DeWitt Clinton Jansen

DeWitt Clinton Jansen (born at Shawangunk, New York on 8 November 1840; died 6 November 1894 at Shanghai), was a member of the Shanghai Municipal Council from 1893 until his death in November 1894; an Associate judge of the United States Consular Court in Shanghai; the proprietor of the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai, the first western hotel in China, from 1874 to his death in 1894; and was the first District Deputy Grand Master [1] of the Cosmopolitan Lodge (No. 428, S. C.) of Freemasons[2] which began working in Shanghai in 1864.[3] Jansen Road (now Fulu Street) in Yangzepu (renamed Yangpu in 1949) was named in his honour.[4]

Family background

DeWitt Clinton Jansen was of Dutch ancestry, and was born at Shawangunk, New York on 8 November 1840,[5] the second son of John Richard Jansen (born 2 March 1804 Wallkill, New York; died 11 March 1845 at Shawganguk) and Rachel Terwilliger (married May 1830),[6] and the brother of Mary, Richard, William, and Cornelius.[7] Jansen was the a great-great grandson of Thomas Jansen (1708–1798), who was one of the first settlers in the Wallkill valley, who built the Thomas Jansen House, a Dutch stone house on Jansen Road in Shawangunk.[8] D.C. Jansen is a descendant of Mathijs Jansen van Ceulen, original owner of the piece of ground on Isle van Pappermemmins (Isle of Man Hats, aka Manhattan Island) (Original Patens, Aug 11, 1646) currently home to Columbia University. [9] His ancestors were among the first to settle Kingston, New York in 1652.[7][9]

After the death of his father in 1845, Jansen and his older brother William (born ca. 1836) lived with his grandparents, Thomas Johnson (Jansen) (born 27 Apr 1777 in Shawangunk, New York), and Leah Bleynman Johnson (Jansen). On 8 November 1871 Jansen married Ellen McGrath (died 12 November 1918 in Shanghai)[10] in a ceremony performed by Rev. William Henry Collins, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society,[11] at the Church of Our Saviour, Hongkew, China,[12] one of the first churches in Shanghai.[13] Jansen and Ellen had seven children:[14] Ellen Rachel (born 19 May 1873 in Shanghai; died 15 March 1955 in Alameda, California);[15] Edith Mary (born 29 March 1874); Mabel (born 10 May 1875); John DeWitt (born 22 July 1876; died 1918);[16] Grace; Edward Clinton (born 28 November 1878);[17] and Catharine (born 5 November 1880).[8]

Career highlights

Jansen left the United States on 7 August 1857, while still aged 16. Jansen was a merchant sailor, and colporteur in China's interior. From 1871 Jansen was resident in Shanghai, and was employed by the Imperial Maritime Customs.[18]

Astor House Hotel (1874-1894)

By 1874 Jansen purchased the Astor House Hotel.[19]

Social activities

Jansen was a polyglot, fluent in a number of Chinese dialects, and assisted in the preparation of an 1871 Pekinese-English dictionary.[20]

Church

Jansen was a regular attender and member of the Church Committee of the Union Church,[21] which had been located on the London Missionary Society compound on Shantung Road since 1864, and in a new church building erected in 1886 at a new site on the corner of Soochow (Suzhou) and Yuen-ming-yuen (Yuan Ming Yuan) Roads.[22]

Freemasonry

Jansen was a founding member of the first American Freemason lodge in China, the Cosmopolitan Lodge (No. 428, S. C.),[2] which began working in Shanghai in 1864.[23] From 27 December 1891, he was the first District Deputy Grand Master.[1] of that lodge, a position he held until his death in November 1894.

Natural history

Jansen had an interest in natural history. In 1870 he sent specimens from China to the American Museum of Natural History.[24] Jansen also served as Honorary Curator of the Shanghai Museum, from about 1880.[25][26]

Jansen was a member of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland from 1877 until his death in 1894.[27]

Shanghai Municipal Council

According to his obituary, Jansen was "a painstaking and prominent member of the Municipal Council."[18]

United States Consular Court

By October 1894 Jansen was an Associate judge on the United States Consular Court in Shanghai.[28]

Death

On 6 November 1894, during an installation meeting of the lodge,[1] Jansen "suddenly fell back in his chair, gave one or two gasps for breath" and died.[29] On 8 November 1894 Jansen was buried in the New Cemetery of Shanghai. J.I. Miller eulogised Jansen:

speaking of Bro. Jansen as a 'typical Freemason, a just and upright man,' saying that, "His labours for the good of the Settlement and its public institutions are so well and widely known, that I will not dwell here upon them. Whatever he did, he did well."[30]

On Sunday 11 November 1894 a memorial service was held at the Union Church,[31] with the funeral sermon, based on Revelation 3:12, preached by Rev. John Stevens.[32]

