THE KENNEDY 
 SCHOOL OF MISSIONS 
 
 THE STORY OF A DECADE 
 1911 - 1921 
 
 By Edward Warren Capen, Ph. D. 
 
 Reprinted from the Hartford Seminary Foundation Bulletin, 
 June, 1921. 
 
A statement read at the 
 Annual Luncheon 
 of the 
 
 Kennedy School of Mission*, 
 May 26, 1921. 
 
THE KENNEDY SCHOOL OF MISSIONS 
 
 THE STORY OF A DECADE 
 1911 — 1921 
 
 Today the Kennedy School of Missions celebrates the comple¬ 
 tion of its first decade. Ten years are but a minute fraction of 
 a second in the onsweeping of the centuries, and yet many decades 
 have been momentous periods in the history of mankind. Even 
 in our own land we can see how epochal in our history was the 
 decade from 1773-1783, which saw the establishment of the free¬ 
 dom of the nation, an,d that from 1855-1865, which saw the unifica¬ 
 tion of the nation. The decade just closing has marked the end 
 of one era and the beginning of another in the history of the 
 world. It is a truism to say that the World War has transformed 
 the world politically, socially, and religiously. We can hardly think 
 ourselves back into the world of 1911. 
 
 What is true in the larger sphere is also true in the sphere 
 of Christian missions. It was on New Year’s evening, 1911, that 
 President Mackenzie first broached to me the plan for the School 
 of Missions. It is hard to realize what the situation regarding 
 missionary preparation was at that time. The great Edinburgh 
 Conference had dissolved less than six months before; the Board 
 of Missionary Preparation had not been organized; our sister 
 institution, the College of Missions in Indianapolis, had opened 
 its doors only three months before; while that pioneer of mission¬ 
 ary education. Professor Harlan P. Beach, who has this year closed 
 his academic career at Yale, had become head of the Missions 
 Department of Yale Divinity School less than five years before. 
 With the exception of a lectureship or a professorship in missions 
 here and there, hardly anything worthy of the name of missionary 
 preparation was given in the eastern part of the country. In 
 fact, only a few years previously, one who might almost be called 
 the dean of Mission Board secretaries bad said that the regular 
 theological course was the best possible preparation for mission¬ 
 ary service and nothing more was needed. 
 
 Yet Edinburgh had sounded a new note. The investigations 
 of Commission V. on the preparation of missionaries had revealed 
 
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the utter inadequacy of present methods in the face of the new 
 world situation. Other commissions had made recommendations 
 pointing in the same direction. 
 
 In this Hartford had had an honorable part. As Chairman of 
 Commission V., President Mackenzie had shaped the report which 
 was to revolutionize the thought of the mission world regarding 
 preparation, and some of the professors and lecturers in the Semi¬ 
 nary had contributed important sections to the report. For some 
 years that prince of scholars on Islam, Professor D. B. Macdonald, 
 had been sepding to the Near East a new type of missionary, 
 fitted to understand the Moslem mind. The A. C. Thompson 
 lectures for years, and the income of the Lamson fund more 
 recently, had been permeating the Theological Seminary with the 
 missionary spirit, while the Case Library had already become, 
 through the gift of the Thompson books and large purchases, 
 one of the two significant libraries in the country for the student 
 of missions. 
 
 Why, then, should not Hartford take a leading part in putting 
 into concrete form the proposals of the Edinburgh Conference? 
 So it seemed to the Faculty and Trustees, and on February 1, 
 1911, the organizing secretary of the Hartford School of Missions 
 entered upon his duties. With him were associated, in addition 
 to the President of the Seminary, four members of the Seminary 
 Faculty, Professors Geer, Gillett, Jacobus, and Macdonald. The 
 Trustees allocated to the School the income of the Lamson fund, 
 and the organizing secretary was appointed Thompson lecturer. 
 This provided a very modest income for a new school. 
 
