Education and Publication
In 1845, the Presbyterian Mission in Ningpo started both girls’ and boys’ boarding schools where they taught the following subjects: “Chinese Language and Literature, Geography, Arithmetic, History, [Astronomy, Music,] &c., and the Bible, with books teaching and illustrating its doctrines” (1856 Annual Report). Samuel took over supervision of the boys’ school when he arrived in the 1850s and wrote the following in 1858:
Our object is to give the pupils, first, a thorough knowledge of Gospel truth, by which they may secure their own salvation; and second, to make them familiar with their own literature, by which they may be more influential for good among their countrymen. Subordinate to these objects is the study of geography, history, the various branches of natural philosophy, &c. to which the pupils devote as much time and attention as is deemed desirable.
Aldersey’s school in Ningpo, 1847
British missionary Mary Ann Aldersey, whom Maggie described as “a very pious intelligent old maid [who] devotes her whole time and energy in doing good,” had started a girls’ boarding school in Surabaya, Indonesia, in 1837 (3 June 1850). In 1844, she moved to China and opened a girls’ school in Ningpo. When she retired in 1857, she asked the Presbyterian Mission to combine her school with theirs.
In 1845, Richard Cole (1802-1872), who had formerly been the State Printer of Indiana, brought a printing press to Ningpo and established the Presbyterian Mission Press. The missionaries developed a system of printing the local dialect in Roman letters to promote literacy among the population. At the time, only about 5% of adult males in China were literate, and “the ability to read among females [was] extremely rare” (1846 Medical Report). Samuel published the following books during his time in China: Hymns (1855); Tin-dao-king-iao, or Increasing the Way to the Vital Source (1857); Mirror of Revealed Truth (1858); and Verses for Children (1858).
Title page of Specimen Type Book (left) and first page of the Gospel of Luke (right), both printed by the Presbyterian Mission Press in the 1850s