Hugh Harrison Linn
| Dr. Hugh Harrison Linn | |
|---|---|
|
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination | |
| Born |
November 28, 1878 Shelby, Iowa, USA |
| Died |
September 15, 1948 (aged 69) Karnataka, India |
| Resting place | Bowringpet, India |
| Education |
Simpson College (1905) Northwestern University (M.D., 1909) |
| Spouse | Minne V. Logeman (m. 1910), Bombay, India |
| Children |
Herman Jacob Linn Kennie Marcellus Linn Irene Linn |
| Parents |
Jacob Booher Linn Hester Ann Chilcoat |
| Relatives |
Ambrose Burnside Linn (brother) McKendree Linn (brother) Monroe Linn (brother) Anna Laura Linn (sister) Walter McKnight Linn (brother) Willie Linn (brother) Franklin Bryce Linn (brother) |
Reference in Clan Linn in the Twentieth Century[edit]
Hugh Linn's youth was spent on the Shelby, Iowa farm and the ranchland which his father and brothers owned in Howell, South Dakota. He graduated from Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa in 1905 and received an M.D. degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois in 1909.
Hugh married Minnie V. Logeman in Bombay, India on 10 November 1910. Minnie had been actively engaged in missionary work in India for five years.
Hugh was ordained a minister of the Methodist Church while in Bidar, India in 1911 as Deacon and Elder.[1] He was at that time in charge of evangelism, education, and medicine of the Bidar District of the Conference.
Hugh was immediately put in charge of the Methodist hospital in Bidar, a position he held until 1917, when he was given a similar charge in Vikarabad. While in Vikarabad he founded the All India Missions and Tablet Industry, perhaps the first allopathic pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing plant in India, in 1919. The tablet industry was later moved to Bowringpet. When India finally gained independence following World War II, the name Bowringpet was changed to Bangarapet. In 1946 he turned the supervision of the Tablet Industry over to his son, Kennie.[2]
Account of Hugh H. Linn in The Indian Witness[edit]
Dr. Hugh H. Linn was born in Shelby, Iowa, USA September 28th, 1878 and died in the Kolar Mission Hospital[, India], September 15th, 1948. He left behind his wife; one brother Roy Linn, Brookings, South Dakota, and three children, Dr. Herman J. Linn, Veterans' Hospital Dearborn, Michigan; Kennie M. Linn, Bowringpet, India; Mrs. Irene Simpson, Schiang, China; seven grandchildren, and a host of friends. Those of us who knew him best feel that we have not lost our friend, but that he has just gone on ahead to be with Jesus.
Dr. Linn was graduated from Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa and Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, Illinois. As a young doctor he felt that he could do more for humanity by giving his service to Christ in India. He served India from 1910 to the day of his death. His first term was spent in the Bidar Hospital and his second and part of his third in the Vikarabad Hospital. While in hospital work, he caught a vision of the need of putting the medicine in tablet form for the Indian people. One day his compounder left, and until another could be secured, he had to prescribe the medicines, and then go to the dispensary and fill the prescriptions. This process took so much of his time that he felt there just had to be a better way. He began by making a few tablets by hand. Then he secured a small hand machine, which made one size tablets when the machine ran at normal speed, and a thicker size at close of day when the operator was tired and slow. He sent samples of these tablets to different doctors, who encouraged him. The result was the establishing of the All India Missions Tablet Industry in Bowringpet in 1929, where, with the help of modern electrical machinery and improved staff, lakhs of tablets are made each year and distributed throughout India and adjoining countries.
Dr. Linn's service has been a great blessing to missionaries and national workers, and the many thousands throughout India who have received healing through the administration of Bowringpet Medicines. Dr. Linn was a genuine missionary physician who dared to be practical. He early saw that many of the common diseases of India in the remote places beyond the reach of fully-trained medical men could be cured by non-medical persons, providing they had information regarding these diseases, and medicines prepared in a safe form for them to administer. Thus he wrote his little book to be translated into many languages Diagnosis and Treatment[3] in which he describes in simple language some thirty of the most common ailments and suggested the remedies to be used. Then he produced these medicines in standard doses, made up his handy medicine cases and trusted to the common intelligence of non-professional people to administer where fully trained doctors were not available. It was a venture, but time has shown its real value. Perhaps there are a few institutions in India or elsewhere which reach more needy people in remote areas than Dr. Linn's Industry which has through the years been radiating out from the Bowringpet Centre.
It is said that no one has truly succeeded who has not found his successor. Some years ago Dr. Linn voiced a fear lest the work which he had established might fall into the hands of someone without the vision that it required to establish it. At about that time his own son Kennie M. Linn expressed his desire to succeed his father. Kennie's call came in time to permit him to return to America and secure his Master's degree in Pharmacy, to return to India to have a few years' association with his father, and to take over full management of the work into which his father had built his life.
At the age of 14, Dr. Linn gave his heart to Christ. Throughout his life he has stood out strong against any form of sin and dishonesty. He believed that the Full Gospel Message was to be revealed and preached everywhere. This led to the establishment of the Bible, book and tract department in connection with his medical work. He secured large numbers of bibles at discount rates in order that he might sell them at low prices. Never was a parcel of medicines to go out from the Industry that did not contain some form of Christian literature.
Dr. Linn was very prompt in sending letters of commendation to anyone who preached an exceptionally good sermon, wrote an especially effective editorial, or stood true in a time of test. Likewise he did no fail to write a note of rebuke to anyone who appeared to be untrue to the Word of God, who failed in preaching the true Gospel, or who was apparently compromising with wrong. He was firm in his conviction of right in the sight of God and man.
Our departed brother was not only a well-qualified medicine man, but also an ordained minister and member of the South India Conference. He seldom preached from the pulpit, but gave many messages in his timely letters, and by his example of what God can do for a man who is fully surrendered to to Him. He left a record worthy of emulation. He had no fear of death and his assurance of immortality was unshakable. As a final contribution to the medical profession, he made arrangements with his surgeon to examine his body when he had passed on, with the hope of discovering new light on the disease which had attacked him. As a final contribution to his religious life, he demonstrated in his closing hours that a life in Christ can end its earthly pilgrimage in glorious triumph.
Burial, at Dr. Linn's request took place in the humble Protestant cemetery near Bowringpet. The services were in the charge of Rev. Edwin Gershom and assisted by Rev. Karl K. Rice and other.[4]
Photos[edit]
