ATKINSON

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 06:29:52 :

The Marin Journal
Thursday, January 13, 1916
Page 4

Doctor Known Here Dies In Turkey

Dr. Herbert Atkinson, a noted foreign missionary, and the son of Rev. W. H. Atkinson, for several years pastor of the Congregational Church, San Rafael, was stricken with typhus while in the midst of duties in the field and passed away on Christmas day in Constantinople.

The devoted service of the life given to the people of Eastern Turkey was memorialized by the First Congregational Church of San Francisco on Tuesday night.

“The melting pot of the Lord” said Dr. J. K. Brown, the missionary, was the phrase in which Herbert Atkinson used to describe the outcome of the influences brought to bear on the races and peoples represented in the field of his labors in the Valley of the Euphrates. Drawn to Harpoot and neighboring towns by the desire for medical and surgical (sic) treatment came Chaldeuns, Circasions, Syrians, Turks, Kurds, Greeks and Arabs, when Dr. Atkinson would from time to time go out on one of his tours through the district. It was, said Dr. Brown, in character like the apostolic work, the sick folk gathering in crowds in the villages through which the doctor would pass. The great purpose of the man, however, was above that of merely healing the body. He ever emphasized the missionary nature of his medical work and sought to win the soul through the healing of the body. His earliest efforts when he began his labors were to perfect himself in the Turkish language that he might preach to the people, and to further the purpose of giving them the gospel he would leave, as it were carelessly, about in the hospital. Copies of the Bible in Turkish and Arabic.

The mention of the hospital recalled the handicap laid upon t he doctor in the beginning of his work. An old building, abandoned as being unsafe, was his first medical dispensary, where he trained young American students in pharmacy and minor surgical work. His operating room was a small wash room, and when patients began to crowd in for nursing his indefatigable wife would have them laid in the passages, the bedrooms and living rooms being also given up to the sufferers.

Dr. Atkinson personally appealed to all his friends in American for help to erect and equip a suitable building and he would say to Dr. Brown “Can’t you beg your friends to assist? Oh that the Lord would anoint the eyes of the rich people in American to see and open their purses to meet the great needs of these poor creatures.”

With large-hearted foresight for the future of the country he formed a Turkish Medical Association of which conferences had been held at Eintab and Beyroot, a third was called but was prevented by the outbreak of the war. How greatly the plan was appreciated was shown by members coming from places as far south as Egypt.

An incident of a recent town will illustrate the calls upon the endurance and vitality of Atkinson. Reaching a village at sundown Dr. Brown arrived with a wedding party from the country. Taking the opportunity, he had some talk with the bridegroom and told him of the bible symbolism of the church as the bride of Christ. On the morrow he heard the big bell at the old church tolling. Asking who was dead he learned that it was the bridegroom of the wedding procession. The cause an outbreak of cholera. As soon as Dr. Atkinson heard of this, although fagged (sic) with overwork and much run down, he sent Dr. Brown and other members of the mission party off as soon as they could be sent away, while he himself went to work among the cholera patients and had to stay nearly three weeks in the place. Emphatically, said Dr. Brown, the friend who had just received promotion was a constant student of the word and in thought and deed a man of God. He talked with God and walked with God and God had taken him.

The news of the decease on Christmas da from Typhus fever after eight days’ sickness, was conveyed by a cable from Constantinople, to the secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions and to his brother, Rev. George Atkinson, pastor of the Congregational church at Campbell near San Jose. He was a son of the Rev. W. H. Atkinson, for several years pastor of the Congregational Church here. His mother and his sister, Miss Minnie Atkinson, living at Campbell, will be appreciatively remembered among the friends of many in San Rafael.