Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Philip Wilson Pitcher Brief Biography (Amoy Missionary)

Several have inquired about the life of Reverend Philip Wilson Pitcher, who was part of the Amoy Mission and wrote "Fifty Years in Amoy," (click for full text) and "In and About Amoy," (available at archive.org), two of my favorite old books on Amoy (now Xiamen).  Pitcher is my favorite Old Amoy Author, second only to John MacGowan, who wrote half a dozen books (all of which are chock full of delightful old China photographs).

Below is the only information I could find about Pitcher's life, taken from the 1916 edition of Officers of Rutgers College.

Philip Wilson Pitcher
 Born at Upper Red Hook, N.Y., Jan. 31, 1856, Clergyman, R. C.A. [Reformed Church of America--

formerly Dutch Reformed Mission] Missionary to China, Principal Boys' Academy, Author "Fifty Years in Amoy," etc. New Brunswick Seminary, 1883, A.M. (Rutgers, 1885). Died, July 21, 1915.
 

Source: Catalogue of the officers and alumni of Rutgers College (Originally Queen's College) in New Brunswick, N.J.,1766 to 1916
Compiled by Rev. John Howard Raven, 1891, Biographer of the Alumni Association, Trenton, N.J. State Gazette Publishing Company, Printers, 1916


Bill Brown  
Xiamen University  
 www.amoymagic.com