Skip to main content

Hunt Family Collection (#009)

 Collection — Box: 1:1
Identifier: SC-2017-06

Scope and Contents

The Hunt family collection contains primarily the papers and photographs of William Brewster Hunt and his son, Bruce Finley Hunt (and to a lesser extent the papers of their family members and more distant relatives). The chronology of this collection spans from 1840 to 1992, when Bruce Hunt died. In terms of geography, it mostly pertains to Korea, Manuchuria and the United States. The Hunts were Christian missionaries to Korea and Manchuria, having spent decades bringing the Gospel to that region (Bruce Hunt, some of his siblings and all of his children were born in either Korea or Manchuria). Documentation pertaining to the activities of the Hunts in the United States also appears in this collection. Notable items in this collection includes documentation that concerns Bruce Hunt’s imprisonment in Manchuria during World War II at the hands of his Japanese captors and the sufferings he endured while keeping his Christian faith. Hunt wrote two books about his imprisonment—these being For a Testimony and Out of Prison. The collection also contains many records produced by the Presbyterian Independent Foreign Missions Board, which shows how missionary activity was administered from the United States. The greatest parts of this collection are 1) the correspondence between the various family members, 2) the writings of Bruce F. Hunt, and 3) correspondence between Bruce Hunt and the OPC Committee on Foreign Missions. These members of the Hunt family lived before the age of digital communication (long before email and cell phones), so for the members of the Hunt family to keep in communication with each other, they frequently wrote letters, of which the Hunt collection contains hundreds. A noteworthy aspect of the nature of this collection is the fact that the associates and colleagues of Bruce Hunt were also close friends and some of them were also in-laws. A letter from one Presbyterian missionary to another might refer to matters of missionary work, as well as family matters. Also, as a part of his duties, Reverend Hunt traveled extensively around the United States, visiting various OPC churches and providing oral reports about his activities in Korea. The purpose of these travels was to keep other members of the OPC well-informed on Hunt’s missionary work and to develop relationships with those who might provide financial support. There are hundreds of letters in the Hunt collection to and from OPC friends and supporters. Since the people featured in this collection were deeply involved in the propagation of the Gospel, there is a large quantity of writings concerning Christian theology—sermons, essays, book manuscripts, articles and the like. By examining Reverend Hunt’s sermon notes, one gets the impression that he was able to deliver a full-length sermon after having jotted down a few notes on scraps of paper. The extensive quantity of written material in this collection indicates that Reverend Hunt (as well as other missionaries) must have spent the vast majority of their time seated at their typewriters, typing out reports, official correspondence, personal letters, sermons, articles, books and more. The Hunts were not camera-shy either, as this collection contains hundreds of photograhs, many of which feature Reverend Hunt, himself—often front and center in group photos. The Hunt family collection must be one of the most valuable and informative collections of manuscript, typed, printed and photographic documentation concerning Presbyterian missions in Korea and the far East in the twentieth century, and it will be of immense value to anyone needing information on Christian missionary work in Korea at that time, as well as any aspect of the Hunt family.

Dates

  • Creation: 1840 - 1992
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1890 - 1989

Creator

Restrictions/Access Note

Restrictions may apply at the discretion of library staff.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection is available to scholars and researchers who have registered with Westminster Theological Seminary Montgomery Library. There may be materials in this collection that are copyrighted. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine the copyright status of materials in the collection to comply with copyright law.

Timothy Dwight Hunt

According to William Brewster Hunt’s autobiography, he mentioned that his grandfather (Timothy Dwight Hunt) was a missionary in Hawaii, and it was there that one of his children (James Richard Hunt) was born. At some point in time, the mission in Hawaii was closed and Timothy Hunt accepted a home mission appointment in San Francisco to start a church plant. Later details concerning the life of Timothy Dwight Hunt are obscure.

