Ellinwood, Frank Field (1826-1908)

Presbyterian mission administrator

Ellinwood was born in Clinton, New York, and graduated from Hamilton College, New York, and from Princeton Theological Seminary. He served pastorates at Second Presbyterian Church of Belvidere, New Jersey (1853-1854), and Central Presbyterian Church of Rochester, New York (1854-1865). After holding administrative posts for the Presbyterian Committee of Church Erection (1866-1870) and the Memorial Fund Committee (1870-1871), he was appointed corresponding secretary for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (1871-1906). In that capacity he worked with such notables as Robert E. Speer and Arthur Judson Brown to shape one of the more vibrant Protestant mission agencies in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ellinwood’s board responsibilities included editing the Foreign Missionary Magazine and supervising relations with women’s auxiliaries, the YMCA, and the Student Volunteer Movement. He also steered the board to establish mission posts in newly opened fields, including China, Korea, and the Philippines. He wrote The Great Conquest (1876), Oriental Religions and Christianity (1892), Questions and Phases of Modern Missions (1899), and numerous pamphlets on missions. In addition, from 1886 to 1903 he lectured on comparative religion at the University of the City of New York (now New York Univ.), which awarded him two honorary doctorates.

James Patterson, “Ellinwood, Frank Field (1826-1908),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 197-8.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Texts

Ellinwood, Mary G. Frank Field Ellinwood: His Life and Work. New York: F. H. Revell, 1911.

Ellinwood, Frank Field. A Sermon, Commemorative of National Blessings, Preached in the Central Presbyterian Church, April 13, 1862. The Day Recommended by the President of the United States as an Occasion of Special Thanksgiving for Recent National Victories, and of Prayer for the Wounded and the Bereft, and for Further Blessing on Our Cause. Rochester, NY: [A. Strong & Co., printers], 1862.

_____. The “Great Conquest”; or Miscellaneous Papers on Missions. New York: W. Rankin, 1876.

_____. Oriental Religions and Christianity: A Course of Lectures Delivered on the Ely Foundation Before the Students of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1891. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892.

_____. Questions and Phases of Modern Missions. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899.

_____. “Introduction.” In Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots, or, Life in Korea. Boston: American Tract Society, [1904].

Primary

Atterbury, Anson Phelps and Frank Field Ellinwood. Islam in Africa: Its Effects– Religious, Ethical, and Social– Upon the People of the Country. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899.

Ellinwood, Frank Field. Dedication Sermon, Church of the Mountain, Delaware Water-Gap, Pa. Philadelphia, PA: Isaac Ashmead, 1854.

_____. “Religious Principles the Only True Basis of Morality: Sermon VIII.” National Preacher 3 no 3. (March 1860). New York: W. H. Bidwell, 1860.

_____. A Foreign Mission Board: A University of Beneficence. [New York?]: [Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.?], [18–].

_____. A Sermon, Commemorative of National Blessings, Preached in the Central Presbyterian Church, April 13, 1862. The Day Recommended by the President of the United States as an Occasion of Special Thanksgiving for Recent National Victories, and of Prayer for the Wounded and the Bereft, and for Further Blessing on Our Cause. Rochester, NY: [A. Strong & Co., printers], 1862.

_____. Return of the Victors: A Discourse Addressed to Our Returned Soldiers, Delivered in the Central Presbyterian Church, Rochester, June 25, 1865. n.p.: n.p., 1865.

_____. The “Great Conquest”; or Miscellaneous Papers on Missions. New York: W. Rankin, 1876.

_____. Our Relations to the Mongol Race. [Saratoga?]: n.p., 1884.

_____. Oriental Religions and Christianity: A Course of Lectures Delivered on the Ely Foundation Before the Students of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1891. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892.

_____. Copy of an Article Sent to the New York World. . . : [Concerning the Presybterian Missions in Persia]. New York: n.p., 1894.

_____. Questions and Phases of Modern Missions. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899.

_____. Buddhism and Christianity: A Crusade Which Must Be Met. n.p.: n.p., [19–].

_____. The Progress of a Generation. [New York: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1902].

_____. Mormonism, a New Religion of the Nineteenth Century. Pamphlets in American History. New York: Woman’s Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., [1903]. Microform.

_____. “Introduction.” In Lillias H. Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots, or, Life in Korea. Boston: American Tract Society, [1904].

Secondary

Clarke, John James. Buddhism in the United States, 1840-1925. Vol. 1. Contacts and Exchanges in Print Culture: Encountering Buddhism in U.S. Periodicals, 1844-1903. Tokyo: Edition Synapse, 2004.

Ellinwood, Mary G. Frank Field Ellinwood: His Life and Work. New York: F. H. Revell, 1911.

Herringshaw, Thomas William. “Ellinwood, Frank Field.” In Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography. Vol. 2. n.p.: American Publishers’ Company, [1909-14].

Portrait

Ellinwood, Mary G. Frank Field Ellinwood: His Life and Work. New York: F. H. Revell, 1911. Opposite title page.