangelist, 1837-1899 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969). 5. According to Robert, the SVM was ecumenical and nondenominational. In its first year of existence, it recruited two thousand volunteers. Dana L. Robert, American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1996), 258-260; also see Gerald H. Anderson, “American Protestants in Pursuit of Mission: 1886-1986,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 12 (July 1988): 98-118. 6. Both H. G. Underwood and H. G. Appenzeller decided to be missionaries during their years in seminary under the influence of the missionary fervor. They participated in the Inter-Seminary Alliance in 1883, which was a decisive meeting for them to respond to the missionary call to Korea. See Everett N. Hunt, Jr., Protestant Pioneers in Korea (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Book, 1980), 2326; D. L. Moody’s influence can be found among the missionaries to Korea as well. Willliam Bruen wrote, “News has reached us only lately of the death of Mr. Moody, truly a great man, a friend of the common people, a friend of students, and a friend of the prisoner. Such a man made one sure God was still present and working in the world.” “William M. Bruen to Martha Scott, 18 February, 1900,” in 40 Years in Korea: Henry Munro Bruen, comp. Clara Hedberg Bruen (Seoul, Korea: Hankuk Kidokyosa Yunkuso, 1998), 42; Moody’s influence was equally great among the women. See, for example, Jennie Fowler Willing and Mrs. George H. Jones, The Lure of Korea (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, 191-), 24. 7. Harriet Atwood and Ann Hasseltine were two of the first American women missionaries who were sent to foreign mission fields. Robert gives interesting accounts of their marriages, which show how marriage choice and missionary vocation were closely related for the early missionary wives. See Robert, American Women in Mission, 1-38. 8. R. Pierce Beaver, American Protestant Women in World Mission: A History of the First Feminist Movement in North America (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1980), 59. 9. Ibid., 14. 10. Robert, American Women in Mission, 129. 11. Dana Robert states that “the proven worth of unmarried female missionaries had silenced many of their critics” by the end of the nineteenth century. Ibid., 187. 12. Beaver, American Protestant Women in World Mission, 88.

320

Endnotes .

13. Robert, American Women in Mission, 130. 14. Ibid., 133. 15. They are often written with the assumption that western Christian women have the responsibility to share the Gospel and to improve the lives of “heathen” women all over the world. See, for example, Helen Barrett Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands (New York: The MacMillian Company, 1910). 16. Keith E. Melder, Beginnings of Sisterhood: The American Woman’s Rights Movement, 1800-1850 (New York: Schocken Books, 1977), 15. 17. Horowitz explains that, while the male seminary prepared men for the ministry, the female seminary took it as its responsibility to train women in teaching and for Republican motherhood. “Although the female seminary never offered the classical option of the male academy, Greek and Latin, nor its extension into the classical element of the liberal arts college curriculum, the female seminary offered the English curriculum of the academy—history, philosophy, modern languages, and natural sciences—designed to prepare women for teaching.” Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women’s Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930’s (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 10-11. 18. Ibid., 12. 19. Robert, American Women in Mission, 92. 20. William G. Leaman, Jr., “Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania,” Journal of American Medical Women’s Association 2 (October 1947): 460-462. 21. Protestant missions actively recruited women physicians well into the mid-twentieth century. An advertisement section in a women’s medical journal illustrates how the medical missionary career was promoted among women physicians in 1940s. It says, “One hardly needs to stress the fact that there is a great need for women general physicians and surgeons, as well as specialists in the various branches of medicine and surgery, in all the areas of the world where the Protestant Church is carrying on organized medical work… There are few professional careers open to unmarried women which bring to the worker the deep satisfaction and happiness that is so universally the experience of the medical missionary, whose clientele is large and needy and its individual members deeply appreciative.” See “Opportunities for Medical Women: Opportunities for Women in Medical Mission Work,” Journal of American Medical Women’s Association 2 (October 1947): 468.

321

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

22. Jane Hunter writes, “Although the American missionary movement was born in New England, by the twentieth century it owed the majority of its volunteers to the rural Midwest.” She reports that only eighteen percent of the female missionaries in China sent by the ABCFM were born in New England, while forty percent came from the Midwest, another eleven percent from Atlantic states, and a sprinkling from other parts of the county and the mission field. Jane Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility: American Women in Turn-ofthe-Century China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 28. 23. Theodore L. Agnew, “Reflections on the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Movement in Late 19th-Century American Methodism,” Methodist History 6 (January 1968): 5. 24. Robert writes that in no other place was “the ground so fruitful for the SVM as at co-educational institutions in the Midwest.” Robert, American Women in Mission, 259. 25. Fifty Years of Light. Prepared by Missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church in Commemoration of the Completion of Fifty Years of Work in Korea (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1938), 116. 26. Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, 28-29. 27. For example, Annie L. Adams Baird, Rosetta Sherwood Hall, M.D., and Mary Cutler, M.D. were from farming families. 28. Lillias Horton’s family moved from Albany, New York, to Chicago in 1867 to enable her father to be a partner in a wholesale hardware business. See Leonora Horton Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” Fifteen Years Among the Top-knots: Lillias Horton Underwood and Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances (Boston, New York, and Chicago: American Tract Society, 1904; reprint, Seoul, Korea: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1987), 362; Ella Dodge’s family also moved for business reasons to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from Rensaeller County in New York during her childhood. See Marion W. Reninger, “Alice of Korea,” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 74 (1970): 109-123. Alice R. Appenzeller Papers, Missionary Biographical Files, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, New Jersey; the Dodge family to which Ella Dodge Appenzeller belonged was known for great merchants and by William Dodge’s philanthropic work in New York city. See William E. Griffis, A Modern Pioneer in Korea: The Life Story of Henry R. Appenzeller (New York: Flemming H. Levell Company, 1912), 85; Jennie Barnes

322

Endnotes

Avison’s father was also a small business owner, a blacksmith and carriage builder, although she was from Canada. See Allen D. Clark, Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M.D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 54. 29. William M. Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird),” Typed manuscript of a short biographical sketch of Annie Laurie Adams Baird, Pyeng Yang, Korea, 24 March 1928, Annie L. A. Baird File, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn.; Alice Fish, M.D. came as a missionary doctor of the Northern Presbyterian Mission to Korea and married Samuel A. Moffett in 1899. Although her home was in California, she was a daughter of the president of the Comstock Gold Mine in Virginia City, Nevada. Samuel H. Moffett, interview by author, personal conversation, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., 9 November 2000. 30. Lulu Frey, who came to Korea in 1893, attended Ohio Wesleyan University with the support of her father. When she later wanted to go to Chicago for a missionary training school, she could not ask her father to do any more for her “than he had in paying all my expenses at Delaware.” Lulu Frey to Miss Conklin, 29 September 1905, Lulu Frey File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J.; Annie L. Adams Baird’s parents were also willing and able to educate her. William Baird wrote, “Mr. and Mrs. Adams believed in educating their children. Though they had to sacrifice some comforts they were willing to do so in order to give the children the benefits of an education.” William Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird), typed manuscript on the life of his wife, Annie L. A. Baird, Pyeng Yang, Korea, 24 March 1928, Annie L. A. Baird Papers; of course there were some disparities in the financial status among their families. While many of the women missionaries practiced frugality from their early years in the U.S., some others like Lillias Underwood were from families that could enjoy some level of luxury and comfort. See Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” 360-403. 31. Dae Young Ryu, Cho’gi Miguk Sunkyosa Yon’ku, 1884-1910 (Early American Missionaries in Korea, 1884-1910: Understanding Missionaries from Their Middle-Class Background) (Seoul: The Institute of Korean Church History Studies, 2000), 36-59. 32. “The Roll Call” of the WFMS, Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J.

323

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

33. “The Roll Call” of the WFMS, Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J.; according to Jane Hunter’s evaluation of the American women missionaries to China, “the paternal influence of missionaries and ministers clearly led to daughters’ religious vocation,” but “a strong relationship with a father of any calling might encourage in a daughter the kind of ambition and assertiveness that could lead to service overseas.” Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, 33. Even though it is not clear whether it was the same for the missionaries to Korea, the large number of minister fathers of the missionaries show that their fathers’ vocation might have had some influence upon their call to missions. 34. Mrs. A. E. Prince, Planting the Gospel in Korea: The Story of Josephine Peel Campbell (Nashville, Tenn.: Department of Education and Promotion, Woman’s Section, Board of Missions, M. E. Church, South, n.d.), A copy found in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, United Methodist Archives, Drew University, Madison, N.J.; “In Memory of Mrs. J. P. Campbell,” an article written in Korean, in Southern Methodism in Korea, ed. J. S. Ryang (Seoul, Korea: Board of Missions, Korea Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1929), 288. 35. Wm. G. Scranton and Family Papers, Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 36. Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” 363; Annie L. Adams Baird’s mother was also an active member of the local ladies’ missionary society, and it is said that the ladies of that society had prayed for some of their sons and daughters to volunteer to be foreign missionaries. William Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird),” Typed manuscript of a short biographical sketch of Annie L. A. Baird, Pyeng Yang, Korea, 24 March 1928, Annie L. A. Baird Papers. 37. Fannie Messenger Allen is mentioned as “a girl of a definitely religious turn of mind.” Fred H. Harrington, God, Mammon and the Japanese: Dr. Horace N. Allen and Korean-American Relations, 1884-1905 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1944), 5; referring to the family ancestry of Ella Dodge Appenzeller, Griffis explains that Americans named Dodge are almost all descendants of the Puritan. William Dodge came from Chester, England, to Salem, Mass. in 1629. See Griffis, A Modern Pioneer in Korea, 85; Jennie Barnes,

324

Endnotes

who latter married Oliver Avison, was from a Methodist family and played hymns on Sundays. See Clark, Avison of Korea, 54, 68. 38. Mrs. M. B. Knox and Mrs. E. E. Talmage, “Miss E. J. Shepping—An Appreciation,” The Korea Mission Field (October 1934): 218. 39. Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” 360. 40. W. H. Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird), Memoriam,” Mrs. William Martin Sr. (Annie L. Adams) (first wife) Papers, Baird File, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 41. Marie E. Church and Mrs. R. L. Thomas, “Lulu E. Frey: Who Went to Korea,” The One Who Went and the One She Found (Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, 1929), 150. A copy found in the Lulu Frey File, the Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 42. W. H. Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird), Memoriam,” Mrs. William Martin Sr. (Annie L. Adams) (first wife) Papers, Baird File, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 43. Robert, American Women in Mission, 258. 44. “Memorial,” Mary M. Cutler File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J.; the age and the time of commitment to mission work for many of the missionaries to Korea also indicate the prevailing influence of the Student Volunteer Movement and other young people’s Christian movements at the time. Rosetta Sherwood and Margaret Bengel were in their early young adulthood between eighteen and twenty-one years old, when they dedicated their lives to missions. 45. Jane Hunter explains, “Mission service offered women many of the gratification(s) of purpose, status, and permanence associated with the developing professions, without requiring the bold assault on female conventions demanded of the new ‘professional’ woman.” They consistently expressed their desire to “make their lives worth more than at home… .. Women seemed to appreciate the favorable exchange rates for their influence in China and sought to invest their lives there rather than spend them as debased currency at home.” Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, 36-37. 46. “The Roll Call” of the WFMS, Mary Cutler File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 47. “The Roll Call” of the WFMS, Ethel M. Estey File, Missionary

325

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 48. Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” 360. 49. Lulu Frey to Miss Conklin. 29 September 1905, Lulu Frey File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey; the copy Lulu obtained had been used on the ironing board and the spots of beeswax that had been used for the ironing made her eyes catch the phrase, “Why do you not go?” It says that she never got away from that “beeswax call.” See Marie E. Church and Mrs. R. L. Thomas, “Lulu E. Frey: Who Went to Korea,” 150-157. 50. Annie Ellers Bunker, “Personal Recollections of Early Days in Korea,” in Within the Gate, ed. Charles A. Sauer (Seoul, Korea: The Korea Methodist News Service, 1934), 57. 51. Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” 372. 52. Lulu Frey to Miss Conklin, 29 September 1905, Lulu Frey File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 53. Margaret Bengel’s response to “an urgent call for more helpers in Korea resulted in the acceptance and appointment of Miss Margaret Bengel, of Pomeroy, Ohio, and she sailed from San Francisco, September 4th.” Mrs. B. R. Cowen, History of the Cincinnati Branch, Woman’s’ Foreign Missionary Society (Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts, 1895), 72; Lulu Frey was ready to be sent where she was needed, and soon was put in contact with Mary F. Scranton and Josephine Paine in Korea. Lulu Frey to Miss Conklin, Lulu Frey File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 54. William Baird, “Mrs. Willliam M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird),” typed manuscript of a short biographical sketch of Annie L. A. Baird, Pyeng Yang, Korea, 24 March 1928, Annie L. A. Baird Papers. 55. Mattie W. Noble, Question and Answer form, William A. and Mattie L. Wilcox Noble File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 56. Everett Hunt briefly described the person of Ella Dodge who was engaged to marry Henry Appenzeller: “Ella was raised Baptist and because of her devout faith was more than willing to accompany her future husband as he followed his call.” Hunt, Protestant Pioneers, 26.

326

Endnotes

57. William Bruen to Martha Scott, 12 October 1899, in 40 Years in Korea, 26. 58. Juanita Brown, “Pioneering in Korea: Mrs. Josephine P. Campbell,” in The Winsome Call. 1938. A copy found in Josephine P. Campbell File, Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 59. “Mrs. Heron (later Mrs. Gale) is expecting her mother out if she stays,” in H. G. Underwood to Elinwood, 4 August 1890, in Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, Mary Alice Fish Moffett, Lucia Hester Fish Moffett, and Contemporary Conrrespondence. Vol. 1(1870-1899), comp. Eileen Flower Moffett (Limited Private Distribution, n.p.); Mrs. Gibson, mother of Hattie G. Gale, also came to Korea to help her daughter. See Clark, Avison of Korea, 71; Mrs. Graham Lee’s mother and mother-in-law both lived in Pyengyang with their children and helped in their work from the beginning of the station. Graham Lee to Ellinwood, 27 August 1894, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, 59; another missionary mother mentioned is the mother of D. L. Gifford, Mrs. Gifford, Sr. She lost both her son and her daughter-in-law, Mary H. Gifford, in the year 1899. However, she touched the hearts of the missionaries by deciding to stay in Korea and help in the mission work. J. S. Gale, “General Report of Seoul Station of the Presbyterian Mission, 1899-1900,” Report submitted in 1900, Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 60. “The Roll Call” of the WFMS, Josephine O. Paine File, Missionary Biographical File, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, N.J. 61. Lulu Frey to Miss Conklin, 29 September 1905, Lulu Frey File. 62. Quoted in Huntley, Caring, Growing, Changing, 17-18; for another quotation from Loulie Scranton’s own description of how she decided to come to Korea with her husband, see W. A. Noble, “Pioneers of Korea,” in Within the Gate, ed. Charles Sauer, 27-28. 63. Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, 46. 64. Hunt includes a section on the concept of call in their understanding as missionaries. See Hunt, Protestant Pioneers, 89. Women missionaries shared basically the same concept of the “call” for themselves, as their writings and reports to the WFMS roll calls indicate.

327

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

65. “The Training School,” in Woman’s Missionary Advocate (January 1891):198; Arrena Carroll was one of the graduates of the Scarritt Training School. See “Our Opening,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (September 1899): 86; “Ruby Kendrick, A Lover of Korea,”an article written in Korean, in Southern Methodism, ed. J. S. Ryang, 290. 66. Beaver, American Protestant Women in World Mission, 88. 67. Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, 36. 68. The Northern Presbyterian Mission alone sent seven women physicians to Korea in the first twelve years. See “The Complete Mission Roll,” Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 625; six out of the twenty-three women sent by the Methodist WFMS in the first twenty years in Korea were also doctors. “Roll of Missionary Workers in Korea,” Fifty Years of Light, 116-118. 69. Underwood, Fifteen Years, vi. 70. For example, Mary F. Scranton and Annie L. Adams Baird were among the most important communicators about the mission work in Korea. They constantly wrote to their mission boards, women’s missionary societies, and the general public, and served as eloquent speakers during their furloughs, promoting American support for the missionary work in Korea. 71. Egan, “Lillie in Korea and Contributing Circumstances,” 381. 72. George L. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, 1832-1910 (Pyeng Yang: Union Christian College Press, 1929), 34-38; see p. 31 above. 73. William M. Bruen, Taiku, Korea, to Martha Scott, 6 May 1900, in 40 Years in Korea, 49. 74. William M. Bruen, Taiku, Korea, to Martha Scott, 26 June 1900, in Ibid., 51. 75. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 19. 76. Tucker and Liefeld, Daughters of the Church, 303. 77. Robert, American Women in Mission, 188. 78. Marie Chase to E. E. Ellinwood, 9 November 1897, in 40 Years in Korea, 11.

CHAPTER 3 1. Martha Ingold, diary, Rock Hill, S.C., 18 July 1897, Martha Ingold Tate Papers, Box 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society,

328

Endnotes

Montreat, N.C. 2. William. M. Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird),” Pyeng Yang (Pyengyang), Korea, 24 March 1928, Annie L. A. Baird Papers, Missionary Biographical File, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 3. Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 4 (October 1887): 101. 4. Alice Fish, S. S. Belgic (White Star Line), to Cousin Emma, 17 November 1897, in Eileen Flower Moffett, comp. Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, Mary Alice Fish Moffett, Lucia Hester Fish Moffett, and Contemporary Correspondence. Vol. 1(1870-1899) (Limited Private Distribution, n.d.). 5. Ibid. 6. “Our Farewell Services,” Newspaper Clipping of 1897, Martha Ingold Tate Papers, Box 1; Southern Presbyterian women reported in 1900 that it was decided that women must not repeat Scripture aloud in a Sunday school exercise, because it would be using the Bible to disobey the Bible. The Southern Presbyterian Synod of Virginia was “good enough to allow somewhat greater liberty” by deciding that women may sing in church and form missionary societies and pray together, “under the control of the session of the church.” “Items,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (February 1900): 239. 7. “By Presbyterian Ladies,” Newpaper Clipping of 1907, John Samuel Nisbet File, Box 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 8. Ibid. 9. “Our Farewell Services,” Newspaper Clipping of 1987, Mattie Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 10. Alice Fish to Cousin Emma, 17 November 1897, in Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett. 11. Mary L. Dodson, Half A Lifetime in Korea (San Antonio: The Nalor Company, 1952), 3. 12. Ella Dodge Appenzeller, “First Arrivals in Korea,” The Korea Mission Field (November 1909): 188-89. Quoted in Daniel M. Davies, The Life and Thought of H. G. Appenzeller (1858-1902): Missionary to Korea (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), 113. 13. Alice Fish to her cousin Emma, 17 November 1897, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett. 14. Annie Ellers Bunker, “Personal Recollections of Early Days” in

329

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Within the Gate, ed. Charles Sauer (Seoul, Korea: The Korea Methodist News Service, YMCA Press, 1934), 58. 15. William M. Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird (Annie Laurie Adams Baird),” typed manuscript of a short biographical sketch of Annie Laurie Adams Baird, Pyeng Yang (Pyengyang), Korea, 24 March 1928, Annie L. A. Baird File. 16. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, 20 August 1904, “Canadian Pacific Railway” and “Empress of Japan,” Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Letters, Box 5, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 17. Alice Fish to Cousin Emma, 17 November 1897, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett; Mary Dodson also wrote when the ship stopped in Hawaii, “How I wish you could have seen Hawaii! It is so beautiful that I cannot describe it.” Dodson, Half A Lifetime, 3. 18. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, 20 August 1904, “Canadian Pacific Railway” and “Empress of Japan,” Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Letters, Box 5. 19. William N. Blair, Gold in Korea, 3d ed. (Topeka, Kansas: H. M. Ives & Sons, Inc., 1957), 4-5. 20. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, 20 August 1904, “Canadian Pacific Railway” and “Empress of Japan,” Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Letters, Box 5; Mattie Ingold traveled on a steamer, the “China,” in 1897, and there were twenty-three missionaries on board, the greater number of whom were returning to their work in China and Japan. See Mattie Ingold, Letter, 10 August 1897, Mattie Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 21. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, 20 August 1904, “Canadian Pacific Railway” and “Empress of Japan,” Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Letters, Box 5; Alice Fish to her cousin Emma, 17 November 1897, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett. 22. “He (Dr. Preston) is teaching us some of the Korean language every day for an hour…. We should at least know the alphabet by that time.” Dodson, Half A Lifetime, 3. 23. Mattie Ingold, Letter from San Francisco, Calif., 6 August 1897, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 24. Allen D. Clark. Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M.D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 70. Fortunately, the child

330

Endnotes

recovered during the stay with the grandparents. 25. Ibid, 73. 26. Quoted in Davies, The Life and Thought of Henry Gerhard Appenzeller (1858-1902): Missionary to Korea (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), 115. William Scranton, another member of the group, also remembered the furious gale as the most violent he had ever witnessed before or after. William M. Baird, “Mrs. William M. Baird. (Annie Laurie Adams Baird),” Typed manuscript of a biographical sketch of Annie L. A. Baird, Annie L. A. Baird Paper File. 27. Ibid. 28. Anabel Major Nisbet (Mrs. J. S. Nisbet), “Letters from Mrs. Nisbet,” Newspaper or Magazine Clipping, 1907, J. S. Nisbet collection, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C.; Mrs. J. S. Nisbet, “Korean Experiences,” For the Christian Observer, 12 May 1909. A clipping found in ibid. 29. Davies, The Life and Thought, 125. 30. Horace G. Underwood of the Presbyterian Mission and William Scranton of the Methodist Mission proceeded to Seoul at this time. 31. Appenzeller, “First Arrivals in Korea.” Quoted in Davies, The Life and Thought, 141. 32. Quoted in ibid.,146. 33. Mary F. Scranton, a letter from Yokohama, Japan, 20 April 1885, Heathen Woman’s Friend XVII, no. 1 (July 1885): 10. 34. H. G. Appenzeller, a letter from Nagasaki, Japan, 15 June 1885, Heathen Woman’s Friend XVII, no. 2 (August 1885): 30. 35. Ibid.; for more words about the work of the WFMS missionaries in Japan by Henry and Ella Appenzeller, see Davies, The Life and Thought, 147-149. 36. Mary F. Scranton, a letter from Yokohama, Japan, 20 April 1885, Heathen Woman’s Friend XVII, no. 1 (July 1885): 10. 37. Mary F. Scranton, “en route for Seoul,” 13 June 1885, Heathen Woman’s Friend XVII, no. 3 (September 1885): 59. 38. Hattie G. Heron, a letter from Seoul, Korea, 17 August 1885, Woman’s Work for Woman 1, no. 2 (1885): 36. 39. Clark, Avison of Korea, 74; only one week after their arrival in Korea, Jennie Avison gave a birth to a son. See ibid., 77. 40. Blair, Gold in Korea, 5.

