Miss Mary E. Hartwell, who arrived with the McDonalds early in 1879, assisted Miss Caldwell in the girls’ boarding-school, and Miss Hattie H. McDonald, who was now under appointment as a missionary teacher, taught in the boys’ school, which came under her father’s supervision when the McCauleys, who had been in charge, were compelled to remove to Petchaburee by the departure thence, in consequence of their failing health, of Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap, who had been there of late. The Dunlaps returned to the United States in November.
The lady teachers at Petchaburee, Misses Coffman and Cort, had then under their care seven different schools in and near that city, numbering nearly two hundred pupils. At Cheung Mai the new missionary teachers soon had in the school there, which Mrs. McGilvary had commenced, twenty-five girls, eighteen of whom were boarding pupils. Eighteen Laotian converts were reported this year. The Laos king, finding the premises of the mission too limited, bought an adjacent lot and generously presented it to the mission.
In February, 1880, Mr. Culbertson was married to Miss Caldwell. In August, Ernest A. Sturge, M. D., sailed for Siam as a medical missionary, to be stationed at Petchaburee, and later in the year the Board sent out to the Siam mission the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. C. S. McClelland, with Miss Laura A. Olmstead. Miss Olmstead became Miss Hartwell’s associate in the girls’ school, and the McClellands went to Petchaburee. Mr. McCauley’s constitution not enduring a tropical climate, he had, with his wife, to be transferred this year to the mission of the Presbyterian Board in Japan. The state of Mrs. McGilvary’s health made a visit to the United States necessary for her, and at the close of the year Mr. and Mrs. Van Dyke and family, all seriously ill, after nearly twelve years’ residence in the tropics, made their first visit home.
The boys’ school, under Miss H. H. McDonald, numbered sixty-seven, of whom forty were boarding scholars. Notwithstanding the sad defection of the native elder in the First Church, Bangkok, and the absence for a while of any ordained missionary at Petchaburee, twenty-five new converts were reported in Siam this year. To the church in Laos thirty-nine were added, and in July a new church was constituted in the midst of a cluster of villages about nine miles from Cheung Mai. The Laos school, under Miss Cole’s care chiefly, now numbered thirty-five, of whom twenty-two were boarders. Dr. McGilvary spent several months this year at the frontier town of Rahang, where two professed conversion, and in October he baptized six adults and organized a church in Lakon, one of the chief cities of North Laos, one hundred miles east of Cheung Mai.
In 1881, Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson left the field, Mrs. C. having lost her health, and Dr. McGilvary in March left Cheung Mai to rejoin his family in the United States. But one ordained missionary able to preach in the native language was now left in Siam, and one in Laos. Nor were any reinforcements sent out this year from home, though one in the field, Miss Mary McDonald, the second daughter of the Rev. N. A. McDonald, D. D., was appointed a missionary teacher. The new missionaries at Petchaburee and the lady teachers there were greatly tried by the contumacy and unchristian conduct of their oldest native helper and other church-members, and they suffered severely at the station from cholera, which prevailed as an epidemic. No less than thirty-two pupils and others on the mission premises were attacked by it. Dr. Sturge was the means of saving many lives in the town and vicinity.
The untimely death of Miss Mary Campbell of the Laos mission, by drowning in the Menam River, in February of this year, on her return from a brief health-trip to Bangkok, brought sadness to many hearts in America as well as in Siam.
And yet the year was not devoid of blessings. The schools prospered. Two useful Christian tracts in Siamese, composed by native church-members, were put in circulation. Dr. Sturge in September was married to Miss Turner, who became a valuable accession to the station at Petchaburee. One new church was formed in the Laos country, and no less than fifty adults received Christian baptism there.
In 1882 the Laos mission were called to part with their first Laos convert, long a model ruling elder, good old Nan Intah. Faithful and true, with a beautiful, loving trust in his Saviour, he bade his children and grandchildren a cheerful farewell, and went to be with Christ. Dr. Cheek’s medical practice was this year greatly enlarged and very successful. About thirteen thousand patients were prescribed for, and thus much was done to break up their confidence in spirit-doctors and their superstitious fears. Twenty-three were added to the Laos churches.
In the Siam mission the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. McClelland were, by reason of his continued illness, forced to give up their mission-work and return to the United States. Miss Coffman and Miss Hattie McDonald also were obliged to return in consequence of ill-health. The whole burden of the schools in Petchaburee fell now upon Miss Cort. Dr. Sturge treated four thousand five hundred and fifty-two cases—twice the number of the previous year—and with the funds raised, mostly by himself, had built a small hospital. The girls’ school, Bangkok, had thirty-seven names on its roll. An exhibit of their skill and industry, prepared for the Royal Centennial Exposition that came off this year in commemoration of the founding of Bangkok, so pleased His Majesty the king that he became the purchaser of the whole.
The greatly-needed reinforcements to the missions came this year, and several who had been home to recruit their health returned. Mr. Van Dyke sailed in July, leaving his wife with her children. In October, Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap gladly went back to their work in Siam, and with them, for the Siam mission, the Rev. C. D. and Mrs. McLaren and Miss Lillian M. Luinell. By the same Pacific mail-steamer went Rev. Dr. McGilvary and wife on their return to Laos, and as new recruits for that field the Rev. J. Hearst and wife, the Rev. S. G. Peoples and the Misses Griffin, Wirt, Wishard and Warner. On reaching Bangkok, the whole party were very graciously received by the king, of whom they obtained, through the U. S. minister to Siam, General Halderman, an audience, and on December 13th the large company for Cheung Mai was on its way up the river. The Baptist mission to the Chinese, that had now for years been maintained in successful operation by the veteran missionaries Dr. and Mrs. Dean, unaided save by native helpers, was at last reinforced by the arrival of the Rev. L. A. Eaton, Dec. 15, 1882. Mrs. Maria M. Dean, who for the benefit of her feeble health had been constrained to leave her husband alone and visit the States in the spring of 1881, was on the eve of returning to Siam when she was suddenly called (January 16, 1883) to exchange earth for heaven.