'Z9z- 
 
 MISS JENNIE M. KUYPER 
 Yokohama, Japan 
 
 JVlemorial 
 

 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/memorialmissjennOOunse 
 
A Memorial 
 
 MISS JENNIE M. KUYPER 
 
 Principal of Ferris Seminary, 
 Yokohama, Japan, who lost 
 her life in the earthquake, 
 September 1, 1923. 
 
 WOMAN’S BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 Reformed Church in America 
 
 25 East 22nd Street 
 
 New York 
 
Miss Kuyper’s last words to the Graduating Class 
 of Ferris Seminary, Commencement, 1923: 
 
 “I bid you Godspeed upon the voyage of life, 
 desiring for each one of you this one thing—life—■ 
 full, joyous and strong, found through losing it in 
 service to others.” 
 
Faithful unto Death 
 
 MISS JENNIE M. KUYPER 
 
 £|mISS KUYPER was born and brought up in Pella, Iowa. 
 
 She graduated from Central College, Pella, and received a 
 degree from the University of Chicago. After teaching in Pella 
 schools and also in Central College she became Lady Principal of 
 Rochester Academy in Wisconsin, where she taught Latin and 
 Greek. It was while teaching in Rochester that the gradual desire 
 to engage in missionary work became definite. She felt that 
 those who had had the opportunity to receive Christian education 
 and training and had no one depending on them for support 
 should feel responsible for the work of Foreign Missions. 
 Although leaving home and dear ones was hard, she never felt 
 that she was making a sacrifice. 
 
 Arriving on the field, in addition to language study, Miss 
 Kuyper had the oversight of the evangelistic work engaged in 
 by the Ferris Seminary students in the neighborhood Sunday 
 Schools. After passing the language examinations she added to 
 her regular classroom work weekly visits to the homes of the 
 pupils. The work of the New Testament League was largely the 
 result of her influence. 
 
 After a term at Ferris Seminary, upon her return from fur¬ 
 lough, she was at Kagoshima for a brief period in charge of the 
 evangelistic work among the women and the High School Girls 
 among whom she organized a Y. W. C. A. The monthly meeting 
 in the dormitory of the weaving factory, and a weekly meeting 
 for nurses in the Government hospital, were among her activities. 
 From this work in 1922 Miss Kuyper was called by the Mission 
 to the Principalship of Ferris Seminary and became also a 
 Trustee of the Woman’s Union Christian College in Tokyo. 
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
'T’rihiifp'i ven e Memorial Service of the Boards of 
 
 J. riouzes ]? ore ig n Missions, Reformed Church in America, in 
 
 the Marble Collegiate Church, New York, November 13, 1923. 
 
 Mrs. DeWitt Knox, 
 
 President of the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 In 1917 I had the privilege of visiting Ferris Seminary for the 
 second time. The Seminary was then in charge of Miss Kuyper, 
 owing to the furlough of Dr. Booth. So great was the impression 
 of the poise and lovely spirit of the leader that when the time 
 came for Dr. Booth’s successor to be chosen, it seemed to me, as 
 well as to other members of the Board when asked, that no one 
 could be better fitted for that position. She was also a delightful 
 hostess, full of humor and courtesy, but nothing dimmed the 
 spiritual force of her sturdy character. 
 
 Rev. William I. Chamberlain, Ph.D., 
 
 Corresponding Secretary, Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 A good many years ago a Scotch Professor, having a deep 
 insight into life and its objectives, visited this country in succes¬ 
 sive years and much impressed that generation of university 
 students. The address by which he was perhaps best remembered 
 was entitled, “The Greatest Thing in the World,” which in his 
 judgment was “Love.” But is this the greatest thing in the world? 
 
 The greatest thing in the world is personality. Love is but a 
 part of it, supplementing and crowning its other parts. We may 
 not be able to define personality, but we know that it includes 
 beauty and majesty of physique, vigor and courage of spirit, 
 keenness of mind, all the subtle graces of mind and heart, high 
 spiritual vision, deep insight, purity, dignity and serene poise of 
 spirit. All these combine to make Avhat w T e call personality. 
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
TRIBUTES — Continued. 
 
