Rev. Judson Dwight Collins (;

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 fo ...

: ''Kēlín'';

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 d ...

: ''Kŏ̤-lìng''; February 12, 1823 - May 13, 1852) was the first

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 ...

missionary to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Life

On February 12, 1823, Judson Dwight Collins was born into a

family in

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, Wayne County,

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. His parents, Alpheus and Betsay Collins, were of

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and

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origin. After graduation from the first class of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

in 1845, Collins served as an instructor for two years at the Wesleyan Seminary at

Albion College Albion College is a private liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students in 2014. They participate in NCAA Division III and the Michigan Interco ...

, teaching courses in Latin, Greek, chemistry, botany, and rhetoric. Grave of jdcollins

In 1847, Collins was called to New York, where he was ordained an elder and commissioned along with M. C. White and his wife to China. They sailed from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on April 15 and reached Foochow on September 6. To start an opening for the missionary work, Collins set up a school for boys in 1847 and another in 1848. He also worked with M. C. White on Bible translation and distribution of tracts. In 1850, he was appointed superintendent of the Foochow Mission. Collins' short tenure in China was fraught with impediments and obstacles, including the strong Chinese xenophobia, the formidable language barrier, the poor sanitation and bad living conditions, and finally an illness that compelled him to return home to

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in 1851. He never regained his health afterwards, and at just 29 years of age, he died at his parents' home at Gregory, Lyndon Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, where he is buried, May 1852, leaving no children.

References

A Day in the Life of Albion College - February 6, 2009

Judson Dwight Collins 1823 ~ 1852

* Tefft, B.F. (1850),
Mission to China
', ''History of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church'' * Wiley, I.W. (1858), ''The Mission Cemetery and the Fallen Missionaries of Fuh-Chau, China'' 1823 births 1852 deaths Methodist missionaries in China Christian missionaries in Fujian Albion College alumni University of Michigan alumni American expatriates in China American Methodist missionaries {{Methodist-stub