THE BOY BOON ITT
Boon Tuan Boon Itt was born February 15, 1865, in the village of Bangpa, which was a Chinese settlement near Ratburi. After his mother removed to Bangkok with her children, Boon Itt and his younger brother Boon Yee entered the mission school and there began their primary education. Only three years after that, Dr. and Mrs. House resigned. When they were about to return home they arranged to take Boon with them and undertook to have him educated in America. At the same time the retiring missionaries agreed to supervise the education of another Siamese boy, Nai Kawn, at the request of his father.
Rev. J. A. Eakin, D.D., in his sketch of Boon Itt, gives this touching picture of the night before his departure:
“The warm clothing, so different from anything that he had been accustomed to wear, was all made and packed in his little box. He had taken leave of his teacher and the school. On the morrow he was to leave his native land. On that last night his mother visited him, and sitting together in their favorite place by the riverside, they talked long of the future. Years afterward, when he was a student of Theology, in a letter to his mother he referred to that night, and said that her farewell words of counsel had always remained in his mind, and had been a great help to him.”
The home of Dr. and Mrs. House was to be in Waterford, New York, and thither they brought their young charges. Boon early became imbued with the American idea of self-dependence. He sought to learn to do as American boys do. In vacation time he looked for jobs to earn money towards his own support. When Dr. and Mrs. House assumed the responsibility for his education, they supposed that their income would be sufficient to bear the expense; but with the failure of their investments a serious problem confronted them. Fortunately, Boon won his way into the hearts of the people, so that the Presbyterian Sunday school of Waterford undertook to make an annual contribution of seventy-five dollars, and continued this amount until his full course was finished. Individuals also assisted privately.