View source for Merriman Colbert Harris

{{Short description|American Christian missionary to Japan (1846–1921)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Merriman Colbert Harris
| image       =  
| alt         = 
| caption     = 
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1846|07|09}} 
| birth_place = [[Beallsville, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1921|05|08|1846|07|09}} 
| death_place = [[Aoyama, Tokyo]], Japan
| other_names = 
| known_for   = 
| occupation  = Missionary, educator
}}
'''Merriman Colbert Harris''' (July 9, 1846 &ndash; May 8, 1921) was a [[Missionary Bishop (Methodist Church)|Missionary Bishop]] of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], elected in 1904, who was active in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan.<ref name=GB>[https://books.google.com/books?id=noZ9kkXGX5oC&dq=missionary+flora+Merriman+Colbert+Harris+translation&pg=PA403  Google Books website, ''Japan's Modern Prophet: Uchimura Kanzô, 1861-1930'', by John F. Howes]</ref>

==Birth and family==
Merriman was born July 9, 1846, in [[Beallsville, Ohio]], the son of Colbert and Catherine Elizabeth (Crupper) Harris.  Merriman married Flora L. Best<ref name=H>[http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/r/r/i/s/harris_flb.htm Hymn Time website, ''Flora Lydia Best Harris, 1850–1909'']</ref> on October 23, 1873, in [[Meadville, Pennsylvania]].  They had two daughters, Florence and Elizabeth.

==Military service and education==
Merriman served for three years as a soldier in the [[12th Ohio Cavalry]]<ref name=CASE>[https://case.edu/ech/articles/t/12th-ohio-volunteer-cavalry Case Western Reserve University website, ''12th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry'']</ref> in the [[American Civil War]] (1863–65), attaining the rank of [[Corporal#United States|corporal]]. Following the end of the war, he attended the Washington Academy in Ohio, and the [[Harlem Springs, Ohio|Harlem Springs Seminary]].  He then attended [[Scio College]], earning the [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree (1873) and the [[Master's degree|M.A.]] degree (1877) from [[Allegheny College]].<ref>[https://www.phigam.org/Fijiunion?chid=4 Phi Gamma Delta website, ''The Archives of Phi Gamma Delta'']</ref>

==Ordained ministry and missionary service==
Merriman entered the ministry of the [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh]] [[Annual conferences within Methodism|Annual Conference]] of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] in 1869, serving as a [[pastor]] and a [[missionary]].  He was sent to [[Japan]] in 1873 and was stationed at [[Hakodate]] on the northern island of [[Hokkaido]]. During his first stay in Japan, his converts included [[Kanzo Uchimura]], [[Inazo Nitobe]], and Akira Sato.

Flora Harris helped to found the [[Iai Joshi Women's Academy]] in Hakodate.<ref>[https://www.iaijoshi-h.ed.jp/history/ IAI School website, ''History'']</ref> She also carried out translation work,<ref name=GB /><ref>[https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/eajs2021/paper/56030 Nomadit website, ''16th International Conference of the European Association of Japanese Studies'']</ref> as well as writing over 30 hymns.<ref name=H /> 

He left Japan in 1892, and established Japanese missions on the Pacific Coast of the [[United States]] and in [[Hawaii]] in areas with large numbers of [[Japanese American|Japanese emigrants]].  He became the Superintendent of Japanese missions in [[San Francisco, California]], in 1886.  He also served as Superintendent of all [[Pacific Coast]] Methodist Japanese missions, including the [[Hawaiian Islands]], in 1890.  During this period, [[Yosuke Matsuoka]] was one of his converts.

==Episcopal ministry==
Merriman Colbert Harris was elected a Missionary Bishop by the 1904 General Conference of the M.E. Church.  He was assigned [[Korea]] and Japan, where he remained until his death. As a Missionary Bishop he served with distinction.  He was twice decorated with the [[Order of the Sacred Treasure]] by the [[Emperor of Japan]].<ref name=CASE />

In 1919, ten years after the death of his first wife, Flora, he remarried his late wife's first cousin, Elizabeth Best, and lived within the grounds of [[Aoyama Gakuin]], in a home given to him by his Japanese converts. He died May 8, 1921, in [[Aoyama, Tokyo]] and his grave is at the [[Aoyama Cemetery]].

==Selected writings==
*Address:  ''Japanese Buddhism,'' San Francisco, 1887.  Typed, in ''[[Methodist Bishops' Collection]].''
*''Christianity in Japan,'' 1907.<ref>[https://www.abebooks.com/9781436805889/Christianity-Japan-1907-Harris-Merriman-1436805880/plp ABE Books, ''Christianity in Japan'']</ref>
*''Save Korea,'' Quarterly-Centennial Documents, 1910.
*Contributor, Japan Proverbs.
*Statement in ''Competent Witnesses on Korea as a Mission Field,'' Korea Documents, with others.

==See also==
*[[List of bishops of the United Methodist Church]]

==References==
* Leete, Frederick DeLand, '''Methodist Bishops.''' Nashville, The Methodist Publishing House, 1948.
* '''Methodism: Ohio Area (1812–1962),''' edited by John M. Versteeg, Litt.D., D.D. (Ohio Area Sesquicentennial Committee, 1962).
* Price, Carl F., Compiler and Editor:  '''Who's Who in American Methodism,''' New York:  E.B. Treat & Co., 1916.
* '''The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume XIV.''' New York, James T. White & Company, 1910.
* The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Bishop Harris, 73, Weds:  M. E. Missionary Weds Late Wife's Cousin; Bride, 53, Is Old Friend," Philadelphia, Nov. 13, 1919.
{{reflist}}

{{Christianity in Hawaii}}
{{Protestant missions to Pacific Islands}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Merriman Colbert}}
[[Category:Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church]]
[[Category:Union army soldiers]]
[[Category:People from Beallsville, Ohio]]
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:Methodist writers]]
[[Category:Methodist missionaries in Japan]]
[[Category:American Methodist missionaries]]
[[Category:Methodist missionaries in Hawaii]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Japan]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure]]
[[Category:Burials at Aoyama Cemetery]]