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McCaleb (J.M.) Papers
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Pepperdine University. Special Collections and University Archives.
Title: J.M. McCaleb Papers
Identifier/Call Number: 0013
Physical Description:
2 Linear Feet
(2 cartons)
Date (inclusive): 1891-1995
Date (bulk): 1891-1951
Abstract: J.M. McCaleb was a Christian missionary who spent nearly fifty years of service in Japan from 1892-1941. The collection includes
scrapbooks, clippings, correspondence, photos, and publications both written and compiled by McCaleb.
Physical Location: Pepperdine University. Special Collections and University Archives. Payson 260, Row 7
Language of Material:
English
, Japanese
.
Advance notice required for access.
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.
[Box/folder# or item name], J.M. McCaleb Papers, Collection no. 0013, Churches of Christ Heritage Collection, Special Collections
and University Archives, University Libraries, Pepperdine University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was given to Pepperdine University by Nancy Williams Burton and Henry Richard Burton on January 2, 2007.
A second accession of materials was passed to Jerry Rushford from Moto Yuki Nomura, including correspondence and photos in
Box 2.
John Moody (J.M.) McCaleb was born on September 25, 1861, in Duck River, Tennessee, to John and Jane McCaleb. At just six
months of age, McCaleb lost his father who was shot and killed by a fellow Union Army soldier during the Civil War. The incident
left Jane alone to raise six boys and to manage 365 acres of farmland.
Despite the family's unfortunate circumstances, Jane taught McCaleb how to read at an early age using the family Bible. When
a subscription school started roughly two miles away, Jane sent McCaleb who was six at the time. Class was in session just
three months out of the year to allow the children to help out at their homes.
In 1876, at age fifteen, McCaleb was baptized. From this young age it was evident that McCaleb was destined for a career in
the church. Many community members felt he would make an excellent preacher from the talks and prayers he gave around the
county. In the spring of 1888, at the age of twenty-six, McCaleb enrolled at the College of the Bible (now Transylvania College)
in Lexington, Kentucky. While a student, he would occasionally preach on Sundays around the community and back home in the
Tennessee area.
During college, McCaleb met his first wife, Dorothy (Della) Bentley, whom he married on October 7, 1891. Around that time,
W.K. Azbill was organizing a group of missionaries to go to Japan. One of the missionaries he contacted was McCaleb who after
careful consideration decided to go. McCaleb and his wife set off for Japan in the spring of 1892 with three other missionaries.
While in Japan, the two had three children: Lois, James, and Ruth.
Soon after their arrival in Japan, the group opened a Sunday school and a charity school. The two female missionaries and
Azbill oversaw the Yotsuya Ward, while McCaleb and his wife oversaw the Kanda Ward. Not long after their arrival, a lot was
secured and a house was built in the Kanda Ward for the McCalebs to live in. The building was complete in 1899.
In 1899, the McCalebs returned to the United States on furlough. That same year, missionaries Mr. and Mrs. William J. Bishop
arrived in Japan without a place to live. Therefore, in the McCalebs' absence, the Kanda Ward was turned over to the Bishops.
When McCaleb returned to Japan, he was asked to teach in a middle school in the city of Kanazawa where he spent three months
living with a Japanese family before returning to Tokyo to teach English.
On October 1, 1907, McCaleb opened Zoshigaya Gakuin, a boarding school for young men where English and Christianity were taught.
(The home is now preserved as the Zoshigaya Missionary Museum in Tokyo, Japan.) That same year, his wife and three children
returned to the United States permanently for the children's schooling. McCaleb continued to teach at the school until 1923
when it was closed because of damage done by the Great Kanto Earthquake.
In the late 1920s, McCaleb set off on a journey to visit missions around the world. He visited Korea, China, the Philippines,
Singapore, India, South Africa, Egypt, Palestine, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada. He traveled 34,114 miles before
returning home to Kentucky. McCaleb wanted to observe the work that other missionaries were doing in order to improve missionary
work in the future.
McCaleb returned to Japan several more times before World War II broke out, and finally returned to the United States for
good on October 22, 1941. After returning to the United States, McCaleb was invited to serve as a professor emeritus at Pepperdine
University. In addition to teaching Asian Religion Studies at the University, McCaleb preached at various congregations in
the area and even went to Juneau, Alaska, with a group of missionaries. In 1939, McCaleb's first wife passed away. A few years
later, on January 27, 1942, he married again, this time to Elizabeth Reeves. The couple had plans to go to Japan but McCaleb's
health declined and he passed away on November 7, 1953.
The majority of the collection documents the missionary work McCaleb did in Japan from 1892-1941. A large part of the collection
consists of Christian publications and McCaleb's manuscripts. Most of his writings were later published in Christian periodicals
or newspapers, some of which are part of the collection. In addition to his writings, the collection also includes biographical
information on McCaleb and other prominent church leaders; correspondence between McCaleb and other missionaries and Churches
of Christ followers; financial documents such as checks and budgets, as well as correspondence pertaining to donor support
of missionary and other humanitarian work; article clippings and scrapbooks mentioning the work McCaleb and the missionaries
did in Japan; and a small number of documents in Japanese. A second accession of materials includes correspondence and photos.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
J.M. McCaleb,
Memories of Early Days (Kinkodo, Tokyo). Pepperdine University Libraries.
The collection was arranged and described by Katie Richardson in November 2011 with updates by Lucy Perrin in January 2024.
McCaleb's Bible (Rare BS 185 1900 .W5) is held in the rare books collection in Pepperdine Libraries Special Collections. The
bible contains inscriptions from David Lipscomb to Della McCaleb (1892), from JM McCaleb to Bro. Hiratsuka (1941), from Hiratsuka
to Bro. McCaleb (1952), and from James Harding McCaleb to George Pepperdine College (1953).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Publications
Christian literature -- History
Financial records
Tokyo (Japan)
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History
Missionaries -- Japan -- History
Restoration movement (Christianity) -- History
Clippings
Periodicals
Christianity -- Japan -- History
Correspondence
Church schools -- Japan -- History
Scrapbooks
Churches of Christ--Missions