What are the main issues in this part?  

I wrote the full story of father's footsteps in my webpage on July 30, 2015. There were, however, some remaining and at times, intriguing questions from the story, which, I feel, deserved to be clarified with further attempts. I made several inquiries through Presbyterian organizations without results, primarily because it had happened at least 100 years ago, and the current staffs in the organization involved showed no interest at the time of inquiry and offered no help whatsoever. Here I am going to explain in detail why and how I tried to get the answer, and to show my frustrations below.
Four important issues will be presented in connection with above findings.
  I. Question of misappropriation on the fund by an American Missionary
II. Father’s address in 633 West 115th St, New York, NY 10025
III. Brief summary of father’s education
IV. Persons of interest
V. Place of father’s photos taken in 1923

  I. Father’s financial distress  

Father was about ten years old when he came to America accompanied by his uncle in the year of 1903.
My grandfather had entrusted money transfer from Korea to America to an American Missionary stationed at Seoul, Korea. Grandfather being a very wealthy person had sent sufficient amounts of money for living and educational expenses for father and his uncle regularly during their American stay, but the remittances had been done irregularly and insufficiently, sometimes even totally failed, which had been going on during the entire period of father’s stay in America. Consequently father had to go through a lot of difficulties which were well described by my mother when she talked to me several times while I was in Korea.

Following are some anecdotes from mother about father’s hardships.
He missed his school for one year because he was unable to pay for his tuition, which I discovered to be the year of 1911, verified by his school record.
For some months his money ran out with no means to replenish, and could not eat regular meals. So at times he went to a local ice-cream parlor to feed himself with ice-cream on credits. Consequently he lost his weight noticeably.
In the long winter time he shoveled snow for some residents’ homes including his adopted mother’s, Miss Ellie, for which he was paid a few pennies each time. Miss Ellie advised him to come to her home to eat with her, but father was too shy to do that without paying for his meals.

At the end of ten years’ hardship, he finally decided to return to Korea temporarily to discuss his ordeal with grandfather and to find better means of money transfer in the year of 1914. By the time of his planned return travel back to America via the trans-pacific ocean liner, the World War I broke out unexpectedly and there was the world-wide naval blockade, which prohibited navigation of any commercial ships. So he had to change his plan, which meant suspension of his college education, to settle in Korea, and manage his family business.
According to mother, it was such a long time ago ranging from 1903 to 1914, when there were no convenient means to transfer money from one country to another, it had to be so difficult, which I understood quite well, until I found something totally unexpected.

In 1985 when I visited the Williston School for the second time to inquire father’s former school, a staff at the alumni office replied to me that there was no record of his former school, and then she found an old two-page letter written in 1956 by a person named Charles Edey Fay asking about Jewhan Chung’s address. I instantly recognized him to be the uncle of my father who had accompanied father as his guardian since father had been so young at the time of his arrival at America.
So I asked for a copy of the letter, and read it when I arrived home. There was mention of misappropriation of the funds grandfather had sent to Jewhan Chung as tuitions and living expenses, an unfounded slander to Jewhan Chung such as history of his prior nervous breakdown, and finally the acceptance of the responsibility on the financial loss inflicted upon Jewhan Chung as a result of mishandling of the fund, finally issuance of a check payable to Jewhan Chung through Mr. Dwight H. Day, Treasurer of the Board, as monetary compensation. The school did not have any information about Jewhan Chung’s address at that time. In fact, Jewhan Chung had passed away a long time ago in Korea. I believe that the check had to be returned to the Board since it could not be sent to the payable person.

That was the first time I learned that the American Missionary had done some serious wrongdoings and the Board of Foreign Missions did acknowledge it only after Mr. Fay made special efforts to explain the details of the problem at that time. Finally the Board took action to compensate the financial loss though unsuccessfully. The name of the Presbyterian Missionary was not mentioned in the letter for an unknown reason.
Following was my feeling after having known the contents of the letter. It was misappropriation by the Missionary, the Board, or both of them. Because of this wrongful act, my father suffered so much and so long, missed one school year from 1911-1912, and made an unnecessary and very difficult trip back to Korea and could not return to school, and did not complete his college education. I want to make it known to the current Board of Foreign Missions, and to have full information of the money transfers during those years, and the amount of the check issued as well as the name of the Presbyterian Missionary.