 It is these qualities of mind and heart and spirit that we think 
 
 of this afternoon as we meet to commemorate the passing of a 
 
 personality from an earthly to a heavenly environment. I came 
 only this morning upon some of the letters which Miss Kuyper 
 wrote to the Woman’s Board at the time when she entered into 
 correspondence with a view to becoming a foreign missionary. 
 One or two of these letters are very self-revealing. Let me quote 
 them here: 
 
 “Rochester, Wis., October 5, 1905. 
 “Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions: 
 
 “In answer to the call that came to the young women of 
 
 the Church through the Christian Intelligencer of a week 
 
 ago regarding the need in the Amoy region, China, of more 
 workers, I would like to enter into correspondence with you 
 regarding the work, the requirements on part of applicant; in 
 short, all I should know with a view to offering my services 
 to the Board. Personally I am ready to offer myself as such 
 applicant unconditionally, but cannot do so until my family 
 are fully reconciled to it—which I trust will be soon. I will 
 defer giving you any facts regarding myself until I hear 
 from you and learn what information is desired. 
 
 “Very sincerely yours, 
 
 “Jennie M. Kuyper.” 
 
 Following upon her appointment, she labored quietly but faith¬ 
 fully and effectively in Japan for six years, for the most part in 
 connection with Ferris Seminary, when she was advised to return 
 to this country because of the discovery by the physicians of the 
 germs of a threatening disease. Upon her return to America, she 
 quietly withdrew to a climate favorable to overcoming this disease 
 and later applied to the Woman’s Board for permission to return 
 
 [5] 
 
TRIBUTES — Continued. 
 
 to her work in Japan. Her recovery not then being considered 
 complete, her application at that time was not accepted, whereupon 
 she wrote another of those self-revealing letters: 
 
 “October 8, 1912. 
 
 “Thank you for the kind words in which the hard message 
 was sent. I could not write before for I could not face the 
 bitter disappointment. 
 
 “But I know our Father can make no mistakes and to His 
 leading I have committed the further direction of my life. 
 The last hymn our girls sang for me just before leaving the 
 school was ‘He Leadeth Me.’ Had I known then that His 
 leading was not to bring me back to them the parting would 
 have been unbearably hard.” 
 
 A little later she again renewed her application and was again 
 asked to continue longer in this country, whereupon she wrote as 
 follows to the Woman’s Board: 
 
 “The keenest disappointment my life has ever known came 
 to me through your decision to not send me back to Japan. 
 While I realize that the interests of the work and considera¬ 
 tion for my health made no other decision possible it none the 
 less meant to me that which I cannot yet face very bravely 
 and calmly—the giving up of a work in which I thought God 
 could use me and to which I so longed to give my whole life.” 
 
 These letters surely reveal those fine qualities of courage and 
 resignation which were so supremely exhibited on the first day of 
 September last when she was called suddenly to lay down her life. 
 
 It is perhaps proper that we should remind ourselves of the 
 tragic circumstances of her death in order that we may draw the 
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
T RIBUTES — Continued. 
 
 lessons from her life. On the day preceding the earthquake, in 
 response to her own sense of duty, she returned to Yokohama for 
 the purpose of making preparation for the opening of Ferris 
 Seminary, of which she had recently become the Principal. At 
 the hour of high noon on the fatal first of September she was 
 in her study. The Japanese clerk of the school was in the adjoin¬ 
 ing verandah. Without warning the terrific calamity came upon 
 the city. The building being thoroughly shaken, the clerk made 
 his escape, but Miss Kuyper being in an inner room was not 
 able to leave the building before it collapsed. The clerk returned 
 shortly after the building had collapsed and called down from the 
 top of the ruins and received an answer from Miss Kuyper. He 
 could not see her in the darkness below but she could see him in 
 the light above. She said that she was held fast by her arms 
 but her body was free. The faithful Japanese friend endeavored 
 to get assistance for the purpose of relieving Miss Kuyper, but 
 was unsuccessful. Finally an hour had passed; the consuming 
 fire was approaching; Miss Kuyper realized it and finally said 
 to the faithful friend who was trying in vain to secure her release, 
 that he must now leave her to secure the safety of himself and 
 his family and said to him as a parting message, “God’s will be 
 done. Give my love to my friends.” 
 