331

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

41. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, 13 September 1904, Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Letters, Box 5. 42. Appenzeller, “First Arrivals in Korea.” Quoted in Davies, The Life and Thought, 137. 43. Blair, Gold in Korea, 6. 44. Davies, The Life and Thought, 326. 45. Linnie Davis was the first one to arrive in Korea among the seven pioneers of the southern Presbyterian Mission. She was alone, when she arrived in Korea, and Martha Ingold also traveled to Korea alone. 46. Bertha S. Ohlinger, “Twice-told Tales,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers, Special Collections, Yale Divinity Library Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 47. Annie Ellers Bunker, “Personal Recollection of Early Days in Korea,” in Within the Gate, 61-62. 48. Mrs. Bishop Wilson, “From Mrs. Bishop Wilson,” a letter from Songdo, Korea, 17 September 1900, Woman’s Missionary Advocate (January 1901): 200. 49. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, 13 September 1904, Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Letters, Box 5. 50. Isabella Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours: A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the County, vol. 1 (London: John Murray, 1898), 25. 51. Quoted from Rosetta Sherwood, Seoul, Korea, to her family, Liberty, New York, 10 October 1890, in Sherwood Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia (McLean, Va.; MCL Associates, 1978), 27. 52. Clark, Avison of Korea, 75. 53. Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 1. 54. Mrs. Bishop Wilson, “From Mrs. Bishop Wilson,” a letter from Songdo, Korea, 17 September 1900, Woman’s Missionary Advocate (January 1901): 200. 55. Appenzeller, “First Arrivals in Korea.” Quoted in Davies, The Life and Thought, 138. 56. Bunker, “Personal Recollection of Early Days in Korea,” in Within the Gate, 60.

332

Endnotes

57. Appenzeller, “First Arrivals in Korea.” Quoted in Davis, The Life and Thought, 138. 58. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 1. 59. Ibid., 2; missionaries later wrote against premature and incorrect judgments made about the Koreans, “especially when only gained from the freight-handling coolies or stevedores that come aboard the steamers at the ports.” See Horace G. Underwood, The Call of Korea: Political-Socio-Religious (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1908), 44. 60. Mary F. Scranton, Heathen Woman’s Friend (October1885): 82. 61. Bunker, “Personal Recollection of Early Days in Korea,” in Within the Gate, 60. 62. Hattie G. Heron from Seoul, 16 August 1885, Woman’s Work for Woman I, no. 2 (February 1886): 36; Mary F. Scranton, letter from Seoul, Korea, dated 9 July 1885, Heathen Woman’s Friend VXII, no. 4 (October 1885): 82. 63. Bunker, “Personal Recollections of Early Days in Korea,” in Within the Gate, 60. 64. Bertha Ohlinger, “Twice-told Tales,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers. 65. Mary F. Scranton, Heathen Woman’s Friend VXII, no. 4 (October 1885): 82. 66. The Japanese started the work of building railroads, beginning with the electric railway that ran through the city of Seoul in 1899. Martha Ingold, “An Early Vacation,” a letter, 5 May 1899, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 67. Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel to her mother, Seoul, Korea, 18 September 1904, Sarah Brice Dunninton Daniel Papers. She wrote, “The trip up to Seoul was less than two hours on a quite fair American train.” 68. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 2. 69. Samuel Hugh Moffett, Christians of Korea (New York: Friendship Press, 1962), 43. 70. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours,vol. 1, 40. 71. Quoted in Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea (McLean, Va: MCL Associates, 1979), 49. 72. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, 40. 73. Hattie G. Heron, a letter from Seoul, 16 August 1885, Woman’s Work for Woman I, no. 2 (February 1886): 36.

333

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

74. Bunker, “Personal Recollections of Early Days in Korea,” in Within the Gate, 60. 75. Mattie Ingold, “First Impression,” a letter from Seoul, Korea, October 1897, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 76. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 50-51. 77. Annie J. Ellers, Seoul, to Ellinwood, 15 July 1886, Korea Letters 18841897, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 78. Richard H. Baird, William M. Baird of Korea: A Profile (Oakland, Calif.: Published and copyrighted by Richard H. Baird, 1968), 8; “Note: Another member of this class, the valedictorian, the Rev. William Gardner, and his sister were also members of the Korea Mission for about 3 months in 1889. Their early departure was due to what we would now call ‘cultural shock.’” Ibid. 79. Sarah B. D. Daniel to her mother, 18 September 1904, Sarah Brice Dunnington Daniel Papers; she was reading during the ocean journey a book about Korea and Protestant missions, Vanguard, by James Gale. Sarah B. D. Daniel to Cousin Mary, 18 September 1904, in ibid. 80. Mattie Ingold, a letter, 17 September 1897, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 81. Hattie Heron wrote, “It is a most heathenish land.” Hattie G. Heron, “Letters,” 17 August 1885, Woman’s Work for Woman I, no. 2 (February 1886): 36. 82. Martha Ingold, a letter, Seoul Korea, October 1897, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 83. Samuel A. Moffett to F. F. Ellinwood, 18 March 1890, in Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett. 84. Martha Ingold, diary, Seoul, Korea, 16 September 1897, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 85. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 2. 86. Eva H. Field, M.D., Seoul, Korea, to F. F. Ellinwood, New York, 7 December 1897, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett.

334

Endnotes

CHAPTER 4 1. Marie E. Church and Mrs. R. L. Thomas, “Lulu E. Frey: Who Went to Korea,” The One Who Went and the One She Found (Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, 1929), 152. A copy found in Lulu Frey Papers, Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 2. Sherwood Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea (McLean, Va.: MCL Associates, 1978), 602 3. Sherwood Hall explains the main reasons for the caution: “Centuries of old distrust of foreigners and lack of familiarity with their strange ways made the Koreans view every action of the foreign community with a wariness that easily erupted into rumor and panic. Further, the 100 year persecution of the Roman Catholic Christians had established a realistic fear of the consequence of coming into too close association with Westerners who were also Christians.” Ibid., 83. 4. Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Year among the Top-knots (New York: American Tract Society, 1904; reprint, Seoul, Korea: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1987), 13-15. 5. Harry A. Rhodes, ed., History of the Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. 1884-1934. (Seoul, Chosen(Korea): Chosen Mission Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.), 22. 6. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 85. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Bertha S. Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tale,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers, Special Collection, Yale Divinity Library Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 10. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 17-18. 11. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 342, 392. The treaty refers to the United States as the “most favored nation.” 12. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 50. 13. Ibid., 18. 14. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository III (January1896), 2-3.

335

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

15. Bertha Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tale,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers. 16. Horace Underwood, The Call of Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1908), 42. 17. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 49. 18. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository (January 1896), 4. 19. W. D. Reynolds, “Miss Mattie Samuel Tate: An Appreciation,” The Presbyterian Survey (August 1940): 359; for a living testimony of a missionary who had resided in one of the rebel districts from the start to about the finish, see “Seven Months Among the Tong Haks,” The Korean Repository (June 1895): 20ff. 20. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 249. 21. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 342-3; Underwood, Fifteen Years, 249-251. 22. Mary Scranton, “From the Seat of War,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 4 (October 1894): 101. 23. Ibid. 24. Mrs. Mary C. Nind, a letter from Hakodate, Japan, in Heathen Woman’s Friend (August 1894): 137. 25. William B. Scranton, “Missionary Review: The Methodist Episcopal Mission,” The Korean Repository II (January 1895): 18. 26. Frances J. Baker, A Woman Doctor in the Land of Morning Calm: A Sketch of Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall (a pamphlet), Boston, Mass.: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Mission. A copy found in Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 27. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 207. 28. J. Fairman Preston, Mokpo, Korea, to his mother, 10 February 1904, J. Fairman Preston Collection, Korea Mission Papers, Box 5, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 29. Graham Lee to F. F. Ellinwood, 27 August 1894, in Eileen Flower Moffett, comp. Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett (Limited Private Distribution, n.d.). 30. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 155-158. 31. Homer B. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea (New York: Young People’s

336

Endnotes

Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1907), 212-216. 32. Ibid., 217-219. 33. Underwood, The Call of Korea, 34. 34. Bertha S. Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tales,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers; Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 35. 35. Underwood, The Call of Korea, 28-31. 36. Ibid., 23-35. 37. William N. Blair, Gold in Korea, 3d ed. (Topeka, Kans.: H. M. Ives & Sons, Inc.), 10. 38. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 35. But the missionaries learned through the years of living among the Koreans that an appeal to his self-interest could move even the most conservative Korean out of his conservatism. Ibid. 39. Underwood, The Call of Korea, 46. 40. Quoted in Ibid., 45. 41. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 36. 42. Ella Lewis wrote about visiting Korean patients’ homes, “We are more kindly received than such visitors are at home; indeed, their hospitality often amounts to a trial. We are unable to get away without partaking of their food, which we afterward often find has been prepared by persons having a loathsome disease… ” in Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893): 17-18. 43. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 40. 44. “The Outside Gate and Streets of Seoul,” Woman’s Work for Woman XV, no. 9 (September 1885): 202. 45. One of the earliest well investigated study on the status of women in Korea appears in an article by George H. Jones, a Methodist missionary. George H. Jones, “The Status of Woman in Korea,” The Korean Repository III, no. 6 (June 1896): 223-229; Homer Hulbert also provides a good synopsis of the status and rights of women in Korea. See Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 349; women missionaries most often mention the life and status of women from various approaches in their writings. 46. Ibid., 224. 47. Ibid. 48. Isabella Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1 (London: John Murray, 1898), 150. 49. Ibid.

337

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

50. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1, 118. 51. Ibid., 119. 52. Underwood, The Call of Korea, 52. 53. Margaret Bengel Jones, “The Korean Bride,” The Korean Repository II, no. 2 (February 1895): 54. 54. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1, 151. 55. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 50. 56. “The Outside Gate and Streets of Seoul,” Woman’s Work for Woman, 202. 57. Mary Cutler, a letter in Heathen Woman’s Friend XXIV, no. 8 (February 1894): 225. 58. George H. Jones, “The Status of Woman in Korea,” The Korean Repository III, no. 6 (June 1896): 224. 59. Ibid., 226. 60. Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond, Virginia: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 34. 61. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 350. 62. Ibid., 354. 63. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1, 129. 64 Hulbert, The Passing of Korea, 354. 65. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1, 133-134. 66. Margaret Bengal Jones, “The Korean Bride,” The Korean Repository II, no. 2 (February 1895): 51. 67. The cruelties of mothers-in-law in Korea were so severe that missionary women considered it fortunate, when looking for husbands for their mission school girls, to find a husband without a mother. Ibid., 52. 68. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1, 150. 69. Before washing clothes, a Korean woman had to first take a garment apart by the seams. After washing the pieces, she starched and pound them with two stick to attain a polish resembling dull satin. Then she sewed them together back to one piece of garment. Ibid., 149. 70. Ibid., 150. 71. Ibid. 72. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 11. 73. George H. Jones, “The Status of Woman in Korea,” The Korean Repository III, no. 6 (June 1896): 228.

338

Endnotes

74. Helen Kim, Grace Sufficient: The Story of Helen Kim by Herself (Nashville, Tenn.: The Upper Room, 1964), 15. 75. Ibid. 76. She studied under a traditional Korean tutorage until her mother decided to send her to a school run by missionaries. Induk Pahk, September Monkey (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954), 24. 77. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 52. 78. Kim, Grace Sufficient, 3; for convenience sake, some girls were given hideous names which shocked many foreigners, such as “inmates of the pigpen, the rat trap or the barnyard,” or simply numbered, not named. See Griffis, A Modern Pioneer in Korea, 116. 79. Kim, Grace Sufficient, 3. 80. Gifford, Daniel L. Every-day Life in Korea (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1898), 61. 81. Mattie Ingold’s journal transcription, “Miscellaneous,” Mattie Ingold Collection, Box 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 82. Anabel Major Nisbet, “Korean Experiences,” For the Christian Observer, 12 May 1919. The newspaper clipping of Nisbet’s letter written from Chunju, Korea, found in J. S. Nisbet Collection, Box 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 83. Ibid. 84. In her novel, Lois Swineheart tells the story of a little girl who was sold to become a dancing girl, which was the most despised profession for a woman, a class of women entertainers. Lois Hawks Swinehart, Sarangie: A Child of Chosen: A Tale of Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1926). Dancing girls in Korea, called “kiesang,” were equivalent to geisha in Japan. Often good-looking young girls of poor families were sold and trained to entertain Korean men. It was also a form of professional prostitution. 85. Annie L. A. Baird, Daybreak in Korea: A Tale of Transformation in the Far East (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909), 5. 86. George H. Jones, “The Status of Woman in Korea,” The Korean Repository III, no. 6 (June 1896): 229. 87. Ibid. 88. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 50.

339

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

89. “Editorial Department; The Fate of the Queen,” The Korean Repository II (November 1895), 435. 90. George H. Jones, “The Status of Woman in Korea,” The Korean Repository III, no. 6 (June 1896): 229. 91. Rijuitei, “Corean Manners and Customs,” Letter to the Board of Foreign Missions, 19 August 1884, Korea Letters 1884-1897 (Microfilm), Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Mission of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 92. In her careful consideration of a missionary’s relation to her adopted people, Annie L. A. Baird cautioned against the westerner’s tendency to assume superiority of their own culture above that of the people, and promoted understanding and respectful attitude toward the Oriental ways of life. Annie L. A. Baird, Inside Views of Mission Life (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1913), 17-20. 93. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 48. 94. J. L. Gerdine, “More Pioneers of Korea,” in Within the Gate, 49. 95. Baird, Inside Views, 48. 96. Ibid. 97. Isabella Bird Bishop, “Missionary Hardship,” The Korean Repository V, no. 1 (January 1898): 21. 98. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 335. 99. Ibid. 100. Ibid., 97. 101. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 335. 102. Anabel Nisbet also writes at the end of her story of the young Korean widow, “This may give you a little taste of Korea life as well as some faint suggestion of the degradation and contempt in which women are held in a country where Christ is unknown. “Korean Experiences,” For the Christian Observers,12 May 1919, newspaper clipping found in the J. S. Nisbet Papers. 103. Bertha Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tales,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers. 104. Underwood, 81. The parts of Korean cities that were occupied by Chinese and Japanese also presented appearance of greater wealth than the native Korean areas did. 105. For more descriptions of Korean native houses, see Nisbet, Day In

340

Endnotes

and Day Out, 34. 106. Bertha Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tales,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers. 107. Martha Ingold, “Dining Out,” Letter from Chunju, Korea, 2 May 1898, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 108. “The remarkable fact is that Koreans do not use milk at all. Their cattle are simply beasts of burden,… No milk, no butter, no cheese, buttermilk, whipped cream, charlottes, ice cream, cream gravies,… ” Lillias H. Underwood, With Tommy Tompkins in Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1905), 28. 109. Bertha Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tales,” Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers. 110. Allen D. Clark, Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M. D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 95; most of the diseases common in Korea were from lack of cleanliness, poor food, and crowded living conditions. Ibid., 93. 111. Ibid. 112. For a study of Korean doctors and their methods, see J. B. Busteed, “The Korean Doctor and His Methods,” The Korean Repository II (May 1895):188-193. 113. Underwood, The Call of Korea, 19-20. 114. Clark, Avison of Korea, 93. 115. Allen D. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea (Seoul, Korea: Christian Literature Society, 1971), 122. 116. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 16. 117. Ella Lewis, a letter dated 25 February 1893, Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893). 118. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 62-63. 119. Baird, Inside Views, 46-47. 120. Ibid., 65. 121. Ibid. 122. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 59. 123. Ibid. 124. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 28-29. 125. Ibid., 34. 126. J. S. Nisbet’s report to The Executive Committee, 1935, John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society,

341

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Montreat, N.C. 127. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 242. 128. William B. Scranton, “Missionary Review: The Methodist Episcopal Mission,” The Korean Repository II (January 1895): 16-17.

CHAPTER 5 1. Howard Moffett, M.D., interview by author, Carpinteria, Calif., 20 November 2000. 2. Lillias H. Underwood wrote about the early missionaries in Korea, “Missionaries must know how to make good roads, build walls and houses, plan and care for vegetables and fruit trees, kill and cut up beef—if they want to eat anything but fowl and fish—as well as preach, teach, use the typewriter, write books and sermons, and walk miles in the country.” See Lillias H. Underwood, Underwood of Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1918), 78. 3. Davies mentions how Henry G. Appenzeller was impressed with the “compound” system in Yokohama and that it guided him in the establishment of the first Methodist compound in Seoul. Daniel M. Davies, The Life and Thought of H. G. Appenzeller (1858-1902): Missionary to Korea (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), 117-9. 4. Ibid., 185; Davies says that Appenzeller developed a fortress mentality in building the walled Methodist property in his first year in Korea. This assumption is problematic when one considers the evidence of early missionaries’ efforts to keep their residences open to Koreans as much as they could. Not only early medical work and schools for Koreans were started in missionary houses, missionaries’ writings indicate that a large number of Koreans were received at their homes almost daily. Even though the missionaries’ houses were surrounded by walls, as all tile-roofed houses in Korea were, the gates were almost always open during peaceful times. Howard Moffett, M.D., interview by author, tape recording, Carpinteria, Calif., 20 November 2000. 5. Both the Methodists and Presbyterians had their first institutions within their mission settlements in Seoul. Ella Appenzeller wrote to Alice Seaman on December 5, 1885, “The School work, Hospital work, WFMS, and Dr. Scranotn’s home, with ours, are all in one enclosure. We have fitted up all

342

Endnotes

those places (By we is meant of course all the Scrantons with ourselves) and made them very comfortable.” Quoted in Davies, The Life and Thought, 235; the Girls’ School of the Presbyterian Mission (north) was first started in the Foreign Settlement. The Presbyterian Boys’ School was also located in Chong Tong, the foreign settlement. Daniel L. Gifford, “Education in the Capital of Korea Part II,” The Korean Repository III, no. 8 (August 1896): 304-311. 6. Lillias Horton Underwood wrote of the first group of missionaries gathering to pray together, “The first missionaries of the two missions had worked and prayed together for souls. Mr. Underwood often told how, as they met on the first New Year’s Eve in the watch night service, and prayed God to give them souls that very next year,… Yet seven met round the communion table at Mr. Underwood’s house in Sept. of 87 and each year thereafter the number steadily multiplied.” Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 61. 7. Isabella Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1 (London: John Murray, 1898), 33. 8. For Rosetta Sherwood’s description of the Methodist Episcopal Mission grounds, Sherwood Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea (McLean, Va.: MCL Associates, 1978), 37; the Avisons lived a long distance from the rest of the Presbyterian missionaries, near the hospital where Oliver Avison lived. Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (New York: American Tract Society, 1904; reprint, Seoul, Korea: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1987), 177. 9. Heathen Woman’s Friend XVII, no. 8 (February 1886). 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid. 12. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 37; this first WFMS property in Seoul “consisted of nineteen straw huts and an unsightly strip of unoccupied land,” according to Mary F. Scranton. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository 3, no. 1 (Jan., 1896): 4. 13. The Woman’s Board purchased the mission properties from the Northern Methodist Mission, when the Wonsan station was transferred to the Southern Methodist Mission. R. A. Hardie, “The Methodist Episcopal Church,” Within the Gate, ed. Charles A. Sauer (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1934), 40; Josephine Campbell, as the field secretary of the Woman’s Board, planned and helped in the construction of mission buildings with the financial support of the Woman’s Board in the two stations of the Southern Methodist

343

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Mission. Ellasue Wagner, “Workers of the Woman’s Council,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, ed. J. S. Ryang (Seoul, Korea: Board of Missions, Korea Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1927), 82. 14. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 5. 15. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 37. 16. Ibid. 17. Quoted in Davies, The Life and Thought, 185, taken from Ella Dodge Appenzeller to Mrs. J. S. Wadsworth, May 14, 1886. 18. Quoted in ibid., 235. 19. When Oliver Avison received a large sum for building the large Severance Hospital in Seoul, opposition arose in the mission, fearing that too good of a hospital would strengthen institutionalism and might crowd out evangelism and spirituality. This fear was grounded upon the cases found in other Oriental missions, where evangelistic work had been crowded out by educational and medical institutions. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 211. 20. Samuel A. Moffett to F. F. Ellinwood, 15 May 1893, in Eileen Flower Moffett, comp. Letters of Samuel A. Moffett, 33. 21. George L. Paik [Paek], The History of Protestant Missions in Korea (Pyeng Yang, Korea: Union Christian College Press, 1929), 114-116. 22. For more detail, see the chapter 8 below. 23. Allen D. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea (Seoul: Christian Literature Society, 1971), 76. 24. Richard H. Baird, William M. Baird of Korea: A Profile (Oakland, Calif.: Published and copyrighted by Richard H. Baird, 1968), 20. 25. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 138. 26. Fortunately, the missionaries were able to receive new land as compensation for the loss of the buildings from the Korean government. Although the months of work and effort given to the previous site could never be compensated, the new land ended up being a better site than the first one, and the missionaries were also able to secure a royal title deed to the new property—government recognition of their right to reside in the interior. “Reminiscences of Pioneer Days,” J. F. Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 27. See the chapters 8-10 below for detailed discussions on women missionaries’ work and influence through various kinds of activities. 28. The Southern Methodist Mission’s roll excludes the names of married

344

Endnotes

women. The record shows thirty-one names of missionaries who came to Korea between the year 1896 and 1907. This number does not include the married women missionaries. Among the thirty-one, fifteen were single missionary women and sixteen were male missionaries. Based on the names mentioned in other records, at least ten of the sixteen men came to Korea with their wives. When the number of single women and married women are considered together, there were at least twenty-five women missionaries, compared to sixteen male missionaries in total. “Chronological Roll of Missionaries” in Ryang, Southern Methodism, 9-10. 29. None of the American Protestant denominations that opened missions in Korea ordained women during this pioneering period of Korea missions. 30. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 65. 31. Ibid., 65-66. 32. Horace G. Underwood, The Call of Korea: Political-Social-Religious (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1908), 26. 33. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository (January 1896), 3. 34. W. B. Harrison, “Opening of Kunsan Station, Korea,” three-page typewritten report, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4, Korea Mission, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C.; Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea. (Richmond, Va: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 27. 35. Mattie Ingold, “Chunju,” a letter dated 1 January 1898, Mattie Ingold Tate, Box 1 of 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 36. Underwood, Fifteen Years. 202. 37. W. B. Harrison, “Opening of Kunsan Station, Korea”; Also see Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 26. 38. Ibid., 35. 39. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 66. 40. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 5. 41. The Underwoods moved out of the house because the king wanted the compound for his new residence. The Appenzellers lived in their house until Henry Appenzeller died in a boat accident in 1900. 42. Dr. Howard Moffett, interview by author; a picture of the Blair

345

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

house in Pyengyang. William N. Blair, Gold in Korea, 3d ed. (Topeka, Ka: H. M. Ives & Sons, Inc., 1957), 123. For a picture of a renovated missionary house, see Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 35. 43. Kim Il Sung, the former dictator of Communist North Korea took his residence in the vacated missionary houses, since they were the best houses in Pyengyang. Dr. Howard Moffett, interview by author. 44. Fairman Preston, Kwangju, Korea, to his parents, 2 July 1906, J. F. Preston Collection, Korea Mission Papers, Box 5, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 45. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 209; Horace Underwood’s brother, John T. Underwood, was the owner of the Underwood Typewriter company and a millionaire. He was a faithful supporter of Horace Underwood’s mission work throughout his life in Korea. Ibid., 114. 46. Ibid., 217-218. When the Underwoods came to America for their first vacation, John Underwood gave them money to dig a cellar under their house, to put a new roof over it, to put in bathrooms and hot water, and a steamheating furnace and outfit. Ibid., 116-117. 47. Baird, William Baird of Korea, 22-23. 48. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 226. 49. Ibid., 227. 50. Ibid., 77. 51. Dr. Howard Moffett’s description of how the pioneer missionaries in the southern city of Taiku built their early houses and buildings. Howard Moffett, interview by author. 52. Graham Lee to Ellinwood, 8 April 8 1896, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, 121; Lee to Ellinwood, 7 August 1895, Seoul, Korea, in ibid., 80 53. Samuel A. Moffett to Ellinwood, 1 February 1896, in ibid., 116. 54. Graham Lee to Ellinwood, 27 March 1899, in ibid., 169; The mission houses functioned not only as residences, but also as regular meeting places for Korean Christians to gather for Bible studies in the early years. It was, therefore, necessary to maintain and renovate the houses for both the life and work of the missionaries. 55. Graham Lee to Ellinwood, 30 October 1899, in ibid., 182. 56. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 182. 57. Ibid. 58. Report of Linnie Davies Harrison, Fall of 1901, 13 December 1901,

346

Endnotes

Chunju, John Fairman Preston, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 59. Personal Report of Mattie B. Ingold, M.D. (1 September 1903) in S. A. Nisbet Collection, Box 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 60. Samuel A. Moffett to Ellinwood, 1 February 1896, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, 116. 61. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 105. 62. Mattie Ingold was housed with Mattie Tate, another single woman, in Chunju. Due to the smallness of the house, Ingold later moved to her own little Korean house. Martha Ingold, “Chunju,” letter dated 1 January 1898, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 63. After first sharing a tiny house with Mattie Tate, Martha Ingold was moved to a small thatched Korean house, where she lived and held her dispensary for Korean women and children. Martha Ingold, Letter, 1 January 1899, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1; “Miss Davis lives in a Korean house near the river… ” Martha Ingold, “The Last Step,” Letter, Chunju, Korea, 20 November 1897, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. 64. Baird, William Baird of Korea, 19. 65. Ibid., 21. 66. Ibid., 22. 67. Ibid.; missionary families who were building their own houses sometimes had to move into unfinished houses because of lack of housing, in spite of the likeliness of getting sick in an unfinished house. Horace and Lillias Underwood also moved into a half-finished home in the fall of 1893, where they lived more like campers in a tent. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 128. 68. Quoted from the chapter, “Our Early days in Korea,” in Oliver R. Avison’s manuscript memoirs. Quoted in Baird, William Baird of Korea, 26. 69. Preston to his parents, Kwangju, Korea, July 2nd 1906, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 5, Korean Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 70. Bertha S. Ohlinger, “Twice-Told Tales,” typed manuscript, Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers, Special Collections, Yale Divinity Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 71. Ibid., 8.

