Samuel Stagg

Samuel Wells Stagg
Samuel Wells Stagg
Born	1897
Died	1956

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 and Annie Eleanor Wells. 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.

Rev. Samuel Stagg defended President Manuel L. Quezon's veto of a Catholic-supported Commonwealth Assembly bill to provide religious instruction in public schools.^[3]

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.^[4] "Mother" Stagg and members of the church were active in humanitarian relief work, distributing food and medicine, and performing welfare activities for displaced persons, fugitives from the Japanese (Chinese business and community leaders), and resistance fighters.

Betrayed by a Japanese double-agent, Franco Vera Reyes, Mary and her friends were arrested by the Japanese in January 1944. They were interrogated and tortured at Fort Santiago in Manila by the Kempeitai. On 25, 28, 29, or probably 30 August 1944, Dr. Hawthorne Darby,^[5] Helen Jonaline Wilk,^[6] Mary Boyd Stagg, Blanche Jurika,^[7] and another woman named Sybil were taken to the Cementerio del Norte where they were beheaded and buried.^[8]^[9] Their common grave was found in 1945 by guerrilla leader Thomas Walker Jurika, who threatened and forced the double-agent Richard Sakakida to reluctantly reveal the grave's location.^[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.^{[citation needed]}

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 pen name 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

Kaminski, Theresa (2016). Angels of the Underground. New York: Oxford. ISBN 978-0199928248.
Stagg, Samuel Wells (2009) [1922]. Home Lessons in Religion. General Books. ISBN 978-1151395016. ISBN 9781151395016
Stagg, Samuel Wells (1922). How to Promote Home Religion: the working program of one church. Abingdon Press.
Stagg, Samuel Wells (1928). The Ideal Woman and Other Themes. Philippines: Self-published.
Stagg, Samuel Wells (2006) [1934]. Teodoro R. Yangco: leading Filipino philanthropist and grand old man of commerce. Manila: University of the Philippines Press: University of Michigan.
Stagg, Samuel Wells & James Drought (1929). The Stagg-Drought Debate as Conducted by the Tribune. Methodist Publishing House.
Stagg, Samuel Wells; Stagg, Mary Boyd (1922). Home Lessons In Religion, A Manual for Mothers. Vol. 2. Abingdon Press. Reprinted 2009, 2010 (Kessinger Publishing), 2011 (Nabu Press). ISBN 116650736X. ISBN 9781166507367
Stagg, Samuel Wells & Mary Boyd Stagg (1924). Home Lessons In Religion, A Manual for Mothers. Vol. 3 : The six- and seven-year old. Cincinnati: Abingdon Press.
Webb, Mary Ruth Stagg (1997). Not My Will: a Christian martyr in the Philippines. Pasig, Philippines: Anvil Publishing. ISBN 971-27-0560-9. ISBN 978-9712705601

References

^ Diamond Jubilee Yearbook. Manila: Boy Scouts of the Philippines. 1996. p. 44.
^ Salonga, Jovito (2001). Journey of Struggle and Hope.
^ "The Philippines Free Press". 1938-07-02. 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.
^ Ramos, Fidel (2009-04-11). A Heroic Church. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ Hawthorne Darby (13 Sep 1894, Colfax, Indiana–Aug 1944, Cemetery, Manila): Pediatrician, missionary, and humanitarian. Director of the (Methodist) Emmanuel Cooperative Hospital, Tondo, Manila
^ 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.
^ Blanche Anna Walker Jurika (1885-1944): mother of naval officer Stephen Jurika and guerrilla Thomas Walker Jurika, and mother-in-law of Charles Thomas "Chick" Parsons
^ "Santo Tomas Internment Camp". Philippine Scouts Heritage Society. 2004-05-22. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03.
^ Jurika, Louis, A Philippine Odyssey (PDF), 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
^ "Sakakida - Hero or Turncoat?". corregidor.org.
^ Smith, Donald (2007). We Survived War's Crucible. Bloomington: AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1434329677. 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.
^ Universidad de Santo Tomas: At that time, the oldest university under the American flag, founded 1611; older than Harvard University, founded 1636.