 A few days later a committee of the Mission searched the ruins 
 and found two human bones. These were later reverently buried 
 in the cemetery at Nagasaki. 
 
 An interpretation of Psalm XCI has recently been given me by 
 a member of the Woman’s Board in connection with the tragic 
 death of Miss Kuyper, which it seems to me appropriate to pass 
 on to those who are here assembled to commemorate the life and 
 death of a noble personality. The great assurance of the opening 
 verses of this Psalm is not so much of safety from destruction as 
 of freedom from fear in the hour of great danger. The words 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
TRIBUTES — Continued. 
 
 of this Psalm are so tender and yet so strong that they seem 
 peculiarly appropriate to the life of our friend: 
 
 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 
 
 I will say of the Lord He is my fortress: my God; 
 in Him will I trust. 
 
 Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the 
 fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 
 
 He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His 
 wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield 
 and buckler. 
 
 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor 
 for the arrow that flieth by day; 
 
 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor 
 for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 
 
 Miss Olivia H. Lawrence, 
 
 Editorial Secretary, Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 Following the growing custom of laying a wreath as a loving 
 tribute on a monument or grave, today mine is a tribute of friend¬ 
 ship, and the wreath is one of lilies, pure in their fragrance and 
 fragrant in their purity, dignified, radiant; symbolic of the life 
 and character of Jennie M. Kuyper. The one reason that I speak 
 is because I was the first of the Woman’s Board to meet Miss 
 Kuyper. It was in June, 1905, when General Synod was in 
 session at Asbury Park that I was asked to meet her at the rail¬ 
 road station. By some intuitive instinct we mutually recognized each 
 other. The years that lie between are of a friendship that counted. 
 
 The first impressions were of sincerity, strength, saneness, 
 spirituality; and the correspondence of years deepened the im¬ 
 pression. Our lives touched tenderly when her health was in 
 question regarding her return to Japan and her submission then 
 to God’s will was the same that marked her entire life. 
 
 It was during Miss Kuyper’s initial term of service while 
 attending a conference in Pella that at the close of the morning 
 session a dear, elderly lady said to me “You are Jennie’s friend, 
 I am Jennie’s mother. Do come to our house.” I went to their 
 house in the afternoon and met that consecrated family. 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
TRIBUTES—Continued. 
 
 Christian character building was pre-eminent in all Miss 
 Kuyper’s teaching, whether in educational or evangelistic work. 
 
 The many references to her in the Missionary magazines and 
 letters are of her rare character and the irreparable loss to the 
 work in Japan; these are words we cherish. 
 
 On that last day a former student, now teaching in a Govern¬ 
 ment school, where there is no Christian sympathy, called to see 
 Miss Kuyper. Before leaving they had a Bible talk and prayer 
 and the final message of the beloved teacher was—‘‘Remember 
 wherever you are and whatever you are doing, God is always 
 with you.” That was at 11:30 o’clock on the morning of Septem¬ 
 ber 1st. Little did that unshakably spiritual soul realize what 
 the next half hour was to bring, but her faith held. As she climbed 
 the steep ascent of heaven through peril, toil and pain her fare- 
 v/ell words were: “It is evidently God’s will; it is all right. Give 
 my love to everyone.” Her submission to God’s will, the sacrifice 
 of her life, will ever be held in tender, sacred memory. She fought 
 with radiant valor and was faith full unto death. 
 
