Gordon, Marquis Lafayette, 1843-1900
Dates
- Existence: 1843 - 1900
Biography
Marquis Lafayette Gordon was born July 18, 1843 in Waynesburg, PA. He was a member of Company G, 85th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. After the war Gordon attended Waynesburg College and earned his M.D in 1870 from Columbia University’s Medical College. Later he attended Andover Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1871. In 1872 M. Lafayette Gordon married Agnes Donald Gordon, schoolteacher.
That same year, M. Lafayette and Agnes Gordon left the United States for Japan where they committed their lives to missionary work. M. Lafayette Gordon served as a medical missionary and later as a professor of Theology at Doshisha University in Kyoto. From 1865-1894 he was Foreign Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Japan.
The Gordon’s had four children: Fanny Gordon Bartlett, Donald Gordon, Mary Gordon Reifsnider and Unk Gordon, who died in infancy. In 1898 M. Lafayette and his wife returned to the United States and worked at the Walker Mission Home in Newton, MA. M. Lafayette Gordon died on November 4, 1900.