I badly wanted to know who the Missionary was. It was late 2014 when I was trying to obtain all the school records of both Jaone Chung, my father and Jewhan Chung, my granduncle. There was a slip of copy from Jewhan Chung’s file of the Williston School Archives, where I found one line of typed words such as “c/o Dr. George H. Jones, Seoul, Korea”. Upon further search, I found this named person to be a famous American Missionary in Korea from late 19th century to early twentieth century. This person had to be a very important one to Jewhan Chung since this copy was kept in the old file of Jewhan Chung for more than 100 years. I have a strong suspicion that he was the same Missionary responsible for the financial distress incurred to father and granduncle. I wanted to make a full search on this important matter.

Following are my multiple efforts to contact the Board of Foreign Missions of Presbyterian Church:
First, I inquired a local Presbyterian Church, Rochester, New York asking how to contact the Board of Foreign Missions, but there was no reply.
Second, I tried to contact the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA where I communicated with a reference archivists and then researchers, but I realized that the search required review of collections of information from 1903 to 1956 would be too voluminous and time-consuming even for researchers. There was suggestion that I could visit the Society myself, but I was not a knowledgeable person to go through the volume by volume for such vast collections, and I live in Canandaigua, New York. It was impossible for me to conduct such reviews by any means.
Third, I tried to contact the Broadway Presbyterian Church, 601 West 114th St, New York, NY 10025, but the Administrator mentioned that the Church didn’t have anything to do with the Board of Foreign Commissions, and referred to the Presbytery of New York City.
Fourth, I wrote to Administrator, Presbytery of New York City, but had no reply from there.
Fifth, I learned that the current successor to the Board of Foreign Missions and COEMAR is the Presbyterian Mission Agency; which is part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). I wrote to Teresa Grant, Associate for Mission Administration, Office of the Executive Director, Presbyterian Mission Agency, Presbyterian Church USA, who referred me back to the Presbyterian Historical Society.
I now realized that it was impossible for me to search and find out the information I so badly wanted.

Recently I obtained following information on the Brief History of Presbyterian Church in U S A from the Presbyterian Historical Society.
The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was organized in 1837. The Board remained in existence until 1958, at which time its activities were transferred to the Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations (COEMAR) of the newly formed United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. In 1972, COEMAR was replaced by the Program Agency.
In 1983, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) reunited with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Program Agency of the former UPCUSA worked jointly with the General Assembly Mission BoardRe of the former PCUS until 1988, when the General Assembly Council of the reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was formed.
In 2008, the General Assembly Council was renamed the General Assembly Mission Council. In 2012, the General Assembly Mission Council was renamed the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the current name.

Below I post an old letter which triggered me to make search, and a copy of a slip of paper to show the name of Dr. George H. Jones

  Charles Edey Fay's Written Letter  

This two page letter was given to me by an employee on my second visit to the Williston Alumni Office in 1985 while I was inquiring further school record such as father’s former school. It was the letter written by Mr. Fay, one of Jewhan Chung’s acquaintances, who sent this letter to the Williston Alumni to inquire the address of Jewhan Chung. This letter is self-explanatory so that they are posted below.

