The People of Jejung Hospital

Narrative

Jejung Hospital was founded in 1905 by Joseph Wynne Nolan (1850-?). When it was first founded, treatment was conducted out of the house of Eugene Bell (1868-1925), until land was donated by Choi Heung-jong (1880-1966) to build the Ellen Lavine Graham Hospiral and Dispensary, which was named after Ellen Lavine Graham. The second director of the hospital was Robert M. Wilson (1880-1963). The esteemed missionary nurse Elisabeth J. Shepping (1880-1934) also worked as a nurse at the hospital. Later directors or doctors of the hospital included Ronald B. Dietrick (1927-2015), Dick H. Nieusma Jr. (1930-2018), and Louis Christian Brand (1894-1938), who, together with Schepping, are all buried in the Yangnim-dong Missionary Cemetery. The staff of Chejung Hospital also participated in the March First Independence Movement in 1919 during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945). Over time, the hospital eventually became today’s Kwangju Christian Hospital. On the hospital’s first floor, there is the Jejung History Museum, which commemorates the hospital’s origins.