By Kim Ji-myung
Old photos of Korea in modern times fascinate me. The first photos taken by Westerners bring us back to the lost and never-seen land of the past.
As for those black-and-white photos of the 1900s, the town of Daegu is mostly covered by a flat layer of thatched-roof houses. An exception here is the giant spired cathedral emerging high, like Gulliver among the miniature people. The earliest photo with the name Gyesan and the year 1907 printed on the front is colored in pale sepia and orange.
Due to a sudden change of schedule during a recent meeting held in Daegu, I had an unexpected chance to visit and look around the cathedral. The Romanesque Catholic edifice was first constructed in 1886 directed by Father A. P Robert. An extension was added in 1911 when it became a bishop's church. The current shape of the enlarged structure was completed in 1918.
A postcard of the photo was published saying "Coree ― La Cathedrale de Taikou, consacree en 1919." Chinese brick workers who had participated in building cathedrals in Seoul and Pyongyang built the Gyesan Cathedral. The designer was a Frenchman, Father Louis Posner.
The cathedral is known for its unique stained glass with saints depicted in colorful Korean costumes. However, too much has changed, it seemed. Big apartments and modern office buildings surround the church. And parking spaces with vehicles efface the last elements of the bygone period.
But to my delight, on the low hilltop nearby, I found a compound of old quarters with trees and gardens. It was a few well-preserved old missionary houses, named after their former owners.
Pastor Adams, the first American missionary in Daegu, American Christian Missionary Switzer, missionary Chamness Blair and so on.
Dr. Johnson was an American medical missionary who opened a pharmacy in a small house and started to prescribe medicine. Later, he officially began his medical consultations under the name of Jejungwon, the first Western medical institution in Korea. Korean patients needed treatment for leprosy, endemic diseases and vaccines for smallpox.
Just below those missionary houses was the Garden of Mercy, a small graveyard for those foreign missionaries and their families.
Under the name Garden of Mercy, it was written, "Here rest the missionaries and their families who sailed across the Pacific to sacrifice themselves in spreading the Gospel and to care for our sick who were still poor and paganistic. Their prayers will continue on for the salvation and prosperity of our people."
In the graveyard rest 13 people, including three infants who died in the 1910s before reaching two years of age.
Magda Elizabeth Khler (1887-1913) was a Swedish woman from the Salvation Army. After 17 months of hard work, she caught typhoid from a patient and died in 1913. She was moved to Yanghwajin Cemetery in Seoul in 2000 upon the request of the Salvation Army Headquarters.
Chase Cranford Sawtell (1881-1909) and his newlywed wife arrived in Korea on Oct. 16, 1907. He also died of Typhoid while treating patients in 1909 at the age of 28. "I'm going to love them" were the words inscribed on his tombstone.
Buddy Henderson (1920-21) was born in Seoul to Harold H. Henderson, who first came to Korea in 1918 and headed Gyeseong School for 23 years. The Henderson family, including his sisters and brothers, served as missionaries in Korea.
Howard Fergus Moffett (1917-2013) and Margaret Delle Moffett, (1915-2010) are also buried here. Howard is the fourth son of the famous first-generation foreign missionary Samuel Austin Moffett. Howard worked as the head of Dongsan Hospital, and director of Keimyung University and Medical School. He set up 120 churches across Korea. He passed away in 2013 at age 96. Mrs. Moffett was his able life-long partner until she died in 2010 at age 94.
Assigned by the Evangelical Covenant Church of America, John Hamilton Dawson (1926-2007) served at Dongsan Hospital for three years. When he died in 2007 in the States he was buried in Daegu as he wished.
The feeling of disconnection and alienation from the past which I received at the cathedral was rectified instantly upon reading the names and stories of these people who lived and served in this city.
The writer (heritagekorea21@gmail.com) is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage).
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As for those black-and-white photos of the 1900s, the town of Daegu is mostly covered by a flat layer of thatched-roof houses. An exception here is the giant spired cathedral emerging high, like Gulliver among the miniature people. The earliest photo with the name Gyesan and the year 1907 printed on the front is colored in pale sepia and orange.
Due to a sudden change of schedule during a recent meeting held in Daegu, I had an unexpected chance to visit and look around the cathedral. The Romanesque Catholic edifice was first constructed in 1886 directed by Father A. P Robert. An extension was added in 1911 when it became a bishop's church. The current shape of the enlarged structure was completed in 1918.
A postcard of the photo was published saying "Coree ― La Cathedrale de Taikou, consacree en 1919." Chinese brick workers who had participated in building cathedrals in Seoul and Pyongyang built the Gyesan Cathedral. The designer was a Frenchman, Father Louis Posner.
The cathedral is known for its unique stained glass with saints depicted in colorful Korean costumes. However, too much has changed, it seemed. Big apartments and modern office buildings surround the church. And parking spaces with vehicles efface the last elements of the bygone period.
But to my delight, on the low hilltop nearby, I found a compound of old quarters with trees and gardens. It was a few well-preserved old missionary houses, named after their former owners.
Pastor Adams, the first American missionary in Daegu, American Christian Missionary Switzer, missionary Chamness Blair and so on.
Dr. Johnson was an American medical missionary who opened a pharmacy in a small house and started to prescribe medicine. Later, he officially began his medical consultations under the name of Jejungwon, the first Western medical institution in Korea. Korean patients needed treatment for leprosy, endemic diseases and vaccines for smallpox.
Just below those missionary houses was the Garden of Mercy, a small graveyard for those foreign missionaries and their families.
Under the name Garden of Mercy, it was written, "Here rest the missionaries and their families who sailed across the Pacific to sacrifice themselves in spreading the Gospel and to care for our sick who were still poor and paganistic. Their prayers will continue on for the salvation and prosperity of our people."
In the graveyard rest 13 people, including three infants who died in the 1910s before reaching two years of age.
Magda Elizabeth Khler (1887-1913) was a Swedish woman from the Salvation Army. After 17 months of hard work, she caught typhoid from a patient and died in 1913. She was moved to Yanghwajin Cemetery in Seoul in 2000 upon the request of the Salvation Army Headquarters.
Chase Cranford Sawtell (1881-1909) and his newlywed wife arrived in Korea on Oct. 16, 1907. He also died of Typhoid while treating patients in 1909 at the age of 28. "I'm going to love them" were the words inscribed on his tombstone.
Buddy Henderson (1920-21) was born in Seoul to Harold H. Henderson, who first came to Korea in 1918 and headed Gyeseong School for 23 years. The Henderson family, including his sisters and brothers, served as missionaries in Korea.
Howard Fergus Moffett (1917-2013) and Margaret Delle Moffett, (1915-2010) are also buried here. Howard is the fourth son of the famous first-generation foreign missionary Samuel Austin Moffett. Howard worked as the head of Dongsan Hospital, and director of Keimyung University and Medical School. He set up 120 churches across Korea. He passed away in 2013 at age 96. Mrs. Moffett was his able life-long partner until she died in 2010 at age 94.
Assigned by the Evangelical Covenant Church of America, John Hamilton Dawson (1926-2007) served at Dongsan Hospital for three years. When he died in 2007 in the States he was buried in Daegu as he wished.
The feeling of disconnection and alienation from the past which I received at the cathedral was rectified instantly upon reading the names and stories of these people who lived and served in this city.
The writer (heritagekorea21@gmail.com) is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage).
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