  Handwriting Page 1


Handwriting Page 2


Mr. Fay's scanned typed letter


Mr. Fay’s scanned translated letter


Ia. Discussion  

Until I discovered the letter of Mr. Charles Edey Fay written on January 8, 1956, I had had full understanding on the cause of father’s financial distress, which had to due to considerable difficulty in international money transfer in those days from 1903 to 1914. I heard from my mother that the transfer had been arranged through an American Missionary stationed in Seoul, Korea obviously prior to 1903. In those days there had been neither international telephone service nor transpacific airborne mail service. It must have taken at least one month of time from Tokyo harbor of Japan to San Francisco, America by trans-pacific liners. However when I read this letter, my understanding changed drastically. The letter clearly stated “misappropriation by a Presbyterian Missionary, of the funds...Besides the Boards of Foreign Missions initially disclaimed liability… However with the efforts by Mr. Fay, the Board members made up the amount of the loss sustained by Mr. Jewhan Chung and sent a check to Mr. Fay to be transmitted to Mr. Chung.
Obviously an American Missionary had committed misappropriation, and the Board of Foreign Missions acknowledged the financial loss sustained by Mr. Jewhan Chung. However Mr. Jewhan Chung had died of an illness in 1916 in Korea, and my father, Jaone Chung died in 1954. I came to America in 1967, and read this letter of 1956 in 1985. Alas! I did discover these wrongdoings committed by the Missionary, which had been ignored and tried to be acquiesced by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, too late.
My father and granduncle had suffered so much and so long, and my father even missed so many school days in the school year of 1911, and was forced to make a temporary return to Korea in 1914.
I wanted to find out the monetary remittances which included the complete record of the payments by my grandfather and receipts to my granduncle. I also wanted the amount of the check, and the amount of the monetary loss. Because of lack of cooperation and/or help on the various Presbyterian organizations, I could not find any trace of this fact so far. Next is the slip of paper found in the old school file of Jewhan Chung

  1910’s Jewhan Chung  

This is a heading in a slip in the Williston Seminary file of Jewhan Chung in September 2014, which was sent to me from the Archives at my request. Following are a scanned slip and my decoded writing. This slip and especially. Dr. George H. Jones must have been a very important person since it had been kept so carefully there longer than 100 years.
Jewhan Chung studied at the Williston Seminary from 1906 to 1910, graduated from the Williston, and went to Colorado Schools of Mines, Golden, CO 80401. Therefore this slip must have been in his school file since 1910.
Upon further search, I found this named person to be a famous Missionary in Korea from late nineteenth century through early twentieth century. I feel strongly that Dr. Jones was such an important person to Jewhan Chung, and most likely was the very person who had been entrusted with money transfer from Sangwhan Chung, my grandfather to Jewhan Chung.

  Scanned slip of paper from Jewhan Chung 1910


Decoded typed note
>

The scanned copy of the letter from the Presbyterian Historical Society[Charlene Peacock]
 

The letter indicates that the Board of Foreign Missions, which had hired the very Missionary who happened to have committed misappropriations of the money to be transferred from my grandfather to Jewhan Chung, ceased to exist in 1958, and then was transferred to different organizations successively.
Mr. Fay brought the inquiry to the Board in 1956, and most likely the reason why the Board issued the check payable to Jewhan Chung was to resolve any remaining issues or disputes before its final day. However both Jewhan Chung and father had already died in Korea, by the time when the check was made to Jewhan Chung,not knowing this news.
The period when the misappropriations were committed was from 1903 to 1914 while my father and Jewhan Chung were studying in America.
I believe Jewhan Chung referred this problem to Mr. Fay sometime between 1906 and 1910 during his Williston student days since in 1910 he graduated the Seminary and went to Golden, Colorado to enter the Colorado School of Mines.
This serious claim of misappropriations committed by a Presbyterian Missionary was made not later than 1910, which was finally resolved by the Board members sometime in or just before 1956. How could such a long delay of 46 years or even longer be rationally explained?

This is my inference:
The Board must have ignored or forgotten this claim though it had the undeniable proof presented by Mr. Fay. And then around half a century later, suddenly the Board was to meet its final day in 1958, and they must have reviewed any unresolved problems, and then found this claim by Jewhan Chung represented by Mr. Fay. Therefore they tried to settle this claim by issuing the check payable to Jewhan Chung for the financial losses.
What an unfortunate and unfair treatment it was!
Now all those people responsible for this situation were all gone, and the Board itself also disappeared out of the history.

  II. Korean Methodist Church and Institute
  Father’s address in the Williston Seminary record was 633 West 115th St, N.Y. City.