347

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

72. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository (January 1896), 3. 73. Baird, William Baird of Korea, 70. 74. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 26-27. 75. When Anabel Nisbet received their long expected boxes, she found out many problems with the content, “someway our coffee and Dutch Cleanser and a few things had dropped out and in place of them we had a lawn mower, for which we have no use… Our bath tub, stationary wash basin came all right; but the galvanized iron piping was lost on way. My shoes are here, but are the wrong number… A year at least before the matter can be straightened up.” Anabel Nisbet, “Interesting Letters from Mrs. Nisbet,” newspaper clipping dated 1 January 1917, John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Korea Mission Papers, Box 2, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 76. Baird, William Baird of Korea, 71. 77. Horace G. Underwood and J. S. Heron obtained such a permit soon after coming to Korea and tried to make a formal contract with a Korean butcher. They taught the butcher to cut up the meat following directions given in a cookbook of a missionary wife. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 57-58. 78. Lillias Underwood says about the one hunting trip in which Horace Underwood participated, “The hunt did not yield much in the quantity of game—one duck, I believe—but the party of friends meant more to Mr. U than all the game in creation. The exercise and change were indeed invaluable.” Ibid., 81. 79. In reply to the secretary’s letter, Lee wrote, “I know I have made friends with the birds I have given away, and I never heard a word of complaint about our shooting them. On the other hand I know it is very easy for a man if he likes hunting to let his sporting proclivities run away with him. So I will remember your word of advice and be careful.” Graham Lee to Ellinwood, 7 August 1895, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, 80. 80. W. B. Harrison wrote about the early missionaries in Kunsan finding good source of meat through gaming, “Game was then so abundant that an hour’s shooting about sun set by the men of the Mission on the hills west of the village furnished the company with an abundance of the best of meat.” W. B. Harrison, “The Opening of Kunsan Station, Korea,” Three-page typewritten report, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C.

348

Endnotes

81. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 51. 82. Baird, Inside Views of Mission Life (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1913), 103; James D. Van Buskirk also demonstrates that missionaries made important contributions to the agricultural development in Korea, not only in introducing good fruits and farm stocks, but also sharing modern agricultural knowledge with Korean farmers. James D. Van Buskirk, Korea: Land of the Dawn (New York: Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, 1931), 79-84. 83. Missionary wives gave special care to flowers and lawns in the mission grounds, and the gardens made the missionary compounds look distinctively different from the outside. See Underwood, With Tommy Tompkins, 36-37; Ella Appenzeller also planted a flower garden with much pleasure, using seeds sent in envelopes by her friends and family. Davies, The Life and Thought, 232. 84. Baird, Inside Views, 102. 85. Ibid., 42. 86. Ibid., 44. 87. Ibid., 43. 88. One can see differences of the attire of missionaries from the pictures of the WFMS missionaries to Korea in 1898 and 1910. See the photos in Fifty Years of Light (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1938), 3, 4; also see a photo, “Group of lady missionaries on way to Korea,” in Southern Methodism, XLVIII. 89. Mrs. Scranton, Seoul, Korea, 9 July 1885, The Heathen Woman’s Friend VXII, no. 4 (October 1885): 82. 90. Allen D. Clark, Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M.D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 79. 91. Quoted from a letter by Ella Appenzeller, 7 July 1885, in Davies, The Life and Thought, 154. 92. The missionaries struggled greatly in teaching the native Koreans to sing in the tune of the hymns, and an organ was considered one of the essential ministry instruments. Mrs. Wilson wrote to the Woman’s Board of the Southern Methodist Church about the need of an organ: “Then we had four or five of our songs, and the importance of an instrument was apparent. The native has no ear for music, and it is impossible for one or even two voices to carry an air against the discord of forty women having not the least idea of a tune. With an organ they might learn as an untrained number of us do. Miss Hines and

349

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Miss Carroll should have an instrument for their Sunday work.” “From Mrs. Bishop Wilson, Songdo, Korea, Sept. 17, 1900,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (January 1901):201. 93. Howard Moffett, M.D., interview by author. 94. Annie L. A. Baird, 22-25; Mary M. Culter, “Life in Seoul,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 2 (August 1894):40-1. 95. Annie Preston, letter from Mokpo, Korea, 21 May 1904, J. F. Preston Collection, Box 5, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 96. Baird, Inside Views, 22-25. 97. Ibid., 23. 98. Ibid., 65. 99. M. Alice Fish to her Aunt Lute and Lucia, September 1898, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, 158. 100. Ibid. 101. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 154-155. 102. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 42. 103. Baird, Inside Views, 25. 104. Samuel A. Moffett to Ellinwood, 9 November 1892, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, 13. 105. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 126. 106. Ibid., 92. 107. Baird, Inside Views, 26-27. 108. Samuel A. Moffett, 9 November 1892, in Moffett, Letter of Samuel Austin Moffett. 13. 109. Underwood, Underwood of Korea, 42. 110. Samuel Moffett wrote, “Misunderstandings, suspicion of motives, lack of confidence on the part of the Boarad and on our past misunderstandings and a fear that we will be judged… will make almost any missionary’s life a failure. I could not help believing that it was this—more than overwork— more than anything else that led to Dr. Heron’s death.” Samuel A. Moffett to Ellinwood, 28 December 1891, in Moffett, Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett. 111. Annie Baird, “Wives and Mission Work,” The Korean Repository (November 1895): 418. 112. Ibid. 113. Ibid. 114. Ibid.

350

Endnotes

115. Upon arriving in the port city of Fusan in Korea, Isabella Bird Bishop found “the three Australian ladies” living in the Korean part of the town. She describes their living, “Except that the compound was clean, it was in no way distinguishable from any other, being surrounded by mud hovels.… Friends urged these ladies not to take this step of living in a Korean town 3 miles from Europeans.… In truth it was not a ‘conventional thing’ to do.” Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbours, vol. 1, 22-23.

CHAPTER 6 1. Harry H. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (Seoul, Chosen: Chosen Mission of Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1934), 80. Cf. the same phrase used for Dr. Peter Parker who went to China in 1834. 2. Starting with Horace Allen, J. W. Heron and Oliver Avison all served as the king’s physicians. Allen D. Clark, Avison of Korea: The Life of Henry Gerhard Appenzeller, M.D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 91. 3. Mrs. Hattie G. Heron, “A Banquet in Seoul,” Woman’s Work for Woman and Our Mission Field 1, no. 2 (February 1886): 37. 4. Presbyterian medical missionaries, who entered Korea between 1884 and 1890, were H. N. Allen, J. W. Heron, Annie Ellers, and Lillias Horton. The Methodist Episcopal Mission sent three medical missionaries during these years—W. B. Scranton, Leonora Meta Howard, and Rosetta Sherwood. 5. Quoted in Mrs. J. T. Gracey, “Mission Work in Korea,” The Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (1894): 2. 6. Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 25. 7. H. G. Underwood to Ellinwood, 17 February 1886, Korea Letters 18841887 (Microfilm), Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 8. J. W. Heron to Ellinwood, 8 April 1886, Korea Letters 1884-1887, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 9. Annie Ellers-Bunker, “Early Personal Recollections,” The Korea Mission Field (April 1935): 69. 10. Ellers ended up getting married in Korea before her two years in

351

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korea were over, and did not go back to America to complete her medical degree. She served with her husband, D. A. Bunker, as Methodist missionaries. After their retirement, the Bunkers bought a home in San Diego, but soon sold it to return to Korea in 1930 which was their forty-fourth year in Korea. D. A. Bunker, Seoul, to Mrs. Ohlinger, 3 March 1930, Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers, Special Collections, Yale Divinity Library Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 11. J. W. Heron’s letter to Ellinwood shows that Heron was worried about the fact that Ellers was not a full-fledged physician. He wrote, “It is not known here that she is not a physician… Introduced as such at the palace.” J. W. Heron to Ellinwood, 19 October 1886, in Korea Letters 1884-1887, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 12. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 21. 13. Annie Ellers Bunker, “My First Visit to Her Majesty, the Queen,” The Korean Repository II (September 1895): 373-375. Also see Underwood, Fifteen Years, 24-27, 89-91. 14. Annie Ellers-Bunker, “Early Personal Recollection,” The Korea Mission Field (April 1935), 70. 15. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 24. 16. H. N. Allen to Ellinwood, 28 October 1886, Korea Letters 1884-1887, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 17. Annie Ellers-Bunker, “Early Personal Recollection,” The Korea Mission Field (April 1935): 70. 18. They were worth about $300 at the time. Underwood. Fifteen Years, 34. 19. Ibid., 115. 20. Chull Lee explains that the Protestant missions’ policy of having close connection with the Korean royal court and of maintaining a favorable relationship with the royal family had a manifest end in “advancing many years the cause of Christianity” and accomplishing accomplish the missionary success in Korea. Chull Lee, “Social Sources of the Rapid Growth of the Christian Church in Northwest Korea: 1895-1910” (Ph.D. diss., Boston University. 1996), 76-86. 21. Ibid., 107. 22. “From Correspondence,” Mrs. Scranton’s letter from Seoul dated 19 January 1885, The Heathen Woman’s Friend XVII, no. 10 (April 1886): 249. 23. Elizabeth Roberts, “Medical Work in Seoul,” in Fifty Years of Light,

352

Endnotes

prepared by missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in commemoration of the completion of fifty years of work in Korea (Seoul, Korea: Y.M.C. A. Press, 1938), 6. 24. Meta Howard, “The WFMS Hospital in Seoul,” Heathen Woman’s Friend. XXI, no. 7 (January 1890): 173-174. 25. Ibid. 26. Sherwood Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea (McLean, Va: MCL Associates, 1978), 40. 27. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 16. 28. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 88. 29. Robert, “Medical Work in Seoul,” 6. 30. Martha Ingold, “Medical Notes,” typed note, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1 of 1, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 31. Meta Howard, “The WFMS Hospital in Seoul, Korea,” The Heathen Woman’s Friend XXI, no. 7 (January 1890): 174. 32. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 41-42. 33. Ibid. 34. Meta Howard, M.D., “The WFMS Hospital in Seoul, Korea,” The Heathen Woman’s Friend XXI, no. 7 (January 1890): 174. 35. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 41-42. 36. Ibid. 37. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 42-43. 38. Mrs. D. A. Bunker, “Life, Abundant Life,” in Fifty Years of Light, 1. 39. Mrs. J. T. Gracey, “Mission Work in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (July 1894): 2. 40. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 45; Dr. Rosetta S. Hall actually grafted her skin to her patients several times during her early medical missionary work. Such was also recognized and recorded honorably by missionaries. See Frances J. Baker, A Woman Doctor in the Land of Morning Calm: A Sketch of Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church). A copy of the pamphlet found in Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 41. Ibid., 46. 42. About the expansion of Ewha into a college and university, see Marion Conrow, Our Ewha (Seoul: Ewha Womans University, 1956), 25-68.

353

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

43. Mary F. Scranton, “I Hoa Haktan, Seoul, Korea,” a letter from Seoul, Korea, 6 October 1888, Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 7 (January 1889): 173. 44. Mary F. Scranton, a letter from Seoul, Korea, dated 16 July 1886, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XVIII, no. 4 (October 1886): 98. 45. Ibid. 46. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository 3, no. 1 (January 1896). 47. George Paik [Paek], The History of Protestant Missions in Korea (Pyeng Yang, Korea: Union Christian College Press, 1929), 118. 48. Mary F. Scranton, “From Missionary Letters,” letter from Seoul, Korea, dated 21 March 1887, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 1 (July 1887): 11-12. 49. Ella D. Appenzeller, “Fair Flower School,” letter from Seoul, Korea dated 28 February 1887, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 4 (October 1887). 50. Ibid. 51. “Personal Mention,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 8 (February 1888): 217. 52. Mary F. Scranton, “From Missionary Letter,” letter dated November 24, 1888, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 9 (March 1889): 239. 53. Mary F. Scranton, “From Missionary Letters,” letter from Seoul, Korea, 13 June 1889, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XXI, no. 3 (September 1889): 66. 54. “Uniform Study for August,” in Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (July 1894): 29. 55. Mrs. Scranton, “From Missionary Letters,” Seoul, Korea, 21 March 1887, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 1 (July 1887): 11-12. 56. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 6-8; Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 114. 57. Lillias H. Underwood, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository 2, no. 2 (February 1896); Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 123. 58. Ibid. 59. Quoted in from North Presbyterian Report of 1891, in ibid., 124. 60. Mary F. Scranton, “I Hoa Haktan, Seoul, Korea,” a letter from Seoul, Korea, dated 6 October 1888, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 7 (January 1889): 73. 61. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 123; L. H. Underwood’s letter to A. T. Pierson. Quoted in The Missionary Review of the World 3, no. 12

354

Endnotes

(December 1890): 943. 62. “The Christian Impact on Korean Life,” #9 paper, George Herber Jones Papers, Missionary Research Library Collection, The Burke Library Archives, Union Theological Seminary, New York. 63. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 125. 64. Mary F. Scranton, “From Correspondence,” a letter from Seoul, Korea, dated 19 January 1886 in Heathen Woman’s Friend. XVII, no. 10 (April 1886): 249. 65. Mary Scranton from Seoul Korea, 16 July 1886, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XVIII, no. 4 (October 1886): 98. 66. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 121; “Korea,” extracts from private letters by Mrs. Heron. Woman’s Work for Woman (September 1886): 211. 67. Ella D. Appenzeller, “Fair Flower School,” Letter from Seoul, Korea, 28 February 1887, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 4 (October 1887): 107. 68. Conrow, Our Ewha, 6. 69. Underwood, Fifteen Years. 6-8. 70. Samuel A. Moffett reported that Mrs. Hattie G. Heron knew the Korean language better than any other among all the missionaries, except for one Methodist woman missionary—most likely Mary Scranton. Samuel A. Moffett, Seoul, to Ellinwood, 29 July 1890, in Eileen Flower Moffett, comp. Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, Mary Alice Fish Moffett, Lucia Hester Fish Moffett, and Contemporary Correspondence, vol. 1 (1870-1899) (Limited Private Distribution: n.p, n.d). 71. “Personal Mention,” in Heathen Woman’s Friend XXI, no. 11 (May 1890): 281. 72. Ella. D. Appenzeller, “Fair Flower School,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 4 (October 1887): 107. 73. Quoted in Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 119. 74. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 123-124. 75. Quoted in ibid., 119; this statement reflects the popular view of women’s social roles in antebellum America. Women missionaries themselves did not necessarily object to such a view and the idea of educating Korean girls primarily for their domestic roles. 76. Mary F. Scranton, “I Hoa Haktan, Seoul, Korea,” from Seoul, October 6, 1888, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 7 (January 1889): 173.

355

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

77. Quoted from Lillias H. Underwood’s letter to A. T. Pierson in Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 123; Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 7 (January 1889): 173. 78. The girls were fed and clothed free at first, since few parents were willing to “waste money on girls’ education.” Clark, Avison of Korea, 94. 79. Quoted in Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 123. 80. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 81. 81. The Korean Repository (December 1886): 482. 82. Mary Scranton from Seoul, Korea, dated 26 November 1887 in Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 9 (March 1888): 246. 83. Mary Scranton from Seoul, Korea, dated 21 March 1887, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 1 (July 1887): 12. 84. Ibid. 85. Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, 181. 86. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 152. 87. Ibid. 88. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work for Korea,” The Korean Repository (January 1896): 3. 89. Ibid. 90. Hattie G. Heron, “Behind Sealed Doors in Korea,” Woman’s Work for Woman 1, no. 4 (April 1885): 83. 91. Ibid. 92. Mrs. Scranton from Seoul, Korea, dated October 16, 1887, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 7 (January 1888): 187. 93. Mrs. Mary Scranton from Seoul, Korea, dated 25 November 1887, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 9 (March 1888): 245. 94. Ibid., 246. 95. Mrs. M. F. Scranton from Seoul, Korea, dated 9 January 1888, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 10 (April 1888): 217. 96. Mrs. Mary Scranton from Seoul, Korea, dated 25 November 1887, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 9 (March 1888): 246. 97. Heathen Woman’s Friend (April 1888): 271. 98. Ella D. Appenzeller, “Korean Girls,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 2 (August 1888): 47; according to Allen D Clark, Mary Scranton’s Sunday evening meetings for women was begun in February of 1888. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea, 100-101.

356

Endnotes

99. In her summary of the work by the WFMS women in Korea, Mrs. J. T. Gracey wrote about the beginning of church services for women, “So rigid are the laws of seclusion, that it seemed a necessity that women she had trained into a separate church… .” Mrs. J. T. Gracey, “Mission Work in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (July 1894): 2. 100. Mary F. Scranton, “From Missionary Letters,” dated January 1888, in Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 10 (April 1888): 271. 101. Mrs. Ella D. Appenzeller, “Korean Girls,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 2 (August 1888): 47. 102. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea, 101. 103. Mary F. Scranton, a letter dated 5 October 1888, Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 7 (January 1889): 185. 104. Ibid. 105. Mary F. Scranton, letter from Seoul, Korea, dated November 1888, Heathen Woman’s Friend XX, no. 9 (March 1889): 239. 106. Ibid. 107. Mrs. M. F. Scranton, “From Missionary Letters,” 5 October 1888, Heathen Woman’s Friend. XX, no. 7 (January 1889): 185. 108. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 6-8. 109. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 103. 110. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 6-8. 111. Ibid. 112. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 108. 113. Mary F. Scranton, letter dated January 1888, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no. 10 (April 1888): 271. 114. “Several of the girls trained in the school established by Mrs. Scranton turned into valuable Christian workers. “One has become a Bible woman in the hospital. Another is … acting as interpreter and teaching all who will listen to her words.” Mrs. J. T. Gracey, “Mission Work in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (July 1894): 2. 115. Mary F. Scranton, a letter from Seoul, Korea, dated October 1887, Heathen Woman’s Friend XIX, no.7 (January 1888): 187. 116. The “honeymoon” turned out to be more of an exploration of the country than a traditional wedding trip. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 35-89. 117. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 82. 118. These Christians were the result of the evangelistic efforts of the

357

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korean Christian, who were converted and baptized by Ross and McIntyre in Manchuria. When the American missionaries heard about the existing groups of Korean Protestant Christians from Suh Sang Yun. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 35-38. 119. Ibid., 87.

CHAPTER 7 1. By the year 1897, the Northern Methodist Episcopal Mission had 1,074 probationers and 306 full members, and the Northern Presbyterian Mission had 530 communicants and ten organized churches. George Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 1932-1910 (Pyeng Yang, Korea: Union Christian College Press, 1929), 204. 2. Dana L. Robert, “The ‘Christian Home’ as a Cornerstone of Missionary Thought and Practice” (paper written for the North Atlantic Missiology Project Symposium, titled “Christian Missions and the ‘Enlightenment’ of the West: The Challenge of Experience and History,” in Boston, Mass., 21-24 June 1998), 2. 3. Ibid., 3. 4. “The Influence of the Missionary Home in the Community,” The Korea Mission Field XXVII, no. 4 (April 1931): 67; the majority of American women missionaries had their homes open for Korean visitors. The records show that a constant flow of Korean women visitors was received in their homes daily. 5. Mattie W. Noble also wrote wrote, “In different parts of Korea this missionary mother has met people who have told her how, in the raising of the children, they have taken pattern after some methods they had seen used in the raising of children in the missionary home… Yes, the missionary home should be a blessed light lighting many other homes in the beauty and peace of a well guided household… ” See Mattie Wilcox Noble, “The Missionary Home,” The Korea Mission Field XXVII, no. 4 (April 1931): 68. 6. Sherwood Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea (McLean, Va: MCL Associates, 1978), 131. 7. Mattie S. Tate, “Opening of Chunju Station,” hand-written report, John Fairman Preston Papers, Korea Mission Papers, Box 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C.

