1. Childhood and Education

Horace Grant Underwood (1859–1916), known as Won Du-U to Koreans, was born on July 19, 1859, in London, England to John Underwood and Elisabeth Grant Marie. He was the fourth of six children. Horace graduated from New York University in 1881 with a degree in the history of literature. He entered the Dutch Reformed Theological Seminary in New Brunswick in autumn of the same year.

While studying at the Seminary, Underwood devoted himself to academic studies and missionary work. Starting from the summer of 1883, and through the following year—the last year of his seminary studies—he took charge of a church in Pomton, New Jersey. While there, he was inspired to become a missionary. After his ordainment as a minister in November 1884, he became a pastor at a church in New York City. While in this position, he studied medicine for one year as part of his preparations for a mission in India.

2. Ties with Korea

With support from Dr. Ellinwood and a contribution of $6,000 from D. W. McWilliams, Underwood was appointed the first Clerical Missionary to Korea by the missionary headquarters of the American Presbyterian Church. He left San Francisco on December 16, and arrived in Yokohama on January 25, 1885. Because of the unrest in Korean society after the Gapsin coup d¡¯etat, Underwood had to stop in Japan first.

While staying with Dr. I. C. Hepburn, a famed scholar of Japanese culture, in Yokohama, he received necessary training for his missionary work, and led a revival meeting for the Americans with him. For two months, he learned Korean from a Christian convert named Lee Su Jung, and brought Lee¡¯s translation of the Gospel of Mark with him when he departed for Korea to begin his appointment.

Underwood arrived at Jemulpo (present-day Incheon) on Easter, April 5, 1885. He braved the danger and went ashore on April 7. From this point on, Underwood worked with another missionary named Henry G. Appenzeller to retranslate Lee Su Jung¡¯s version of the Gospel of Mark, and began to compile English-Korean and Korean-English dictionaries.

On March 29, 1886, Underwood established a school and hospital for commoners and began to teach physics and chemistry there. The hospital was renamed Severance Hospital after L. H. Severance of Cleveland, Ohio, who contributed a large sum of money in support. At the time, Christianity had not received official recognition. Ministers and missionaries could not express themselves publicly, so using the title ¡°clinic instructor¡± proved a good strategy for missionary work because it was understood everywhere.

3. Educational work in Korea

In late 1885, Underwood took an interest in operating an orphanage. On February 14, 1886, with the help of an American official, he submitted his application for permission to establish an orphanage, and the request was approved by the official Kim Yun Sik. The head of the orphanage was a Korean, but Underwood served as the real manager. Yet he was not satisfied with just an orphanage, and planned to develop a college or seminary in the future.


Among the students at the orphanage was Kim Kiu Sik (pen-name Usa) who would later study abroad at Roanoke College in Virginia. After returning to Korea he became Underwood¡¯s secretary and later elder of the Saemoonan Church, teacher at the Gyungsin School, and YMCA leader. Later he was exiled to China, where he remained active as an independence fighter. After liberation from Japan, he returned to his native country and became chair of the legislative committee of the National Assembly. He was kidnapped and taken to North Korea during the Korean War.

Underwood made the orphanage into the Gyungsin School, and in 1895, under the administration of the Saemoonan Church, he established the Youngsin School (later changed to Hyeopseong School). Underwood also built elementary schools in each church district. At the beginning of the twentieth century there were two institutions for theological education in Korea: the Pearson Bible Institute in Seoul run by the Methodist Church, and the Pyeongyang Theological Seminary run by the Presbyterian Church. Underwood taught at the Pyeongyang Seminary during its early years.

Underwood conceived of establishing a college to develop higher education in Korea, and founded Yonhee College. On March 5, 1915, he brought together the American Northern Presbyterians and Methodists, Canadian Presbyterians, and every missionary group in Korea on Jongno in Seoul to start the ¡°College Division of the Gyungsin School¡± with 60 students at the Korean Christian Youth Meeting Hall. This was the predecessor of Yonhee College.

4. Missionary Work

After Underwood arrived in Seoul, he gradually expanded his missionary activities. On September 27, 1887, he prayed with fourteen Korean believers in the reception room of his own home in Jeong-dong, central Seoul. This was how the Saemoonan Church began. Of those fourteen members, thirteen had converted under the guidance of Soh Sang Yune, who had received baptism from John Ross, a minister active in Manchuria before Underwood came to Korea. It can be said that the Saemoonan Church was established through the collaborative efforts of Underwood, Soh Sang Yune, and other early Korean Christians. Saemoonan was the first church in which Korean Christians preached and confessed their faith on their own.


In the late 1880s, Underwood went on three missionary trips around Korea. The first, in the fall of 1887, was to Gaeseong, Sollae, Pyeongyang and Uiju. On the second trip, in the spring of 1888, Underwood traveled with Appenzeller to Pyeongyang, but was called back by the missionary office. He combined the third trip with his honeymoon, visiting Gaeseong, Sollae, Pyeongyang, Uiju, Ganggye, and villages on the banks of the Yalu River. Underwood¡¯s travels were very successful.