 As rapidly as possible, the general principles governing the 
 School and the outlines of a curriculum were worked out by the 
 Board of Administration. Lecturers were secured from the Semi¬ 
 nary, from the School of Pedagogy, from Trinity College, from 
 the city, and from experts on missions. A modest 32-page pros¬ 
 pectus was printed, and the organizing secretary started to inter¬ 
 view the secretaries of the boards of foreign missions. 
 
 This trip took him as far south as Richmond and Nashville, 
 to Chicago and Toronto, as well as to Boston, New York and 
 Philadelphia. The Edinburgh leaven was working and everywhere 
 the plan was welcomed and encouragement given. I say every¬ 
 where, though it should be added that one veteran secretary, who 
 had been carrying such a heavy load of responsibility that he had 
 no energy left to absorb a new idea, said that the plan was 
 utterly impracticable. Not so his associates, and that Board has 
 been one of the warmest supporters of the School during later 
 years. 
 
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The School opened in September, 1911. While President 
 Miackenzie had stated that he would be satisfied if we secured 
 within five years an enrollment of a dozen, the number of students 
 the first year was 14. Before the close of the first winter, the 
 princely gift of Mrs. Emma Baker Kennedy of New York City, 
 in memory of her husband, the late John Stewart Kennedy, 
 assured the financial permanence of the School and led to its 
 rechristening. 
 
 The first decade of the Kennedy School of Missions falls 
 naturally into three parts: the three years preceding the World 
 War, the five years of the War, and the last two years. 
 
 The first three years were a period of beginnings. The 
 enrollment the first year was 14; the second year, 12; and then 
 it rose in 1913-14 to 21. With the outbreak of the war and the 
 impossibility of sending missionaries to the Near East, the enroll¬ 
 ment jumped to 46, and it has remained in the forties ever since, 
 except in 1918-19, when it rose to 60, owing to the presence for 
 some months of a party of 11 Norwegian missionaries and candi¬ 
 dates. They could not go to China by the old route, and stopped 
 here for some months in order to become better acquainted with 
 English and with the American viewpoint. 
 
 Two years ago the Trustees disbanded the Board of Adminis¬ 
 tration, which had been functioning from the beginning, and 
 organized the teaching staff into a Faculty, with the secretary as 
 dean. Thus began the third period. 
 
 And what are the results of the ten years ? The total number 
 enrolled as regular students to date has been 304, of whom 294 
 are still living. Of these, 242 today hold the commission of some 
 Board of Foreign Missions and are about to sail, are at home 
 on furlough, or are actually on the foreign field. Of the remain¬ 
 ing 52, 10 were detained from getting to the front, 8 have retired, 
 10 are still preparing for service or are temporarily detained, 22 
 are engaged in religious, social, or educational work at home, and 
 2 are in administrative positions. Of the total, 170 were candi¬ 
 dates or appointees, 134 furloughed missionaries. 
 
 The 242 on the field are literary in every mission land. The 
 Near East claims 62 (28 of them in what is left of Turkey); 55 
 are in China; 44 in India and Ceylon; 28 in pagan Africa; 23 in 
 the Japanese Empire; 16 in Latin America; and 13 in Southeastern 
 Asia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. 
 
 These men and women are working in at least 125 strategic 
 centers in 32 countries The sun never sets upon their labors. 
 Five are building up agriculture; two are adjusting people to 
 modern industrial conditions; 65 are in distinctly educational work 
 
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(10 of them as heads of higher institutions); 30 are training 
 girls and women; 45 are heads of Christian homes; 49 are assist¬ 
 ing the unfortunate to reconstruct broken lives, in China, Turkey, 
 etc.; 11 are nurses and 4 are physicians. 
 
 We cannot claim that these workers all had their major 
 training in Hartford. Many of them have been here for only 
 brief periods of a few weeks or months, but all have received a 
 certain amount of training here, and are working in the Hartford 
 spirit. The number who have received the certificate of the 
 School for a complete year’s work is 83, 10 of whom remained 
 for a second year. To two others, higher degrees have been 
 awarded. 
 
