Talk:Hunter Corbett

Latest comment: 14 years ago by Sachinvenga in topic Inconsistent spouse information.

--



. Shlok talk . 12:01, 25 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

Inconsistent spouse information.

edit

There seems to be some inconsistency in the information about his spouse or spouses: In the "Early Life" section, it says that he sailed for China "with his wife, Lizzie (Culbertson)". In the infobox, it lists his spouses as Helen Sutherland and Jane Goheen. In the China Mission section, it says that his daughter Jane Lea Corbett married John Lawrence Goheen. In the Legacy section, it says that widow, Helen Sutherland Corbett died in 1936. Sterrettc (talk) 23:15, 12 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Biography of Hunter Corbett, 1835-1920

Hunter Corbett was a Presbyterian pioneer missionary, who, along with John L. Nevius and Calvin W. Mateer, laid the foundation of the Presbyterian mission in Shantung province, China. HC was born at Leatherwood, Pennsylvania on Dec 8, 1835. He graduated from Jefferson College in 1860 and entered Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where he studied for two years. He completed his theological studies after a final year at Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1863. In 1886 Washington and Jefferson College awarded him the D.D. degree.

In 1863 the Presbyterian Board of Missions (USA) appointed him a missionary, and, after marriage and ordination, he sailed for China in early July that year, arriving in Chefoo in winter. Here he was engaged in chapel street work and in educational work, establishing schools in the city and country. He founded the Yi Wen School (Boys Academy/Hunter Corbett Academy) which prepared hundreds of teachers and preachers for the work in Shantung. In 1866 he organized the Temple Hill Church in Chefoo. Before he sailed for China, Corbett and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Culbertson married on June 4, 1863. Lizzie was born in 1835 and died in March 1873 in Chefoo. In 1875 he returned to the US on his first furlough and on September 18 that year married Mary Campbell Nixon, who was born on March 7, 1840. They returned to China in 1876. His second furlough took place from 1885-1887. His wife died the following year on October 7, 1888 in Chefoo.

Corbett's third wife, Harriet (Hattie) Robina Sutherland, was a Canadian of Scottish descent, born on April 20, 1859, and a missionary nurse in China. They married on Sep 3, 1889. Corbett’s third furlough lasted from 1896 -1897 and the fourth and last one from 1906 -1907. When at home on furlough he was a great speaker and powerful advocate of the missionary enterprise. In 1906 he was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He died in Chefoo on Jan 7, 1920. Harriet Sutherland Corbett died on Jan 28, 1936 at Shanghai and is interred in Chefoo. There were twelve children born to H.C, four by each wife. Many of the children became foreign missionaries. Among them: Charles Hodge Corbett (1881-1963), B.D. UTS 1907, who taught in China from 1908 at the Peking University, Physics Department, until he resigned from the Mission and University in 1925; MRL6: Hunter Corbett & Harold F. Smith Papers 3 Paul A. Byrnes, 1977; Ruth Tonkiss Cameron 2/10/2006 Harriet Grace Corbett (1879-1952), who with her husband, Ralph Crane Wells (1877-1955), served as missionaries in Weihsien; and May Nixon Corbett (1878-1964), who served under the American Board from 1906-1913, and taught music at the Peking Woman's College. On Jun 27, 1914 she married Harold F. Smith., For more ref see this [1] ---- . Shlok talk . 11:49, 13 October 2010 (UTC)Reply