This year I was lucky enough to have bid on an auction and won this 1905 postal envelope of Missionary Horace Grant Underwood. The sender’s address is “FROM: H. G. UNDERWOOD,SEOUL, KOREA.”, receiver address is typed as “Tiffin Stamp Co, 160 N St. Tiffin Ohio, USA”. The envelope was franked with a 10 cent Eagle stamp, issued October 1st 1903, and was cancelled “SEOUL 1 APRIL 05 COREE”. The back side shows a faint cancellation “SEATTLE WASH APRIL 14 1:30 AM 1905”, and “TIFFIN APRIL 23 6 PM 1905 OHIO” as arrival cancellations. Missionary Underwood sent this letter to the Tiffin Stamp Company, Tiffin Ohio, USA. Part of the back side of this envelope had been cut out.
On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1885, missionary Underwood first came to Korea with Methodist missionary Mr. Henry Appenzeller. They both consented to step onto the land of Korea simultaneously, so that they would not argue who was the first to step on Korean soil. After 31 years of long devotion and sacrifice for the Korea mission, and because of his health condition in 1916, the missionary Mr. Underwood went back to the United States, and died in a hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the age of 57.
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Dear Dr . Lee,
I read with great interest your two articles regarding the remarkable story of H.G. Underwood. Indeed, a very remarkable family with an impressive footprint in Korea. In fact, a few months ago I was in contact – related to an oral history project – with his grandson, Richard Underwood, who served in the Korean war as an interpreter at the armistice talks in Panmunjom.
Kind regards,
Urs Fischer-Han