Introduction
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The Hunan Bible Institute represented the evangelical and educational undertaking of Biola University (formerly the Bible Institute of Los Angeles) in China through the first half of this century. Located on the outskirts near Changsha, the capitol of Hunan Province in Central China, the Institute was comprised of a dozen major buildings ยท erected between 1920-1927 on ten acres of private property purchased from 1913 to 1924. Support for this project came from Lyman Stewart founder of the Union Oil Company, and the first president of Biola, established in 1908. Substantial financing totaling $494,_000 was der.ived from Stewart's brother Milton and Milton's widow up to 1934. The first superintendent and pioneer of the Institute in China was Dr. Frank A. Keller, M.D. Educated at Yale University Medical School, Dr. Keller went to China as a missionary under Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission (C.I.M.) in 1897. Assigned to Changsha, Keller combined medical work with personal evangelism. 0~ With a core of Christian followers, he instituted evangelistic teams under native leaders including highly successful river boat or colportage bands. This work came to the attention of the Stewarts between 1904-09 who opted to inaug~rate a Bible Institute specifically geared to train those Chinese workers as evangelists and native pastors. The river boat teams, known as the Biola Bands,
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