I Personal Information



Name : Jaone Chung [정재원 鄭載謜]

Pen Name(雅號) : 淡齋(담재)

Place of Birth: Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea

Date of Birth : August 9, 1893.

Date of Death : February 20, 1954

II Father in the United States of America



When father was about ten years old, grandfather made arrangements with two

persons having the background of western education so that one person took

him from Seoul to Tokyo, Japan, and there he was admitted to an Institute called

Blue Mountain Foreign Language School (靑山外國語學院) where he studied English

for a year while staying in one American family having children and learning spoken

English from them while playing together. A year later in 1903, another person

as his guardian arranged the trip to the West Coast of America for my father

via one of trans-pacific ocean liners which took about 30 days for one way navigation.

I believe that they arrived at the San Francisco Harbor and from there went to

New York City by the transcontinental railroad. My father took an entrance examination

at an elementary school without success because of his failure of English test.

He was given another chance of English test in 6 months, during which time

he studied very hard and then succeeded in entering the school. Unfortunately

I don't have any information on this school, possibly a church school in NYC.

I might add that this second person who arranged my father's travel to America

was Gyushik Kim[김규식 (金奎植)], an eminent Korean patriot in those days.

I also heard that his uncle, Jewhan Chung, accompanied him to America

to stay with him as his guardian. He also had his own American education

at Williston and Colorado School of Mines.



Several years later he was admitted to the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,

and finished his freshman course there before he went back to Korea on a temporary

basis, since he had experienced financial hardships due to difficulties of money

transfer from Korea to America. In those days there was no international

system of money transfer. So money transfer was privately arranged through

missionary organizations or American churches. But the exchange and

remittance of money were done neither timely nor reliably. Consequently father

couldn't receive much-needed money timely, so that there were times of

financial deprivation rather frequently though my grandfatuher tried to send

sufficient amounts of money through the designated organization.



So he made up his mind to discuss this problem with my grandfather for

better means of money transfer from Korea to America and so went to Korea

in 1914 after he finished his freshman course, and with his plan of prompt return

to America once the problem was taken care of to continue his undergraduate

study. It happened that just before his pre-planned boarding at the liner,

the first world war broke out, which was promptly followed by the global naval

blockade. There were no means for him to come back to the school for any

foreseeable future. So he settled at home in Seoul, married my mother and took

care of the family business.



In the year of 1925 he returned to America and tried to continue his study at the

Wharton School. But it was not successful because of the financial problems. He

couldn't even find his personal belongings since his American friend, to whom the

belongings had been entrusted, was drafted to the U. S. Army and killed in the

European front during the War.

Following are some anecdotes from my mother on father's school days in America.



Episode 1 Shortly after his arrival at the United States, the first flight of the Wright

brothers succeeded. How sensational that news could be!

That proves the time of his arrival at the United States to be the year of 1903.



Episode 2 In hot summer evenings old men were sitting on their chairs in the streets,

and talking about their experiences of the civil war. They were very frightened.



Episode 3 In a small rural town of northwestern Massachusetts, an oriental student

came to study in the seminary, an all-boy boarding school. Many students in the

class tried to tease him, which led to physical fights, which became daily routines

after the school hours. Father sustained facial bruises, swellings, bleedings, and

discolorations just about every day. At first the class teacher tried to intervene with

these tussles, but not with much success, and so left things as they were. It was normal

for father to come to the class in the morning with bruise marks on his face, but

once in a while, he had his clean face without bruises, then the class teacher pretended

to be surprised, and singled him out to ask how he managed to keep his face intact.

So there were almost daily fights for a year. At the end of the first year, the

devils said, "That's enough. No more hassles, no more fights." Afterwards came

peace to all of them and they became very good friends.



Episode 4 Father would have boils on his nape frequently, which was noticed by his

teacher, who said to him, "Jaone, watch the back of your neck." Then the

classmates tried to give hard times to him. These naughty students told him,

"Teacher told you to look at the back of your head. Show me how you can look

at that." Obviously the teacher meant father to care for the back of neck, but

these naughty devils would never leave him in peace, just trying to make fun of him.



Episode 5 The freezing inexpensive dorm

This northwestern Massachusetts town had a very cold winter. The inexpensive dorm

where father lived had no luxury system of cold and hot water, but only cold water

all year round. The wash room was in the first floor, and father stayed in the second

floor. So on a cold winter morning he washed his face and head with freezing

cold water, and then rushed upstairs. By the time of his reaching the dorm room

door, his face and hairs were literally frozen, covered with ice. He then moved

his frozen face and head to the stove with burning woods inside, then in a few

minutes all the ice melted and he cleaned his wet face and hairs with his towel.



Episode 6 Father's adopted mom in the town.