James Richard Hunt

James Richard Hunt was the son of Timothy Dwight Hunt, a missionary in Hawaii, and it was there that James was born sometime in the 1840s. The Hunt family later moved to San Francisco, California when Timothy Dwight Hunt accepted a home mission appointment to plant a Presbyterian church in the area. According to William Brewster Hunt’s biographical notes, his father, James, was the first preacher in San Francisco. James grew up with the expectation that he would go on to pursue a college education, but an abrupt life change (which was not identified in the Hunt family papers) determined that he would move to Illinois and become a farmer. James married at the age of twenty one and a year later, his first child was born—a son they named William Brewster Hunt. Facts concerning James’ later years are obscure.

William Brewster Hunt (1869-1953)

William Brewster Hunt was the son of James Richard Hunt (who was the son of Timothy Dwight Hunt). According to Hunt’s autobiography, the Hunts were a family of modest means, though they considered themselves wealthy—in terms of their Christian faith. According to an obituary that was published in the Presbyterian Guardian (January 15, 1954) William was born in Ottawa, Illinois on October 2, 1869. Because James needed William to work on the family farm, William’s education during his early years was irratic at best, though he was able to graduate from high school, and then matriculate through college. He graduated from Lake Forest College in 1894, and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1897. It was in that same year that he married Bertha Finley, the sister of the editor of the New York Times. Soon after their marriage, the two were sent to Korea as missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. This couple produced two children: Bruce Finley Hunt and Dorothy Hunt Anderson. Bertha died in Korea in 1905. William married Anna Lloyd on September 20, 1906. This couple produced two daughters: Margaret (known as “Margie”) and Mary. Margaret married the Reverend Leslie Dunn, and Mary married Calvin Cummings. William spent most of his career as a missionary at the Chai Ryung Mission in the northern part of Korea. In his missionary work, he was a strong advocate of the Nevius missionary method. Toward that end, he worked to make Korean churches as self-supporting as possible, trained Koreans in order to prepare them for leadership positions, and to become missionaries to other countries. He also worked tirelessly to put a Bible into the hands of as many Koreans as possible. In all, William Hunt spent forty-two years in Korea before returning to the United States in 1939. Late in life, he and his wife moved to Philadelphia; and later to Wildwood, New Jersey, living with Margie and Leslie Dunn. William Brewster Hunt and Anna both died in December of 1953. Anna died on the sixth and William died on the twentieth of that month.

Anna Lloyd Hunt, 1873-1953

Anna Lloyd Hunt was born on February 28, 1873 in East Orange, New Jersey. Her education included matriculation through Smith College, and she graduated from that institution in 1896. Anna married William Hunt on September 20, 1906. As a devout Christian in the Presbyterian Church she shared her husband’s zeal for advancing the Gospel and worked with him as a missionary in Korea. She and her husband had two children: Margaret and Mary. She died on December 6, 1953 in Wildwood, New Jersey of hypertensive heart disease. Her husband, William F. Hunt died on the twentieth of that month.

Bruce Finley Hunt (1903-1992)

