Horace Tracy Pitkin (1869–1900) was a missionary of the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...

who was killed in China during the Boxer Uprising in 1900. Yale China Mission, (now the

Yale-China Association The Yale-China Association (), formerly Yale-in-China, is an independent, nonprofit organization which seeks to develop educational programs in and about China and further understanding between Chinese and American people. Founded in 1901 and o ...

), was founded in his memory."Horace Tracy Pitkin 1869 ~ 1900,
Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity

Early life and decision for China

Pitkin was born in Philadelphia. On his mother's side, he was a descendant of Elihu Yale, the founder of

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

. The Pitkin family settled in Manchester (Connecticut). Entering

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1884 Pitkin took a leading role in the campus Christian Endeavor movement. Entering Yale in 1888, he excelled in music, writing, and volunteer activities. He was widely admired for his sunny disposition and strong convictions. In the summer of 1889 at Dwight L. Moody's Northfield (Massachusetts) School, he signed the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) pledge, indicating his intention to become a missionary. Following graduation from Yale in 1892, he entered Union Theological Seminary, New York, then spent an interim year as traveling secretary for the SVM. In 1894, with his fiancee, Letitia Thomas, a graduate of

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

, Massachusetts, he offered himself for service with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Work in China and death

Pitkin graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1896, then he and Letitia were married. The couple sailed from New York in November 1896, traveled through the Holy Land, Egypt, and India before landing at

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

in May 1897. At

Baoding Baoding (), formerly known as Baozhou and Qingyuan, is a prefecture-level city in central Hebei province, approximately southwest of Beijing. As of the 2010 census, Baoding City had 11,194,382 inhabitants out of which 2,176,857 lived in the b ...

, in present-day

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

province, he joined the ABCFM mission. During the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

in 1900, the missionary compound in Baoding was overrun by anti-missionary and anti-foreign Chinese Boxers. Pitkin was killed and the other missionaries serving in the city were also killed or later executed. In all, fourteen Presbyterian, Congregational, amid China Inland Mission missionaries were killed at Baoding. Letitia and an infant son were in the United States when Pitkin was killed. Pitkin's death motivated several students at Yale to create an organization to send missionaries to China. One said that "Pitkin's martyrdom... made me determined to see if possible that Pitkin's sacrifice was atoned for somehow by us as Yale men." The Yale Mission in China was established in June 1901.

References

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Notes

External links

Yale Boxer Rebellion Memorial to Horace Tracy Pitkin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitkin, Horace Traacy 1869 births 1900 deaths American Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in China American expatriates in China Phillips Exeter Academy alumni