Lillias Horton Underwood

Lillias Horton Underwood (June 21, 1851 – October 29, 1921), born Lillias Stirling Horton, was an American physician and Presbyterian missionary in Korea, alongside her husband Horace Grant Underwood. She served as personal physician to Empress Myeongseong.

Lillias Horton Underwood
An older white woman, wearing large black hat, a high-collared white lace blouse or dress. Her greying hair is in a bouffant updo.
Lillias Horton Underwood, later in life.
Born
Lillias Stirling Horton

June 21, 1851
Albany, New York
DiedOctober 29, 1921
Korea
SpouseHorace Grant Underwood

Early life and education

Lillias Horton was born in Albany, New York, the daughter of James Mandeville Horton and Matilda McPherson Horton. Her father was a businessman.[1] She earned her medical degree at the Woman's Medical College of Chicago in 1887,[2] and had internships in Chicago hospitals.[3][4]

Career

Horton arrived in Korea as a medical missionary in 1888, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. She was head of the women's department at a hospital, taught women's Bible classes, and taught English at an orphanage school run by Horace Grant Underwood. She married Underwood in 1889, and continued working as a physician and missionary. She advocated for the rights of married women missionaries, who were excluded from voting on funding and other matters, unlike single women in the field.[5]

Underwood was personal physician to Empress Myeongseong,[6][7] from 1889 until the empress was assassinated by Japanese soldiers in 1895. She established a small free clinic, called The Shelter, which was converted into a cholera hospital during the 1895 cholera epidemic.[3]

Underwood wrote about her experiences abroad in several books, including Fifteen Years Among the Topknots (1904, 1908),[8] With Tommy Tompkins in Korea (1905),[9] and Underwood of Korea (1918), a biography of her husband.[10]

Personal life

Lillias Horton married London-born missionary Horace Grant Underwood in 1889; they had a son, Horace Horton Underwood (1890-1951), who also became a missionary in Korea. Underwood was a widow when she died in 1921, aged 70, in Korea, from the effects of tropical sprue.[11] Her grave is in Seoul's cemetery for foreign missionaries.[3][12] The Horace Grant Underwood and Lillias Horton Underwood Papers, many of them in the collections of the Presbyterian Historical Society, were published in five volumes by Yonsei University Press, between 2005 and 2010.[13][14]

Underwood's grandson Horace Grant Underwood II (1917-2004) was a Korean language specialist with the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War.

References
  1. "James M. Horton". The Lake Geneva Herald. 1908-10-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-11-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Sending Out Female Doctors". Chicago Tribune. 1887-04-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-11-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Jo, Youngran (2000). "Underwood, Lillias Stirling Horton (1851-1921), medical missionary". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1201919. ISBN 978-0-19-860669-7. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  4. Balmer, Randall Herbert; Fitzmier, John R. (1993). The Presbyterians. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 235–236. ISBN 978-0-313-26084-1.
  5. Choi, Hyaeweol (2009-11-15). Gender and Mission Encounters in Korea: New Women, Old Ways: Seoul-California Series in Korean Studies, Volume 1. Univ of California Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-520-09869-5.
  6. Tucker, Ruth A. (2011-01-04). From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Zondervan Academic. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-310-83062-7.
  7. Kwantes, Anne C. (2005). She Has Done a Beautiful Thing for Me: Portraits of Christian Women in Asia. PhilAm Books. pp. 143–157. ISBN 978-971-511-894-1.
  8. Underwood, Lillias H. (Lillias Horton) (1904). Fifteen years among the top-knots; or, Life in Korea. University of California Libraries. Boston, New York [etc.] : American tract society.
  9. Underwood, Lillias H. (1905). With Tommy Tompkins in Korea. New York. hdl:2027/yale.39002044553924.
  10. Underwood, Lillias H. (1918). Underwood of Korea; being an intimate record of the life and work of the Rev. H.G. Underwood, D.D., LL.D., for thiry one years a missionary of the Presbyterian board in Korea. New York, London etc.: Fleming H. Revell company.
  11. James, Edward T.; James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul S.; College, Radcliffe (1971). Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. p. 500. ISBN 978-0-674-62734-5.
  12. "Missionary's Wife Buried in Far East". Kenosha News. 1921-12-30. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-11-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Oak, Sung-Deuk (2010). Horace Grant Underwood and Lillias Horton Underwood Papers, Yonsei University Press.
  14. "Sung-Deuk Oak edits five volume Horace Grant Underwood and Lillias Horton Underwood Papers". Baylor University School of Theology, Center for Global Christianity & Mission. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
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