Decoded typed note
 

The above address was found in a slip of paper from his school record.
I went to the location In 1971 while I was working at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, Bronx, NY, and found the Korean Methodist Church and Institute at the address. I could not see the minister at that time, and so I left without meeting with anyone in the Church.
I remember having heard two stories related to his dwelling in New York.
The first story: Father lived in a large room along with his uncle and Rev. Syngman Rhee [이승만(李承晩)] came there later and rented a small room to prepare his dissertation paper for his Doctorate degree at Princeton University. Rev. Rhee was in the middle age while father was around in his late teens. Mr. Rhee and father were quite close and even exchanged jokes freely. They shared the same building for 3 to 6 months. During his stay there, he baptized father. The second story: When Japan annexed Korea in 1910, father and his uncle embraced each other while lamenting and crying in their room all day long.
Father had talked about his room at least twice while I had been at his side with mother and/or some visitors including his friends, relatives or just guests, but he made no mention on the nature of building, and never mentioned about Korean Church.
In recent years I wrote about “Father’s footsteps in America” to participate in the Memorable Photo Contest sponsored by SNU-CM-AA, and needed reliable information. So I made an appointment and met Rev. Yong Bo Lee on January 6, 2015 at the Church. He explained that this building had been dormitories for students, and so Korean students and some other Koreans rented the rooms at that time. He did know that Rev. Syngman Rhee had been there. He brought an old thick 
egister book of church members and we found father’s name with one line note as following: “정재원”: 서울출신, N.Y.U.에서 상과전공 세례교인, 귀국.“
[In English: Jaone Chung born in Seoul, studied business in NYU, a baptist, returned to Korea.] I requested following corrections and additions, which he made: ”N.Y.U. 상과전공” to “펜실베니아 상과대학”, 세례교인
[Correction: From NYU to Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Baptist.] followed by “이승만박사가 세례함”, “Jan 6, 2015 방문 오후 1:59분. 정관호 (막내아들)”
[Dr. Syngman Rhee baptized Jaone Chung according to Kwan Ho Chung, his son,
01/06/15] is added to this line. At this point I realized there was my family-connection to this Church. Afterwards he took me to the top fourth floor to show me a unit of common bath and shower room, a large room with a fireplace, a small room, and an office-like space. We came down to the first floor which showed the chapel. I appreciated greatly to Reverend Lee and left.

  Korean Methodist Church and Institute - Sep 8, 2014


Korean Methodist Church Member Book


IIa. Brief History of Korean Methodist Church  

When I made search through Wikipedia for the Korean Methodist and Institute, there was a story of celebration of March 1 Movement on Apr 28, 1921 at Madison Avenue Methodist Church by Korean residents and students. Documents relating to the beginning of the church are scarce, but the church celebrates April 28, 1921 as the church establishment day. In 1927 Church was moved to the current location, the building was small with 4 stories high, about 25 by 100 feet, but it was an intellectual church with strong ties to Korean Independence movement.
Father used the room in the building definitely from 1909 to 1913 for 4 years, but there was a possibility that he had used it even before 1909. He came to America in 1925 for several months for the second time, and even at that time the Church did not exist at the current location. It is difficult to figure out how father was listed in the member list of the Church since his presence in America was before the establishment of the Church at this address, and the one line information was not quite accurate so that it must have been recorded by someone who knew father. Since father had been there before the Church establishment and met Rev. Syngman Rhee, who had baptized father at that time, his relationship to “the Korean Methodist Church and Institute” was unusually deep.

