Ernest F. Hall. Autograph Letter Signed. Kalamazoo, Michigan, July 1, 1903. 4pp. To his cousin, at the New York Chinese Sunday School
Scarce. We can locate no archive of Hall papers held by any American institution.
“…the Chinese Sabbath School is very dear to me, and I am delighted that it is to share with me the blessed labor of preaching Christ in Korea. I shall often think and pray for you all as you labor and study together in trying to lead the Chinese boys in New York to Christ…I cannot tell you the conflicting feelings I have as I look forward to my future work. I am glad and anxious to go where there is so much need and where the people welcome the missionary. But my friends are dear to me and now that I am so alone I crave their companionship. If I did not believe in the power of the resurrection to give our souls complete satisfaction, I should not be able to go. Yet I do not count it a sacrifice to go, for I want to go. But no one can know the desolate side of the life abroad...Yet I go gladly, and shall be happy in my work. I am to sail from San Francisco on Aug. 8th… ….My foreign address will be Fusan, Korea. I shall arrive there early in Sept. then go at once to attend the annual Mission meeting at Pyong Yang…and return to Fusan late in Sept. …”
(See also in this sale, Asian-American ephemera of the New York Chinese Sunday School where Hall had worked with his cousin before going to Korea)
Rev. Hall was to have an unexpected impact on the Korea's future. He remained there as a Protestant missionary for five years – long enough to witness the brutal Japanese occupation of the country, which lasted until the end of World War II, when a newly-independent Korea was divided by US-Soviet Cold War tensions into two separate states. The Russians established a Communist regime in the north, while in the south, a non-Communist government was headed by Syngman Rhee, a nationalist exile who had lived much of his life in the United States. Forty years before, it was Rev. Hall, returning to America from his Korean post, who had convinced Rhee to study for a Ph.D. in Political Science at Princeton rather than a doctorate in Theology - a fateful decision that helped determine Rhee’s political future as the first President of South Korea.