There was a single, middle-aged woman in the town, one day she said to him that

she wanted to adopt him as her son. And he accepted her offer, and so they were

adopted mother and son. She originally was a maid to a pastor who had no family.

So the pastor adopted her as his daughter, and when he died, she inherited all

his property and assets. She never married, living as a single, wealthy woman.

One day a woman in the town came to father and said, "I wanted to come to see you

and say to you that your country people, Koreans and my ancestors, the Huns,

were all neighbors a long time ago. I am so glad to see you.”



Episode 7 Friendship with Mr. Heegyeong Lee

There was Korean Association in New York City at that time, but unfortunately it was

split into two divisions, one for South Koreans, and the other for North Koreans.

My father and Mr. Heegyeong Lee [이희경(李喜儆)] became sworn brothers. My father

was from a southern province of Korea, and Mr. Lee from a northern province.

So both of them were not accepted to either south or north Korean division.

Divisive Koreans were very factional even during these hard times.

Next I will explain my efforts to find my father's records.

III My search of father's school records

I knew father had studied at the University of Pennsylvania though he never graduated

there, so in 1969 while I was working as a medical resident at the Pennsylvania

Hospital in Philadelphia, I went to the Alumni Association of the school to

ask for his record. The staff there sent two persons with me to the Archives to search

for father's school record. It took them quite a while before his freshman

record of 1913-1914 was found.

Since 1914 was the year he came to Korea but didn't continue his study at the school

because of World War I, it was clear that his freshman course was the end of

his education. From this record, I found his former school to be Williston Seminary.

After further inquiry it was found to be Williston Academy, Easthampton, MA.

I wanted to visit this Academy soon, but I was unable to find time for my visit until

1979, when my wife's niece needed a lift to the Smith College, Northampton,

MA by car. The college was located very near to Easthampton, MA,

so I dropped her at the College and I took my family to the Williston Academy,

where I met the Alumni President, and showed father's old class photo showing

the main entrance of Williston Seminary in the year of 1913. He made a copy of

this photo and gave me a couple old photo copies of my father during his school years.

He explained to me that the old Williston Seminary building was replaced by the

new school building, but the main entrance of the old school still remained as the

entrance of the town library, which could be seen on the left side of the Park Street

in the northbound lane just before merging into the Main Street. He also suggested

to me that my two boys might apply to this school when they reach the high

school ages, kindly advised me to write in the parents' section of the school

application form my father's education and our conversation about this topic on that

day. This was my first visit to the school. It was the end of August 1979 the day

before the College opening.



Years later in the summer vacation of 1985, I took my son, Henry, to Dartmouth College

for his college interview after the eleventh grade, and then to the Brown

University as the next stop. On this route I detoured slightly toward the Williston

Academy to get father's four-years school record and then went to the nearby library.

We opened the same door in front of which my father had taken the class photo

exactly 72 years ago, and then entered the library. I saw the windows open

widely and three or four old men reading newspapers or journals.



We walked directly to a middle-aged lady librarian in the left side, greeted her, and

showed my important photo to her, and ask her, "Ma'am, can you recognize this

photo?". As soon as she took a look at this photo, she appeared quite surprised,

”Ah! This is the old Williston School photo. It was taken in the year of 1913,

before I was born. The door in this photo is the same door both of you just entered."

At this time I pointed at my father in the photo, saying to her, "This is my father,

and this boy is my son. We decided to visit this place with this door

seen in the old photo." She appeared very moved, ”I have been living in this town

all my life, and once in a while some Willistonians' children like you visited the school

to commemorate their parents or grandparents. It's so nice to have you. If

you have some time, may I bring some old Williston Seminary photos?" Then she went

downstairs and returned a little later carrying a large box containing many old

photos of the old Williston Seminary. They were really very old photos,

which I couldn't recognize anything by myself, but she tried hard to explain them to us.

My father would have been delighted just by seeing these old days' scenes of

the school. These would have brought the fond and precious memories of his young days

at the Williston. Finally our departure time came, but I had an important request to her,

“I want to have photos taken in front of this memorable door with my son.

Could you take our photo?" She readily consented.

Two of us stood in front of this very door which was closed by her for the photo taking,

and then she walked down the stairs to the two-way Park Street while holding my

camera with her right hand and lifting her left hand to stop the both-way traffics.

Then she was taking pictures in close as well as remote ranges by moving forward

and backward in the rather busy street, but only concentrating on her photo-taking

and ignoring the bi-directional lines of cars until she finished the photo taking.

She then handed the camera back to me and I deeply thanked her for her help, and

left the library.



After my retirement I have been living in the quiet rural lakefront house. I wondered

about revisiting the Williston School in a leisurely way whenever I had a chance

to go to the New England area.