 Rev. Eugene S. Booth, D.D., 
 
 Principal Emeritus of Ferris Seminary 
 
 I esteem it a privilege to bear my testimony to the life work 
 and character of Jennie M. Kuyper, who for fourteen years of her 
 eighteen years’ missionary experience, was a member of my 
 household, a member of the staff of Ferris Seminary and a most 
 genial, efficient, consecrated helper, always wise in counsel, always 
 with the supreme end in view—the ideal for which Christian 
 Missions stand, Christian life. . . . Instinctively, we are so 
 
 built as to sorrow. Over physical pain of others we do not mourn, 
 but we are sorry that somehow or other in the inscrutable provi¬ 
 dence of Almighty God, Jennie M. Kuyper was called to this 
 supreme suffering, and I note that 1,200 or more alumnae in Japan 
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
TRIBUTES — Continued. 
 
 have sorrowed for that experience. The members of the Japanese 
 staff, who, praise God, all w T ere saved, have sorrowed for that ex¬ 
 perience. The Japanese Mission have sorrowed for that experience, 
 the members of the Woman’s Board and Men’s Board of the 
 Reformed Church have sorrowed for that experience and every 
 woman and every man that has heard the name of Jennie M. 
 Kuyper throughout the Reformed Church not only, but throughout 
 Christendom, have sorrowed for that experience. We may mourn 
 for those temporal things that have passed; we mourn that Ferris 
 Seminary, the product of so much consecration, so much prayer, 
 so much self-denial, so much sacrifice, is but ashes. So far as the 
 tangible things are concerned and because of your prayers and 
 your devotion, I can say in this presence, it was one of the best 
 equipped, best manned institutions in the Orient and it had the 
 promise of a magnificent future under the leadership of Jennie M. 
 Kuyper. One year ago I left Yokohama feeling that this institu¬ 
 tion, so precious to me, into which I had woven the best of my 
 life, was in the best possible hands. 
 
 A picture comes before me today as we stood upon the deck of 
 our ship: Miss Kuyper and her staff, a multitude of the graduates 
 from Tokyo and nearby places, and a chosen number from each 
 of the six classes permitted to stand upon the wharf to say goodbye, 
 singing “God be with you ’till we meet again.” Miss Kuyper was 
 not a singer but she had a wonderful appreciation of good singing 
 and her countenance wreathed in smiles as that prayer went up in 
 song. That picture is vivid before me and a year, less than a year, 
 after that date, word came speeding through the air, without wire, 
 with just ether of the air, telling us that in six short minutes an 
 area of more than 300 square miles had been shaken down and 
 reduced to ashes by fire. 
 
 We sorrow for the suffering that apparently is necessary for the 
 development of that character which enables us to live on with God. 
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
T RIB U TES — Continued. 
 
 At the Memorial Service, First Church, 
 
 Pella, Iowa, September 23, 1923. 
 
 Miss Eliza P. Cobb, 
 
 Corresponding Secretary, Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 We are met this afternoon to memorialize not a tragedy, but a 
 triumph, not a great catastrophe, but a great victory. God has 
 said “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
 of life,” and this is Jennie Kuyper’s Coronation Day. 
 
 When the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions commissions a 
 new missionary, there is read as a part of the service the 91st 
 Psalm (vs. 1, 4, 5, 11, 12). This promise God has fulfilled to 
 Jennie Kuyper. Dwelling in the secret place of the Most High 
 she was not afraid “for the destruction that wasted at noonday” 
 and surely the angels of God bore her up in their hands to Him 
 whom she had made her habitation. 
 
 Mrs. Van Peursem of Arabia has spoken of a visit she paid 
 to Miss Kuyper in Japan. When she had looked about at Ferris 
 Seminary with its fine equipment, its bright-faced girls and con¬ 
 trasted it with the humble beginnings in Arabia, she said to Miss 
 Kuyper “Oh how I envy you your success.” Miss Kuyper replied, 
 with that humility so characteristic of her, “It is not success that 
 counts, but faithfulness. When we get to the end of life and 
 meet the Master, He will not ask ‘Have you been successful?’ 
 but, ‘Have you been faithful V ” Faithfulness was the keynote of 
 Miss Kuyper’s life. 
 
