Rev. BOON TUAN BOON ITT
In physique he was of medium stature, well proportioned, lithe of limb and agile in action. He was fond of athletics, and showed a preference for the more active sports. He loved games for the sake of sport rather than for the winning chance. His features were distinctly Asiatic. Yet there was a total absence of that mysteriousness in countenance which we usually associate with the Oriental. Americans quickly lost sight of the difference of race, and received him as one of their own. His voice was low, mellow and gently modulated, imparting a feeling of confidence by its quiet yet positive strength.
The most casual acquaintance discovered in him a winsomeness of manners. Simple, courteous, modest, responsive, he had all the marks of a Christian gentleman. He was friendly but free from effusiveness; hospitable yet without aggressiveness in urging attentions. He had a warm sympathy but never bestowed the pity of superiority nor the flattery of patronage. His love of companions made him a leader among young men. In his nature the æsthetic had its proper balance. He possessed a love of the beautiful both in art and in nature, and in this love he found a constant inspiration to purity and nobleness. The best in literature and in art and in music found a response in his heart. Without doubt, however, to those who knew Boon Itt best, it was the spiritual quality that gave richness to his character. He was deeply religious; he had a religiousness of soul rather than of mind, free from the sentimental, the spectacular or the trivial. Faith with him was not a matter of creed but of simple, profound trust in a God whose goodness he had proven.
“THE FAITH THAT DWELT IN THY GRANDFATHER”
Boon Itt was one of the earliest of the second generation Christians of Siam. His maternal grandfather was Kee-Eng Sinsay Quasien. This name appears in various abbreviations and spellings in Dr. House’s journal, but here it is given in the form approved by one of his grandsons, who explains that the first two syllables constitute the name, while the remainder is the title. It will not lessen the honour to correct several traditions that have attached themselves to his story in America. Kee-Eng was not the first Protestant Christian in Siam, nor the first convert of the Presbyterian Mission; his wife did not make a profession of Christian faith; his daughter Maa Tuan was not the first Siamese woman to unite with the Christian church. His primacy was only that he was the first “native” to be received into the Presbyterian Church of Bangkok after its organisation.
Kee-Eng was baptised Jan. 7, 1844, by Rev. Stephen Johnston, of the A. B. C. F. M., having been the Chinese tutor to Mr. Johnston for several years; but there had been other converts previously. When the A. B. C. F. M. abandoned Siam and turned their work over to the Presbyterians, Kee-Eng was the only one of their converts still in Siam in good standing; and he was transferred to the Presbyterian Church. On this occasion Dr. House reported:
“Kwa Kieng is a native of middle age (about forty-five), good education, was formerly Mr. Johnston’s teacher, of respectable appearance, amiable character and appears for five years back to have led a faithful and exemplary life as a disciple of Christ. He has a wife (a Cambodian woman) and three children—two sons and a daughter [another son and daughter were born later]—now living at Rapri, one hundred miles west of Bangkok. Though he speaks Siamese imperfectly, we can communicate tolerably well with him, and we feel that Providence may make him the instrument of great good to many of his countrymen. He would be well equipped in many respects for a native assistant, and we have confidence in him.”
In his Journal at this time Dr. House states that Kee-Eng was a Hakien Chinaman from Amoy. The reference to Cambodia in connection with his wife must be taken to indicate only that she came from there. Her name was Maa Hey and, according to her son Kru Tien Soo, she was the daughter of a Chinese, born in Cambodia. Although, according to her son, Maa Hey never made a profession of the Christian faith; yet she did manifest a sympathy with the work of the mission. All the children of the family were baptised at the request of the father.
As early as 1848 Dr. House mentions that Kee-Eng conducted a school for Chinese boys at Ratburi, or Rapri, as he spells it. When the boys’ boarding school was established in Bangkok he was chosen as the teacher of Chinese. For this reason he removed his family to Bangkok and came to live in the compound. Besides teaching he conducted weekly worship for his fellow countrymen, served as interpreter for Dr. House while he taught the Bible class of Chinese, and still later had charge of a mission chapel for the Chinese. Kee-Eng died Nov. 23, 1858, a victim of the cholera.