 p> III. Father’s education  

Name: Korean 정재원, Chinese 鄭載謜, English Jaone Chung
Year of Birth and Death: 1893-1954
Birthplace: (City of) Jinju, Gyeongsangnam Do, Korea
Place of Death: Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk Do, Korea
When father was very young, my grandfather made an important decision to move the whole family from Jinju, our native place, to Seoul to learn about the changing world and to provide better education to my father.
In addition to the regular education of Chinese classics, father was sent to a school called Heung Ah School(흥아학교) for modern western education for a few years.
From 1902 to 1903, he was sent to Tokyo, Japan to study English at the Blue Mountain Foreign Language Educational Institute (靑山外國語學院), where he studied English for a year before he went to America for American education with his uncle, Jewhan Chung(AD 1879-1916), for a guardian in the year of 1903.
He arrived at his destination, New York City and went to a grammar school to take an entrance examination, but failed because of his poor English test score. He was given 3 months’ time to prepare himself for reexamination. At that time he went to a local library and studied very hard during the daytime at the library and at night at the apartment, and then succeeded in his second trial.
This was what I had heard from him directly, but he never mentioned the name of the school, and I, as a child, never asked him about the school name. I never thought that I would ever visit his schools when I grow up.
It is so regrettable for me to be unable to find his grammar school since his secondary school, Williston Seminary, has not had any information on his prior school.
Would he ever have thought that his very young son, his last child, would grow up, come to America, settle here, and then visit his boyhood school, the old Williston Seminary, four times over the span of thirty five years, and three times I and my family stood in front of the same building where he had stood in 1913 for his class photo?
He did say to me that while he was in America, the Wright Brothers’ first flight was done, which was in December, 1903, so I took 1903 to be the year of his American arrival.
Next his school records showed that he had studied at Williston Seminary from 1909 to 1913, and at Wharton School from 1913 to 1914.
He had to return to Korea temporarily to discuss with his father for better means of money transfer, since he was obviously dissatisfied with the American Missionary’s management. Because of the unexpected outbreak of World War I, he was unable to return to the school and so his American education ended prematurely.
When I came to America, I carried his class photo with me which was the only proof of his American education. From there on, I kept searching for more information, but there were hardships and limits simply because it had happened more than one hundred years ago, and I did not have any documents!
Fortunately Williston Seminary and Wharton School had excellent systems to keep the students’ records. I am just grateful for these results I could obtain out of only one photo!

  The only proof of father’s American education


Another photo of Williston Seminary

Here is a simplified recent pedigree chart of our family to show where father and granduncle stood in our clan.

  Jinyang Chung’s Clan of five generations


Typed Chung’s Clan 1
東允(동윤)-祥煥(상환)-載謜(재원)-觀鎬(관호)-源景(원경)

 

This chart starts with my great grandfather, Dong Yoon Chung, who had my grandfather, Sangwhan Chung, as his first son, and my granduncle, Jewhan Chung as his fourth son.
Grandfather had his only son, Jaone Chung, my father, who had me, Kwan Ho Chung, as his only son, and I have two sons, Henry Chung and James Chung.
Father and Granduncle were printed in red to highlight the fact that both of them had American education from the year of 1903 to 1914.

  IV. Persons of interest  

I found three names in my search connected with this financial issue. Two names were found in the letter of Mr. Charles Edey Fay.
The first person had to be Mr. Charles Edey Fay, the writer of the letter of 1956.
The second person was Dwight H. Day, Treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions.
The third person was Dr. George H. Jones found in the slip of paper from the old file of Jewhan Chung, my granduncle. I tried to find information of these persons.

  IVa. Charles Edey Fay, Stamford, Connecticut.  