Last year after our month-long trip to Korea, I had an e-mail message from Lillian,

my daughter-in-law, suggesting to me of the centennial commemoration of my

father's class photo, which aroused me of its already being one hundred year old event.

We decided to get together at Jim's place in Manhattan, New York and to visit for our

family memorial. So Henry and Connor, my grandson, and I met at Jim's

apartment at Manhattan, New York and four of us went to the Williston Northampton

School on Saturday August 31, 2013. I had made an appointment with Mr. Jeffrey

Pilgrim, Director of Alumni Relations to meet at the school campus between 12

noon and 1 PM. He gave us the campus tour spending a good hour's time and

at the end all of us walked to the same library called Emily Williston Memorial Library

nowadays. Mr. Pilgrim took pictures on all of us. I made a donation to the school

in memory of my father. This was my third visit. At the time of departure,

I wondered it might be my last visit here and felt a little sad. But in the mid-June

this year of 2014, we made a New England tour to visit the Walden Pond, Concord, MA,

Bar Harbor, ME. On our very long return drive from Bar Harbor to Canandaigua,

New York. I decided to make an overnight stay at Clarion Hotel, Northampton,

MA. The next morning, we went to the Alumni office and then the same Library,

where my wife and I had our picture taken in front of the same entrance
.
On this visit I found some more information of my granduncle, Jewhan Chung,

the third younger brother of my grandfather, in conjunction with Williston

Seminary. He was sent along with my father to America by my grandfather to

be the guardian of my father during his stay in America, and he himself had his own
  
education at Williston Seminary (1906~1910) and Colorado School of  Mines

(1910~1914). This means that he and my father studied at the school together from

1909 to 1910. This information indicates that Williston School offered the good

American high school education to my father and my granduncle, which means

a special relationship to my family as a historic family school.

IV Search of two locations in the 1925 photos

I still had some more questions on following locations.  
                                                           
(1) The building 633 W. 115th St, New York, NY seen in Exhibit 19 and 20.

In 1971 while I was working at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, Bronx, NY, I went to the above

address which I had obtained from Williston Seminary record in 1969, and found

Korean Methodist Church and Institute. I only saw an old Korean cleaning the

entrance and then left after confirming the location. I never heard from father that

it was a church though he talked about his having been baptized by Rev.  Syngman Rhee

[이승만(李承晩)] who also rented a smaller room to prepare his dissertation paper

for his Doctorate degree at Princeton University while father and his uncle rented

a larger room. 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 6 months.

Another story was that Japan annexed Korea in the year of 1910.

At this sad news, the nephew and uncle held each other in a hug, lamented and

cried all day long, which happened in the same place.

My questions are: Who owned the building at that time from 1909 to 1914: and

how these Koreans, at least three or possibly more, found this place to rent, and

when the Korean Church was started there.



On Mon Sep 8, 2014, I visited the Church around 10:00 AM for the second time,

but the door was locked and the ringing bell was not answered.

Therefore I took a couple photos of the entrance and left.

My next stop was New York Historical Society, where I was led to the Library.

I brought these questions to the Library staff, who made special search for this

address and then found following information out of old reports of New York Times.

First; on Aug 19, 1929, Rev. Pyeong K Yoon made sermon attacking Japanese

occupation of Korea. Second; a week later he wished to establish world-wide peace

with incorporation of the best in the Occident and the best in the Orient.

When I made search through Wikipedia with 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. 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. Two photos are posted at Exhibit 20 and 21.
  


I made the third visit to the Church on Tue Jan6, 2015 to see Rev. Yong Bo Lee.

I told him the above story of my father’s connection to this building. Rev. Lee told

me that this building had been dormitories for students, and so for some reasons

Korean students and some other Koreans rented the rooms at that time.

He did know that Mr. Syngman Rhee had been there. He brought an old thick

register book of church members and 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 addition,

which he made: N.Y.U.에서 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 bathroom 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.



(2) The low stonewalls in photos, Exhibit 12, 13, 16 and 17

I visited the New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024

on Tue Sep 9, 2014 to make the inquiry on Exhibit 12 and 13 which had no helpful

landmarks with much clue as to the location of the photos. But this time

I carried two more photos Exhibit 16 and 17 with a building complex in some

distant location. I visited the Historical Society in the morning of Jan 6, 2015 and

was led to a consultant there, who readily recognized them being the

famous Belvedere Castle in Central Park, which was within a walking distance.

I walked there from the Society, took some pictures outside the main building,

and then went to the gift shop to buy a book, and then showed the photos to

an employee, who confirmed the location being in the castle territory. I took photos

in the same location of Exhibit 12 and 13, to prove the identity of the stone wall

in the photos. However it was snowing heavily so that I decided to hold my search

of the location of Exhibit 16 and 17, preferably to a milder season. I don’t anticipate

any difficulty to find the exact locality of the photos with some landmarks.