References
  1. "Chinese Masonic Society". www.freemasons-freemasonry.com. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  2. Freemasons, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (The Lodge, 1894):142).
  3. "The Builder Magazine - January 1925". www.phoenixmasonry.org. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  4. "Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos". www.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  5. Thomas Patrick Hughes and Frank Munsell, American Ancestry: Giving the Name and Descent, In the Male Line, of Americans Whose Ancestors Settled in the United States Previous to the Declaration of Independence, A.D. 1776 Vols. 4-6 (Clearfield, Co., 1998):57; "[Official]", The New York Times (24 December 1894):5; https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/12/24/106845952.pdf; Charles Ewart Darwent, Shanghai: A Handbook for Travellers and Residents to the Chief Objects of Interest in and Around the Foreign Settlements and Native City, 2nd ed. (Kelly & Walsh, 1920):62.
  6. Thomas Patrick Hughes and Frank Munsell, American Ancestry: Giving the Name and Descent, In the Male Line, of Americans Whose Ancestors Settled in the United States Previous to the Declaration of Independence, A.D. 1776 Vols. 4-6 (Clearfield, Co., 1998):158.
  7. "Re: DeWitt Clinton Jansen (b.S - Genealogy.com". www.genealogy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  8. Hughes and Munsell, 158.
  9. Douglas Van Curen, Van Keulen/Van Keuren/Van Kuren/Van Curen, A Family History (Gateway Press).
  10. Ellen arrived in Shanghai by 7 July 1871 from Tientsin on the Dragon. See "Arrivals", North-China Herald (7 July 1871):15. Ellen died at her home at 2 Jessfield Road (later Wanhangdu Lu) on Tuesday, 12 November 1918, and was buried at Pahsinjao Cemetery two days later. The service was conducted by Rev. C.E. Darwent. Her sons-in-law, Messrs. Hide and Everall were chief moyrners. See "Mrs. Ellen Jansen", North-China Herald (16 November 1918):30.
  11. "CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE", Section I: East Asia Missions, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-28. Retrieved 2010-01-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Marriage", North-China Herald (15 November 1871):1; Hughes and Munsell, 158; Millard's China National Review 9 (7 June 1919):41.
  13. The church was built by Bishop William Jones Boone of the American Episcopal Church Mission in 1854. It stood then close by the northern bank of the Huangpu River (Whangpoo). See Pott, http://www.earnshaw.com/shanghai-ed-india/tales/library/pott/pott08.htm Archived 2010-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
  14. Hughes & Munsell, 57.
  15. Source Citation: Place: Alameda; Date: 15 Mar 1955; Social Security: 0. Source Information: Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line].
  16. John married and had two children, Joyce and Clinton. By 1918 John Jansen had died, and his children were orphans. See China Monthly Review 4 (Millard Publishing Co., inc., 1918):16.
  17. Edward Clinton Jansen (usually E. Clinton Jansen) was a civil engineer, specifically a hydraulic engineer. See Civil Engineering 18 (American Society of Civil Engineers, 1949):26,80; Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers 31:1 (American Society of Civil Engineers., 1905):218. He was a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (M.ASCE), and the author of several books and articles: E. Clinton Jansen, Comments on "Report on repairs to Barker Dam" by Transmission & Station Engineering Department (1943); E. Clinton Jansen and Raymond Earl Davis, "Unwatering for Barker Dam repairs (Public Service Company of Colorado, 1945); E. Clinton Jansen, "Estimated Loss of Boulder Hydro Generation During Repairs to Barker Dam" (8 September 1945); Raymond Earl Davis, E. Clinton Jansen, and W.T. Neelands, Restoration of Barker Dam (14 November 1947). Additionally, he was the chairman of the board of trustees of the Denver Art Museum, see Arts Magazine 10 (Art Digest Inc., 1935):8.
  18. "Sudden Death of Mr. D.C. Jansen", North-China Herald (9 November 1894):26.
  19. Fred J. Buenzle, with A. Grove Day, Bluejacket: An Autobiography, (W. W. Norton & company, 1939):278; Mose King, ed., 'Where to Stop': A Guide to the Best Hotels of the World (1894):110; John James Aubertin, Wanderings & Wonderings: India, Burma, Kashmir, Ceylon, Singapore, Java, Siam, Japan, Manila, Formosa, Korea, China, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, the States (K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., 1892):263; http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=sea;idno=sea287; The Directory & Chronicle of China, Japan, Straits Settlements, Malaya, Borneo, Siam, the Philippines, Korea, Indo-China, Netherlands Indies, Etc. (Hongkong; London, 1892):559.
  20. Fred J. Buenzle, with A. Grove Day, Bluejacket: An Autobiography, (W. W. Norton & company, 1939):278; George Carter Stent, A Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Pekinese Dialect: By George Carter Stent (Customs Press, 1871):ix.
  21. "Funeral of the Late R.W. Bro. D.C. Jansen", North-China Herald (9 November 1894):27; "The Late Mr. D.C. Jansen", North-China Herald (16 November 1894):30-31
  22. Pott, http://www.earnshaw.com/shanghai-ed-india/tales/library/pott/pott08.htm Archived 2010-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
  23. "The Builder Magazine - January 1925". www.phoenixmasonry.org. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  24. Annual Report: American Museum of Natural History(1870):29.
  25. Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 24 (1889):347.
  26. Fa-ti Fan, British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter (Harvard University Press, 2004):n.110, 203.
  27. Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the Year 1886 20 (1886):303-305; Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 22-23 (1887):325.
  28. "U.S. Consular Court", North-China Herald (5 October 1894):33.
  29. "Sudden Death of Mr. D.C. Jansen", North-China Herald (9 November 1894):26; Freemasons, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (The Lodge, 1894):142); Frederick M. Gratton, Freemasonry in Shanghai and Northern China, 2nd ed. ("North-China Herald" office, 1900):46; Jacob Randolph Perkins, Trails, Rails and War: The Life of General G.M. Dodge (Bobbs-Merrill, 1929):295.
  30. Kit Haffner, "The First American Lodge in China," The Philalethes (April 1990); Reprinted CANMAS (14 November 2005); www.district19.ca/education/FIRST%20AMERICAN%20LODGE%20IN%20CHINA.doc
  31. "Funeral of the Late R.W. Bro. D.C. Jansen", North-China Herald (9 November 1894):27.
  32. "The Late Mr. D.C. Jansen", North-China Herald (16 November 1894):30-31.

Further reading
  • "Jansen, DeWitt Clinton: of Shanghai, China". In American Ancestry: Giving the Name and Descent, in the Male Line, of Americans whose Ancestors Settled in the United States Previous to the Declaration of independence, A.D. 1776. Vol. 5.
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