I stumbled upon a source from Google, while searching through Google books relating to Whitpain Township, that caught my attention. I found that Boehm's Church was one the beneficiaries of one of the students of the Tōhoku Gakuin University in Japan. In other words, Boehm's Church endorsed a student with full potential to study outside Japan to become a minister.
History of the Tōhoku Gakuin University
The Tōhoku Gakuin University was considered the only Christian Boy's School in Japan during the late 19th century. In English, "Tōhoku" means "Northeast region" and "Gakuin" means "school."
It all started in the fall of 1885 with Reverend William Edwin Hoy, a missionary from the Reformed Church of the United States. At that time, he was visiting Japan and never thought about starting a seminary or a college in the country. Meanwhile in Sendai, Japan, Reverend Masayoshi Oshikawa asked God for a Christian school for boys and girls to attend.
When Hoy arrived in Japan in December 1885, he met with Oshikawa, and he invited Hoy to Sendai where they discussed about establishing a school.
They started small by opening a Bible training school in an old dwelling house, and hired a few workers who "felt themselves called to the Christian ministry." As their school became a growing success, Hoy and Oshikawa received support from the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church. As a result, the school was named the Sendai Theological Seminary, and Oshikawa was named its first president. The school was renamed to the Tōhoku Gakuin University in 1891.
On November 18, 1892, a new building was dedicated.
What Do We Know About Kintaro Hagiwara?
One of the students at Tōhoku Gakuin University who was supported by the Missionary Society of Boehm's Church was Kintaro Hagiwara. He was born on October 6, 1870 in Isobe, Usui Gumma, Japan.
Kintaro arrived in San Francisco in 1903 by the SS America Maru from Yokohama, Japan.
He graduated from Tōhoku Gakuin University in 1892, and continued his studies at the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and at the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Bibliography
"California, index to San Francisco passenger lists, 1893-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CDWY-Z23Z: 19 May 2020), Kintaro Hagiwara, 1903.
Corwin, Edward Tanjore, Joseph Henry Dubbs, and John Taylor Hamilton. A History of the Reformed Church, Dutch; The Reformed Church, German; and The Moravian Church of the United States. (New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1895): 408-409.
Dulles, Joseph H. Princeton Theological Seminary Biographical Catalogue 1909. (Trenton: MacCrellish & Quigley, 1909): 586, 630.
General Catalogue of the McCormick Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church Chicago, Illinois. (Chicago: McCormick Theological Seminary, 1912): 176, 227.
Miller, Henry K. History of the Japan Mission of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1879-1904. (Philadelphia: Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1904): 45-56.
The Missionary Guardian: A Monthly Magazine of the Reformed Church in the United States, Volume 2. (Philadelphia: Reformed Church Publication House, 1892): 177-251.
The Missionary Guardian: A Monthly Magazine of the Reformed Church in the United States, Volume 5. (Philadelphia: Reformed Church Publication House, 1895): 174.
"The Story of Tohoku Gakuin!" Japan's Christian History (blog). March 5, 2011. https://japanschristianheritage.com/the-story-of-tohoku-gakuin/.
Comments