Underwood had a keen interest in languages, and took charge of compiling several dictionaries. He published a book called Korean-English Grammar. The first section presented the basics of Korean grammar, and the second section explained translation from English to Korean. Altogether it was 425 pages. In 1914 Underwood revised this text. His second major work was Korean Character Dictionary, published in Yokohama in 1890.

When Underwood was first sent to Korea, he urgently felt the need for a dictionary. He gathered vocabulary words for five years, and then arranged them systematically. For the first part, James S. Gale assisted Underwood with a Korean-French dictionary and language teacher Song Sunyong helped him with the Korean-English dictionary. Underwood and Homer B. Hulbert edited the second part, an English-Korean dictionary.

One year after they arrived in Korea, Underwood and Appenzeller issued their provisional translation of the Gospel of Mark. In 1887, he visited Japan and received a proposal from Dr. Hepburn to organize a Bible translation committee. On February 7, he agreed to form an editorial committee to supervise the translation. On April 11, the temporary committee charter and bylaws gave way to three permanent committees: the Biblical committee, the translation committee, and the revision committee.

At this time, Methodists Appenzeller and Scranton and Presbyterians Underwood and Heron served on the translation committee. (After Heron¡¯s death in 1890, Gale replaced him.) In 1888, Underwood proposed organizing the Korean Church Association, which was established the following year with Underwood elected as its director. In 1890, the Gospels of Luke and John were translated. Underwood also devoted his energies to the elimination of cholera, the publication of a Christian newspaper, and the organization of the YMCA (of which he was a trustee).

5. Death

According to the Japanese education decrees, anyone in the teaching profession had to be thoroughly proficient in Japanese. Thus, Underwood went to Japan at the beginning of January 1916 and struggled to study Japanese for nine hours a day. Due to this rigorous schedule, his body became weak. His condition became serious and he returned to Korea in March of the same year. He knew that he could not receive medical treatment in Korea, so he took a boat to America from Incheon almost 31 years to the day after he first set foot in Korea.

In the U.S., following the advice of his doctor, he was admitted to Atlantic City Hospital in September. He passed away on October 12, 1916, shortly after 3:00 p.m. This was the loss of a great man who had done so much for Korea.

6. Underwood¡¯s Love for Korea


Underwood, who loved Korea and Koreans so much, was a great missionary who established Korean Protestantism. In Korea he used the name Won Du-U, and he had such a large influence on Korean society and church that it would be meaningless to speak of his life without mentioning Korea. The ardent enthusiasm of his missionary work was also reflected in his diverse achievements in society and culture. He was a bright light for Korea, which at the time was in a rather precarious situation.

Underwood and the other missionaries of his time faced the gloomy reality of Joseon Korea, and concentrated all of their energies on effectively preaching the Gospel. Their passion is contained in the Korean churches of today and their love points the way for modern Korean Christians. They saw the latent potential of Korea and brought not just the power of the Gospel, but endured difficult living conditions to help Korea with passion and devotion. Joseon Korea, then at a turning point, moved towards a new world through the Gospel that Underwood brought over on a boat.

The Korean church owes a debt to the missionaries. Even if it is true that some early Korean churches were established without outside help, they all received the Gospel through the missionaries. In the establishment and growth of the early Korean church, the passion and self-sacrifice of the American missionaries were decisive.

Of course, a few of the missionaries saw the difficult situation of the Korean people and responded with scorn or indifference. Others wished to dominate the Koreans. However, one cannot deny the fact that the remarkable growth of Korean churches was the result of their blood and sweat, along with the passion of Korean believers.

7. The Underwood Family and Korea

The Underwood family, beginning with Horace G. Underwood (Won Du-U), who took his first step on Korean soil in April 1885, and continuing with the second-generation Horace H. Underwood (Won Han-Gyeong), the third-generation Horace G. Underwood (Won Il-Han), and the fourth-generation Horace H. Underwood (Won Han-Gwang), is a special family that has shared Korea¡¯s joys and sorrows alike for over a century.

The first Horace G. Underwood¡¯s only son was born in Seoul in 1890. Horace H. Underwood entered the educational profession with his professorship at Yonhee College beginning in 1917. In 1934, he became principal of that school, and directly participated in its management. But as the Japanese oppression intensified, he suffered the insults of forced appointment of Japanese professors and worship at Shinto shrines.


The four sons and one daughter of Horace H. Underwood all became educators or ministers in Korea. His oldest son, Horace G. Underwood, was a trustee of Ilsin Hospital in Busan and of the Korean-American Friendship League. He also served as a professor at Yonsei University and later a trustee. In this way he contributed to Korean society and education.

Horace G. Underwood¡¯s oldest son Horace H. Underwood was a professor at Yonsei and worked on its scholarship foundation. He had two sons but also adopted two Korean orphans in the 1970s: Laura and Sarah Underwood. In this way he showed that the family will never sever its ties to Korea and Koreans.

As a family of special distinction, the Underwoods were selected as recipients of the Inchon Prize for Public Service in 1994. One can judge their influence and importance in Korean society from this achievement: it was not an individual or a group but and entire family, and foreigners at that, who were chosen for this honor.