“One of the most remarkable men I have met in Asia.” Such was
the characterisation of Boon Itt given by Dr. Arthur J. Brown,
Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, after a
visit to the Far East. Only when one considers the high quality of
the well-educated native leaders in the Christian church in Japan
or China will this estimate suggest its full measure. Nor does this
evaluation exceed the common esteem in which Boon Itt was held by
those who knew him while in America. By all his fellow students
and by his teachers he was regarded as a man of exceptionally
fine personality, of high moral ideals, and of rare Christian
attainments.
[Illustration: REV. BOON TUAN BOON ITT]
In physique he was of medium stature, well proportioned, lithe of
limb and agile in action. He was fond of athletics, and showed
a preference for the more active sports. He loved games for the
sake of sport rather than for the winning chance. His features
were distinctly Asiatic. Yet there was a total absence of that
mysteriousness in countenance which we usually associate with the
Oriental. Americans quickly lost sight of the difference of race,
and received him as one of their own. His voice was low, mellow and
gently modulated, imparting a feeling of confidence by its quiet
yet positive strength.
The most casual acquaintance discovered in him a winsomeness of
manners. Simple, courteous, modest, responsive, he had all the
marks of a Christian gentleman. He was friendly but free from
effusiveness; hospitable yet without aggressiveness in urging
attentions. He had a warm sympathy but never bestowed the pity of
superiority nor the flattery of patronage. His love of companions
made him a leader among young men. In his nature the æsthetic had
its proper balance. He possessed a love of the beautiful both in
art and in nature, and in this love he found a constant inspiration
to purity and nobleness. The best in literature and in art and
in music found a response in his heart. Without doubt, however,
to those who knew Boon Itt best, it was the spiritual quality
that gave richness to his character. He was deeply religious; he
had a religiousness of soul rather than of mind, free from the
sentimental, the spectacular or the trivial. Faith with him was
not a matter of creed but of simple, profound trust in a God whose
goodness he had proven.
“THE FAITH THAT DWELT IN THY GRANDFATHER”
Boon Itt was one of the earliest of the second generation
Christians of Siam. His maternal grandfather was Kee-Eng Sinsay
Quasien. This name appears in various abbreviations and spellings
in Dr. House’s journal, but here it is given in the form approved
by one of his grandsons, who explains that the first two syllables
constitute the name, while the remainder is the title. It will
not lessen the honour to correct several traditions that have
attached themselves to his story in America. Kee-Eng was not the
first Protestant Christian in Siam, nor the first convert of
the Presbyterian Mission; his wife did not make a profession of
Christian faith; his daughter Maa Tuan was not the first Siamese
woman to unite with the Christian church. His primacy was only that
he was the first “native” to be received into the Presbyterian
Church of Bangkok after its organisation.
Kee-Eng was baptised Jan. 7, 1844, by Rev. Stephen Johnston, of the
A. B. C. F. M., having been the Chinese tutor to Mr. Johnston for
several years; but there had been other converts previously. When
the A. B. C. F. M. abandoned Siam and turned their work over to the
Presbyterians, Kee-Eng was the only one of their converts still in
Siam in good standing; and he was transferred to the Presbyterian
Church. On this occasion Dr. House reported:
“Kwa Kieng is a native of middle age (about forty-five),
good education, was formerly Mr. Johnston’s teacher, of
respectable appearance, amiable character and appears for
five years back to have led a faithful and exemplary life
as a disciple of Christ. He has a wife (a Cambodian woman)
and three children—two sons and a daughter [another son and
daughter were born later]—now living at Rapri, one hundred
miles west of Bangkok. Though he speaks Siamese imperfectly,
we can communicate tolerably well with him, and we feel that
Providence may make him the instrument of great good to many
of his countrymen. He would be well equipped in many respects
for a native assistant, and we have confidence in him.”
