Hiram Harrison Lowry (May 29, 1843 – January 13, 1924) was an educator,

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

clergyman and college president in China.

Early life

Lowry was born on May 29, 1843 in

Zanesville Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. It is located east of Columbus and had a population of 24,765 as of the 2020 census, down from 25,487 as of the 2010 census. Historically the state capit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, to Hiram and Margaret née Speare. He graduated from the

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

, and received the degrees of

Bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

. In 1862-63 Lowry served during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

in the ninety-seventh regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In 1867 he was ordained to the ministry of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

and was sent out to China.

China

On October 10, 1867, Lowry arrived with his wife, Parthenia Nicholson, in

Foochow Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...

, where they labored till 1869. In 1869 he was sent to

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, where the foundations of the work of the North China Mission was laid. In 1870, Lowry built up the first Methodist church in Northern China, the Asbury Church (today the Chongwenmen Church in Beijing), named after the American Methodist Bishop

Francis Asbury Francis Asbury (August 20 or 21, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. During his 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States, he devoted his life to ...

. From 1873 to 1893, Lowry served as superintendent of North China Mission (until it became the North China Annual Conference) and since 1914 president of Huiwen University (), the precursor of

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...

(). From 1894 until it became a union institution, he was president of Huiwen University, later be part of

, where he trained thousands of young Chinese who are now active in Christian work, in business, the professions and in government. Lowry retired in 1922 and died in

on January 13, 1924. He was survived by six children: George Davis Lowry, Edward Kinsley Lowry, Fanny May Lowry, Grace Ernestine (Lowry) Hooper, Ernest Wilbur Lowry, and Mabel Annetta (Lowry) Dobson.

References

* Shavit, David (1990): ''The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary''
History of Chongwenmen Church
* "Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad 1924;" "US Consular Registration Certificates 1910;" "US Passport Applications 1916" vi
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowry, Hiram Harrison 1843 births 1924 deaths Ohio Wesleyan University alumni Methodist writers Christian missionaries in Fujian Methodist missionaries in China American expatriates in China American Methodist missionaries