Called to the Land of the "Siamese Twins": William Dean
Popular interest in Siam as a far distant land beyond the seas, and about which little was then known, was first excited in America when in 1829 an American trading vessel brought to this country the “Siamese twins,” a strange “freak of nature” by which two brothers, each complete and in good health, were closely united by a living band of flesh which made them one personality while yet they were two. This curiosity in nature attracted attention widely, as it, or as they, were exhibited throughout the length and breadth of our land.
And by the good providence of God the same vessel that brought the Siamese twins to America brought also an appeal from the Rev. Mr. GutzlafF, a zealous German missionary, and his associate the Rev. Mr. Tomlin, laborers under the London Missionary Society who not long before had entered Siam from China, and had found there not only an open door but welcoming ears and hearts. The circumstances under which this appeal came to this country secured it popular attention.
Dr. David Abeel, a missionary of the American Board in China, was sent to Bangkok, Siam, in 1831, and at once began a good work. And even a few months earlier, the Rev. John Taylor Jones, a missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Society in Burmah, had been started for Siam, but being delayed at Singapore he did not reach Bangkok till 1833. But a little church gathered at Bangkok was the first station established there. Afterwards missionaries sent out from Boston by both the American Board and the Baptist Missionary Society began work in Bangkok in 1834, with cordial co-work between the two societies. Rev. William Dean was the Baptist missionary, and Dr. David B. Bradley represented the American Board. The one missionary labored among the people speaking one Chinese dialect, and the other missionary ministering to those speaking another dialect. Dr. Bradley entered into rest after thirty-eight years of missionary labor; while fifty years after Dr. Dean began in that field, he was still active and zealous and firm in faith.
Dr. Dean was richly blessed in his work among Chinese residents of Siam. The first distinctive Chinese Protestant Christian Church was formed by him in 1837, and after that he gathered church after church of the same sort. Meanwhile the American Board established a printing press and supplied good literature in Siamese for that people. Some of the books translated into Siamese by an American missionary, and printed and bound at Bangkok in 1843, were, “The Child’s Book on the Soul,” and “The Child’s Book of Natural Theology,” and some “Bible Biographies,” like the “Story of Joseph,” all written by Dr. Thomas H. Gallaudet, my father-in-law. One of these books fell into the hands of the young King of Siam, and he becamei interested in it. Learning Dr. Gallaudet’s address he, in 1848, wrote him a letter, thanking him for having written that book. The young king wrote in English and he told Dr. Gallaudet that he had profited by the reading of his books. Speaking of his poor writing in English, the young king said: “I hope very surely that you will be graceful [gracious] to me reading this my manuscript, though I am your heathen, and was not acquainted with you at all.”
It will be believed that my boyhood interest in the “Siamese twins,” and my acquaintance with the correspondence of the young king of Siam, intensified my interest in Siam and its missionaries as the years passed on. Especially as I came to know how much for Christ and for Siam had been done by the patriarch of Siamese missions did I honor him and his work, for what he stood for and had done in that work for Christ and for souls.
When in 1842, by the treaty made between China and England, at the close of the “Opium War,” Hong Kong was ceded to the English, and five seaports were thrown open to foreign residents. Dr. Dean was ordered by the Baptist Board to enter the newly unbarred gates to the great Chinese Empire, and he removed to Hong Kong, leaving the Chinese Church in Bangkok in the care of Mr. Goddard. But Siam is a mission field connected to this day in the Christian mind with the venerable Dr. William Dean, the patriarch of, and in a peculiar sense a pioneer in, that important harvest field.
And when, in 1876, it was my privilege to meet the veteran hero face to face, in Philadelphia, I was uplifted in spirit by his uplifting Christ-lighted face, and I rejoiced anew in being a glad follower of Him whom he loved and served and trusted, and whom he made known to so many. It was said afterwards, when the face and form of the patriarch of the New Hebrides, Dr. John G. Paton, were well known in Philadelphia, that the two veteran missionaries were similar in expression and appearance. They were certainly much alike in spirit and in service; and it is indeed a privilege to serve and trust the Saviour whom they served and trusted.