William Speer (minister)

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Rev. Dr.

William Speer
Born(1822-04-24)April 24, 1822
New Alexandria, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA[1]
DiedFebruary 16, 1904(1904-02-16) (aged 81)
Washington, Washington County, Pennsylvania, USA[1]

William Speer (1822-1904) was an American pioneer Presbyterian missionary and pastor, to the Chinese in Canton (1847-1850), where he helped establish the first Presbytery in Canton, and to the Chinese in California, where he founded the first Chinese Protestant church outside of China and became a strong advocate for the Chinese in California. Later (1865-1876) he served in Pennsylvania as the Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education.[2]

Missionary to the Chinese in Canton and in California[]

After three years of medical studies and being licensed to preach in 1846, he was sent by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions as a medical missionary to establish a mission in Canton (now Guangzhou) in southern China, where he served from 1847 until his departure in December 1849. He worked alongside Dr. Peter Parker at the Canton Hospital and helped organize the first Presbytery in Canton in February 1849.[3] Departing Canton due to ill health, he was later sent in 1852 by the Presbyterian Board of Missions to San Francisco, California to minister to the Chinese immigrants there.

Together with four Chinese immigrants (Atsun, Lai Sam, A-tsen, and Hi Cheong Kow), Speer founded the first Chinese Protestant church outside of China—the Chinese Mission Chapel in 1853.[4][5] The initial Chinese Chapel building, at the northeast corner of Stockton and Sacramento Streets in San Francisco's Chinatown, was dedicated June 1854.[6] He was fluent in Cantonese and an early advocate of fair treatment for Chinese immigrants in California.[7]

In January 1855, as founder and editor, Speer published the first English/Chinese newspaper, The Oriental (東涯新錄 traditional; 东涯新录 simplified), which was the second Chinese-language newspaper in North America.[8] In the inaugural issue, he made the prophetic observation that the Chinese, hard working with experience building large projects, would become builders of the proposed transcontinental railroad across the United States.[9] After the California Supreme Court ruled in December 1954 that the Chinese had no rights to testify against whites, Speer responded in the 18 January 1855 issue, "The principles of the Magna Carta, the prerogatives of juries, the rights of judges and advocates, Republicanism and Christianity, and common humanity are all outraged by this iniquitous decision of the Supreme Court of California".[10]: 22  The Oriental continued publication for about two years. According to biographer W. C. Covert, this bilingual newsletter "did much to soften the racial antipathy that made the life for the Chinese almost intolerable."[2]

In an 1856 pamphlet directed to the California legislature, Speer argued against the tide of anti-Chinese legislation, from the foreign miners' tax to the head tax. He suggested the benefits to Chinese immigration, that it was in the state's interests "to 'forbid a policy calculated to exclude or debase Chinese immigration'."[11] Instead Speer emphasized the prospect of converting Chinese immigrants to Christianity.

In 1857 Speer published a pamphlet to the California legislature: An answer to the common objections to Chinese testimony: and an earnest appeal to the Legislature of California, for their protection by our law.

With his health failing, Speer delivered a farewell address in July 1857 and departed California.[7]: 128 

Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education[]

From about 1865 to 1876, Speer was back in his home state Pennsylvania serving as the Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education.[12]

In a note introducing his article Democracy of the Chinese in the November 1868 Harper's Magazine, the editors wrote: "We believe that there are not five men, European or American, who are as thoroughly acquainted as Dr. Speer with the Chinese in their own country. We think there is no other man so fully conversant with the Chinese in California."[13]

In 1870, Speer published a book, The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the United States. An early look at China from an American perspective, the book places China's long history side by side with the history of trade with Europe and the United States, and Chinese immigration to the United States. Notably, it touts the "glory of America" and an embrace of Christianity as the path for the future of China. Unlike many Americans of his era, Speer saw Chinese immigration as a positive good for both nations. This social vision drew from his faith and aspirations that Chinese immigrants would bring Christianity back to China.[14]

He published another book, The Great Revival of 1800, in 1872.[15]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Rev. William Speer". findagrave.com. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b Covert, William C. (1935). "William Speer (Apr.24,1822 - Feb.15,1904)". archive.org. The Dictionary of American Biography: Vol.17, p.442-443.
  3. ^ Speer, William (October 1899). "First Stones in the Foundation of the Synod of China" (PDF). The Chinese Recorder & Missionary Journal. XXX, No. 10, pp.472-480.
  4. ^ Choy, Philip P. (2008), The Architecture of San Francisco Chinatown (Chinese Historical Society), p.32
  5. ^ Chua, Christopher Viboon (2014). "The Sacredness of Being There: Race, Religion, and Place-Making at San Francisco's Presbyterian Church in Chinatown". UC Berkeley eScholarship. Retrieved 10 October 2020. Established in 1853, the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (PCC) in San Francisco, CA is the oldest Asian church of any Christian denomination in North America and the first Chinese Protestant church outside China.
  6. ^ "Dedication of a Chinese Chapel". cdnc.ucr.edu. Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 7, Number 1000. 7 June 1854. From the Daily Alta California
  7. ^ a b Stahler, Michael L. (1970). "William Speer: Champion of California's Chinese, 1852—1857". Journal of Presbyterian History (1962-1985). 48 (2): 113–129. ISSN 0022-3883. JSTOR 23327321.
  8. ^ Yang, Tao (January 2009). "Press, Community, and Library: A Study of the Chinese-language Newspapers Published in North America" (PDF). Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  9. ^ Chinn, Thomas W. (1969). "A History of the Chinese in California: The Railroads". cprr.org. Chinese Historical Society of America.
  10. ^ McClain, Charles J. (1994). In Search for Equality: The Chinese Struggle against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20514-6.
  11. ^ William Speer, "An Humble Plea. Addressed to the Legislature of California in Behalf of the Immigrants from the Empire of China to this State." San Francisco, 1856 as quoted in Seager, Robert. "Some denominational reactions to Chinese immigration to California, 1856-1892." Pacific Historical Review 28, no. 1 (1959): 49-50
  12. ^ "Biographical Index of Missionaries -- SPEER, Rev. & Mrs. William". phcmontreat.org. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  13. ^ Speer, William (November 1868). "Democracy of the Chinese". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  14. ^ William Speer, The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the United States Vol. 1 (National Publishing Company, 1870).
  15. ^ William Speer, The Great Revival of 1800[1] (Presbyterian board of publication, 1872).

External links[]

  • CHINA AND CALIFORNIA; THEIR RELATIONS, PAST AND PRESENT. A lecture, in conclusion of a series in relation to the Chinese people, delivered in the Stockton Street [First] Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, June 28, 1853, by the Rev. William Speer, Missionary to the Chinese in California.


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