William Speer (minister)

William Speer (1822-1904) was an American pioneer Presbyterian missionary and pastor, to the Chinese in Canton (1847-1850), where he helped establish the first Presbytery in Canton, and to the Chinese in California (1852-1857), where he founded the first Chinese Protestant church outside of China and became a strong advocate for the Chinese in California. Later (1865-1876) he served in Pennsylvania as the Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education.[2]

Rev. Dr.

William Speer
Born(1822-04-24)April 24, 1822
New Alexandria, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA[1]
DiedFebruary 16, 1904(1904-02-16) (aged 81)
Washington, Washington County, Pennsylvania, USA[1]

Missionary to the Chinese in Canton and in California

After three years of medical studies and being licensed to preach in 1846, he was sent by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions as a medical missionary to establish a mission in Canton (now Guangzhou) in southern China, where he served from 1847 for about two years. He worked alongside Dr. Peter Parker at the Canton Hospital. He also helped organize the first Presbytery in Canton in February 1849, which he commemorated 50 years later.[3] Due to ill health, he departed Canton and return to the U.S. in 1850.

Speer was later sent in 1852 by the Presbyterian Board of Missions to San Francisco, California to minister to the Chinese immigrants there. He was fluent in Cantonese and knew the Chinese culture well. Beginning February 1853, he leased and used the second floor of a store front as a temporary chapel, where he preached regularly in Cantonese to a group of thirty or so.[4] To raise awareness of and money for his ministry, he gave lectures in English on Chinese culture, from "Confucius" at the Mercantile Library to "Chinese Farmer" at the agricultural fair, all of which attracted much attention from the non-Chinese public.[5][6] As Speer continued to speak in sermons and lectures, defending the Chinese and explaining their culture and civilization, he reported in 1853 that some Chinese asked him to be their "chief in this country", to act on their behalf, to shield them from acts of injury or plunder.[4]

On November 6, 1853, he held the first church meeting for the Chinese. In so doing, together with four Chinese church members (Atsun, Lai Sam, A-tsen, and Hi Cheong Kow), Speer founded the first Chinese Protestant church outside of China—the Chinese Mission Chapel in 1853.[7][8]

The initial wooden Chinese Chapel building, at the northeast corner of Stockton and Sacramento Streets in San Francisco's Chinatown, was dedicated June 1854.[9] For the Chinese immigrants who suffered illnesses from the long voyage to San Francisco, Speer opened a dispensary in the basement, at which Dr. Ayres, Dr. Coon and Dr. Downer gave gratuitous services. On the main level, he held two Sunday services and a Wednesday evening prayer meeting, as well as distributing tracts. In August 1854, there were 40 or more in the services and 17 pupils in the evening English school.[4][10] He moved his residence into the upper level of the chapel building in 1855.

In January 1855, as founder and editor, Speer published the first English/Chinese newspaper, The Oriental (東涯新錄 traditional; 东涯新录 simplified), which had a circulation of 20,000 copies the first year and was the second Chinese-language newspaper in North America.[11][10] In the inaugural issue, he made the prophetic observation that the Chinese, who were hard working with experience building large projects, would become builders of the proposed transcontinental railroad across the United States.[12] After the California Supreme Court ruled in December 1954 that the Chinese had no rights to testify against whites, Speer responded in the 18 January 1855 issue, "The principles of the Magna Carta, the prerogatives of juries, the rights of judges and advocates, Republicanism and Christianity, and common humanity are all outraged by this iniquitous decision of the Supreme Court of California".[13]: 22  The Oriental continued publication for about two years. According to biographer W. C. Covert, this bilingual newsletter "did much to soften the racial antipathy that made the life for the Chinese almost intolerable."[2]

Speer was an early advocate of fair treatment for Chinese immigrants in California.[14] According to historian Seager, Rev. Speer was "the first champion of the persecuted Chinese in America".[15]: 49 

In an 1856 pamphlet directed to the California legislature, Speer argued against the tide of anti-Chinese legislation, from the foreign miners' tax to the head tax. Using statistical evidence, he pointed to the benefits of Chinese immigration to the state treasury, that it was in the state's interests "to 'forbid a policy calculated to exclude or debase Chinese immigration'." The foreign miners' tax was reduced and Speer was commended by General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.[16]

In 1857 Speer published a pamphlet to the California legislature: An answer to the common objections to Chinese testimony: and an earnest appeal to the Legislature of California, for their protection by our law.

