Guide to the David D. and Mary Parke Thompson Family Papers

David D. Thompson and Mary Calhoun Parke Thompson were Presbyterian missionaries to Japan. David, born September 21, 1835 in Harrison County, Ohio, graduated from Franklin College (New Athens, Ohio) in 1859 and from Western Theological Seminary (Pittsburgh, Pa.) in 1862. Appointed to Japan by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions, he sailed for Japan in 1862, remaining in the field until his death in 1915. Mary Calhoun Parke was born September 17, 1841 in Ednahannon, Ireland, and was raised in Savannah, Ashland County, Ohio. She graduated from Xenia Female Seminary in 1866, was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions and served in Japan from 1873 to 1922. She married David Thompson May 7, 1874; together they had three daughters, Ruth Rea Thompson (b. November 2, 1876), Grace Thompson Caldwell (b. December 31, 1879), and Mary, 1878-1887. She remained in Japan after her husband's death and her own retirement from mission work, until her death May 19, 1927.

Thompson was the first clerical missionary sent by the Board of Foreign Missions to Japan. Tasked with evangelism and church growth, Thompson believed that the church in Japan should be a union Protestant church, rather than an aggregate of separate Christian denominations, each tethered to an American church. Upon his arrival in 1863, kōsatsu, or edict boards offered rewards for turning over Christians to the government. On an official trip to the West in 1871 and 1872, Thompson appealed to governments to pressure Japan to amend the illegal status of Christianity. The kōsatsu came down in 1873.

Thompson wrote extensively on the historic illegal status of Christians in Japan, including on the 1637-1638 Shimabara Rebellion; on Japanese and United States educational systems; on the origins of the Japanese language; on early efforts at church union; and on Shinto and Buddhism.