Nathan Sites (;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Xuē Chéng'ēn'';

Foochow Romanized Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (BUC for short; ) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (), is a Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of the 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at dif ...

: ''Siék Sìng-ŏng''; November 6, 1830 – February 10, 1895) was a 19th-century

Methodist Episcopal 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 ...

missionary who served in Foochow (now Fuzhou) and Yen-ping (now Nanping), Fujian Province, China.

Life

Rev. Dr. Nathan Sites was born in 1830 at Bellville, Richland County, Ohio, United States of America. He was the son of Robert and Sarah Sites (Fidler). He was graduated from

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 ...

in 1859. In 1861, he reached Foochow with his wife Sarah Moore Sites to begin his oversea missionary work which would last until his death in 1895. Upon his arrival, Sites chose to live in a countryside hamlet among native villagers to experience the rural life of the Chinese. During his missionary life in China, Sites met with many obstacles: one day while carrying out the reconstruction work of the local church in Nanping, he was brutally beaten by an enraged mob, who left a deep scar on his face. Like other missionaries, Sites argued and labored for the creation of a strong and independent Chinese Church, and in this effort he ordained many of the earliest native Christian ministers like Sia Sek Ong,

Wong Nai Siong Wong Nai Siong (; Bàng-uâ-cê: Uòng Nāi-siòng) (1849—1924) as a Chinese revolutionary leader and educator from Minqing county in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China. He served in The Methodist Episcopal Church for many years and participate ...

and the father of

Hü King Eng Hü King Eng (, Foochow Romanized: Hṳ̄ Gĭnghŏng) was a physician, and the second ethnic Chinese woman to attend university in the United States, after King You Mé. (Contrast:-Dr King You Me ameiwas adopted and brought up by an American m ...

. In 1895, Rev. Dr. Nathan Sites was buried at

Foochow Mission Cemetery Foochow Mission Cemetery (; Foochow Romanized: ''Iòng-muó-dìng'') was a Protestant cemetery once located on the north and south side of a hill at the west end of Maiyuan Road, Cangshan District, Fuzhou, China. Covering an area of about , Foochow ...

(), Fuzhou, Fujian Province. His tombstone is one of three that still exist in the Cang Shan District Museum in Fuzhou. Sites served in Foochow for 34 years until his death in 1895. Sites' journals concerning his labor in China were compiled by his wife Sarah into ''Nathan Sites: An Epic of the East'', which was published in 1912.

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sites, Nathan 1830 births 1895 deaths American Methodist missionaries Methodist missionaries in China Christian missionaries in Fujian American expatriates in China People from Bellville, Ohio