H.B. Boone was an American. He was the eldest son of the first bishop of American Protestant Episcopal Church. In his childhood, he lived in Shanghai with his father. Subsequently, he came back to America and learned the medicine science. He graduated from a medicine college of New York. In 1861, he came to Shanghai for the sake of treating occidental patients and he also dealt with the business from branched hospital established by American Protestant Episcopal Church in urban area. In 1864, he left Shanghai because he caught cholera.

In 1880, he was sent to Shanghai by American Protestant Episcopal Church to be the physician of the church. He managed the Tongren Hospital in trouble and later re-established this hospital. To missionize, he took the medicine to treat the patients around the neighboring villages and small towns in each spring and autumn. Each time he spent roughly 5 or 6 days and treated several hundred patients.

He also established the medical course and nurse course to raise more talents of doctors with Chinese and western medical knowledge. In the meantime, he also purchased the land and built up houses to develop the business and won the better fame in Shanghai. This hospital became one of the large-scale and extensively influential hospitals in China.