In his letter, he introduced himself as an acquaintance to Jewhan Chung, and also mentioned that Jewhan Chung visited him at his Wall Street Office and at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. I did not know his profession or any other personal details. On internet search, he was listed as a member, National Municipal League, and a biographer, Stamford Historical Society.
I feel so much grateful to him for his help and effort for Jewhan Chung, his acquaintance, for such a long time ever since their last meeting not later than 1910, when Jewhan Chung left New York for Golden, Colorado to study at the School of Colorado Mines.
In his letter to the Williston School, he mentioned that “Almost 25 to 30 years ago, I had made the acquaintance of Jewhan Chung of Seoul, Korea, then a student at Williston Seminary.”
However according to my calculation, it had to be at least 46 years since he had last seen Jewhan Chung. Mr. Fay didn’t quite realize how quickly the time had gone!
Nevertheless he never stopped his efforts to help his acquaintance until it came to the satisfactory result, to vindicate Jewhan Chung out of the false accusations and the wrong claim of being free from any liability on the part of the Board of Foreign Missions and the Presbyterian Missionary. I believe that Mr. Fay must be older than Jewhan Chung.
I claim to be the sole representative of my father and granduncle. Granduncle was divorced from his wife because of his long absence after their marriage, and consequently had no offspring. I am the grandson of the main line in the Jinyang Chung’s clan. I want to explore further for his personal information and, if possible, try to find his descendants to express my deep gratitude to him.
On my further search, I came up with some new information of Mr. Fay.
First, I found the same full name, Charles Edey Fay, as the author of the Story of the “Mary Celeste”, and thought he must have been a writer by profession. In THE STORY OF “MARY CELESTE” which was originally published in 1942, I found the author to be Charles Edey Fay, Esq., Sunnycrest Farm, Grassy Hill Road, Woodbury, Connecticut. I strongly believe that this author was the same person who wrote the letter of 1956 since their name was exactly same and they lived in the State of Connecticut during the same timeline.
Second, I found his burial place, which was Pinecrest Cemetery, Lake Worth, Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. There I also found the dates of his birth and death: May 26, 1875 and May 28, 1957. This gives me room for my thought about Mr. Fay and Jewhan Chung. Mr. Fay must have been 4 years older than Jewhan Chung, and his letter was written only one year before his death, when he was eighty two years old. The address in his letter was 1027 North A Street, Lake Worth, and the cemetery was at 1724 12th Ave S, Lake Worth, FL 33460.

Below are the timeline and address of Mr. Fay, scanned images of the cover of the book, THE STORY OF “MARY CELESTE”, the sketch of the Brigantine, and the photo of his tomb.

  Scanned Timeline - Charles Edey Fay & Jewhan Chung


The cover of THE STORY OF “MARY CELESTE”


The Mary Celeste abandoned at sea on Dec 4, 1872


Mr. Charles Edey Fay's tombstone:


IVb. Dwight H. Day  

This person was found in the letter of Mr. Fay as being Treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions.
I made my search of Mr. Dwight H. Day and found the following information:
They were SOME ASPECTS OF THE WORK OF A TREASURER OF A FOREIGN MISSION BOARD, International Review of Mission, World Missionary Conference, 1910, etc. Some abstracts were made available online since 2015.

  IVc. Dr. George H. Jones  

George Heber Jones (14 August 1867 – 11 May 1919) was an American Christian missionary in Korea. Jones, who grew up in Utica, New York, is notable as the first Protestant Missionary in Korea who took an academic approach to the research of Korean religions.
He arrived in Korea in 1887 as a Methodist minister; while there, he not only made major contributions to the spread of Christianity in Korea, but also founded three academic journals: The Korean Repository, The Korean Review, and Shinhak Wolbo (Theology Monthly).
He also played a significant role in encouraging Korean immigration to Hawaii; of the first ship of Korean migrant laborers bound for Hawaii to work on sugar plantations there, which departed on 22 December 1902, more than half came from his church in Incheon.
In July 1907, he was the subject of a murder attempt; Yale University professor George Trumbull Ladd attributed the attack to opinions Jones had expressed in an article he wrote about the suppression of a Korean riot, in which he praised the Japanese police.
He died in Miami, Florida on 11 May 1919 after a long illness; his funeral was held in Leonia, New Jersey four days later. His Korean Name: 조원시, 趙元時, Jo Won-si. Cho Wǒnshi.
In view of the above information, I have strong suspicion that Dr. George Heber Jones was the same Presbyterian Missionary who had committed misappropriation described in the letter of Mr. Charles Edey Fay, even though I have had no way to prove that Dr. Jones was the very Presbyterian Missionary described in Mr. Fay’s letter and the American Missionary mentioned by my mother. I have my firm belief that Mr. Fay had learned the fact from Jewhan Chung, and he prudently described him as “a Presbyterian Missionary” to avoid any disputes of the personal slandering.
Besides, Dr. Jones had praised the inhuman acts of the most cruel Japanese police while they had slaughtered the helpless Koreans asking for liberation from Japanese rules. As a Christian Missionary, how could he advocate and praise the most cruel Japanese slaughter of peaceful Koreans?