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Ancient Chinese Porcelains And Other Curios Belonging To G. A. Hearn
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Chester Holcombe was an American diplomat and missionary. He went for China as a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, assisted in drafting the American-Chinese treaty, and worked out a project for a large Chinese government loan.
Background
Chester Holcombe was born on October 16, 1844 in Winfield, New York, United States. He was a descendant of Thomas Holcomb who came to Dorchester, Massachussets, in 1630, and the eldest son of the Rev. Chester Holcombe, a Presbyterian minister, and Lucy (Tompkins) Holcombe, was born in Winfield, New York. His father, born in Sand Lake, New York, served a number of churches in his native state. Young Chester's mother, who had intended to be a foreign missionary and before his birth had consecrated her son to that career, taught him to look forward to it as his life work.
Education
Holcombe attended Union College, from which he was graduated at the early age of seventeen with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
Career
For several years after the graduation Holcombe taught in the high school at Troy, New York, in a normal school at Hartford, Connecticut, in Norwich, Connecticut, and in a normal school in Brooklyn, New York. In the meantime he read theology, and in 1867 was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Lyons, New York. During 1868 Holcombe traveled in Georgia as a missionary of the American Sunday School Union, and in that year was ordained. The year following with his wife, Olive Kate Sage, and his brother Gilbert, he sailed for China as a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, arriving in Peking in the spring. His brother did not long remain in China, but Chester Holcombe continued in Peking, making one of his principal activities the conduct of a school for boys, and also doing some literary work in Chinese--preparing a mental arithmetic (1873) and a life of Christ (1875). In 1871, though he still kept up his missionary work, he became an interpreter for the legation of the United States in Peking.
In 1876, when Samuel Wells Williams retired from the secretaryship of the legation, Holcombe resigned his position with the American Board and succeeded him, formally taking over duties which he had apparently been performing during Williams' frequent absences. He served as secretary of the legation until 1885, and three times during that period was chargé d'affaires. He assisted in drafting the American-Chinese treaty of 1880, which dealt with the question of Chinese immigration to the United States, and in negotiating the first American treaty with Korea, in 1882. While in Peking, he declined an appointment to the United States legation in Colombia.
At one time he worked out a project for a large Chinese government loan (1896), and at another, detailed plans for the construction, financing, and managing of about three thousand miles of railway. He hoped for, but was disappointed in obtaining, appointment as American minister to China.
After his return to America he eked out a somewhat precarious living by dealing in Chinese curios, and by lecturing and writing on Chinese subjects. He was a Lowell Institute lecturer in 1902. Among his numerous books were The Practical Effect of Confucianism upon the Chinese Nation (1882), A Catalogue and Handbook of Antique Chinese Porcelains (1890), The Real Chinaman (1895), and The Real Chinese Question (1899), revised and republished as China's Past and Future (1904). None of these was especially notable or made any very great contribution to Western knowledge of China.
In his last years Holcombe made his home at Rochester, New York. He died in 1912.
Achievements
Chester Holcombe has been listed as a notable author, diplomatist by Marquis Who's Who.
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Religion
Holcombe was a Presbyterian.
Connections
Holcombe's first wife, Olive Kate Sage, died during his residence in Peking; later he was married a second time, March 21, 1906, to Alice Reeves. He had no children.