 [ii] 
 
EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS 
 
 Mrs. Hubert Kuyper 
 
 It is inevitable that the girls will go back to the school they 
 so love, and it may be that her going and her message may have 
 a wider influence than years of work, for hearts are very tender 
 just now as all are suffering such great losses of every kind. Miss 
 Kuyper’s remains are to be interred at Nagasaki, beside those of 
 Mr. Anthony Walvoord, the Principal of Steele Academy. 
 
 Miss Sara M. Couch 
 
 Miss Kuyper’s last words have made a great impression on the 
 teachers and pupils not only, but on many others. She was a 
 wonderful missionary, her place will not be filled, but God knows 
 best. 
 
 Mrs. D. C. Ruigh 
 
 The serene, grand personality of Miss Kuyper seems enshrined 
 in our hearts; something imperishable broods over that desolation 
 of ash and destruction, once Ferris Seminary. We see her calm 
 and brave and smiling quietly sending on her message to all who 
 have come under the benediction of her friendship. 
 
 [12] 
 
From Miss Kuyper’s Letters 
 
 The task of being Principal of Ferris looks too big for me. 
 The fear of failing to come up to my ideal of what should be 
 done by the one in charge makes me shrink from it. There are 
 so many grave problems, so much to be done that requires more 
 wisdom, tact, patience, courage and self-confidence than I possess. 
 I feel my shortcomings at every point. 
 
 I am inclined to think the middle class in Japan, at least the 
 young women of that class, are the most influential and hence 
 the most desirable to win. Those of the richer families lead 
 more secluded lives, while the middle class young women are many 
 of them going out as teachers and filling business positions. 
 
 I want a closer walk with God that will give me a deeper 
 sense of His guidance and direction in my life and work, and a 
 clearer appreciation of the greatness of every small opportunity 
 
MINUTES 
 
 MINUTE ADOPTED .BY THE JAPAN MISSION 
 
 of the 
 
 REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA 
 Upon the Death of 
 MISS JENNIE M. KUYPER 
 Yokohama, September 1, 1923 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 
 “The Japan Mission of the Reformed Church in America has again 
 been called upon to mourn the death of one of its members. In 
 the great calamity which befell the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama 
 on September 1, 1923, Miss Jennie M. Kuyper was called to higher 
 service. She had returned from her summer vacation in the hills 
 somewhat early in order that she might prepare for the opening of 
 the autumn term of school. She was always most conscientious in 
 the discharge of her duties. Her early return to her post was but 
 an added illustration of this characteristic. Shortly before noon she 
 had been in conference with one of the graduates and had closed the 
 conference with a season of prayer. The two then went out together 
 as far as the gate. Within a few moments after her return to her 
 office the great earthquake came and destroyed the main building of 
 the School in a moment’s time. The shock was without warning and 
 the building collapsed so suddenly that it was not possible for her 
 to make her escape. She was pinned in under the heavy timbers from 
 whence it was impossible to rescue her. Those who talked with her 
 before she died speak of her faith and fortitude in the last moments 
 of her life. This has been an inspiration to her associates in the 
 Mission and amongst the Japanese. In the hour of approaching death 
 she was as calm, serene, strong in her faith and trust in the Lord, 
 as she had always been in her life. 
 
 “The Lord’s ways are past finding out. We know from His Word 
 and from our own experiences that He knows what is best, and that 
 He makes no mistakes. May her immediate family, her friends in 
 the homeland, as well as her associates in the work here, learn to say: 
 ‘Thy will be done.’ 
 
 “We recognized in Miss Kuyper a woman of rare ability, possessed 
 
 [14] 
 
of sound judgment and unusual poise of character. Her faith was 
 calm and assured. Her outlook upon life full of hope. A quiet joy 
 pervaded all her activities and relationships. 
 
 “She looked upon her pupils as sacred trusts, as gifts from God, 
 for whose training and development in the best things of life she 
 was responsible. The quiet and helpful influence she exerted will 
 long be felt in the lives of all those who came in contact with her. 
 She won and held a large place in the hearts of her pupils and of 
 all those with whom she was associated in the work of the Kingdom. 
 
