Homer Hulbert, US missionary buried in Seoul, gets a bust in Vermont hometown

A memorial service for Homer B. Hulbert, an American missionary and educator who campaigned for Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule, was held Thursday at his burial site in Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery in Seoul.

Born in New Haven, Vermont, in 1863, Hulbert arrived in Korea in 1886 to teach at the Royal English School, the country's first government-run Western-style school. Over the next two decades, he devoted himself to writing, producing the first textbook in the Korean alphabet and a two-volume history of Korea in English.

A close confidant of Emperor Gojong, Hulbert carried the emperor's appeals to Washington in 1905 and The Hague in 1907 as Japan moved to take control of the country. Effectively barred from returning, he spent the next four decades in the United States lobbying for Korea's independence.

Hulbert died in Seoul in August 1949, a week after returning at the invitation of President Syngman Rhee. He was given a public funeral, the first ever held for a foreign national in Korea.

Thursday's service, organized by the Hulbert Memorial Society, marked 140 years since his arrival in Seoul and featured a presentation on his mission to Washington in 1905.

Society chairman Kim Dong-jin presented the original letter Hulbert wrote aboard the ship carrying him back to Korea in 1949. It was the last letter he wrote, according to the society.

The anniversary program wraps up Oct. 3 in New Haven, where a bust by Seoul-based sculptor Kwon Chi-gyu, chairman of the Korean Sculptors Association, will be unveiled with a monument to Hulbert, on South Korea's National Foundation Day.