358

Endnotes

8. L. B. Tate and Mrs. Tate, “The Opening of Chunju Station,” typewritten report, John Fairman Preston Papers, Korea Mission, Box 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 9. Mattie S. Tate, “Opening of Chunju Station,” John Fairman Preston Papers. 10. Ibid. 11. Josephine P. Campbell, “Seoul Day School,” Quarter ending June 30, 1899, in Woman’s Missionary Advocates (October 1899), 118. 12. See “The Influence of the Missionary Home in the Community,” The Korea Mission Field XXVII, no. 4 (April 1931): 67-77. 13. According to Mattie Wilcox Noble, “Changsik Kim… , was trained by Mrs. Ohlinger here to be a good cook, but best of all here he was led to be a staunch defender of the faith.” Mrs. W. A. Noble, “House Number One of the M. E. Mission in Seoul,” The Korea Mission Field (November 1932): 228. 14. Kim Chang Sik’s (Shik) letter to Mrs. Franklin Ohlinger, 22 February 1920, typed translation of the letter, Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger Papers, Special Collections, Yale Divinity Library Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Kim Chang Sik was one of the Korean Christians who kept their faith, in spite of severe torture received from the city magistrate in Pyengyang soon after James and Rosetta Hall entered Pyengyang as pioneers. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 131-141. 15. Heathen Woman’s Friend XXIV, no. 5 (November 1892): 105. 16. Ibid. 17. Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond, Va: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 29. 18. Ibid. 19. A Korean man who worked at the home of William Scranton and Loullie A. Scranton as kitchen help also became a popular preacher in Seoul. It is said that “No name is more revered today than that of Chun Duk Kui.” See W. A. Noble, “Pioneers of Korea,” Within the Gate, ed. Charles A. Sauer (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1934), 29. 20. Mary Ames Sharrocks, “The Influence of the Missionary’s Home,” The Korea Mission Field XII, no. 4 (April 1916): 99. 21. Mattie Wilcox Noble, “The Missionary Home,” The Korea Mission Field (April 1931): 73. 22. Mrs. Mary H. Gifford, “Reports of Woman’s Work of Seoul Station,”

359

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

1894, Korea Reports 1891-1900 (Microfilm), Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 23. Ibid. 24. Mrs. Baird, Report of Work among Women at Fusan, 1893, Korea Reports 1891-1900, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 25. Paik, The History of Protestant Mission, 170. 26. Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 227; Sherwood Hall narrates the stories of the country trips that he took with his mother, Rosetta Hall, as a young boy. See Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 187-191. 27. Georgiana Whiting, “To the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, 1899,” Korea Mission Report, 1899; J. S. Gale described her work in his report in this way: “’Where is she going?’ ‘Everywhere.’ ‘What is she going for?’ ‘To teach the Jesus doctrine to the women.’… All over Whang-hai province to a distance of many hundred li this chair has made its way, leaving in the wake of it happy hearts and homes made truly beautiful.” James Gale, “General Report of Seoul Station of the Presbyterian Mission, 1899-1900,” Korea Reports 1891-1900, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 28. Margaret Best, “Personal Report for Year 1899-1900, Pyeng Yang (Pyengyang),” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 29. Marie L. Chase, “Personal Report, September 1899-1900,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 30. J. Hunter Wells, a missionary in Pyengyang, wrote a personal letter to Secretary Ellinwood in 1899: “I have my doubts as to the propriety and usefulness of the itineration of our single ladies, because partly there are so many proper spheres of influence open to them,… ” J. Hunter Wells to Ellinwood, Pyengyang, Korea, 15 December 1899, in Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett by E. F. Moffett, 185. 31. Margaret Best, “Personal Report for Year 1899-1900, Pyeng Yang,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 32. Katherine Wambold, Report of 1899, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 33. Lillias H. Underwood, “Report of Medical and Evangelistic Work

360

Endnotes

by Mrs. H. G. Underwood for 1899,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 34. Margaret Best, “Personal Report for Year 1899-1900, Pyeng Yang,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 35. Susan A. Doty, “General Report of Woman’s Work, Seoul 1892,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 36. Mrs. Underwood, 1894, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 37. Ibid. 38. M. B. Stokes, “Methodist Evangelism,” Within the Gate, 111; it is known that the Bible class system in Korea began with the first class held in Horace Underwood’s study with seven men—two men from the north, two from Sorai, and three from Seoul—in 1890. Ibid., 109. Also see J. S. Nisbet, “Bible Study Classes,” John F. Preston Papers, Korea Mission, Box 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 39. Stokes, “Methodist Evangelism,” 111. 40. J. S. Nisbet, “Bible Study Classes,” John F. Preston Papers, Korea Mission Papers, Box 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 41. It was reported that some woman who attended the first women’s Bible Class held in April of 1898 in Pyengyang walked one hundred, twenty miles to come to the class. Harry H. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (Seoul, Chosen: Chosen Mission of Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1934), 159. 42. J. S. Nisbet, “Bible Study Classes,” John F. Preston Papers, Box 4. 43. E. M. Cable, “Beginning of Methodism,” Within the Gate, 17. 44. Josephine H. McCutchen, “Woman’s Bible Institute,” one page report, November 1930, John F. Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 45. Josephine H. McCutchen, “Ada Hamilton Clark Memorial Bible School,” November 1930, John F. Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 46. Miss Kate Cooper, “Woman’s Work in Wonsan,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, ed. J. S. Ryang (Seoul, Korea: Board of Missions, Korea Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1927), 143. 47. Josephine H. McCutchen, “The Mission Bible School,” John F. Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society,

361

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Montreat, N.C. 48. Stokes, “Methodist Evangelism,” 111. 49. Jennie Flower-Willing and Mrs. George Herber Jones (Margaret Bengel Jones), The Lure of Korea (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920), 15. 50. “Report by Mrs. Underwood,” Seoul, 1894, Korea Report, PC USA. 51. Linnie F. Davis, “Report of work for 1897, read at the annual meeting,” Kunsan, Korea, November 1897, John Fairman Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 52. Mrs. Miller, “Sabbath School Report,” 1894, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 53. In her letter to the WFMS on February 25, 1892, Ella Lewis listed the items the missionaries needed in their “Christmas box.” See “From Missionary Letters,” in Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893): 17. 54. Mrs. Miller, “Sabbath School Report,” 1894, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 55. Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 9 (March 1895): 262. 56. The Northern Presbyterian missionaries started their work first in Seoul and quickly expanded their influence to Whang Hai, the southeastern part of Kyeng Keui, and the eastern part of Kang Won. Meanwhile, Northern Methodists expanded their influence from Seoul to western Kyeng Keui and Chung Chyong, and Southern Methodists moved their force mostly to northeast Kyeng Keui and Kang Won Provinces. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 268. 57. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 100-102. 58. Katherine Wambold, Report of 1899, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 59. Susan A. Doty, “General Report of Woman’s Work,” Seoul, 1892, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA; the number of attendance in these meetings also grew steadily. The average attendance at Gifford’s women’s weekly meeting was thirty-seven, and at least two hundred women received instruction at the Presbyterian Girls’ School in 1891. Mary Gifford, “Woman’s Work at Kwan-no-mo-kol in the city,” Seoul, 1891, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 60. Mary H. Gifford, “Report of Woman’s Work of Seoul Station,” 1894,

362

Endnotes

Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 61. Lillias H. Underwood, “Report of Medical and Evangelistic Work by Mrs. H. G. Underwood for 1899,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 62. “Seoul Station Report, 1907-1908,” in Reports of the Korea Mission of the Presbyterian Church of the USA 91907-1908) to the Annual Meeting held at Pyeng Yang, Aug. 1908 (Yokohama: Fukin Printing Co., 1908). 63. Jessie B. Marker, “Evangelism Work, Seoul District, 1887 to 1938,” in Fifty Years of Light, prepared by missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1938), 9. 64. Although there was the Methodist church in nearby Chung Dong, it was thought to be better to have separate services for women because of social customs. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea, p. 108; Mary Scranton learned to speak the Korean language with exceptional fluency and gained much respect from the Koreans. She was spoken of as Princess Scranton by the Koreans, who believed she was a daughter of the Royal House of America. Noble, “Pioneers of Korea,” 29-30. 65. Mrs. M. F. Scranton, letter from Seoul, dated 24 May 1893, Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893): 77. 66. Mary M. Cutler, M.D., “Life in Seoul,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 2 (August 1894): 40. 67. Noble, “Pioneers of Korea,” 30. 68. Marker, “Evangelism Work, Seoul District, 1887 to 1938,” 9. 69. Ibid., 17. 70. Ibid., 10; upon opening this school, Mary Scranton secured the valuable services of Nancy Hahr, one of her former students who was also the first Korean woman to receive a college degree abroad. Nancy Hahr made significant contributions to the Bible school for many years. Ibid., 18. 71. Ibid. 72. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 20; “From Thirty-seventh Annual Report of Ex. Com of For. Mis of Presbyterian Church, U.S. Year Ending March 31, 1898. Korea Mission. Begun 1892.” John Fairman Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission Papers, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 73. Ellasue Wagner, “The Workers of the Woman’s Department Board of Missions in Korea,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, ed. J. S. Ryang (Seoul,

363

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Korea: Board of Missions, Korea Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South), 81-82. 74. “The Story of Our Work,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (December 1900): 237. 75. J. L. Gerdine, “More Pioneers of Korea,” in Within the Gate, 46; after she returned to China, she contributed greatly to the revivals in China. Southern Methodism in Korea, 40-50, 288. Also see Silas H. L. Wu, “Dora Yu (1873-1931): Foremost Female Evangelist in Twentieth-Century Chinese Revivalism,” in Gospel Bearers, Gospel Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century, ed. Dana L. Robert (Maryknoll, New York; Orbis Books, 2002), 85. 76. “Korean Mission,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (January 1899): 207. 77. “From Mrs. Wilson in Korea,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (December 1900): 168. 78. Ibid. 79. Josephine P. Campbell, “Korea School Report: Bible Women’s Work,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (November 1900): 142. 80. Ibid. 81. R. A. Hardie, “Korea Mission-General Work,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 49. 82. “Some Notable Facts in the History of the Korea Mission and Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1885-1929)” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 21. 83. Gerdine, “More Pioneers of Korea,” 47; Campbell’s leadership dominated so widely that the Korean public called the school, the church, and the Bible women she directed “Kang Puin’s [Mrs. Campbell’s] school,’ “Kang Puin’s church” and “Kang Puin’s Bible-women.” J. L. Gerdine, “Some Pioneers of Korea,” The Korea Mission Field (September 1934): 183. 84. The Northern Presbyterians spread their work in the northwest part of Whanghai province, in the southeast of Kyeng Keui and the east of Kang Won province. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 268. 85. The report shows that 113 women attended the Bible class of the Seoul station in 1907. Seoul Station Report, 1907-1908, in Reports of the Korea Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (1907-1908). 86. “Personal Report of William H. Hunt, 1900,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 87. Lillias H. Underwood, Underwood of Korea (New York: Fleming H.

364

Endnotes

Revell, 1918), 197. 88. When Miss McKee was returning from White Wing Island in 1915, the Christian women of the island all knelt down on the beach and prayed for a safe trip for her. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 226. 89. Ibid., 229. 90. Chai Ryung Station Report, August 1908, in Reports of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA (1907-1908). 91. The Northern Methodist Mission initially evangelized in the eastern coast and the areas west of Seoul. However, after the death of Henry Appenzeller in 1900 and the resignation of Mary Scranton and W. B. Scranton in 1902, the mission concentrated its efforts on western districts only Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 270. Although Henry Appenzeller was in Chemulpo in 1891, the work began to make serious progress after G. H. Jones and Margaret Bengel Jones moved into this city. Kangwha Island, a small island that connects Chemulpo and Seoul, and the whole province of Whanghai were added to this circuit in 1893. Ibid.,197. 92. Helen Pyun fled from Songdo to Seoul with her two children on the day of her husband’s funeral by walking through driving rain for fifteen days. In Seoul, she visited the church where Mary Scranton was holding a class for women and became a Christian after reading a Bible that she received from Scranton. Scranton later sent her to Chemulpo as a Bible woman with a small stock of merchandise, which allowed her to do trading and to meet a number of women. See Margaret Hess, “The Tide (Chemulpo District),” in Fifty Years of Light, 34. 93. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 271. 94. Lula A. Miller, “Development of Methodist Work in Chemulpo,” The Korea Mission Field. (April 1934): 78. 95. Hess, “The Tide (Chemulpo District),” 35. 96. Ibid., 35-36. 97. Gerdine, “More Pioneers of Korea,” 48. 98. Ellasue Wagner, “The Workers of the Woman’s Department Board of Missions in Korea,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 82. 99. Mrs. J. P. Campbell, “Seoul, Korea,” letter dated 13 March 1899, Woman’s Missionary Advocate (June 1899). 100. In spite of the short stay, the medical work by Hardie helped the missionaries to received better by the people of Songdo. Deok-Joo Rhie,

365

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Han’guk Kammigyo Yosokyowhe’ye Yoksa, 1897-1990 (A History of The Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 1897-1990) (Seoul, Korea: The Korean Methodist Women’s Society for Christian Service, 1991), 128. 101. Hardie, “The Methodist Episcopal Church, South,” 39. 102. Ibid., 38-39. 103. “From Mrs. Bishop Wilson,” Songdo, Korea, 17 September 1900, Woman’s Missionary Advocate (January 1901): 199. 104. Ibid. 105. Ibid. 106. Ibid. 107. Elizabeth Paik, Naomi Chai, Lois Chun, Lilllian Chang, and Mary Kim are a few names of Korean Bible women, who labored with the missionary women, found in the mission records. Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 131-132. 108. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 199. 109. Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (July 1894): 30. 110. James Hall sent the following urgent telegram to Seoul at the time of the incident, “Chang Sik stocks, O, Moffett’s Han beaten. Former owner of tree house all now prison. Ask protection family and servants.” Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 133. 111. Ibid., 138. 112. Irene Haynes, “The Growth of the Church in the North,” in Fifty Years of Light, 50. 113. Miss Robbins came in 1902, and others, including Misses Haynes, Benedict, Salmon, and English, followed. Ibid., 49. 114. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 263. 115. Louise Morris, “Yeng Byen District,” in Fifty Years of Light, 66. 116. “Ethel M. Estey,” Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 117. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 149. 118. Blanche W. Lee, “Personal Report, Pyeng Yang, 1899-1900,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 119. Ibid. 120. Quoted from Korea Mission Report of Pyeng Yang, 1900-1901, in Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 157-158. 121. Margaret Best, “Personal Report from Year 1899-1900,” Pyeng Yang,

366

Endnotes

Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 122. It was Best’s Christian woman helper and boy who persuaded the chair coolies to travel through the night. Ibid. 123. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 158. 124. Ibid., 157. 125. Margaret Best was not only a graduate of Park College in Parville, Mo., but was also a member of the faculty before coming to Korea. J. G. Holdcroft, “Park College Honors Miss Best,” Korea Mission Field (October 1934): 241. 126. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 159. 127. Ibid. 128. Among these eighty-nine classes, ten were held in the country by missionary women with an attendance of 721, and the other seventy-five classes with more than 2,000 attendants were held by Korean women, who were sent out by the missionary women from their Worker’s class. “Women’s Bible Training Classes,” Pyeng Yang Station Report, in Reports of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA,1908, 45. 129. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 160. 130. Ibid., 159. 131. Pyeng Yang Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 40-42. 132. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 160-161. 133. Ibid., 199. 134. Ibid., 202. 135. Ibid., 204. 136. Ibid., 206. 137. Ibid. 138. Ibid., 209. 139. Syen Chun Station Report, in Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 76-85. 140. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 210. 141. Syen Chun Station Report, in Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 76. 142. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 136. 143. Ibid., 137. 144. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 197, 265.

367

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

145.Cable, “Beginning of Methodism,” 16. 146. Hardie, “The Methodist Episcopal Church, South,” 40; Carroll, Knowels, Hindes and Mrs. Ross were specially honored by the later missionaries as the leading pioneers in the interior work of the Southern Methodist Mission. Gerdine, “More Pioneers of Korea,” 48-49. 147. Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 133. 148. Ibid. 149. Ibid., 135. 150. Allen D. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea (Seoul: Christian Literature Society, 1971), 159; Rhie also mentions the report by Arrena Carroll, from “Report of the Boarding School and General Work in Wonsan,” by Arrena Carroll, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1903, 50-53. Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 135. 151. For more discussion on the Great Revival in Korea, see pp. 50-52 above; quoted from Miss J. Hounshell, Report of Miss Hounshell,” MECS, 1903, 57, in Rhie, 135. 152. Miss Ellasue Wagner, “The Workers of the Woman’s Department Board of Missions in Korea,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 84. 153. Hardie, “Korea Mission—General Work,” 58. 154. Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 138-140. 155. Only one or two among the pioneer Australian missionary men remained long enough to see results of their work, whereas the Australian missionary women established a successful missionary base in Fusan. 156. Report of Jean Perry of the Australian Presbyterian Mission, Fusan, 1894 , Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA; Paik says that the first convert of the Australian women missionaries was Mr. Sim, the teacher of Miss B. Menzies, baptized by William Baird in 1893. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 195. 157. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 132. 158. Fannie Hurd Brown, Fusan, 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 159. Ibid.; Bertha K. Irvin, Fusan, 1894, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 160. Ibid. 161. Mrs. Annie Baird, “Report of Work among Women at Fusan,” 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA.

368

Endnotes

162. Ibid. 163. Mrs. Bertha Irvin, “Fusan Station Report,” 1894, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 164. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 132. 165. Cyril Ross, “General Report of Fusan Station, 1899-1900,” Fusan, 1899, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA; Marie L. Chase, “Personal Report, September 1899-1900,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 166. Mrs. Irvin’s splendid work among Korean women and in the Girls’ School and the growing medical work in Fusan were much appreciated by the mission. See Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 133. In the year between 1907 and 1908, “Mrs. Irvin has given much of her time to the Sabbath School, and with most excellent results, large classes of both infants and adults being taught every Sabbath.” Fusan Station Report (1906-1907), in Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 69; The Fusan station’s report in 1908 also tells that Mrs. Irvin who kept the classes for women from being neglected and held a well-attended class was conducted at Miryang, assisted by a helper and a Bible woman. 167. The Fusan station was closed by selling the Presbyterian Mission’s property to a Japanese in 1919. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 134. 168. Fifty-three people were baptized in 1907, and over one hundred were baptized in 1908 in the country town of Miryang alone. Several Bible women were also teaching city and country women. Fusan Station Report (1906-1907), in Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 69. 169. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 173. 170. William N. Baird, “Opening of Taiku Station,” 1896, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 171. Ibid. 172. J. E. Adams was Annie L. A. Baird’s brother. Annie L. A. Baird File, Presbyterian Historical Society. Philadelphia, Penn. 173. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 177. 174. Mrs. W. O. Johnson, “Women’s Work” in “General Report of Taiku Station, 1899-1900,” submitted by H. M. Bruen and Edith Parker Johnson, 1899, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 175. Edith Parker Johnson, “Work Among Women, 1899-1900,” Taiku, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA.

369

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

176. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 186. 177. Nellie Adams dressed herself in the Korean way and elicited much excited and accepting feeling from the Korean women during the trip. Ibid., 187. 178. For instance, the Taiku station missionaries urgently requested at least two single women as evangelistic workers in their 1907-08 annual report. Annual Report of Taiku Station, 1907-1908, in Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 37. 179. Due to the lack of building space, twenty women were meeting in a room size measuring eight by eight feet and twenty-five men in another room of eight by sixteen. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 181. 180. Ibid. 181. Annual Report of Taiku Station, 1907-1908, in Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 37. 182. Ibid., 25. 183. Ibid. 184. Ibid. 185. Ibid; the Dorcas society was first organized by Mrs. Johnson and Miss Cameron. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 187. 186. L. B. Tate, “The Opening of Chunju Station,” two-page typewritten report, John Fairman Preston Collection, Korea Mission, Box 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 187. Ibid. 188. Mattie S. Tate, “Opening of Chunju Station,” hand-written report, John Fairman Preston Collection, Korea Mission, Box. 4. 189. Ibid. 190. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 28-29. 191. Ibid., 28 192. John Fairman Preston, “Sketch of the Evangelistic Work, S. Presbyterian Mission in Korea,” John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4. 193. Martha Ingold’s letters and reports from Chunju provide detailed descriptions of her participation in evangelistic work in her first three years. Newspaper clippings from 1897 to 1900, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1 of 1, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 194. Linnie F. Davis, report from November 1900 to September 1901, Chunju, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box. 4.

370

Endnotes

195. An untitled one-page report on Mattie Tate, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4. 196. Linnie F. Davis’ Report, Kunsan, November 1897, in John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4. 197. Willie B. Greene, “History of Kunsan Station, 1896-1930,” November 1930, John F. Preston Collection, Box 4. 198. Ibid. 199. “Korea Mission. Begun 1892. From Thirty-seventh Annual Report of Ex. Com of For. Mis. Of Presby. Ch. U.S. Year Ending March 31, 1898,” John Fairman Preston Papers, Box 4. 200. Willie B. Green, “History of Kunsan Station, 1896-1930,” November 1930, John Fairman Preston, Box 4. 201. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 63. 202. L. T. Newland, “The Opening of Mokpo Station,” a two-page typewritten report, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4. 203. Ibid. 204. J. F. Preston’s reports that Mokpo station grew, in spite of the absence of the missionaries for three years. “During the year, 736 candidates for baptism and the catechumenate were examined, of whom 163 were baptized and 353 enrolled as catechumens. There are 31 meeting places, with an average congregation totaling 1500, and a total of about 2500 adherents… .” John Fairman Preston, Personal Report of the Mokpo Station, From June 30 ’07 to June 30 ’08, John Fairman Preston Collection, Box 4.

