DeWitt Clinton Jansen (born at

Shawangunk, New York Shawangunk is a town in southwestern Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 13,563 at the 2020 census. The town takes its name from its largest stream, the Shawangunk Kill. The name Shawangunk is from the language of the Lena ...

on 8 November 1840; died 6 November 1894 at

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

), was a member of the

Shanghai Municipal Council The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British Concession (Shanghai), British and American Concession (Shanghai), American list of former foreign enclaves in China, enclaves in Shanghai, i ...

from 1893 until his death in November 1894; an Associate judge of the United States Consular Court in Shanghai; the proprietor of the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai, the first western hotel in China, from 1874 to his death in 1894; and was the first District Deputy Grand Master of the Cosmopolitan Lodge (No. 428, S. C.) of

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

Freemasons, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, ''Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts'' (The Lodge, 1894):142). which began working in Shanghai in 1864. Jansen Road (now Fulu Street) in Yangzepu (renamed Yangpu in 1949) was named in his honour.

Family background

DeWitt Clinton Jansen was of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

, and was born at

on 8 November 1840, the second son of John Richard Jansen (born 2 March 1804 Wallkill, New York; died 11 March 1845 at Shawganguk) and Rachel Terwilliger (married May 1830), and the brother of Mary, Richard, William, and Cornelius. Jansen was the a great-great grandson of Thomas Jansen (1708–1798), who was one of the first settlers in the Wallkill valley, who built the Thomas Jansen House, a Dutch stone house on Jansen Road in Shawangunk.Hughes and Munsell, 158. D.C. Jansen is a descendant of Mathijs Jansen van Ceulen, original owner of the piece of ground on Isle van Pappermemmins (Isle of Man Hats, aka Manhattan Island) (Original Patens, Aug 11, 1646) currently home to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Douglas Van Curen, ''Van Keulen/Van Keuren/Van Kuren/Van Curen, A Family History'' (Gateway Press). His ancestors were among the first to settle

Kingston, New York Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...

in 1652. After the death of his father in 1845, Jansen and his older brother William (born ca. 1836) lived with his grandparents, Thomas Johnson (Jansen) (born 27 Apr 1777 in Shawangunk, New York), and Leah Bleynman Johnson (Jansen). On 8 November 1871 Jansen married Ellen McGrath (died 12 November 1918 in Shanghai) in a ceremony performed by Rev. William Henry Collins, a missionary of the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

, at the Church of Our Saviour,

Hongkew , formerly spelled Hongkew, is a district of Shanghai, forming part of the northern urban core. It has a land area of and a population of 852,476 as of 2010. It is the location of the Astor House Hotel, Broadway Mansions, Lu Xun Park, and Hon ...

, China, one of the first churches in Shanghai. Jansen and Ellen had seven children: Ellen Rachel (born 19 May 1873 in Shanghai; died 15 March 1955 in Alameda, California); Edith Mary (born 29 March 1874); Mabel (born 10 May 1875); John DeWitt (born 22 July 1876; died 1918); Grace; Edward Clinton (born 28 November 1878); and Catharine (born 5 November 1880).

Career highlights

Jansen left the United States on 7 August 1857, while still aged 16. Jansen was a merchant sailor, and

colporteur Colportage is the distribution of publications, books, and religious tracts by carriers called "colporteurs" or "colporters". The term does not necessarily refer to religious book peddling. Etymology From French , where the term is an alterat ...

in China's interior. From 1871 Jansen was resident in Shanghai, and was employed by the Imperial Maritime Customs."Sudden Death of Mr. D.C. Jansen", ''North-China Herald'' (9 November 1894):26.

Astor House Hotel (1874-1894)

By 1874 Jansen purchased the Astor House Hotel.

Social activities

Jansen was a

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingualism, monolingual speakers in the World population, world's pop ...

, fluent in a number of

Chinese dialects Chinese language, Chinese, also known as Sinitic languages, Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local variety (linguistics), varieties, many of which are not mutual intelli ...

, and assisted in the preparation of an 1871 Pekinese-English dictionary.

Church

Jansen was a regular attender and member of the Church Committee of the Union Church, which had been located on the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

compound on Shantung Road since 1864, and in a new church building erected in 1886 at a new site on the corner of Soochow (Suzhou) and Yuen-ming-yuen (Yuan Ming Yuan) Roads.

Freemasonry

Jansen was a founding member of the first American

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

lodge in China, the Cosmopolitan Lodge (No. 428, S. C.), which began working in Shanghai in 1864. From 27 December 1891, he was the first District Deputy Grand Master. of that lodge, a position he held until his death in November 1894.

Natural history

Jansen had an interest in natural history. In 1870 he sent specimens from China to the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. Jansen also served as Honorary Curator of the

Shanghai Museum The Shanghai Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District, Shanghai, Huangpu District of Shanghai, China. Rebuilt at its current location in 1996, it is considered one of China's first world-c ...

, from about 1880. Jansen was a member of the China Branch of the

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

from 1877 until his death in 1894.

Shanghai Municipal Council

According to his

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

, Jansen was "a painstaking and prominent member of the

Municipal Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

United States Consular Court

By October 1894 Jansen was an Associate judge on the United States

Consular Court Consular courts were law courts established by foreign powers in countries where they had extraterritorial rights. They were presided over by consular officers. Extraterritoriality Western powers when establishing diplomatic relations with count ...

in Shanghai.

Death

On 6 November 1894, during an installation meeting of the lodge, Jansen "suddenly fell back in his chair, gave one or two gasps for breath" and died. On 8 November 1894 Jansen was buried in the New Cemetery of Shanghai. J.I. Miller eulogised Jansen:

speaking of Bro. Jansen as a 'typical
Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
, a just and upright man,' saying that, "His labours for the good of the Settlement and its public institutions are so well and widely known, that I will not dwell here upon them. Whatever he did, he did well."

On Sunday 11 November 1894 a memorial service was held at the Union Church, with the funeral sermon, based on

Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...

3:12, preached by Rev. John Stevens."The Late Mr. D.C. Jansen", ''North-China Herald'' (16 November 1894):30-31.