George Heber Jones

Infobox Korean name

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caption=George Heber Jones (front center) during a 1906 visit to the Honolulu Methodist Church
hanja=趙元時cite web|publisher=The Korean Methodist Church|title=George Heber Jones, 1867.8.14-1919.5.11|url=http://www.kmcweb.or.kr/board/view.php?id=head_history_dic&no=180|language=Korean|accessdate=2007-09-29|date=2005-12-01]
hangul=조원시
rr=Jo Won-si
mr=Cho Wǒnshi
othername1=Phonetic transcription
hangul1=존스
rr1=Jonseu
mr1=Chonsŭ

George Heber Jones (14 August 1867 - 11 May 1919) was an American Christian missionary in Korea. Jones, who grew up in Utica, New York, is notable as the first Protestant missionary in Korea who took an academic approach to the research of Korean religions. He arrived in Korea in 1887 as a Methodist minister; while there, he not only made major contributions to the spread of Christianity in Korea, but also founded three academic journals: "The Korean Repository", "The Korean Review", and "Shinhak Wolbo" (Theology Monthly). [cite conference|booktitle=Korean Studies: New Pacific Currents|editor=Dae-sook Suh|last=Kim|first=Chong-suh|title=Early Western Studies of Korean Religions|pages=148-150|date=1994|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|id=ISBN 082481598X] [cite encyclopedia|title=Jones, George Heber|pages=340-341|last=Anderson|first=Gerald Harry|encyclopedia=Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|date=1999|id=ISBN 0802846807] He also played a significant role in encouraging Korean migration to Hawaii; of the first ship of Korean migrant laborers bound for Hawaii to work on sugar plantations there, which departed on 22 December, 1902, more than half came from his church in Incheon. [cite book|title=The Korean Americans|publisher=Greenwood Press|date=1998|last=Hurh|first=Won-moo|pages=22|id=ISBN 031329741X] [cite conference|publisher=Center for Korean Studies, The University of Hawaii at Manoa|booktitle=Centennial Celebration of Korean Immigration to the United States|date=2002|accessdate=2007-09-29|url=http://www.korean-studies.info/pdf/churchm2.pdf|format=PDF|title=Early Membership of Korean Methodist Churches in Hawaii|last=Lee-Murabayashi|first=Duk-hee] In July 1907, he was the subject of a murder attempt; Yale University professor George Trumbull Ladd attributed the attack to opinions Jones had expressed in an article he wrote about the suppression of a Korean riot, in which he praised the Japanese police. [cite news|last=Ladd|first=George Trumbull|title=Koreans a Bloody Race; Attempted Assassination of Mr. Stevens Not an Isolated Case|date=1908-03-26|accessdate=2007-09-21|publisher=The New York Times|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9502E5DB1639E333A25755C2A9659C946997D6CF] In general, Jones had a high opinion of Koreans but not of Korean culture; in particular, he wrote high praise for Korean migrants in Hawaii, attributing their success in their adopted land to their liberation from "the oppressive weight of past tradition, language, [and] association". [cite book|title=The Ilse: First-Generation Korean Immigrants in Hawaii, 1903-1973|last=Patterson|first=Wayne|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|pages=31-33|date=2000|id=ISBN 0824822412] He died in Miami, Florida on 11 May 1919 after a long illness; his funeral was held in Leonia, New Jersey four days later. [cite news|title=Obituary #1|date=1919-05-13|accessdate=2007-09-30|publisher=The New York Times|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9907E3DC163AE03ABC4B52DFB3668382609EDE] [cite news|title=Obituary #2|date=1919-05-14|accessdate=2007-09-29|publisher=The New York Times|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B0CE5DB163AE03ABC4C52DFB3668382609EDE]

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