- Merriman Colbert Harris
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Protestant
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Baptist Missionary SocietyMerriman Colbert Harris (July 9, 1846 – May 8, 1921) was a Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1904.
Contents
Birth and family
Merriman was born July 9, 1846 in Beallsville, Ohio, the son of Colbert and Catherine Elizabeth (Crupper) Harris. Merriman married Flora L. Best October 23, 1873, in Meadville, Pennsylvania. They had two daughters, Florence and Elizabeth.
Military service and education
Merriman served for three years as a soldier in the 12th Ohio Cavalry in the American Civil War (1863–65), gaining the rank of corporal.
Merriman attended the Washington Academy in Ohio, and the Harlem Springs Seminary. He then attended Scio College, earning the B.A. degree (1873) and the M.A. degree (1877) from Allegheny College.
Ordained ministry and missionary service
Merriman entered the ministry of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference of the M.E. Church in 1869, serving as a pastor and a missionary. He was sent to Japan in 1873, and later he established Japanese missions on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and in Hawaii. He became the Superintendent of Japanese Missions in San Francisco, California in 1886. He also served as Superintendent of all Pacific Coast Japanese Missions of his denomination, including the Hawaiian Islands, in 1890.
Episcopal ministry
Merriman Colbert Harris was elected a Missionary Bishop by the 1904 General Conference of the M.E. Church. He was assigned Korea and Japan.
As a Missionary Bishop he served with distinction in Hawaii and Japan. He was twice decorated with the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor of Japan.
He died May 8, 1921 in Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan in a home given to him by the Japanese. He was buried in Aoyama as well.
Selected writings
- Address: Japanese Buddhism, San Francisco, 1887. Typed, in Methodist Bishops' Collection.
- Christianity in Japan, 1907.
- Save Korea, Quarterly-Centennial Documents, 1910.
- Contributor, Japan Proverbs.
- Statement in Competent Witnesses on Korea as a Mission Field, Korea Documents, with others.
See also
References
- Leete, Frederick DeLand, Methodist Bishops. Nashville, The Methodist Publishing House, 1948.
- Methodism: Ohio Area (1812–1962), edited by John M. Versteeg, Litt.D., D.D. (Ohio Area Sesquicentennial Committee, 1962).
- Price, Carl F., Compiler and Editor: Who's Who in American Methodism, New York: E.B. Treat & Co., 1916.
- The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume XIV. New York, James T. White & Company, 1910.
Christianity in Hawaii Christian Groups
in HawaiiChurch of Hawaii · Eastern Catholic · Episcopal · First Unitarian · Latter-day Saints · Lutheran · New Hope · Orthodox · Roman Catholic · Southern Baptist · True Jesus
Historic Chapels Imiola · Holualoa · Church of the Crossroads · Haili · Kaʻahumanu · Lāʻie · Makawao · Maria Lanakila · Mokuaikaua · Kawaiahaʻo · Star of the Sea · St. Andrew · St. Joseph · St. Michael · Waiola · Waiʻoli · Wānanalua
Missionaries W. P. Alexander · Lorrin Andrews · Alexis Bachelot · Dwight Baldwin · Hiram Bingham I · Hiram Bingham II · Elias Bond · Libert H. Boeynaems · Titus Coan · A. S. Cooke · Marianne Cope · Peter Coudrin · Samuel C. Damon · St. Damien · Sheldon Dibble · Daniel Dole · William Ellis · J. S. Green · P. J. Gulick · Merriman Harris · H. R. Hitchcock · Gerrit P. Judd · David Lyman · Lorenzo Lyons · Louis Maigret · John D. Paris · W. H. Rice · William Richards · Thomas Staley · Betsey Stockton · John M. Systermans · Asa Thurston · Abner Wilcox
Other articles French Incident · Edict of Toleration · French Invasion
Categories:- Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church
- Union Army soldiers
- People from Monroe County, Ohio
- 1846 births
- 1921 deaths
- United States Army soldiers
- Methodist writers
- Methodist missionaries in Japan
- American Christian missionaries
- Christian missionaries in Hawaii
- American expatriates in Japan
- Burials in Japan
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