CHAPTER 8 1. See pp. 35-36 and 230-245 above. 2. Esther Pak was the first Korean woman doctor commissioned by the WFMS; two men doctors among the five returned to America before facing their death. 3. George Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 1932-1910 (Pyeng Yang, Korea: Union Christian College Press, 1929), 318-319. 4. Ibid., 324. 5. Mrs. Underwood, Report, Seoul, February 1891, Korea Reports 18911900 (Microfilm), Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the Board of

371

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn. 6. Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (New York: American Tract Society, 1904; reprint, Seoul, Korea: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1987), 107-108; she first attended the dispensary two or three times a day to care for a few in-patients who needed her constant care. Since it was difficult for her make trips to the dispensary everyday, she petitioned to be able to open a dispensary at her home for in-patients. It seems that she stopped using her home as a dispensary after the Shelter was opened. Mrs. Underwood, Report, October 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 7. Lillias Underwood’s Shelter was extremely successful in reviving the dying with the rate of sixty-five percent recovery, which was almost unheard of among cholera treatment records. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 142. 8. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 108; Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 229. 9. Underwood, Fifteen Years, 200; Anna Jacobson’s funeral is described in The Korean Repository IV (1897): 32. 10. Eva Field married A. A. Pieters of the same mission in 1908. “In Memoriam of Mrs. A. A. Pieters, M.D.” in Korea Mission Field (March 1931): 195. 11. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, “Foreign Medical Women in Korea,” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. A copy found in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 12. Allen D. Clark, Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M.D. (Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979), 129. 13. Seoul Station Report, in Reports of the Korea Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.(1907-1908) to the Annual Meeting held at Pyeng Yang, August 1908 (Yokohama, Japan: Fukin Printing Co, 1908), 13. 14. Sherwood Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea (McLean, Va.: MCL Associates, 1978), 38. 15. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, “Woman’s Medical Mission Work in Seoul, Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893): 14. 16. Mary Cutler says she often saw more than thirty women and children at the Woman’s Dispensary in one afternoon. Mary M. Cutler, “The Foreign Lady-Doctor in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 5

372

Endnotes

(November 1894): 141. 17. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, “Our Post-Office Box—Seoul,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 5 (November 1894): 138. 18. Sherwood Hall, “Pioneer Medical Missionary Work in Korea,” in Within the Gate, ed. Charles A. Sauer (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1934), 97; Lillian Harris, M.D. served as a WFMS medical missionary in Seoul since 1897 until 1902 when she died of ill health. She was the first WFMS missionary to die in Korea, and the hospital was named after her. Elizabeth Roberts, “Medical Work in Seoul,” in Fifty Years of Light (Seoul, Korea: YMCA Press, 1938), 7. 19. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, “Woman’s Medical Mission Work in Seoul, Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893): 14. 20. Miss Lewis, “From Missionary Letters,” letter dated 25 February 1893, Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 1 (July 1893): 16. 21. Hall, “Woman’s Medical Mission Work in Seoul, Korea,” 14. 22. Edmunds started her nurses’ school by accepting two handicapped women as her first two students. The first one was without a finger and thumb on her right hand, with also a part of her nose bitten off, all done by her husband. Her second student was a deformed and crippled woman who had been a patient at the hospital. Roberts, “Medical Work in Seoul,” 6. 23. By the end of the first fifty years of the Protestant missions, the Methodist Nurses’ Training School had graduated sixty nurses, and the cooperative work of the Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries through the nursing school of the Severance Hospital produced 245 nurses. Helen K. Kim, “Methodism and the Development of Korean Womanhood,” Within the Gate, 81. 24. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, “Foreign Medical Women in Korea,” in Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association 5, no. 10 (October 1950): 404-405. A copy found in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 25. Report of the Medical Committee, Korea Mission Report, 1892. 26. “Medical Reports of Mrs. Underwood,” Korea Mission Annual Report, February 1891, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, PC USA. 27. Hall, “Woman’s Medical Mission Work in Seoul, Korea,” 14. 28. Mary M. Cutler, “The Foreign Lady-Doctor in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 5 (November 1894): 142.

373

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

29. Mary M. Cutler, “An Incident of the Korean Hospital,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXII, no. 4 (October 1895): 109. 30. Hall, “Woman’s Medical Mission Work in Seoul, Korea,” 14. 31. Lillias Underwood, “Medical Report of Mrs. Underwood,” February 1891, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 32. Ibid. 33. Fannie H. Brown, “Report of Woman’s Medical Mission at Fusan,” 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 34. Ibid. 35. Ibid.; D. L. Gifford, “Report of the Medical Committee,” Seoul, October 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 36. Ibid. 37. Harry A. Rhodes, ed., History of the Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. 1884-1934 (Seoul, Chosen(Korea): Chosen Mission Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.), 128. 38. Miss Mary McKenzie, R.N. succeeded the work of Christine Cameron in 1909. Ibid., 194-195. 39. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 164. 40. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains, 1897); Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 164-165. 41. Ibid., 411. 42. Ibid., 161. 43. Ibid., 196. 44. For the detail of Edith’s illness and death, see Ibid., 174-179. 45. Quoted in Naomie Anderson, “Medical Work in Pyengyang,” in Fifty Years of Light, 45. 46. Ibid. 47. Frances J. Baker, A Woman Doctor in the Land of Morning Calm: A Sketch of Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church). A copy of the pamphlet found in Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 48. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 181-184; Anderson, “Medical Work in

374

Endnotes

Pyengyang,” 45. 49. Ibid., 46. 50. Baker, A Woman Doctor in the Land of Morning Calm, in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church. 51. Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 223. 52. Zola Payne, “Medical Education for Women,” in Fifty Years of Light, 98. 53. Anderson, “Medical Work in Pyengyang,” 46; Rosetta S. Hall also single-handedly organized the Women’s Medical Institute in Seoul, the first women’s medical training school in Korea, in 1928. In June of 1934, the first women doctors graduated from the school. See Sauer, Within the Gate, 98. 54. J. L. Gerdine, “More Pioneers of Korea,” in Fifty Years of Light, 46. 55. Sherwood Hall, “Pioneer Medical Missionary Work in Korea,” in Fifty Years of Light, 100-101. 56. Ibid., 103. 57. “The Mother of Pyeng Yang,” The Christian Advocate (10 August 1916). A copy found in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 58. A newspaper clipping from The Christian Advocate found in Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 59. Her life and work were reported in the Korean Daily News under an article titled “An Apostle of Humanity.” A crowd of most prominent Christian leaders in Seoul attended her sixtieth birthday party in order to honor her life and work in Korea. E. W. Koons, “Dr. Rosetta S. Hall’s ‘Han Kap’[Sixtieth Birthday],”The Korean Mission Field. A copy found in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 60. Ibid. 61. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 170. 62 Lucile Campbel, R. N. was the one missionary nurse present in the city between 1909 and 1919. Ibid. 63. Ibid. 64. Mrs. Alice Fish Moffett, “Personal Report,” Pyeng Yang (Pyengyang), 1900, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 65. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 170.

375

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

66. Samuel H. Moffett says that the life of Alice Fish Moffett was an extremely busy one as a missionary doctor. Samuel Hugh Moffett, interview by author, personal conversation, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., 9 November 2000. Also see In Soon Kim, trans., Mapo Samyul Moksa ui Sunkyo Pyunji, 1890-1904 (Samuel A. Moffett’s Missionary Letters1890-1904), comp. Eileen Flower Moffett (Seoul, Korea: Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, 2000), 1018. 67. Pyeng Yang Station Report, Reports of the Korea Mission of PCUSA, 1908, 52. 68. Dr. Samuel H. Moffett, interview by author, personal conversation, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., 9 November 2000. 69. “I think a male physician should be asked for and insisted upon to take charge of the work among the men.” Martha Ingold, “Annual Report, 1897-8,” Chunju, 15 September 1898, Martha Ingold Tate File, Korea Mission Papers, Box 1, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C..; the Kunsan station had the valuable service of Dr. A. D. Drew for about eight years between 1894 and 1904. Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond, Va: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919): 191. 70. Ibid., 64. 71. Martha Ingold, “Annual Report for 1897-8,” Chunju, Korea, 15 September 1898, Martha Ingold Tate File, Korea Mission Papers, Box 1, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, NC. 72. Ibid. 73. Martha Ingold, “Three Weeks in the Country,” Chunju, Korea, 1 November 1898, Martha Ingold Tate File. 74. Martha Ingold, a letter from Chunju, Korea, 1 August 1899, Martha Ingold Tate File. 75. Martha Ingold, “Annual Report of Mattie B. Ingold, M.D.,” Chunju, Korea, 1 September 1903, Martha Ingold Tate File. 76. Martha Ingold, A letter from Chunju, Korea, 1 January 1900, Martha Ingold Tate File. 77. Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 54. 78 Martha Ingold, “Annual Report of Mattie B. Ingold, M.D., 1902,” Chunju, Korea, 15 September 1902, Martha Ingold Tate File. 79.Martha Ingold, “Annual Report of M. B. Ingold, 1903,” Chunju, Korea, 1 Sept 1903, Martha Inogld Tate File; Ingold wrote, “It is not my idea

376

Endnotes

of medical missionary work to do medical work alone, but for it to go hand in hand with the Gospel teaching.” Martha Ingold, “Annual Report for 18971898,” Martha Ingold Tate File. 80. Ibid. 81. After only one year of work as a medical missionary, Dr. Birdman “went to the mines,” which probably meant that he began his medical practice among the foreigners in the areas around the mines in Korea. From the year 1907 to 1909, the Chunju station had a missionary nurse, Emily Cordell, who was soon married to H. D. McCallie in Mokpo. See “Mrs. Emily Cordell McCallie, An Appreciation,” John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Korea Mission Papers, Box 2, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, NC. 82. While the total number of women missionaries who came to Korea between 1894 and 1907 was about 152, the medical missionaries numbered only about eighteen in total. “Chronological Roll of Missionaries,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 9-13; “Our Missionaries to Korea,” in Nisbet, Day In and Day Out, 191-193. 83. Dana Robert, American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1996), 160. 84. Susan Doty, “Girls’ School Report, 1893,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 85. “Report of Educational Committee,” 21 January 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 86. See Louise C. Rothweiler, “What Shall We Teach in Our Girl’s Schools?” The Korean Repository (March 1892): 89-92. 87. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 300. 88. Esther, one of the girls at Ewha School, wrote in 1893 that they were taught geography, arithmetic, science, physiology, Old Testament, and playing the organ by the single women missionaries. See “A Korean Girl; Esther’s Story,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 2 (August 1893): 50. 89. Nansa Hahr was the first Korean woman to acquire a college degree, and Esther Kim Pak was the first Korean to receive the M.D. degree. They both graduated from Ewha Hakdang and received their college degrees in the U.S. They both returned to Korea and helped the missionaries’ work. About Nansa Hahr, see Marion Conrow, Our Ewha (Seoul: Ewha Womans’ University, 1956), 7. 90. The beginning of education for blind and death by missionary

377

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

women will be further discussed in the later part of this chapter. 91. “Korea Mission—Begun 1892. From Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the Ex. Com. Of For. Mis. of the Presby. Ch. U.S. Year Ending March 31, 1897,” John F. Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, NC. 92. Ibid. 93. Richard H. Baird, William Baird of Korea: A Profile (Oakland, Calif.: Published and copyrighted by Richard H. Baird, 1968), 85. 94. Mary F. Scranton, “Woman’s Work in Korea,” The Korean Repository (January 1896): 3. 95. Other first language helps produced at that time were the works of James S. Gale—“Korean Grammatical Forms” of 1894 and a Korean—English Dictionary completed in 1896. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 236. 96. Baird, William Baird of Korea, 85. 97. “Mrs. George Herber Jones,” Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 98. W. D. Reynolds, “Literary Work,” John Fairman Preston Papers, Box 4, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C.; it was first published as Child’s Catechism. But in 1924, it was revised and published again by The Christian Literature Society of Korea as The Christian Catechism Primer. A copy found in Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1 of 1, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, NC. 99. Clark, Avison of Korea, 125. 100. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 305. 101. Ibid. 102. Ibid; besides her translations and Fifty Helps written for misionaries, she also authored Daybreak in Korea (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1909) and Inside Views of Mission Life (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1913), which described the missionary work and its impact in Korea. 103. Bertha Schweinfurth Ohlinger was also known as a remarkable linguist and an interpreter of the cultures of the eastern and western peoples. “Mrs. Bertha Schweinfurth Ohlinger,” Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, Archives of the United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 104. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 221. 105. Ibid., 224. 106. A new building was built and opened in 1906 by the offering of

378

Endnotes

$6,300 given for the boys’ school in Seoul by the family of Rev. John D. Wells. It allowed the Northern Presbyterian Mission to finally have a proper educational institution for boys in the capital. This school was named “the John D. Wells Training School for Christian Workers.” Ibid., 303; Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 113. 107. Miss Susan A. Doty, “General Report of Woman’s Work,” Seoul, Korea Mission Report, 1892(?). 108. Quoted from D. L. Gilford, “Education in the Capital of Korea,” The Korean Repository (August 1896): 409, 310, in Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 218. 109. Ella A. Lewis, “A Korean Girl,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 2 (August 1893): 49. 110. Lulu E. Frey reported that the missionaries were teaching the girls at the school English, arithmetic, general history, and native language, as well as the Bible. Margaret J. Bengel, “The Pear Flower School of Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXIV, no. 10 (April 1893): 230. 111. Lulu E. Frey, “School Girls in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXII, no. 8 (February 1896): 227. 112. The oldest girls were named Annie, Esther, and Susanna. Bengel, “The Pear Flower School of Korea,” 230. 113. Ella A. Lewis, Heathen Woman’s Friend XXV, no. 3 (September 1893): 78. 114. Mrs. Gracey, “Mission Work in Korea,” Heathen Woman’s Friend XXVI, no. 1 (July 1894): 2; the Bible woman was probably Mary Whang and the interpreter was Esther Kim. 115. H. D. Appenzeller, “Fifty Years in Educational Work,” in Within the Gate, 87. 116. Appenzeller, “Fifty Years in Educational Work,” 93. 117. Dr. J. S. Ryang, “Forward,” in Fifty Years of Light; when Nansa Hahn first came to see Lulu Frey, she said, while pointing to the unlighted lantern she was holding, “My life is like that—dark as midnight. Won’t you give me an opportunity to find light?” She later became the first Korean woman to receive a college degree abroad. Jane Barlow, “Haiju District,” in Within the Gate, 78. 118. John H. Hahn, “The Impact of Nineteenth Century American Church on the Shaping of the Foundation of the Early Korean Church and Society (1884-1935)” (Ph. D. diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 1998), 155-163.

379

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

119. Lois Baker, “Helen Kim: Interpreter of Korea’s Spiritual Ideals,” The Christian Advocate (23 October 1930): 1297. 120. Rhodes, History of Korea Mission, 114. 121. Educational Committee, “Report of 1892,” 21 January 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 122. For additional information, see p. 159 and 248-249 above. 123. The educational committee’s report in 1893 gives the following report about the Girls’ School: “The improvement in the Girls’ School has been progressive and marked. Not only has the number… doubled, but the arrangement and the selection of their studies has undergone a commendable change.” Education Committee Report, Seoul, 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 124. The girls were taught the Korean written language and as much Chinese as would be practical. Other classes involved reading and memorization of catechisms, the Ten Commandments, or translated portions of scripture. Miss Doty, “Report of Girls’ School,” February 1891, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 125. Susan A. Doty, “Report of Girls’ School for the Year 1892,” Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 126. Susan Doty, “Girls’ School Report, 1893,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 127. Miss Susan Doty, “Report of Girls’ School,” February 1891, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 128. Susan Doty, “Girls’ School Report,” 1893, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA; “There has been a beginning made in teaching the older girls fine sewing and the making of men’s clothing. Mrs. Lee assisted an hour a day for a few weeks this fall teaching the little ones to write and print Eunmoun, and in numbers, and Mrs. Webb is now helping in the sewing.” Ellen Strong, “Girls’ School Report for 1894,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 129. Susan A. Doty, “Report of Girls’ School for the Year 1892,” Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 130. “In June, four girls, Sunabi, Suntougi, __ and Supoki, asked for baptism, and they were received by the sessions of the Church… Suntongi and Kehi were baptized June 27th and the others will probably soon receive baptism.” Ellen Strong, “Girls’ School Report for 1894,” Korea Reports, Korea

380

Endnotes

Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 131. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 115. 132. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 301. 133. Seoul Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 12. 134. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 115. 135. Miss Ida Hankins, “Mary Helm School, Songdo,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, ed. J. S. Ryang (Seoul, Korea: Board of Missions, Korea Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1927), 19-20. 136. It was so named because of an unusual gift of the children in South Carolina to the school. Hallie Buie, “Carolina Institute, Seoul,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 113; but Paik says that it was named Carolina Institute because it was supported by Christian people in North and South Carolina. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 301. 137. Buie, “Carolina Institute, Seoul,” 113. 138. Ibid., 114. 139. Josephine P. Campbell, “Carolina Institute, Woman’s Missionary Advocate (September 1899): 80. 140. Josephine Campbell, “Korean School Report,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (November 1900): 142. 141. Buie, “Carolina Institute, Seoul,” 113. 142. Quoted in R. A. Hardie, “The Methodist Episcopal Church, South,” in Within the Gate, 38. 143. Buie, “Carolina Institute, Seoul,” 115. But Paik reports that “At the end of this period (1907), a building was completed at the cost of $3,000 and school furnishings were introduced such as desks, and there were fifty-six students enrolled in the school in 1906-1907.” Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 302. 144. Ellasue Wagner, “The Workers of the Woman’s Department, Board of Missions in Korea,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 82. 145. Ibid., 81. 146. “In Memory of Mrs. J. P. Campbell,” written in Korean, in Southern Methodism in Korea, 288. 147. Ibid. 148. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 424. 149. Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Underwood, and Mrs. Rhodes were among the

381

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

faculty members. Ibid., 426. 150. The Southern Methodist Mission seemed to have had the most conservative view of women’s role among the four major missions, and the Southern Methodist women missionaries had no physician among them. Their married women were also the only ones who were known only by their husbands’ names even in official documents. It is, therefore, difficult to learn the first names of the Southern Methodist married women missionaries, unless they first served as single missionaries in Korea. 151. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 271; Margaret Hess, “The Tide (Chemulpo District),” in Fifty Years of Light, 34. 152. Ibid., 36. 153. The school had to be temporarily closed during the winter of that year, due to the continued illness of her little son, Charlie Collyer. Josephine Campbell, “Korea School Reports,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (November 1900): 142. 154. Littleton S. Collyer, “Songdo Day School,” Woman’s Missionary Advocate (May 1900): 340. 155. Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 129. 156. Wagner, “The Workers of the Woman’s Department, Board of Missions in Korea,” in Southern Methodism, 83. 157. Cordelia Erwin provided instructions to the students at the AngloKorean School for a while in the beginning. Wagner, “The Workers of the Woman’s Department, Board of Missions in Korea,” 54. 158. Quoted from S. B. Harbough, “Report of Woman’s Work,” MECS, 1903, 47,” in Deok-Joo Rhie, Han’guk Kammigyo Yosokyowhe’ye Yoksa, 18971990 (A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society) (Seoul, Korea: The Korean Methodist Women’s Society for Christian Service, 1991), 130. 159. Author, “Title,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 128. 160. Miss Lillian Nichols, “Holston Institute, Songdo,” in Southern Methodism, 128-131. 161. Quoted in Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 131. 162. Hankins, “Mary Helm School, Songdo,” 132; Kim, “Methodism and the Development of Korean Womanhood,” 81. 163. Quoted in Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 131.

382

Endnotes

164. Some of the Bible women produced through the Mary Helm School were Helen Kim, Dora Yoon, Nancy Kim, Julia Kim, Moonhee Yang, and Aeduck Lee. Ibid. 165. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 141. 166. Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 133; Arrena Caroll, “Report of the Boarding School and General Work in Wonsan,” Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1903, 50-51, in ibid. 167. Quoted from R. A. Hardie’s report, “Report of Wonsan District,” Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1909, 37-38, and from M.D. Myers, “Report of Miss Mary D. Myers,” Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1909, 72, in ibid., 134. 168. Miss Bessie Oliver, “Lucy Cunninggim Girls’ School, Wonsan, Korea,” in Southern Methodism in Korea, 123-125. 169. Quoted from “Report of Miss Knowles,” MECS, 1903, 55; “Miss Knowles’ Report,” Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1905, 51; M. M. Ivey, “Report of Miss Ivey,” Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1907, 59, in Rhie, A History of the Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 134. 170. She was later married to C. T. Collyer of the same mission. 171. Ellasue Wagner, who came to Korea in 1904, was appointed with Arrena Carroll to Songdo and worked for the development of the Holton Institute. 172. Wagner, “Workers of the Woman’s Council,” 83. 173. Doek-Joo Rhie, Han Kuk Kyowhe Choum Yosongdul (Early Christian Women in Korea: Life Stories of twenty-eight Women who Loved Christ and Her Nation). (Seoul, Korea: The Christian Literature Press, 1990), 198-205 174. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 131. 175. Mrs. Irvin, “Personal Report,” Fusan Station, 1894, Korea Reports, Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of the PCUSA. 176. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 131. 177. Fusan Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 74. According to the report, organization of a good school for girls was in progress through the efforts of Mrs. Irvin. 178. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission 131. 179. Ibid., 131-132. 180. Ibid., 190. 181. Ibid., 192-193.

383

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

182. Anabel Major Nisbet, “History of School Work in Korea,” One-page type-written report, John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Korea Mission Papers, Box 2, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 183. Ibid; another report says that Mattie Tate started the school in 1904 in her own house. But she soon rented a three-room house and made it a boarding school. See Janet Crane, “Junkin Memorial School,” type-written report, John F. Preston Papers, Box 4, Korea Mission-Histories and Biographical Sketches of Missionaries, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. Also see J. F. Preston, “Historical Sketch of the Evangelistic Work, Southern Presbyterian Mission in Korea,” John F. Preston Paper, Box 4. 184. Ibid. 185. Anabel Major Nisbet, “History of School Work in Korea,” John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 2. 186. Mrs. J. S. Nisbet, “Korean Experiences,” letters from the Nisbets, Chunju, Korea, For The Christian Observer, 12 May 1909. A copy found in John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 1. 187. Anabel Major Nisbet, “History of School Work in Korea,” John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 2, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 188. “Did You See Us Grow?—McCallie School for Girls,” in John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 1, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, N.C. 189. Mrs. J. S. Nisbet, “Korean Experiences,” Letters from the Nisbets, Chunju, Korea, 3 March 1909, in For the Christian Observer, 12 May 1909, John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 1. 190. Ibid. 191. Anabel Major Nisbet, “History of School Work in Korea,” John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 2. 192. Ibid. 193. Ibid. 194. Anabel Major Nisbet, “History of School Work in Korea,” John Samuel Nisbet Collection, Box 2. 195. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 162. 196. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 306. 197. Pyeng Yang Station Report, Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 51. 198. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 306.

384

Endnotes

199. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 165. 200. Pyeng Yang Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 48. 201. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 304. 202. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 421. Annie Baird died of cancer in 1916. When she learned of her condition during her journey in the U.S., she returned to Korea. Her decision to die in Korea had “an almost electric effect on the Korean Christians.” Her funeral was “an outburst of affection and appreciation,” as the great crowd came and made it necessary to hold the funeral in the open air. Relays of seminary and college students carried the casket to the cemetery. Baird, William Baird of Korea, 86. 203. Quoted from Korea Mission Field 12, no. 11 (November 1916): 390, in Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 305. 204. The Presbyterian women opened two girls’ schools in the city and three more such schools in the country district by 1903. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 166. 205. Appenzeller, “Fifty Years in Educational Work,” 93; Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 166-167. 206. Pyeng Yang Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 48. 207. Ibid. 208. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 168. 209. Pyeng Yang Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 50. 210. Ibid., 49. 211. Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 312. 212. There were three girls taught by Dr. Rosetta S. Hall in 1900; Martha Ingold, “Tai Tong River near Pyeng Yang, Sept. 29, 1900,” letter, Martha Ingold Tate File, Box 1. More details about the girls in Hall, With Stethoscope in Asia, 47. 213. “The Mother of Pyeng Yang,” The Christian Advocate, 10 August 1916. A copy found in Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, United Methodist Church, Madison, N.J. 214. H. D. Appenzeller, “Fifty Years in Educational Work,” in Within the Gate, 90; Paik, The History of Protestant Missions, 312. 215. Korea Mission Field (July 1906): 175-176; Paik, The History of Protestant

385

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Missions, 312. 216. Ibid. 217. Ibid. 218. The first Annual Convention on the Education of the Blind and Deaf of the Far East was held in Pyengyang in 1913 because of her efforts. “The Mother of Pyeng Yang,” The Christian Advocate, 10 August 1916. 219. Irene Haynes, “The School for Blind Girls,” in Fifty Years Light, 57. 220. E. W. Koons, “Dr. Rosetta S. Hall’s ‘Han Kap’[Sixtieth Birthday],” The Korean Mission Field. A copy found in the Mission Biographical Reference Files, 1880s-1960, United Methodist Archives, Drew University, Madison, N. J. 221. Syen Chyun Station Report, in Report of the Korea Mission of the PCUSA, 1908, 76. 222. Ibid. 223. Rhodes, History of the Korea Mission, 217.

