Text Size S M L
Print E-mail

Ting Sze Chung

ImageImage

1. Circa 1876, LaFargue Collection 2. Undated, LaFargue Collection

 

Pinyin & Chinese characters Deng Shicong  邓士聪
Variant Spellings & Other Names See Chung Tyng
Ting See Chung
Ting Si Chun
Ting Si Chung
Tung See Chung
Tyng Le Chung
Se Chung
Tze Chung
Other Chinese Name(s) 邓达卢
Detachment 1
LaFargue No. 25
Date of Birth 1859
Place of Birth Shangzha1 上栅, Xiangshan, Guangdong Province
Age at Departure for US 14 (Lunar Calendar)
Date of Death Before 1939
Place of Death Hong Kong
Place(s) of Residence in US

 

 (1) 1872-73 Granby, CT;2
(2) Hartford, CT
American Host Family/ies (1) Rev. Thomas D. and Amelia (Castle) Murphy, Granby, CT;
(2) Miss Charlotte Goldthwaite, Hartford, CT;
(3) 1880 (or since earlier): Mrs. H. Blakeslee, Hartford, CT.3
School(s), with dates Hartford West Middle Public School, CT;

Hartford Public High School, CT;

Norwich Free Academy, CT
Notable Activities/Awards in School

 

1876 Second prize in spelling at West Middle Public School;4

Outstanding football player, known for “grace and speed”.  (See ‘Other’ below)
College/University, with dates Ting skipped senior year at Hartford Public High School to enter Massachussets Institute of Technology5 
Notable Activities/Awards in College  
Degree/Diploma Obtained (date)  
First Assignment in China Assigned to Fuzhou Naval School
Later Positions Transferred to serve in Northern (Beiyang 北洋) Squadron and then in Guangzhou 广州.

1892 served on the Ting Yuen (Ding Yuan 定远) as Second Gunnery Officer 炮务二副;6
Left Navy to enter business.
Employment Sector(s) Government: Navy; Business
Final Rank, if in Gov't Service  
Father's Name Deng Zhao Tang 邓肇棠
Mother's Name  
Wife/wives  
Family Relations w/ other CEM Students  
Children's Names  
Descendants  
Other

Remembered as “Se Chung” by Hartford Public High schoolmate William Lyon Phelps (later, a well-known professor of English at Yale): “I can well remember, when we used to ‘choose up sides’ at football, how the first choice invariably went to Se Chung, a short-thick-set boy, built close to the ground, who ran like a hound and dodged like a cat."7

Ting took a strong interest in Christianity. On 13 May, 1877, while a student at West Middle Public School, he and another CEM boy called on Rev. Joseph Twichell (minister of Asylum Hill Cong. Church) to talk about religion. Five months later, he visited Twichell again about the same matter.  On 28 Jan. 1878, when the famous evangelist D.L. Moody was conducting revival meetings in Hartford, Ting, together with 4 other Hartford Public High CEM students who showed special interest in Christianity, attended a private meeting with Moody that was arranged by Twichell.  Moody talked with them one by one and "prayed with them fervently."  In his Journal, Twichell did not indicate if Ting had accepted the Gospel; about Moody’s meeting, he wrote that they showed great interest, while implying that some (not named) may already have been Christians. Since his account of the gathering was vaguely worded, it is not known how it affected Ting’s personal beliefs.8
Notes and Sources

1. Rhoads (2011), p. 25.

2. Rhoads (2011), p. 51, Table 5.1; cf. p 143f.

3. Rhoads (2011), p. 51, Table 5.1 (Rev. Thomas D. and Amelia C. Murphy); p. 103 (Miss Charlotte Goldthwaite); p. 138, Table 9.2 (June 1880 census: Helen E. Blakeslee).

4. Rhoads (2011), p. 105.

5. Rhoads (2011), p. 118.

6. Shi (2000), p. 200.

7. Phelps (1939), p. 84.

8. Rev. Twichell’s Personal Journal, vol. 2, entry of 13 May, 1877, and vol. 3, entries of 21 Oct. 1877 & 28 Jan. 1878. Transcription of journal courtesy of E.J.M. Rhoads, whose own reading of the passage agrees that by then the boys had all become Christians, though this is impossible to confirm. See Rhoads (2011), p. 152f.