History of Livonia, (Washington County) Indiana United States of America

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William Alexander Parsons Martin, missionary and sinologue, was born in Livonia, Ind., April 10, 1827; son of the Rev. William Wilson and Susan (Depew) Martin, and grandson of Jacob Alexander Martin, who came to America from Coleraine, Ireland. He was graduated from the Indiana university, 1846, studied, 1849-49, at the Presbyterian Theological seminary, New Albany, Ind.; was professor of Latin and Greek there one year and then went as a missionary to China, being stationed at Ningpo, 1850-60. In 1856 he was appointed interpreter for U.S. Minister William B. Reed, and was with the latter when he negotiated the treaty with China at Tentsin in 1858. He was in Peking and Yeddo with U.S. Minister John E. Ward, 1859-61; founded the Presbyterian mission at Peking, 1863-68; wes president and professor of international law in the Tung Wen college, Peking, established by the Chinese government for the purpose of training Chinese for the government service, 1868-94; and was appointed the first president of the Imperial University of China in 1898. He was a trusted adviser of the Chinese authorities when the progressive party had influence, especially in matters of international law, and in several disputes with European powers, notably during the French war. He visited the ancient Jewish colony in Kai feng fu, and was the first foreigner to make the journey from Peking to Shanghai through the heart of China. He was made a mandarin of the third class in 1885 and of the second class in 1898, receiving the red button by special decree of the emperor. Through the siege of the legation in Peking in 1900 he acted as gatekeeper, though then seventy-three years of age. Before the siege the library of the university was destroyed by "Boxers" and Chinese soldiers, and after the siege the buildings were taken for barracks; while its endowment of 5,000,000 taels was for a time withheld from it by its trustee, the Russo-Chinese bank. Dr. Martin spent the autumn and winter of 1900 in America, lecturing with a view to stimulating and directing American interest in Chinese progress, and in 1901 resumed his work in Peking. He married in 1849 Jane Vansant of Philadelphia, who died in 1893. He was made a member of the European Institute of International Law and of the French Society of Comparative Legislation. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Lafayette college in 1861, and that of LL.D. by the University of the City of New York in 1870, and by Princeton in 1899. He edited the Peking Scientific Magazine, printed in Chinese, 1875-78, and wrote, in Chinese, Evidences of Christianity (1855; 10th ed., 1885), translated into Japanese; The Three Principles (1856): Religious Allegories (1857); a translation of Wheaton's Elements of International Law (1863), reprinted by the Japanese government for its own use; Natural Philosophy (1866); a translation of Woolsey's Introduction to the Study of International Law; translations of de Marten's Guide Diplomatique and of Bluntschli's V?lkerrecht (1879); Mathematical Physics (1885); Psychology (1898), and a translation of Hall's International Law (1901). In English he is the author of: The Analytical Reader (1863); The Chinese: Their Education, Philosophy and Letters (1881); A Cycle of Cathay (1897); The Siege in Peking (1900); The Lore of Cathay (1901); and numerous contributions to periodicals.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Livonia, (Washington County) Indiana

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