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Guide to the Moses Clark White Collection, 1845 - 1900
Special Collections and ArchivesOlin Library
Wesleyan University
252 Church Street
Middletown, CT 06457 USA
(860) 685-3864
(860) 685-2661
Email: sca@wesleyan.edu
URL: http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/schome/
Descriptive Summary |
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| Repository | Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University |
| Creator | White, Moses Clark, 1819-1900. |
| Title | Moses Clark White Collection, |
| Dates | 1845 - 1900 |
| Linear Feet | 0.4 |
| Archival Boxes | 2 |
| Abstract | Moses Clark White (1819-1900) was a graduate of the Wesleyan University class of 1845. White worked as a preacher, a doctor and a missionary, and lived in Fuh Chau, China, from 1847-1853, returning to live in New Haven, Conn. and practice medicine. |
| The Moses Clark White Collection contains four items: Common Place book; a Bible by N. T. Matthew in Fuhchan colloquial; a bound volume of Copy of Manuscripts by Moses C. White, M.D., Pioneer Missionary, Relating to the Founding of Methodist Missions in Foochow, China; and unbound photocopy of the Copy of Manuscripts. | |
| Call Number | 1000-116 |
| Location | For current information on the location of these materials, please consult Special Collections & Archives staff. |
| Language of Material | Material in English |
Biographical Note
Moses Clark White was born in Paris, Oneida County, New York on July 24, 1819. He was a graduate of the Wesleyan Class of 1845. By the time of graduation, White had already decided that he would devote his life to missionary work in China. He had been influenced by a sermon, "A Call to the Ministry" by the Rev. Stephen Olin, around 1835 and entered the Cazenovia Seminary in 1840. In February 1842, he entered Wesleyan and graduated in 1845. Under Olin's guidance, he spent two years after graduation in New Haven studying medicine and theology at Yale. He sometimes preached in the neighboring town of Milford.
He married Jane Isabel Atwater of Homer, Cortland County, New York on March 13, 1847. Born on August 26, 1822, she entered the Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazenovia in 1839 and graduated in July 1842 with high honors. At the seminary, she formed a close friendship with Mary Seely and it is here that she met Moses White who was preparing for college. From 1842 to February 1847, she was a teacher in the Sabbath School in Rochester, N.Y.
Jane also had a missionary calling and together they sailed on the Heber for Fuh Chau, China, on April 15, 1847. They arrived there after a five month voyage on September 7, 1847. Jane became sick shortly after arriving and died seven months later of consumption on May 25, 1848 at the age of 26.
At Fuh Chau, White served as both doctor and missionary, and conducted a school for the secular and religious instruction of the Chinese of that city. He studied and treated the toxic effects of opium, as well as translated the Gospel of Matthew. It was the first Christian document ever published in the colloquial dialect of that region.
Moses White was married a second time to Mary Seely in Foochow in 1851. Mary Seely was from Onondaga, New York and went to China as a missionary with Dr. Isaac W. Wiley and his wife. It was by Mary that Moses had children. (Isaac Wiley received an honorary degree from Wesleyan in 1864.)
Mary Seely White returned to New Haven in 1852 because of poor health. Due to his own bad health, Moses White also left China in 1853 for New Haven where he resumed medical studies at Yale and began a medical practice which he continued until the end end of his life. He received an MD degree from Yale in 1854. Mary White died in 1887. Moses White died on October 24, 1900.
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Collection Overview
The collection consists of two bound volumes, and an unbound photocopy of one of the volumes. The collection is housed in two half-letter size boxes.
Bound volume, Copy of Manuscripts by Moses C. White, M.D., Pioneer Missionary, Relating to the Founding of Methodist Missions in Foochow, China. Presented to the Wesleyan University Library by his Niece, Cornelia C. White, 1930. (There is also an unbound photocopy of this volume.) In addition to presenting a copy of this volume to Wesleyan, Cornelia White also gave copies to Yale University and the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
Cornelia White appears to have transcribed and copied both published and unpublished material in order to compile this volume. Although pages are not numbered in consecutive order, some of the material in the order that it appears is as follows:
1. Moses Clarke White, a biographical obituary sketch retyped from the original in the Yale Medical Journal, Dec. 1900, v.7, no.6.
2. Moses Clarke White, biographical obituary sketch retyped from original in the New York East Conference Minutes for 1901, in the General Minutes of the Spring Conferences for 1901, page 116.
3. Article by S.H. Gage which appeared in the Journal of Applied Microscopy and Laboratory Methods, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 1901.
4. Founding and Early History of Our Chinese Mission, 1847-1853 by Moses C. White , being an address delivered at Boston, September, 1887. Copied by C.C. White with permission of M.C.W.
5. Transcription of letters by Elijah Hedding, Rufus Anderson, J.H. Woolcott, Charles Pittman, etc.
6. Cornelia C. White writes: The following article I pasted, in 1896, in one of my Scrap-books, and from its appearance I judge it was taken from an issue of the Christian Advocate near that date (1848), probably one that my parents saved. C.C.W. (pages 1-5)
7. Early History of the China Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church By Rev. Moses C. White, M.D. Contains typescript of a letter by Frederick Thomas Keeney, Resident Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church, Foochow, China to Mrs. Mary E. King (grand niece of MCW), 1923 Dec 4.
8. Toward the end of the volume there is material that is described in the following words: " Copied August 21, 1898, from data given by Rev.M.C. White, and from papers published by him in 1897". Included here is a moving biographical sketch and tribute to Jane Isabel White, transcribed from American Missionary Memorial, including biographical and historical sketches. Ed. By H.W. Pierson. (N.Y.: Harper, 1853.)
The second item is described in an old inventory as a Common Place Book, dated May 24, 1845. Handwritten information on the inside cover of the volume: "The Property of Moses C. White, Middletown, Ct., May 24, 1845." There is a date stamped on an inside page of the volume as October 20, 1937 which is probably when the Wesleyan Library acquired the item. The volume is a combination of diary, notes on lectures that he has attended, Bible references, and scrapbook. Some pages are interleaved with loose correspondence, notes, and plant leaves. There is a page with Chinese characters. A letter or page of Chinese is inserted into the front of the volume.
The first entry in the volume is dated Wesleyan University, Saturday evening May 24, 1845, several days after the end White's last term at Wesleyan. Several entries are dated as Wesleyan, but approximately one-third of the way through the volume is an entry titled, "Fokien Examination Hall at Fukchan" followed by another titled, "Sketches relating to Christianity in Java" which begins "On my return from China in Jan 1853 the ship in which I sailed met with an accident in the Java Sea." It appears this volume was started at Wesleyan, taken to China, and back.
The third item in the collection is the Gospel of Matthew translated into the Fuhchan colloquial dialect. It was prepared from the classical Chinese version in 1851 for the Missionary Lyceum of Wesleyan University.
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Restrictions
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright Notice
Copyright for Official University records is held by Wesleyan University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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Related Material
Vertical Files contain some pictures and biographical information.
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Online Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Moses Clark White Collection, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA.
Acquisitions Information
Copy of Manuscripts by Moses C. White, M.D., Pioneer Missionary, Relating to the Founding of Methodist Missions in Foochow, China was given to Wesleyan University Library by Cornelia C. White in 1930.
No information on acquisition of the Common Place Book although price markings on inside cover appear to indicate purchase. There is a date stamped on an inside page as October 20, 1937, which is probably when the Wesleyan Library acquired the item.
Processing Information
Processed by Patricia Bodak Stark, 2005
Encoded by Valerie Gillispie, June 2006
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