CONCLUSION 1. Dana L. Robert, “World Christianity as a Women’s Movement,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research. Vol. 30, No. 4, October 2006, p.180. 2. For example, see Ryu, Dae young, Cho’gi Mugk Sunkyosa Yon’ku, 1884-1910 (Early Missionaries to Korea, 1884-1910: Understanding Missionaries from Their Middle-Class Background). Seoul, Korea: The Institute of Korean Church History Studies, 2001. See also Underwood, Elizabeth. Challenged Identities: North American Missionaries in Korea, 1884-1934. Seoul, Korea: Royal Asiatic Society, Korean Branch, 2004. 3. Robert, p. 185. 4. Dae Young Ryu, “The Origin and Characteristics of Evangelical Protestantism in Korea at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Church History. Vol. 77. No. 2. June 2008, p. 372. 5. Steve Sang-Cheol Moon, “The Protestant Missionary Movement in Korea: Current Growth and Development.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research. Vol. 32, No. 2 (April 2008), 60. 6. 1 Corinthians 1:27.

386

Bibliography

MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS Board of Foreign Missions—Korea Mission Secretaries’ Files, 1903-1971, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Franklin and Bertha Schweinfurth Ohlinger Papers, Special Collections, Yale Divinity Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Horace N. Allen Manuscripts, Foulk Papers, New York Public Library. Korea Letters and Correspondence, Records of Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of U.S.A. (Microfilm), Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Korea Letters, 1884-1887 (Microfilm) Korea Reports, 1891-1900 (Microfilm) Korea Mission Papers—Histories, Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Presbyterian Historical Society, Montreat, North Carolina. Daniel, Sarah Brice Dunnington Nisbet, John and Anabel Preston, John Fairman Tate, Marth Ingold Missionary Biographical Files, General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church, Madison, New Jersey. Appenzeller, Alice R. Appenzeller

387

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Cutler, Mary Estey, Ethel M. Frey, Lulu E. Hall, William J. and Rosetta Sherwood Appenzeller, Alice R. Appenzeller Cutler, Mary Estey, Ethel M. Frey, Lulu E. Papers Hall, William J. and Rosetta Sherwood Howard, Meta Jones, Geo. H. and Mrs. Jones, Margaret Bengel Miller, Lula Adelia Morris, Charles D. and Mrs. Louise Ogilvie Noble, William A. and Mattie L. Ohlinger, Franklin and Bertha S. Paine, Josephine O. Scranton, Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton, William B. and Family Missionary Research Library Collection, The Burke Library Archives, Union Theological Seminary, New York. H. G. Appenzeller Papers George H. Jones Papers

JOURNALS The Gospel in All Lands. 1886-1897. Heathen Woman’s Friend. 1883-1896. Journal of American Medical Women’s Association. 1947 The Korea Mission Field. 1908-1935. The Korean Repository. 1892-1898. The Missionary Review of the World. 1887-1890. Woman’s Missionary Advocate. 1880-1901. Woman’s Missionary Friend. 1915. Woman’s Work for Woman and Our Mission Field. 1886-1924.

388

Bibliography

PUBLISHED BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND REPORTS Agnew, Theodore L. “Reflections on the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Movement in Late 19th-Century American Methodism,” Methodist History 6 (January 1968): 5. Anderson, Gerald H. “American Protestants in Pursuit of Mission: 1886-1986,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 12, (July 1988): 98-118. Baird, Annie L. A. Daybreak in Korea: A Tale of Transformation in the Far East. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1909. ________. Inside Views of Mission Life. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1913. Baird, Richard H. William M. Baird of Korea: a profile. Oakland, California: Published and copyrighted by Richard H. Baird, 1968. Bennett, Adrian A. “Doing More than They Intended: Southern Methodist Women in China, 1878-1898,” in Women in the New World, ed. Rosemary Skinner Keller, Louise L. Queen, and Hilah F. Thomas. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981-1982. Beaver, R. Pierce. All Loves Excelling: American Protestant Women in World Mission. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968. ________. American Protestant Women in World Mission: A History of the First Feminist Movement in North America. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1980. Benowitz, June Melby. Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1998. Bishop, Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbours: A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country, 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1898. Blair, William N. Gold in Korea. 3d ed. Topeka, Kansas: H. M. Ives & Sons, Inc., 1957. Bruen, Clara Hedberg (Mrs. H. M. Bruen), comp. 40 Years in Korea: Henry Munro Bruen. Seoul, Korea: Hankuk Kidokyosa Yunguso (Korean Christian History Research Center), 1998.

389

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Burton, Margaret E. The Education of Women in China. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1914. ________. The Education of Women in Japan. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914. ________. Women Workers of the Orient. West Medford, Massachusetts: The Central Committee of the United Study of Foreign Missions, 1918. Chong, Pyong-Uk (Byung Wook Chang). Han’guk Kammigyo Yosongsa, 1885-1945 (The History of Methodist Women in Korea, 1885-1945). Seoul: Sung Kwang Publishing Co., 1979. Choy, Bong-Youn. Korea: A History. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1971. Clark, Allen D. A History of the Church in Korea. Seoul: Christian Literature Society, 1971. ________. Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M.D. Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 1979. Clark, Charles A. The Korean Church and the Nevius Methods. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1928. Conrow, Marion. Our Ewha: A Historical Sketch of E. W. U. Seoul, Korea: Ewha Womans University, 1956. Cooper, S. Kate. Evangelism in Korea. The World Parish series, edited by Elmer T. Clark, Board of Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1930. Cowen, Mrs. B. R. History of the Cincinnati Branch, Woman’s Foreign MissionarySociety, 1869-1894. Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts, 1895. Davies, Daniel M. The Life and Thought of Henry Gerhard Appenzeller (1858-1902): Missionary to Korea. Lewiston/ Lampeter/Queenston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988. Dodson, Mary L. Half a Lifetime in Korea. San Antonio: The Nalor Company, 1952. Fifty Years of Light. Prepared by missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in commemoration of the completion of fifty years of work in Korea. Seoul, Korea: Y.M.C.A. Press, 1938.

390

Bibliography

Findley, James F. Jr., Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist, 18371899. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969. Flemming, Leslie A. ed., Women’s Work for Women: Missionaries and Social Change in Asia. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1989. Gale, James S. Korean Sketches, New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1898. Gamewell, Mary Porter. Mary Porter Gamewell and Her Story of the Siege in Peking. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1907. Reprint, New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. Gifford, Daniel L. Every-day Life in Korea. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1898. Griffis, William E. A Modern Pioneer in Korea: The Life Story of Henry R. Appenzeller. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1912. Hall, Rosetta S. The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M.D. New York: Press of Eaton and Mains, 1897. Hall, Sherwood. With Stethoscope in Asia: Korea. McLean, Virginia: MCL Associates, 1978. Harkness, Georgia. Women in Church and Society: A Historical and Theological Inquiry. Nashville and New York: Abingdon Press, 1972. Harrington, Fred H. God, Mammon and the Japanese: Dr. Horace N. Allen and Korean-American Relations, 1884-1905. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1944. Hill, Patricia. The World Their Household; The American Woman’s Foreign Mission Movement and Cultural Transformation, 18701920. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1985. Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women’s Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984 Hunt, Everett N., Jr. Protestant Pioneers in Korea. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Book, 1980. Hunter, Jane. The Gospel of Gentility: American Women in Turn-ofthe-Century China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.

391

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Huntley, Martha. Caring, Growing, Changing: A History of the Protestant Mission in Korea. New York: Friendship Press, 1984. Hulbert, Homer B. The Passing of Korea. New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1907. Joo, Sun Ae. Chang’rogyo Yosongsa (Presbyterian Women’s History), Seoul: Daehan Yesugyo Chang’rowhe, 1978. Kim, Helen. Grace Sufficient: The Story of Helen Kim by Herself. Nashville, Tenn.: The Upper Room, 1964. Kim, In Soo, trans. Mapo Samyul Moksa ui Sunkyo Pyunji, 18901904 (Samuel A. Moffett’s Missionary Letters, 1890-1904). Compiled by Eileen Flower Moffett. Seoul, Korea: Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, 2000. Leaman, Jr., William G. “Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania,” Journal of American Medical Women’s Association 2 (October, 1947): 460-462. Lee, Woo Jung and Hyun Soo Lee, Yo’shindowhe 60 yonsa. Seoul: Hankook Kidokyo Chang’rowhe, 1989. MacHaffie, Barbara J. Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986. Mardsen, George M. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. Grand Rapid: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1991. ________. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980. Melder, Keith E. Beginnings of Sisterhood: The American Woman’s Rights Movement, 1800-1850. New York: Schocken Books, 1977. Moffett, Eileen Flower, comp. Mapo Samyul Moksa ui Sunkyo Pyunji, 1890-1904 (Samuel A. Moffett’s Missionary Letters). Translated by In Soo Kim. Seoul, Korea: Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, 2000. Moffett, Samuel Hugh. The Christians of Korea. New York: Friendship Press, 1962.

392

Bibliography

Moon, Steve Sang-Cheol, “The Protestant Missionary Movement in Korea: Current Growth and Development.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 32:2 (April 2008), 59-64. Montgomery, Helen Barrett. Western Women in Eastern Lands. New York: MacMillan, 1910. Moore, Katharine. She For God: Aspects of Women and Christianity. London: Allison & Busby, 1978. Nisbet, Anabel Major. Day In and Day Out in Korea. Richmond, Virginia: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919. Reports of the Korea Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. A. (1907-1908) to the Annual Meeting held at Pyeng Yang, August 1908. Yokohama, Japan: The Fukin Printing Co., 1908. Ryang, J. S., ed. Southern Methodism in Korea: Thirtieth Anniversary. Seoul, Korea: Board of Missions, Korea Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1927. Pahk, Induk. September Monkey. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954. Paik [Paek], George L. The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, 1832-1910. Pyeng Yang: Union Christian College Press, 1929. Park [Pak], Yong Kyu. Pongyang Dae’Buhueng Wundong (The Great Revivalism in Korea: Its History, character, and Impact, 1901-1910). Seoul, Korea: Saengmyong’ui Malsumsa, 2000. Reninger, Marion W. “Alice of Korea,” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society. 74 (1970): 109-123. Rhie, Deok-Joo. Han’guk Kammigyo Yosokyowhe’ye Yoksa, 18971990 (A History of The Korean Methodist Women’s Society, 1897-1990). Seoul, Korea: The Korean Methodist Women’s Society for Christian Service, 1991. ________. Han Kuk Kyowhe Choum Yosongdul (Early Christian Women in Korea: Life Stories of twenty-eight Women who Loved Christ and Her Nation). (Seoul, Korea: The Christian Literature Press, 1990), 198-205 Rhodes, Harry A. ed. History of the Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church U.S.A, 1884-1934. Seoul, Chosen: Chosen Mission of Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1934. Robert, Dana L. American Women in Mission: A Social History

393

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

of Their Thought and Practice. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1996. Ruether, Rosemary Radford and Rosemary Skinner Keller, eds. Women and Religion in America, 3 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1981-86. Ryu, Dae Young. Cho’gi Miguk Sunkyosa Yon’ku, 1884-1910 (Early American Missionaries in Korea, 1884-1910: Understanding Missionaries from Their Middle-Class Background). Seoul: The Institute of Korean Church History Studies, 2001. ________. “The Origin and Characteristics of Evangelical Protestantism in Korea at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Church History 77:2 (June 2008): 371-398. Sands, William F. Cho’sun ui magimoknal (The Last Days of Korea). Translated into Korea by Hun Kim. Seoul, Korea: Mi Won, 1986. Sauer, Charles A., ed. Within the Gate. Comprising the Addresses delivered at the Fiftieth Anniversary of Korea Methodism, First Church, Seoul, Korea June 19th-20th, 1934. Seoul, Korea: The Korea Methodist News Services, YMCA Press, 1934. Shin Lee, Kyung-Lim, Pear Blossom Blooming: The History of American Women Missionaries at Ewha Womans University. Seoul, Korea: Ewha Womans University Press, 1989. ________. “Sisters in Christ: American Women Missionaries in Ewha Women’s University,” in Spirituality and Social Responsibility, ed. Rosemary Skinner Keller. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993. Singh, Maina Chawla. Gender, Religion, and “Heathen Lands”: American Missionary Women in South Asia, 1860s-1940s. New York: Garland Publishing, 2000. Smith, Lili R. Korea Aflame for Christ. Minutes of the Annual meeting of the Korea Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1902. Swain, Clara A. A Glimpse of India. New York: J. Pott, 1909. Reprint. New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. Swinehart, Lois Hawks. Sarangie, A Child of Chosen: A Tale of Korea. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1926.

394

Bibliography

Tavard, George H., Women in Christian Tradition. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973. Tiedemann, R. G. “China and Its Neighbors,” in The World History of Christianity, ed. Adrian Hastings. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.Eerdmann Publishing Company, 1999. Thoburn, James M. Thoburn, Life of Isabella Thoburn. Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye, 1903. Reprint, New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. Tucker, Ruth A. and Walter Liefeld. Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987. Underwood, Elizabeth. Challenged Identities: North American Missionaries in Korea, 1884-1934. Seoul, Korea: Royal Asiatic Society, Korean Branch, 2004. Underwood, Horace G. The Call of Korea: Political-Social-Religious. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1908. Underwood, Lillias H. Fifteen Years Among the Top-knots. Boston, New York, and Chicago: American Tract Society, 1904. ________. With Tommy Tompkins in Korea. New York, Chicago, Toronto, London and Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1905. ________. Underwood of Korea: Being An intimate record of the Life and Work of the Rev. H. G. Underwood, D. D., LL D., for thirtyone years as a Missionary of the Presbyterian Board in Korea.

New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1918. Van Buskirk, James Dale. Korea: land of the Dawn. New York: Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, 1931. Willing, Jennie Fowler & Mrs. George H. Jones (Margaret Bengel Jones). The Lure of Korea. Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, 1920. Winslow, Harriet L. and Miron. Memoir of Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow. New York: American Tract Society, 1840. Reprint, New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. Wu, Silas H. L. “Dora Yu (1873-1931): Foremost Female Evangelist in Twentieth-Century Chinese Revivalism,” in Gospel

395

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Bearers, Gospel Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century, ed. Dana L. Robert. Maryknoll, New York; Orbis Books. 2002.

UNPUBLISHED PAPERS, DISSERTATIONS, AND INTERVIEWS Ch’oe, Kyong-Sun. “Han’guk kyoheo cho’gi yosong song’gyosa (A Study of Women’s Mission History in the Early Korean Church).” Master’s thesis, Asia Yonhap Christian College, Graduate School, 1994. DeSmither, Carol M. “From Calling to Career: Work and Professional Identity among American Women Missionaries to China, 1900-1950.” Ph.D. diss., University of Oregon, 1987. Graham, Gael Norma. “Gender, Culture, and Christianity: American Protestant Mission Schools in China, 1880-1930.” Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1990. Hahn, John H. “The Impact of Nineteenth Century American Church on the Shaping of the Foundation of the Early Korean Church and Society (1884-1935).” Ph.D. diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 1998. Harris, Marjorie Jane. “American Missions, Chinese Realities: An Historical Analysis of College/Yenching Women’s College, 1905-1943.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994. Ishii Noriko Kawamura, “American Women Missionaries at Kobe College, 1873-1909.” Ph.D. diss., George Washington University, 1998. King, Marjorie. “Missionary Mother and Radical Daughter: Anna and Ida Pruitt in China, 1887-1939.” Ph.D. diss., Temple University, 1985. Lee, Chull. “Social Sources of the Rapid Growth of the Christian Church in Northwest Korea: 1895-1910.” Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1996.

396

Bibliography

Moffett, Eileen Flower, comp. Letters of Samuel Austin Moffett, Mary Alice Fish Moffett, Lucia Hester Fish Moffett, and Contemporary Correspondence, Vol. 1 (1870-1899). Limited Private Distribution (distribution in personal possession of Dr. Howard Moffett, Carpinteria, California). N.p.: N.p., N.d. Moffett, Howard, M.D., son of Samuel Austin Moffett and a retired medical missionary to Korea. Interview by author, 20 November 2000, Carpentaria, California. Moffett, Samuel Hugh, Ph.D., son of Samuel Austin Moffett, retired missionary to Korea and China, and Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. Personal conversation with author, 9 November 2000, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. Robert, Dana L. “The ‘Christian Home’ as a Cornerstone of Missionary Thought and Practice.” Paper written for the North Atlantic Missiology Project Symposium, titled, “Christian Missions and the ‘Enlightenment’ of the West: The Challenge and Experience and History” in Boston, Massachusetts, June 21-24, 1998. Tumani Nyajeka, “A Meeting of Two Female Worlds: American Women Missionaries and Shona Women at Old Mutare, and the Founding of Rukwadzano.” Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1996.

397

Images

p. vi

p. 16

p. 49

p. 57

p. 69

p. 69

p. 72

p. 74

Allocation of Geographical Areas Among Major Denominational Missions Modification of the map in George Paik, The History of Protestant Mission in orea, 1832-1910. Pyeng Yang: Union Christian College Press, 1929. Methodist Congregation in Seoul From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 232b. New Women Missionaries Present at the Conference of June 1913 From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXVIII, No. 8. August 1913), 171. Anabel and John Nisbet, Southern Presbyterian Pioneers From Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), cover page. Harbor of Chemulpo From Isabella L. Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbors (London: John & Murray, 1898), 24. Chemulpo From Heathen Woman’s Friend (Vol. XXVI, No. 2. August 1894), 32. The Korean Pony From James Gale, Korean Sketches (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1898), 118. Old Seoul, the Capital City From Lillias Horton Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 3.

399

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

p. 74 Seoul and Palace Enclosure From Isabella L. Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbors (London: John & Murray), 38. p. 92 A Korean Lady From Isabella L. Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbors (London: John & Murray), 133. p. 93 Groom Returning with His Bride From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 104b. p. 95 A Korean Wife in Pyengyang with her Headcovering From James Gale, The Vanguard (Fleming H. Revell, 1904), 292. p. 95 Bridal Feast after the Ceremony From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 104b. p. 96 Women Ironing Clothes From Lillias Horton Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 46. p. 97 Korean Women at Work From Lillias Horton Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 191. p. 98 Girls named First-Borne, Secondly, and Sorrowfully From Annie L. A. Baird, Daybreak in Korea (New York, Fleming H. Revell, 1909), 44. p. 99 Korean Teacher with Boy Pupils From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 142b. p. 101 A Korean Coolie and a Coolie’s Wife From James Gale, Korean Sketches (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1898), 52. p. 107 Korean Shops From Heathen Woman’s Friend (Vol. XXI. No.10. January 1889), 245. p. 113 Roadway by the Shore From James Gale, The Vanguard (Fleming H. Revell, 1904), 210.

400

Images

p. 116 The Foreign Office at Seoul From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall M.D (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains,1897), 275. p. 119 Methodist Episcopal Mission of Korea in 1893 From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains, 1897), 308. p. 141 Missionary Child, Betty Campbell, with a Korean Girl Friend From Woman’s Work (Vol.38, No. 2. February 1923), 38. p. 156 King Kojong of Korea From Lillias Horton Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 23. p. 156 Royal Lady From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXVIII, No. 8. August 1913), 183. p. 159 Methodist Woman’s Hospital, Seoul From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains,1897), 179. p. 166 Beginning of a School for Girls From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 142b. p. 167 Mary Scranton with Her Students of the Ewha Girls’ School From Heathen Woman’s Friend (Vol. XXIV, No. 10. April 1893), 229. p. 169 Ewha School in Seoul From Heathen Woman’s Friend (Vol. XX, No. 7. January 1889), cover page. p. 184 Mrs. Kim, an Indefatigable Voluntary Evangelist, of Sorai and Her Family From Lillias Horton Underwood, Fifteen Years among the Top-knots (Boston: American Tract Society, 1904), 244. p. 186 Country Travel From Jennie Fowler Willing and Mrs. George Herber Jones, The Lure of Korea (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920), 38.

401

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

p. 187 The First Christian Korean Bride and Groom From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains,1897), 141. p. 190 Korean Map at the Time of the Early Missionaries From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains,1897), 246. p. 196 A Missionary Man Speaking to a Crowd in the Street From James Gale, The Vanguard (Fleming H. Revell, 1904), 120. p. 199 Tithers and Bible Women From Jennie Fowler Willing and Mrs. George Herber Jones, The Lure of Korea (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920), 51. p. 200 Women Coming to Training Class From Jennie Fowler Willing and Mrs. George Herber Jones, The Lure of Korea (Boston: Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920), 15. p. 204 Women’s Bible Institute From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 232b. p. 205 Graduates of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible Institute with their Missionary Teachers in Pyengyang From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXXII, No. 2. February 1917), 36. p. 223 The East Gate of Pyengyang From James Gale, The Vanguard (Fleming H. Revell, 1904), 70. p. 224 The Presbyterian Pioneering Station From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXVI, No. 11. November 1911), 247. p. 227 Women Missionaries of the Presbyterian Pyengyang Station From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXXI, No. 2. February 1916), 39. p. 230 Kim Que Bansi, Beloved Senior Bible Woman of Syenchun From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXVI, No. 11. November 1911), 249.

402

Images

p. 231 A Church on a Hill From James Gale, The Vanguard (Fleming H. Revell, 1904), 302. p. 233 Mrs. Swinehart with Korean Christian Workers From The Korea Mission Field, Women’s Quarterly (Number. Vol. XII. No. 4. April 1916), front page. p. 236 Miss Jean Perry and the Korean Matron of the Home for Destitute Children, Seoul From Jean Perry, Chilgoopie the Glad (London: S. W. Patridge, 1906). p. 242 The Pioneers of the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Korea From Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 12. p. 245 Women’s Winter Bible Class, Chunju From Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 87. p. 250 Severance Hospital, Seoul From James S. Gale, Korea in Transition (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1909), 180b. p. 253 Rosetta Sherwood Hall with Her Children From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains,1897), 10. p. 258 Esther Kim Pak and Her Husband, Mr. Pak From Rosetta S. Hall, The Life of Rev. William James Hall M.D. (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains,1897), 198. p. 272 James Gale and Hattie Gibon Gale with their Daughter and Blind Pastor Keel From Woman’s Work (Vol. XXVI, No. 11. November 1911), 2. p. 293 Korean Women Teachers at Mary Baldwin School, Kunsan From Anabel Major Nisbet, Day In and Day Out in Korea (Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1919), 136.