Bruce Finley Hunt was born in Pyongyang, Korea to William Brewster Hunt and Bertha Finley Hunt on June 4, 1903. Because of his parents’ missionary work in Korea, Bruce grew up in an evangelical Christian environment and participated in evangelical gatherings and Bible schools. In 1919 he traveled to the US to attend Soldan High School, in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1920 he was admitted to Wheaton College and spent two years there before transferring to Rutgers University. After graduation, he was admitted to the Princeton Theological Seminary. Hunt returned to Korea to begin his missionary career in the fall of 1928. Bruce married Katharine Blair on September 27, 1932. Katharine was also the daughter of a missionary in Korea—William Newton Blair. The two had five children together—these being Lois Margaret (born on August 30, 1933), Bertha (born in 1935), Katharine Condit (born in 1937 and was always known as “Connie”), and a pair of twins—David and Mary (born in 1940). Hunt took a sabbatical from his missionary work from 1935 to 1936 to matriculate through Westminster Theological Seminary. He left the Presbyterian Church in the USA in 1936 to become one of the founding members of the Presbyterian Church of America (later renamed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). Following his matriculation at WTS, Hunt moved to Manchuria in late 1936 to resume his missionary work. His mission was one that was sponsored and supervised by the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, and the Hunt collection contains a wide assortment of papers from that governing body—an institution established by J. Gresham Machen. He later became a missionary under the auspices of the OPC Foreign Mission Board. In late 1941, Hunt was arrested by the Japanese authorities in Manchura, but was soon released, as no valid charges were made against him. He was arrested again the day after his intital release. The Japanese in Manuchuria tried to force Hunt and his Christian followers to submit to Shinto-ism and Shrine worship, and consequently some of the members of Hunt’s flock were martyred for their faith. American diplomats were able to successfully negotiate the release of dozens of missionaries in the Far East, and the Hunt family (as well as many others) were removed from Japanese incarceration in the summer of 1942. This group of missionaries and their families were shipped out of Japan and Korea on board a ship called the Gripsholm, which sailed westward, through the Indian Ocean, around Africa and then through the Atlantic to the Port of New York, arriving late in the summer of 1942. Reverend Hunt wrote extensively about this episode of his life following his release, and also spoke about it on the lecture circuit in the United States. After World War II Hunt returned to Korea in 1946. With the outbreak of the Korean Conflict in 1950, Hunt had to leave the peninsula again, but he returned in 1952. Following retirement from active missionary work, Hunt moved to the United States and spent the majority of his time travelling to various OPC churches to promote mission work. He also wrote and preached extensively. In his career as a missionary, Hunt adopted the Nevius mission method that emphasized (among other things) the Bible’s centrality in Christian faith. The Hunt family collection contains folders on the Nevius missionary method. As a Presbyterian, Hunt was a strong believer in Calvinist theology. Following his retirement, Hunt returned to the United States. He died on July 26, 1992 in the Quarryville Nursing Home, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bruce Finley Hunt’s name, written in Korean, appears here: 한부선 and more accurately translates to “Han Bu Sun.”

Katharine Blair Hunt (1904-1994)

Katharine Blair was born to Dr. and Mrs. William Newton Blair on August 3, 1904 in Pyong Yang, Korea. The Pyong Yang Mission Station was one of the largest of its kind in the world, and through her father, Katharine had the opportunity to meet some of the most prominent Presbyterian missionaries of the early twentieth century. Katharine attended school at the Pyong Yang Foreign School for missionaries’ children through the eighth grade. Afterwards, she traveled to Topeka, Kansas to continue her education. After high school graduation she matriculated through Park College, graduating in 1926. After graduation she spent a summer pursuing a graduate education at Iowa University, then taught English in Herculaneum, Missouri, and then returned to Korea to teach high school-level English at the Pyong Yang Foreign School. It was there that she renewed her acquaintance with Bruce Finley Hunt. They married in September of 1932. During a fulough in America in 1936, the Hunts left the Presbyterian Church USA and helped in the founding of a new, more conservative branch of the Presbyterian denomination—the Presbyterian Church of America—later renamed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This action caused them to separate from family and friends that they had known in Korea. In 1937 the newly established Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions sent the Hunt family back to Asia—but to Manchuria, rather than Korea. Brue and Kathy had five children together—these being Lois Margaret (born on August 30, 1933), Bertha (born in 1935), Katharine Condit (born in 1937 and was always known as “Connie”), and a pair of twins—David and Mary (born in 1940). In the coming years, the Japanese military invaded Korea and Manchuria. The new authority in that region intended to enforce Shinto-ism and Shrine Worship—something that the Hunts and their Manchurian Christian followers stead-fastly refused to accept. Katharine’s husband was arrested twice in the fall of 1941 and spent months in prison for his refusal to submit to the Japanese spiritual expectations. During his time in prison, Reverend Hunt was subjected to torture. The Hunts and many other American missionaries in Asia were released from incarceration as a result of the diplomatic efforts of the US State Department, and the family (along with many other missionaries) were transported out of Asia on board the Grispholm in a prisoner exchange. The Hunts finally arrived in New York Harbor in the summer of 1942. The Hunts spent most of their time in the US during WWII in southern California, though Reverend Hunt’s work required frequent travel. After the war, Bruce returned to Korea, leaving Katharine and their five children in America. When Katharine and the children did travel to the Orient, they moved to Japan and taught English there. The rest of their lives were marked with periodic travels back-and-forth between Korea and America and frequent separations between husband and wife. It was during these times of separation that Bruce and Kathy wrote to eachother extensively and the family papers is filled with dozens of folders containing their correspondence. Katherine B. Hunt died on December 8, 1994.

