James Caruthers Rhea Ewing

Background

James Caruthers Rhea Ewing was born on June 23, 1854, in the prosperous and enlightened community of Rural Valley, Pennsylvania, the son of James Henry and Eleanor (Rhea) Ewing.

Education

In the spring of 1860 the family moved to a farm in the vicinity of Saltsburg, Pa. , where Ewing attended the public school.

He graduated in 1869 from the Saltsburg Academy, and passed his examination for teaching.

After three years spent in teaching in the common schools of Indiana and Armstrong counties, he entered in March 1873 the freshman class of Washington and Jefferson College, from which he received the B. A. degree in 1876, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors. His next three years were spent in Western Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1879.

In 1917 on the eve of his retirement and return to America the Panjab University conferred upon him the honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

Career

Having applied during his senior year in the seminary for missionary appointment, he received a commission under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions for service in India. With Mrs. Ewing, he sailed from Philadelphia on October 2, 1879, and arrived at Bombay, December 1. They proceeded thence to the United Provinces, first to Mainpuri and soon thereafter to Fategarh. He learned the Urdu language quickly.

During 1882 - 1884 Ewing was principal of the Jumna High School in Allahabad, was in charge of the asylum for lepers and the blind, and editor of the mission paper, Makhsan i Masihi. He spent the next three years in Saharanpur at the newly established Theological Seminary for the North India Presbyterian Mission. There he published various books, including a Greek-Hindustani dictionary of the New Testament and a Hindustani hymnal.

In 1887 - 1888 Ewing and his family visited the United States on furlough but they returned in October 1888, and Ewing was then assigned to the Ludhiana Mission with a view to his working in Forman Christian College, Lahore.

From 1888 to 1918 Ewing was principal (president) of Forman College, during which time the institution attained front rank and he himself became one of the best-known and most trusted foreigners in the Panjab. The India government gave aid in the building of the first unit of the college in 1889. During that year Ewing was appointed to several offices in the Panjab University, namely, examiner in English, member of the Syndicate, fellow, and secretary of the faculty of arts.

From 1890 to 1907 he was dean of the faculty of arts, and from 1910 to 1917, was vice-chancellor of the university. During the Second Decennial Missionary Conference at Bombay, December 1892 and January 1893, he was a conspicuous and influential figure. His health suffered from his many arduous activities.

During his second furlough, in 1897 - 1898, he was offered the presidencies of Wooster College (Ohio) and Centre College (Kentucky), but preferred to continue his service in India.

In 1901 he was sent on a special mission to the Philippine Islands to aid in the inauguration of Presbyterian work there.

In 1912 he paid a visit to England as a representative of the Panjab University in the Congress of Universities of the British Empire. The directorship of the American Board of Missionary Preparation was offered to him in 1914, but this he also declined.

Having retired from the headship of Forman Christian College and having severed various other connections with India, he spent a year in America. During this time he published his only original volume, A Prince of the Church in India, being a Record of the Life of the Rev. Kali Charan Chatterjee, D. (1918).

Ewing found himself able to return to the East in October 1918 to take up the secretaryship of the Council of Presbyterian Missions in India, and to be the India representative of the Inter-Church World Movement. In January 1920 he suffered a stroke of paralysis, but improved sufficiently thereafter to be able to draft a plan of administration of the joint work of his India mission, and to act as chairman of the standing committee on Christian Education of the National Missionary Council of India.

In 1922 at the age of sixty-eight and after forty-three years of service in India, Ewing retired on a pension from his Board and returned to America where he took up residence in Princeton, New Jersey, and became a lecturer in the Princeton Theological Seminary. He died on August 20, 1925, at Princeton, New Jersey, and was buried in the family lot at Saltsburg, Pennsylvania.

Achievements

• From 1888 to 1918 James Caruthers Rhea Ewing was principal (president) of Forman College, during which time the institution attained front rank and he himself became one of the best-known and most trusted foreigners in the Panjab.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Prince of the Church in India: Being a Record of the Life of the Rev. Kali Charan Chatterjee (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from A Prince of the Church in India: Being a Rec...)

Membership

Ewing was appointed to several offices in the Panjab University, namely, examiner in English, member of the Syndicate, fellow, and secretary of the faculty of arts.

the India representative of the Inter-Church World Movement

chairman of the standing committee on Christian Education of the National Missionary Council of India

On June 4, 1923, he was elected a member of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

Connections

On June 24, 1879, James Caruthers Rhea Ewing married Jane Sherrard, daughter of the Rev. J. H. Sherrard at Prosperity, Pennsylvania. The couple had six children.

Father:

James Henry Ewing

Mother:

Eleanor Ewing (Rhea)

Sister:

Ada Lucretia Ewing

Sister:

Anna Mary Ewing

Sister:

Clara Hermann Ewing

Sister:

Ira Charles Ewing

Wife:

Jane Ewing (Sherrard)

Daughter:

Eleanor Elizabeth Jackson (Ewing)

Daughter:

Anne Keziah Goheen (Ewing)

Brother:

William Howard Ewing

Brother:

John Alvin Ewing

Brother:

Herbert Austin Ewing

Brother:

Walter Livingstone Ewing

Brother:

Robert Merton Ewing

Brother:

Arthur Henry Ewing

Arthur Henry Ewing was a prominent Presbyterian missionary and academic.