미국 남장로교의 전북지역 의료선교(1896-1940)

Abstract

The Korea Mission of PCUS established and ran a series of hospitals starting with Atkinson Memorial Hospital(Gunsan) and including McKowan Memorial Hospital(Jeonju), French Memorial Hospital(Mokpo), Graham Memorial Hospital(Gwangju), and Alexander Hospital(Sooncheon) across the Jeolla Provinces, which were covered by Korea Mission of PCUS during the late Joseon and following Japanese rule. Those five hospitals are considered to have made huge contributions to the improvement and promotion of public health and treatment situations for the locals as well as the modernization of the local areas beyond their primary functions in medical missionary works. The missionary headquarters of Korea Mission of PCUS dispatched total 49 Western medical professionals to the five hospitals before Korea took back its independence, engaging in its continuous medical missionary works. This study set out to briefly review the histories of Atkinson Memorial Hospital and McKowan Memorial Hospital, which made the dual axes of medical missionary works in the Jeollabuk Province before Korea took back its independence. It was Drew in Gunsan that first started medical missionary works in Korea Mission of PCUS. Soon the word that he was a superb doctor spread not only throughout the Jeolla Provinces but also to the Ha-an towns of Chungcheong Province across River Geum. Those locals thus had an encounter with Christianity or modern civilization through medical missionaries and hospitals. Succeeding Alexander and arriving in Gunsan in 1904, Daniel raised the state of the clinic to that of hospital in terms of medical facilities. As a result, the Atkinson Memorial Hospital recorded over 10,000 medical examinations and treatments in the year of 1908. Having its foundation established by Daniel, the Atkinson Memorial Hospital enjoyed its heyday during the service of his successor Patterson, who raised the reputations of the hospital even further by expanding its size and treating the patients with sincerity. Then the hospital entered into the stagnant period during the service of succeeding Brand and Hollister due to the changes to the missionary environments in and outside and the personal circumstances of the missionaries. Once Korea took back its independence, the hospital disappeared in history following the decision of the missionary division to close down the Gunsan Station. The statistics tell that the Atkinson Memorial Hospital treated approximately 70,000 patients over a period of 40 years. The missionary nurses of Gunsan include Shepping, Lathrop, Greene, Greer, and Woods led by Kestler. The medical projects of Jeonju Station made a full-scale start with Ingold, who, as a woman, had to fight against the patriarchal social order of Korean society those days and accordingly did not achieve much progress with medical ministry. However, it is an accepted assessment that she built a foundation for McKowan Memorial Hospital enduring ten years. After having an unexpected accident during his medical ministry in Jeonju, Forsythe moved to Mokpo, where started a project to help and save those who had Hansen's Disease in Korea Mission of PCUS. The fourth medical missionary at McKowan Memorial Hospital, Daniel expanded the hospital building like he did in Gunsan where he used to work and put the medical ministry of Jeonju on the right track. He served the hospital for four years and six months until he moved to Sevrance Hospital in 1915. Succeeding him, Robertson devoted himself to making the hospital administration advanced. The hospital then made even further development during the service of Boggs, who brought the hospital to its revival days. There was Patterson in Gunsan, and there was Boggs in Jeonju. There was an unfortunate fire in the hospital, but Boggs turned it around to further pursue its growth. Thanks to the facilities expansion and his stable leadership, the McKowan Memorial Hospital doubled its treatment capacity in the latter half of the 1930s and prepared itself for the upcoming days after liberation. The missionary nurses of Jeonju including Cordell, Kestler, and Matthews joined them in the medical ministry.