In his _Journal_ at this time Dr. House states that Kee-Eng was a
Hakien Chinaman from Amoy. The reference to Cambodia in connection
with his wife must be taken to indicate only that she came from
there. Her name was Maa Hey and, according to her son Kru Tien Soo,
she was the daughter of a Chinese, born in Cambodia. Although,
according to her son, Maa Hey never made a profession of the
Christian faith; yet she did manifest a sympathy with the work of
the mission. All the children of the family were baptised at the
request of the father.
As early as 1848 Dr. House mentions that Kee-Eng conducted a school
for Chinese boys at Ratburi, or Rapri, as he spells it. When the
boys’ boarding school was established in Bangkok he was chosen
as the teacher of Chinese. For this reason he removed his family
to Bangkok and came to live in the compound. Besides teaching
he conducted weekly worship for his fellow countrymen, served
as interpreter for Dr. House while he taught the Bible class of
Chinese, and still later had charge of a mission chapel for the
Chinese. Kee-Eng died Nov. 23, 1858, a victim of the cholera.
“AND IN THY MOTHER TUAN”
Maa Tuan was the elder daughter of Kee-Eng. At the time the family
moved to Bangkok she was about five years old, according to Dr.
House. She early became a member of the girls’ class in the home of
Mrs. Stephen Mattoon, and was intimately associated with the girls
whom Mrs. Mattoon had adopted. After the father died the family
returned to their former home at Bangpa near Ratburi, where they
were separated from Christian influences except for an occasional
visit of a missionary. Here Maa Tuan married Chin Boon Sooie.
To this marriage three children were born, Boon Itt, Boon Yee,
and Prasert, a daughter who died in infancy. Concerning Chin Boon
Sooie little is to be found recorded, aside from what Dr. House
states in the letter quoted below. His nationality is there given
as Siamo-Chinese, and this is confirmed by his son, who also is
the authority that his father never made a profession of Christian
faith. Chin Boon Sooie died in 1873.
Concerning Maa Tuan the first important mention by Dr. House was in
a letter to Mrs. House in 1872, who was then in America:
“Among those present [i.e., at the communion service] were
some of your old pupils: one, speaks of you with much
affection, Tuan the eldest daughter of Sinsay and Maa Hey,
her mother. Tuan is now making her first visit to Bangkok
since she left our command. She evidently has made an
efficient and intelligent woman; reads English quite well
yet; has rather a superior husband, a kind of a headman (man
of property at least) at Bangpa—unfortunate in business of
late but credit unimpaired.
“Poor Tuan since her last babe was born has been running
down and is poor and sallow just now—she always was short
in stature.... Had not Tuan married a well-to-do trader her
knowledge of books, arithmetic and sewing might be utilised
to the good of the cause. She might be hired to get up in her
native village a day school.”
In the following year, probably after the death of her husband,
we find her moving with her children to Sumray, near Bangkok,
where the mission school was located, in order that she might
have educational advantages for her children, for at that period
the mission school was the only means to a modern education. In
November of 1873 she united with the Church upon profession of
faith.
When Mrs. House opened the girls’ boarding school at Wang Lang, Maa
Tuan was engaged as matron and teacher. Concerning her work in this
school Miss M. L. Cort writes in her book on Siam:
“This school has had the advantage of the faithful and
constant services of Maa Tuan who is an exceptional Siamese
woman and was educated and trained for her position by Mrs.
House.... She has been the chief native teacher and matron
for the school ever since it began, and the interpreter
between the new missionaries and the old pupils, as she
understands English very well. It is through her influence
that many of the pupils have been secured and retained. She
is dignified and kind; and each year adds to her wisdom and
usefulness.”
Maa Tuan spent the summer of 1880 teaching women in the royal
palace by request. For some years she conducted a private school
at Wang Lang, and so far as records show she was the first Siamese
woman to conduct such a school.
While her son was in America, Maa Tuan wrote to Mrs. House that
she often rose at midnight to pray that Boon might become a good
Christian and become a preacher to his own people. When the news
came to her that her son had been converted and had united with the
church in far away America, her cup was overrunning with joy. She
died in 1899.