Notes concerning the children of Bruce Finley Hunt and Katharine Blair Hunt

Lois Margaret, 1933-08-30-1977-12-12 married John J. Mitchell

Bertha, 1935- married John O. Kinnaird

Katharine Condit (Connie), 1937- married B. J. Stonehouse

David, 1940- married Jean

Mary, 1940- married R. P. Heerema

Biographical / Historical

Am I my Brother’s Keeper? DS 918 .H867 1950

For a Testimony BV 3462 .H8 A3 2000

Out of Prison PR 1195 .C48 H86

Py ok e ss un k ul BV 3462.H8 A3166 2002

Korean Pentecost and the Sufferings which followed BV 3462 A3 The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches BV 2063 .N485 1958b

SaRang Center for Missions photo album BV 3460 .W478 2001

Papers Presented at a Joint Winter Study Conference Held in Pusan, 1963 under the auspices of the Korean Mission of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the World Presbyterian Mission. BV 3462 .O77

Extent

22 Linear Feet (Approximately 22 cubic feet of material, mostly written and typed on paper.)

Language of Materials

English

Korean

Arrangement

The Hunt family collection is divided into five different series, based on the head of household of each generation: John Clark. Timothy Dwight Hunt, James Richard Hutn, William Brewster Hunt, and Bruce Finley Hunt. Most of these series are divided into subseries, and many of these are further divided into sub-sub-series. This is especially true of the William Brewster Hunt family and even more-so for the Bruce Finley Hunt series which consists of approximately 19 cubic feet of material.

Most of the papers in this collection are regular letter-size papers, though a small percentage of these papers are legal-size and a few are oversize. In situations where legal-size papers appear within the collection, these have been relocated at the end of the collection in legal-size file folders. Letter-size file folders for these legal-size materials have been placed in the collection at the proper places within the collection arrangement where these materials would have been placed if they were actually letter-size, along with a notation indicating the existance of and location of the actual documents.

At the end of the collection are photographic items. This starts with photographic prints, photo-albums, and CDs containing scans of the photographic prints.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection came to Montgomery Library in a number of different sections before 2002 from members of the Hunt and Stonehouse families (descendants of Bruce Hunt). Mrs. Connie (Hunt) Stonehouse formally signed the deed-of-gift form for this collection on January 27, 2020.

Condition Description

Fully processed

Foreign Language Materials

Concerning the foreign language materials found in the Hunt famiily collection; while most of the papers in this collection are in Engish, some material is in Korean, and a smaller amount is in Manderin Chinese. Credit goes to Seung Nam Lee, Eunhyo Woo, Jin Chung and Eddie Pyun for their contribution in analyzing Korean language materials in this collection.

One of the larger cities in Korea is Busan, which was formerly identified as Pusan. Also, Korea itself, was formerly known as Chosen.

Title
Hunt family collection, 1840-1992
Status
Completed
Author
This collection was first analyzed by Karla Grafton and she initiated its arrangement and description. Robert McInnes resumed the arrangement and description processing beginning in December of 2018.
Date
April 2021
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Montgomery Library Archives of Westminster Theological Seminary Repository

Contact:
Westminster Theological Seminary
Montgomery Library
2960 West Church Rd.
Glenside PA 19038 United States