 The ecclesiastical connections of the students are equally 
 varied, no fewer than 34 denominational and other agencies hav¬ 
 ing been served by our students. Naturally, because of our em¬ 
 phasis upon training for work among Moslems, the American 
 Board has had the largest number of the students, 69 in all. 
 Close behind the American Board is the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, with 59, and the Northern Presbyterian, with 33. Every 
 large denomination in the United States and Canada, and many 
 of the smaller bodies, two branches of the Church in Great Brit, 
 ain, and several on the continent, have been represented. 
 
 The expansion of departments has kept pace with the growth 
 in enrollment. We began with merely a department for Moslem 
 lands, supplemented by lectures on India, China, etc. Now we have 
 the strongest Africa department in the country. It is in charge 
 of Professor W. C. Willoughby, assisted by Dr. H. K. W. Kumm 
 and Mrs. Agnes C. L. Donohugh and, for instruction in languages, 
 by Dr. Stanley L. Galpin and Rev. George B. Nind. The China 
 department is under one of the recognized Chinese scholars, Dr. 
 Lewis Hodous; while the Mohammedan department is constantly 
 adding to its prestige under Professors Macdonald, Worrell, and 
 Ananikian. For a brief period India was nobly represented by 
 Dr. J. P. Jones, who came from a position of leadership in India 
 to one of commanding influence in Hartford, from which death 
 removed him in the fall of 1916. Last year a department for 
 Malaysia was ably maintained by Dr. W. G. Shellabear, supple¬ 
 menting the work of the Mohammedan department. 
 
 While these special departments have been developing, the 
 work in the more general field has not been neglected. Professor 
 Worrell has expanded the work in Phonetics; while the Depart¬ 
 ment of Missionary Practice, organized in 1913 by Mrs. Labaree 
 (now Mrs. Platt) and under her supervision until the autumn of 
 1920, has been an important influence in the development of 
 
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character. We cannot over-emphasize the value of her service to 
 the School itself and its effect upon the lives of her students. 
 Because of the changes resulting from the World War, it has 
 been wise to modify somewhat the theoretical courses and the 
 practice service in this department, and these changes go into 
 effect next year. 
 
 The number of students who have died is ten; two in Africa 
 and two in India, one in each case (Miriam Day and Mabel L. 
 Chase) after but a few months of service and the other two (Rev. 
 C. H. Maxwell and Rev. H. A. Walter) in the fullness of young 
 manhood. Two (Mrs. F. D. Shepard and Dr. F. L. Neeld) died 
 in the ripeness of old age after a life spent upon the field; two 
 (Mary A. Simestcr and Bernice Hunting) shortly after returning 
 to their fields; one (Reba A. Kirkpatrick) while on the way to 
 China; and one (M. Eloise Eagleton) while engaged in useful 
 work at home. 
 
 One of these former students, Dr. Neeld, had also been a 
 useful lecturer on India; and another honored lecturer. Dr. Paul G. 
 Bergen of China, had passed away some years before Dr. Neeld. 
 
 In all these years the Theological Seminary has been not only 
 the mother of the School of Missions but also its staunch ally. 
 It altered the Library building to provide classrooms, for which 
 it has never charged a cent; it has provided in the Library the 
 books needed, including strong special collections for different 
 fields; its professors have given of their time and strength with¬ 
 out stint; it has contributed towards the administrative expenses 
 of the School, advanced funds when necessary, and carried deficits 
 until repaid. 
 
 And if the Seminary has been a mother to the School of 
 Missions, the School of Pedagogy has been a helpful sister. It 
 has provided the dormitory for the women students, and its pro¬ 
 fessors have gladly welcomed our students to their classes and 
 provided special courses when called for. 
 
 Without the support of these institutions, and especially with¬ 
 out the loyalty and self-sacrifice of the Faculty, the story of the 
 ten years could never have been written. The School hopes it 
 has given as much as it has received. It has been serving an 
 ever-enlarging constituency, and we trust that the friends of the 
 School will make possible its further expansion in order that it 
 may adequately meet the opportunities ready to hand. 
 
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