Samuel Stagg

Samuel Wells Stagg (1897-1956) was a Methodist missionary who traveled to the Philippines as the "Special Field Scout Commissioner" of the Boy Scouts of America to assist in organizing the Boy Scouts of America Philippine Islands Council No. 545 which was set up on 5 October 1923 through the initiative of the Rotary Club of Manila, with Stagg as one of the 22 Charter Members.[1]

Early life

Samuel Stagg was born in California to William Tinsley Stagg (1867-1947) and Annie Eleanor Wells (1868-1949). Stagg graduated from Turlock High School in 1915 and the University of Southern California. He married Mary Litt Boyd in 1917.[2] He moved to Manila, Philippine Islands in 1923, and became the pastor of the Central Church on San Luis Street (now Kalaw Avenue, Malate, Manila), affiliated with the General Conference of the Methodist Church of America. In 1933, Stagg and other church members left the Central Church and the GCMCA, and formed the Cosmopolitan Student Church (now the Cosmopolitan Church) and the General Conference of the Methodist Church of the Philippines.[3]

The Philippines Free Press, July 2, 1938, reports that Rev. Samuel Stagg defended President Manuel L. Quezon's veto of a Catholic-supported Commonwealth Assembly bill to provide religious instruction in public schools.[4]

Mary Litt Boyd Stagg

Just before the Second World War, Samuel Stagg was recruited into U.S. Navy intelligence; none of his work in this job, however, has come to light. His wife Mary Boyd Stagg (1893-1944) then took over as pastor of the Cosmopolitan Church, becoming the first female ordained a Protestant minister in the Philippines.[5] "Mother" Stagg and members of the church were active in humanitarian relief work. Their welfare activities also extended into helping displaced persons, fugitives from the Japanese (Chinese business and community leaders), and resistance fighters.

In January 1944, Mary and her friends, who were helping people with food and medicine, were accused by a Filipino spy. They were arrested, interrogated, and tortured at Fort Santiago in Manila by the Japanese Kempeitai. On 25 or 28 or 29 August 1944, Dr. Hawthorne Darby,[6] Helen Jonaline Wilk,[7] Mary Boyd Stagg, Blanche Walker Jurika,[8] and another woman named Sybil were taken by the Kempeitai to the Chinese Cemetery or Cementerio del Norte where they were beheaded and buried.[9][10] In 1956 Darby, Wilk, and Mary Stagg were posthumously conferred the Philippine Legion of Honor, and were also awarded the Medal of Freedom by the United States government. Their remains have been exhumed and re-interred at Cosmopolitan Church.

Samuel Boyd Stagg

Samuel and Mary Stagg's son Samuel Boyd Stagg (d. 2008) was arrested with his mother 28 January 1944,[11] and imprisoned first at Fort Santiago, then at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp,[12] Manila.

Mary Ruth Stagg Webb

Samuel and Mary Stagg's daughter Mary Ruth Stagg married Glenn Watson Webb, had a daughter, Constance Webb Clear (1949-2003), and authored Not My Will, a biography of her mother.

Later life

Samuel Stagg worked as a farmer, educator, and writer of the Philippines Free Press under the nom de plume Jungle Philosopher. He was married a second time to Martha, a Filipina with whom he had a child. Stagg died of a heart attack in Palawan in November 1956.

Scouting legacy

Both sons, Lionel Paul Stagg and Samuel Boyd Stagg were active Scouts in Manila. Lionel made Life Scout before leaving to attend college in the United States. Samuel had completed work for Eagle Scout, but the war interrupted and all his records were lost.

Mary Stagg founded the Campfire Girls (sister organization of the Boy Scouts of America) in the Philippines. In 1925, the Camp Fire Girls of Manila received the Grace Carley Medal.

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Diamond Jubilee Yearbook, Manila: Boy Scouts of the Philippines, 1996, p 44.
  2. ↑ Salonga, Jovito, Journey of Struggle and Hope, 2001.
  3. ↑ Unfortunately, the Cosmopolitan Church has no library usable for research.
  4. ↑ The Philippines Free Press: Meanwhile, "fighting" Rev. Samuel W. Stagg, Protestant pastor, defended the chief executive in a radio speech over KZIB, and at the same time accused the Catholic hierarchy of being "the sworn enemy of all democracy." He lauded the President for his "great courage in taking issues with the hierarchy in defense of the hard-won liberties of the Filipino people."
  5. ↑ Ramos, Fidel, "A Heroic Church" in The Manila Bulletin, April 11, 2009.
  6. ↑ Hawthorne Darby (13 Sep 1894, Colfax, Indiana–Aug 1944, Cemetery, Manila): Pediatrician, missionary, and humanitarian. Director of the (Methodist) Emmanuel Cooperative Hospital, Tondo, Manila. Photo
  7. ↑ Helen Jonaline Wilk / Helen Virginia Wilk (1901, La Porte, Indiana–Aug 1944, Cemetery, Manila): Missionary in the Philippines, 1925–44. Nurse and business manager of Emmanuel Cooperative Hospital, Tondo.
  8. ↑ Blanche Walker Jurika: mother-in-law of Charles Thomas "Chick" Parsons
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "Blanche was dead, executed in late August, 1944, hands tied behind her, blindfolded and kneeling over a newly-dug trench somewhere in Manila’s North Cemetery, killed with over two dozen other civilians accused of various acts of conspiracy by the Japanese. For Blanche and the few other American women, death was by beheading by Samurai sword. For the men, it had been a single shot to the back of the head."
  11. ↑ "During the house arrest period, Mary Boyd Stagg, pastor of the Cosmopolitan Church and others in the congregation, were helping the Filipino guerrillas. Somebody infiltrated their number and the Japanese came suddenly to pick her up. It happened that young Sam Boyd Stagg, Mary's son, was out with his bicycle at the time the Japanese came to pick up his family. He was visiting Paul, who was a good friend. Sam was at our house several blocks from the Church when he heard the news of it. We advised him to go back and be with his family. We felt that if they caught him later and knew who he was, it would be harder on him. He went home, and was picked up with his family. Sometime later the soldiers tortured and beheaded his mother along with several others. But he survived." — Smith, Donald, 2007, We Survived War's Crucible, Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2007.
  12. ↑ Universidad de Santo Tomas: At that time, the oldest university under the American flag, founded 1611; older than Harvard University, founded 1636.
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