Louis Severance

Life

Severance was born on August 1, 1838, in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Solomon Severance, died a month before his birth. After completing his education in the Cleveland public schools, he began working at the Commercial National Bank. In 1863 he served in the Civil War, after which he returned to the bank. In 1864 he went to Titusville, Pennsylvania, to enter the oil business, and he later moved his base of operations to New York. He was an early member of Standard Oil, led by John D. Rockefeller, and served as its treasurer from 1876 to 1894. He also invested in salt, sulfur, and steel, and in the 1890s he took part in founding the Union Sulphur Company. He retired from active business in 1894 and died in Cleveland on June 25, 1913.

Ministry and Achievements

As a Presbyterian layman, Severance consistently supported churches and church-affiliated educational institutions. Korean sources commonly refer to him as "Elder Severance."

His connection with Korea began at the Ecumenical Missionary Conference held in New York in April 1900. At this conference the medical missionary Oliver R. Avison, then director of Jejungwon, presented a paper titled "Comity in Medical Missions," with "comity" referring to mutual deference and cooperation. In it he argued that the various mission boards should pool their efforts to establish a union hospital. Moved by the presentation, Severance pledged $10,000 toward building a hospital in Seoul. He later contributed additional funds, including money to purchase land, though sources differ on the total amount he gave.

The hospital's cornerstone was laid in 1902, and in 1904 it opened at Boksungagol (Peach Valley), outside Namdaemun (across from present-day Seoul Station). Named for its donor, it was called Severance Memorial Hospital. In 1907 Severance is said to have visited Korea during a world tour with his personal physician, Alfred Ludlow. Prompted by this journey, Ludlow became a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern Presbyterian), arrived in Korea in 1912, and worked at Severance Hospital until his retirement in 1938.

Influence on the Korean Church

Severance Hospital is the successor to Jejungwon, where Horace Allen began treating patients in 1885. After Jejungwon was transferred to the mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1894, it became a center of medical missions, and Severance's gift enabled it to acquire modern facilities. The hospital's medical school graduated its first class of seven students in 1908. In 1913, as several denominations joined in the work of medical education, the school was renamed Severance Union Medical College. In 1957 it merged with Yonhi University to form present-day Yonsei University. For these reasons, his gift is frequently cited both as an example of mission through medicine and as the starting point of cooperative work that transcended denominational lines.

Assessment

In the histories of the Korean church and of Korean medicine, Severance is regarded as the benefactor who laid the foundation for modern medical missions. Opinion on the mission field was not unanimous at the time of the gift, however. Missionaries in the Pyongyang area reportedly raised objections, arguing that spending so large a sum on a single hospital might lead Koreans to mistake Christianity for a charitable organization and thus hinder evangelism. They are said to have proposed that only half the money be spent on the hospital and the remainder be used in Pyongyang. This episode illustrates the differences of opinion among early missionaries over whether to emphasize institutional work, such as hospitals and schools, or direct evangelism.