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Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionaries
arrived April 5, 1885 (Easter)· Person· People
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
Horace Underwood (Presbyterian) and Henry Appenzeller (Methodist), American missionaries who landed at Incheon together on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1885.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
Underwood, London-born and sent by the Northern Presbyterian board, and Appenzeller, a Pennsylvanian sent by the Methodist Episcopal Church, arrived carrying Yi Su-jeong's Korean Gospel of Mark. Since preaching was still illegal, they began with schools and medicine. Appenzeller founded Paichai school (배재학당, 1885); Underwood an orphanage school that became Kyungshin. In 1887 they organized Seoul's first churches of their traditions, Saemunan (Presbyterian) and Chungdong (Methodist). Underwood founded Chosun Christian College (1915), now Yonsei University.
Why it matters
Their Presbyterian and Methodist churches remain Korea's two largest Protestant families, their schools helped create modern Korean education, and Underwood's descendants served in Korea for four generations.
Life, legacy and sources
Mission board reports, their letters and Appenzeller's diaries survive. Underwood is buried, and Appenzeller, who drowned in 1902, is memorialized at Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery in Seoul.
Questions and debates
'First' depends on definition: the Presbyterian doctor Horace Allen arrived in 1884, and Korean believers such as Seo Sang-ryun were already spreading the faith.
Connections (5)
▸Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionaries through Underwood, brought to Korea Presbyterian (Reformed) churchesHistorical record
The connection
Underwood, the Presbyterian of the pair, organized Saemunan Church (새문안교회) in Seoul in 1887 with 14 members, Korea's first organized Presbyterian church. Presbyterian missions from America, Australia and Canada divided Korea into regions to avoid competing, and adopted the 'Nevius method' of self-supporting, self-governing churches, which helped make Presbyterianism Korea's largest Protestant family.
When and where
Seoul, September 27, 1887; the first seven Korean Presbyterian pastors were ordained in 1907, when Korea's first presbytery formed in Pyongyang.
Historical evidence
Saemunan Church's records and Presbyterian board reports document the founding; mission statistics show Presbyterians outgrowing other Protestant groups by the early 1900s.
Questions and debates
Why Presbyterianism grew larger in Korea than in nearly any other Asian country is debated: the Nevius method, the 1907 Pyongyang Revival, or fit with Confucian elder-led communities.
▸Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionaries through Appenzeller, brought to Korea the movement of John Wesley and MethodismHistorical record
The connection
Appenzeller, the Methodist of the pair, carried Wesley's movement to Korea. He founded Paichai school and Chungdong (정동) Methodist Church, Korea's first Methodist congregation. Fellow Methodists Mary Scranton, who founded Ewha girls' school in 1886, and her son William, a doctor, worked alongside him. Korean Methodism kept Wesley's stress on holiness, small groups and education.
When and where
Seoul, 1885–1902; Appenzeller held Chungdong's first service on October 9, 1887. Korean Methodists formed their own autonomous church in 1930.
Historical evidence
Methodist Episcopal mission reports, Appenzeller's diaries and Chungdong's records document it; the church's 1897 brick building still stands in central Seoul.
Questions and debates
Why Methodism stayed much smaller than Presbyterianism in Korea, unlike in America, is debated: mission strategy, the division of territory, or Appenzeller's early death in 1902.
▸William Carey and the modern missionary movement sent Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionariesHistorical record
The connection
By the 1880s American churches were sending missionaries worldwide. After the 1882 U.S.–Korea treaty opened the door, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions sent Underwood and the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society sent Appenzeller. Both were young seminary graduates (New Brunswick and Drew) swept up in the era's missionary fervor.
When and where
New York and Japan, 1884–1885; they sailed together from Japan and landed at Chemulpo (Incheon) on April 5, 1885.
Historical evidence
Board minutes appointing them and their reports to their boards in New York survive; mission magazines printed their letters.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how far the missionaries' American culture and politics, including ties to the U.S. legation, shaped Korean Christianity's later pro-American outlook.
▸Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionaries helped translate First Korean Bible translationsHistorical record
The connection
The missionaries knew Koreans needed a Bible in clear Hangul. In 1887 they formed a translation committee, later the Board of Official Translators, with Underwood as chair and Appenzeller among the members. Working with Korean scholars, they revised the earlier Ross and Yi Su-jeong versions and produced the New Testament (1900) and the full Bible (1911).
When and where
Seoul, 1887–1911; Appenzeller drowned in 1902 when his ship sank on the way to a translators' meeting in Mokpo.
Historical evidence
The committee's minutes and annual reports, Bible Society records, and the title pages of the 1900 New Testament and 1911 Bible document the work.
Questions and debates
How much the official Bible kept from the Ross Version, written in a northwestern (Pyeongan) dialect that Seoul readers found hard, is still being studied.
▸Underwood and Appenzeller: first Protestant missionaries launched the missions that produced Pyongyang Great RevivalHistorical record
The connection
Underwood (Presbyterian) and Appenzeller (Methodist) opened the two Protestant missions whose churches, schools and Bible classes made the revival possible. In 1890 the Presbyterian missionaries adopted the Nevius plan of self-supporting, Korean-led churches and regular Bible study classes; the 1907 revival broke out at such a class, in a Pyongyang church founded by their colleague Samuel Moffett.
When and where
Incheon, April 5, 1885; Seoul's first Protestant churches, 1887; the Pyongyang mission station from the 1890s; Jangdaehyeon Church, Pyongyang, January 1907.
Historical evidence
Mission board reports, missionary letters and Korean church histories document the institutions and the Nevius plan behind the revival.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how much credit belongs to missionary methods versus Korean leaders such as Gil Seon-ju and Korea's national crisis under Japanese domination.