Jeon Deok-gi

Jeon Deok-gi (全德基; December 8, 1875 – March 23, 1914) was a Protestant Methodist Pastor who played a leading role in the Independence Club, the protests against the Eulsa Treaty, and the dispatch of secret envoys to The Hague during the Korean Empire. He organized and led the Sangdong Youth Association and the New People's Association.¹ In March 2014, he was selected as the Independence Activist of the Month. He served as an evangelist and pastor of Sangdong Methodist Church. His family seat was Jeongseon (旌善).

He was born in Hanseong Prefecture, which included parts of present-day Gyeonggi Province and Seoul during the Japanese colonial period, in what is now Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. When the Eulsa Treaty was concluded, he took up an axe and led opposition activities. Shouting "Cut off the head of the traitor, or cut off mine," he carried out the protest by presenting the axe to the king. He then enrolled in Hyeopseong Theological School, the predecessor of the Methodist Theological University. He became an evangelist at Sangdong Methodist Church and also worked within the Secretariat of the Independence Club. Together with Yi Dong-nyeong, Syngman Rhee, Park Yong-man, and others, he struggled for independence.

He became a Protestant through the evangelism of William B. Scranton, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North.² In 1906, he worked as a teacher at Gongok School, founded by Sangdong Methodist Church. In 1907, together with the vice principal Yi Hoe-yeong and the teacher Yi Dong-nyeong, he established the New People's Association at Sangdong Methodist Church. In the same year, together with Yi Jun, he arranged the plan for the Hague operation in the basement of Sangdong Methodist Church. Also in the same year, he received ordination at the Methodist annual conference and became the senior pastor of Sangdong Methodist Church.