Horace Allen

Life

Allen was born in 1858 in Delaware, Ohio. He studied at Ohio Wesleyan University and at Miami Medical College. In 1883 the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. sent him to China as a medical missionary. Unable to establish himself in China, he asked the board in June 1884 to send him to Joseon Korea. His request was approved, and he arrived in Korea in September of that year. Because Joseon did not freely permit Christian missionary work at the time, he did not disclose his status as a missionary and instead served as physician to the American legation.

In 1887 he traveled to the United States as counselor (foreign adviser) to the delegation of Pak Chong-yang, Korea's minister plenipotentiary to the United States. In 1890 he became secretary of the U.S. legation in Korea, thereby entering the American diplomatic service. He later served as consul general and as minister, leaving the post of minister in 1905. He died in Toledo, Ohio, in 1932.

Ministry and Achievements

• Treatment of Min Yeong-ik: During the Gapsin Coup of December 1884, Allen used Western medicine to treat Min Yeong-ik, who had been gravely wounded. This earned him the trust of King Gojong and the royal court.
• Founding of Gwanghyewon and Jejungwon: Acting on Allen's proposal, King Gojong opened Gwanghyewon, Korea's first Western-style national hospital, in April 1885 in the former residence of Hong Yeong-sik in Jae-dong, Seoul. The hospital was soon renamed Jejungwon. The Joseon government provided the building and funding, while the Northern Presbyterian mission supplied physicians and provided medical care. Jejungwon's lineage continues today in Severance Hospital.
• Medical education: In March 1886 he opened the Jejungwon Medical School with sixteen students selected by examination. It was the first institution in Korea to teach Western medicine.
• Diplomatic activity: After the assassination of Empress Myeongseong in 1895, he joined other Western diplomats in demanding an explanation from the Japanese minister, Miura Gorō. In 1903 he reportedly warned U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt that encouraging Japan's military ambitions could in fact harm American interests.
• Writings: He wrote some of the earliest works introducing Korean culture to the West.

Influence on the Korean Church

Allen is regarded as the first Protestant missionary to enter Korea through legal channels and to reside and work there. He won the trust of the royal court, and Jejungwon, which he founded, became a base for missionary work. At a time when open evangelism was difficult, he is credited with laying the groundwork for the missionaries who followed, such as Horace Underwood and Henry Appenzeller. He is also considered the beginning of medical missions in Korea.

The Korean church has generally dated its Protestant mission history from 1884, the year of Allen's arrival. Others, however, hold that 1885—when the ordained missionaries Underwood and Appenzeller arrived—should be regarded as the starting point.

Assessment

Allen is widely recognized as a pioneer who introduced modern medicine to Korea and began Western medical education there. Critics note, however, that his service as a medical missionary lasted little more than three years and that he spent most of his time in Korea as a diplomat. Woori History Net, operated by the National Institute of Korean History, also describes him as a diplomat who pursued anti-Qing and anti-Japanese policies in order to maximize American national interests in Joseon. Some assessments are negative, holding that his involvement in securing concessions for the United States paved the way for the foreign powers that seized Korea's economic rights. By contrast, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs of the Republic of Korea presents him as a figure whose diplomatic activity supported Korean sovereignty.