V Summary

My father made a very, very long march to the United States of America around 1903

aboard a trans-pacific ocean liner from Tokyo Harbor to San Francisco Harbor with

the dream of American education. For the first six years he must have attended

an elementary school, but I couldn't find the school from any record. From 1909

to 1913 he studied at the Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts. From

1913 to 1914 he finished his freshman course at the Wharton School, University

of Pennsylvania. He came to Korea in 1914 to discuss about the hardship of

money transfer from Korea to America through Missionary Organizations.

When he tried to return to America to continue his study, the First World War

broke out and there was the global naval blockade, which made his return impossible.

So his educational plan was unexpectedly stopped, and he settled his life in Korea.

VI The Legacy

When I first visited the Williston Academy, Henry was eleven years old, and James

eight years old. When I asked the president of alumni association if it was a

boarding school, he said yes to me. He looked at my sons inside the car and

suggested to me that, if I consider sending them to the Williston School, I write

my father's education at the Williston and our discussion occurred today in the

parents' section of the application form. Since that time I and my wife were very

interested in the education of boarding schools and Ivy League schools. We did

send them to the schools as we wanted and planned.

The excellent education provided to them was due to the knowledge that my father

went through very unusual hardships to have good American education such

a long time ago. The good education for my sons was the very legacy of my father.

The following is another story of my father.



When I was in a lower grade of an elementary school, I was not a very excellent student.

But occasionally I brought home my perfect score meaning 100 point, usually math tests.

While I expected a great praise from father, he nodded his head approvingly, but saying

to me gently, "Choonho, it's good for you to have 100 point, but it's even better to have

80 point." Choonho was my nickname during childhood days. I remember hearing this

remark quite a few times from him. I was very young and didn't dare ask him

why it's better to have 80 point than 100 point. But I remember this talk very

vividly. When I grew up and became an adult, I still didn't understand the reason.

Sometimes I asked some people about this question, but none of them seems to

have a satisfactory answer to it.
  
During the time of my active practice, after I finished my ward round in a hospital and

went to the nursing station to write the usual notes including the progress

notes and orders, then the charts were handed to the charge nurse. That means I

finished my hospital round. By that time the kind nurses offered to me like ”Want

some hot coffee?" I never refused, "Yes, please." While drinking good smelling coffee,

we exchanged some chats. One day I thought about my age-old question to

several nurses there. Then a middle-aged nurse called Mary replied immediately

without any hesitation,

“Don't you know, Dr. Chung? Your father wanted you to be an all-American boy

with a well-rounded personality. He didn't want you just to be a so-called bookworm."

This solved the mystery intriguing me for half of my life.

My father wanted me to be a good person rather than a big shot.

This is the most important legacy of my father.



I have one more memory related to religion. I heard from father that he had been

baptized by Rev. Syngman Rhee during his school days, and in January 6, 2015

I discovered his name in the registry book in Korean Methodist Church and Institute.

He used to quote God at times. I have always been a Buddhist all my life

ever since my mother took me to the Buddhist temples soon after my birth.

This is the situation of our family religion. One day during my middle school days,

father mentioned to me, “All the religions in the world are good. You may choose

the religion of your like and believe it sincerely. Then it will be a very good thing

to you.” Obviously he was liberal in terms of religious preference. I conveyed this

message to my two daughter-in-laws.” This may be the third legacy.

VII Father’s Later Years

I am going to finish this presentation by describing his later years.

Soon after his return to Korea in 1914, he married my mother, and took charge

of the family business. He also made many friends including literary persons,

activists, primarily anti-Japanese patriots. He was the first English teacher in

YMCA. He also tried export business with China for several times, which was

not successful. In those days anti-Japanese persons had hard times because of

persecution from Japanese government. Inevitably his family business was

doomed to total failure with total loss of his assets. He lost his assets, business

and job. After Korean liberation from Japanese occupation, he was expected to

enter the new Korean government, but he decided against it because of

ideological disagreements with other people in the new Korean government.

He worked for some private companies at various times without sufficient income.

During the period of Korean War he had to keep working despite his advancing

age and declining health. He expired at Daegu City Hospital due to chronic illnesses

in 1954, and buried at our family gravesite in Bansung, Gyeongnam.

Sometime ago while writing a book of family story for my sons in English, Merry

Ewing who was an English teacher helping me write the story, asked me whether

father was an intellectual. I answered, “No. He was not an intellectual,

but a person of principle.”

THE END

Written by KWAN HO CHUNG