403

Index A Acupuncture, 110 Adams, Annie. See Baird, Annie Adams Adams, James, 239 Adams, Nellie Dick, 239–240 Advanced School for Girls and Women, 298 Agnew, Theodore, 36 Agreements of cooperation, 20 Agriculture in Korea food shortage, 85–86, 107–108 food sources for missionaries, 138–139 gardening, 141–142 hunting, 141 meat market, 141 nature and quality of food, 109 primitive agricultural methods, 90 Alice Cobb Bible School, 204–205 Allen, Bell, 45 Allen, Fannie, 13, 64, 112 Allen, Horace G. arrival in Korea, 13 as King’s physician, 155 as Queen’s physician, 155 room of Korean money, 112 saving the queen’s nephew, 13, 14–15, 80, 154 waiting for other missionaries, 64 American Protestant Missions beginning of, 9–14, 22 history of Great Revival of 1907, 26–28 occupation of the field (1891-1897), 17–22 pioneering years (1884-1891), 14–17

405

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

rise of the Church and the Revival (1897-1907), 22–26 overview, 9 Ancestral worship, 21 Anglo-Korean School, 287 Animism, 10 Appenzeller, Ella Dodge call to missions, 46 education for girls, 174 house renovation, 129 journey to Korea, 62, 64, 67 mission compounds, 120 musical instruments, 144 Appenzeller, Henry call to missions, 46 death of, 67 education of boys, 15, 172 evangelism in the northwest, 221–222 house renovation, 129 itinerant missionary work, 18 journey to Korea, 64 law forbidding teaching of Christianity, 81 mission compounds, 120 women missionaries in Japan, 65 Arbuckle, Victoria, 280, 281 Arms, Hiram Phelps, 38 Avision, Oliver R., 18 Avison, Jennie arrival in Korea, 123 housing issues, 138 journey to Korea, 62, 66 Avison, O. R. arrival in Korea, 123 frequency of smallpox, 111 hospital development, 249–250 housing issues, 138 journey to Korea, 62 medical missions, 19, 25

406

Index B Baby Riots, 81–82, 161 Baird, Annie Adams background, 37, 40–41 building project difficulties, 130–131 clothing, 143 criticism from the home front, 148, 149, 150–151 educational work, 290, 297 evangelism in Fusan, 235, 237, 256 evangelism in Taiku, 238, 239 evangelism in the northwest, 226 fictional book-writing, 102 food problems, 140–141, 142 housing shortage, 137 journey to Korea, 60, 62 literary work, 271–272, 273–274 marriage of, 45 motivation for missions, 52 Omnibus House, 137–138 servants, 146, 147 Sunday services in homes, 123 trial of inactivity, 105 unsanitary conditions, 111 visitation, 197 Baird, Nancy Rose, 237 Baird, William M. background, 40–41 building project difficulties, 130–131 educational work, 290, 297 evangelism in Fusan, 235, 256 evangelism in Taiku, 238, 239 food problems, 140–141 housing shortage, 137 journey to Korea, 60 marriage of, 45 Omnibus House, 137–138

407

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Sunday services in homes, 123 Baldwin Dispensary, 254 Baptism in Chunju, 243 first Korean woman, 180 in Fusan, 235 in Pyengyang, 223–224 in Seoul, 281 by traveling missionaries, 186–187 women receiving names and, 182 Becker, Arthur, 297 Becker, Mrs. A. L., 272 Beecher, Henry Ward, 31 “Beeswax call” to missions, 47 Bell, Eugene, 245–246 Bell, Lottie W., 245–246 Bengel, Margaret, 39, 277 Best, Margaret evangelism in the northwest, 226–227, 229, 230–231 itinerary trips, 198, 200–201, 216 principal of the Institute, 229 Bible first Korean Bible, 12 Gospel of Mark translation, 12 National Bible Society of Scotland, 12 translation of the entire Bible, 26 translations, 12, 271 Bible classes for educating female religious workers, 202–206, 227–229, 270 in Taiku, 240–241 in Wonsan, 232–233 Bible Training School in Chicago, 48–49 Bible woman, 255 Bishop, Isabella Bird first impression of Seoul, 75 Pyengyang missions, 23

408

Index

seclusion of Korean women, 93–94 trial of inactivity, 105 women’s chores, 97–98 Blackstone, Mrs. W. E., 118–119, 168 Blackwell, Elizabeth, 34–35 Blind people, education for, 270–271, 281, 299–301 Boarding school, 175–176 Boxer Rebellion, 84–85 Brooks, Philip, 31 Brown, Fannie, 235, 236–237, 256–257 Brown, Hugh, 256 Bruen, Henry M., 46, 239 Bruen, Martha Scott, 239, 291 Bruen, William M., 52 Buddhism, 10 Building projects, 130–133 Bunker, Annie Ellers arrival in Korea, 72–73 call to missions, 44–45 education of girls, 169, 279 farewell meeting, 59–60 first impression of Korea, 68 first impression of Seoul, 75, 76 first medical woman missionary, 155 as Queen’s physician, 155–158 trip from Chemulpo to Seoul, 72–73 Bunker, D. A., 169 C Call to missions, 42–48 Cameron, Christine, 257 Campbell, Betty, 141 Campbell, Josephine P. background, 38, 51 call to missions, 46 Carolina Institute leadership, 119, 282–286

409

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

death of, 284–285 educational training, 49 evangelism in central Korea, 218–219 evangelism in Seoul, 213–215 missionary homes, 193 Carolina Institute curriculum, 283 overview, 282–286 property purchase, 118 scholarships, 119 women in leadership, 214 Caroline A. Ladd Hospital, 262 Carroll, Arrena cultural issues, 104 educational work, 288, 289–290 evangelism in the northeast, 232 medical missions, 219, 220 Carson, Elizabeth, 239 Catholicism. See Roman Catholicism Cent societies, 32 Central Korea, women’s work, 209–221 Chairyung station, 217 Chase, Louise Marie, 235 Chase, Marie educational work, 301 evangelism in central Korea, 216–217 evangelism in Fusan, 238 evangelism in Syenchun, 229, 230, 231 evangelism in Taiku, 239–240 itinerary trips, 198–199 Chemulpo (Inchon) educational work, 286–290 first impression, 68–71 medical missions, 122 protection of Americans, 80 railroad between Chemulpo and Seoul, 73, 112–113

410

Index

Children, evangelistic work for, 206–208 Children’s Ward, 134 China missionaries to Korea, 12 Roman Catholicism introduced to Korea, 11 Choi, Naomi, 232, 290 Cholera epidemic, 19, 111 Cholla, 18, 20 Chong Dong Church, 17 Christmas, 207–208 Chulla Province, 291 Chung Chong, 18, 20 Chung Dong Methodist Church, 279 Chunju destruction in Tonghak Rebellion, 84 educational work, 292 evangelism, 241–244 housing issues, 127 medical missions, 263–266 mission compound purchases, 124 Clark, Allen D., 14, 19 Clothing, 142–143 Collyer, Mr. and Mrs. C. T., 219 Collyer, Mr. and Mrs. Littleton S., 287 Communications, 112 Confucianism, 10, 90, 100 Conwell, Russell H., 31 Coolies attacks of Japanese coolies, 88 for building work, 130–131 for carrying money, 112 carrying of sedan chairs, 72 Korean distrust of foreign medicine, 161 photographs of, 101 protection of missionaries, 84 Council of Presbyterian Missions in Korea, 20

411

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Cram, Mrs. W. G., 288 Criticism from the home front, 148–151 Culture cultural issues, 21–22 culture shock of Korea, 75–77 economic conditions and culture, 90–91 generosity, 91 missionary women and, 104–107 women in Korea, 91–104 Currency, 112 Customs. See Culture Cutler, Mary call to missions, 42–43, 48 medical missions, 251–252 medical training, 50 Nurses’ Training School, 254, 261 as student volunteer, 41 Woman’s Hospital, 254 D Dancing girls, 100, 106 Dangers in Korea Baby Riots, 81–82, 161 badges to distinguish from Russians, 86–87 edict to kill Westerners, 84–85 treaties for protection, 80 Daniel, Sarah B. Dunninghton first impression of Korea, 70, 76 journey to Korea, 60, 61, 66–67 Davis, Linnie. See Harrison, Linnie Davis Deaf people, education for, 270–271, 300–301 Disabled people, education for, 270–271 Diseases. See also Health conditions; Medical missions cholera, 19, 111 folk remedies, 162 leprosy, 111

412

Index

sickness caused by demons, 110, 162 smallpox, 110–111 Divorce for women without sons, 100 Dodge, Ella. See Appenzeller, Ella Dodge Dodson, Mary, 59 Dorcas Society, 241 Doty, Susan A. See Miller, Susan A. Doty Drew, A. D., 244 Drew, Lucie, 244 Dualistic eastern philosophy, 92–93 E East Gate Church, 252 East Gate Hospital, 252, 262 Easter, 207 Economics agriculture, 90 class of women missionaries, 37 culture and, 89–91 poor living conditions, 107–108 Edmunds, Margaret J., 253, 254 Educational missions Bible classes. See Bible classes for the blind, 270–271, 281, 299–300 for boys, 98–99 college education, 269–270 curriculum Carolina Institute, 283 Ewha Hakdang, 170, 175, 177, 269, 277–278 Presbyterian Girls’ School, 268–269, 281 day schools, 24 for the deaf, 270–271, 300–301 for the disabled, 270–271 evangelism through, 176–178 female education in Korea the beginning, 165–170

413

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

obstacles to the work, 170–173 purpose and methods, 174–176 Gray’s Botany for Common Schools, 274 history of, 15–16 history of (1890-1907), 266–303 in Chemulpo, 286–290 methods, 267–275 the northwest, 295–303 in Seoul, 275–286 in Songdo, 286–290 the southeast, 290–291 the southwest, 291–295 in Wonsan, 286–290 importance of women missionaries, 5 language barrier, 173, 272–273 methods, 267–275 Physiology textbook, 274 schools. See Schools teachers, 173, 270 textbooks, 273–274 training of Korean women workers, 183–185 women missionary influence, 308 Educational preparation for missions Bible Training School in Chicago, 48–49 Boston Missionary Training institute, 31–32 education of women, 34 Moody Bible Institute, 31–32 Mount Holyoke Seminary, 34 Egan, Leonora Horton, 38–39, 40, 51 Ellers, Annie. See Bunker, Annie Ellers Ellinwood, F. F., 50 Ernsberger, Emma, 254 Essick, Blanche, 239 Estey, Ethel Mary, 43, 224 Evangelism baptism by traveling missionaries, 186–187

414

Index

baptism of women, 180, 182. See also Baptism for children, 206–208 development of friendships, 178–183 geographical expansion Bible classes, 202–206 central Korea, 209–221 for children, 206–208 Chunju, 241–244 Fusan (Pusan), 234–238 itinerary trips, 198–201 Korean map, 190 Kunsan, 244–245 Kwangju, 246 missionary homes, 191–195 Mokpo, 245–246 the northeast, 232–234 the northwest, 221–231 overview, 189 Seoul, 209–215 the southeast, 234–241 the southwest, 241–246 Taiku, 238–241 training of Korean women workers, 202–206 visitation, 196–197 Institutes, 203–204, 228–229 itinerant missionary work, 185–188, 198–201 methods Bible classes. See Bible classes for children, 206–208 itinerary trips, 198–201 missionary homes, 191–195 training of Korean women workers, 202–206 visitation, 178–183, 196–197 personal visits, 178–183 Sabbath School, 225 Sunday school

415

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

for children, 207 materials, 273 for training, 181–182, 202 through medical and educational work, 176–178 Ewha Hakdang boarding school, 175–176 building project, 278–279 congregational meetings, 211–212 curriculum, 170, 175, 177, 269, 277–278 government approval and official name, 167–168, 174 Korean teachings, 174–175 language barrier, 173 medical training class, 254 overview, 277–279 photograph of, 169 secondary school opening, 173 teacher shortage, 173 Expectation of missionaries, 51–53 Extra-territorial rights, 82 F Farewell meetings, 55–60 Fetishism, 10 Field, Eva, 52, 133, 147, 251, 274 Fifty Helps for the Study of the Korean Language, 272, 273 Financial support, 118–119, 168 First impressions of Korea, 68–78 Fish, Alice farewell meeting, 56 farewell to family, 58–59 journey to Korea, 60 motivation for missions, 52 servants, 147 Folk remedies, 162 Follwell, E. Douglas, 258 Food. See Agriculture in Korea

416

Index

Forsythe, W. H., 264 Frey, Lulu background, 40 call to missions, 44, 45, 47–48 education of girls, 277, 278–279 impact of wars on missionaries, 80 Furniture, 143–144 Fusan (Pusan) educational work, 290–291 evangelism efforts, 234–238, 256–257 first impression, 68–70 housing shortage, 137 living conditions for missionaries, 123 G Gale, Hattie G. evangelism work, 232 literary work, 271 photograph of, 272 Gale, James S. evangelism work, 232 literary work, 271 photograph of, 272 Gardening for food, 141–142 “General Sherman” ship, 11–12 Geographical centers for women’s work central Korea, 209–221 the northeast, 232–234 the northwest, 221–231 Pyengyang (Pyongyang of North Korea), 221–229 Syenchun, 229–231 Seoul, 209–215 the southeast, 234–241 Fusan (Pusan), 234–238 Taiku, 238–241 the southwest, 241–246

417

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Chunju, 241–244 Kunsan, 244–245 Kwangju, 246 Mokpo, 245–246 Geographical origins of women missionaries, 36–39 Gerdine, J. L., 104 Gifford, D. L., 170 Gifford, Mary Hayden educational work, 170 evangelism in Seoul, 210 evangelism work, 183 school curriculum, 281 visitation, 197 Girls’ Academy, 291, 301 Girls’ School and Home, 166 Gordon, A. J., 31–32 Governance of churches, self-governing by Koreans, 24 Government Hospital opening of, 14 opening of women’s department, 158–159 Presbyterian Mission control, 249–250 reorganization, 18 Gray’s Botany for Common Schools, 274 Great Revival of 1907 beginnings in Wonsan, 233–234 Bible classes, 205 as great awakening, 27 history of, 26–28 national uncertainty and, 23 overview, 3, 6–7, 14 Griffis, William E., 9–10 Gutzlaff, Carl, 11 H Hall, Edith Margaret, 259–260 Hall, James

418

Index

death of, 88, 222 engagement to Rosetta Sherwood, 106 evangelism in the northwest, 223, 257, 258 housing shortage, 136 property purchase, 123–124 Hall, Rosetta Sherwood background, 1–2 communications in Korea, 112 death of husband, 88, 222 education for the blind, 300–301 education of girls, 175 evangelism in the northwest, 222–224, 257, 258–263 first impression of Korea, 70 first impression of Seoul, 75–76 food issues, 142 hospital building difficulties, 161 housing shortage, 136 impact of wars on missionaries, 80 medical instruction of girls, 161–162 medical missions, 160, 251–254 medical training, 50 mission compounds, 120 missionary homes, 192 naming of girls, 99–100 property purchase, 123–124 skin graft incident, 164–165 social stigma of being single, 106 “The Mother of Pyeng Yang”, 1 women missionaries in building work, 133–134 Hall, Sherwood, 87 Hall Memorial Hospital, 258 Hallman, Miss, 263 Ham Kyung Province, 18 Handicapped people, education for, 270–271 Harbough, Sadie B., 220, 287, 288 Hardie, Mrs., 232

419

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Hardie, R. A., 26, 137, 218–219, 289 Harris, Lillian, 248, 260 Harrison, Linnie Davis arrival in Korea, 73, 75 children’s evangelism, 206 educational work, 292 evangelism in Chunju, 243–244 evangelism in Kunsan, 245 evangelism in southwest, 244–245 housing issues, 136–137 missionary homes, 195 women missionaries in building work, 134–135 Harrison, W. B., 292 Hayden, Mary E. See Gifford, Mary Hayden Health conditions. See also Diseases; Medical missions acupuncture, 110 diseases, 110–111 housing issues, 125–127 mortality rate, 110–111 retreats from, 87 sickness caused by demons, 110, 162 unhealthy working conditions, 15 unsanitary conditions, 110 The Heathen Women’s Friend, 29, 43, 44, 159, 277 Helpers, 23–24 Herber, Margaret, 39 Heron, Hattie G., 66, 154, 179–180, 183 Heron, John W., 150, 155 Hillman, Mary, 218, 286 Hinds, Fannie, 219, 287 History of American Protestant Missions education work (1890-1907), 266–303 in Chemulpo, 286–290 methods, 267–275 the northwest, 295–303 in Seoul, 275–286

420

Index

in Songdo, 286–290 the southeast, 290–291 the southwest, 291–295 in Wonsan, 286–290 evangelism and geographical expansion (1890-1907) Bible classes, 202–206 central Korea, 209–221 for children, 206–208 Chunju, 241–244 Fusan (Pusan), 234–238 itinerary trips, 198–201 Korean map, 190 Kunsan, 244–245 Kwangju, 246 missionary homes, 191–195 Mokpo, 245–246 the northeast, 232–234 the northwest, 221–231 overview, 189 Seoul, 209–215 the southeast, 234–241 the southwest, 241–246 Taiku, 238–241 training of Korean women workers, 202–206 visitation, 196–197 evangelistic work (1884-1889), 176–188 development of friendships, 178–183 itinerant missionary work, 185–188 personal visits, 178–183 through medical and educational work, 176–178 training of Korean women workers, 183–185 female education in Korea, 165–176 the beginning, 165–170 obstacles to the work, 170–173 purpose and methods, 174–176 Great Revival of 1907, 26–28

421

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

medical work (1890-1907), 247–266 the northwest - Pyengyang, 257–263 in Seoul, 249–256 the southeast - Fusan, 256–257 the southwest, 263–266 occupation of the field (1891-1897), 17–22 pioneering female education (1884-1889), 165–176 beginning of, 165–170 obstacles to the work, 170–173 purpose and methods, 174–176 pioneering medical work for women (1884-1889), 153–165 background, 153–155 distrust of foreign medicine, 161–162 heavy work load, 162 hired help, 162–163 hospital buildings, 160–161 hospital work, 158–160 house calls, 163–164 medical missions preceding Protestant missions, 164 as Queen’s physician, 155–158 skin graft incident, 164–165 pioneering years (1884-1891), 14–17 rise of the Church and the Revival (1897-1907), 22–26 The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, 14 A History of the Church in Korea, 14. See also Clark, Allen D. Holidays, 207–208 Holistic missions, 5 Holton Institute, 288 Homes used for evangelism, 123, 191–195 Horton, Lillias. See Underwood, Lillias Horton Hospitals. See also Medical missions building renovations, 160–161 Caroline A. Ladd Hospital, 262 Children’s Ward, 134 East Gate Hospital, 252, 262 Government Hospital

422

Index

opening of, 14 opening of women’s department, 158–159 Presbyterian Mission control, 249–250 reorganization, 18 Hall Memorial Hospital, 258 Hugh O’Neil Jr. Memorial Hospital, 249 Junkin Memorial Hospital, 257 Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital, 252, 254 Methodist dispensaries and hospitals in Seoul, 122 mission hospital growth, 25 Po Goo Nijo Goan, 160 Severance Hospital, 25, 249–250 Woman’s Dispensary of Extended Grace, 260 Woman’s Hospital, 122, 134, 251 Hounshell, Miss, 233 Housekeeping, 138–148 clothing, 142–143 entertaining visitors, 147–148 food issues, 138–142 furniture, 143–144 musical instruments, 144–145 servants, 145–147 Housing building project difficulties, 130–133 living conditions in Korea, 108–109 mission house shortage, 135–138 missionary residences, 125–128 Omnibus House, 137–138 renovation and building of missionary houses, 128–130 women missionaries in building work, 133–135 Howard, Meta, 160, 251 Hugh O’Neil Jr. Memorial Hospital, 249 Hulbert, Homer B., 10, 88, 90–91, 94 Hunt, Bertha F., 216 Hunt, Mr. and Mrs. W. B., 217 Hunt, William, 216

423

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Hunter, Jane, 37, 48, 50, 178 Hunting for food, 141 Hymnal translation, 271–272 I Inchon. See Chemulpo (Inchon) Induk Pahk, 99, 111 Influence of women missionaries, 305–311 Ingold, Martha. See Tate, Martha (Mattie) Ingold Institute for the Blind and Deaf, 300–301 Institutes, 203–204, 228–229 Irvin, Bertha Kimmerer, 235, 237–238, 257, 290–291 Irwin, C. H., 237, 257 Itinerant missionary work, 185–188, 198–201 Ivey, Mattie, 234 J Jacobson, Anna P., 250–251 Japan foreign power in Korea, 88–89 Korean independence movement, 89 missionaries to Korea, 12 protectorate of Korea, 7, 22, 27 Russo-Japanese War, 22, 85–86 Sino-Japanese War, 17, 85–86, 87 as stop on the way to Korea, 60–68 treaties with Korea, 13 Jicky, 112 John Underwood Shelter, 118 Johnson, Edith Parker, 239–240, 291 Johnson, W. O., 239, 257 Jones, George H. culture of Korea, 92 educational work, 286 evangelistic work, 217–218 hymnal translation, 271

424

Index

influence of Korean women, 102, 103 seclusion of Korean women, 94, 154 Jones, Margaret, 217–218, 273, 286 Journey to Korea farewell meetings, 55–60 first impressions, 68–78 Japan and Korea, 60–68 Joy Hardie Bible Institute, 290 Joyce Chapter, 279 Junkin, Mary L., 244, 292 Junkin, William, 244, 292 Junkin Memorial Hospital, 257 K Kearns, Daisy Rohrer, 229, 230 Kendrick, Rudy, 49, 234 Kim, Esther, 184, 185, 277 Kim, Helen, 99 Kim, Junghye, 288 Kim Chang Sik, 194 Kim Que Bansi, 230 Knowles, Mary, 104, 232, 289 Kojong of Korea, King, 156 Koons, Mr. and Mrs. E. W., 217 Korean Archipelago Circle of islands, 70 Korean pony, 71–72 Korean Religious Tract Society, 26 Korean Revival. See Great Revival of 1907 Kunsan educational work, 292 evangelism, 244–245 Mary Baldwin School, 292 medical missions, 264 Kwangju, evangelism, 246