 “RESOLVED: That the Mission express its deep sense of the 
 loss it has sustained. Further that we earnestly pray that the example 
 of faithfulness and loyalty may be an inspiration to us all in the work 
 yet before us. That we pray that the Lord’s comforting grace be 
 abundantly vouchsafed to her brothers, sisters, and other relatives in 
 the homeland. 
 
 “RESOLVED: That a copy of these Resolutions be placed in our 
 Minutes and that a copy be sent to the family. Also that they be 
 published in the Church papers.” 
 
 L. J. Shafer, 
 
 Secretary, Japan Mission. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 
 The Board of Directors of Ferris Seminary desires to express its 
 deep sense of loss in the death of 
 
 MISS JENNIE M. KUYPER, 
 
 the Principal, in the earthquake of September 1, 1923. 
 
 A teacher in America before coming to the mission field, a member 
 of the faculty of Ferris Seminary for several years, acting principal 
 during the absence of Dr. Booth in America, she brought to the 
 principalship high and suitable qualifications for successful admin¬ 
 istrative work. Her one year of work as principal was marked by 
 such faithfulness to the school’s best interests, such tact and resource¬ 
 fulness in meeting new and difficult problems, and such consecration 
 of all her time and strength to the School, that the Board of Directors 
 had every confidence in her administration. She desired above all 
 else that the teaching in school should be character building, and that 
 the curriculum and school activities should be permeated with a 
 spiritual atmosphere and directed toward a Christian purpose. 
 
 But we desire to pay tribute not only to her success as a principal, 
 but also to her quiet, sincere personal Christian life. Her strength 
 
 [15] 
 
was indeed found in “quietness and confidence” and she knew what 
 it meant to “wait upon the Lord.” The steady purposefulness of her 
 life, crowned by the precious sacrifice of her death, is our inspiration 
 to carry on the work she loved. 
 
 On behalf of the Board of Directors, 
 
 (Signed) Gertrude H. Stegeman, 
 Tetsu Sato, 
 
 Jeane Noordhoff, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 AN APPRECIATION 
 
 At a meeting of the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions, held 
 November 13, 1923, the following appreciation of 
 
 MISS JENNIE M. KUYPER 
 
 was ordered to be placed permanently in its Minutes :— 
 
 By the death of Miss Jennie M. Kuyper, whose devotion to duty 
 made her a victim of the earthquake and fire at Yokohama on Septem¬ 
 ber 1, 1923, the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions has lost one of 
 its most able and consecrated missionaries. 
 
 Quiet and reserved, yet ever most sympathetic and genial; patient, 
 thorough and inspiring in her scholastic work; seeking constantly a 
 closer walk with God for herself, and a surrender to the claims of 
 Christ for her pupils; she exerted a strong influence upon the whole 
 school throughout the years when she was a teacher in Ferris 
 Seminary, an influence which continued in similar ways when she was 
 an evangelist at Kagoshima. And when, distrusting her own ability 
 but obeying what she felt to be the call of God, she became the 
 Principal of Ferris Seminary, though permitted to serve but one brief 
 year, her far-reaching plans for its educational work, and her constant 
 emphasis of its Christian life, bore fruit to a noticeable degree, and 
 promised to bear much more,—a promise which, alas! she was not 
 to see realized. 
 
 Her life in many ways was a triumph of faith in God, revealed 
 increasingly as the years went by, and shown most clearly in the 
 supreme test of its closing hour. Deeply as we feel her loss, she 
 herself has bid us say, “It is God’s will.” And from the heart we 
 pray that, since the chariot of fire has parted her from us, a double 
 portion of her spirit may fall upon those who have labored with her, 
 and upon all who knew and loved her. 
 
 (Mrs. Wm. Bancroft) Elise W. Hill, 
 Foreign Corresponding Secretary for Japan. 
 
 [ 16 ] 
 
Ferris Seminary, 178 Bluff, Yokohama