With his health failing, Speer delivered a farewell address in July 1857 and departed California.[14]: 128  Two years later, in September 1859, Rev. A. W. Loomis arrived to resume the mission work Speer started in San Francisco.[10]

Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education

From about 1865 to 1876, Speer was back in his home state Pennsylvania serving as the Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education.[17]

In a note introducing his article Democracy of the Chinese in the November 1868 Harper's Magazine, the editors wrote: "We believe that there are not five men, European or American, who are as thoroughly acquainted as Dr. Speer with the Chinese in their own country. We think there is no other man so fully conversant with the Chinese in California."[18]

In 1870, Speer published a book, The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the United States. An early look at China from an American perspective, the book places China's long history side by side with the history of trade with Europe and the United States, and Chinese immigration to the United States. Notably, it touts the "glory of America" and an embrace of Christianity as the path for the future of China. Unlike many Americans of his era, Speer saw Chinese immigration as a positive good for both nations. This social vision drew from his faith and aspirations that Chinese immigrants would bring Christianity back to China.[19]

He published another book, The Great Revival of 1800, in 1872.[20]

References
  1. "Rev. William Speer". findagrave.com. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  2. Covert, William C. (1935). "William Speer (Apr.24,1822 - Feb.15,1904)". archive.org. The Dictionary of American Biography: Vol.17, p.442-443.
  3. Speer, William (October 1899). "First Stones in the Foundation of the Synod of China" (PDF). The Chinese Recorder & Missionary Journal. XXX, No. 10, pp.472-480.
  4. Woo, Wesley S. "Presbyterian Mission: Christianizing and Civilizing The Chinese in Nineteenth Century California". jstor.org. Presbyterian Historical Society: American Presbyterians Vol. 68, No. 3 (Fall 1990), pp. 167-178.
  5. "MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION". cdnc.ucr.edu. Daily Alta California, Volume 4, Number 209, 9 August 1853.
  6. "AGRICULTURAL LECTURE". cdnc.ucr.edu. Daily Alta California, Volume 4, Number 271, 20 October 1853.
  7. Choy, Philip P. (2008), The Architecture of San Francisco Chinatown (Chinese Historical Society), p.32
  8. Chua, Christopher Viboon (2014). "The Sacredness of Being There: Race, Religion, and Place-Making at San Francisco's Presbyterian Church in Chinatown". UC Berkeley eScholarship. Retrieved 10 October 2020. Established in 1853, the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (PCC) in San Francisco, CA is the oldest Asian church of any Christian denomination in North America and the first Chinese Protestant church outside China.
  9. "Dedication of a Chinese Chapel". cdnc.ucr.edu. Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 7, Number 1000. 7 June 1854. From the Daily Alta California
  10. "THE MISSION AMONG THE CHINESE OF CALIFORNIA". cdnc.ucr.edu. Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 26, Number 4012, 30 January 1864. Rev. A. W. Loomis gives, in the last Evangel, an account ... of the mission work among the Chinese of this State.
  11. Yang, Tao (January 2009). "Press, Community, and Library: A Study of the Chinese-language Newspapers Published in North America" (PDF). Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  12. Chinn, Thomas W. (1969). "A History of the Chinese in California: The Railroads". cprr.org. Chinese Historical Society of America.
  13. McClain, Charles J. (1994). In Search for Equality: The Chinese Struggle against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20514-6.
  14. Stahler, Michael L. (1970). "William Speer: Champion of California's Chinese, 1852—1857". Journal of Presbyterian History (1962-1985). 48 (2): 113–129. ISSN 0022-3883. JSTOR 23327321.
  15. Seager, Robert (February 1959). "Some Denominational Reactions to Chinese Immigration to California, 1856-1892". Pacific Historical Review. University of California Press. 28 (1): 49-66.
  16. William Speer, "An Humble Plea. Addressed to the Legislature of California in Behalf of the Immigrants from the Empire of China to this State." San Francisco, 1856 as quoted in Seager, Robert. "Some denominational reactions to Chinese immigration to California, 1856-1892." Pacific Historical Review 28, no. 1 (1959): 49-50
  17. "Biographical Index of Missionaries -- SPEER, Rev. & Mrs. William". phcmontreat.org. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  18. Speer, William (November 1868). "Democracy of the Chinese". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  19. William Speer, The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the United States Vol. 1 (National Publishing Company, 1870).
  20. William Speer, The Great Revival of 1800 (Presbyterian board of publication, 1872).
  • CHINA AND CALIFORNIA; THEIR RELATIONS, PAST AND PRESENT. A lecture, in conclusion of a series in relation to the Chinese people, delivered in the Stockton Street [First] Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, June 28, 1853, by the Rev. William Speer, Missionary to the Chinese in California.


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