425

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

L Ladies’ Aid Society, 279 “Land of the Morning Calm”, 28 Language as barrier to education mission, 173, 272–273 Fifty Helps for the Study of the Korean Language, 272, 273 Laundry duties, 96, 97–98 Leck, Frances Oakley, 229 Lee, Blanche Webb, 225 Lee, Graham building project difficulties, 131–132 evangelism in Pyengyang, 225 food problems, 141 unhealthy working conditions, 87 women missionaries in building work, 133 Lee, Mrs., 298 Leprosy, 111 Lewis, Ella A., 253, 255 Liefeld, Walter, 53 The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M.D., 257–258 Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital, 252, 254 Literary work during 1897-1907, 25–26 Bible translations, 12, 26, 271 Fifty Helps for the Study of the Korean Language, 272, 273 hymnal, 271–272 literature for missionaries, 43 school textbooks, 273–274 Sunday school materials, 273 Living conditions, 107–113 communication, 112 currency, 112 health conditions, 110. See also Health conditions housing, 108–109 nature and quality of food, 109 poor economy, 107–108

426

Index

public services, 111–112 transportation, 112–113 Lucy Cunniggim School, 289, 290 Lulu Wells Institute, 298–299 Lyon, Mary, 34 M Mackay, Mrs., 137 Map of Korea, 190 Marquis Chapel, 225, 226 Marriage arranged marriages, 94, 96 bridal feast, 95 divorce for women without sons, 100 early marriage as hindrance to education, 172–173 groom and bride photo, 93 indifference to spouse, 96–97 wife’s headcovering, 95 Mary Baldwin School, 292 Mary Helm School, 288 McCallie School for Girls, 293 McCune, Helen McAfee, 297 McGill, W. B., 232 McGlenzie, Captain, 64 McIntyre, John, 12 McKenzie, William, 149 Medical missions. See also Diseases; Health conditions in Chemulpo, 122 cholera epidemic, 19 evangelism through, 176–178 history of, 153–165 background, 153–155 distrust of foreign medicine, 161–162 heavy work load, 162 hired help, 162–163 hospital buildings, 160–161

427

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

hospital work, 158–160 house calls, 163–164 medical missions preceding Protestant missions, 164 as Queen’s physician, 155–158 skin graft incident, 164–165 history of (1890-1907), 247–266 the northwest - Pyengyang, 257–263 in Seoul, 249–256 the southeast - Fusan, 256–257 the southwest, 263–266 hospitals. See Hospitals humanitarian Gospel, 25 importance of women missionaries, 5 mission hospital growth, 25 missionary hardships, 19–20 during the pioneering years, 14–16 in Seoul, 122 Severance Hospital, 25, 249–250 Severance Union Medical College, 25 The Shelter, 159, 249 training for, 50–51 training of women, 34–35, 270 women missionary influence, 308 Methodist missions agreements of cooperation, 20 Chong Dong Church, 17 education of girls, 165–168 educational missions, 24 evangelism to women, 178–182 first missionaries to Korea, 13 Methodist Pai Chai School for boys, 16–17, 172, 276 mission compounds, 117, 119 Northern. See Northern Methodist missions in Seoul, 251–256 Seoul dispensaries and hospitals, 122 Southern. See Southern Methodist missions

428

Index

Meyer, Lucy Rider, 44 Mildred Ross Boys’ Day School, 289 Miller, Lula, 218, 286–287 Miller, Mrs. C., 181 Miller, Susan A. Doty, 170 children’s evangelism, 207 evangelistic impact of school, 277 marriage of, 281 principal of Presbyterian Girls’ School, 279–282 school curriculum, 268 Min, Queen assassination of, 17, 103 medical treatment, 154–155 personal characteristics, 157 power of, 102–103 rise to power, 13 saving the queen’s nephew, 13, 14–15, 80, 154 seclusion of Korean women, 93–94 women as personal physician, 155–158 Mission compounds difficulties of new stations, 123–125 purpose of, 115, 116–117, 119–120 in Seoul, 115, 116–118, 120–121 The Mission Bible School, 205 Missionary homes, 191–195 Missionary wives, 32, 45–46, 56–57 Moffett, Alice Fish, 262–263, 300 Moffett, Samuel A. building project difficulties, 132 criticism from the home front, 149–150 culture shock of Korea, 77 dispersal of missionaries, 121–122 evangelism in Pyengyang, 225 housing issues, 138 Moffett, Samuel Hugh, 263 Mokpo educational work, 292–293

429

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

evangelism, 245–246 Moody, Dwight L., 31–32 Moody Bible Institute, 31–32 Moose, Mrs. J. R., 234 Morris, Charles, 224 Morris, Louise O., 224 Mothers of the Republic, 34 Motivation of missionaries, 51–53 Mount Hermon 100, 41 Mount Holyoke Seminary, 34 Musical instruments, 144–145 Myer, Mary D., 289 N Naming of children, 98, 99–100 National Bible Society of Scotland, 12 Nature-worship, 10 Nevius, Dr. and Mrs. John, 20–21, 205 Nevius method of missions, 20–21, 121 Nisbet, Anabel educational work, 292, 293–294 farewell meeting, 57 food problems, 140 house renovation, 128 Ingold’s contributions to Korea, 264, 265 Korean widow’s story, 101–102 seclusion of Korean women, 94 servants, 147 trip to Korea, 62 Nisbet, John educational work, 292 farewell meeting, 57 trip to Korea, 62 Noble, Mattie Wilcox, 136, 195, 223–224 Noble, William A., 45, 136, 223–224 The northeast, evangelism, 232–234

430

Index

Northern Methodist missions. See also Methodist missions educational work, 286–290 evangelism in central Korea, 217–218 evangelism in Seoul, 211–215 evangelism in the northwest, 223–224 start of missions to Korea, 13–14 study materials, 4 Northern Presbyterian missions. See also Presbyterian missions evangelism in central Korea, 216–217 evangelism in Taiku, 238–241 evangelism in the northwest, 224–231 Government Hospital reorganization, 18 start of missions to Korea, 13–14 study materials, 4 The northwest educational work, 295–303 evangelism, 221–231 Pyengyang (Pyongyang of North Korea) evangelism, 221–229, 257–263 Syenchun evangelism, 229–231 Nourse, Sadie, 216–217, 239, 291 Nurses’ Training School, 254, 261 O Occupation of the field (1891-1897), 17–22 Ohlinger, Bertha Schweinfurth attitudes of Koreans, 83 background, 38, 51 economic conditions in Korea, 90 first impression of Korea, 68 food problems, 139 food shortage, 108 housing, 108 missionary homes, 194 nature and quality of food, 109 rumor of using children’s body parts in hospitals, 81–82 trip from Chemulpo to Seoul, 73

431

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Origins of women missionaries, 36–39 Our Mission Field, 43 Owen, Clement C., 251 Owen, Dr. and Mrs. C. C., 246 P Pai Chai Haktang School, 16–17, 172, 276 Paik, George L., 14, 25, 274, 297 Paine, Josephine, 47, 277 Pak, Esther Kim, 248, 258–259, 260–261 Pak Young Ho, 65 Palace in Seoul, 74, 86 Pannier, 112 Perry, Jean, 235, 236 Persecution of Roman Catholics, 51 Physiology textbook, 274 Pieters, A. A., 251 Pioneering years (1884-1891), 14–17 Po Goo Nijo Goan, 160 Politics allowing missionaries to enter Korea, 12–13 entrance into Korea and, 63–64 favorable treatment of missionaries, 82 impact on missionaries, 79–89 Baby Riots, 81–82, 161 the beginning years, 80–83 changing attitudes continuing turmoil, 83–88 the final decade, 88–89 impact on the Great Revival, 28 Japanese protectorate of Korea, 7, 22 Tonghak Rebellion, 84 treaties, 13, 80–81, 82 Polygamy, 21–22 Pong Soon’s mother, 162–163 Pony, Korean, 71–72 Practical religion, 10

432

Index

Preparation for missions, 48–51 Presbyterian missions agreements of cooperation, 20 Council of Presbyterian Missions in Korea, 20 education of girls, 168–170 educational missions, 24 educational work, 290–295 evangelism in the northeast, 232–234 evangelism in the northwest, 262 evangelism in the southeast, 234–241 evangelism to women, 182–183 first missionaries to Korea, 13 Girls’ School, 122, 131, 292 mission compounds, 117 Nevius method, 20–21 Northern. See Northern Presbyterian missions Presbyterian Girls’ School, 268, 269, 279–282 Presbyterian Mission’s College, 285 Saimoonan Church, 17 in Seoul, 249–251 Southern. See Southern Presbyterian missions Preston, Annie housing issues, 129, 138 missionary homes, 192 political climate in Korea, 87 servants, 145–146 Preston, John housing issues, 129, 138 political climate in Korea, 87 Protestant missions, introduction to Korea, 11–12 Public services, 111–112 Pusan. See Fusan (Pusan) Pyeng Yang Seminary for Women, 298 Pyengyang (Pyongyang of North Korea) educational work, 295–303 evangelistic expansion, 23, 221–229

433

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Hall as “The Mother of Pyeng Yang”, 1 Korean helpers, 23–24 medical missions, 257–263 mission station openings, 18 Soongsil University, 24 Union Christian College, 24, 297 Union Theological Seminary, 24 West Gate School, 296 Pyun, Helen, 217 R Railroads, 73, 112–113 Rankin, Nellie, 292 Reid, Dr. and Mrs., 213 Reid, W. T., 219 Religions in Korea ancestral worship, 21 ancient religions, 10 animism, 10 Buddhism, 10 Confucianism, 10, 90, 100 fetishism, 10 influence of Korean women, 103 introduction of Roman Catholicism, 10–11 nature-worship, 10 polygamy, 21–22 Shamanism, 10 Religious background of women missionaries, 38–41 Residences. See Housing Revival in Korea. See Great Revival of 1907 Reynolds, Bolling, 265 Reynolds, Patsy Bolling, 243 Rijutei, 12, 103 Rise of the Church and the Revival, 22–26 Robert, Dana Christian homes, 191

434

Index

educational work, 266–267 Student Volunteer Movement, 41 study as women’s movement, 305, 309–310 Woman’s Work for Woman missiology, 33 women perceived as marginal workers, 2 Roman Catholicism defiance of laws, 80–81 introduction to Korea, 10–11 persecution in Korea, 51 persecution of, 11 Ross, J. B., 104 Ross, John, 12 Ross, Mrs., 232 Ross, Susan Shank, 229, 301 Rothweiler, Louisa education of girls, 168, 173, 277 farewell meeting, 56 hymnal translation, 271 Royal Lady, 156 Rumor of using children’s body parts in hospitals, 81–82, 161 Rural background of women missionaries, 37 Russo-Japanese War, 22, 85–86 Ryu, Dae Young, 37–38 S Sabbath School, 225 Saimoonan Church, 17 Samuel, Jane, 229, 230, 231 Schools. See also Educational missions Advanced School for Girls and Women, 298 Alice Cobb Bible School, 204–205 Anglo-Korean School, 287 boarding school, 175–176 Carolina Institute curriculum, 283 overview, 282–286

435

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

property purchase, 118 scholarships, 119 women in leadership, 214 Ewha Hakdang boarding school, 175–176 building project, 278–279 congregational meetings, 211–212 curriculum, 170, 175, 177, 269, 277–278 government approval and official name, 167–168, 174 Korean teachings, 174–175 language barrier, 173 medical training class, 254 overview, 277–279 photograph of, 169 secondary school opening, 173 teacher shortage, 173 Girls’ Academy, 291, 301 Girls’ School and Home, 166 Girls’ School in Seoul, 122, 131, 292 Holton Institute, 288 Institute for the Blind and Deaf, 300–301 Institutes, 203–204, 228–229 Joy Hardie Bible Institute, 290 Lucy Cunniggim School, 289, 290 Lulu Wells Institute, 298–299 Mary Baldwin School, 292 Mary Helm School, 288 McCallie School for Girls, 293 Mildred Ross Boys’ Day School, 289 The Mission Bible School, 205 Moody Bible Institute, 31–32 Mount Holyoke Seminary, 34 Nurses’ Training School, 254, 261 Pai Chai School for boys, 16–17, 172, 276 Presbyterian Girls’ School, 268, 269, 279–282 Presbyterian Mission’s College, 285

436

Index

Pyeng Yang Seminary for Women, 298 Sabbath School, 225 school for boys, 15, 172 school for girls, 15–16 school openings, 15 Severance Union Medical College, 25 Songdo Higher Common School, 287 Soong-Eui Girls’ School, 298 Soong-Eui University, 298 Soongsil University, 24 The Special Bible School for Women, 205 Sunday school. See Sunday school Union Academy for Women, 298 Union Christian College, 24, 297 Union Theological Seminary, 24 West Gate School, 296 Woman’s School, 299 Women’s Academy, 281–282 Scott, Martha, 46, 52 Scranton, Loulie Arms, 38, 48 Scranton, Mary attitudes of Koreans, 84 background, 38 education of girls, 165–168, 171, 172, 173, 277 education of girls and evangelism, 178 evangelism in Seoul, 212 evangelism to women, 179, 180–181, 182, 185, 186 first school for girls, 15 food problems, 85–86, 139–140 furniture and household goods, 144 housing issues, 126–127 journey to Korea, 64–65 language barrier, 272–273 medical missions, 160 mission property acquisition, 117–119, 168 missionary homes, 194–195

437

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

as older missionary, 46–47 political climate in Korea, 83 training of Korean women workers, 183–184 trip from Chemulpo to Seoul, 73 Scranton, William, 64, 122, 159–160 Seclusion of women evangelism difficulties caused by, 178–180, 181–182, 200–201 as hindrance to education, 171 law of, 93–94 medical missions to women, 154–155 trial of inactivity for missionaries, 105 women missionary influence, 307 Second Great Awakening, 31 Sedan chairs for medical house calls, 163 photograph of, 93 for travel in Korea, 71–72, 112 Self-governing Korean churches, 24 Seoul Chung Dong Methodist Church, 279 description of, 73–75 educational work, 275–286 Carolina Institute, 282–286. See also Carolina Institute Ewha Hakdang, 277–279. See also Ewha Hakdang Presbyterian Girls’ School, 268, 269, 279–282 evangelistic work, 209–215 Japanese control over the palace, 85 journey from Chemulpo, 71–73 mission compounds, 115, 116–118, 120–121 Presbyterian Mission’s College, 285 railroad between Chemulpo and Seoul, 73, 112–113 rumor of using children’s body parts in hospitals, 81–82 Severance Hospital, 25 women’s medical work, 249–256 Servants, 145–147 Severance, Louis H., 25

438

Index

Severance Hospital, 25, 249–250 Severance Union Medical College, 25 Shamanism, 10 Sharrocks, A. M., 229 Sharrocks, Mary Ames, 229, 230–231 The Shelter, 159, 249 Shepping, E. J., 39–40 Sherwood, Rosetta. See Hall, Rosetta Sherwood Shields, Esther L., 229, 230, 251, 254 Shops in Korea, 107 Silence of married women, 96–97 Single women as missionaries call to missions, 42 housing arrangements, 136–138 Korean customs and, 105–106 mission stations, 122–123 outnumbering male missionaries, 32–33 Sino-Japanese War, 17, 85–86, 87 Skin graft incident, 164–165 Smallpox, 110–111 Snook, Velma, 298 Social environment cause of delayed entrance into Korea, 63–64 missionary women and, 104–107 origins of women missionaries, 37–38 women in Korea, 91–104 arranged marriages, 94, 96 custom of silence, 96–97 early marriage, 172–173 education for girls, 98–99 inferiority of women, 92–93 influence on society, 102–103 law of seclusion. See Seclusion of women naming of girls, 98, 99–100 treatment of, 100–102 working women, 97

439

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Songdo educational work, 286–290 medical missions, 219–220 Songdo Higher Common School, 287 Sonsie, 301 Soong-Eui Girls’ School, 298 Soong-Eui University, 298 Soongsil University, 24 Sorai church, 12 The southeast educational work, 290–295 Fusan (Pusan) evangelism, 234–238, 256–257 Taiku evangelism, 238–241 Southern Methodist missions. See also Methodist missions evangelism in central Korea, 218–220 evangelism in Seoul, 209–211, 213 interior missionary work, 18 mission property acquisition, 124 start of missions to Korea, 13–14 study materials, 4 Southern Presbyterian missions. See also Presbyterian missions evangelism in Seoul, 213 evangelism in the southwest, 241–244 interior missionary work, 18 start of missions to Korea, 13–14 study materials, 4 The southwest Chunju evangelism, 241–244 educational work, 291–295 Kunsan evangelism, 244–245 Kwangju evangelism, 246 medical missions, 263–266 Mokpo evangelism, 245–246 The Special Bible School for Women, 205 Straeffer, F. Rica, 292–293 Strong, Ellen, 280, 281

440

Index

Strong, Josiah, 31 Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) Bible Training School in Chicago, 48–49 founding of, 31 recruitment, 37–38, 41 Suh Sang Yun, 12 Sunday school for children, 207 materials, 273 for training, 181–182, 202 SVM. See Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) Swallen, Sallie, 232, 289, 298 Swallen, W. L., 142, 232 Swinehart, Lois, 233, 294 Syenchun, 229–231, 301–302 T Tai Won Kun, Regent fall of, 13 persecution of Catholics, 11 Queen Min influence, 102–103 Taiku, evangelism, 238–241, 257 Tate, Lewis Boyd, 84, 264, 266 Tate, Martha (Mattie) Ingold blind woman’s story, 100–101 educational work, 292 evangelism in Chunju, 241–244 farewell meeting, 55, 56, 57–58 first impression of Korea, 76, 77 housing issues, 127, 136–137 journey to Korea, 61–62 literary work, 273 marriage of, 264, 266 medical missions, 162, 263–266 medical training, 49 missionary homes, 192–193

441

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

political climate in Korea, 84 women missionaries in building work, 135 Taxes, 108 Teachers shortage of, 173 training of Korean women, 270 Textbooks for schools, 273–274 Thomas, R. J., 221 Thomson, Robert J., 11–12 Tithers and Bible women, 199 Tonghak Rebellion, 84 Training of Korean women Alice Cobb Bible School, 204–205 Bible classes. See Bible classes for evangelistic work, 183–185, 202–206 Institutes, 203–204, 228–229 medical training class, 254, 270 Nurses’ Training School, 254, 261 as religious workers, 270 Sunday school, 181–182, 202 as teachers, 270 for missionary work education. See Educational preparation for missions medical missions, 34–35, 50–51 preparation, 48–51 Translations Bible, 12, 26, 271 Gospel of Mark, 12 Korean Religious Tract Society, 26 Transportation from Japan to Korea, 60–68 living conditions, 112–113 railroad between Chemulpo and Seoul, 73, 112–113 sedan chairs for medical house calls, 163

442

Index

photograph of, 93 for travel in Korea, 71–72, 112 Treaties extra-territorial rights, 82 with foreign powers, 13 treaty areas, 80–81 Trial of inactivity, 105 Tucker, Ruth A., 53 U Underwood, Horace attitudes of Koreans, 83–84 edict to kill Westerners, 84–85 evangelism in central Korea, 217 housing issues, 126, 129–130 itinerant missionary work, 18, 185–187 Korean culture, 90–91 law forbidding teaching of Christianity, 81 marriage of, 185–186, seek earlier ref orphanage for boys, 15 political climate in Korea, 82 request for women doctors, 155 respect for Korean customs, 104 waiting for other missionaries, 64 Underwood, Lillias Horton arrival in Seoul, 73 attitudes of Koreans, 84 building project difficulties, 131 call to missions, 43, 45 children’s evangelism, 206 criticism from the home front, 149, 150 edict to kill Westerners, 84–85 education of girls, 169–170 evangelism in central Korea, 216–217 evangelism in Seoul, 210–211, 249 evangelism in the northwest, 221–222

443

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

evangelism to women, 183 first impression of Korea, 78 food problems, 141 hardship of women, 98 housing issues, 126, 127, 128–130 itinerant missionary work, 185–187, 198, 201, 256 Korean distrust of foreign medicine, 161 language barrier, 173 marriage of, 185–186, seek earlier ref medical missions, 159, 255–256 medical training, 50 mission compounds, 119–120 motivation for missions, 52–53 political climate in Korea, 82, 83 poor economy, 108 Presbyterian Mission’s College, 285 as Queen’s physician, 155, 156–158 respect for Korean customs, 104 Union Academy for Women, 298 Union Christian College, 24, 297 Union Theological Seminary, 24 V Vinton, C. C., 87 Vinton, Letitia Coulter, 87 Visitation, 178–183, 196–197 W Wagner, Ellasue C., 288 Wambold, Katherine itinerary trips, 201, 216 at Presbyterian Girls’ School, 280, 281 Wars Baby Riots, 81–82, 161 Boxer Rebellion, 84–85 impact on missionaries, 79–80

444

Index

Russo-Japanese War, 22, 85–86 Sino-Japanese War, 17, 85–86, 87 Tonghak Rebellion, 84 Water supply, polluted, 110 Welbon, A. G., 239 Welbon, Mrs. Arthur G., 291 Wells, Lulu Ribble, 226, 262, 298–299 West Gate School, 296 WFMS. See Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) Whang, Mary, 185, 255 Whang Hai, 216–217 White, M. C., 233 Whiting, Georgiana E., 198, 216–217, 250, 251 Whiting, H. C., 217 Widows Korean widows, 101–102 as missionaries, 46–47 Wilcox, Mattie L., 45 Wilson, Mrs. Bishop, 70–71, 219–220 Wives of missionaries, 32, 45–46, 56–57 Woman’s Dispensary of Extended Grace, 260 Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS), 36–37 evangelism in Seoul, 213–215 Girls’ School and Home, 166 The Heathen Women’s Friend, 29, 43, 44, 159, 277 medical missions, 251–254 Methodist female missionary doctor, 160 mission property acquisition, 117–119, 168 older women as missionaries, 47 Scranton as first representative to Korea, 64 Woman’s Hospital, 122, 134, 251 work in Japan, 65 Woman’s Hospital, 122, 134, 251 Woman’s Missionary Advocate, 43, 214 Woman’s School, 299 Woman’s Work for Woman, 33, 43, 52

445

AWAKENING THE HERMIT KINGDOM

Women as pioneer missionaries education of women, 34 expectation and motivation, 51–53 foreign missions, 31–35 importance of, 1–2 influence on missions, 305–311 as missionary wives, 32, 45–46 preparation for missions, 29–30 single women call to missions, 42 housing arrangements, 136–138 Korean customs and, 105–106 mission stations, 122–123 outnumbering male missionaries, 32–33 study of, 2–7 training for the Hermit Kingdom, 35–51 missionary call, 42–48 origin and family, 36–39 preparation, 48–51 religious experiences, 39–41 widows and older women, 46–47 Women’s Academy, 281–282 Wonsan educational work, 286–290 evangelism efforts, 232–234 Great Revival of 1907, 26–27, 233–234 mission station openings, 18 Working experience of women, 49–51 Working women, 97 Y Yellow Sea, 68, 70 Yi, Peter, 11 Yi Dynasty Buddhism, 10 Confucianism, 90 fall of, 79

446

Index

mission compound land purchases, 124 Young Men’s Christian Association, 31 The Youth’s Primer, 92–93 Yui, Dora, 214 Yun, Mrs. T. H., 232 Yun, T. H., 287 Y.W.C.A., 279

447